What to think of Sylvester Stallone

Has anyone in the history of cinema made more terrible movies than Sylvester Stallone?First Rocky? Great movie, even won a best picture award. Mr. Stallone mastered the fine art of taking a great idea and beating us over the head with it until we we were cringing in the corner of the movie theater crying for the owner to please stop it. Does anyone remember what Rocky 5 was about? Come to think of it the themes of the Rocky movies are: 1. Rocky loses. 2. Rocky wins! (Are you thinking the same thing I'm thinking? Where do you go from here? 3. Rocky vs. The Kids he spoiled. 4. Rocky vs Cyborg warrior. 5. Rocky takes on all comers at once and wins! (Oops that was Rambo 3, sorry).

And how about John Rambo? Hard luck army vet in "First Blood," forced to fight the government who was oppressing him-who doesn't like a theme of the government as oppressor?- morphs into bullet proof one man army who takes on all of Iran - or was that Iraq? Syria? Fresno? singlehandedly with the help of an M60 machine gun and an (apparently) endless supply of bullets (John Rambo doesn't need to reload, he's Rambo for pete's sake).

How about that climbing picture where he - you guessed it - singlehandedly takes on the evil men who steal money and accidentally drop it into the middle of the mountains. Sly Stallone does not need warm clothes to climb up the freezing mountain! I already told you that he was John Rambo, and everyone knows Rambo don't need no clothes.

He is learning, however. In one of his later stupid, pointless films (I didn't say he was making good movies, just learning). He does not conquer the Formula One racing circuit singlehandedly, no his young protege conquers the circuit singlehandedly. One amazing sequence has the pair chasing each other at 195 mph around occupied city streets so they can stop and talk to each other (and blow a woman's dress up as they flash by), but I digress from the main theme of the movie which is...which is...

This all begs the question, how does Mr. Stallone manage to get these movies made in an industry that is driven by art and culture, and excellence which is obvious if anyone has ever seen the movie "Ishtar" or "Waterworld." My own theory is that he has proof that several Hollywood Studio heads had their houses remade by Ty on Extreme Home Makeover.

I say press on Sly Stallone making silly, ridiculous, formulaic movies so we can keep on making fun of you! Thanks for the great entertainment.

Jesus Makes the Best Seafood Gumbo!

Have you ever tasted New Orleans style seafood gumbo? You take some rice, tomatoes, green peppers, and then, fish, oysters, crawdads, and/or crabmeat—pretty much the kitchen sink approach to gumbo, but leave out the sink itself, dump them in a pot, mix in some spices and heat it up. In short order, you’ve got one of the tastiest dishes around. I love seafood gumbo.

I was thinking of seafood gumbo after the latest meeting of our church leadership. We are a pretty eclectic mix. We are people that work at GM; people that work for the government; retired people; a car mechanic; old people; young people; fat people; skinny people; an airline pilot (full disclosure: that’s me); we even have a D. Min. (that’s someone really smart). I was sitting around the table that evening and thinking, with all of our differences in education and careers and incomes, we get along pretty well together. No, we don’t always agree, but that’s the good part. That’s what makes us strong. Diversity gives us different strengths and weaknesses. Put them together and the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. In that fact lies the nature of what Jesus is up to in the world. He once prayed: that they [his disciples] may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me (John 17.23). Jesus makes seafood gumbo of people. His gumbo is the best there is.