Confessions of a Liberal Puritan

I preached at both the English- and Spanish-language worship services again today, and I think the translation issues went a bit smoother this time.

I made sure to have a finished draft of my sermon ready by Thursday and emailed it to the lady who coordinates the Spanish-language services, just in case it would help the translator (it didn't, since the translator wasn't selected until a few minutes before the service this morning, but the lady coordinating the English service was delighted at the chance to run off copies of the sermon to distribute to the hard of hearing, so it wasn't a wasted effort). The translator today was a woman in her 50s or 60s for whom Spanish was a second language (she learned it after she married her Hispanic husband) and so she had no problem understanding what I was saying, but occasionally had to pause and ask for help from the congregation on the Spanish for this word or that (her accent and fluency in Spanish were still infinitely superior to mine). I had the rhythm down, though, this time, and had told the translator beforehand what the main points of my sermon would be so she'd know where I was heading if she got momentarily lost, and people laughed in all the right places (after pause for translation).

And since they weren't celebrating communion today the service only lasted 90 minutes, which left me just enough time to drive back across town and catch the 1:30 matinee of "X-Men: First Class", which I LOVED (even though it didn't necessarily match up exactly with all the back-story details from the previous films).

The close relationships that developed between young Charles Xavier/Professor X, Raven/Mystique, and Erik Lensherr/Magneto were beautifully and poignantly portrayed in this film, and if Charles/Erik slash-fic isn't being written and read in huge quantities at this very moment, I'd be hugely surprised (I mean, I don't usually read or enjoy slash, but even I fell deeply in love with the tragic bond between these two gifted young men, with poor Raven getting caught in the middle and yet simultaneously marginalized as the adoptive sibling of one, the bed-partner of the other, and the tug-of-war rope between their competing worldviews).

Hopefully I'll have deeper thoughts to share in future, but for now I'm just delighted that I was able to see this film today and have many weeks ahead in which to see it again. And again.

After sitting through the entire closing credits sequence in expectation of there being bonus scenes at the end (as there have been in most of the Marvel movies I've seen in recent years, but NOT in this film, so if you've yet to see it, please feel free to leave as soon as the closing credits start and be assured that you won't miss anything), I found I was just in time to catch the 3:50 matinee of "Super 8" playing at he same multiplex.

I can't say I loved "Super 8" as much as I loved "X-Men: First Class", but I'd still give it two strong 'thumbs up!' for being much more charming and believable and complex and moving than I'd had any reason to expect.

I don't usually get a lot of enjoyment out of movies with middle-school kids as the central figures/heroes, or films that open with a tragic loss in a child's life and a not-too-sympathetic remaining parent figure, but I was won over as soon as the kids started talking about their Super 8 movie-making project (for those of you too young to remember, "Super 8mm" film was what we used to use for home-made movies back in the late 1970's, when a Walkman was a big break-through in personal audio technology and 'digital' was a word that we really only applied to wristwatches).

The young actor playing Joe, the deputy sheriff's son, was extremely good, and the rest of the kids were completely convincing as kids, as well. J.J. Abrams and Steven Spielberg have come out with a very good movie, even if it's not one that I feel a need to go see again any time soon.

All in all, I had a very good Pentecost Sunday!