Waxing Theological

8-9-15 (Proper 14 / Ordinary 19B Semi-Continuous) 2 Samuel 18: 5-9, 15, 31-33; John 6:35, 41-51 TRIGGER WARNING: This sermon contains information about sexual assault and/or violence which may be triggering to survivors.  Tamar is/was a victim whose story should be told and honored - as such, I have not avoided stating her victimization for what it is.   Game of Thrones, Game of Grace         Drama.  Violence.  Incest.  Political intrigue and scheming.  Surprising betrayals.  Injured family members seeking vengeance and justice.  A civil war that divides kingdoms and raises new kings.  It’s the kind of story that makes for a high entertainment television series!  In fact, these elements are the very things that drive the hit HBO show Game of Thrones.  From April to June for the last five years, people have been glued to their television sets watching the great houses of Westeros battling it...

This is one of those random posts where I talk about something that's not a sermon or theology - feel free to read it, or just ignore the rambling as I fly my nerd flag high. When I first heard the announcement sometime last year that the Disney channel was going to launch a long -awaited new "Boy Meets World" spinoff, I joined the throngs of people in my generation who had grown up with Corey, Topanga, Shawn, Eric, and the rest of the gang in a collective bit of excitement.  Of course, the initial shout of "YES!" quickly became a "wait a minute..." as I heard more information and started to think beyond the gut reactions. First, some information: "Girl Meets World" is a followup series to "Boy Meets World" - Corey and Topanga have grown up and have children of their own: Riley (Rowan Blanchard) and Auggie (August Maturo).  Riley is the main character, the girl who will be meeting the world.  Much like Corey had his Shawn, Rile...

And now for something completely different... I got that wonderful notification last night that "A new iOS update is available," so I decided to go ahead and do the right thing: upgrade.  When that nice little Apple logo popped up on my phone and the install bar finally passed 100%, imagine my surprise, as - bad geek that I am who didn't follow every new development on the new OS - what looked like a completely different phone  popped up with a welcome and lock screen. For those playing the home game, a friend of mine posted an Ars Technica rundown on the new GUI for the iOS.  You can find it  here  and a more in-depth review  here .  It covers pretty much all you could want to know about what's changed and what's new.  And if I'd looked at either of those yesterday before  that little notification popped up on my phone, I'd probably have been more prepared. But, seeing as I did not ... let me just say this: wow. Why don't I j...