'LOST' No More

In the single biggest plot-revealing episode, and one of the best overall, in the long and entertaining history of the TV show 'LOST', last night showed that the writers and producers have indeed taken it's huge audience on a worthy morality trip.

For those who do not watch the show, the references to the story line herein will be over your head, but you can still understand the direction this article will take. For those many who, like me, are already strongly addicted, you might even find yourself farther along than these thoughts will travel.

For the unwashed, 'LOST' is a program on the ABC network that is now running it's 6th and final highly-rated and award-winning season. It's story began with the crash of an airliner just off the coast of an island in the South Pacific, and the efforts of the survivors to, well, survive on that island in the aftermath of the crash. That has been even more difficult than it might sound.

It would take me forever to lead anyone who has not watched through the various characters and story lines, so I won't even try, but suffice it to say that there have always been a number of underlying mysteries to the plot line, not the least of which has been that the island has some type of mysterious, mystical quality to it. So what indeed is this island supposed to be, or represent?

There is also a character named Richard Alpert who, despite flashbacks to the island's past and flash forwards to it's future, always remains the same age whether the show is taking place in the present day, or in the 1950's, or in the 1970's, or a few years into the future. Who is Alpert, and how is it that he never ages?

There are a number of characters that have died during the course of the show's run, and yet somehow turn up either 'alive' again or as apparitions, appearing to various other characters at pivotal moments, often with important advice or messages. Who is really dead, who is alive, who is an apparition, who is really who they appear to be?

Even the main characters of the program such as Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Hurley, Locke, Sayid and more all seem to have multiple elements to their personal backgrounds and human characters that defy definition. Who are these people really? Why are they here on the island? What is their individual, specific role in the ultimate story line?

Most importantly perhaps has been that ultimate story line. What indeed is 'LOST' really all about? Early on it appeared to be a 'survivor' type program. Some people survived a plane crash and had to learn to live on a deserted island while hoping for a rescue. Then it became apparent that the island was in fact not deserted, and their survival became even more difficult and deadly as they banded together to overcome the new and ever more mysterious challenges.

But as the show has moved along and the story line has progressed through the years, the plot line has revealed that the program is, in fact, about something much bigger than a 'stranded on an island trying to survive' story. 'LOST', it turns out, is about the ultimate struggle of good against evil. And not in some generic idea sense, but in the very nature and origin of good and evil.

As was revealed last night (disclaimer alert for those fans who have not watched), the island actually represents the very 'cap' or wall that separates hell from the earth. The character Jacob is apparently a sort-of angelic 'protector' of the island who has been bestowed with power to keep the island safe. He is, however, not immortal and if Jacob were to be killed the island could cease to protect the earth from the evils of hell spilling out directly on to the earth.

That evil, of course, comes in it's most dramatic form from the devil. The shows 'Man in Black' who can take on the form of a 'Smoke Monster' and who has now taken on the form of the deceased character John Locke is in fact Satan himself. With Jacob out of the way, the devil is free to escape from the island and loose hell on earth.

The devil, unfortunately for him, cannot directly kill Jacob himself. He must get some human to step up and do it willingly. For centuries, Jacob has been luring men and women to the island via shipwreck and plane crash as a sort of test for humanity. He believes that men will ultimately prove to be of a 'good' nature, but appears thus far to have been disappointed. He begins to sense that one day soon, the devil may make good on his long-standing threat to "find a loophole", finally have Jacob killed, and make his escape from the island to earth.

This was the reason for the crash of Oceanic flight 815, the plane crash that brought most of the main characters to the island. Jacob had been scouting for years for someone to ultimately take his place should the devil actually succeed in having him killed. Jacob has ultimately found six candidates to replace him, and directed all of their lives towards the point that placed them on that doomed flight. All six are now on the island, though the actual successor has yet to be revealed, perhaps not even yet been actually and finally selected.

As was already seen in the show, perhaps the single most conflicted character in it's history, Benjamin Linus, is finally deceived by the devil to kill Jacob. At the current time, the devil is preparing to make his exit from the island. What might try to stand in his way ultimately, who will become a 'successor' to Jacob, and how that battle plays out will make up the rest of the story line, in all likelihood.

But the important point in all of this is that 'LOST' has come out of the closet. It recognizes publicly that there is indeed good and evil in the world. It recognizes that there is indeed a real place called hell, and a real devil that means real harm to the world. It recognizes that the only way to overcome that evil power is for good men to recognize those facts and to be willing to stand up and fight against it.

Richard Alpert was a man driven by complete love and devotion to his wife, a woman whom he lost in her youth before they could really even begin their lives together. At his lowest point, he was drawn to the island by Jacob, who touched him with the ability to live forever and bestowed on him the role of 'messenger' and 'guide' to those others who would be drawn to the island for their own test.

Alpert himself finds that after generations of service to Jacob, who promised him a pivotal role in some earthly epic, that with Jacob now dead his life appears to have been lived in vain. He believes that he has strived and worked all this time for no reason, and he abandons his faith and prepares to instead turn himself over to the devil, who he now believes may have the actual ultimate answers and truth.

It is at this low point in last night's episode that Richard is finally comforted by the soul and spirit of his deceased wife, through the translated words of the character Hugo 'Hurley' Reyes acting as an intermediary. Alpert appears to have been pulled back from the abyss, and last night left us with at least the impression that he would now refocus himself on his work towards ultimate good that Jacob assigned to him.

The show 'LOST' has never been simple, and there have been many opportunities to question the outlandishness of some of it's basic premises and plot lines. But as the last few seasons have wound down towards what should be a dramatic ultimate conclusion, most of those questions are indeed becoming answered.

'LOST' fans should no longer be lost. The show has clearly defined it's basic premise of good against evil. Both fans of the show and those who have never watched would be wise to understand that it's basic premise is indeed true. There is a devil, there is a hell, and he does want both to bring hell to earth and to capture your immortal soul for eternity.

It is a part of the job of every one of us during our lives here on earth to recognize that evil, to open ourselves to God's love for us, to embrace Jesus Christ as did Alpert and his wife, to love one another and find inspiration to go on in the most difficult of moments, and to overcome or at least to willingly fight against evil whenever we are faced with it. Like the direction that the show finally revealed last night, this will leave you lost no more.

NOTE: as always, the title of this article at the original www.mattveasey.com website is actually a link to further information on the topic. This time it links you to the official site for 'LOST' at which you can view all episodes, including last night's highlighted herein.

An Existential Threat

Israel has been a people since early Biblical times, since around the 20th generation of mankind following their creation in the Garden of Eden. God promised the ancient land of Canaan to the Jewish patriarch Abraham and what would be his innumerable descendants in a covenant that would be in exchange for their worshiping Him as their God. This covenant anointed them as God's 'chosen people', and He promised them his blessings as long as they would worship Him and obey His commandments. God also promised Abraham that in regards to the nation he would "bless those who bless them, and curse those who curse them." The same covenant was made by God with Abraham's son Isaac, and through to Isaac's son Jacob, who during his life had his named changed to 'Israel'. The sons of Israel eventually prospered in the neighboring land of Egypt before their descendants became so numerous that the Pharaohs feared and enslaved them. After hundreds of years of slavery, the Israelites were freed by God through the leadership of Moses and the imposition of a series of plagues on the Egyptians. Under Moses and with God's help the Israelites returned to the promised land. Beginning just over a thousand years before the birth of Jesus Christ, and continuing for almost a thousand years, various Israelite kingdoms and states ruled over the promised land. This beginning is the root of Israel's nationhood, established here on earth by the will of God Himself. Down through the ages at various times the people of Israel drifted away from God's law, and He punished them with eviction from the promised land at the hands of the Romans and with dispersal among the nations of the earth in the time just after the life of Christ. However, he made another covenant with Israel that was conditional on them repenting, and returning to Him and His law. On this repentance they would be returned to the promised land, be restored with God, and be blessed even above their forefathers. In the last century we finally saw that regrouping of the Israeli people, the Jewish nation, in the promised land which culminated in the historic founding of the Nation of Israel. Since it's founding, the United States has been the biggest supporter of Israel, and it is God's promise of blessing on Israel's friends that is the foundation upon which America itself has flourished and become the world leader. But there remain enemies of God's chosen people here on earth who do not share Israel's faith or belief in God. These enemies do not recognize the covenant or even Israel's right to exist as a nation, and who want nothing less than Israel's expulsion from or destruction in the promised land. Recent decades have seen numerous attacks on Israel by these nations, either individually, in unison, or through proxy terrorist organizations. The goal is always the same for these Muslim nations: the destruction of Israel and it's erasure from the Middle East map. In recent years and months, the Islamic nation of Iran has been attempting to develop nuclear weapons as its radical President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has made public statements that Israel is "a rotten, dried tree that will be eliminated by one storm" and is "a regime based on evil that cannot continue and one day will vanish." On Tuesday, Israel saw Benjamin Netanyahu sworn in as its Prime Minister. The tough and hard-line Netanyahu was elected to the position by an Israeli population that had grown weary of its leaders constantly bargaining away land to the Arabs and receiving no reciprocity other than continued attacks and threats. While campaigning he promised that if he were elected "Iran will not acquire nuclear arms, and this implies everything necessary to carry this out." Now that he has been sworn in, Netanyahu has put the world, particularly American President Barack Obama, on notice that if nothing is done to dismantle Iran's nuclear program, then Israel will do it themselves, calling Iran "an existential threat to Israel." He is absolutely correct in this assessment. But Obama was elected in America largely as a peacemaker, and you can bet that he will not lead or authorize any attacks on Iran. Instead, he and the European leaders and the liberal media who have coddled radical Islam will continue to press Israel for further concessions, and even go so far as to paint the Israelis as instigators and aggressors. Nothing could be further from the truth, and the American people should not stand for an American administration that will not continue to actively support God's chosen people in the promised land. Turn away from Israel, and America will surely find that God will turn away from her, which would create the greatest existential threat to America in our own history as a nation.

He Who Sows Discord Among Brothers

For the past six weeks this regular 'Sunday Sermon' series has covered Proverbs 6:16-19 in which the Bible speaks of "6 Things the Lord Hates (7 an Abomination)", and today we wrap the discussion with that 7th and final item. This item speaks particularly to families, and serves as both a calling and a warning not only to brothers and sisters, but to anyone who would sow discord within a family situation. In past weeks we have spoken of people with 'Haughty Eyes', basically those who think they are better than others. We have spoken of 'A Lying Tongue', but the seventh item addresses not only liars but also those who use truthful situations to sow discord. We have spoken of 'Hands That Shed Innocent Blood', but the seventh need not lead necessarily to physical bloodshed in accomplishing what is still its own brand of violence. In 'A Heart That Plots Wicked Schemes' we spoke very much of the person in this seventh item and the intentional nature of their actions. In 'Feet That Run Swiftly to Evil' we spoke of how some just can't wait to pounce on an other's misfortune and also who seem almost joyful when approaching evil. Last week we spoke of 'The False Witness', the gossiper among man and he who not only will lie among friends, but who also is willing to take his lie all the way into an official proceeding or on to an official document. It is all of these six things which the Bible says that the Lord hates which together lead to perhaps the worst of them all, the seventh which is an abomination in his eyes. In the earliest book of the Bible, 'Genesis', God teaches us that the family is of utmost importance, and warns against turning against your family. He begins to teach the lesson in the story of the very first brothers, Cain and Abel. When Cain becomes jealous of Abel, God says to Cain "If you do well, you can hold up your head; but if not, sin is a demon lurking at the door; his urge is toward you, yet you can be his master." When God becomes aggrieved and tired of early man's wickedness He decides to wipe man from the earth in a great flood. He finds one man and his family worthy of saving, worthy of starting mankind anew. Not a group of friends. Not a town of neighbors. Not some tribal leaders and elders. One family is chosen, the family of a man named Noah to whom God said "With you I will establish my covenant; you and your sons, your wife and your sons' wives..." Later when the flood was over and the land had dried, and Noah and his family exited the ark, God blessed them and said to them "Be fertile and multiply and fill the earth." But he also admonished them saying "..from man in regard to his fellow man I will demand an accounting for human life." God shows here that he not only wants the family of man to exist, but he demands from us that we care for one another. The further Genesis story of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is all about family and its import. God sets this family as his chosen people, those whom he will particularly bless, as well as all those who align themselves with this family. Jacob has his name changed to 'Israel' and produces twelves sons, the 'Twelve Tribes of Israel', down through time the Jewish people. The story of the beginnings of God's chosen people in its very first family, particularly in the story of the relationship between Joseph and his eleven brothers, talks about how we should and should not treat our own families. It shows the dangers in that very act of sowing discord among brothers, as well as provides the redemptive faculties that come with love and forgiveness. Throughout the Bible we hear of the importance of family. In Proverbs 12:4 we learn that "A worthy wife is the crown of her husband." In Deuteronomy 12:12 we learn that we shall "make merry before the Lord, your God, with your sons and daughters." In the fourth of the Ten Commandments the Lord orders us to "Honor your father and mother." God through Shemaiah in the Bible's 2nd book of Chronicles 11:4 says "You must not march out to fight against your brothers" and in Nehemiah 4:8 commands "Fight for your brethren, your sons and daughters, your wives and your homes." In Psalm 127:3 we are told that "Children are a gift from the Lord, the fruit of the womb, a reward." In Proverbs 17:6 that "Grandchildren are the crown of old men." In Sirach 3:3 we are taught that "He who honors his father atones for sins" and in 3:9 that "A father's blessing gives a family firm roots." The Book of Sirach is particularly helpful in its warnings as well, telling us in 16:3 "Rather die childless than have Godless children" as well as in 25:15 that "With a dragon or a lion I would rather dwell than live with an evil woman." There is the lesson of Mary herself, the humble mother of Jesus, the earthly mother of God Himself who gave birth to, raised, taught, suffered with, and has been exalted with the Lord. And then there is the lesson of her husband, Joseph, the stepfather to Jesus Christ who stood by Mary and who helped raise the Son of God. During our lives God gives all of us two families; the one into which we are born, and the one which we create ourselves. The first points to our ancestry and our family roots; our fathers and mothers, our grandparents and older forefathers, and our brothers and sisters. The second is formed with our husbands and wives, leading to our children and grandchildren and our descendants. God gives this first group to us as gifts to cherish, but this gift is of human beings. They, like you, will have faults and sins and will be imperfect. They may not have the faculty to comprehend the loving nature that they have been called to in the family, or may have been so damaged by the traumas of their lives that they have lost this capacity. It is up to you the learned, you who understand what it is that God wants from your familial relationships, to be the glue that keeps your family together as best you can. It is also directly on you to see to it that your own descendants learn directly from you this importance of family that God himself has established. Do not give in to the gossip and the discord, to things as vile as abuse and hatred, that you may find lurking within your family. You can only control where your family goes from here, not where it has been in the past. Do not become one who sows discord among brothers and sisters, parents and children, one whom the Lord actually hates. Instead draw closer to God, and in doing so become the rock upon which a foundation of love and support can allow your family to flourish. NOTE: This is the continuation of the regular 'Sunday Sermon' series, all entries of which can be viewed by clicking that below label.

The Baptism of the Lord

NOTE: This entry is the continuation of the regular 'Sunday Sermon' series. You can read all of the articles in the series by clicking on to that label at the bottom of the entry.
Today we bring the official Church season of Christmas to a close by celebrating another important moment in the life of Jesus Christ, his baptism. As preparation for His coming, Jesus' cousin who is known to us as John the Baptist has emerged from the wilderness and is preaching that change is coming. John is telling people that they must turn from their evil ways, repent, and be baptized as new children of God. John was so charismatic that many were asking if indeed he were the awaited Messiah. These questions became so regular and consistent that John eventually felt he had to answer, and so he did most forcefully: "I am baptizing you with water, but one mightier than I is coming. I am not worthy of loosening the thongs of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fan is in his hand to clear his floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire." Jesus knew that the time had come for his public ministry to begin, and felt that the most important symbolic measure that he could take in beginning was to be baptized publicly by the most famous baptizer in John. Jesus had, of course, no need to be baptized. As we have discussed in previous Sunday Sermon entries, the sacrament of Baptism cleanses us from the original sin of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Jesus was the second human being ever, following his own mother Mary, to be born free of sin. But even having no personal need, Christ wished to provide an example of just how important this sacrament was for human beings. When he showed up in front of John asking to be baptized, John stated that it was Christ who should be baptizing him. But Jesus insisted, and John performed the baptism. As Christ rose from the waters a dove descended upon him, and a voice from heaven above was heard clearly by all those in attendance: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased!" Jesus went forward and began his public preaching ministry, calling his disciples to him, teaching the Word of God, and ultimately dying on the cross to save you and all of us from having to pay the penalty for our sins. All we need to do is to accept this great gift of sacrificial suffering on Christ's part on our behalf. But speaking of that gift is for another day. Today is for celebrating the baptism of Jesus Christ, and anticipating the beginning of his mission. Jesus was 30 years old. The man who had raised him, his human father Joseph, Mary's husband, was a direct descendant in the line of King David, which traced itself back through Jacob and Isaac to Abraham himself, the grandfather of all the world's great religions. This line then traced further back to Noah, surviving the flood through Noah's son Shem. Finally, the line traces it's ultimate origins back through Seth to Adam, and ultimately to God. Jesus Christ healed the sin of his direct family line, which ran back through 75 recorded generations of humanity. As importantly, he healed the sins of every generation to come, including yours and mine, and those of our children and grandchildren and on into the future until he should return one day in glory. It all begins with the event we celebrate today, the readings that you will hear if you are in church, as you should be. It all begins with the baptism of the Lord, Jesus Christ.