ITLOTC
(In The Life Of The Church)
Advent
Einstein & Christman: Space-Time Yuletide Problems Explained by Four Cinematic Moments By Josh
Christmas is about Jesus becoming human. It’s my favorite holiday, theologically and otherwise. I know i’m supposed to prioritize Easter as a Christian, but there’s a motif of salvation inaugurated by Christmas and I find it just as important as Easter. But that’s another blog.
Here’s what I would like to talk about today. The big-deal-ness of Jesus becoming human.
Here’s how I'm getting there this year. I have a fantasy that I’m Marty McFly. Mostly I want access to the DeLorean. Mostly I want to time travel. Mostly I want to time travel and have the sports almanac. Someone called me out on this in the comments on Facebook on a Sunday morning when Taylor posed the, “which super power would you want?” question. I said I wanted to time travel and bet the stock market. This person was correct. The Biff Tannen legacy is one I’d like to live into minus the maniacal dictator part.
OK, but there’s a problem. It’s called the butterfly effect. Here’s a definition from wikipedia: In chaos theory, the butterfly effect is the sensitive dependence on initial conditions in which a small change in one state of a deterministic nonlinear system can result in large differences in a later state. But if that doesn’t make sense then go watch the movie with Ashton Kutcher, Amy Smart, and that guy from Remember the Titans. Every time Ashton Kutcher goes back in time to change something in the past to fix it, that change inaugurates a series of other changes that Kutcher didn’t want and in the case of the movie, always seem to be worse.
Ok, but we have a solution. Have you ever seen About Time? About Time anticipates my gravest concern with time travel. Because again if I could, I would go back in time with my sports almanac (probably also go to UW-Madison and major in English). But the one thing I would want to be absolutely the same is my wife and kids. But the butterfly effect right? I’d probably lose my kids in the process. Not worth it. So About Time adds this nuance. Time travelers stop traveling to moments in history prior to the conception of their children for fear of losing them. This makes for a really interesting existential problem. The reason to time travel (in this movie) is to go see deceased loved ones. But what happens when a loved one dies before the conception of prodigy? Awww, this makes for a tender and painful moment of goodbye in the movie. A second death if you will.
Now for more complications. What if we could put the power of reaching into the past and future in our hands in a different way? Enter DEVS, one of the most interesting shows I watched in 2020. Spoiler alerts ahead. The DEVS lab, housed in a Faraday Cage, is a complex computer that attempts to exhaustively calculate every past and future particle movement in the history of the universe so that a computer program can simulate every moment in history and project every moment of the future. We’ll leave your questions about determinism and causality aside for now. About halfway through the series we learn that the DEVS owner (Forest) lost his child in a car accident. His ambition is to perfectly recreate and simulate the existence of his child so that he can presumably be uploaded into that world upon his own death. We’ll leave your questions about mapping the human brain and uploading it onto software
Now for this to get a bit complex. In one of the episodes Lyndon (a DEVS employee) develops a new algorithm based on the many-worlds interpretation—rather than the deterministic De Broglie–Bohm theory favored by Forest—that enables clear sound to be heard on the Devs projections. Forest rejects Lyndon's work believing that hearing sound from a multiverse undermines the project. Then Forest delivers a salient line about the rejection of the multiverse solution. He quips sharply that if Amaya (his daughter) has one less hair on her head, then it’s not his daughter.
That is the complexity of humanity isn’t it? We are … our souls are, exactly who our bodies are. Nothing more or less. Let me make this concrete. I would like to be 6’ 3”, look like Brad Pitt, have Usain Bolt’s speed, and Aaron Rodger’s football ability. I’m open to the notion that the platonic soul is independent of the body (though i’d have a long line of Christian philosophers who’d disagree with me), but it seems to be me that our bodied selves, which help form those souls, are inescapably shaped by our existence in these bodies. So, Forest is right. In a world where the butterfly effect is real, his daughter Amaya, with one less hair on her head is a different person. And a me that looks like Brad Pitt and runs like Usain Bolt is certainly a different person who would engender a near infinite set of different experiences which would result in a much different Josh.
So Christmas. If you’re like me and have these occasional Faustian desires to manipulate your existence through time travel or a DEVS simulation so that you could be your ideal self, i’m here to tell you that you would lose yourself (thank you Eminem). Christmas is about incarnation. Christmas is God’s exclamation point on creation. Christmas is God blessing the enfleshed and taking up residence with us as we are. Christmas is the commitment to a better world not through what could have been, but through what will be. Christmas is an invitation for you to accept you as you are. Because God already did in a manger 2000 years ago.
Meet the UBCers
In a recent leadership team meeting, it was shared with staff that one of the delightful part of having scripture readers outsourced is getting see some of the folks who call UBC home. To that end I’d like to introduce a new UBC newsletter item called “meet the UBCer(s)” where I, Josh, interview UBCers in 5-10 minute interviews for you to learn about them. Enjoy the … Canns
Christmas Eve Service
UBC will have a parking lot Christmas Eve service on December 24th at 6:00 P.M. If you plan on attending this service please know that the building (read bathrooms) will not be open. To that end, we can say that the liturgy will likely be 20-30 minutes. We hope you can make it and would love the chance to worship with you through windshields. Also, we will not be distributing candles, but are encouraging parishioners to bring a device that can illumine: perhaps a candle, the light on your cell phone, whatever you feel comfortable with, for the singing of silent night at the conclusion of the service.
Advent Candle Liturgy
Each week we’ll be posting a candle lighting liturgy for Advent. You can read through this alone, with friends via zoom, or, if you have an in-tact bubble of people you’ve been seeing throughout lockdown, together (hopefully practicing 2 of these 3: outside/masked/distanced). If you want to order some advent candles, that’s great. If you have some random candles, that’s great. If you just have matches or a lighter, that’s great too. And if you have none of those things, but have an imagination, behold, your candle. You can find the Love liturgy here.
HR Team Member
The HR team is looking for someone to serve on the team. The purpose and qualifications are listed below. If you are someone you know has an interesting please email josh@ubcwaco.org.
(A)Purpose. The Human Resources/Staff Support Team shall exist for the following purposes:
a. To establish procedures for the hiring of ministerial and non-ministerial staff, and to enact those procedures when advised by Leadership Team to do so.
b. To advise Leadership and Finance teams on issues regarding long-term staff needs.
c. To create and implement staff review procedures.
d. To advise Leadership and Finance teams on matters regarding staff compensation, benefits, grievances and termination.
e. To be a liaison between the congregation and staff during times of conflict after all attempts at personal, one-on-one resolution has been made.
(C)Qualifications. HR/Staff Support Team members shall have been an active participant in the life of UBC for no less than one year, have received a bachelor’s degree (or roughly an equivalent amount of experience in personnel management, ministry, or other related field,) and have a demonstrable understanding of organizational management.
ITLOTC Break
ITLOTC will be taking a two week break. Our last newsletter for the 2020 year will be sent on December 22nd. On the 29th and on January 5 there will be no newsletter. For the most up to date information from UBC please visit this blog, check facebook, or follow us on twitter &/or instagram.
Parishioner of the Week
Rosemary Watson for getting engaged and being a champion.
Work is Worship
Greeters: No Greeters this week
Coffee Makers: no coffee makers this week
Mug Cleaners: no mug cleaners this week
Money Counter: no money counters this week
Leadership Team
If you have a concern or an idea for UBC that you’d like to share with someone that is not on staff, feel free to contact one of our leadership team members.
Chair: Kerri Fisher: Kerri_Fisher@baylor.edu
Luci Hoppe: lhoppe@gmail.com
Jeremy Nance: Jeremy.J.Nance@L3T.com
Joanna Sowards: jo.sowards@gmail.com
Kathy Krey: kathykrey@gmail.com
Jose Zuniga: jzgrphix2002@yahoo.com
Taylor Torregrossa: Taylordtorregrossa@gmail.com
Student Position: Davis Misloski
Student Position: Maddy O’Shaughnessy
UBC Finance Team
Do you have a question about UBC’s financial affairs? Please feel free to contact any of your finance team members.
Catherine Ballas: catherine@refitrev.com
Jen Carron: jen.carron78@gmail.com
Mike Dodson: financeteammike@gmail.com
George Thornton: GeorgecCT1982@gmail.com
UBC HR Team
If you have concerns about staff and would like contact our human resources team, please feel free to email any of the following members.
Erin Albin: erin.albin1@gmail.com
Sam Goff: samuelgoff92@gmail.com
Rebekah Powell: rpowell671@gmail.com
Kristen Richardson: wacorichardsons@gmail.com
Craig Nash: Craig_Nash@baylor.edu