OK,
so I think this is gonna work. Hopefully we're all framed up
and the light is good. I think the light is good. Is the light good?
There we go
How's that?
That looks probably awesome.
OK.
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz and this is Ascension Presents.
So, I was thinking the other day, actually a friend asked me,
"Father Mike, how come all of the best shows on TV right now are all TV-MA?"
You know what that means, that's the TV rating system,
that how come the good shows, they're all kind of kind of dirty.
There's Game of Thrones, there's The Walking Dead,
there's things like— buses driving by— that's not a real TV show
but I think you can actually make it into a TV show. Think about it. (click)
Things like Hell on Wheels or Sons of Anarchy.
All these TV shows, Mad Men, they're all TV-MA and the question is How come?
How come the best shows, the best written, the best directed shows,
the most intriguing shows are for mature audiences
and I think it's because of this:
I think it's because in every one of those shows what they do is they try to get to something deeper.
So example, Mad Men or The Sopranos.
Those are shows about a successful person who seems to have the ideal life, their descent into ruin.
Breaking Bad, same kind of thing, like what would it be like—another show about a descent of a good person
Walter White, to become the villain. It's just one of these intriguing kind of concepts.
You have things like again, Game of Thrones as an example of this kind of other world
that people kind of get lost in. It's that idea anyone can die.
You might think it's about the Iron Throne,
but it's about like this human drama that's bigger than any one person.
Even in the TV show The Walking Dead, it's not just about zombies.
Some people who don't watch it, they think it's just about zombies, just a dumb zombie movie,
but it's actually a morality play.
It's the idea of in a world where there is no law, there is no authority, what's the right thing to do?
Or if you don't have any destination,
should you just keep going? Should you just keep trying? What's the point of living?
They're asking big questions.
I think a lot of times when we grew up watching TV shows that were written for kids.
There were sitcoms like Family Matters or Growing Pains
or what's the one in San Francisco? Oh my gosh.
What am I thinking of?
Full House! Oh my gosh. My uncle used to be one of the writers for Full House.
But, we got tired of this idea of "Here's a conflict and in 21 minutes, it all gets wrapped up."
And, Dad walks in and says to DJ Tanner says, "Hey, you know Deej, sometimes—"
and then the music kicks in and he gives the lesson. She's like, "Thanks, Dad."
He's like, "Aw," and then Uncle Jesse comes in and goes, "Yuk, yuk, yuk."
I think we're tired of that. I think that a lot of times we want to say
is there a story out there that kind of encapsulates my life or the thing that I long for?
I also think it's because they have a lot of sex and violence
and there's a certain broken part of us that really wants to watch a lot of sex and violence
and you know who you are.
But other than that, we want a bigger story
and that's what I think Scripture, the Bible, it's not just tailor-made for us, it's God-given to us
because God knows our hearts and he knows what we long for.
We long for a bigger story than something that's just simple.
So the Bible has stories of good people who descend into ruin
like Adam or like King Nebuchadnezzar.
You have the story of someone who is in the midst of this incredible suffering
and just can see everything gets stripped from their lives
and they can ask the question, "Why keep going on?" like Job
or Ecclesiastes, the author of Ecclesiastes, asking that question, Why should I keep going?
We have stories of other worlds where it just seems like it's bigger than just one human being.
It's anyone can die, anyone can live, anyone can be the hero, anyone could be the villain.
That's the story of Scripture because God gets involved in someone's life and it becomes a bigger story.
The questions of what's right and what's wrong
that in the Book of Judges, think about this, there was no king. They had no one to tell them what to do,
so it says in the Book of Judges, "Everyone did what was right in their own eyes."
You can see how it just descends into this madness
like at the end of Mad Men or at the end of The Sopranos or the end of Breaking Bad
where it's just I just did what I thought was right.
That's why I think that the Bible is a book for grownups.
And I think a lot of us are maybe, maybe grown-ups are a little bit tired of reading the kid's versions of the Bible.
And you know what those are?
"Oh, the story of whatever and I kind of know how that goes."
Well, I invite you to take a look, a deeper look
and that's why I love—Ascension puts out The Great Adventure Bible Timeline,
which basically takes a different look, an adult look at some of these stories that you thought you knew.
That's my invitation for you.
Not an advertisement or a commercial for The Great Adventure
but it really, in fact is— The Great Adventure Bible Timeline with Jeff Cavins,
it changed the way that I approached Scripture and it took this Bible that I thought I knew
and I knew it pretty well
but I knew it at a kid's level
and it reintroduced me to this notion of the Bible actually addresses,
the stories here connect with my imagination, they connect with my heart,
they connect with my mind and intellect and they connect with my life
and I believe that God's Word to you will connect with your life as well.
Once again, my name is Father Mike Schmitz for Ascension.
God bless.