It was a Chinese New Year weekend – it was the eve on Sunday and we had a nice little get together dinner at Gerry and Jesslyn’s newly renovated home. I had done a ribs barbie and Tress and made a fruit platter and there was plenty of food so it made for a very slow Monday at work the next day.
The weekend had been an ordinary one. The usual run of now familiar again activities was broken only by a nice breakfast at a cafe on Jolimont Street on the other side of Springvale. We had been there once before a couple of years or so earlier. After breakfast we went home, did some gardening (me) and laundry (Tress), got the food for Sunday, made some soups for the week, before settling down for an old movie – “Narrow Margins” starring Gene Hackman and Anne Archer. It was an old fashioned “thriller” played out mostly on a train ride up the east coast of Canada.
Church the next day started a Romans 1-7 series and it again got me thinking about what is it about the “life transformation” message of the gospel I’ve been missing out on. A piece on the gospel coalition site yesterday prompted that same question. Will it simply be about talking to others about Jesus and the gospel? I dont recall the last time I did that and I guess that should be disturbing.
I hope I dont lose this thread…
We watched bits of a program on TV last night. It was a documentary of the Anita Cobby killing and I said to Tress I recall sitting in a court in Sydney, trying to follow a murder trial for the first (and only) time in Australia, not long after commencing my law studies in UNSW. My Criminal Law lecturer had strongly encouraged us to attend the trial and so I dutifully went. I have to say I remember so very little now, even with the detailed re-telling of the events in the show last night.
30 year anniversary notwithstanding – the Cobby murder happened in February 1986 – I wonder how much of this has been prompted by the success of shows like “Making a Murderer” on Netflix. Tress and I had been transfixed for several nights by that show. I had been skeptical and found out that the producers (Moira Demos and Co) had not been totally open, and (according to the Wisconsin AG dept) key information have been kept from viewers. It was good TV nonetheless and I wonder if I ought to feel lousy for watching it simply for the entertainment value.
I have no doubt the whole Cobby murder trial had “entertainment value”, horrible as it may sound. The interviews, flashbacks, footage and re-enactments – while staples for documentaries, have all been given fresh focus by Making a Murderer and was so worthwhile as a venture for TV program makers. And we were happy consumers, until of course, we immerse ourselves in some other activities … such as telling others about Jesus?
Ante 