{"id":4014,"date":"2024-09-18T06:58:27","date_gmt":"2024-09-18T10:58:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=4014"},"modified":"2024-09-18T06:59:03","modified_gmt":"2024-09-18T10:59:03","slug":"identity-check-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2024\/09\/18\/identity-check-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Identity Check"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, <\/em>click here<\/a>

The two men in today’s picture both claimed to be world-famous film directors. 

One was telling the truth. The other was a con artist. 

Can you tell which is which?

On the right is the late Stanley Kubrick, who in his 50-year career directed only 13 feature films. But some of them rank amongst the most significant movies ever made, including Dr. Strangelove, 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, <\/em>and The Shining. <\/em>

The fellow on the left is the late Alan Conway, chiefly known for spending much of his adult life pretending to be Stanley Kubrick.

What\u2019s fascinating is that Conway didn\u2019t even look like Kubrick. 

What helped his cause is that the director rarely appeared in public. Few people could have picked him out in a line at Starbucks. That encouraged Conway to pass himself off, almost on a daily basis, as the reclusive genius.

Gullible people were thrilled to have the chance to \u201cknow\u201d a famous person. They enthusiastically treated Conway to dinner, drinks, and dessert.

Even Frank Rich, theater critic for The New York Times<\/em>, was taken in. He couldn\u2019t believe his luck when \u201cStanley Kubrick\u201d gave him his home phone number and suggested they get together for an exclusive interview. Conway, of course, never showed.

Warner Bros., which financed and distributed Kubrick\u2019s films, was inundated for years with phone calls from people who were surprised the director hadn\u2019t been in touch with them. He had personally promised them, after all, a role in one of his upcoming movies.

The truth finally caught up with Alan Conway. His deception was brought to light by several journalists. A desperate Conway then floated the idea that he might have a mental disorder: \u201cIt was uncanny. Kubrick just took me over. I really did believe I was him!\u201d 

Over the centuries, theologians have had to wrestle with a far more consequential question of identity: Who exactly was Jesus of Nazareth?

Was he divine? Or a con artist? An ordinary first century resident of Judea? Or someone whom the Holy Spirit \u201cjust took over\u201d?

At the center of the Bible\u2019s account of the birth of Jesus there is this mind-bending miracle: God becomes a human being. The artist becomes part of his canvas.

This is so startling and unexpected that an entirely new word had to be coined just to describe it. That word is incarnation. <\/em>God himself became embodied \u2013 he took on carne, <\/em>the Latin word for \u201cflesh\u201d \u2013 in order to become one of us.

And what difference does that make?

The first day of fall is just four days away. The odds are pretty good that during these last few days of summer you\u2019re going to experience disappointment. Temptation. A laugh-out-loud moment. Perhaps a surge of anger. Relief. Hope. Frustration. Joy.

At the heart of Christianity is the startling claim that Jesus knows exactly what you\u2019re going through. He is fully human \u2013 and it\u2019s not a charade or the hijacking of someone else\u2019s identity. 

The author of the book of Hebrews spells it out: \u201cThat\u2019s why [Jesus] had to enter into every detail of human life. Then, when he came before God as high priest to get rid of the people\u2019s sins, he would have already experienced it all himself\u2014all the pain, all the testing\u2014and would be able to help where help was needed\u201d (Hebrews 2:17-18, The Message<\/em>).

The very Person whose care and support we most need in the midst of real life has, incredibly, \u201cbeen there and done that.\u201d

Stanley Kubrick could hardly have come up with a more extraordinary storyline.
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To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here The two men in today’s picture both claimed to be world-famous film directors.  One was telling the truth. The other was a con artist.  Can you tell which is which? On the right is the late Stanley Kubrick, who in his 50-year career directed only 13 feature films. But some of them… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4015,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[502,23],"class_list":["post-4014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-identity","tag-incarnation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4014"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4014\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4017,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4014\/revisions\/4017"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}