Eclectic Faith

Reconciling Homosexuality and Church Unity: Is it Possible?

2010-08-27T05:49:00.003-04:00

John Shuck, on his blog yesterday, wrote about Rev. Jane Adams Spahr, and the ongoing ecclesiastical trial underway because of her choice to officiate at a number of same sex marriages. Personally, I have no problem with her choice. In many ways, I admire her willingness to minister grace to these believers who have often been rejected and marginalized within their very own communities of faith. This is a very unfortunate situation that certainly needs to be resolved.

With this said, however, I think that there is a larger proposition here, embedded in this extremely controversial and polarizing subject, that troubles me greatly. Every time I contemplate same sex unions being embraced by the church, and the installment of Gay and Lesbian believers into ecclesiastical positions, such as pastors or Bishops, etc, my mind always takes me to the opening verses of Ephesians chapter 4:

"I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." (vs. 1-3; NRSV; emphasis added]

Paul's subject here is unity; his tone is one of utmost urgency. The, "I beg you" disposition adds extreme weight to the matter. If you haven't heard anything I've said up to this point, please, I beg you, do not miss this! This is an injunction of unequaled importance to the Apostle Paul.

Therefore, the question is not can we do something. It is, and always has been, should we do something. All things are lawful for me, Paul said, but not all things are expedient [1 Cor 10:23]. To do something in isolation without broader consensus, is inviting dissension and disunity; a condition deplorable to Paul's theology.

Ultimately, the acceptance of same sex unions, and their recognition, their right to be, are matters of social justice. In my opinion, these are judicial issues, that will require a metamorphosis in our social consciousness. Fundamentally, this is a civil rights proposition, and should be pursued, with due diligence, as such. These matters should be addressed judicially, and I support, wholeheartedly, the granting of equality and legal status equivalent to heterosexual unions.

Furthermore, as a matter of principle, I have no problem with these same people serving in the church in any capacity. It is in this domain, however, where I struggle to reconcile Paul's injunction regarding unity, with these
intermitent, rogue attempts to arbitrarily change the ideas of any given faith tradition without a broader concensus. The Episcopal Church is a prime example here. The consecration of Gene Robinson as a Bishop in 2003, absolutely shook the very foundations of the Anglican Communion. It is still reeling over the matter, and an inevitable schism is almost an absolute certainity.

This is a huge conundrum. Gene Robinson has made invaluable contributions to the church, not just in his particular faith tradition, but to the church at large, allowing us to get a glimpse of the gifts and callings bestowed upon this man, regardless of his sexual orientation. Yet, his very existence, irrespective of these inestimable virtues, is a source of huge contention.

So, I ask the question, are we doing the right thing here? Should we not work within the church to try and build a concensus that will protect and sustain these individual's right to be, and their callings, yet at the same time, perserve the unity indicative of the Apostle Paul's admonition?

²³

I believe in God!

2010-08-25T22:39:00.000-04:00

I apologize for interrupting our discussion of liberation theology. We will get back to it soon. My health has precluded me from sitting at the computer for any length of time so I have not been able to devote my time to it as I had planned.

With that said, I do want to speak briefly about something that has been bugging me. I've been in allot of physical pain lately. Today, in an episode of excruciating pain, I went and sat in our van, listening to some Christian music my wife had in the CD player. Usually, I am not much of a music fan; I am an NPR junkie, to be honest. But, as I sat there listening, there was a song playing by Casting Crowns that was talking about being forgiven, needing help to get through the night, feeling as if you were one mistake away from being the man you used to be.... that song soothed my soul. I felt God in that moment of despair.

I am liberal, there is no doubt about that. But, regardless of what I may or may not believe anymore, I do believe in a transcendent God who is active and involved in the world that I live in. I see her everyday. It grieves me that in this day and age, to be religiously "liberal", essentially means that you have to somehow be religious without believing in the reality of God. I read blogs everyday that may have the tone of being religious, but deny, by their very words, any possibility that God exist. As if God is a crutch for weak people who can't think for themselves.

My family has been going through a financial crisis because of my recent disability and being unable to work. We've had people, who had no idea what we were going through, buy school supplies for our children. Just a few days ago, a man I have not seen in a very long time showed up on our doorstep with two checks totalling 500 dollars. I don't care who you say did all that... it could of been Jesus, Buddha, Mohammad, etc, but from where I am sitting, it was God. It was a manifestation of the divine, the ultimate principle, if you will, in our lives. A reminder that we are not in this thing alone.

So, no matter what you may think of me or what I write from time to time, let there be no mistaking that I believe in an active, living, and sovereign God. A God who can change our lives and make his presence known in the simplest of things!

A Brief Interruption: What is simple faith?

2010-08-24T05:01:00.003-04:00

My wife and I are often at odds over theological issues. I'm liberal, whatever that means; she's theologically conservative. Over the past ten years, these opposite poles have led to some interesting discussions, and few heated arguments.

This evening, we were discussing a recent post by John Shuck, a fellow CC blogger, regarding life after death. While I did not agree with John's ideas, some of my own less than conventional thoughts found their way into our conversation. The great theological divide between my wife and I once again became apparent.

Upon thinking of this, my mind turned to a proclamation we make at the Eucharist table. We are United Methodist, so I take this from the hymnal, Word and Service 1 [p. 10].

Christ has died; Christ has risen; Christ will come again.

Us theological types enjoy pushing the envelope. I enjoy challenging those around me to think about their faith, often to their demise, I must admit. Being right can have its disadvantages: such as sleeping on the couch, getting the silent treatment, or watching someone you love grapple with ideas that they would of never willingly been exposed too had you not been pompous enough to enlighten them.

My faith has undergone some serious challenges over the years. To say I've experienced a "crisis of faith" would be putting it mildly. I've laid so many things aside, only to pick them back up again. Others, I've discarded altogether: virgin birth, the inerrancy of scripture, hell, etc, to name a few. People who know me, especially my wife, find great difficulty in accepting these things. So, I struggle at times to find common ground, not just with people I love and care about, but with sincere believers who genuinely do not feel the same way. I used to think it was my job to change them; if its reasonable for me to feel or think a certain way, surely I should pass it on, right?

Well, no, it really isn't. It's not necessary for us to change everyone, make them think the way we do. It is incumbent upon us to find some common ground for love and fellowship. Tonight, as I pondered my wife's words, those three affirmations above come to mind and while I acknowledge that we have a philosophical/theological divide, there is also an unbreakable unity in those three, unambiguous statements.

Christ has died. He was a human being, lived in a specific place at a particular time and is forever a fabric of world history. There is no negating that Jesus was an extraordinary man who lived in first century Palestine, who identified with the outcast and oppressed, because he was one himself. His life meant something then; it means something extraordinary now.

Christ has risen. My library is filled with hundreds of volumes written about this man, most of which were penned within the last century. Churches have been erected all over the world in testament to his ongoing presence and impact upon humanity. I don't care if you believe in a bodily resurrection, it really does not matter to me. But he lives on, and his influence upon life and culture, whether for good or bad, is of the such that the Western world has never seen or duplicated.

Christ is coming again. This affirmation may be a bit more difficult. But, in the end, what we are saying is that his influence has no end. I believe in a consummation of this age. I believe that things will not always be as they are. Thus, the blessed hope that Paul talked about.

So, for all the contention and discussion, these three affirmations are for me, what it means to posses a Christian world view. Sure, there will be many who disagree. But these are three simple affirmations that I believe all Christians should be able to gather around the table for discussion. And, yes, the discussion should start here.

Pondering Liberation Theology: Defining the Church's Responsibility to the Poor -Part 2

2010-08-18T10:41:00.001-04:00

Recently, I have been acquainting myself with the fundamentals of Liberation theology. In some of the books I've read, I've come across some powerful ideas. I want to take some time here to communicate some passages from Raymond McAfee Brown's book: Spirituality and Liberation (The Westminster Press, 1988).

Here, Brown continues to summarize Gustavo Gutierrez's understanding of genuine spirituality, this time from Gutierrez's first major work, A Theology of Liberation (esp. pp 36-37 and 176-181):

"Liberation when radically understood includes liberation. We can make our point by calling once again on Gutierrez, who, as the practitioner of a life in which spirituality and liberation cannot be separated, has particularly compelling credentials. We need to call attention to only a single point made in his first major work, A theology of Liberation (esp. pp. 36-37 and 176-181). If this point is clear, the cause for inclusiveness of spirituality and liberation has been established. It is Gutierrez's contention that liberation has three levels of meaning but that no one of them is properly understood unless all three are simultaneously affirmed.

The first level is liberation from unjust social structures that destroy people. These structures may be political, economic, or cultural, they may grow out of warped attitudes based on race, class, nation, or sex, and they may also (as Gutierrez has personal reason to know) be embodied in church structures, operating in concert with any of the others. The attention of liberation theologians has been strongly focused on this level, since it is the most immediate barrier to full personhood that their constituencies face, and it has thrust many of them into conflictive situations.

The second level with which liberation is concerned is more subtle but equally devastating. It is liberation from the power of fate, from the sense that one's station in lie is foreordained, and that not only is there nothing one can do about it but it would be presumptuous and arrogant even to try. If one is born rich, that, too, is the way it is meant to be. Good news to the rich, bad news to the poor. Result: apathy or despair among the poor, and exhilaration among the rich who are determined to keep things that way. The counsel to accept whatever cards fate deals serves as a magnificent justification for the status quo, a fact not lost on the rich and powerful.

For hundreds of years, the church played a major role in supporting this position, by the simple device of substituting "providence" or "the will of God" for the pagan concept of "fate." Accept your lot without complaint, the sermons went, and God will reward you in the afterlife.

The liberation message on this second level is that things need not remain the way they are, that the biblical God is working actively for justice and seeks to enlist all people in the struggle. The operative word is hope.

The third level of liberation is liberation from personal sin and guilt. This is not an add-on to the liberation agenda, inserted late in the day to forestall the critics, but has been there from the start, as any examination of the literature will show. Critics who fail to see it testify only to their own myopia. If the third level receives less quantitative treatment than the others, this is for the good reason that it has always been the central if not exclusive message of the institutional church, hardly in need of new champions, whereas levels one and two have only infrequently been acknowledged as part of the Christian agenda. Even so, the quantitative as well as qualitative attention given to such matters in Gutierrez's writings is impressive. Prayer, Bible study, worship, Eucharist, and (as we have seen) grace are central to his understanding of liberation." [pp. 121-123]

Tomorrow, we will let Brown sum up all that's been said thus far. Then, we will try and make sense of it ourselves.  

Pondering Liberation Theology: Defining the Church's Responsibility to the Poor -Part 1

2010-08-16T14:29:00.001-04:00

Recently, I have been acquainting myself with the fundamentals of Liberation theology. In some of the books I've read, I've come across some powerful ideas. I want to take some time here to communicate some passages from Raymond McAfee Brown's book: Spirituality and Liberation (The Westminster Press, 1988).

Here, Brown is summarizing Gustavo Gutierrez's understanding of genuine spirituality (from a book entitled We Drink from our Own Wells: The Spiritual Journey of a People.):

"He would be reminding them and us that his title comes from a comment of Benard of Clairvaus, that the place from which our spiritual nourishment comes is the place where we think, pray, and work; we begin our spiritual journey where we are, and not somewhere else. If the Latin Americans' "own wells" are located within the liberation struggle to which they are committed, our North American wells will likewise be found in our own situation, as we struggle, for example, with the affluence we so often use exploitatively. In either case, the life of spirituality will be located in the midst of the world's turmoil, rather than in safe havens of disengagement.

This cannot be done, Gutierrez would continue, with an individualistic spirituality, and we would call attention to the important subtitle of his book, the Spiritual Journey of a People, as the reminder that spirituality must be communal. To show that this conviction is not idiosyncratic to himself, he might cite the comment of John de Gruchy from South Africa, another continent where oppression and struggle are daily companions of the Christian:

"The Christian life, while intensely personal, is always communal...The privatization of piety is not part of the Christian tradition and it undermines the Christian life... Christian spirituality is, therefore, the spirituality of Christian community. But it is not Christian community lived in isolation from the world." (De Gruchy, Cry Justice, p. 25)

Having rooted spirituality in the immediate human situation, Gutierrez would then explore the riches of the biblical and historical traditions, in order to pave the way for five interconnected marks of the new spirituality of liberation. They are worth some attention, because they are as true for us in our situation as they are in his.

The first of these is Conversion: A Requirement for Solidarity, and it involves a break with the past and the setting out on a new path that is both personal and social. Conversion involves both an acknowledgement of individual sin and a recognition that ours is a sinful situation, containing structural causes of injustice. So conversion will involve the option to live in solidarity with those who attack sin on both levels. Hunger for God and hunger for bread go together.

A second characteristic is Gratuitousness: The Atmosphere for Efficacy (which we might render in less cumbersome fashion as "Grace: The Basis for Action"). God's gracious love is the source of everything else, including our own ability to love. Such love starts with the concrete need of the other, not with "duty" to practice love. Drawing on Bernano's theme that "all is grace," Gutierrez reminds us that grace provides beauty for our lives, "without which even the struggle for justice would be crippled." Prayer expresses our faith and trust in the gracious God, a "living dialog" that becomes the touchstone of life. There is always "a twofold movement": a full encounter with the neighbor presupposes the experience of grace, and Christ, as our way to God, is also our way to neighbor.

The third note is Joy: Victory Over Suffering. Gutierrez does not gloss over the reality of suffering, be he also insists that the last word is "the joy born of the conviction that unjust mistreatment and suffering will be overcome." Such joy can be found even in a time of martyrdom, for to defend the poor easily leads to suffering and death. Martyrdom "is something that happens but is not sought." And Christians must never create a "cult of death." The only joy that can ultimately sustain us is "Easter joy," a joy that "springs from hope that death is not the final word of history." Those who encounter the cross are led to experience the resurrection.

The fourth mark is Spiritual Childhood: A Requirement for Commitment to the Poor. The task, as Gutierrez frequently remarks, is to be "with the poor and against poverty." The demands are severe: One must assume "voluntarily and lovingly the condition of the needy...in order to give testimony to the evil it represents." To do so will provoke opposition from the privileged, who are not enchanted when those within the church "disassociate themselves from the injustices of the prevailing system." Commitment to the poor means looking on the world of the poor "as a place of residence and not simply of work," sharing in exploitation, inadequate health care, and all the rest but also making new friends, experiencing a new kind of love, and developing "a new realization of the Lord's fidelity."

The fifth mark is Community: Out of Solitude. To be with the poor will mean going through "the dark night of injustice" oneself, enduring ostracization, fear, weariness, cowardice, and despair, not to mention having to make crucial decisions when "nothing is clear." This is when we move "out of solitude" and into community. God does not call us to remain in the desert but to pass through it on our way to the promised land. As we are drawn more deeply into community, we find foretastes of the promised land, even in midst of the desert, places where the death and resurrection of Christ are remembered, and where the Eucharist becomes a point of departure and arrival. The mood is celebration.

Throughout, Gutierrez has been describing spirituality. Throughout Gutierrez has been describing liberation." [pp. 118-121]

Tomorrow, we will look at Redefining Liberation. 

Should the Bible be an Idol?

2010-08-14T01:58:00.002-04:00

One thing that often creates the largest divide between a fundamentalist and a non-fundamentalist Christian is how each respectively approaches the bible. The former, see the bible as an infallible book, written by God using men as passive conduits, superseding their humanness altogether, creating a perfect construct devoid of error or contradiction, mirroring the absolute perfection of God. The latter, see the book as an indispensable tool for faith and practice, but there is an understanding that men wrote scriptures about God, rather than God writing about Himself. There is the notion that the bible contains the word of God in numerous and variegated ways, but is not in its entirety, the word of God.

I can relate to the fundamentalist position. It was something that was taught to me from a very early age and an assumption that permeated my time as a fundamentalist pastor. I can remember vividly making statements that essentially equated the Bible with God, with virtually no distinction between the two. In retrospect, I now realize that what I was doing was essentially making an idol out the bible and elevating it to a position that it was never intended to be in.

Recently, I finished reading a book entitled, A Layman's Introduction to Religious Existentialism, by Eugene B. Borowitz. In the book, Borowitz introduces the reader to a number of famous religious thinkers, categorized as religious existentialist. Among them is the well known and prolific, Karl Barth. In the chapter dealing with Barth's existentialist thought, he addressed Barth's approach toward the Christian scriptures. The following is an excerpt from this description:

"Similarly, Christianity is a faith in Christ, not in a book. It would have been easy for Barth to retreat into fundamentalism, to insist that the text of the Bible is the final standard of belief. There are many people in these changing, challenging times who put their trust in the words of scripture. For them, the one sure answer to the terrifying openness of freedom is a Biblical citation. But Barth cannot be tempted from his faith. Is the Bible superior to the Christ or is it, rather, the surest witness to him? To make a book, a text, words, even the Bible, man's ultimate authority is to put another sovereign in the place of the living God. The Christ must be sovereign over the holy books that proclaim him. This is not to deny the unique, indispensable, irreplaceable role of the Bible in the life of the Christian an in theological study.

There is no more immediate testimony to the Christ's acts and teachings. He who would know him must study the Bible as his chief source of information. But the Bible is the record of men testifying of God, not the record of God himself.

Barth is able to find an orthodoxy that is not a fundamentalism. He can utilize the results of modern Biblical study without being beguiled by its assumptions. For example, he is not disturbed that there are different reports of the crucifixion given in the Gospels. He is too honest to hide, too rational to deny, the data. But he does not lose his Christian faith because there are variations in the descriptions and emphases. His faith is not in the exactitude of the Biblical words, but in the person of Christ of whom these various reports speak. Fundamentalism can lead to so meticulous a wordmongering that Christian faith often seems to hang on the difference between an adverb and an adjective, a verb and a noun. The text, sacred as it may be, is not the Christ himself. Rather, the Christ is the norm for understanding and interpreting the New Testament books as well as the Scriptures that had preceded them." [pp. 57-8; emphasis added]

Over the years, I have often heard people make incredible claims regarding that bible. On the heels of these are unfortunate pronouncements: such as, "if there is a single contradiction in the Bible, then it is useless and untrue." This usually extends to the very character of God: "if something is found to be untrue then God is a liar and my faith is a lie." These are very scary alternatives!

I see the bible as a collection of writings, of divergent nature (narratives, history, poetry, etc), authored by human beings who were, at times, inspired and influenced by God. As such, I believe that the Christian scriptures contain God's word, his special revelation to man, and thus, is sacred and to be taken seriously by every Christian. We should approach the bible with the utmost respect and the with the understanding that it is a very important medium through which God has chosen to communicate to the world.

Raymond McAfee Brown sums this attitude up in a sermon entitled, "Mary and Martha, A Conundrum," based upon the text of Luke 10:38-42. This is an excerpt from his book, Reclaiming the Bible: Words for the Nineties; a collection of sermons he delivered at the First Presbyterian Church in Palo Alto, California, between 1990-93.

There are two extremely important statements that Brown makes here. One, the bible divulges God's word and plan, purposes, etc, in a unique way not found anywhere else (for the Christian). Second, he communicates the awesome adventure of discovery that this searching of scriptures affords the believer, but at the same time, it imposes a tremendous responsibility as well.

"We assert that in the Bible, God speaks a special kind of word to us that we don't find anywhere else [that sentence is very important to understand before you read further. Brown emphatically states from the onset that Christian scriptures reveal to us, in a special and unparalleled fashion, the word of God, and that revelation is exclusive to the Christian scriptures. There is no ambiguity in this statement.] And just as Jesus was a fully human being (whatever else he was), so the Bible is a fully human book (whatever else it is). This means that the Bible has a worldview molded by the Hebraic and Greek culture within which it was written. Its writers accept that culture without serious question, including a patriarchal point of view that takes male superiority for granted. Its writers do not know about universal human suffrage and would be utterly flabbergasted at the notion of a senator named Barbara Boxer.

Notice that this stress on the full humanity of Jesus, and on the book that tells about him, is a plus rather than a minus. It persuades us that God really takes us seriously in our here-and-nowness, by using that same here-and-nowness to communicate with us—through a human life and a human book.

The consequence of all this is that we are given an exciting and even dangerous kind of freedom in approaching the Bible and using it. [once again, Brown's emphasis here is extremely important to note] Not every verse or chapter or book is of equal importance. And within this account of God's confronting us through human writers, the insights of those human writers are always subject to question. They are not passive conduits through whom God directly dictates a script without errors. Sometimes they tell us that it is God's will that we slay every man, woman, and child of the enemy captured in battle (1 Sam 15:3). Sometimes they affirm that war is the ultimate obscenity and that we can never participate in it. Both themes are there, and we have to choose between them.

The writers also use instruments of the culture they are addressing, to communicate fully to that culture. To Greeks, the uniqueness of Jesus is suggested by the story of the virgin birth—a very common concept if you are a first-century Greek. But to first-century Jew, the uniqueness of Jesus is suggested by demonstrating how he fulfills Old Testament prophecy. If these images do not speak to us, it doesn't mean that the uniqueness of Jesus, to which they are pointing, goes down the tubes; it simply means that we have to find images in our own time and place that communicate uniqueness to us. God will use whatever means are at hand..." [p. 64; emphasis added]

One of the objections to this way of approaching scripture is that it is based solely upon subjective reasoning. This, I think, is a reasonable objection. One can easily refuse to recognize God's voice because it makes them feel uncomfortable or goes against what they want or like. Although, realistically, one can employ these tactics regardless of their appraisal of the Bible's nature. Here, however, Brown's injunction is all the more relevant and bears repeating: "we are given an exciting and even dangerous kind of freedom in approaching the Bible and using it."

One guide to help aid our understanding and recognition of God's voice within scripture is found in its historic traditional interpretation. We should give proper place and attention to how a given scripture has been interpreted and implemented within the collective community of faith. That does not necessarily mean that we are always beholden to agree, but we should deviate only with valid concerns and objective reasons.

Jose Miguez Bonino, writing a book on liberation theology entitled Doing Theology in a Revolutionary Situation, makes the following statement which is very relevant:

"A Christian hermeneutics is unthinkable as a purely individual undertaking. It necessarily presupposes a "hermeneutical community." [p. 154]

While searching for God's voice within the scriptures can and should be a personal pursuit, it is validated within the community of faith. This serves to achieve a continuity and universality of truth. While God speaks to people in divergent situations, and the application of such may vary from time and place, it will always be consistent with the essence of revealed truth.

Additionally, the matrix within which we discern God's voice in sacred writ is a yielded heart, a spirit of cooperation with the Holy Spirit; the Spirit which Christ said would lead us into all truth (John 16:13). Jesus said that we would be able to discern his doctrine and its authenticity by our desire to please and do His will. (John 7:17) This demands that we always approach scripture with an honest heart that is searching for the truth. As we are immersed in this matrix of human and divine cooperation, we will be challenged and stretch. The truth we perceive will normally contradict our natural inclinations, because his ways and thoughts are fundamentally different than ours.

All this means that discerning God's voice is not a static endeavor, but rather a dynamic exchange between God and man. The scriptures are a physical medium wherein we find truth and can always trust that it will speak to us in relevant ways. It is a tool, a conduit of God's revelation to man.

While in many ways it is a human book, an earthen vessel, it, like us, contains an excellent treasure. This treasure is compelling and mined only through the power of the Spirit. Its worth is not found in its internal agreement, whether or not its free from error, or perfect in every aspect. Its worth is found in the fact that in spite of its human element (which if objectively appraised, can be clearly be seen), it contains the heart of God's revelation to man.

With all that said, it is nonetheless, a book. A book that God intends to inform, validate, and empower us. But it is not a substitute for God, nor was it ever intended to be. This understanding will bring that dimension that Brown spoke of above, of an exciting freedom through which we can approach and enjoy the Holy Bible.

The Christian and and the Poor

2010-08-10T22:07:00.002-04:00

I have been greatly troubled over the past several months by much of the propaganda propagated by the religious right, epitomized by groups such as the Tea Party, as it relates to the Obama administration and its social agenda. Especially in the arena of health care reform, the hostility has permeated every facet of the debate. Words such as communist and socialism, Marxist, etc, have been hurled around venomously with little regard for truth or reality. 

This debate has really brought into focus the divide between what the scriptures teach and what many in our society assume is God's position. There is this very unfortunate assumption that God is somehow the author and architect of free enterprise and capitalism. After all, God only helps those who help themselves and if someone is not a part of the proper social or economic class, then it's obvious that they are deficient in some way. Why should we give up our hard earned money to fund food stamp programs or provide Medicaid for impoverished children? Why should we care about the millions of Americans who can't afford health insurance and suffer without access to basic health care services? Let them get a job and work, this is the American way! Anyone who has gumption and who is willing to work can achieve success in our society, right? 

Obviously, this is not true. Success is an American illusion for many people. Much of our political and economic structure really does help the rich get richer and keeps the poor in their place. It reminds me of a passage in the apocryphal book of Ecclesiasticus 13:23,24:

The rich person speaks and all are silent; they extol to the clouds what he says. The poor person speaks and they say, "Who is this fellow?" And should he stumble, they even push him down. Riches are good if they are free from sin; poverty is evil only in the opinion of the ungodly."

There really is truth to the idea that the rich get richer and the poor are getting poorer. And, in reality, this is simply a product of the fallen world we live in. Jesus himself told us that the poor will always be with us. No matter what we do, poverty will always be a human predicament. What is at issue, however, is our response, as Christians, to poverty and the responsibility we have in trying to help the less fortunate within our world and society.

Raymond McAfee Brown, in a sermon entitled "Sacrifice and the Federal Budget" (recorded in a book entitled Reclaiming the Bible: Words for the Nineties) stated the following:

Our starting point as Christians in dealing with the budget is quite clear: we are called upon to make : "a preferential option for the poor." The phrase—now a familiar one in Catholic social teaching—is a kind of summary of God's activity in the biblical story, in which God is always found on the side of the poor and dispossessed. This does not mean that God hates the rich, or that there is an exclusive "option for the poor" to the neglect of everyone else, but that God's first, though not last, concern is for those who are on the bottom of the heap. And if that is where God is, that is where God's people, both individually and collectively, are supposed to be also, in solidarity with the victims.

This means that in approaching any federal budget, this year or next year, we as Christians cannot ask initially, "What's in it for us" or "Can't we find a loophole that will make our own participation less onerous? Somewhere along the way, since we live in a fallen world, we will almost certainly ask such questions, whether we should or not, but our initial question must center on whether a given proposal helps or hinders the poor and impoverished. This is doubly important when, as is so often the case, the poor and impoverished turn out to be people of another race or class than our own, about whom the general public couldn't case less. And since folks like us have an inordinate percentage of goods and capital and economic opportunities, part of the task of any budget must be to express special concern for the victims and provide a helping hand. This will impact how we assess health care proposals, education allotments, the ratio of cuts in defense to rebuilding the inner cities, and whether an energy tax will help or hinder the financial stability of a family on the margin of bare survival.

It is never easy to take such priorities seriously, but we must keep trying to do so, not only because they are morally demanded of us but also because so few other groups in society see that as their task. (pp. 123-24)

While Brown's observations were definitely relevant in the early nineties when this sermon was initially preached, I can not help but think that his words are especially important today. Somehow, there is a huge disconnect between much of mainstream evangelical Christianity and the biblical attitude toward the poor and needy in our world. Brown is right, scripture does show a distinct and preferential option for the poor. God always esteemed the needs of those less fortunate, making their needs and treatment a national priority. It is our biblical and moral responsibility to reach out to the poor and less fortunate.

As Christian Americans, we should support any legislation that helps the needs of this large and growing segment of our population. Regardless of our political affiliations, our idealistic conceptions, etc, we can not ignore God's attitude toward the disenfranchised and those living on the margins of society. Without belaboring this point, let me point out two scriptural illustrations that bear this out.

One is the Hebrew Year of Jubilee, occurring every fiftieth year. On these occasions, there were three items of restoration that directly affected the poor, showing God's societal priorities. First, personal liberty was extended to anyone who found themselves enslaved due to economic reasons. Second, there was a restoration of all properties sold or forfieted by anyone who lost them because of economic conditions. Lastly, economic expansion was to give way to a national rest, where everyone was to simply survive on what had been accumulated in previous years. These ideas strike a disconcerting chord to the expansive ideals of a captialist system.

The second illustration comes from the New Testament where Jesus announced his priorities at the onset of his ministry. Quoting from Isaiah chapter 61, Jesus claims that he has come to minister to the hurting, sick, impoverished, and marginalized. He says that he has come to announce the acceptable year of the Lord, which was a direct reference to the year of Jubilee that we just spoke of.

Given the reality of the above, it is obvious that there is a great divide between what God values and so much of what so-called Christianity purports to be righteous today. If we err anywhere, it should not be here. We should do anything in our power to help the less fortunate in our world because this is exactly what Jesus would do.

New Blog!

2010-07-09T00:35:00.000-04:00

This post is to announce the beginning of a new blog I've started entitled The Lectionary Pulpit. I got the idea a while back and started the blog but have only recently begun working it.

The site is based upon the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL). My goal is to construct and publish at least one sermon a week based upon one of the weekly readings. Additionally, I hope to be able to add ideas and resources related to the other weekly readings.

I know this concept is not new. There are allot of blogs and resources on the Net devoted to the lectionary, so there will be nothing novel about what I do there. However, for me, the lectionary is a rather new concept and I have been enriched by my exposure to it. I just want to pass along what I am discovering as I use the RCL in my personal devotions and in sermon construction.

I was not raised in a tradition that used anything remotely similar to a lectionary. Once I was exposed to it, I immediately began to understand its value. Many pastors tend to concentrate on the same religious themes and scriptural passages in their preaching and teaching. Following something like the RCL helps to resolve this by forcing the minister to consider passages they would not normally choose. The minister is intellectually and spiritually stretched and the congregation is exposed to a broader (and hopefully more balanced) sampling of scriptural truth. I am sure there are negatives associated with it as well, but from where I am sitting, if used properlly, the positives win.

Lastly, if anyone reading this uses the lectionary in their devotions or sermon preparation and would like to help me in this endeavor by publishing your own sermons or thoughts on the weekly readings, please let me know. I would love for this to become a collaborative project with multiple authors. I would just need a sampling of your work and then I could add you as an author on the blog.

I look forward to hearing from potential authors as well as reading your comments to the post made there. God bless you!

For Clergy, Losing Faith Can Be an Occupational Hazard

2010-06-26T21:20:00.001-04:00

For Clergy, Losing Faith Can Be an Occupational Hazard

I lost my faith while in ministry in a fundamentalist pentecostal denomination. And, I can say that it was definitely an occupational hazzard. I can so relate to the minister that said he had to put food on his table. It really is a horrible predictiment.

You can't have my Bible!

2010-06-25T21:41:00.002-04:00

My recent post have been very biblical, mainly because I love scripture. The narrative speaks to me and gives credence to my faith. As it relates to my faith, I could care less if you can prove that Jesus actually did this or said that, or if an Old Testament story is a product of years of revision, pieced together from multiple sources making its historical reliability dubious at best, etc. While these endeavors have their place in responsible scholarship, my faith abides in a completely different realm. I am mythed by those who absolutely have to believe that the dots and lines of what we have today as scripture is inerrant and infallible and all those catch words that apply to the logic. If Jesus did not walk water then the bible is a fraud and God is dead....

To me, the bible is a narrative, a collection of stories that come to us as the products of a sacred community who have held these stories in the highest regard-- to tell us what God means to them. In this, I find a sense of belonging as I find my place within this very sacred community of people who believe that God is and that this God is intimately involved in human affairs.

Do I believe Jesus walked on water? I believe his disciples believed he walked on water and this gives me a glimpse into what they thought about Jesus and his presence among them. Would it destroy my faith if someone could definitively prove he didn't walk on water? Absolutely not! My faith doesn't reside in the historical accuracy of such things. The Christ of faith and tradition abides apart from the historical value of the text. I know my thoughts here reflect a modern theological position that many will identify, but nevertheless, my faith is in a God that existed long before the text or bible we have today. In contrast, however, the scriptures are indispensable in the construction of my faith.

With all that said, let me get back to my recent post. Not only have they been biblical, but I've wrote about tragedy and problems and how we can use what is found in scripture to inform our attitude when facing adversity. I've done this, largely oblivious of the fact that a difficulty was rising upon my very own horizon. Today, I find myself facing a difficulty of my own, not an abstract possibility of a problem, but a very real problem that is so much bigger than I am.

A year ago, I decided to return to work as a plumber/pipe-fitter. I started in the trade 23 years ago but my career was side tracked by a serious back injury in 1999. I had surgery in January of 2000, fused on two levels with accompanying hardware. I worked very hard after surgery and was successful in earning my way back into the trade, passing several functional capacity exams in the process.

This early return was a disaster. I suppose it should not of been such a surprise since the neurosurgeon who performed my surgery was reluctant to allow me to return to the trade. It was only after passing the FCE that he signed off on me, giving me a stern warning that doing so was not in my best interest. But, what is one to do? You are young, you have a family to take of and this is your trade, this is what you've worked for and trained for and its what you know how to do.

After a year of agonizing labor, with consultation with my physician, I left the trade and became a full time Mr. Mom; a job/role that I was completely unprepared for. Looking back, I regret that I did not embrace my position and do it with the same excellence that I have employed at all the jobs I've had in my life. That's another story, I suppose, but in retrospect, it is convicting, to say the least.

After years of being depressed and unfulfilled, I decided to return to the trade. This wasn't because I suddenly decided that I was all better and that my health issues were resolved. But, it was an act of desperation; it was all I knew to do and for my own mental and physical survival, I had to get out of the house.

Those first few weeks were grueling. I had no idea if I would be able to make it. But, to my surprise and infinite relief, I was able to manage the pain. I dug holes, worked in 8 ft. deep trenches, laid 500 ft of 2 inch galvanized pipe in the ground, climbed under houses, the whole gamut. Which, by the way, was a million times more difficult than what I was used too. I was a commercial/industrial plumber and crawl spaces and sewer cleaning was totally out of my scope of work, but I adapted and was proud of myself and grateful for God's grace to allow me to do it.

Then, I met "Mr. Hole." I was working in a church of all places, up on a mezzanine that wrapped around the sanctuary, and fell into a hole that was cut for some duct work that was yet to be installed. My leg went all the way down into the hole, all the way to my hip. It was a painful experience and one that for me, was definitely not what I needed to happen.

All I wanted was to work, to feel like a man and provide for my family, and my trade is and was the only way I know how to do it. Now, what I did not want to happen has happened. A problem bigger than me has raised its ugly head in my world with the intent to ruin me.

As I reflect upon these things, I am reminded of the previous post I've written, post that looked at stories in the bible where people were faced with problems bigger than they could handle and how God helped them overcome and succeed in spite of it all. This is where the beauty of scripture is really seen for me. The momentum of sacred writ that has given people hope and resolve to overcome in spite of it all; a narrative that says God is alive and visible in our world, regardless of how difficult life may be at the moment.

As I face the storm that lies before me, I must balance justice on one side and the needs of my family on the other. I am grateful that I have something to lean upon, a God that I believe in and that I believe can and will transform my mayhem in to something magnificent.

As I close this post, I am reminded of statement made by a prominent German theologian of the late 19th century, Martin Kahler. He stated that "[t]he real Christ is the preached Christ." Obviously, those familiar with Kahler and the methodology that ensued from his work will understand the controversy embedded in this statement. But, I identify and believe in what he said. The academy can critique and apply all the methodological tools available to modern scholarship (and I believe this is a very fruitful endeavor), but scripture has proven that it abides in a different realm. It is sacred, not because we can prove its historical reliability, etc, but because it invokes faith in a God that is real and allows us to experience the divine in today's world. It gives us a reference point for which we can evaluate our faith in light of the tradition we have received.

I am so thankful that I have the scriptures to comfort and guide me in this time of crisis. I can look to a Jesus who is the resurrection and life; I can trust in a God who will protect and keep me in the darkest of times.

Crisis in Bethany

2010-06-17T01:23:00.003-04:00

The following is based John 11:1-45 Click here to read this in the New Revised Standard Version.

(After writing this, I realized that it is extremely LONG! I would suggest reading it in several sessions.)

On May 14, 1988, a school bus full of children, teens, and chaperons was traveling down interstate 71 en route to Radcliff, Kentucky. They were on the way home from a church outing at a Cincinnati amusement park.

As the bus was nearing Carrollton, Kentucky, a drunk driver in a pickup truck was heading the wrong way down the highway and slammed into the bus head on. The bus burst into flames, killing 24 young people and three adults. Thirty other people were injured in the crash. The pickup driver, Larry Mahoney, was a repeat drunk driving offender. He survived, sustaining only minor injuries. His blood alcohol concentration (BAC) was 0.024), substantially higher than the legal limit in Kentucky.

In just a few terrible moments more than 57 families were shattered and an entire community was in shock. Some lost sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, parents and others lost friends friends. Many had to help surviving loved ones recover from injuries and trauma.

Many of the survivors and families of victims traumatized by this senseless crash have spent the last 22 years rebuilding their lives through the hard work of emotional and physical healing . They have met together, worked together, and even fallen in love with one another. They are "average" people with inspiring and exceptional stories—stories about coping with heart-wrenching loss, giving selflessly of themselves to build safer communities and finding a way back to hopefulness.

Tragedy and crisis makes two types of people. I recently read an article about Lary Mahoney and his life after being released from prison. He basically lives in seclusion and refuses to talk about the his horrible behavior that led to the death and injury of so many people. Although we can not know for sure the state of his heart, his silence speaks volumes as far as I am concerned. His unwillingness to do anything publicly to redeem himself is an indication that he is still living under the weight of the guilt he feels.

On the contrary, I read another article about Janey Fair. She lost her fourteen year old daughter in this horrible accident. In this article, she said the following about Mr. Mahoney: "...from my understanding, Larry Mahoney will never talk about it. He's too shy and it probably too painful to talk about."

Fair says that she has never spoken to Mr. Mahoney and does not resent his unwillingness to tell his story. "The whole time he was in prison he sought for and received treatment, attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings when they were available. I think he's realized that he is better off living a quiet life with his family. And, if this keeps him from drinking and driving, then that's what he needs to do."

Mrs. Fair has turned her pain into activism. She serves on MADD's National Board of Directors and as vice president of victim's issues. She is also president of the Kentucy Victims Coalition. (this info was current in 2004)

With this story in mind, let us approach another story that happened over 2000 years ago. The story in John 11 of the death and resurrection of Lazarus is a story of tragedy as well. A man, a personal friend, one who scripture declares that Jesus loved, is sick and this sickness is more than a headache or minor ailment. No, this is a desperate situation. You can hear the desperation in the words sent to Jesus: "Lord, he whom you love is ill." (John 11:3, NRSV)

As we read this story, we can extrapolate some vital principles about tragedy and how we are to understand its function in our lives. What does it mean when we are confronted with seemingly impossible situations? Have we done something wrong?

Before we go any further, let me make something perfectly clear: I have found that I live in a flesh and bone body. Consequently, when tragedy and crisis suddenly arrive, my confession at the moment may not always be right and my attitude may not be exactly as it should be. Fact is, it is easy to maintain these things when everything is going well. But, in a moment of crisis, I might just actually make a mistake and say something I should not say or do something I should not do.

Now, don't get me wrong. I certainly do believe in the law of reaping and sowing; however, I do not believe that all crisis, all sickness, all negative things that can and do happen in our lives is a direct result of some flagrant disregard of God's law. I, for one, believe that the Lord is much more merciful than that! Consequently, I may indeed open the door for tragedy, but when the door is open, it hardly matters why at the time. Oh, when it is said and done, perhaps we can pin point, in retrospect, where we went wrong or what we might have done that precipitated the crisis. However, in the midst of it, it hardly matters.

I suggest that there are times when tragedy comes our way when it has absolutely nothing to do with what we have done or said, but rather has everything to do with who/what we are: with our humaness—that we live in a world that is permeated with darkness and the effects of sin and death are all around us. In this, I find comfort in the words of Christ when he said it rains on the just and the unjust. (Mt. 5:45) Yet, such an understanding does not always make it easier when crisis hits our homes or lives.

So, what do we do? How are we to respond or react when things we cannot plan for intrude upon our lives and invade our peace and tranquility? Well, let us turn our attention to the text for these answers. Remember, God's word always has an answer! I might just simply be that God is in control and it is not for you or I to always understand those things which God has not chosen to reveal; those secret things that belong to Lord. I am reminded here of a passage in the Apocryphal book of Ecclesiasticus:

Neither seek what is too difficult for you, nor investigate what is beyond your power. Reflect upon what you have been commanded, for what is hidden is not your concern. Do not meddle in matters that are beyond you, for more than you can understand has been shown you. (Ecclus 3:21-23, NRSV)

God's word always has something of value to say to us. It is a living document that is relevant in the darkest of times and the most difficult of situations.

In John 11, as we witness this scene of crisis, there are some glaring truths that just leap off the page at me. It is important to understand the nature of tragedy. And let me say, before I go any further, that I am sure the enemy uses crisis to try and dislodge us and defeat us when possible. For us to stand, we must understand these most basic truths: tragedy doe not negate our friendship with God, our intimacy with the Lord, or God's love for us.

Notice with me that tragedy is often unavoidable, regardless of whether we are in the right position or pray the right prayers. Mary and Martha were in the right position: they were friends of Christ. It is believed that Jesus would often stay in their home in Bethany when he was in town. There was certainly more here than a casual acquaintance.

In this story, there are definitely some negative things taking place. Many of our modern day faith movements like to gloss over the negatives; it's inappropriate to talk about the negative things. But, I say that it is time that we better start talking about it. Many people have followed the right formulas and quoted the right scriptures, attending the right church and read the right books, listening to the right preacher... but, the formulas have not worked for them and they have still found themselves suffering the pain of tragedy. We need to let them know that it is often simply because we live in a fallen world where things do not always work as they should or how we think they should or how we want them to work. Fact is, in this life, have to tread some paths not easily traveled and walk some roads paved in tears and blood and the agony of human suffering.

Lazarus was loved by Jesus and yet he is sick and fighting for his very life. Mary and Martha did the only thing they knew to do; that is, they sent world, thus they prayed, to the Lord Jesus. Here we see that when crisis entered the scene, they did the right thing. Sometimes it is not always what we have done before the crisis but what we do in the crisis that matters. Mary and Martha could have thrown their hands in the air and moaned and groaned about their current situation. But no, we see them calling upon their Savior. They had no doubt seen Jesus heal the sick and knew that he could heal their brother.

It is imperative for us to realize that sometimes trouble comes to us regardless of who we are, where we are in our relationship with the Lord, or even what we are doing at the time. Let me further add that there are times when faced with trouble, our faith may not entirely be what we would like it to be. The sisters were aware of Christ's power but for some reason felt that it was only legitimate as long as the ultimate had not happened. Death was just too big, even for Jesus. Sometimes, our faith wavers and notice that Christ did not chide them for it. [Isn't this contrary to the self righteous friend sitting by the side of Job watching him scrape the scabs off of his body with broken pieces of pottery? "Surely, YOU have done something to bring this crisis upon yourself!] Jesus amazingly and loving nudges them along toward the revelation that He is God over life and death and everything in between. That is exactly what Christ was saying to them when he uttered the words: "I am the resurrection and the life..." (Jn 11:25)

The story of Lazarus shows to us that prayer must be a priority. Mary and Martha had a special relationship with Christ; they were friends and therefore felt as though they had a right and special connection with Christ to call upon him in this time of tragedy. Not only were these two sisters in the right position, they also did the right thing. They reached out to the right person, their Lord and friend Jesus Christ.

Now, before we go further, I want to make a bold statement. Brace yourself here, for I am about to lay out some naked truth. I am about to give you some raw revelation.

It might actually come as a surprise to some people these days, but God's agenda and our agenda are not always the same! Sometimes, just sometimes, God might just have another idea—another plan might be in the works that we cannot see or immediately apprehend. It is no doubt that Mary and Martha were sincere in their prayer and they were convinced that Jesus could heal their brother. But, Christ had an agenda of his own, which unfortunately included their discomfort, but would ultimately bring glory to God.

Oh the implications of such in our own lives! We, the curators of God's promises. This shows that we are not the ones in control. Although we have been given, as Peter says, "...exceeding great and precious promises..." (2 Peter 1:4), it is not up to us regarding the how and when God chooses to administer these promises. We live according to God's timetable and exist within the sphere of God's sovereignty. Discretion is still God's prerogative! No doubt, it was Christ's intent and therefore will to heal Lazarus. But, the ultimate plan was unknown to Mary and Martha. We must learn to trust God even when we do not understand or see what we think we should or desire to see. God does not operate according to our ideas or the job description we have created for him.

Thus, with all this in mind, let's understand that although prayer moves the heart of God, we often pray without a full understanding of God's will. Jesus knew that this sickness was not an end for his friend but that he was going to use this tragedy to show to his friends and disciples the glory of God. Our comfort is not always God's number one priority! This can be difficult for us to grasp. However, we must also realize that our ultimate good and fulfillment is to be found in the Glory of God being manifested in us and sometimes, yes, sometimes, through our suffering. When the bible says God has exalted his Word above his very name, it means that God's glory is the highest object of the divine and not always our personal and immediate comfort or even our temporal well-being. This is exactly what happened here. Mary and Martha suffered. Lazarus died. But, all this human suffering u provided the stage upon which the glory of God, the power of Christ—even over the enemy of death, was revealed.

In all this, it is also important for us to recognize that emotion is a natural response to tragedy. We live in a macho masculine dominated culture where emotion is weakness and crying is for sissies. But listen, Christ cried (Jn 11:35). He unabashedly unashamedly cried. In many ways, we have bought into this macho, no pain feeling mentality within Christianity, to our own detriment. Never admit weakness, never allow yourself to appear needy. In so doing we totally ignore the dynamic of Christ body, where Paul said, "[b]ear one another's burdens..." (Ga 6:2, NRSV) James tells us to
"confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another..." (James 5:16, NRSV) I am grateful of this portrait of a Savior showing emotion.

Pain hurts, and it is okay to grieve. It is not healthy to hold grief inside. Often, when we do, I can assure you , it will find a way out somehow and when we have suppressed our feelings and hid our true self, when it does finally break to the surface it probably will not do so in a constructive manner.

If we can not be who we really are in the church, pray tell me where can we be real? The church should be a haven of safety for us when we are hurting and where we can remove the mask society forces us to wear and be real with ourselves, others, and real with the Lord. We have nothing to gain by stifling the natural grief process that the Lord has created within us. It does not mean that our faith is weak. Here, Christ knew what he was about to do and that this would bring great applause from those now sorrowful, yet, he took time to feel, to be touched with the feelings of our infirmities (He 4:15) knowing that humans in crisis can not always see the greater good or peer behind the veil of divine sovereignty.

Next, we see that perseverance pays off. When a crisis invades our lives, we often do not want to wait it out. We want to get out of the trouble as soon as possible. Notice that although it was within Christ's power to alleviate their pain simply by speaking the word of healing, yet, he chose not too. He waited an entire two whole days before leaving to go to them. This was a painful forty-eight hours of grief and sorrow!

Listen to this: sometimes the only way out of a storm is to ride it out. We naturally look for exits when God wants us to persevere within the struggle so that his glory can be revealed in us. One day Lazurus was alive, then he was dead. Four days later he lived again. Allot can happen in a week with the Lord! Remember, God has his own timetable.

"And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us." (Rom 5:3-5, NRSV)

If you have not understood anything thus far, please, understand this: I am convinced that many people within the church have suffered the loss of passion in their relationship with the Lord because of things that have happened in their lives that they do not fully comprehend. Notice t hat Mary did not immediately go out to meet Jesus like Martha did. In fact, she did not go at all until Christ beckoned for her to come. When she got there we hear the subtle indictment in her statement, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." (John 11:21,NRSV)

Mary did not greet Jesus as he entered into her home as he had no doubt often done. She was not worried about his weary feet this day; no concern for the burden of the shadow of the cross that she could plainly perceive. Remember, she had washed his feet with her tears and dried them with her hair (according to some traditions). No, in pain and personal grief, she simply said "if you had been here my brother would not have died." Mary lost her passion because of the pain of this loss.

Was Mary's thinking right? No. But, did Christ rebuke her harshly? No. We live in a hard world of suffering and pain. Often, even the church can be a place of controversy and hurting where men and women fight for their very existence. Maybe the current decline in spiritual fervor and passion in the church is not always because people do not love God but because they fail to fully understand that God can take all this tragedy and turn it into triumph. It is more than a cliche'. He can heal our hurts and pains and cause us once again to burn with holy passion!

As the prophet Habakkuk said:

I hear, and I tremble within; my lips quiver at the sound. Rottenness enters into my bones, and my steps tremble beneath me. I wait quietly for the day of calamity to come upon the people who attack us. Trust and Joy in the Midst of Trouble. Though the fig tree does not blossom, and no fruit is on the vines; though the produce of the olive fails, and the fields yield no food; though the flock is cut off from the fold, and there is no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will exult in the God of my salvation. God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, and makes me tread upon the heights. To the leader: with stringed instruments. (Hab 3:16-19, NRSV)

There is no doubt that God uses disaster for his Glory. Many times suffering will bring out the best in human character and integrity. Throughout human history there are countless examples of men and women who exhibited amazing strength and character in the midst of great conflict and crisis.

God did not cause the horrible bus accident in Kentucky that fateful day when 27 children and three adults lost their lives. But God surely has used this accident for his glory. Countless stories of unbelievable human love and forgiveness has been the result of this accident. Not to mention that the US has safer laws today because these parents took their grief and worked to see to it that this may never happen again.

So, what does all this mean for us? It helps us see that there is nothing too big for the Lord! No crisis too big, no sickness too devastating, no cut too deep or pain too harsh. Jesus can heal the worst of cases and bring glory to God. This helps us when we are tempted to blame God for tragedy. "Lord, if you had only been here..." I propose, however, that he was there all along. He knew what was going on and although we can not see God or feel his presence at times, we know that he is still there. Christ knew exactly what was happening in Bethany that fateful day when Lazarus breathed his final breath. Death did not take Jesus by surprise nor was he intimidated by it.

Listen to the resolve in his voice as he says, "I am resurrection and life." No earthly king dare utter these words. Yet, Jesus standing before Pilate says: "my kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom was of this world, my disciples would have made a good fight to keep me out of the hands of the Jews. But my kingdom is not here." (Jn 18:36) We might not always see God's power or intent. But remember, Christ kingdom is spiritual and as of yet, not entirely visible to the natural eye.

Watch intently as Christ commands the stone to be removed. Hear him cry with a thundering voice, a voice as of many waters, that echoed into the silence of the grave and ripped Lazarus from the grip of death, destruction, and decay! "[T]he dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live." (John 5:25, NRSV)

He was sleeping, Jesus said. What he was saying, in essence was this: in light of who I am and what I can do, it is not as bad as it seems! This is a truth that we all can lay ahold of and claim for ourselves!

Lastly, God changes lives through crisis. Notice the people whose lives were forever changed. Mary and Martha were never the same. Lazarus was forever changed. The Jews that were there to witness this miraculous event were no doubt changed as well. The disciples were changed.

Through tragedy and crisis, we become stronger than we would have ever become otherwise. How scared of sickness and death do you think Lazarus was after this incident? Many times people will come to know the Lord through our crisis. Look at the case of the man in Ohio that lost all his daughters in that bus accident. He has traveled all over the nation preaching the gospel out of his loss an seen countless thousands of people come to know the Lord out of his tragedy. This might not set well with some of us and our ideas about God, but it is often where we live.

In conclusion, I end with this quote from Spurgeon's Morning and Evening Devotions for March 4, entitled "My grace is sufficient for thee," based upon 2 Cor 12:9:

"If none of God's saints were poor and tried, we should not know half so well the consolations of divine grace. When we find the wanderer who has not where to lay his head, who yet can say, "Still will I trust in the Lord;" when we see the pauper starving on bread and water, who still glories in Jesus; when we see the bereaved widow overwhelmed in affliction, and yet having faith in Christ, oh! what honor it reflects on the gospel. God's grace is illustrated and magnified in the poverty and trials of believers.

Saints bear up under every discouragement, believing that all things work together for good, and that out of apparent evils a real blessing shall ultimately spring--that their God will either work a deliverance for them speedily or most assuredly support them in trouble, as long as he is please to keep them in it. This patience of the saints proves the power of divine grace. There is a lighthouse out at sea: it is a calm night--I can not tell whether it will stand. So with the Spirit's work: if it were not on many occasions surrounded with tempestuous waters, we should not know how firm and secure it was. The master-works of God are those men who stand in the midst of difficulties, steadfast, unmovable."

Dealing with Trouble

2010-06-16T00:29:00.004-04:00

After these things and these acts of faithfulness, King Sennacherib of Assyria came and invaded Judah and encamped against the fortified cities, thinking to win them for himself.
2 When Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib had come and intended to fight against Jerusalem,
3 he planned with his officers and his warriors to stop the flow of the springs that were outside the city; and they helped him.
4 A great many people were gathered, and they stopped all the springs and the wadi that flowed through the land, saying, "Why should the Assyrian kings come and find water in abundance?"
5 Hezekiah set to work resolutely and built up the entire wall that was broken down, and raised towers on it, and outside it he built another wall; he also strengthened the Millo in the city of David, and made weapons and shields in abundance.
6 He appointed combat commanders over the people, and gathered them together to him in the square at the gate of the city and spoke encouragingly to them, saying,
7 "Be strong and of good courage. Do not be afraid or dismayed before the king of Assyria and all the horde that is with him; for there is one greater with us than with him.
8 With him is an arm of flesh; but with us is the Lord our God, to help us and to fight our battles." The people were encouraged by the words of King Hezekiah of Judah.
2 Chron 32:1-8, NRSV

Over the past several days, I have had the above scripture on my mind as I've meditated on the inevitability of trouble and crisis in life. It's a passage I've turned to often and I am sure I've blogged about it in the past. But, it is one of those that I think bears repeating.

I wish trouble was not inevitable and that I could somehow find a solution that would enable me to avoid it 100% of the time. Unfortunately, it simply is not that easy. Sometimes we think that if we do everything right, crossing all our "t's" and dotting all our "i's", then we can avoid difficulty in life. But, crisis is indiscriminate, and while I do agree that we often bring allot of problems upon ourselves, adversity in life is absolutely unavoidable no matter how attentive and astute we live. Jesus, himself, told us this:

I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.
John 16:33, ESV

In our lives, trouble and suffering will always loom upon the horizon. They are inevitable simply because we are human and because we live in an imperfect world. The presence of difficulties in and of themselves do not imply anything negative about us. The important thing, however, is how we deal with crisis when it comes. Thankfully God does not leave us to our own devices and the story before us can teach us allot about how to conduct ourselves in the difficult times of life.

Before we go any further, let's just take a moment to look at the fix that Hezekiah was in. He was facing a formidable foe; the Assyrians were an imposing force and known throughout that region of the world to be fierce and cruel opponents in battle. They had already conquered over 40 fortified cities in Judah and their King, Sennacherib, set his sights upon Jerusalem to take it for himself.

Now, in the natural, Judah was no match for Sennacherib. Hezekiah and his kingdom stood no chance of defeating Assyria. The threat was real and imposing. In comparison, we often find ourselves in bad situations that are outside of our control and for which we are no match. Health issues, financial and family crisis will often arise in our lives for which we are ill prepared, in the natural, to overcome.

Another issue we see here is that crisis came upon Hezekiah at a time when he was doing everything right. With the exception of a few bad decisions, his life and rule was exemplary. He inherited a kingdom that was steeped in idolatry and wickedness. Ahaz, Hezekiah's father, had led the kingdom of Judah away from God and the negative effects of this was widespread throughout Judah when Hezekiah became king.

Refusing to follow in his father's footsteps, Hezekiah ascended the throne of his father and began the hard work of restoring the rule of righteousness in the land, leading the people back to God. He reopened the temple, which had been desecrated and locked during the reign of his father. He reactivated the priesthood, liturgical and choral worship, as well as the passover observance. At the time of this siege by Sennacherib, Hezekiah was, in essence, doing everything right.

Accordingly, we often find ourselves in the very same situation. We are doing everything right and living our lives in as godly a manner as we know how, and all of a sudden crisis raises its ugly head and we find ourselves facing an enemy that is too big for us. How we respond to this will have a direct impact on our success in dealing with these struggles.

It is very important for us to understand the universality of suffering so that we do not take it so personally. This is not the easiest thing to do; its hard to take when its your family, your finances, or your church that is being assailed. But, Paul tells us that "[n]o testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone..." (1 Cor 10:13, NRSV) The word "testing" here can be interpreted as adversity. We may feel like the world is against us and that we are the only person who has faced what we are facing, but this simply is not true.

The steps Hezekiah took are illustrative of what we can do when times of trouble come upon us. So, let's take a look at these steps and how they enabled him to succeed in this crisis.

While not recorded in this rendition of the story, a companion text in 2 Kings 19 tells us that Hezekiah went into the temple and tore his clothes and sent word to the prophet Isaiah. Essentially, what he was doing by asking for the prophet was crying out for a word from God. This is by the far the most important thing we can do when we face adversity. I can tell you everything is going to be okay, pat you on the back and assure you I am praying for you. I can speak words of comfort to you and try my best to help you. But, nothing will suffice like a word from the Lord spoken to our hearts at the right time. All hell can assail us but when God tells us, as he did Hezekiah through the prophet, that everything is going to be okay, it will be okay. Turning to God in crisis is the single most important thing we can do.

Then we pick up the story in the text above and see that he did not isolate himself but rather took council with key people in his administration in an effort to develop a strategy for success. This is often the opposite of what we do when problems arise. It is so easy to become self-consumed and isolate ourselves, to our own detriment. We fail to recognize the wisdom of wise counsel. Solomon, in Proverbs, tells us that "in an abundance of counselors there is safety." (Prov 11:14, NRSV) In Ecclesiastes 4:11-12, further adds to this idea of the safety in counsel, "if two lie together, they keep warm; but how can one keep warm alone? And though one might prevail against another, two will withstand one. A threefold cord is not quickly broken." (Eccl 4:11-12, NRSV) In times of trouble, the worst thing we can do is isolate ourselves and refuse to reach out to others for help.

Notice also who he took counsel with. These were men who not only could help him make wise decisions, but also men who were intricately involved in the crisis, whose lives would be directly affected by the outcome. It is important that we recognize people in our lives who we can share our struggles with and trust them to give us godly counsel. We do not need to indiscriminately divulge our every problem to anyone willing to listen. Not everyone will have our best interest at heart. And, we all know people who we are very careful not to ask them "how they are doing" because they will inadvertently tell anyone and everyone who will listen about their problems. This is not what the scriptures are saying, but rather taking counsel with wise men and women who have the wisdom and spiritual discernment to aid us in our struggles is another very important thing to do in a time of crisis.

The next decision Hezekiah made was to dry up the spring of Gihon outside the city walls and divert the water to within the city. He had constructed an extraordinary aqueduct system to accomplish just this task, perhaps in preparation for a siege such as this. The principle here is that if Sennacherib was going to besiege Jerusalem, Hezekiah was not going to make it easy for him.

This is an extremely important point as well. We can not stockpile the enemy's munitions pile and expect to win the war. This is a principle the US has failed to recognize many times. We sell and distribute weapons to foreign powers and find ourselves facing those very same weapons in war some time down the road. While crisis is inevitable, we can mitigate it by being careful to do the right things and take the appropriate steps to ensure our success.

One of the ways in which we actually help our enemy in crisis is how we talk about our situation. Being negative and speaking words of defeat only adds to our trouble. Once again, the Preacher of Wisdom tells us that "[d]eath and life are in the power of the tongue" (Prov 18:21, NRSV) The words we speak can be lethal. Conversely, they can also be powerful weapons for overcoming our enemy. Additionally, keeping guard over our speech can aid us in maintaining a proper attitude, which is so critical when facing difficulty. All this translates into a refusal to cooperate with the enemy in crisis. It is one thing to face difficult times, its quite another thing to help perpetuate these times by failing to keep a reign upon our speech and attitude.

Hezekiah then began to repair the defenses of the city. He wanted Sennacherib to face a fully fortified city when he arrived. So, he set about repairing the broken places in the walls and rebuilding the towers. To me, this equates to doing things that are fundamental to the health and well being of our spiritual lives. Things such reading our bibles, maintaining a regular practice of devotion and prayer, being consistent in our church attendance and giving, and continually investing in the lives of the people that are important to us.

When we find ourselves in trouble it is so easy to become consumed by it and to neglect the important people and things in our lives. Trouble can be a very formidable opponent because it is designed to cripple us by diverting our attention away from the things that can help us. But, we have to recognize the folly in this and take the necessary steps to ensure that we concentrate on the essential and fundamental aspects of our Christian existence.

Next, Hezekiah began to prepare the people for an offensive. He directed the people to make shields and weapons and he appointed combat leaders to lead the people in battle. We can not simply lie down and passively accept defeat. Sure, our enemy is formidable, and in natural, defeat or failure may appear to be inevitable. This was definitely the case with Hezekiah. But, he determined that he was not going to go down without a fight. This is consistent with Paul's language in Ephesians, "...take up the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to withstand on that evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand therefore..." (Eph 6:13-14, NRSV) We must ultimately recognize that the battle is the Lord's, but we must do our part in resisting the enemy.

Lastly, Hezekiah assembled the people and comforted them, directing them to the source of their strength. He told them to trust in the Lord. Ultimately, God will win the battle. We may face things that are too big for us and our efforts may appear to be inadequate, but our cooperation will enable God to rise up in our lives and defeat our enemies just as He did for Hezekiah and the people of Jerusalem. The angel of the Lord went into the camp of Assyria and killed 185,000 men. Sennacherib left Judah and upon returning home, he was assassinated by his own people. God's intervention was unmistakable, just as it will be in our lives.

If we do our part, he is faithful to do his. We can count on him! God will defend us and will take care of us. Our success is guaranteed if we are careful to do the things that we can, thereby cooperating with God and helping to create an atmosphere and environment where God can rise up on our behalf and defeat our enemies.

New Page Added to Site!

2010-06-14T21:21:00.000-04:00

A new Book Review page has been added. The book reviews included (only one is added so far) on this page will be linked to my library at Goodreads. Check the page often as reviews will be added periodically.

Book Review: Lee Stobel's Case for Intelligent Design

2010-06-13T22:30:00.002-04:00

Our Sunday school class recently began reading Lee Strobel's book, The Case for a Creator, and watching a DVD based upon the book. I just completed the book and it has been completely fascinating. Strobel is a gifted author and in this area, he appears to be very proficient; although, I must admit that I am somewhat ill prepared to attest to the veracity of all of his claims. All I can say is that from a layman's perspective, he makes some very compelling arguments.

We all have our areas of interest and science has never been one of mine. Consequently, over the years, I have intentionally shied away from debates over creationism, evolution, intelligent design, etc, not because I thought they were unimportant but simply because I lacked the interest/motivation to develop enough understanding of the subject to enter the debate. I must admit, however, that Strobel has brought these issues to life for me and I am amazed at the body of evidence (as presented by Strobel, which is admittedly somewhat one-sided), from a scientific and rationale point of view, that support the scriptural idea of creation/design and the very existence of God.

These have never been points of contention for me because I have always seen them within the context of faith and as such, never needed the witness of science or reason to verify what I believed. It is good, however, to know that these truths are supported by an appeal to reason and are scientifically plausible. With this said, I was really surprised to read this statement made by Dr. William Lane Craig in the closing words of chapter 5:

"But I think it is indisputable truth that there has never been a time in history when the hard evidence of science was more confirmatory of belief in God than today." (p. 151)

Upon reading this, my mind immediately went to the first chapter of Romans. This chapter begins as a powerful introduction to the doctrinal treatise that is to follow. He states in verse 16 that the good news (gospel) about Jesus Christ embodies the very power of God and is the vehicle through which God's salvific intervention and purpose is accomplished in the world.

What follows is a depiction of the wrath of God and it is here that the text has become problematic for me over the years. It is not because I do not think that God is capable of displaying displeasure or anger, but I've found it difficult to reconcile the idea that everything that can be known of God, or in other words, everything that is important for man to know about God, is visible in the external world. As a result of humanity's access to this knowledge, the whole of mankind is guilty and therefore without excuse. Let's look at what he says exactly:

Rom 1:18-20
8 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of those who by their wickedness suppress the truth.
19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.
20 Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made. So they are without excuse; (NRSV)

Over the years, upon this reading and reflecting upon this passage, I've immediately found myself arguing with Paul, considering a hypothetical fourth world aborigine with no access to the gospel whatsoever, who would be condemned by Paul's logic. I am going to argue later that this is not actually what Paul is saying here, but I have thought this myself and happen to know that there are many people who accept this interpretation.

While I agree that the transcendence of God is clearly visible within the Universe, I do not believe that people can arrive at salvation solely through observation and that to fail to recognize this is reason for condemnation. Because of this controversy in my mind, I have chosen to lay aside what Paul says here as being inconsistent with the overall message of salvation contained within the entire biblical record.

Obviously, many people who take a high view of scripture with its appeal to infallibility, inspiration and the such like will find my hermeneutical decision to be heretical. But since I am not a fundamentalist with literalist leanings and because I have some Universalist tendencies and believe that a critical approach to scripture will often lead one to make some uncomfortable observations about what its authors say, I have been fine with my decision.

After reading much of what Strobel says about Intelligent Design and the fallacies of evolution, however, I have returned to this section of Romans 1 and believe that I have come to a better understanding of what Paul is saying . I am sure this is common knowledge for many, but it really has been revelation to me. So, let me take a few moments of your time to share with you what I think God has shown me about the scriptures I quoted above.

The idea that Paul is indicting all people for ignoring God--who is clearly visible in the external world--is wrong. To put it bluntly, this just seems unfair to me because while God, in general terms, may be visible in the created order, it does not mean that all people have the necessary tools to arrive at a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ simply by observing the natural world. What I missed here, however, is the statement that Paul makes in v.18 while identifying the class of people upon whom the wrath of God will be revealed. It is those who suppress the truth of God.

This is a far cry from the aborigine who has never heard of Jesus Christ. I agree that there is an indictment here, but this is not a universal indictment upon humanity for ignorance. The idea here is best understood in legal terms. For instance, a district attorney who has in his/her possession evidence that proves the innocence of a defendant they've brought to trial but refuse to reveal this evidence, is a prime example of those who suppress the truth. Paul is saying that there are people who are aware of the reality of God but are unwilling to acknowledge this reality and not only that, but they actively suppress this knowledge.

While I do not want to spend much time debating the merits of Intelligent Design over Evolution, I do think this arena serves as a prime modern day example of what Paul is decrying in this passage. There is sufficient evidence through a scientific understanding of the properties of the Universe to argue in favor of God: a super-mind, the ultimate architect. In particular, according to Stobel, the past fifty years of scientific research across a broad spectrum of disciplines (cosmology, physics, biology, biochemistry, etc) has yielded a tremendous amount of evidence consistent with Paul's claim that the invisible God is seen in the visible universe. Yet, much of the scientific community not only rejects this, but actually proposes theories and ideas that are less logical and requires more faith than a belief in the possibility of God.

Strobel records a quote at the beginning of chapter 8 that illustrates the attitude of many atheistic/agnostic scientist:

We should reject, as a matter of principle, the substitution of intelligent design for the dialogue of chance and necessity; be we must concede that there are presently no detailed Darwinian accounts of the evolution of any biochemical system, only a variety of wishful speculations. (Biochemist Franklin M. Harold, p.239)

This is the attitude of suppression that I think Paul is addressing. Science is supposed to be concerned with the truth, regardless of where that truth leads. But there appears to be this overarching motivation within much of the scientific community to dispel any gravitation towards a divine explanation of the nature of the universe and a willingness to embrace naturalistic materialism regardless of how absurd its conclusions may be. It is reminiscent of another quote in Strobel's book:

"Faith does not imply a closed, but an open mind. Quite the opposite of blindness, faith appreciates the vast spiritual realities that materialist overlook by getting trapped in the purely physical." (Sir John Templeton, p. 341)

The unwillingness to accept any validity in a God Hypothesis keeps them trapped in a purely physical and mostly illogical world of explanations, since much of the design visible in the Universe can not be adequately explained without an appeal to divine order. The degree of precision in the order of the universe makes the ideas of natural selection and random chance a millions times more dubious than an appeal to a Creator. Instead, much of science is waiting for some yet to be discovered corroborative evidence that will someday permanently remove God out of the picture, which is more unlikely now than ever. The more we know about the universe, the more we realize the vastness of what we do not know and to explain it outside of an appeal to design is more and more fraught with difficulties.

The paralells between Paul's description of an aggressive atheism in the latter portion of Roman's 1 and what we see within modern day science is staggering. Besides aggressively suppressing the truth, they are said to know God but unwilling to honor him. They refuse to retain God in their knowledge, embracing the creature rather than the creator. The portrait and parallels between what Paul is saying and what is going on in the scientific debate over the design of the universe is so relevant and clear.

In conclusion, I recommend Stobel's book to anyone interested in the evolution/creation debate. Stobel is not a traditional creationist, and for that I am grateful. He believes in a Big Bang and that creation took place over a long period of time, yet a very small amount relative to the age of the earth. Accordingly, Strobel is not a young earth creationist either. Strobel's case for Intelligent Design comes purely from a scientific perspective, appealing to the authority of various scientific disciplines and experts within these fields. There is a fair treatment of dissenting opinions, although indirectly. No one who is opposed to IS was interviewed in the book.

While I did not agree with all of Strobel's claims or theories, I did come away from the experience feeling good about what I believe. As previously stated, my religious/spiritual beliefs have always been constructed primarily upon faith and as such, I do not necessarily need scientific agreement. But it feels good to know that reasonable proof is out there, acknowledged by many scientist who are not Christians themselves. It has also been good to recapture a portion of scripture that I have long been unable to reconcile with my overall understanding of grace and redemption. This is a book that I am sure will be a part of my library for many years to come. If any of you have read the book, I would love to hear your feelings about it, whether positive or negative.

The Fruit of the Spirit: Incarnational Displays of the Divine

2010-06-09T00:00:00.003-04:00

At our church, we are in the process of studying the Fruit of the Spirit, recorded by the Apostle Paul in Galatians chapter 5.

²³"...the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control." (vs. 22-23)

Over the past several weeks our Pastor has led us through a study of each of these fruit, defining them, discussing their respective qualities, as well as their practical application, relating them to various biblical stories and/or passages where they are clearly visible.

This series has been interesting, challenging, and above all, thought provoking. It has led my wife and I to re-examine our lives in light of these fruit, honestly appraising the extent to which we exhibit them in our lives as a whole. I'd be less than honest if I said that I've not suffered some deep conviction through this process, realizing that in many areas of my life, as it relates to these virtues, there's just so much room for improvement.

During this study, I have spent allot of time in the fifth chapter of Galatians seeking to better apprehend what Paul is saying. Therein, Paul brilliantly constructs two poles, diametric opposites forever locked in enmity against one another. On the one side, there is what I do--works of the flesh; on the other side there is what God does--fruit of the Spirit. There's no ambiguity in his language. The works of the flesh are those things that are inherent to unredeemed humanity with its total lack of capacity to please God. Here, I am reminded of what Paul said in Romans 7:18 as he reflects upon his understanding of this enmity present in his very own humanity, admitting that in his flesh there was nothing good, absolutely no redeemable qualities.

I think this leads us to the most fundamental consideration that we must observe when reflecting upon the Fruit of the Spirit; that is, it is the Fruit of the Spirit. These are characteristics that are not native to our unregenerate nature. We do not arrive at these dispositional ideals simply by means of spiritual maturity. Now, I certainly do not want to discredit the importance of spiritual development, but there is a supernatural quality inherent to this Fruit that must not be overlooked. Take patience, for instance. It may logically follow that the more we practice patience, the more patient we will become. And, there is a great a great deal of truth to this. However, this correlation is only one side of the equation. Another side, and one that I think is often overlooked, is that regardless of how long we've been a Christian, the kind of patience that Paul is talking about is not a natural part of our human composition. In contrast, it is a part of God's divine nature. And this leads us to a conclusion that is extremely important for us to understand: that is, the only way we can truly experience these virtues is through the act of surrender.

To qualify this, Paul frames his discussion of the Spirit's Fruit by commending to us the sovereignty of God (be led by the Spirit) on one side, and the virtues of crucifixion on the other. Both are analogous of surrender. The reason why this is so important is that the Fruit of the Spirit are incarnational in nature. The idea is that through God's grace we can reflect these virtues, inherently divine, and this can only occur as we surrender ourselves to God. In other words, these Fruit are His, and their occurrence within us, their quality and durability, is in direct proportion to the depth of and consistency of our willingness to surrender.

The God kind of patience, joy, peace, etc, is beyond us. But, in surrender, the potentiality of these Fruit being incarnated within our lives is equally as great at any point along the trajectory of our spiritual development, subject only to the act of surrender. And, this surrender is not a one time event. We must daily make this decision to lay aside our fleshy inclinations and allow God's spirit to vivify, to animate our faith and declare these virtues to the world around us.

As previously stated, I do not want to discredit the correlation between spiritual maturity and these Fruit, because naturally, the more we surrender, the more normal it will become. Hopefully, the longer we stay on the Cross, the more we will be willing to remain there. There is truth in this humanistic approach, but it is not the entire truth. There is a dynamic dimension in which God inserts Himself into our human existence, proportionate to human acquiescence, wherein His nature becomes ours.

Fundamentally, the Fruit are His and in so much as they occur within us, they are incarnational: visible evidences of God's Spirit animating our spirit and doing in us what we can not do for ourselves, which is in essence, the very heart of incarnation. Once again, we are speaking of what God does. His kind of faithfulness, His kind of peace, displayed within the context of our humanness; something occurring within us which is not natural, nor a normal part of our native human constitution. It is, as Paul states in Colossians, God in us... (1:27)

The presence of these ambrosial characteristics in our lives are visual evidences of our participation in God's divine nature. Just as Jesus, in the language of the author of Hebrews, was “the reflection of God's glory and exact imprint of God's very being” (He. 1:3), in like manner, we have the potential through the Spirit to reflect God's character in the world. Through this, the world experiences the love of the God, the patience of God, the peace of God, et al., through us. The Fruit of the Spirit are reflections of God in tangible reality. Just as the Logos (Word) of John's gospel became flesh and dwelt among us (Jn 1:14), we are incarnational extensions of Christ, verified by the work of God's Spirit accomplishing through us that which we, alone, are incapable of doing.

Since these fruit are incarnational, it is imperative that we take a top down approach toward the fruit of the Spirit. A humanistic bottom up approach will not suffice (it is not what we do, but what he does through us). Sure, we see these qualities modeled everyday through people who make no particular confession of faith, but this is solely a product of the divine spark, the image of God from which all humanity has its origin. Anything good or perfect is from above, according to James (James 1:17). However, without being in proper relationship to the originator of these qualities, they can be experienced only in a small way and their effects upon the world will be minimal. To have these qualities in their fullest capacity is to have Christ in all of his fullness, which is possible only through the work of the Holy Spirit who takes that which is of God and applies it within us and through us.

This revelation allows us to understand that cultivating the fruit of the Spirit within our lives is not simply practicing some external characteristics or trying to measure up to a particular standard, but it is rather the experience of allowing God to live in us and through us. Having been created in the image of God, the potentiality of being like God exist within us in embryonic form prior to our conversion, but our conversion begins the limitless metamorphosis wherein we are becoming more like God in every aspect of our being. Therefore, it is the reality of this treasure that we have in our earthen vessels (2 Cor 4:7), for the purpose of more than our own personal enrichment, but ultimately affording for the enrichment of all those who come into our sphere of influence.

To further illustrate, the divine Christ was not displayed to the world for the sole benefit of God himself. Those who beheld him were moved so far beyond the simple awe of having seen God in the flesh. On the contrary, the beauty of it all was that they were touched by and through his qualities; those needing joy were touched by joy unspeakable; those needing peace were touched by peace that passes understanding, and so on. We, through the power of the Spirit, pregnant with these qualities, become Christ to those in our spheres of influence. These fruit enable us to bring God into the world around us.

Consenquently, they are not just measurements whereby we gauge our personal spiritual development. As previously stated, our capacity to bear these fruit is not solely the product of practice and spiritual maturity, but it is only through the vehicle of spiritual surrender. The shadow of the cross in the only environment for the development of these fruit. The "Father forgive them for they know not what they are doing" (Lk 23:34) is compelled by the surrender of the cross. It is the casting aside of our own inadequacies and the taking upon ourselves the very divine nature of God. It is not abstract, not simply spiritual language, but it is the exhibition of these divine attributes that encompasses all that the world longs for and needs.

In conclusion, it really is true that we are the only Jesus that many in the world will ever know. And, what they need, is a genuine encounter with the fruit of Christ, his genuine character. We, through the power of God's spirit can become that for them, as we surrender ourselves to God and allow his character to become ours. Rather than measurements for maturity, these fruit will become the incarnational realities through which the very needs of those around us are met. May God help us to surrender and take upon ourselves His nature through which we can be ministers of God's grace to those in our world.

The Eucharist and Me: A Journey of Discovery

2010-05-31T11:45:00.021-04:00

Our family recently returned to the United Methodist Church. My wife and I were both raised in Pentecostal churches but left it ten years ago and made our home in the UMC. A year ago, for various reasons, Shery and I made a deliberate decision to return to the Pentecostal church in an attempt to reconnect with our former heritage. While it was a wonderful experience in many respects, it was largely unsuccessful and in many ways, a defining one. While all churches participate in some form of liturgy, the formal and sacred quality of mainline liturgy has become an irreducible part of our worship expectations.

Yesterday, we experienced Communion for the first time since our return to the UMC. Over the year in which we attended Pentecostal churches, Communion was observed very little. Ten years ago when we first attended a mainline church, Communion was what drew us in. It was unlike anything my wife and I had ever experienced. The beauty of the language and the sacredness in which it was approached was entirely new to us. It was very moving, to say the least. Going an entire year without that left us feeling empty and wanting more. So, as you can imagine, the experience yesterday was tremendously refreshing.

As one might suspect, my understanding of the importance and primacy of the Eucharist within Christian worship and tradition has been progressive. I remember returning home after partaking of Communion in a Methodist church that first time and being overwhelmed with a sense of Christ's presence as well as being slightly confused as to how I could of attended church practically my entire life without ever being touched in this way. This inspired me to begin looking at Communion as a whole in an effort to see what I had missed, or what my faith tradition up to that time had failed to give me.

Coming up in the Pentecostal church, Communion was a very irregular part of our worship. At most, we would celebrate it two to three times a year. Most notably, I remember New Year's Eve services where we would bring in the New Year with Communion. While this was always a solemn and worshipful experience, overall, my feeling about Communion and its place within Christian worship was ambivalent at best. Since it had never been a consistent part of my worship experience, I never saw it as an essential duty or obligation but an observance that resided on the periphery and therefore, of minimal consequence. I am sure had you asked me about this at the time, I would not have characterized it in this way, but in practice, its omission was extremely obvious.

While it was largely unspoken, there was this feeling that there was something very "Catholic" about the practice of Communion. As a result, the liturgy (or lack of) and language of Communion was practiced in such as a way as to make a distinction between how we (as Pentecostals) observed it and how Catholics and others whose view was akin to theirs observed it. In fact, the very idea of it being a mere observance, rather than a pivotal Christian experience through which the very grace and presence of God is communicated to the participants, was a prevalent mentality. It was something that we simply did, rather than an expression of who we were. This is a very important distinction.

Obviously, there is huge gulf between those who take a perfunctory approach toward Communion and those who, in the language of Vatican II, see it as the "source and summit of the Christian life." In my studies, I was very amazed to find that the majority of Christians in the world take the latter view. The relegation of Communion to the periphery of Christian worship is a relatively recent phenomenon having its origins in a post Reformation climate. Many of the groups today who practice Communion in an irregular fashion do so in contradiction to the overwhelming majority of Christian history. One need only to take a cursory look at the sustained history of the Christian church, from its humble beginnings to its present day practice, to see that the Eucharistic celebration has always had a central place in Christian worship. And so it should.

It is this very fact, that Communion finds its origin in the directives of Christ as well as a continuity of practice from the time of the Apostles to the present age, that gives its practice an unparalleled sacredness. In the Eucharistic experience, we join the momentum of the universal and diverse body of believes who over the last two thousand years have partaken of this transcendent and irreducible fundament of Christian faith and worship. When I partake of the body and blood of Christ within its intended social setting, I am standing alongside all those who through the ages have proclaimed the Lord's death and subsequent resurrection and the hope of His return. I am participating in a memorial instituted by none other than Jesus Himself.

Of all the variations of Christian worship and all the things we can change or do away with, the Eucharistic meal is non-negotiable. It truly is the most fundamentally Christian thing we can do in worship. Christ presence has been consistently perceived and experience through the institution of Communion, making it a certainty. While we may experience God through singing or readings or in many of the liturgical elements of our respective traditions, there is a universal expectation that Christ is present in the Eucharist, when approached reverently and with anticipation. The presence of Christ in all its conferring grace is the wonder of the sacrament.

Jesus told us to do it in remembrance of him, proclaiming his death until he returns. This serves a dual purpose. First, it helps remind of of God's salvific intervention in the world through the life and death of the man Jesus Christ. As we partake of the body and blood of Jesus, we are reminded of that pivotal historical 'Christ-event' (a term originally thought to of been coined by John Knox) where God was in Christ, on the cross, removing the enmity between us and Himself through Christ's giving of himself in surrender to God in ransom for the sins of the whole world.

Secondly, and equally as important, the sacrament is for the purpose of reminding God himself of Christ's sacrifice. It is the building of a memorial before God. Joachim Jeremias, author of a classic study on the Eucharist, draws an obvious parallel between the Eucharist and the memorial meals of Palestinian Judaism. Dealing with this idea of remembrance, he asks who is to be reminded of Jesus? He said that it is less likely to be the disciples and more probably God himself. Through the act of Communion, the sacrifice of Jesus is being pleaded before God in the hope that it might hasten the consummation of the kingdom which Jesus inaugurated. [John Macquarrie, Jesus Christ in Modern Thought, pp. 67-8] Jeremias further adds that "God's remembrance is never a simple remembering of something, but always an effecting and creating event." [The Eucharistic Words of Jesus, pp. 251-2]

To put this another way, Geoffrey Wainwright says "[t]he eucharist is a dominically instituted memorial rite which, not only serving to remind men but being performed before God, is sacrificial at least in so far as it recalls before God with thanksgiving that one sacrifice, and prays for the continuing benefits of that sacrifice to be granted now." [Eucharist and Eschatology, p.67] In the sacrament of Communion we are cooperating with Christ for the purpose of ushering in the kingdom for which Christ body was broken and his blood shed. We are proclaiming the new covenant in his blood. There is so much more to this than a simple act of remembrance but the very grace and intent of God is being defined and communicated through this Eucharistic worship.

My understanding and appreciation of this mystical meal is ongoing. As I was humbled by the presence of Christ in Communion yesterday, I once again pondered its significance and what it meant to me. It confirmed for me that I am where I am supposed to be as far as my local community of faith is concerned, which is something that has eluded me for quite some time. It moved my spirit, making me aware that God is ever present in my life. The Eucharistic meal conferred upon me the awareness and assurance of Christ's presence in my family and life and I am so blessed and grateful for it.

The Church and the Social Gospel

2010-03-14T17:22:00.005-04:00

Glenn Beck, radio and television talk show host, has always been controversial. He thrives on it. I am not a fan and I think I will leave it at that. My personal opinions of the man and his overall ideology is better left unsaid. And, I hardly have the time today, so that is another incentive to keep my mouth shut at this time. I would, however, like to touch on a subject that has created much controversy over recent days. Mr. Beck encouraged people attending churches that used the term social or economic justice to leave and find another church. He also equated social/economic justice to socialism, etc.

After steaming about this for a week now, and joining every "anti-Beck" group I could find on Facebook, I have had time for the initial indignation to subside and to really think about this problem. Unfortunately, Beck's sentiment is wide spread, and even Christians are very divided on the issue of social justice and what role the church should play in addressing the woes of society. There are two scriptures that come to my mind that address this very issue and I think they are very important in helping us to reflect upon our place in the world as people of faith. And really, that is what the core argument is all about to me. What part should the church or person of faith play in addressing the social and economic evils present in our world?

The first scripture is found in the epistle of James. In chapter 2, James speaks of a person entering the church who is obviously in need. Faced with this situation, the people of the church can pat the person on the back and speak meaningless words of encouragement or they can actually take the person and minister to his or her immanent needs: clothing, hunger, etc. Over the years, I have heard this principle derived from this scripture: you must first meet a person's physical needs before you can minister to their spiritual needs. I must admit that I have thought the very same thing. While I do think it is a worthwhile logic, I do not think this is what is being said here.

As a Western thinker and one who holds certain notions about the value of our free enterprise system, it is obvious to see how easy it is to allow these ideas to affect our reading of scripture. My mind, conditioned as it is to think that hard work pays off , naturally assumes that if this person James was talking about had worked hard, he or she would inevitably be able to care for themselves. But, James makes no such judgment. There is no indication that this person is in need due to anything they themselves have done.

James is speaking to the church, explaining what its disposition should be toward those who are less fortunate. Jesus, himself, said that the poor will always be with you. While the social gospel seeks to eliminate such, there will always be a portion of the world's population who are much less fortunate than others. And, no matter how studious they are or how hard they work, they will likely never rise above poverty.

So, what does that mean for us as Christians today? Should we simply bow out of the fight because it is not winnable? Should we do as Beck advises and shun anything relating to social or economic justice? Should we simply accept a capitalist doctrine and judge the entire world by our own standard of living; a standard of living that is apparently given to us because of "in God we trust" (note, sarcasm)? In my opinion, the answer is a resounding "NO!"

This leads me to the second scripture that I think is applicable here. Jesus, in Matthew 25, gave us the parable of the sheep and goats. The setting is that of judgment and the criterion of judgment is altruism. Jesus says that we will be judged on our attitude towards and our actions on behalf of those less fortunate that ourselves. This makes our response toward those less fortunate than ourselves, in social and economic terms, all the more important. In light of this scripture, I believe that legitimate faith must be involved in the plight of others. Hence, it must be a gospel that is both socially and economically inclined.

No matter how the critics phrase it, we can not absolve ourselves of our moral and spiritual responsibility to help and reach out to others who are in need. One thing that impresses me about Christ is that he reached out to those in need within his society. Those people, living on the margins of his day were the very people whom Christ befriended and touched. Even the early days of the Christian movement itself shows that it was a movement of outcast, comprised of those people on the fringes of society who clearly needed help and the hope of a better future.

Whether or not we will ever enact the physical kingdom of God on earth is irrelevant. Our investment in others, those people less fortunate than ourselves, is in fact, the very heart of the gospel. Sure, it may not mesh with capitalist ideology or the principles of free enterprise. But, it meshes with the very heart of the gospel. Label it however you wish, but it does not nor will it ever erase the heart of the Jesus' message and ministry. We are called, as people of faith, to minister and meet the needs of the human race, many of whom are hurting, naked, in prison, and lacking the basic necessities of mere existence. How could we do anything but oppose a system that rewards the rich by allowing them to get richer and shuns those less fortunate? If our gospel has no social and economic ramifications, then I highly doubt it has anything in common with the good news of Christ--who came to preach glad tidings to the poor!

The work of spiritual recovery

2010-01-23T16:51:00.010-05:00

The act of spiritual recovery can be a daunting challenge at times. Some time ago, I realized that my perceptions of God and religion had become nothing more than clinical exercises that left me feeling lost and spiritually destitute. It was not a pleasant admission to say the least. Personal introspection and honestly appraising one's catalog of ideas and the beliefs that direct your spiritual journey can be a most unpleasant task.

I would like to say that the solution to this problem is to simply return to the place where we last felt right. Of course, as with most spiritual problems, it is not always that easy. Our spiritual journey can not be measured in snapshots. The balance of experience, circumstances, education, acculturation, etc, all work together to make us who we are and who we are becoming. The narrative of our spiritual lives must stand as written, no matter how tempting it is to discard certain chapters and rewrite the story in a way that makes it more palatable to us in retrospect.

One example of this can be found in what is a common experience for many people. I was raised in a very small rural community in eastern NC. Coming up, I was a proud country boy and the very idea of living in any city was repulsive to me. I thought I would be content to remain in that small community for the rest of my life. Then life happened and through a series of events that could not have been anticipated, I found myself, at the tender age of 18, in a little apartment right in the middle of Ft. Wayne, Indiana; a city of about 180,000 people at the time. This country boy quickly became a city slicker and to this day (24 years later), I do not like rural communities. I am an urbanite through and through.

Over the years, there have been times when I romanticized about simpler times and wondered how my life might have been different had I never made a connection with a different way of living. But, try as I may, I have never been able to reconnect with that country boy again. Sure, there have been times when I returned and enjoyed the atmosphere, catching up with old acquaintances and remembering the good ole days. But the few times that I've returned to live in the region have been complete disasters. I was simply not happy and overcome with the absolute conviction that I would never be happy there again.

During the course of my life, fundamental changes have taken place in me. Who I was is not who I am today and who I am today is not who I will be in the future. I take all of my experience into tomorrow, both good and bad. This is not to say that I am adrift and at the mercy of life's currents to take me wherever it chooses. But when I sit down to appraise my life and attempt change, I can not deny the host of experiences that have brought me to where I am at any given moment.

As I have pondered these things, on the surface, I have had some difficulty in reconciling them biblically. One can not read the bible without recognizing that there is this ideal of being returned to a former state. In fact, one can argue that the central theme in the entire narrative of scripture can be summed up as the story of man's estrangement from God because of sin and the rediscovery of this relationship through Jesus.

Everything between these poles are illustrations and examples of these extremes. The history of Israel bears testament to this truth over and over again. One minute they are walking with God and oftentimes, before we can even turn the page they have forgotten Him and are lost. This duality of good and bad saturates the entire narrative of scripture.

Literature is one of my favorite subjects. One thing I've come to understand is that while a given story may have an overarching theme, there is usually allot more behind that theme that is not readily apparent or easily grasped. Yet it is these nuances that give the story its richness. In fact, that is what usually separates a literary masterpiece from a common book. There are layers upon layers of ideas and truth that are not perceived by a mere casual read. So it is, in my opinion, with scripture as it relates to this idea of returning to a former state.

Let's look at several examples in which Israel illustrates this point. One such example can be found in the fact the the people who left Egypt through God's divine intervention were not the same people who would later conquer and inhabit much of Canaan. As a matter of fact, the very person who God selected to be their deliverer was not the same person who lead them into their destiny. Then, the Israel, united under David and who prospered in unparalleled fashion under Solomon were later divided and have never fully reunited to this day.

One more example in Israel's history serves to illustrate this point more fully. The Jews who returned to Palestine from Babylonian/Persian captivity were forever changed. Sure, they rebuilt the city of Jerusalem and the temple, but even this was much different than its former state. Haggai, the prophet, recounts this difference in the story of the second temple's dedication (Hag 2). The old men, those who had seen and worshiped at the temple built by Solomon, wept when they saw the finished product of the rebuilt temple. Its glory and stature did not match their perception of the former temple. At the same time, the young men, not able to make such judgments, rejoiced at the work of their hands.

Historically, many of the ideas of religion within the Jewish community were forever altered by Babylonian, Persian, and later Hellenistic influence. One can easily trace many ideas as well as the creation of certain religious groups during the time of Christ to these factors. While the idea of returning to a former state is prominent in scripture, the very narrative itself bears out that this spiritual journey between the aforementioned poles has the power to change, for better or for worse.

How does all this relate to the work of spiritual recovery that I spoke of in the beginning? For almost a year now, I have tried to recapture passion for God and to appraise my understanding and place in this world as it relates to Him. Obviously, to those around me, there have been times when I've been more successful at this than others. During this time, I've seen more fully the fallacies of my own thinking. I understand that I created a God that fit my evolutionary journey from what I considered ignorance to enlightenment. The clinical God of my own making was easy to approach and contain. But, obviously, this God was a God without power and thus, incapable of affecting my life in any way. Perhaps, that is what I wanted...

As the pendulum swings, I've been back to where I used to be. I was raised in a classical Pentecostal church, preached as a revivalist for a good number of years and served as a pastor in this setting. Part of me wanted to believe that if I would just return to that and reconnect with who I used to be, everything would just come flooding back and I would somehow feel complete. And, there have been times when I felt so inclined and attempted to do so, but even this has failed to recapture anything of lasting value to me.

If I dwelt here I would have to simply quit and admit defeat. But, there is one scripture that brings me great consolation, arguably written by the Apostle John, late in the first century C.E.

"My loved ones, now we are the children of God, and at present it is not clear what we are to be. We are certain that at his revelation we will be like him; for we will see him as he is." (1 John 3:2, BBE)

There is always this desire to return to familiar ground. However, the more I work at this discovery endeavor, I am beginning to understand that where I have been is not where I am going to find and experience God today. The opposite poles of a clinical approach to God on one hand and the familiar yet troubling classical Pentecostal approach on the other are mere distractions. Fact is, my spiritual journey is just that. It started the day I took my first breath and will continue until I take my last. I do not want to spend my life looking back at some benchmark or landmark as the ideal for which I am seeking. Nor do I want to be so fully preoccupied with the future that I can never be content with where I am today.

Is not that John's point in the scripture I quoted above? We are God's children, now. With all our flaws and evolving ideas, who we've been and who we are becoming... We are God's children in the present. What it will look like and who we will be in the future is a mystery. Everyone around us has ideas of what they think it is going to look like or should look like. We are constantly bearing the scrutiny of others who want to judge us based on snapshots of today. But, as stated earlier, one's spiritual journey can not be measured by snapshots.

So, in closing, I seek to temper these two states for which the Apostle Paul serves as an example:

"Brothers, it is clear to me that I have not come to that knowledge; but one thing I do, letting go those things which are past, and stretching out to the things which are before... "(Phil 3:13)

and

"But by the grace of God, I am what I am; and his grace which was
given to me has not been for nothing..." (1 Cor 15:10)

The balance between who I have been and who I am becoming is delicate and often difficult to maintain. But, I am confident that God is able to finish what he started (Phil.1:6). And, I am confident that no one, especially me, has any clue what it will all look like in the end. But, He does and in that, I can rest!

Marriage: Is love enough?

2009-06-04T11:31:00.011-04:00

I wasn't going to write today. It's been a rough week, both physically and otherwise. But, I feel compelled to write something that has been on my mind all morning. There is a scripture in Ephesians where Paul is admonishing couples. Let's look at it real quick:

25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; 26 That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, 27 That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. 28 So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. 29 For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church: 30 For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. 31 For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. 32 This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church. 33 Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband.
Eph 5:24-33 (KJV)

Before I go further, let me just say that I am not a marriage expert. In fact, I am the exact opposite! So, what I write can be taken any way you choose, but it's more for me today that I write.

Paul begins his admonition here with a statement (one that I did not include) about women submitting to their husbands and that the man is the head of the wife. Now, I am not going to deal with that part at all because the weightier matter is before us. Husbands, love your wives. Now, why did he say that? Love your wives? This instruction to love your wife is repeated numerous times in the canon of writings ascribed to Paul. I remember reading this one time and thinking, if a man has to be told to love his wife, he has a serious problem. Love is the very foundation of marriage, is it not?

I think the reason why Paul is saying this is that love is not a given in marriage, it never has been. During his time, marriage was a commodity, the most prestigious women saved for the men with the most to offer. How could you love something that you possess, own, so to speak? But, Paul is introducing a new paradigm; a new way of seeing marriage. Let's not forget the context here. He is speaking to the woman and her place in marriage as he understood it in the first century C.E. And in many ways, even this was a revolutionary concept. However, we must understand that it was constructed in a different day and time when a man's love for his wife was conditional at best and non-existent at worse.

What is more revolutionary, though, was that he tells these men in Ephesus to love their wives as Christ loved the church. This is where I want to shift gears a little, because, I think if Paul had been writing this in the 21st century, with all the emphasis on equality and the advent of feminism and women's rights, etc, I think he would have told both man and woman to love to each other in this way. Fact is, marriage today, won't work any other way. Oh, you might stay together, but life is going to happen and bad things are going happen and your going to one day have to make a decision whether or not your going to love your spouse in this "Christ loved the church way."

I know; this not pleasant. See, Paul defines what this love is all about: "even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it." Sacrifice! "Oh, but you don't know what he did, or what she did!" Christ hung on the cross and looked down at people who were cursing and hating and hurting him, and he cried, "forgive them for they don't know what their doing." In that moment, he showed us what the ingredient of a good marriage really is; that is, a love that is willing to look past the obvious and see a person that you simply love. A person that you love enough that you would give all you could to see them become everything they were meant to be.

I'm not talking about victimization; that kind of stuff happens between two people where love is not present. My wife, years ago, when we first got together, told me that she would know who the right guy was when he spoke her name and it made her feel like she did when God spoke her name. I was sitting there and thinking, I don't have a chance! Then it dawned on me, there is only really one way that that could ever happen. It was if God's voice was speaking through the man. Unfortunately, its taken me eight years to even begin to get it right!

You can't love this way naturally. I don't care how long you've been married, how much you think you love your spouse and that your meant to be together for all time and eternity, there is going to come a time when your going to be called upon to forgive and to love and give yourself to the other in a way that is vulnerable and uncomfortable, to the point of being willing to sacrifice even your own right to be angry. Hmm... that's a hard one!

And, just for a bigger kick in the pants (mine), the minute you think your justified in taking vengeance, your going to be the perpetrator and that special someone is going to have love you like Christ loved the church. Your going to look back at what was done to you and it's going to pale in comparison and your going to to need this same kind of love...

You know, you always hear that scripture quoted, "love covers a multitude of sins." But, no one really believes that anymore, right? I mean, you do to me, I do to you. You hurt me, I hurt you. I think the most horrible job in the world would be to a sitting judge in divorce court. All that hate and vileness oozing out all over the place. What a toxic place to be.

Marriage is the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. In fact, I've been married, essentially, for the past 22 years, but I never really understood what the work of marriage was all about--until recently. Today, I am married to someone that I love. (there's a period at the end of that sentence for a reason). Over the years, in ministry and in other settings, I've learned that a good marriage never means the absence of life shattering, earth shaking problems. No! It's what the two do when these things happen. Notice that I said when, not if. Mostly, we tuck our tails between our legs and we run and nurse our own wounds and we quit. And sometimes, yeah, that's appropriate; sometimes there is just nothing else to do, because it's takes two people loving this way to make a good marriage, a lasting marriage.

It would be enough if Paul stopped there. Most of us have enough trouble with step one. But, he doesn't, does he? He goes on to say that the the purpose of this kind of love is so that the other person can become all they are meant to be and be presented before the Lord blameless, exonerated from all wrongs. Oh my, have you done something to the person you love that you knew you simply couldn't take back? I have, and man does it hurt. When you can look at the woman that you love and see the hurt and the betrayal that she feels...

What does Christ do for the church, besides sacrifice? He stops the assignment of blame! He takes our sin and weaknesses and the things we've done wrong to our God and others, and he cancels the debt. You see, now, how important it really is that God be an integral part of any marriage? You can't do this kind of work, this kind of love, in yourself. You will fall and crash and burn and wither and die if you try to do this in your own power. But, just as God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, so it is that Christ is in us, and if we let him, he really can heal our marriages, tear downs the walls that have separated us in our own homes, our bedrooms...

And let me just state something here: I need this kind of love everyday. If you and I can't love our spouses or significant others in this way in the little things, we will never ever make it past the big problems of life. You say, well, I love this person, I would never hurt them! Never, say that! Most of us go into marriage with hope that our marriage will be different....

I would like to say that Paul was done and we could close this out, but he went further. He said that you needed to love one another in such a way that is consistent with how much you love yourself. Now, this is a problem, but here I don't think the emphasis is on love as much as it is on nurture, nourishment. Oh my! We're about to hit a nerve here. See, I give myself a whole lot more latitude than I give others. We can violate some one's trust and if they don't know about it.... but, let them do the same....

What Paul is saying here is that you have to give the other person grace in the same manner as you give yourself. Now, he's not saying that its okay to perpetrate wrongs upon the other person purposefully. What I think he is saying is that when your spouse sins against you, consider yourself first before you react.

Lastly, Paul borrows an Old Testament metaphor and he says that a genuine marriage, operating in the love of God, is a joining together of two distinct separate persons into a single being. You can't live in the same room with the other person for long without love. But, joined at the hip, it takes more than just human love and satisfaction, things, and... it takes an infusion of God's love operating in each and thus, making them one.

You would think that we would have it all together by now. Marriage seminars, books and audio cd's and everything you can imagine is out there to affirm and make our marriages better. Some work and some don't. But, I can assure you, that if you and I can let the love of God flow through us and into the life of the other person, then we'll be successful.

You say, Chris, this is self serving. Your marriage is coming out of troubled waters and your... Yes! Absolutely; a million times, yes! I said in the beginning, I was writing more for me. I need that kind of love from my wife. I need that kind of love for my wife. Love by itself has never been enough, and it never will be. Those of us who have been working at this for a while know that our love is self-serving and blind to the need of the other at times. But, God's love--in me--will always behoove me to consider my wife, Shery, no matter what. It will cover her so that her blemishes (and we all have them) are never seen, by me or the outside world...

May God help, bless, and keep our marriages!

BUT!

2009-06-03T08:17:00.006-04:00

The narrative of Jacob, the Old Testament patriarch, has always fascinated me. He is a dichotomy, almost a contradiction, all wrapped up in one person. He falls within the chosen line, his patriarchal succession is forever established, and his people are actually named after him (after God changed his name to Israel- Ge. 32; more on that in a moment).

That name, Jacob, only furthers the obvious contraction within this man. Names were more important back in the time when Jacob was born. Most of us are familiar with the negative connotations of Jacob's name; but, it actually had both a positive side as well as a negative. The Jacob we're talking about today, however, was saddled with the negative part. I think of the second (and in that day, insignificant) of two twins, who came out of the womb holding on to his brother's heel. When I hear the name, I think of the one who faked his brother's countenance and smell and took advantage of his father's senility, stealing the birthright from his own sibling. I think of the man who was a coward and ran from his brother's wrath after it was discovered what he had done. There really is nothing flattering about the early days of this man's life.

Bear with me here because we're headed somewhere this morning. The name Jacob was not necessarily fraught with negative connotations. In many cases throughout scripture, the name (when used to denote someone other than this Jacob) was associated with the a verb tense that spoke directly of God: Jacob-El, meaning God rewards. Thus, the contradiction. In this man there was both a sovereign divine blessing and alongside it, a propensity to be everything that we think of when he hear the name associated with this figure in Hebrew scriptures.

In this I find great comfort because I can relate. When I read that God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob... notice, not Israel, but Jacob. Not, the Jacob-el, the one that God rewards or the one who follows hard after to serve or protect. No! He, meaning God, is over and over again named as the God of the heel grabber, the one who follows hard after with evil intent to harm or supplant. When I see this, it actually makes me hopeful!

Step with me for a moment into the New Testament. Paul is writing to the Corinthians, and things are not well. They are arguing over stupid stuff, they have forgotten where they came from, their being childish and immature, and all kinds of evil nasty stuff is happening in the church. This first letter to them was scathing at the very least; Paul dealt decisively with their sin and the disharmony and all the negative stuff and toxic people who were being allowed to wreak havoc on this church.

What I find interesting, however, is his opening remarks to them. He is just about to wield the sword and speak some very needed and uncomfortable correction into these people's lives. But, look at how he addresses them:

2 We are writing to the church of God in Corinth, you who have been called by God to be his own holy people. He made you holy by means of Christ Jesus, just as he did all Christians everywhere—whoever calls upon the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and theirs.
1 Cor 1:2 (NLT)

Wait just a moment! The kind of sin that was permeating Corinth is of the kind that most churches never recover from. It's the kind that everyone in town knows about. This was that church; you know the one, the one everybody talks about and mostly, its true! Paul here identifies them as the church of God that was in Corinth. He wasn't talking to sinners, unredeemed, unbaptized people. He was talking to the church of God, period. In the King James, he further identifies them as the the ones who were sanctified, called aside, made holy, put back into their proper place, so to speak, in relationship with him.

This goes against the grain of Church Etiquette 101, right? Observe what Paul says to them right before he begins to levy discipline upon them:

8 He will keep you strong right up to the end, and he will keep you free from all blame on the great day when our Lord Jesus Christ returns.
9 God will surely do this for you, for he always does just what he says, and he is the one who invited you into this wonderful friendship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
1 Cor 1:8-9 (NLT)

Now, what does all this mean and how does it tie in to Jacob? Simple. We are not perfect. It really doesn't matter how long you've been in the church or been a Christian or a person of faith, fact is, we are all human. And as such, we hold within our own selves this very same dichotomy, contradiction, as Jacob's name denotes. Yet, we also hold within these earthen, imperfect (listen!) broken, untrustworthy, lost, blemished, soiled vessels, a treasure that speaks of better things than what we are or were.

I find it interesting that when Jacob wrestled with the Angel across the ford of Jabbok, his name was changed to Israel because the Angel said that he had wrestled with God and prevailed and had power with both man and God. Yet, at the very same time, he was afflicted with a hip disorder that plagued him his entire life. He limped, wasn't perfect anymore, his weaknesses and shame and affliction was all out there for everyone to see.

Here is when the "but" in my title comes in. I usually name my post after I've written them. However, this morning my wife and I were riding down the road talking about something that was rather unpleasant and uncomfortable. And, in the middle of it, I said "but....," and never really finished what I was saying. When I said that, I heard Paul writing to these very same Corinthians:

9 not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, 10 Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
1 Cor 6:9-11 (KJV)

All I could get out of my mouth was "but...," followed by, "and it's a very big BUT!" Yeah, I have been a heel grabber and a fraud and trusting me would burn you every time. I was a drug addict, an alcoholic, a fornicator, adulterer and unfaithful in every possible way. In fact, I read the list above and I find myself almost amused (cause there are just some things that you'd cry over if you didn't laugh) in some ways because because I make the whole list. It wasn't just one thing that drug me down into the pits of hell, it was all of it. Fact is, Jacob was and in many ways, still is, in my nature.

But! God, the treasure within me, the One whom Paul proclaims in another place to be rich in mercy (Eph 2:4), says that I am washed, set apart, justified, given a new name. Sure, my limp is never going to heal--here; I will always carry within me some semblance, if you will, of who I was. And, to be honest, I have resented that, because in my impatient, self-absorbed nature, when I change, by God I want you to know it. Look at me! I am new man....

As I reflect upon this semblance, this part of me that will never let me forget who I was, I begin to see why it's so important. The limp was the very grace of God in Jacob's life. It never allowed him to forget where he came from, who he was before that climactic encounter with God. I remember the void--the depths of despair and pain and I never want to be that man again. And while I would love to say that I am healed and perfect and every thing in my life and world is where it needs to be... fact is, that simply isn't the truth. There are days, hours, minutes, when Jacob rises to the surface and I am humbled by my own darkness and propensity to be someone, something, that I today, despise.

I limp, and I always will. But, it's in those times when I am blinded by my own folly, shame, and sin, and my limp is all I can see, it behooves me to remember, that He IS, and by His grace, always will be, the God of Abraham, Isaac, AND Jacob!

Christian Century (Magazine) Network Pentecost Sunday Blog Post

2009-05-31T14:35:00.002-04:00

Below you will find a list of Pentecost Sunday Blog Post included in the Christian Century (Magazine) network of Blogs., Inclusion does not indicate agreement with the philosophy or spiritual orientation of Eclectic Faith.

When Love Comes to Town - "Pentecost, Peace, and Grace."

Theolog - Donna Schaper writes about a double miracle.

I-YOUniverse - John Hamilton confesses that the Holy Spirit resides in his heart but not in his mouth.

Reflectionary - Martha Hoverson is asked to do a funeral the week before Pentecost .

Don't Eat Alone - Milton Brasher-Cunningham offers us a Pentecost poem .

Welcoming Spirit - Paula Jenkins struggles to understand the nature of the Holy Spirit.

Just Words - Ed Sunday-Winters reflects on the age of the Church. Almost 2000 years old, and yet Pentecost reminds us that the present experience of the Spirit is the locus of our power.

Unorthodoxology - David Henson: "I wonder if they still continue to speak in the tongues of men and of angels, because that is the only language they now understand."

Life and Faith - Ernesto Tinajero remembers a seminary professor who called the Holy Spirit, "Holy Breath."

Everyday Liturgy - Thomas Turner: "The Holy Spirit is more than a placeholder to complete the Trinity."

Where the Wind - Fiction by Adam Thomas: Davies writes a paper on the Holy Spirit.

Grounded and Rooted in Love - A Pentecost sermon.

Seeking Authentic Voice - Terri Pilarski reflects on Pentecost having grown up in a non-liturgical tradition.

Eclectic Faith - Christopher Keel reflects on Pentecost having been raised a Pentecostal.

Faith in Community - Diane Roth: Remembering Azusa Street.

I Thirst - Mark Hogg remembers Pentecost 2001.

Dancing on Saturday - Chad Holtz: Pentecost and the Ethiopian gospel choir."

Abandoment and hating God: What do you do when you feel that God is your greatest foe?

2009-05-28T08:48:00.007-04:00

I have never been able to relate to Jesus, the God, very well. The Jesus who steps up to a tomb and calls forth a dead man back to life is a person I find difficult to comprehend. Whether he's feeding 5000 men, women and children, picking prostitutes up off of dusty streets, healing the sick or causing blind men to see and dead men to live or forgiving sins, it is just beyond me. And, to be honest, I don't think that I would be here today if that was the only portrait of him that I see in scripture. It's not that I don't or can't believe in those things, because I can and do. But, intimately, I need a Savior with a bit more vulnerability so that I can trust that he understands and knows what I am going through.

So, when I think of Jesus, the portrait that comes to mind the most is that of a man, who starts out from Pilate's condemnation, carrying his own cross. Notice how John puts it:

So they took Jesus and led him away.
17 Carrying the cross by himself, Jesus went to the place called Skull Hill (in Hebrew, Golgotha).

John 19:16-17 (NLT, emphasis added)

We wouldn't know this if it wasn't for the other men's renditions of the story, but both Matthew and Luke (and we'll ignore Mark with it's questionable ending for a moment) both name a man, a Cyrene (North Africa), named Simon, who was in Jerusalem that day, obviously there to observe the Passover. Because of the severe beating and loss of blood that Jesus endured, he falters and stumbles along that cobble stone path to Golgotha. Most likely being tapped on the shoulder with a Roman spear, Simon was compelled to lift the heavy beam off of Jesus' back and carry it to its final destination.

It is this portrait that comes to mind the most when I reflect upon Jesus and who he is. I can relate to that; I have stumbled myself many times under the weight of that cross, not being able to take another step forward without help.

As I was praying this morning, I began to read Psalms 22; we all should know it well. It starts out with that harrowing cry that Jesus made on the cross when he said:

1 My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
Psalms 22:1 (KJV)

I read these words and as I did, I realized why the portrait of the suffering Savior is so appealing to me. And it's found in the above words. "Why, Why have you forsaken me?" For all my changing and getting clean and opening my heart once again to truths I had long abandoned, I realized that I was still crying those same words. Abandonment is a powerful thing. It can leave you destitute and lost, with little recourse to help yourself.

Let's listen to the Psalmist further, cause it really is an embodiment of the opening words of this chapter; that is, what it meant for David/Jesus to feel forsaken:

why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?
2 O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent. [...] 6 But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people.
7 All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, 8 He trusted on the LORD that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him. [...] 12 Many bulls have compassed me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round.
13 They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion.
14 I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels.
15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death.
16 For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.
17 I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me.
18 They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.

Psalms 22:1a-2, 6-8, 12-17 (KJV)

Hear the anguish in these words interspersed throughout this chapter (there are others but this is enough to illustrate my point)? Allow me please, some latitude as I paraphrase some of these sayings. "Why are you not helping me?" Ever felt that way? I have! "Why are you so far from my crying?" The King James here uses the word roaring. Every time I read that, my mind goes immediately to the Garden of Gethsemane and I hear Jesus roaring, "If it be your will let this cup pass from me..." You don't bleed through your pores without allot of anguish!

"I cry to you day and night and you don't hear me." Translation: you might as well be a million miles away! "My plight brings pleasure to those who would harm me. I am despised and a reproach and men laugh at me and they hate me and no one wants to see me succeed. Look at him, he's pathetic. He cries to his God, but, let us see if his God will come. If you are a/the Son of God, take your own self off the cross--or let your God do it. Maybe then we'll believe in you.

"I am surrounded by dangerous animals!" Usually during Roman crucifixions, four Roman soldiers would box the condemned in and lead him to his death. This is the portrait here that David paints. "They've hurt me! Torn my flesh like roaring lions, my bones are dislodged and I am poured out like water upon the ground. My heart melts and my bowels (emotions) are rotting within me. I hurt!

I have no strength; I can no longer help myself. My jaws ache and my tongue cleaves to the roof of my mouth;" I can't pray anymore. "Dogs compass me about; men and women want to devour me and use me and throw me away." Incidentally, I've often wondered if Jesus looked down from the cross and seen anyone who he had healed or touched or ministered too during his sojourn among us? Just a parenthetical side note, but an interesting thought indeed.

"They have stripped me of my vesture and here I stand, naked and alone. Everything I have of value has been stripped away and I stand before all men, naked and alone and vulnerable." What a portrait of abandonment. I hope I've not depressed you already, because listen, I'm not done yet.

Prayer has been an interesting thing for me lately. I think I understand more fully what Paul was saying when he said that the Holy Spirit helps our infirmities, helping us pray with groaning/utterances which "can not be expressed in words." (Romans 8:26b, NLT) It really feels like I have not bowed for so long that when I do, all I can do is cry. So, there I am praying early this morning, crying again and not really able to express anything but remorse. And then He quickens my mind and I reach for my bible and open it to this chapter.

All of sudden, He spoke. (Let me just answer a critic that is reading this post today. If you can no longer believe in a God that can speak to the heart of man, then you need to fall on your face and ask God to once again show you who He is.) "Chris, you really need to let it go; you need forgive Me." Oh, I was shocked, almost horrified! "Oh, no, surely, I didn't hear that one right. I need to forgive my grandfather and my grandmother for never calling back before she died and colleagues who watched me crash and burn and wagged their finger at me with no consideration for their own vulnerability." All I can say here is,"Oh God, help me please!"

Every morning, most of the day, I bask in His mercy and love. I write these blogs and I feel good about where I am. But, all of sudden, I realized that what He said was true, and it humbled me beyond anything that you can imagine. All my life, at least from the moment I felt called to the ministry and then exploited by the very same church that should have nurtured and directed that call, I have felt lost, on that cross alongside my Savior, crying "why have you forsaken me..." I have faltered and been bowed down in shame under the weight of my calling and cross... and I realized this morning that I have despised God for it...

I understand now why I fought so hard to make myself believe that He really did not exist, at least as I had been taught to believe in Him. It was because I felt abandoned and forsaken. "You lead me to this cross; you put this burden upon me! All You've done is make a spectacle out of me before all who have ever known me. My addictions and failures and pain have all made me a laughing stock before the dogs and people who hate me and wish me nothing but harm. My cries, whether early in the morning or late at night, have all been ignored... and here I sit, with no recourse to help myself. I am broken and hurting and lost and you've been there watching me suffer, as if it pleased you to bruise me... How much more of me can be spilled upon the ground? My God, why have you forsake me?"

You say, "Chris, don't say these things! How arrogant of you to be angry at God!" But, you see, when I hear David and Jesus cry these words, I feel anger, pain, and loss. But, what I realized this morning is that I've never ever been able to make that transition from "why have you forsaken me" to "it is finished!" All the sermons I've preached over the years, prayers I've prayed over hurting people... I was able to comfort others, but myself, I could not save. While the Cross is an ongoing experience in the life of the Christian, it's death is meant to bring life and peace and satisfaction. And while I've always known that, it has never penetrated my heart.

I resisted; I got up from where I was kneeling and I began to walk and tell Him how sorry I was and that I forgive this person and that person and this church and this Bishop and this colleague... My wife and I were talking some time ago and we were discussing forgiveness. See, the people that I hate the most, and I have to own those feelings, are dead and buried and I can't get to them. I can't tell them what they did to me and how they hurt me. My lovely wife, a woman strong in spirit and discernment, told me that those people had stood before God and that God had let them know what they had done... As much as I despise them, I truly believe that they are in heaven, resting in God today. I know what my wife was saying and I believed it to be true, whether or not I wanted to hear it at the time or not.

In an instant, the Holy Spirit spoke to me again, almost ignoring what I was saying. "If you forgive Me, it will take care of them." Oh! "How can you say that to me? How can you be their eternal habitation? Didn't you see what they did to me? They're dogs and bulls and they compassed me about to harm and devour me...." Then came His reply, and I knew it well: "Father forgave them because they didn't know what they were doing...." They know now; they've seen me struggle and seen my pain in a different way; God the Father wiping their tears....

I struggle to bring this to a conclusion today. Tears stain my cheek and fall to the floor as I ponder these truths. The cross: the greatest instrument of torture in my life, that place where I have grown comfortable, accustomed to its pain and hurt and destruction. It's been a familiar place; its laments have been my life's overarching theme. But, I hear God today as I have never heard Him, and I forgive Him. Even as I write these words, I feel a release that I have never felt before. Sure, he didn't really do anything wrong, but I thought he did. Did Jesus really feel forsaken? Absolutely!

As I prayed with my wife last night, I mentioned the picture in Genesis 1 where its says the Spirit hovered over the deep: the expanse of destruction and nothingness. God spoke and the Spirit created. "Let there be light!" Thee Holy Spirit flung the sun, moon, and stars into the heavens. "Let there be dry land!" The Holy Spirit brushed back the waters and made land appear. I feel like I am that expanse of nothingness and He is making me anew, over, doing something in me that I've never known.

I hasten to close; listen, as I draw this to a conclusion, with the other words of this chapter that I did not quote above:

But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.
4 Our fathers trusted in thee: they trusted, and thou didst deliver them.
5 They cried unto thee, and were delivered: they trusted in thee, and were not confounded. [...] 9 But thou art he that took me out of the womb: thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother's breasts.
10 I was cast upon thee from the womb: thou art my God from my mother's belly.
11 Be not far from me; for trouble is near; for there is none to help. [...] 19 But be not thou far from me, O LORD: O my strength, haste thee to help me.
20 Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the power of the dog.
21 Save me from the lion's mouth: for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns.
22 I will declare thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee.
23 Ye that fear the LORD, praise him; all ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him; and fear him, all ye the seed of Israel.
24 For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; neither hath he hid his face from him; but when he cried unto him, he heard.
25 My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation: I will pay my vows before them that fear him.
26 The meek shall eat and be satisfied: they shall praise the LORD that seek him: your heart shall live for ever.
27 All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the LORD: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee.
28 For the kingdom is the LORD'S: and he is the governor among the nations.
29 All they that be fat upon earth shall eat and worship: all they that go down to the dust shall bow before him: and none can keep alive his own soul.
30 A seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation.
31 They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this.
Psalms 22:3-5, 9-11, 19-31 (KJV, emphasis added)

Amen!

The Makings of Pentecosts

2009-05-27T15:20:00.002-04:00

Pentecost Sunday has always been a mixed bag of emotions for me. Raised in a Pentecostal church, trained theologically in Pentecostal theology, it tends to get lost in the negative feelings that I harbor today, for various reasons. Every Pentecost Sunday, however, I find it convicting because regardless of what I've made it or even what certain churches have made it, there is a valuable meaning, most of which I try, today, to derive from scripture.

Pentecost is one of the oldest feasts celebrated by the New Testament church. Its roots are mostly found in the Feast of Weeks in the Old Testament, roughly fifty days after Passover and traditionally known as the time that the law was given to Moses. That is all the history I am going to deal with but I am sure one of my more capable fellow Bloggers will give a detailed account of its progression, both biblically and traditionally. It's definitely a rich and diverse study well worth its time and attention.

But, I am going to dismiss (at least for a moment) all the tradition and history, and deal exclusively with Acts chapter 2 as we have it today. What made Pentecost? What did it ultimately mean and do for the church of the first century? I really am not concerned with all the extraneous things related to it today as we have it in our various liturgies. However, in the beginning, what was it that made that day special for those people in Jerusalem and why do we still acknowledge it today?

Jesus had ascended, the disciples were no doubt confused and doing the only thing they knew to do: what Jesus said. They gathered together in this room and they began to pray. I wonder what they prayed? Ever consider that? Jewish prayers? I mean, surely there were no Book of Common Prayers, Methodist hymnals, or responsive readings going on in that room that particular day. No, I can only imagine that the prayers being lifted were impromptu prayers that one prays when everything is falling apart - the kind of prayers that one prays when his/her world has stopped turning and he/she has no clue what to do or where to go....

My heart goes out to these men and women gathered, praying, and lost in so many ways. Of course, thankfully, the story doesn't end there or we probably wouldn't be thinking about Pentecost 2000 years later. No. Jesus told them that it was expedient that He go away because another was coming. Remember? (Jn14) What did He mean by that? I can feel my theological resistance rising within me. Another? Himself in different form? A second Savior? What was He saying?

This is where I bow to that which I do not know. But, I watch, in scripture, as it speaks of a stirring. This was the remnant; 120 people left after all the thousands who had heard Jesus' voice and listened as he tried to show them a more excellent way. All those he healed, loved, and liberated; 120 were left and they were praying for what? Even they really didn't know.

Before we go any further, let me quickly identify a few ingredients that I see in that band of people on that first post Easter Pentecost Sunday. First thing I see is that they were all in the same place. Now, that might sound simple. But if one has ever been a church leader, ever tried to lead a function, chair a committee, and/or quell a controversy he/she has found out quickly that people do not naturally herd together well. That is not a harsh criticism; God made us. But, here, they were all together in the same place.

Secondly, and more amazingly, they were in one accord: unity! I wonder how many churches celebrate Pentecost where there is so much division and strife often sitting alongside one another on the very same pew? Don't answer that, please! But, seriously, they were together and in one accord. Did that mean they all knew what was going to happen? Did that mean they all understood it after it happened? I don't think so. But, what I do think it means is that they were all convinced of their need for Jesus. Here, I will turn Pentecostal for a moment: if the church is to ever recapture the energy and Divine intervention that rushed into being that day, it will and must become convinced that its only need is Jesus.

As they were doing all this, something began to happen. You see, when we loose the essence of what scripture speaks about, we replace it with liturgy, tradition, baptisms, etc., don't we? I am not saying for a moment (anyone who reads my blog regularly knows that I have no problem with these things) that these practices need to be phased out. I certainly think the locus of Church history supports much of what we traditionally do today on Pentecost. But, wouldn't it be great to have one Pentecost Sunday somewhere akin to the one here that we're considering today? Has our ideas of God and Divine become so mundane that we confine him/her to liturgy found on page so and so? Can't God do it again?

I know these are rhetorical questions, but I just can't help myself but ask. We could go on and analyze the story further and find ourselves in a quagmire of theological controversy (i.e. what are tongues and what does it mean for the church today?). I don't care about all that. However, the product of Pentecost, and I end this post with this, was that Jesus was once again proclaimed in the streets of Jerusalem. And ultimately, as a result, He was taken to the four corners of the world by these men and women who met together in one place and in one accord. That to me, is the true message of Pentecost Sunday.

May He do it again!

NA Meetings and Alabaster Jars

2009-05-27T11:30:00.011-04:00

There's a story that is recorded in Luke's gospel, chapter 7, that is best known as The Penitent Woman. It's a story that spans the entire body of the Gospel canon, and is somewhat fraught with difficulty. Matthew (26:6-13) and Mark (14:3-9) record the story but in no way indicate that she was a sinner. John (12:1-8) names her "Mary" which has created a tradition that essentially identifies this woman as Mary Magdalene (or Lazarus' sister), one not supported by any interior or extraneous proof. In each record, the host is different (Matthew- Simon the Leper; Mark- just Simon; Luke- Simon the Pharisee; John puts the story in the house of Lazarus ). Even the geographical location is inconclusive (Luke- north in Galilee; Matthew, Mark, and John place it down south in Bethany). The very body part of Jesus that this woman anointed is questionable too, because some of the Evangelist say it was His feet (Luke and John) while others claim it to be His head (Matthew and Mark).

Obviously, this story morphed a bit between the oral transmission phase and when these Evangelist actually began to write things down. Now, I know some might object and say that is not possible, right? The Holy Spirit moved men and scripture was given by complete inspiration and is therefore infallible. I don't even really want to touch that this morning (Please forgive me if that offends you). You can accept it as four different stories with four separate women and three different places; or, one story with multiple incompatible versions. You can elevate human agency in biblical literary construction; all these arguments have valid points, but let's not miss something here by arguing over what I consider to be non-essential.

I am going, therefore, to choose Luke's rendition here because it speaks volumes to me today. In fact, it has taken more than a hour for me to get past the first few sentences of this passage. So, really, there's no need for us to argue over inspiration. There is no question that the Holy Spirit, today, in the 21st century, has taken this narrative and inspired and touched my spirit and I don't care if it actually happened the Lucan way or not. So, now, with all that mess out of the way, let's look at it together:

³⁶One of the Pharisees asked Jesus^j to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee’s house and took his place at the table. ³⁷And a woman in the city, who was a sinner, having learned that he was eating in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster jar of ointment. ³⁸She stood behind him at his feet, weeping, and began to bathe his feet with her tears and to dry them with her hair. Then she continued kissing his feet and anointing them with the ointment. ³⁹Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw it, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what kind of woman this is who is touching him—that she is a sinner.” ⁴⁰Jesus spoke up and said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” “Teacher,” he replied, “speak.” ⁴¹“A certain creditor had two debtors; one owed five hundred denarii,^k and the other fifty. ⁴²When they could not pay, he canceled the debts for both of them. Now which of them will love him more?” ⁴³Simon answered, “I suppose the one for whom he canceled the greater debt.” And Jesus^l said to him, “You have judged rightly.” ⁴⁴Then turning toward the woman, he said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has bathed my feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. ⁴⁵You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not stopped kissing my feet. ⁴⁶You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. ⁴⁷Therefore, I tell you, her sins, which were many, have been forgiven; hence she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.” ⁴⁸Then he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” ⁴⁹But those who were at the table with him began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?” ⁵⁰And he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

j Gk him

k The denarius was the usual day’s wage for a laborer

l Gk he

The Holy Bible : New Revised Standard Version, Lk 7:36. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1996, c1989.

Okay, first thing I notice here is that Simon has contempt for Jesus. You might object. I mean, if he was contemptuous, then why bring Jesus into his house? Good question! I have no clue. But, Simon ignores common courtesy, customs well entrenched in the first century Mediterranean world. It was common to, at the very least, offer a guest water to wash his feet. In most cases, when a superior entered the home of an inferior, the host would actually wash the feet of the former himself. Simon does none of this. While we are not dealing with the other versions of the story, it was also common to offer water for one to wash their face and oil to anoint it as well. These were common practices ignored by this Pharisee.

When the immoral (perhaps she was a prostitute or married to a publican?) woman entered the house and began to touch Jesus, Simon immediately felt justified: "this man is no prophet! If he was, he would know the character of the woman touching him!" Jesus proves him wrong by revealing the secrets of his heart. "Simon, two men owed debts, one small the other large. When they both could not repay, they were both forgiven and the debt erased. Simon, who do you think was the most thankful?" (my paraphrase) Then, the Pharisee really comes out; "I suppose the one whose debt was the biggest."

Now, my wife has this discerning way about her when I am being sarcastic, even at times when I don't realize it. She'll tell me, "you got this arrogant smirk on your face." I wish I knew what that looked like; obviously I can not hide my contempt very well. Simon must of been the same way. There is "I suppose" and then there's, "I suppose......" Understand what I am saying? The narrative if full of the venom and contempt.

Let me pose a question, one that the text doesn't answer and I can't either; but, was it common for sinful women to just walk into some one's house uninvited? I can see that happening at my house! And, the moment Simon saw her, I wonder why he didn't throw her out? Think about it for a moment.... Was he trying set Jesus up? Stranger things have happened!

Poor Simon really didn't get it; but the woman did! And she is the one I want us to really see today. She walks in with a box of perfume. Luke here says that it was an alabaster jar. The perfume was no doubt expensive, one version saying it was worth 100 denarius. To put it into perspective, a denari was a typical day's wage. Next, not only was the ointment/perfume expensive, but alabaster was a precious white stone out which small vessels were made to hold precious things. So, the jar/box was precious and the perfume/ointment was as well.

She comes in, breaks the seal and begins to sits at Jesus' feet. Now, I like where Luke puts her, and I'll tell you why. Here is woman, obviously scorned and unworthy; she comes in with the most precious thing she can afford (which lends credence to the idea that she might actually have been a prostitute) and she walks up to Jesus and all she can do is sit behind him, at his feet. That isn't usually what we do when we bring our gifts to him, is it? Oh, well, she was sinner! So, am I! But, I usually stroll boldly before him and make sure that he knows what it is I am offering! "Look! Jesus, I threw out those books you didn't want me to have! I gave up drugs, immoral behaviors! I am even going to an E-V-errrrr, an Evangelical church!!!" She doesn't do this.

The portrait in the Greek is of one who is overcome with love and emotion. Sitting at His feet had such a dramatic effect on this woman! Now, this story has been used often to describe the fact that love covers a multitude of sins. If you love much, you'll be forgiven much. It's as if, love is the catalyst, the barter, if you will, for forgiveness. But, that is not what is happening here.

Zerwick comments: “The context, however, renders the interpretation just referred to almost impossible; for Our Lord goes on at once to add, ‘but he to whom less is forgiven, loves less,’ with evident reference to the parable whereby He had shown Simon that the greater mercy calls forth the greater love of gratitude…The sense demanded by the context…is ‘she loves because she is forgiven,’ and not ‘she is forgiven because she loves.’ And this is in fact the sense of the Greek expression, so long as the hoti is understood in the special causal sense which gives the reason not why the fact is so, but whereby it is known to be so”

M. Zerwick, Graecitas biblica (4th ed.; Rome, 1960). Numbers correspond to English tr., Biblical Greek (Rome, 1963) [emphasis added]

So, what is going on here? She comes in, whether she was put up to it by someone who was trying to offend or test Jesus, we will never know. But, she comes up behind Jesus as he is reclining at Simon's table. Surely, she came in with some kind of intent or desire, one that may forever be lost to us. But sitting there at his feet began to move her and she saw her neediness. That neediness lead to an internal estimation of her condition and that lead to her forgiveness. This woman was forgiven before Jesus ever opened his mouth!

I really messed up last night; when I came home my heart was so heavy. I went to an NA meeting, not because I really felt like I had too, but I just thought it might be helpful for someone else (yeah, I am an arrogant expletive!). While there, the idea of God came up and the "of your own understanding" of any 12 step program was discussed and I don't know, the ugly old cynic just came flooding to the surface. I know what "higher power" means. God knows I wouldn't be here today if He wasn't with me. But, it was just that "of your own understanding" part that irritated me. No, I couldn't share my faith, but I took it upon myself to try and destroy any one's notion of God that did not mesh with what I thought was logical.

My argument? If I can understand God, he is not big enough to fix my problems. I understand addiction and drugs and alcoholism and all that stuff. But if something/someone is big enough to help me, then He is going to have to be bigger than my intelligence. And don't assault my sensibilities by saying that I can choose a rock or a door knob or a scratching post; oh, the arrogance! If a doorknob could help me beat my addictions don't you think I'd of been anointing and praying to door knobs everywhere? I would be praying to every tree or rock... no, if I can touch it, see it, taste it, it can't help me!

Don't you think for a minute that I didn't sit there and bite my tongue and shift in my seat and almost got up and walked out without even saying a word. But, no, there again, not my nature; I am a loud mouth idiot who has to get his point across and have the last word in most cases (even if I don't even really believe what I am saying: argue simply for argument's sake!), and I did. And let me tell you, for a moment, it felt good. But, when I got done, looking at the faces of the men and women sitting there who may not of been able to accept my idea of God (as if I even tried to define that!), I immediately heard Jesus speak, "you deny Me before men, I will deny you before my Father." (Matthew 10:33; my paraphrase) I was and am so ashamed!

Did I ever step into that one! I went home under conviction. I went to bed with it, and I woke up with it. I can only imagine that it was the Holy Spirit that quickened this story to my mind and as I sat down to do my ritual blog. I opened this passage of scripture, and the portrait of this woman sitting at the Master's feet, somehow stirred my spirit. I feel sorry for those whose faith has no passion. I've been there, and I know what it feels like. Never, again, do I want to be left to my own devices, my own intellect, to figure things out and somehow make them right.

I mentioned earlier that it took me more than an hour to get to where I could begin to think about writing about this passage. Why? Because I saw myself in this woman. Waking this morning and putting my feet on the floor and going through the motions of the daily rituals, knowing that I had hurt my Savior the night before, was almost more than I could take. I sat down at this computer thinking, I will make it right, with my alabaster jar and precious ointment in my hands. And then, all my thoughts and intellect, sensibilities, were overwhelmed by this portrait of a woman, an immoral woman, who met Jesus where she could: at his feet!

"Jesus! I have a gift for you today! Let me offer to you this talent or that. I am going to clean my house for your glory; I am going to love my wife and my children today!" The more I tried to stand upright and meet Him face to face, the more and more I realized that I could do nothing more than what this immoral woman did: sit at his feet. You know, sometimes being at His feet is the most beautiful, comforting place you can be.

This woman is filled with forgiveness and as such, her tears begin to overflow and she wipes her tears away with her hair, essentially washing his feet. He didn't even have to say a word to me this morning. It wasn't my talents, my business, my devotion to family and friends that He wanted. As I sat there and cried alongside this woman, the alabaster jar of my heart was broken and repentance and "I'm sorry" flowed out with overwhelming passion. I truly was and am so sorry!

I don't care what the Simon's of the world do. I've been there, done that, got the tee-shirt and I couldn't disdain a faith perspective any less. I can admit that I don't understand. All I know, is that I was forgiven so much, and in return, I love much! No longer can I meet Him face to face; I find comfort at His feet, my tears staining His skin.

What does this mean for you today? May you know His forgiveness, love, and compassion. May you realize today that He doesn't need your talents or anything, but your heart. May you, just as I, find comfort and solace at His feet. The man/woman who is forgiven much, will love much. May that be true in me! May it be true in you as well!

Standing at the Gate!

2009-05-26T07:03:00.010-04:00

Surrender is a difficult thing, is it not? As a child, I remember many times singing the hymn written in 1886 by Judson W. Van DeVenter, "I Surrender All." Maybe its just a Pentecostal thing, but very few times do I remember singing that song that I did not feel the Spirit of God moving me, wooing me, speaking to me: "Surrender all, give Me everything." Surely, you remember the song:

1. All to Jesus I surrender;
All to Him I freely give;
I will ever love and trust Him,
In His presence daily live.

* Refrain:
I surrender all,
I surrender all;
All to Thee, my blessed Savior,
I surrender all.

2. All to Jesus I surrender;
Humbly at His feet I bow,
Worldly pleasures all forsaken;
Take me, Jesus, take me now.

3. All to Jesus I surrender;
Make me, Savior, wholly Thine;
Let me feel the Holy Spirit,
Truly know that Thou art mine.

4. All to Jesus I surrender;
Lord, I give myself to Thee;
Fill me with Thy love and power;
Let Thy blessing fall on me.

5. All to Jesus I surrender;
Now I feel the sacred flame.
Oh, the joy of full salvation!
Glory, glory, to His Name!!

I think of that song this morning because I stand at the precipice of something greater, something more wonderful, yet terrifying, than I have ever known. My wife, lover, and companion spoke that into my spirit last night, and I knew, as the old timers used to say, deep down in my "knower" [sic] that what she said was true. I am not one to run rabbit trails but I am learning that my greatest asset and the one who can move my spirit the most, by His power, is my beautiful wife. I could write a book on the intricacies and all the things that fascinate me and intrigue me about that woman; all I can say today, however, is that I am one blessed man!

The whole time we were talking and reflecting, my mind was wandering off to a scripture that I had read, even preached, numerous times over the years. Jeremiah 6:14:

They have also healed the hurt of My people slightly, Saying, 'Peace, peace!' When there is no peace. (NKJV)

It is kind of odd because Jeremiah says the very same thing again, in the 8th chapter. This is obviously the time of the prophet's early ministry; a time when he is seeing things and hearing things that he doesn't fully understand. It's difficult to date. Men with more expertise than I have wrestled with the problem and the only consensus that seems to prevail is that Jeremiah began to speak sometime after the death of Josiah (639-608), a righteous man who fell in battle at Megiddo, and the eleven year reign of Jehoiachim (608-597). The important thing to note, however, is the state of the people. They had turned from righteousness to gross immorality and sin. God raises this prophet up to decry the injustices being perpetrated by the people upon a benevolent and compassionate God who simply did not deserve their disobedience or insolence. Sound familiar? It should; this is not the first time they had been there nor would it be the last, unfortunately.

While looking at these two parallel scriptures, I noticed something that had never really drawn my attention before. Chapters 7-11 are believed to be oracular fragments, inserted (perhaps late) to fully describe the state of the people, and presumably, to justify the utter destruction and calamity that would later befall them. Chapter seven caught my attention most. Listen for moment:

1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD:
2 Stand in the gate of the LORD's house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the LORD, all you people of Judah, you that enter these gates to worship the LORD.
3 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways and your doings, and let me dwell with you in this place.
4 Do not trust in these deceptive words: "This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD."
5 For if you truly amend your ways and your doings, if you truly act justly one with another,
6 if you do not oppress the alien, the orphan, and the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own hurt,
7 then I will dwell with you in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your ancestors forever and ever.
8 Here you are, trusting in deceptive words to no avail.
9 Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known,
10 and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, "We are safe!"--only to go on doing all these abominations?
11 Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your sight? You know, I too am watching, says the LORD.

Jer 7:1-11 (NRSV)

Sometimes, I feel sorry for Jeremiah. He's been known as the weeping prophet, the one without a single convert, the unpatriotic man. Here, he is being called upon to stand in the very gate of the Temple in an unprecedented way and decry the sins of the people. Try that next Sunday! See how well it goes over. One commentator says that a practical atheism had overtaken these people. While they went through ritual and believed in the God of their fathers in some form, they had become cold and indifferent. Consequently, everything they did was an abomination to God.

Let's listen to the prophet. What is he saying? "You're going through the motions, perhaps even doing the right things, but your heart's not in it." Sounds like a church I recall in Ephesus who had lost her first love. (Rev 3) Jeremiah is standing in the very doorway of the temple complex and he's essentially saying, "God is not here! Amend your ways, change, turn around, repent; and He will once again dwell in this place and in you."

This is a rhetorical question, but an important one. How many churches are going through the motions, pastors sitting at their desk on Saturday night constructing polished sermons, worship committees putting together liturgies for the next day, without God, any semblance of life, or the slightest bit of change in the lives of the people? I read earlier this morning of a Presbyterian minister and church who had chosen to study the Koran in 2010. Now, please don't misunderstand me here; I don't really care what you call yourself. But, if your faith, your religion is nothing more than a catalog of intellectual pursuits and ideals and mechanistic refrains to a set of platitudinal constructs, then maybe, you need to hear what Jeremiah is saying.

He's speaking to the congregation, but I feel that he is talking directly to me. The people obviously respond, "Look! See! We still have this temple - this monument resident within our midst! Surely, you are wrong, Jeremiah! This is His very dwelling place..." Obviously, they had forgotten the words of the Psalmist, "Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God." Psalms 20:7 (KJV) "I can still quote John 3:16; I remember way back when when God did 'this' or 'that'. I go to church. I attend Sunday School. I have this position or that. I sing on the worship team, for God's sake!"

The horrifying thing to me about this passage and their arrogant response is that they had no clue that God wasn't there and that impending doom and destruction (the likes of which this southern kingdom had never known) was knocking at their very door.

Jeremiah continues, in spite of their objections: "Amend your ways, stop doing what you're doing! The Temple isn't going to save you, but if you change (repent), God promises to dwell with you." Let's step out this for a moment and into the New Testament. There's a fledgling Christian faith, built upon the person of Jesus (once considered a rogue Jewish sect), that begins to assert its own identity. Obviously, Paul writes to the Corinthians prior to the destruction of the second Temple in 70 C. E., and most scholars date the writing sometime in the mid first century.

Paul defines a new paradigm:

16 Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? [you is plural; i.e. church] 17 If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy that person. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple.
1 Cor 3:16-17 (NRSV; "you" is plural; i.e. church)

Paul introduces this concept while dealing with dissension - sin (a word we've almost completely written out of faith altogether). Those of us without Jewish origins or roots can not fully appreciate the magnitude of what Paul says here. While most within the Corinthian church were not necessarily Jewish, they no doubt understood what Jewish faith was all about. Jesus was a Jew. Paul was Jew. Almost all of the men that the Corinthians's were arguing over regarding whose baptism was more relevant, were Jews.

These gentiles knew enough to know that, for a Jew, the Temple was a complex of buildings in Jerusalem where ritual and worship took place. While it stood, it was the central focus of Jewish worship and spiritual identity. Here, Paul turns the tables on them and says, "You're the temple, individually, and collectively." Another Jew, Peter, who often had difficulty embracing his non-Jewish position within the church, writes:

5 And now God is building you, as living stones, into his spiritual temple. What's more, you are God's holy priests, who offer the spiritual sacrifices that please him because of Jesus Christ
1 Peter 2:5 (NLT)

There is some very intriguing information contradicting the fact that Peter wrote this, which is interesting but not consequential, to me at least. However, if Peter wrote this, then he also probably did so, prior to the destruction of the actual second Temple (perhaps in mid 60 C.E.?). And I can assure that this was sovereign divine revelation to Peter; it was no doubt a much bigger deal to Peter than to Paul. But even Peter has made this transition and He tells them that they are lively stones (KJV) being built together as a spiritual house (a perpetual habitation) for the Lord of Glory! (my paraphrase)

Now, let's once again, briefly, turn our attention back to the Jerusalem of the 6th century B.C.E and Jeremiah as he speaks to the people. "Let me dwell with you in this place..." I find this interesting. You would have thought that God would have constructed it the other way around, right? I mean, His Temple, His earth, His people... but no, He tells them that if you change, amend your ways, I will dwell with you.

Hasn't the Father coming down in the cool of the day to walk with Adam always been man's honor? Jesus accomplished the impossible on the cross. He bridged a gap we simply could not so that He could once again dwell with us. I think I understand now more fully what Moses meant when he heard God say that He was going to send the angel of the Lord before the people, but because of their impudence and rebellion, He would simply track them from afar. Moses cried, "If You don't go with us, then don't move us. How are we to be recognized as anything distinct, (different) than any other peoples on the earth if You are not with us?" (Ex 33, my paraphrase)

Oh my! Here's the rub. I don't care whether you're a Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, etc. It really does not concern me, at the moment, which path you walk. Sure, I could tell you what I think, but it's not my purpose here. But, I can say with utter certainty that what this world is lacking (and you can interject peace and unilateral prosperity, acceptance of others, and all the propaganda you can devise) is the presence of a God that is bigger than hunger, calamity, tragedy, and pain. The very same thing in our text, is happening in Jerusalem; the more Jeremiah preaches their impending doom, the louder the false prophets get. "All you need is peace. Learn to live together in harmony. Heal the planet, hug a Muslim, bridge the gaps between you and others. Peace, safety, all of it can be ours through our human genius and ingenuity!"

I don't know about you, but I can see the futility in that with little effort. Sure, I'd love to see it happen, but it never will - unless the glory of the Lord covers the earth as the waters cover the sea! It's the presence, the God among us, that spans the chasm of man's darkness and calls him forth into marvelous light! These sooth Sayers, these wicked lying clueless prophets were simply putting a band-aid on a rupture. Jeremiah tells them, "You've healed their wounds slightly; you make them feel better about themselves with the multitude of worthless platitudes and cliche's and songs about world peace--the end of war and famine and sending a few dollars here or there to feed the starving children. The calamity of calamities is about to befall you, and you're trusting in the wrong thing. "

A catalog of wrongs follow, and this list is repeated and revised and added too throughout the writings of Jeremiah. The laments of Jeremiah, the weeping of this Prophet much later shows us that these people never really listened; and it got so much worse. I can make excuses all day about why I don't do "this", why I can't forgive, why my attitude stinks, etc. but, in the end, it really is about surrender. In essence, that is all God was asking of these people. "If you truly change and if you turn around and stop oppressing the strangers and orphans among you, those who don't belong; if you will stop devouring one another, shedding innocent blood, and most importantly, choose your side. Stop following after other gods... if you're going serve me, serve me! Stop making excuses of why its okay for you do "this" instead of what I've asked of you. Stop! Listen! If you will, I promise, I will dwell with you right here! Right in your home, while you're sitting around the dinner table with your family. I will be a very present help in time of need. I will always be with you, even till the end of the aeon." How beautiful! God says that He will dwell in our place; right where we are!

Oh, so your Temple is ruined. Shame and guilt and condemnation has overtaken you and even your ritual doesn't mean near what it used too. He is standing at the door today - the door to my heart and to yours, and He cries through this beloved prophet, "Amend, change, stop, turn around! I treasure you and I will dwell in you again, just like I did before."

Lastly, this morning, one of the names of God came rushing to my mind at the same time as this scripture that I have shared with you: Jehovah Rafa. It literally means, the God who stitches back together. So you're torn, your garments have been weathered and battered, beaten and ripped from the events of life and your own choices. You are bleeding and bruised. Your bones are broken and you're hurting and you don't know where God is because it feels as if He is a million miles away.

The prophet stands at the gate this morning, today, and he says, "Change. Just stop. I will dwell with you; you will be the most blessed and hold within your being and spirit the greatest treasure the world has ever known. I will be their God and they shall be my people. I will dwell within them, walk in them, tabernacle within them; within you." Don't we create most our own messes? Surrender! Give it all; hold nothing back. Calamity, plight, pain and destruction does not, and hear me this day, have to be your latter end. The God who made you can stitch it all back together, heal you, and make you anew. His mercies are from everlasting to everlasting, and they're renewed every morning!

Mercy said NO!

2009-05-25T07:28:00.006-04:00

Ever had an ah-ha moment? One of those times when you hear something you've heard for years but never really understood, but for some reason you suddenly realize, I get that now! Gayle Erwin was at our church yesterday; a dear old man of God who is full of God's grace and love, as well as a gifted writer and speaker.

It was the Sunday before Memorial day, obviously, so my spiritual sensibilities had already been assaulted by a nationalistic video played prior to Gayle coming on stage. I told my wife how amazing it is that every time I go to that church (Calvary Chapel of the Triad), it's as if God just somehow someway puts a muzzle on me and makes me sit there and listen. Now, that might be funny to you, but I aint [sic] digging it sometime!

Erwin is big these days in explaining the nature of God; a task I am glad he feels up too.... It's like explaining the nature of the wind or trying to answer the question of how big is our Universe? What is the true nature of a black hole? You get me; I love the man but I found that statement almost arrogant. Explain the nature of God???? Yeah! Okay! So I sit back and I had this arrogant "show me" kind of attitude. I know, honesty sucks! Ha!

Then he does it. He says (and I paraphrase), if you can understand the name of God you can then understand his nature. Well, that sounded okay to me, theoretically. But, really, think about it for a moment. Names are not for us, are they? I know who I am. Descartes said: "I think, therefore I am." Not, I am named, therefore I am...." Okay, I like splitting hairs. It's my Blog! LOL But, really, my name means more to someone else than to me, right? So, in scripture, when God uses names such as Jehovah or Elohim or Jesus, those names are for our benefit to give glimpses into who he is. Metaphors employed, such as shepherd, father, bridegroom, brother, et al., are also used to show us portraits of facets of who God is and His place among us as a people. It's not necessarily to box God in; surely He's not a shepherd in a classical sense or a father, etc., but those metaphoric roles give us something that we as human constructs can relate too.

So, back to the whole name thing and Erwin's, know God's name/understand his nature comment. Erwin began to relay the story of Moses, who while up on the mountain Sinai (or Tent of Meeting, its not clear to me), asked the Lord to show him His glory. Now, this is in Exodus 33; there is another rendition of this in the very next chapter. One chapter he proclaims His name, the next He just shows up kind of impromptu and does essentially the same thing, with more elaborate detail. It was this latter that Erwin refers too:

5 Then the LORD came down in a pillar of cloud and called out his own name, "the LORD," as Moses stood there in his presence. 6 He passed in front of Moses and said, "I am the LORD, I am the LORD, the merciful and gracious God. I am slow to anger and rich in unfailing love and faithfulness. 7 I show this unfailing love to many thousands by forgiving every kind of sin and rebellion[....]
Ex 34:5-7a (NLT, emphasis added)

Notice the ellipses in brackets on the end there? I put them there because Erwin didn't finish the verse.

Even so I do not leave sin unpunished, but I punish the children for the sins of their parents to the third and fourth generations."
Ex 34:7b (NLT)

Before I go further this morning, let me go back to the other rendition or initial introduction to this whole event, depending on how you choose to look at it:

18 Then Moses had one more request. "Please let me see your glorious presence," he said.

19 The LORD replied, "I will make all my goodness pass before you, and I will call out my name, `the LORD,' to you. I will show kindness to anyone I choose, and I will show mercy to anyone I choose.
Ex 33:18-19 (NLT)

I am sitting there in that church and immediately my mind goes, NO HE DIDN'T!!!! He also said that God uses jerks, by the way, so keep reading.... LOL I have always, always, ALWAYS hated that verse! Horror! "No he didn't just claim to hate a bible verse, did he?!?" YES, I did! I have never understood it; it has always sounded self serving and exclusionary to me. Even six years in Evangelical ministry could never make me pick that thing up as a text. First of all, who doesn't want their most notable national patriarch to be the only one who knows God and talks to Him face to face? Secondly, compassion on whom he chooses to show it?!? Holding children and grandchildren AND great-great-great-grandchildren complicit and accountable for/in my sin? I am sorry, but over the years that's a part of God's name (and if so, his nature) that I have just not been able to accept.

I was all flustered, but it was as if all of a sudden, the Holy Spirit spoke to me and said, "Chris, (and I love it when I hear Him speak my name), you do not have to look at it that way." But, I don't like and I, I, I.... every objection fell before His feet. "Chris, you're looking at it all wrong." Okay, now that was offensive! LOL Arrogance, oh God! He's proving to be the most patient and merciful friend I've ever had. And while the portrait of God smiting anyone is hard for me, if I was Him, I'd smite my own self sometimes. But He is loving and long-suffering... ever looked at that word, long-suffering? It means exactly what it says. Suffering is not abstract and it lasts a LONG time! It reminds me of Jesus in Matthew 17 (healing of the lunatic son) when He said, how long must I suffer with you idiots (my paraphrase!) ?

God continued to speak to me as Erwin continued: "I can show mercy and I can withhold it; but, Chris, everything you know about me tells you that I take no delight in the death of the wicked." My wife and I were talking just last night and I remembered that scripture in Hosea 11 where God speaks of Ephraim:

1 "When Israel was a child, I loved him as a son, and I called my son out of Egypt. 2 But the more I called to him, the more he rebelled, offering sacrifices to the images of Baal and burning incense to idols. 3 It was I who taught Israel how to walk, leading him along by the hand. But he doesn't know or even care that it was I who took care of him. 4 I led Israel along with my ropes of kindness and love. I lifted the yoke from his neck, and I myself stooped to feed him.
Hosea 11:1-4 (NLT)

It was as if God was saying to me, "I am sorry, Chris, that I couldn't work it out in a way more palatable to your 21st century sensibilities. The world I created was perfect and the man I made was perfect but when it went wrong, the world went bad too. And, it is harsh and ugly and cold and dark and people die and children go to sleep at night hungry and war threatens civilization at every turn and...nothing in this world is the way its suppose to be, and I don't like it anymore than you do. But, I did something about it."

You can't see me this morning, but tears stain my face as I write this. David writes in Psalms 85:10:

Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other. (KJV)

Over the years, I am certain I have read that verse a hundred times. So much as been written about it, its language and beauty are unparalleled in Hebrew scripture. Mercy and truth both seek different ends. Mercy cries for relief and help and hope, while truth speaks of just desserts and getting what one deserves. They pass each other, one going to entreat for the sins of man, another bound to bring justice to the earth. In a moment - in an instant, the conflict was over. Gazing upon one another in the person of Jesus, the left hand of exclusion met the right hand of acceptance. One kissed another and the conflict was ended, forever.

In the New Testament, Paul puts it this way:

...Jesus Christ, the Son of God, never wavers between yes and no. He is the one whom Timothy, Silas, and I preached to you, and he is the divine Yes—God's affirmation. 20 For all of God's promises have been fulfilled in him. That is why we say "Amen" when we give glory to God through Christ.
2 Cor 1:17-20 (NLT, emphasis added)

Why couldn't I see that before? Years of questioning, wondering if I had chosen the right God. Nights of fear and bitterness over why God seemingly loved some and hated me. Oh my, that is the issue. "You've accepted him or her and you did this or that for this person and look at my plight, God! Look at me! Why can't I see your glory, why can't I be your friend..... why do I hurt and why, with nine children and a lovely wife and everything I could ever want or need, why am I so alone???"

It's the dichotomy of, "my God, my God, why have you forsaken me" and "Father forgive them for they know not what they do." The very same Jesus who says "Yes!" is the very same Jesus who also felt the exclusionary "No!" He came to his own and his own didn't receive him; that's classic rejection. How often did he retreat to the mountains in Paneas to pray because he was grieved in spirit, hurt, if you will. The writer of Hebrews puts it this way:

[I]t was necessary for Jesus to be in every respect like us, his brothers and sisters, so that he could be our merciful and faithful High Priest before God. He then could offer a sacrifice that would take away the sins of the people.
Heb 2:17 (NLT)

And then again:

14 That is why we have a great High Priest who has gone to heaven, Jesus the Son of God. Let us cling to him and never stop trusting him. 15 This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same temptations we do, yet he did not sin. 16 So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it.

Heb 4:14-16 (NLT)

God, I hurt! "I know." Jesus, I've been abused and used and people have seen me as nothing but a means to an end! "I know, I've been there, son." My family has despised me and my father and mother rejected me, abandoned, leaving me alone... 'I know that too!" I don't know how to do all the things your asking me, God... "It's okay.", comes the reply.

"Mercy and truth were headed along the same road one day, both deposed on your behalf: one to argue for and another against you. Not man, not humanity, not the world, but Me! I fought for you that day; I wrestled truth and mercy together until they kissed in abandoned embrace. So, now, I've felt your pain, heard your cries and desperation, been right there sitting in the very seat you occupy this morning. But, I have also seen your healing, your restoration, your future, your end."

Last evening, my wife and I were reading various scriptures and talking and she spoke one to me that I have always liked but had mixed emotions about:

11 For I know the plans I have for you," says the LORD. "They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.
Jer 29:11 (NLT)

What a beautiful verse and I accept it. But it's the preceding verse that's always troubled me. Jeremiah is writing to the captives in Babylon who are wanting and expecting God's deliverance to come any moment. The prophet tells them otherwise, and if you study it out, he paid a heavy price for it, being considered false and unpatriotic:

10 "The truth is that you will be in Babylon for seventy years.
Jer 29:10a (NLT)

That is not what they wanted to hear: truth, judgment. But, this whole passage personifies the meeting of mercy and truth along the way in such profound and beautiful ways. I apologize for breaking it up the way I have, but let's put it all together:

10 "The truth is that you will be in Babylon for seventy years. But then I will come and do for you all the good things I have promised, and I will bring you home again. 11 For I know the plans I have for you," says the LORD. "They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. 12 In those days when you pray, I will listen. 13 If you look for me in earnest, you will find me when you seek me. 14 I will be found by you," says the LORD. "I will end your captivity and restore your fortunes. I will gather you out of the nations where I sent you and bring you home again to your own land."
Jer 29:10-14 (NLT, emphasis added)

So you ask, "what does all this have to do with me today?". Oh, I am so glad you asked that question! What is God saying here? "Chris, I know your hurt, you were sexually and physically abused. I know the very people who were entrusted to care for you were the very ones who devastated you the most. I've seen every tear, heard every cry, I've even wept for you myself. I've seen you in captivity to drugs and alcohol, I have watched you struggle as a father and a husband. Over the years, when you stumbled, I picked you up. When you couldn't help yourself, I did. You see, you haven't always been able to see past the unpleasantness of the moment, the pain. It can be blinding. You've been homesick and fatherless, and I've watched over you, holding your hand when you tried to walk, drawing you, sometimes when you least wanted it, with cords of my everlasting love.

But, listen Chris, never, not for an instance, have I ever forgotten who you are. Never, have I ever abandoned my plans and purposes for you. Your friends, your family, your colleagues forgot who you were and are, but not I. My plans and purposes for you were woven inextricably in my love for you on the Cross of Calvary and nothing, no one, can ever, will ever, take that away from you. You're coming home! And when you cry, I will hear; when you seek me, you will find me. And hear this, I have ended your captivity and restored your fortunes!"

I hear that this morning; ringing in my spirit so loudly that it's almost deafening. But, it's not just me, is it? You hear it too. God is speaking, not just to me, but to many of you with similar narratives and pain. "...God saves those who are crushed in spirit!" (Psalms 34:18, NASV 1977, emphasis added) Please, don't let the moment pass. Restoration is just a cry away!

I leave you this morning with a song sung by CeCe Winans:

Casualties and Restoration

2009-05-24T08:37:00.007-04:00

Yesterday was a wonderful day; a reflective as well as an introspective day. As the day came to its conclusion, my wife and I were lying in bed and I was praying, my mind wandering off to a beautiful post she blogged just a few days ago. If you haven't read it, I encourage you to do so. You can find it here. In unparalleled prose (I know, I am partial), she metaphorically personifies the Ground Zero of September 11, 2001 with her own life, her relationship with God, and regrettably, our own marriage.

If you get the chance to read it, you'll notice towards the end where she sees herself with her Savior standing at ground zero. The harrowing task of moving debris has been taken care of and she is left surveying what I can only imagine to be an empty slate; a whitened canvas if you will. A second chance...

As we were praying together, my mind could not help but survey the destruction and enormous casualties of that fateful day. Wives being left without husbands; children, fatherless. For every miracle of divine providence that happened that day, there are equally harrowing tales of casualties whose very existence was pulverized into oblivion. I know, its really not a pretty picture... destruction is just that, regardless of its source.

My mind then took me to a place in the gospels where Jesus said a startling thing: "[a]nd whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder." Matt 21:44 (KJV) Then, the very first thing that came to mind was that brokenness is not pretty! Oh, its a million times better than powder, but it's ugly and it hurts to look at and its embarrassing and all the emotions that floods your heart when you finally realize that your lying helpless on the rocks with no faculty to help yourself, and time stands still as you watch the world and dreams you've built fall down around you in reckless disregard to how you feel about it. There is simply nothing you can do.... Or, is there?

Jesus, standing on the Mt. of Olives one day towards the end of his earthly ministry, surveyed the city of Jerusalem, weeping for her:

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! 38 Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.
Matt 23:37-38 (KJV)

In another place, He speaks to the destruction of the Temple complex:

"Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left upon another which will not be torn down."
Mark 13:2 (NASB)

Portraits of destruction; not pleasant nor easily understood. But, what do all these portraits have in common? My wife's prose and her metaphoric use of Ground Zero? Jesus, using Himself as a stumbling block and saying if you stumble over me your okay (i.e., if you don't understand me right now, kewl! Just don't fall on the wrong side when the time comes, so to speak), but I give life and I can take it away. Judgment is a horrifying thing! Jesus, weeping over the city of Jerusalem, knowing that in just a few short years, the Romans under Titus in AD 70 would lay siege to the city during Passover, of all times. Over one million Jews were slaughtered, 95,000 taken captive. Every stone of the temple was overturned and the city was left in utter ruins.

So, what is the common thread? Hopelessness; casualty, devastation. When we do it our way, there's really is no other option, is there? In our own strength, given our own propensity for self-destruction, pride, and arrogance, its a wonder we ever made it out of the garden. Thankfully, however, there is so much more here than just what meets the eye...

Ground Zero, today, is a memorial to human resiliency. In our greatest national tragedy, human kindness and love bridged the devastation and the narratives are beautiful, to say the least. Jerusalem, the city of God, having seen more judgment and destruction than any city on earth. Yet, she stands today as a mere deposit of God's eternal promises. Here is what D. A. Carson says of her:

The eschatological glory to be experienced by Zion is accompanied by a transformation of nature and by long and abundant life, heroic strength, economic prosperity, joy, and thankful praise (Isa. 11; 12:4-6; 61:3; 62:8-9; 65:20; Jer. 33:11; Zech. 2:4, 5). Although there is repeated assurance that the nations that have savaged Jerusalem will themselves be ravaged, in another emphasis the nations of the earth, after an unsuccessful campaign against Jerusalem (Isa. 29: 7-8; Mic. 4:11), join in a great pilgrimage to Zion, where they are taught by Yahweh to live according to his will (Isa. 2:2-4; Jer. 33:9; Mic. 4:1-3; Zech. 2:11). In all this Jerusalem retains a central place.

Another interesting and restorative note is that heaven on earth in the Revelations is called none other than the New Jerusalem!

12 I will make those who win the victory pillars in the temple of my God, and they will never have to leave it. I will write on them the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, that comes down out of heaven from my God. I will also write on them my new name.
Rev 3:12 (NCV)

The temple: a second one, destroyed yet again. But, in the New Testament, even here, there is hope:

4 Come to Christ, who is the living cornerstone of God's temple. He was rejected by the people, but he is precious to God who chose him.

5 And now God is building you, as living stones, into his spiritual temple. What's more, you are God's holy priests, who offer the spiritual sacrifices that please him because of Jesus Christ.
1 Peter 2:4-5 (NLT)

And, while I will only mention this briefly, but there is some speculation as to the construction of a third temple. The Muslims might have trouble with it, but there is a little phrase in prophecy called the abomination of desolation related to the anti-christ. Just let that sit there... please, don't write me about it cause I really don't know and don't care, to be honest. What I do care about is that when one surveys the expanse of human destruction, devastation, and casualty, one must also see hope, human resiliency, and restoration.

Coming back for a moment to my prayer time with my wife, I realized that she was not standing there alone. Sure, she knew that; Jesus was with her. Mystical helpers were cleaning the debris away... but, in a moment, I realized that I was standing there with her. The destruction is daunting, almost horrifying. But, in the end, we are standing together, anticipating what that familiar someone will do next.

Memorials are wonderful things. They give you a fixed point to look back to some event; some good, others bad. God is busy building a memorial of restoration in our lives, and for that, I am most grateful. I easily, we certainly, could have remained casualties that day, but for the grace of God....

Forgiveness! Now I know Jesus is Crazy!

2009-05-23T06:26:00.010-04:00

You know, obviously, this isn't true, but to hear Jesus talk, you'd think that He had never been hurt and never really had no one in His life to forgive. Otherwise, how could He of said some of the crazy (and I use that with all the reverence I can muster this morning!) things He said about it? Its almost creepy to me. Personally, I get into the whole eye for an eye thing, when it suits me. City of refuge? Sure! But your gonna have to leave sometime and when you do buddy.....

Okay, I got that out of my system. Forgiveness is a funny thing; its a completely different animal in the New Testament scriptures. I can imagine the people sitting around as Jesus was giving the Sermon on the Mount and can see their reaction when He starts talking about forgiving men their trespasses so that God can and will forgive you.

Now, digress with me for just a moment. Imagine with me, momentarily, that we do not have a Jesus, no New Testament scriptures, and we all simply have people that we respect and listen too. Now, imagine a co-worker or better yet, a family member who is constantly pushing those buttons just as hard as they can. Your exasperated and you go to your sage, so to speak, and you ask him/her, "how long am I going to have to put up with this, oh Wise one.?"

Here is exactly where I would get into trouble. Because, I am sure I'd have that answer already down pat long before I asked it. "You've waited long enough. You may pop them in the nose next time they offend you." Oh yeah! Now, that is my kind of scripture! And to be honest, I went to bed last night thinking of some people I'd just simply like to smack a good one! Oh, don't get all sanctimonious on me. You know you've felt that way too. Heck, I have a few I'd dig up just for the pleasure.... okay, so that borders a bit on the insane side. But, you know what I am talking about.

Unfortunately, or, fortunately, depending on your spirit and how you look at it, we must come back to Jesus and the New Testament scriptures. As much as my flesh would like to set Him and His teachings aside at times, their nagging quality persist! You know God did that on purpose, right? But, seriously, it's in times like this that I have to learn to listen to what I do not want to hear. "Jesus, how often do I forgive my brother when he offends me? Seven times?" (Matt 18, my paraphrase) Oh, that's gracious. Come to my house and offend me once, I might not let you know about it. About the third or fourth time, I'm liable to grab you by the seat of your pants and throw you out. Well, more so these days because.... that's another post. But, yeah, seven? That's gracious in my opinion!

But, oh no, Jesus had a completely different definition, didn't He? I call it it the wipe your feet on me please mentality! LOL Okay, enough sarcasm, I am cracking my own self up this morning. Jesus tells Peter, seventy times seven, all for the same offense, and all on the same day: next day, new slate. OMG!!! No He didn't! Yes, He did! Man, sometimes Jesus really can get me talking to myself!

Do I really think that Jesus expected Peter to forgive 490 times a day for the same thing? No, I don't. What I do believe, however, is that Jesus was telling Peter to forgive--completely. Remember the love chapter? "Love is not irritable, and it keeps no record of when it has been wronged." 1 Cor 13:5 (NLT) What Jesus was telling him was that the number thing was the wrong mindset altogether. Imagine, if God kept records like that? Forgiveness, genuine forgiveness, operates on a higher plane, and that is why many of us never really get it.

Do I think God holds it against us too harshly? Perhaps not. He looked down from the cross with compassion for a people ridiculing and hurting Him and He cried, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do?" I recently heard someone say that on the cross Jesus was separate from His Father and the Spirit; the trinity if you will, whatever that means. But, no, that isn't what Paul said. "For God was [in] Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people's sins against them. This is the wonderful message he has given us to tell others..." 2 Cor 5:19 (NLT, emphasis added) I am not going to argue theology or semantics today, but if you rewrite the "in Christ" part of that verse to make it mean something that it's not, then we got a lot of rewriting to do altogether. No, the entire Godhead participated in that act of redemption for the sole purpose to free us from our wrong doings. And what are we to do with it? Pass it on....

Oh my, that cuts across the grain, doesn't it? How can I tell others a message that I am not willing to live out in my daily life? Oh, hey, by the way, I hate you for what you did to me, but Jesus loves you?!? In the distance, though, I hear some words uttered centuries ago by a Jewish revolutionary: "freely you have received, freely give." (Mat 10:8, NKJV) That is so hard. No one ever said following Jesus was going to be easy! Love the unlovable; embrace the social outcast, touch the untouchables. That part is easy. Its the family waiting outside the house where everyone there perceives you as a somebody, but they, their embarrassed and think your mad (Matt 12). Oh, my.... Its that neighbor who persist in leaving that one strip of grass that he knows is his but... love your neighbor as yourself...

So, your hurt; I am too. What about boundaries? I don't know. Perhaps, another day. Sometimes I wonder if we don't use those psychological constructs as crutches to keep us from doing as Jesus said. Please don't misunderstand me this morning. Every single time I utter the Lord's prayer, I pause and almost stop when it comes to the "[...] forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors." Matt 6:12 (NKJV) At the same moment as I forgive others, God is forgiving me. If I don't forgive others, He's not obligated to forgive me....

That's really some tough stuff, because some of us have huge burdens of pain and hurt. Abuse, and malicious intentions where people have harmed us with malice and forethought and they've just not cared. Some of us have cried more tears than we can count, stained pillows, being woke in the middle of the night with that gut wrenching feeling and question, why? Why God? In fact, some of us feel as if He did it to us, don't we? We were too young to even defend ourselves....

Years ago, in my youth, the Lord spoke a scripture into my spirit, that no matter how far I've ran or how bitter I have been, I have never forgotten it:

5 Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the LORD his God: 6 Which made heaven, and earth, the sea, and all that therein is: which keepeth truth for ever: 7 Which executeth judgment for the oppressed: which giveth food to the hungry. The LORD looseth the prisoners: 8 The LORD openeth the eyes of the blind: the LORD raiseth them that are bowed down: the LORD loveth the righteous: 9 The LORD preserveth the strangers; he relieveth the fatherless and widow: but the way of the wicked he turneth upside down.
Psalms 146:5-9 (KJV)

Look at the language there. Jacob is just Jacob; the heel grabber and thief; no Israel/Prince, titles of honor for him that day. But, He's happy. Why? Because the Lord is his help, hope, and God. And, this isn't just any God. No! This is the very God that made the heavens, earth, sea, and everything within. In reality, David is speaking to the orphan, which, for various reasons, was tailored made for me when I was a child and He spoke these words to me. He keeps truth forever, meaning, you don't have to worry about His intent or whether he will keep his word! He will do what he says and while it might not happen today or tomorrow or even in your time frame, you can rest assured that it will!

He executes justice and judgment for all that are oppressed! Ah! Those are the words I heard! Vengeance belongs to Him, forgiveness is mine. Hmmm....... But, the promises don't stop there: He will feed us with bread we didn't earn, loose us from prisons of our own making, open our blind eyes to let us truly see our need for Him, and then, He will lift them that are bowed down! That "bow" is not reverence. No, its being weighted down with the cares and hurt and pain of years of oppression and abuse.

I have to leave this now, but I know that there are many people that I need to forgive. People I can't go too; it's simply too late to do so. I know that in myself, I will never be able to do so. Part of me don't want to let them off the hook. But, the scripture I just shared tells me that its not my responsibility to be concerned about whether or not they get what is coming to them. Who am I to judge another man's servant? I do what I can.... God, forgive me please, as I forgive those who have harmed me......

Baggage and Important Questions!

2009-05-22T06:26:00.008-04:00

For various reasons, I hesitate to write this post today. But, I learned a valuable lesson last night. I know, epiphany, epiphany... when is this guy going to stop! Ha! Not so soon; hopefully, never! Having been in a bad place where God felt a million miles away, I welcome His intervention, no matter how it might come.

The family and I went to church last night; I know, I can't hardly believe it either. Before even going, I knew the pastor there was going to be teaching out of 1 Chronicles 2; a text that for the life of me, I could not understand why he would choose to do so. So, I have to admit a certain skepticism going in.

From the moment he opened his mouth I could feel the blood rising within. His opening statement was that the various listings of the 12 Tribes of Israel and their frequent omissions or inconsistencies was troubling to him and that he had never fully reconciled these differences. Immediately, every fiber of my intellectual being began to scream: source criticism, document hypothesis, redaction criticism, textual criticism, historical criticism! THINK!!!!! (okay, I am an arrogant human being, but please, give me a little latitude here and try and read further) There are answers, even if you don't like them! Of course, on the way home, discussing this with my lovely wife (who unfortunately has to listen to my rambling regardless, because she loves me... although I'm sure she'd disagree with the HAS too part... let's just say that she makes a wonderful effort! hehe ), I told her that I knew that if I had been the one up there struggling through some of those genealogies, I would have made a horrible mess of it. Talk about making people mad; I probably would of upset my own self! LOL

Oh, the conviction! Do I think critical analysis of scripture is a bad thing? Absolutely not! Will I ever reconcile the bible from a literary critical and/or historical standpoint? Probably never. But, as I sat there and listened, the more I listened, I began to see that the important thing, what mattered and in essence, those portions of his sermon that spoke to my spirit, not my intellect, were the narratives, the stories.

We are a narrative people, are we not? We have our stories to tell, some more interesting than others, but nonetheless, all our lives' are narratives. When we tell our stories, we don't always follow a linear progression; we get side tracked, run here or there and emphasize the things that are most important to us. How does this relate to the scriptures?

Scripture, for whatever else it may be, is a narrative. The Old Testament is a narrative of a people who felt different, called, constructed by a benevolent, yet jealous God, who selects them for grandiose purposes. In places it is brutally honest, in others, not so much. But for all the criticism, and I surely believe that a responsible approach to scripture demands that we ask the hard questions; but, those hard question do not and and never will overwhelm the reoccurring themes we see throughout its pages.

Woven throughout its very core is a message written in a bottle, if you will, to man. A dismal world brought back to life by a creative Spirit who hovered over it's expanse. A perfect man and woman, put in a perfect world only to mess it up. But then we see a perfect Savior taking animal skins to cover their nakedness and sending them out into a cruel world with an adamant promise of redemption. The intricacies of textual criticism may distract, but if you'll take a few steps back and try and see it as a whole, I think you'll see that scarlet thread, irreducible from the very fibers of the narrative itself.

To be honest, I don't care if the bible (OT in question here) was constructed from multiple sources over centuries, polished by this author or that one. JEDP (and a host of variations) certainly has its place in the classroom, and I would doubt the professionalism of any scholar dealing with biblical criticism who fails to take modern scholarship into account. But, and listen to me well cause this is a HUGE BUT, for me in the pew, it makes little difference. In study, I can as Gordon Atkinson says, "stand outside the myth," if you will, and take an objective look. But, when it comes to matters of faith, their just that, faith. And whose to say your faith in six literal days is less valid than mine?

I know I got side tracked there, but I thank God for the stories. Marcus Borg once said about the creation: "I don't believe for a moment that it happened that way, but I don't doubt for a moment that its true." Dichotomy? Sure. But, really, I've had my children tell me stories that I knew were not true, but the story, what it was that they were really trying say to me, was as true and genuine as the person standing before me. What he was saying was that his post critical, post modern, post-enlightenment mind would not allow him to accept creation in six literal days, but for him, he had no doubt that how ever God did it, He did.

How do we reconcile these differences? We don't. Not really. We set priorities and we decide what's more important. It really is that lucid, at least in my mind. Is it more important that I believe that six literal days were six LITERAL days, or is the point simpler than that? Perhaps, we may never agree on the intricacies of biblical criticism, but we can agree that God is real and that his intent and purpose in humanity is obvious and whether we never understand exactly how or when He will bring his plans for us and the world to light, we know with certainty that He will.

Jesus, one day, having withdrawn from the crowds, kn0wing His time was coming near and needing his friends, asked them a poignant question: "who do you say that I am?" You may not readily see the bridge that I'm trying to build this morning, but what I really learned last night is that there is only a few questions that are most important and that really matter. Who is Jesus? What does he mean to me? And, do I know Him in a personal way?

For all my learning and all my ignorance, those are becoming the most important questions to me. Who is Jesus? He is Yeshua, the Son of God; He is the Man and Mediator between me and God. He's my Friend, Brother, Companion, Lover, Apostle, Provision, Sufficiency... He truly is my all in all.

What does He mean to me? I was lost, but now I am found; I was blind, but now I see! He reached His hand into the expanse of my pain and somehow someway, as only He can, soothed the rawness of my soul. He healed me when I cried out; he called me from a tomb of addictions and pain and hurt and loss... He untied the grave clothes that I had allowed this world to place upon me, and He set me free!

Do I know Him in a personal way? I am learning to know Him more and more everyday. His voice is resonating within my soul. When I do something wrong, I feel His conviction. He wakes me up in the middle of the night for a walk, just to talk..... do I know Him? Oh, as much as one can know the wind... but, I am content to say as Peter: you are the Son of the Living God." Not the dead God of theology or my beloved biblical criticism. No! He is, You, are the Son of the Living God! What will you do with Him today?

What does Addition, Blind Bartimaeus, and Jesus have in Common?

2009-05-21T06:43:00.004-04:00

This morning is a somber morning. Addiction in one's life can be a terrible reminder of the daily grind. Stay away from this; don't let this trigger create this situation or that, avoid these places. Those of you who know what I am talking about know the drill. And, to be quite honest, it can be very disheartening.

Over the years, I have found myself confused as to the true nature of addiction: disease, bad choices, lack of self-control? Some, I assume, would find the former more liberating. In many ways, it removes responsibility from me and puts onto this thing inside me that once awakened, turns into a monster that knows no boundaries. And, as a person who knows what addiction feels like, I can tell you that there certainly is some truth in to the, "I don't know how to stop" mentality, at least until a crisis comes along: jail, failing marriage, children.... any host of reasons can wake one up and hopefully give him/her a second chance.

Lying in bed last evening, my wife and I began to talk about this issue. I had attended a local NA meeting and met a man there who had 22 years clean. He stated his name followed by the typical, "I am an addict." I looked down the road and I asked myself, did I want to be in the same place saying the same old line 22 years from now? First answer was a resounding yes, if that is what it takes to keep me where I need to be.

Then, I asked my wife a question about blind Bartimaeus. You know who I am talking about. The man who sat by the wayside, hearing that Jesus was coming his way? He's crying: Son of David, Son of David!!!! Have mercy on me!!! Have mercy on me!!! (Jn 10) We all know the story, right? I mean, the crowd tried to quiet this poor man but the more they tried to shut him up the more he cried. Jesus comes alongside him and ask for him to be lifted up. Standing before Jesus, Jesus ask him an unbelievable question: what do you want me to do for you?

Relaying that story, I then asked my wife: did Bartimaeus attend a former blind persons support group afterward? Was there a leper group or an ex-cripple group? I know this sounds cynical and perhaps it is in a way. But, if addiction is a disease, then can not God heal it as quickly and as easily as he healed the blind man or the leper? I wonder if Lazarus got a blue chip for every year he lived past his initial resurrection?

How many people spend their lives preoccupied with the addictions and pains and injustices of the past? Both secular and religious counseling can not keep up these days with the number of people who need help. Sexual abuse, spousal abuse, child abuse, the laundry list of man's plight is staggering. But, unfortunately, in many of these situations, the one thing that is missing is a Jesus walking alongside the road. The climax never comes because He is never given His rightful place.

I don't how or when or where, but I sense a change, a stirring if you will. Jesus is coming along the road. Oh, let's not argue over anything this morning: so its Jesus, Mohammad, Buddha, a rock, I really don't care. But, for me, I can hear the crowd stirring in my spirit and I know that long lean Galilean is walking my way and all I really have to do is cry out, Son of David, Messiah, King, have mercy on me.

When he stoops to lift my hand, asking me what it is that I need, I wonder what I will ask for? Healing for addiction, sexual abuse, child abuse; what will my answer be? This morning, the words of the psalmist resonates in my heart: "...be merciful unto me: heal my soul; for I have sinned against thee." (Psalms 41:4 KJV) Isn't that really the true answer? Not the extraneous issues of our lives, the periphery, if you will: sick hearts, souls torn apart and scarred, rotting from the very inside out. All the horror of days gone by can be healed in an instant when Jesus speaks to you and ask, what do you want?

What do you want today? Thought of it yet? Don't let a moment, another day, week, month, year, pass you by. Before long, you'll be so concentrated on your blindness and your begging that you'll even miss the one who's passing you by. God, give us grace today to ask for the healing of our hearts so that we no longer have to live in the bondage of yesterday!

Me and Jesus: Back to Square One!

2009-05-20T14:38:00.006-04:00

I rarely write more than one post a month...err, well, okay, lately its been one a day. But, today, I've had some questions and thoughts on my mind that I thought I would just air out here. My wife needs a break!

Recently, I have found myself coming full circle; not becoming an evangelical fundamentalist again, God forbid! Ha! But, I am beginning to realize that much of what I've learned, read, and done over the years has made me a cynic and as such, it has essentially reduced what God that was left within to a mere intellectual pursuit. Now, I'm not happy with that, never have been, and never will be. The God I met as a child was a vibrant, living God who parted seas and made mountains quake. A God who could cause axe heads to float, valleys of dry bones to become armies of living breathing men. A God who healed, loved, and died for me (personally) and then rose from the dead. That was the God that I was introduced too.

Of course, then life happened. You leave the haven of study and you enter the ministry with all these grandiose ideas and before you know it, life is sucked out of you and you have to do something with all those things that you truly believed but didn't see when you needed it the most. Is it all myth? I mean, is the Jesus of the gospels the construction of 2000 years of church doctrine? Really, is the church that good? With its controversies, arguments, theological schools of thought. Could it really of created a Jesus as vibrant and living as the one we see today walking across the pages of the New Testament scriptures?

Are Jewish beliefs so intertwined with myth and such that their very reliability is tainted so badly that we can not know from one page to another if we're reading history or myth? I can't answer these questions today. All I can say is that for reasons outside my control, at forty-one years of age, I am not any more happy with a cynical faith than I was with a fundamentalist one. So, for me, I am starting over.

What does that mean? Does that mean that I lay aside all the critical thinking skills that I've developed over the years? No, not necessarily. What it does mean is that I have to find God/Jesus for me. Not Borg's, as much as I love him. Not, N. T. Wright's Jesus; no, time has come for me to go back to square one and find out who He is. And, personally, I am not afraid of what I might find. I know that He can speak for Himself. So, I've laid aside, for now, the books and the literature and all the things that I comforted myself with when I truly lost my faith. And I go back to where it all began, to an altar, where the only two things I knew were this: His name, and that He was. From there, who knows where we'll end up!

Judas Iscariot- My Kinsman...

2009-05-20T08:11:00.005-04:00

Okay, before I even begin this morning, let me say first that I can NOT even believe what I am about to talk about: Judas Iscariot! For a host of reasons, I do NOT like this character, most of which is rooted in my disdain for certain theologies that create lenses through which we can look at this man and what happened to him. I don't like it that he was pretty much doomed from the beginning... that brings up election and predestination and a host of other stuff that me and my reformed brethren will heartily disagree about.

But, that is not my purpose this morning. In fact, I hardly doubt it will EVER be my purpose. I am rather passionate about some things. Anyways, I bring him up this morning because of something that happened to me personally, yesterday. I realized something about me that is a fundamental part of my disposition; a destructive facet indeed. And as I pondered this weakness and its fallout, my mind went to Judas of all people. So, here we go....

Of all the things we can say about the man, the one thing that I see in him is that he was self absorbed. That is not necessarily a biblical indictment. Biblically, he's almost immediately known as the one that betrayed Jesus. What a legacy to leave behind! But, I am not so much interested in what he did, but why he did it. And, personally, in my understanding, he was simply self absorbed.

You know the type. They're the ones who always think their ideas are better. They will follow you, sure, but deep inside they always think they could do it better. Judas kept the money and he tried to keep a tight reign on it too. He believed that Jesus was the Messiah but he was frustrated that He was not revealing Himself to more people. Speculation says that he went to the High Priest that night in his betrayal to force the hand of Jesus. He had seen Jesus preform miracles and speak with authority and surely if he pushed his hand Jesus would respond and take his rightful spot as their King---who had just ridden symbolically into Jerusalem upon a donkey, being hailed as the Son of David by the masses gathered for passover. If Jesus' moment was to ever come, surely today was it! But, Judas didn't quite get it, and I don't berate him either cause I probably wouldn't of gotten it myself. I still don't sometimes.

But, unfortunately for him, that's not what happened, is it? Jesus didn't do what Judas expected and Judas ultimately paid the price for his insolence. His end is a horrific picture; one of the most horrific pictures of self destruction ever afforded in scripture.

The end of such behavior is always the same, isn't it? We hurt those around us, we run rough shod over the people we love because we can't see past what we want to do. Our agenda somehow takes precedent, and usually at the most unconducive time ever. How many of us have betrayed people we really loved? Pushed them to do things that we knew they either shouldn't do or were not ready for?

I don't like talking about this; personally I despise Judas and everything he stands for. Or, at least, everything the church manipulates him to stand for. But, in the end, I have to admit a kinship, one that I pray for God's grace to change. I love my wife, my children, and I no longer want to plunge headlong into my life, my day, without thought of how my actions will affect them.

May God give us all the grace to do the same!

Creeped Out and Comforted

2009-05-19T08:05:00.005-04:00

Jesus was a revolutionary dude. Now that I've actually typed that little sentence, I can see how true it really is. He wasn't your run of the norm Messiah wanna be, at least, he sure didn't carry himself as such. I suppose it depends upon whose account you put the most faith in (ie. Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John), but there were times when he literally bordered on the eccentric. And that is an understatement!

I woke up this morning and a portrait of John's gospel came to my mind and before I knew it I found myself amused and awed at the same time. One day, Jesus was doing what he did best: he was teaching. He had already fed these people with bread and fish and he begins to perceive that the crowd was simply waiting for the next meal. Now, I know I mentioned yesterday that first century Palestine was a difficult place to live; so, free bread from an itinerant sage was definitely going to garner attention. Jesus realizing that the people were striving for literal bread and not wanting them to miss the point, says something astounding:

53 So Jesus said to them, "Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; 55 for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. 56 Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them.
John 6:53-56 (NRSV)

Now, let me tell you something, that creeps me out even to this day! I have the advantage of 2000 plus years of church teaching and theology as it relates to this passage. My library is packed full of books that deal with sacramental theology. But, even still, at face value, it freaks me out. I can only imagine what it did to those Jews listening and waiting for their next meal.

Are we really to believe that Jesus himself did not know that what he was about to say was going to literally freak out the crowd? Did he truly expect them to understand all that? I mean, think about it, the church split between East and West over issues related to this concept (among others, granted) some ten centuries after Jesus supposedly said this. There is to this day major confusion between Catholic and Protestant theology as it relates to the Eucharist and Communion. Why would Jesus utter such difficult and ultimately divisive words?

Personally, my first inclination is to say that he didn't. But, that's just too easy. Even if the actual historical Jesus did not utter these words as we have them today, and I know them thare(sic) are fighting words for some, the development of church doctrine and tradition hinges securely on this and other passages as it relates to sacramental theology: salvation.

So, what do we do with stuff like this? Throw it away? Put it aside? Say it isn't so? See, I think Jesus was fully aware of the difficulty of what he was saying and knew that noone was really going to get it. But, there were twelve men beside him that he had to know whether they would truly follow him or not.

The crowd sees the statement as too much and they disperse and we're left with Jesus and his disciples, alone. Jesus turns to them and ask them what must of been a difficult question: "will you also go away?" Not, do you understand? Can you cannibalize me? No! Will you go away too? Ah! What a powerful question. So your freaked out, you don't understand, you don't know which bible is right, what church to go too, who to trust, what to do. Jesus, however, has a very simple question, "will you go away too?."

I laughed out loud this morning as the Lord gently let me know that it's just okay not to understand. I don't need to understand how he laid the foundations of the earth. I don't need to know how he flung the stars into the heavens and set the boundaries of the sea. I don't have to have a clue how he sits upon the circle of the earth, the nations but drops in his bucket. I can't solve poverty, rid the world of disease and pain. I don't know if people are born this or that or where the line should be drawn regarding the ethic of life. There are so many things today that I don't know... but really, the Holy Spirit whispered in my ear saying, "are you going away too?" And I must say, no! A resounding, NO! Because even though I don't understand, I do know, as Peter said in reply, "only you have the words of life."(68, my paraphrase)

Dread: Responsible Thinking or Poison? You decide....

2009-05-18T08:02:00.006-04:00

I learned a great lesson this morning. Last night was a somber occasion. My wife's vacation was quickly coming to an end, our children were going back to the regular routine, and I knew that I was going to be faced with myself, alone. Oh, well, let's not forget Molly my precious 2 year old. But, you know what I mean. The week was so restorative in so many ways that I could not even begin to express the gratitude I have for the privilege of being with my family with a clear mind and an open and surrendered spirit.

But, there we sit last night, my wife and I together, dreading the day to come. Neither of us knowing what that day was to bring but yet having some horrifying ideas, pictures, of what it might be. The serenity and shelter was being threatened and neither of us were entirely comfortable. We even chose not to pray about tomorrow cause we both said we'd deal with it when it came.

Well, I guess by now we all know today is here. The alarm went off at 5:30am and I rolled off that bed and as soon as my feet hit the floor my spirit was flooded with the deepest sense of security that I've felt in a long time. And the cliche' resounded in my mind: I do not know what tomorrow holds, but I know who holds it in the palm of His hands. I had to stop for a moment... It was the last thing I expected, to hear: His sweet and wooing, lovely and passionate, calming and serene voice.

I think if I would of had time, and He knew I didn't, I would of fell on my face at that moment in gratitude. You see, its been such a long time since I've woke in the morning with a sense of hope. Life and pain and hurt and physical maladies have a way of eating away at you til before you even realize what has happened your not even a semblance of the man you used to be. You can even forget who you are if your not careful. But, there's one thing that I have come to know with certainty beyond doubt, He knows who I am.

John Howe, the Canadian artist says the following:

“What a folly to dread the thought of throwing away life at once, and yet have no regard to throwing it away by parcels and piecemeal.”

Marcus Aurelius, the great Roman Emperor, said:

Be content with what you are, and wish not change; nor dread your last day, nor long for it.

Both these men make power statements about the very nature of dread. What is it that we're doing when we sit around worrying about things we can't change, days that haven't even arrived yet, bills we've not even gotten, health reports that may or may not be good or bad? Are we not wasting precious moments of today? Jesus, the man, also made a very profound statement to this regard. Remember now, especially in the Emperor's day and in Jesus' day, times were harsh. The first century C.E. world was fraught with danger and change and sickness and disease. I am not going to spend anytime this morning delineating it but take a little time to read about the world that Jesus lived in. His words will come alive in a new way to you.

Anyways, so I can put this to rest, Jesus sat down on the hillside one day and began a sermon, a famous one. We call it the Sermon on the Mount. In this sermon he dealt with the people's dread, saying:

33 But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

34 "So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today's trouble is enough for today.
Matt 6:33-34 (NRSV)

Basically, Jesus was saying that you do not have the resources to deal with tomorrow yet. Your portfolio is not polished enough. Your investments in the future can crumble in a moment's time. Today, today is the day that the Lord has given; let us be glad and rejoice in it. (Ps 118:24, my paraphrase) In some ways that makes me feel vulnerable but in the most important ways, its liberating. He dwells in eternity: simultaneously in the past, present, and future. There is NOTHING that He does not know.

Lastly, I've yet to deal with Howe's quote and I've done it on purpose. I know what its like to attempt to wholesale throw my life away with drugs and alcohol and sex and every vice this old world has to offer. But, I never considered how we so easily gloss over opportunities because we dread or are afraid of something that even hasn't happened or may never happen. Piece by piece, we give ourselves, our potentials, away. God give us grace to listen today and see today what it is we're here to do and who might need us....

A Midnight Encounter with a Saviour

2009-05-17T12:34:00.008-04:00

Questions are essential to human evolution. From the earliest days of Greek philosophy to the present, man has guided his quest upon this planet with questions that led to answers that only led to more and more questions. I love Euripides who said, "question everything." Or, the 12th century cleric and scholastic theologian, Abelard, who died quietly; his dying words are said to be "I don't know..."

My earliest notions of God was that He was offended by questioning,.Fundamentally, however, I do not think He is. Where did He come from? How did He not have a beginning? Why do we use a big H when writing His pronoun? What is incarnation? How can one man be both God and man at the same time? What of the millions who do not know or have lived and died without knowing....

Years ago, all those questions haunted me. I remember standing in the pulpit Sunday after Sunday preaching things that had been passed along to me via tradition that I no longer believed. I felt as if I was not only betraying myself but I was betraying the very people I had been entrusted to care for. Finally, it became too much and I became a casualty; lost in a sea of doubt, confusion, and cynicism.

Lately, I have been thinking about Nicodemus (Jn 3) coming to Jesus under the cloak of night. Personally, had I been Jesus I would of been offended. Here this teacher, leader, the man who was supposed to have the answers comes to Jesus incognito and identified Jesus as a teacher from God. If I were Nicodemus, I'm sure I would of instructed Jesus: tone it down... stop causing trouble. Jesus quickly, however, turns the tide on Nicodemus and begins to ask this sage questions he could not answer.

My mind often wanders off the beaten path of history or tradition and wonders what ever truly became of Nicodemus? What did he ever really do with the questions that Jesus so aptly planted into his heart? Notice what I said there, because there is a subtle statement being made here: Jesus intentionally asked this religious man, this good man, sage, teacher, questions he knew Nicodemus could not answer. Why? Perhaps to bring him to the end of himself?

I would have hated that, and I'm not so sure Nicodemus did not either. "How can a man be born the second time?" "What do you mean by being born of water and of Spirit?" I can not really answer those things today. Oh, sure, I can quote to you dozens of interpretations from left to right about what the church says it means. But, what does it really mean?

Years ago, a very wise pastor told me that I should never live in the ghetto of my own mind. I fear that I did not heed his words so well. Faith must be experienced, lived, at times--felt. I remember the scripture in Hebrews 11:6, and I paraphrase: you can't please God or even approach His very person without first believing fundamentally the HE IS. Now, I can do that! Today, I may not understand many of the things I thought I did years ago. I may not be able to believe in the same old answers my Sunday School teachers gave me. But, today, mine eyes have seen His salvation and in that, I find the greatest peace. I also am beginning to believe that just maybe my questions are an encounter with the Jesus of history who calls me to himself with words that fall heavy upon my ears...

The Lost Coin

2009-05-16T09:34:00.005-04:00

How would it be possible if salvation were ready to our hand, and could without great labor be found, that it should be by almost all men neglected? But all things excellent are as difficult as they are rare.
-- Baruch Spinoza

Wow, its just seems like forever since I've had the time or been physically able to update this blog. Health issues, family and marital issues have weighed heavily upon me of late and I am thankful to still be alive and in the ring, still fighting and not down yet. One of my of my all time favorite Christian contemporary groups was a group lead by Bryan Duncan many years before his mega successful solo career: Sweet Comfort. They broke up back in the mid eighties and it was the end of an era to me.

Anyways, they had a song entitled "Contender." Its all about this fight going on between two matched and formidable foes. One has the resolve to say, I'm not quitting, I not giving up...." If you've never heard it, try YouTube and see if its available. Its well worth the listen. That's where I've been and while I must say that its not the most pleasant place to be, it is where you find what your made of, who you love, how strong you are or how weak....

With all this said, it make Spinoza's quote all the more applicable. Obviously, Spinoza was not a Christian in any traditional sense. He was an excommunicated Jew who said he found it difficult to teach philosophy without disturbing organized religion. So, suffice it to say that his idea of salvation was not the typical evangelical one employed by most today. But, regardless, his statement speaks to me, even if in a different way than he would of chosen.

I am reminded of the kingdom parables that Jesus shared along the Galilee countryside: the kingdom of heaven is like a woman who had ten coins and lost one (lk 15). She swept her whole house all night to find one lost coin, and finding it she rejoiced as much or even more for the one she recovered than the nine she had in her pocket. I wonder if that wasn't was Spinoza was meaning when he likened salvation to that which is excellent and rare? I also wonder how many things we allow to just fall into the cracks of our lives, like the lady's coin? How easy would it of been for her to simply say, "I have nine others, what's one lost coin?" Yet, Christ likened the entire kingdom of heaven to that woman's search for that one lost coin.

At forty-0ne, I realize today that I have let too many coins slide into the cracks of life and lost pieces of myself along the way: passions, talents, things I didn't even know were gone. Losing a coin or two here or there may not add up, but eventually, it can become your very soul that's at stake. Just as this woman stayed up all night searching for that coin as if it were her only one, there comes a time when you realize that you've lost too much of yourself... life, drugs, addictions, cynicism.... so many things went wrong that I never intended to go wrong.

Oh, don't get me wrong; I would rather offer to Him a coin left in my pocket. I mean, a coin is a coin, right? But, all I have left is rubbish and refuse from a life ill spent. How am I to take something that I didn't loose to bartar for His eternal love and forgiveness? So, I, like the woman with the lost coin have been sweeping and searching trying so desperately to find that one thing that will make me acceptable to dad.... to my God. Divinity? Resurrection? Infallibility? I found them all but even in all those things, I still did not feel like I found the right coin.

Then, the beauty and agony of Spinoza's words kiss in a moment of complete and utter clarity: surrender. I finally realized that he doesn't care whether I understand the incarnation. Hell, the church has been wrangling over it for milineums. It took them four hundred yearsto come to some definitive statement which ultimately split the church. He doesn't care whether I believe that every word in the cover of the 21st century bible is genuine reliable history. He could care less what I think of atonement theory or gay marriage. What he does care about, though, is surrender. The toughest, rarest, and most lost coin in my whole collection. I could fake the others if I had too.... but, surrender?

Surrender hurts; it forces me to say what I hate to admit. That is, I don't know. I don't have the answers. All my reading, all my learning, all my theological pursuits, think-I-know's, none of them could help me in the moment that I came face to face with the one thing I did not want to do: bow. Sounds so easy, at the hand of every person, so readily available, but so difficult and rare that it makes its price so far above value one could never substitute anything for it.

Well, to make a long story short, I am finally on my knees. I told my wife last night that I was not entirely sure what that meant (and you thought you were so far gone! LOL) All I know, is He is right here with me... and, that's worth more than theories, books, theology, cynicism, or anything coin I can begin to substitute in my collection.... thank you, Jesus!

One Priest, Two Faiths, and Lots of Questions - News

2009-03-28T00:59:00.000-04:00

One Priest, Two Faiths, and Lots of Questions - News

Pluralistic ideology can often be abstract and rhetorical. The above article on belief.net's news section highlights two Episcopal priest: one who is both an Episcopal priest as well as a follower of Islam; the other is an Episcopal priest recently voted in as the Bishop of the Upper Michigan Diocese who also practices Zen Meditation and has received lay ordination from a Buddhist community. The controversy over these two priest is stirring up much debate and is threatening to create a 21st century version of the Syncretistic Controversy.

Among those of us who have a positive view on religious pluralism, I wonder how many would feel comfortable with multiple faith confessions? It is true that many of the beliefs of the world's major religions contradict one another. How can these differences be reconciled? One of the priest involved states that Christianity and Islam (her additional faith interest) inform and compliment one another more than they collide with each other.

I must admit that the idea gives me some pause, not really idealistically, but more of a practical nature. The demands and conflicting ideas of, say, Islam and Christianity, would be very difficult to reconcile in my opinion. To the contrary, to have an eclectic faith where one can be a part of a specific faith community, one that best suits or fits their spirituality, but also is free to take from any religion to inform and enhance their understanding of God and responsibility to the world, seems to be a more manageable propposition. For instance, I am an Episcopalian and am most comfortable in a Christo-centric, bible related practice of faith. However, I allow myself the freedom to search for God in the sacred scriptures of many religions: buddhist, Islamic, earth based spirituality, etc, they all have something of value to offer the soul that is searching. Some fit with my spiritual disposition and where I am at the moment better than others. Some day down the road I may be able to find value in things that can not recieve from today.

What is your opinion on this matter? Is it really possible for a person to be a part of two completely different faiths and be equally as faithful to both? This is a very interesting question and one that is likely to become more relevant as our postmodern age proceeds. Leave a comment through which you can follow me to Disqus and we can discuss this topic further. Be sure to vote on the poll related to this post that is included in the right side bar. Thank you for your participation!

For Those Who are Pained by My Changes

2009-03-27T12:49:00.002-04:00

For Those Who are Pained by My Changes

The above link is one that I found in an article entitled "Losing Your Religion? How to Talk to your Kids", written by Valerie Tarico in the Living section of the Huffington Post. Tarico is best known for her book, The Dark Side: How Evangelical Teachings Corrupt Love and Truth and the founder of WisdomCommons.org. As the title of the article suggest, Tarico is addressing the issue of how to approach your children when your quest of faith has led you in an opposite direction than what they are used to seeing. This is no doubt a very serious issue and one that is oftentimes neglected at the demise of children's faith.

Children need to understand that faith is a journey and that in this journey things often change; we often change! This change does not negate the reality of the faith that we once held, it informs that faith and it is important that children understand this. There have been many cases where children wake up one day to find that things have changed drastically in the spirituality of their parents. Perhaps, this brings about a move from one church to another, or, even a change in the family's church attendance altogether. Where the family used to attend church on a regular basis, now the family only attends sporadically, if at all. This is not always a bad thing, it may just be a phase in a person's spiritual journey where relationship or solitude, etc, is more important at the time. However, children may see this and get confused and this confusion can breed disillusionment and an eventual migration away from all religious faith.

In the article, Tarico links to a piece she wrote and that is what is linked above and referenced in the title of this post. It goes beyond the need to speak to children about this and extends to family relationships and those persons in one's life that can be affected by change in a person's spiritual disposition. Tarico is writing for the benefit of loved one's who are worried about her change in faith and she is telling them what she sees as important about her change and what she wants them to know. Its a great piece and one that I wish I had stumbled upon a long time ago. She really does a great job of explaining the process she is going through; this process is indicative of what many of us, whose faith has been reshaped and redefined and who are constantly in a state of flux regarding matters of faith and spirituality, go through.

At the end of this post written to Tarico's loved ones, she says the following:

For a long time, I have known that the answers I had were not quite right. But I didn't really know how to explain this whole process or how to articulate a better set of answers, so mostly what I talked about was the flaws in the old way of thinking.

This really explains a process that I know I've been through and actions of mine that I sincerely regret. It is just so easy for us to think that since we are unhappy with or questioning what we believe then surely everyone must be feeling this way, or if they are not, they should be. The fact is, however, that some people never question their faith; they are happy and content in what they believe and it would not be healthy for them to have their faith challenged. I think what happens is that we become so invested in 'faith as a journey' and we want everyone to respect our navigational decisions in this journey, but we are not so free in giving others space to plot their own course in matters of faith.

We are all at different places in our spiritual quest and we should learn how to respect that my revelation may be a stumbling block to another. Paul, in the 14th chapter of Romans, speaks to this very issue when dealing with eating meat that was sacrificed to idols and respecting certain holy days. Paul acknowledges that our feelings of freedom and such are not shared by everyone around us. Damage can be unnecessarily done to another's faith if ideas and concepts are pushed upon them that they are not ready to receive. They may never receive it, and that should be okay with us. I can look back and see where I was totally irresponsible with my religious ideas and intentionally challenged others who should not have been challenged. I mean, my faith changes often; it is okay with me if I do not have all the answers and if I take a position that is totally opposite of one that I took in the past. That's me. But, others find security in the answers they have and when one of those answers are attacked or challenged, it becomes personal. I should understand this, especially since I have been there.

Whether it is our children or family members or friends, all should be given the respect to grow in their faith and understanding in a manner that is appropriate for each individually. Variety is a good thing; no one has to be just like me, or just like you. This is a great lesson to be reminded of and Tarico does a wonderful job of bringing our attention to this important reality.

On Faith Panelists Blog: Religion is Being Redefined - On Faith at washingtonpost.com

2009-03-21T11:14:00.002-04:00

On Faith Panelists Blog: Religion is Being Redefined - On Faith at washingtonpost.com

Kenneth E. Bowers, a Baha'i Faith represenatitve and an On Faith panelist wrote the blog post linked above on Tuesday the 17th. I did not notice it until today but I am glad I did. While its a short peice, I like allot of what Bowers has to say. Also, I really like a represenative of a somewhat obscure but popular religion being featured as well. Beyond a few powerful yet controversial statements that Bowers makes, statements that we will get to in a moment, reading this post gave me an intellectual itch to scatch, so to speak. Not, knowing much about the Baha'i faith, I spent a little time familarizing myself with it and found a religion with a rich heritage and a great way of looking at the world.

Rising up within nineteenth century Persia, the religion has a modern flavor. Monotheistic in essence, it accepts the world's mutilplicity of religious faiths as reflections of a single divine force or power that uses these seperate faith renditions as a chorus of a single composer. Such as the symphony is made up of its various parts and musical instruments, it all works together to present a unified musical ensemble. So, the world's main religions reveal a single truth about a unified and singular divine; at least, that is what I understood the Baha'i religion to say and I must admit that the approach is very appealing and refreshing.

Equally refreshing is that many of the values and social principles of the Baha'i faith call for justice and a complete elimination of predijuce and inequality. Humanity is called upon to live in peace and unity, both religiously and politically. World peace is a prominent doctrine. The equality of man and woman as well as a harmony between religion and science are both fundamental beliefs as well.

Given the time this faith was born it is amazingly progressive. While its monotheistic emphasis or its theism in gneral may turn many people off, its unlying principles are very in tune with post modern notions of justice. I see in it a wonderful opportunity and platform for religions to meet on equal footing and engage in respectful dialog. It is no wonder to me that millions follow this faith worldwide and that many see it as the answer to religious plurality.

As promised, there are several statements in the above mentioned blog post that I would like to briefly comment on. First, Bowers sees globalization and the free and exhaustive exchange of information in today's world as an antidote to religious fanaticism and dogmatism. He states the following:

"It is natural that, exposed to an array of choices, many would either change religious identity, opt not to commit to any one religion, or even abandon religion altogether."

I wish that he would have elaborated on his source here for these powerful projections. I suspect that there is some truth to his proposals, although I certainly would not take his word for it. Two of his statements here assume prior religious understanding/belief: changing religious identity and abandoning religion altogether. I'm not so sure that his certainity here does not overlook the power of one's native faith or religious system. Opening one's mind to other religious ideas and systems will no doubt challenge a person, but it often has the opposite effect in that it can threaten one's ideas and thus invoke a departure from religious sampling. Additionally, doing research on the religious faith and ideas of another group of people or culture does not always mean that a person is searching for an alternative religious system or theory. So, while I like his statement and am inclined toward it, I am not convinced that the current information age is going to overcome fundamentalism or that the existence of religious pluralism will necessarily render the "my faith is right" mentality obsolete. I think this is more wishful thinking than rational thought.

Here is another statement that Bower makes that I think demands attention:

"...many have not so much abandoned faith as the narrow definitions of faith that often come with membership in a specific religious tradition. They see something universal and common to all religious expereince, and are therefore ready to accept such divesity as a necessary, even desirable, aspect of life. They appreciate faith and spirituality, but choose not to confine themselves to one particular choice."

Once again, I like this statement. But, one has to wonder if Bower is looking at the world through the eyes of a religious historian or an echatalogical prophet of his own doctrinal beliefs. Religion is being redefined here but is it not being redefined toward that which is consistent with the beliefs and eschatology of Bower's Baha'i religious belief system? Certainly, this religious mentality is consistent and conducive with Bower's beliefs but I am not sure that the world's religious population is becoming more tolerant and on a path to merge ecumenically anytime soon.

There are some merits to Bower's thoughts here so I am not trying to dimisss him altogether. Obviously, I am a proponent to religious pluralism or this site would not exist. But, I am not sure that I am as optimistic that the world is on the verge of getting along in spite of religious differences or that the Baha'i faith, although fascinating in itself, is the absolute platform for unity that the world is going to simply adhere too.

Perhaps, the day will come that the world operates under a single dictum or religious mandate. Even Christianity has such a persuasion in its eschatalogical view of the world. If religious harmony is to ever be achieved, it will definitely take some unifying force or require some platform or system of belief to triumph emphatically to the absolute exclusion of all others. Perhaps, and hopefully, a syncretistic logic similar to that porposed by Bower will eventually be the answer. It's a lofty ideal and would definitely stop all the killing and religious wars and bigotry that even today, in this post modern age, characterize such a large portion of religious faith. I nodd my head with Bowers in hope that he and his ideas are at least headed in the right direction.

Losing My Religion' by William Lobdell - Los Angeles Times

2009-03-10T14:20:00.000-04:00

Losing My Religion' by William Lobdell - Los Angeles Times

Several news sources picked up this story yesterday, promoting Mr. Lobdell's new book about his faith journey and how it related to his profession. It always pains me to hear or read of something as tragic as a person losing faith. As a reporter for the LA Times, covering religion in the LA area and abroad, this reporter was disenchanted by what he saw and it lead him away from his one time enthusiastic belief in God. While the numerous articles did not go into much detail about the events that he witnessed that led him to his current position, one can easily imagine that they were not in the least bit flattering to Christianity or to religion in general.

While it always disappoints me to hear or read of such things, I can not do so without thinking about the religious climate that Jesus himself was born into. Much of his recorded ministry in the gospels is confrontational; confrontation with the religious elites of his day. In fact, historically, Jesus was killed by these Jewish elites because of his ongoing and incessant criticism of their misdeeds and self-righteous conduct. Reference was made in the above article about how Mr. Lobdell was disgusted by seeing Bishops and such getting out of limosuines and having their rings kissed while thier constituency suffered tremendous injustices, often perpetrated by the very people these Bishops were known to protect. Similarly, the gospel story tells of leaders who wanted the best seats, brought undue attention to their giving, and loaded their subjects down with religious burdens that they themselves were unwilling to bear.

I look forward to reading Lobdell's book, but I do hope that he will one day rediscover faith. Fortunately, for me, I learned a long time ago that my faith, if it was to survive, could not rest in others and its validity had to exist solely upon what it meant for me and what it did within me as a person. People will fail; the visible respresentations of all the world's major religions are not always perfect examples of the principles they are supposed to represent. Personal faith, however, looks beyond this and is able to gain value even where there is failure and compromise. My prayers are with Mr Lobdell and the many thousands of disillusioned people who legitimately can relate to him.

Yale Daily News - Demystifying the psychology of religion

2009-03-04T22:19:00.001-05:00

Yale Daily News - Demystifying the psychology of religion

"What I'm interested in is the other story — what all religions have in common," he said. "These universals of religion come from aspects of peoples' brains that everybody shared and that emerged early in development."

From documenting our propensity to believe in teleological (purpose-based) explanations for natural phenomena to the widely held belief that humans possess a soul, a myriad of psychological studies — conducted both here at Yale and at peer universities — now suggest that our brains may be hard-wired to believe in religion.

"The universal themes of religion are not learned," Bloom said. "They emerge as accidental by-products of our mental systems."

There has long been a scholastic preoccupation with the demythologizing of religion. Modernity sought for a quantitative method, a measurable cause to the irreducible religious compulsion within man across all cultural, ethnic, geographical, and a host of other boundaries. One refreshing thing about Paul Bloom's approach to answer the why question is that he begins with the universal nature of religious phenomenon as a given rather than something needing to be proved. It is this fact that seems to propel Bloom's inquiry into a psychology of religion.

In this article there is an admission that religious impulses are a part of man's unique constitution; a primordial element to his being. The argument, however, emerges when we see these impulses as merely physical or biological in origin. That is, our minds evolved with these inclinations due to environmental stimulants that were consistent across the board. This is not the first time I have heard of the idea that man's propensity to believe in teleological answers is hardwired into our brains; a biological product developed as a result of our natural evolution in response to the world wherein we developed. While this certainly stands in line with an approach that denies anything greater than the observable world, at least as it relates to any ontological ideal, for those who hold belief in something outside the mundane, however, the argument is lacking.

Many of the answers proffered by Bloom, Kellerman, and others, do not negate belief in a divine. It really is a matter of perspective, as well as the age old question of what came first, the chicken or the egg. Did our brains develop with these capabilities and inclinations simply in response to a concrete world that man could not explain, or did these impulses develop to enable the creature to perceive and interact with that which lies outside the quotidian facets of our lives? It really depends upon which presupposition one begins with. If your inclined to believe in a creator/god etc, then you are more likely to begin with the idea that God came first and man was created and evolved with the characteristics necessary to perceive God and relate to him. The physical processes that can be measured and cataloged are simply the organs through this relationship is possible. It certainly does not negate the question of God in any way; that is, unless you want it too. Conversely, you can begin with the idea that God exist only within the intellect of man and this existence is nothing more than the mechanistic features of our brain's development. This is the divide that has long stood between those who believe and those who do not.

The psychology of religion is a very interesting field with so much potential for discovery--discovery and exploration into the wonder of our physical being. Perhaps we can better understand how we think and how our minds are developed to interact with an unseen world. While Bloom's work is fascinating, given its starting presupposition, it is of limited value to religious inquiry. However, there are others, most notably the father of the psychology of religion himself, William James. His book The Varities of Religious Experience is still a classic in this field and it is as relevant today as its was in the day the lectures were delivered.

What do you think? Make a comment and join me at disqus to continue this fascinating discussion!

Prayer doesn't belong in schools - NJVoices: Star-Ledger Editorial Page

2009-03-04T13:23:00.006-05:00

Prayer doesn't belong in schools - NJVoices: Star-Ledger Editorial Page:

Prayer doesn't belong in schools

The above story highlights a controversy that has raged my entire life as well as my entire school career. Prayer in public schools was a topic that was frequently brought up in church when I was a child and it definitely was a much stronger political hot button than what it is today. Stories such as the one above serve to remind me that the controversy has not went way.

The idea that removing school sanctioned prayer from the public schools would ultimately lead to a godless secular society is a common argument whenever this topic arises. For much of my life, I accepted it as true. However, as I have become more aware of the religious pluralism in America, I have also had to rethink my position on this issue.

Let me make it clear that I think religious prayer is important irrespective of the venue in which it is practiced. Most religions have some form of prayer as a part of its practices. This prayer should not be inhibited or censored by the government or state in any way. Furthermore, one form or ritual of prayer should not be held in higher regard than another. Students across our nation should be free to practice whatever form of prayer they feel compelled to engage in, or be free from doing so should they not want to participate. If freedom is genuine, then it must extend to all person's the right to practice whatever religion they choose and be free to not engage in religious practices should they so choose.

Allot has changed in this country since I was a child. In my elementary school, I would venture to say that the majority of students came from Christian homes where prayer was a regular part of their lives. Today, however, in many places across our country, this can not be said. While the majority may still have Christian proclivities, there is a growing and significant minority within many of our communities where this simply is not the case. Children from Buddhist homes, Muslim or Hindu homes, and a myriad of other religious traditions are represented in almost every school system in our nation. Is it fair to subject these students to school sanctioned prayer that is Christian in nature and thereby exclude the prayer practices of others? How can school officials, teachers, ect, engage in such without adding a seal of approval and acceptance upon one form of prayer and by virtue of exclusion, denounce another? Would these same leaders be open to a Muslim prayer or a Buddhist meditation prior to a game or some school function? I highly doubt it.

The religious freedoms of this country mean nothing if they do not extend to and protect the least of all religions among us. As we become more and more of a religious melting pot, as the religious face of America reflects the variety in the religious practices of everyone as a whole, we must become more conscientious and careful in how we practice our freedoms so as not to inhibit or violate the rights of others. Additionally, respecting the rights of others should never be misinterpeted as compromise, at least, not in a negative sense. Cooperation builds community and being sensitive to the religious rights of everyone in a given community extends the value of relious practices rather than purely secularizing a community.

No doubt this discussion will rage on. What do you think? Do you see the regulation of prayer at public events and in public institutions a means of secularizing our society? How do we reconcile the fact that our Congress opens with prayer and yet our school days can not begin with it? What changes does our society need to make in order to show respect and give different religions their respective rights to practice as well as freedom from discrimination? Finally, is the charge of secularization a particulary bad one? Join me at Disqus to discuss these issues as well as others.

BBC NEWS | Europe | Vatican hosts Darwin conference

2009-03-03T13:43:00.002-05:00

BBC NEWS | Europe | Vatican hosts Darwin conference

I heard about this recently on NPR. Reading the press release, I found it interesting that the Catholic church never condemned Darwin or his theories. There are scholars from all over the world taking part in this discussion; a discussion that I think is well overdue and may serve to bring science and faith a few steps closer. These two entities are often at odds but do not necessarily have to be. Science should inform our faith not destroy it.

Here are a few related articles worth reading:

Cardinal says atheist's theories "absurd"

Science cannot disprove faith, cardinal argues

Cardinal says Dawkins' theories 'absurd'

SOF with Krista Tippett: Interview with Janna Levy

2009-03-02T22:10:00.002-05:00

American Public Media's, Speaking of Faith with Krista Tippett, produced a show last week entitled Mathematics, Truth, and Purpose. In this show, Tippett interviewed Janna Levin, a theoretical physicist and assistant professor of physics and astronomy at Barnard College in New York City. In addition to her academic career, Levin is also a novelist. The interview concentrates on Levin's most recent book entitled: A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines. Here is an excerpt from the show's transcript that explains the subject of Levin's book:

Her 2006 novel, A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines, explores great existential questions by probing the lives and ideas of two pivotal 20th-century mathematicians, Kurt Gödel and Alan Turing. Turing is known as the father of modern computing, and his insights were made possible in part by Gödel's discoveries. In 1931, Gödel shook the worlds of mathematics, philosophy, and logic with his incompleteness theorems. He showed that some mathematical truths can never be proven or, as he says in Janna Levin's novel, that mathematics is perfect, but it is not complete.
To see some truths, you must stand outside and look in. This notion also held deeply unsettling human implications. It posited hard limits to what any of us can ever logically, definitively know. Janna Levin's novel imaginatively evokes the force of this idea in the classrooms and coffeehouses of Gödel and Turing's day, and in her own life as a 21st-century urban scientist. When we spoke in 2007, she told me she began her undergraduate studies with little active interest in science, convinced instead that philosophy was asking all the big questions.

If you missed this edition of SOF, then I highly recommend you go to their website and download either the podcast or the unedited version of the broadcast. It deals with unsettling but pertinent questions such as truth and the essence of free will. There are simply some things that lie outside of the observable region of empirical science. Levin's novel explores this idea, its implications, and how these questions were lived out in the lives and thinking of two great scientist whose lives are chronicled in the novel.

Catholics must confront scandal, not ignore it

2009-02-18T12:45:00.002-05:00

In a recent Opinion post on USA Today's site, several contributors issued their opinion on Rod Dreher's OpEd piece entitled, How much is too much? where Dreher essentially admitted that his faith was so challenged by the entire ordeal that he left the Catholic church and has now become a member of the Eastern Orthodox church. This does not surprise me in the that there has been an exodus from the Catholic church in America due to these revelations of sexual abuse and scandal since 2001 when these revelations broke onto the public scene. What is surprising, however, is that Dreher has made a conscious decision not to report on any scandalous material in the EOC, something that I am sure cuts across the grain of his journalistic spirit.

These issues will no doubt be with us for a long time to come, and so they should. Church corruption, whether it be in Rome, Alexander, Springfield, or any number of small town churches throughout America and the world, will always be with us. Jesus, a devout Jew saw corruption in his day and confronted it vehemently. There was no stick your head in the sand and hope it goes away mentality. Jesus knew that faith was practiced by people and as such, it was subject to all the weaknesses and corruptions that humans are subject too.

One might rightly ask the question, if corruption exist in the upper echelons of power within these faiths, does it negate the entire faith as a fraud? Jesus was a Jew and I seem recall him confronting those making merchandise of worshipers right within the Temple complex, driving them out with a whip and the proclamation that his father's house should be a house of prayer, not merchandise. It was the High Priest and chief religious rulers that offered him up to Pilate, yet Jesus never renounced his Jewishness or the religion of his birth. Jesus is and will forever be known as a Jew. Even the apocryphal portrait of his return has him sitting down upon the throne of David in the city of Jerusalem; you can not get more Jewish than that!

This should tell us something about religion and the nature of those who adhere to them. We are not always the best examples or qualified to represent our faith to a world who desperately needs to believe in something. But, we can also take solace in the fact that sincerity outweighs imperfection every time. The Divine sees our hearts and there are example after example of where Jesus embraced those who were not doing things according to the book, so to speak, but whose hearts were contrite and pliable.

Yes, we must confront scandal where we find it. We can not turn a deaf ear to those who have been mistreated and despised by the very people they looked too for love and comfort. At the same time, however, we can't throw the baby out with the bath water. As Bonhoeffer said, there is a God shaped void in the soul of every man and our religious faith's-- with all their diversity and variety--serve to satisfy this irreducible need of mankind. Corruption is but a mere distraction from the real issues of personal fulfillment and satisfaction (this certainly is not making light of those recipients of abuse by any means).

Impeded by Health Concerns

2009-02-15T15:25:00.004-05:00

I apologize for the lack of recent updates to the site. Yours truly has been undergoing some significant health problems that has really limited my ability and time to keep up with this and many other things. Please do keep me in your prayers and I will begin updates again in the very near future. Also, the second part of the Religion and the Environment post is almost ready and should be posted in the very near future.

Thank you to all who have waited patiently. I will work hard to ensure that your wait is worthwhile. I just solicit your prayers during this time of ill health. Blessings to you all!

Jesus, The Bible and Homsexuality--Explode the Myths, Heal the Church

2009-01-30T16:41:00.005-05:00

The following is excerpt from an excellent review of the book listed in the post title. Dealing with the subject of homosexuality and the church, the author follows the status quo in some areas and challenges popular notions in others. One area that I found intriguing and potentially makes the book worth the read is where the author allegedly states that heterosexual marriage has more to fear from itself than the harm that homosexual unions can bring. I agree totally with this synopsis. I think I am going to read the book myself. This excerpt comes from a blog that I find extremely good entitled, The Beautiful Heresy- Christian Universalism.

The last chapter that I read addresses the idea of homosexuality and marriage. Professor Rogers shows statistically speaking that, while marriage is in trouble in the United States, it doesn't need defense from homosexual marriage which does not threaten heterosexual marriage at all. He also points out the hypocrisy of putting homosexuals in the bind of saying that all sex outside of the institution of marriage is sin while denying them the right to marry. We are assigning homosexuals to a life of celibacy, a life that the Bible clearly states is not for everyone and is an assignment from God.

I see more and more Christians who are willing to at least debate gay rights now. Both civil rights and how homosexuals should be treated in the church is up for discussion. A while ago Brian McClaren called for a five year time out to think about the topic. But, while I like the fact that he is not advocating continued discrimination, by doing nothing, we are condemning gay people to continue to suffer from this discrimination. We should never hesitate when it comes to seeking justice. Justice delayed is justice denied. The time is always now. Hopefully, books like this one will move some people off of the sidelines and into the arena to fight for justice.

http://www.thebeautifulheresy.com/2009/01/jesus-bible-and-homosexuality-explode.html