Jesus the Revolutionary

Sarah Palin has been aptly described as "a God fearing, gun totting, former beauty queen."

I am encouraged to read up on the prospective VP selection for the GOP, she is more than a token female (although she is, quite obviously, a cagey attempt to garner some of the Hillary for Pres crowd), and has a track record of thumbing her nose at the establishment within her own party, and has taken a strong line against corruption in her own party. Things I admire, and believe the country will admire. However, I find these kind of sentiments to be... frustratingly disturbing... to say the least.

What do you think?

When people talk about Jesus as a revolutionary, is this what you think was meant?





...more thoughts on politics at a later date!

A Hermeneutic of Suspicion versus an Epistemology of Love

A Hermeneutic of Suspicion::

Our culture defaults to suspicion. This is even more prevalent amongst younger generations. I admit to it, my first instinct is to ask, 'where's the catch?'

'What are you selling?'

'Yeah, right!?!'

Even people I trust, even about things that I already adhere to. My primary mode of thinking is suspicion.

Look for the angles, watch for the hoax.

Who's the sucker? If you don't know who the sucker is...
...then you're the sucker!

We doubt as a matter of reflex.

The suspicious approach is our default mode of understanding and interpreting the world around us; this leads to an attempt at a self-centered epistemology, a 'pick and choose' hermeneutic that attempts to divorce thoughts from their context. We take what we hear, or read, or see, and we spin it to fit our own grid. We fail to come at anything with an attempt to understand it on it's own terms because nothing is to be trusted on its own terms! And so, we fail to understand.

This is what has been called the 'wikipedia-zation' of knowledge. It leads ultimately to a failure to critique sources of information, and their authority, because we have become the source of all authority. We assume that we can know the truth on our own, in fact, that this is the only way it can be known.

Because there is no authority that we will accept, ultimately we will accept any authority, because we cannot function without authority.*

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Here is where this gets practical:

According to recent studies, 80 percent of this countries population believe that "an individual should arrive at his or her own religious beliefs independent of any churches or synagogues."

Here is where it gets problematic:

Epistemology is a communal activity; we cannot come to any knowledge of truth, or approach to knowledge of truth, apart from our relationships with people. If we think otherwise we are deluding ourselves, and ignorant of our tutors (those who influence us). We wear lenses in all that we understand, and those lenses come from other people.

This plays into spirituality in amazing ways. The DaVinci Code was a wonderful example of people grasping at anything to bolster their already held beliefs. On both sides. People antagonistic to Christianity looked to Dan Brown's novel to define their understanding of Church history (a work of fiction, based upon an admitted hoax... but an attractive one.) Christians were quick to respond with protest and outrage.

Rarely did people ask the deeper questions about what really happened, why people were so intrigued by such a presentation of history, or how we can even know! Much less actually enter into dialogue or relationship with each other...

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An Epistemology of Love ::

So what would a different way of knowing and understanding look like?

To whet your appetite here is an interview that references NT Wright's epistemology of love.

More to come...

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*We take almost the entire realm of our own knowledge of the universe on the authority of others, from atoms, to Beijing, to fidelity, to the 'Catcher in the Rye.' ...I've never actually seen a possum, I can choose to believe it is an elaborate hoax, foisted upon me by those with nothing to gain, or I can simply take it upon the authority of other people that such a creature does indeed exist.

Jesus Creed on Losing Faith

What's the plan?

Ephesians 1:10

God wants to put everything back together in Jesus. Fixing broken people, broken societies, and broken ecologies, through the broken body of the Messiah-King.

Ephesians 2:10

God's method for this is you and me! The simple prayers of a faithful grandmother. The engineer designing portable water filtration. The family who adopts a homeless man. The coach who loves her athletes. These are the fingerprints of God.

Ephesians 3:10

It is the Church (not the institution, but the community of people who have been gripped by God's vision for the wold) that is the center of everything. In spite of the way things might look to the casual observer, it is the joy of angels, the obsession of principalities and powers on high, to look over the on goings of the People of God.

Scripture

I had a blast on my birthday...

I turned 30 yesterday, and got to celebrate it by gathering together as God's community, honoring Him, enjoying each other, and growing in His purposes. I was truly blessed! Thank you to all of you who are a part of my life, and this community!

We spent the evening talking about Scripture, asking some of the following questions:

What is the Bible?
Where did it come from?
Is it something we can trust?
What is it's purpose?
How are we supposed to interact with it?

I had several people express interest and gratitude for the handout that we looked at, so here is the material that was on it:

Basic Questions:
What is the plain meaning of the text?
What is the significance of that?
How does that apply to my life, or that of my community?

Word Study:
Look up every use of a specific word in a letter, or the entire Bible

Background:
Look up the meanings of people’s names, or place names.
Find out the history of certain places or people mentioned in a passage. Look them up in other passages or sections of the Bible.

Become a Character:
Ask some basic questions about the character’s role in the story:
Who am I?
What am I feeling?
What are my motivations?
What am I doing?
What am I thinking?
What am I learning?
What mistakes am I making?
Take this approach to each character or group of characters in the story.

Outline:
Take a large chunk of scripture (for example: an epistle, or the life of Joseph in Genesis) and make an outline of it, listing major points, subpoints, and details

Paraphrase:
Put a passage into your own words.

Memorizing Scripture:
Commit a passage of scripture to memory

Lectio Divina:
Lectio-read the passage several times
Meditatio-meditate upon the passage, a phrase, or even a single word
Oratio-respond to God in prayer
Contemplatio-listen to what God wants to say to you

Where do I start?

Get a good modern translation of the Bible
(I use NIV and The Message primarily)

Start with the New Testament:
Mark is the shortest letter that tells Jesus’ story
Luke and Acts were written as sequels, telling the story of Jesus and the early Church
The Psalms are ancient songs/poems

Resources:
Study Bibles
Commentaries
Books
Concordances

www.biblegateway.com
NIV Application Commentary Series
Everyone Commentary Series
NT Wright
How to Read the Bible for All It’s Worth
Stuart and Fee

What am I trying to accomplish?
1) Familiarity with the grand story told by the Bible as a whole
2) Study of the details and how they fit into that entire grand story
3) Meditation upon the words inspired by God;
allowing the Spirit of God to reveal from the words of Scripture who God is, what He is like, and what He is inviting us to participate in.

How often, and how long, should I read?
Find a regular place in your daily routine where you can be uninterrupted.
Read as little or as much as necessary to interact with the Holy Spirit!

Huh?

"It's not our business to make friends with all of the political leaders of the world," said Bob DeWaay, an evangelical minister from Minnesota whose book, "Redefining Christianity: Understanding the Purpose Driven Movement," critiques Warren's work.

"We have a message about how people get right with God, not about how the world is going to get rid of its problems," DeWaay said.

I came across this in an article about the McCain/Obama interview at Saddleback Church.

I have to say I am flabbergasted by this statement...

Getting people right with God has nothing to do with the world's problems???!!!?!?!?!

It seems like Jesus would disagree:

Luke 4:16-20

And it seems like the fulfillment of the promises in Scripture, in fact, would contradict the statement above:

Revelation 22:1-6
Ezekiel 41:1-12

We could go on, and on, but I will instead, encourage you to read for yourself! Does the Bible really teach that people living in a right relationship with Him will have no impact on what goes on in the world? What is the relationship between the state of the world and humanity's openness to God?

The next generation is watching, closely watching, how the Church will answer these questions!

A Different God

"Do you know that moment in Jesus Christ Superstar where the crowds are coming into Jerusalem and the disciples are all singing, ‘Haysannah, Hosannah’. And one of the zealots says to Jesus, ‘Come on, you ride in ahead of us and you’ll get the power and the glory for ever and ever and ever.’ And Jesus turns round and says, ‘Neither you, Simon, nor the 50,000, nor the Romans, nor the Jews, nor Judas, nor the twelve, nor the priests, nor the scribes, nor doomed Jerusalem herself, understand what power is, understand what glory is.’ And then he proceeds to weep over Jerusalem and prophesy its destruction; and then he goes, steadily through the following week, to his enthronement on Calvary, which with hindsight the church realizes to be the place where all power, all real power, is congregated.
The world needs to see that there is a different model of authority. Because the world needs to know that there is a different God. When the world says, ‘God’ it doesn’t mean what you and I mean by God. It doesn’t mean the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. It means either a pantheist god: the god of all-being, a sort of nature god. Or, it means a deist-god way up in the sky who started off by being a landlord, then became an absentee landlord, and now is just an absentee. We have to tell the world again, that the God who is in authority over the world, the God who speaks through scripture, is the Father of Jesus, the God who sends the Spirit. And, therefore, we have to announce to the world the story of scripture."

NT Wright

Grandpa Jim

My Grandfather just recently passed away.

I have to admit that it is a little hard to grieve at his passing; not because I didn't love him, or because I won't miss him; but rather, because he lived such a remarkably great life that I think it is more fitting to celebrate him than grieve him.

He was married to my grandmother for well over fifty faithful years. He raised a wonderful family, loved his wife and children dearly. Watched his grandchildren grow up and have their own kids. He live a life full of goodness and virtue that many simply could never imagine to be possible.

He worked hard, worked with his hands.

He grew up very poor, but didn't know it until he grew older! He spoke fondly of his boyhood and his family.

He was the kind of man who enjoyed the company of children. As I grew older I began to notice how easily he enjoyed taking his grandchildren for walks, to play catch, to swing on swings or slide down slides. What for many adults (and even parents) is a chore that they engage in, knowing it to be important, but finding it less than exciting, my grandfather did simply and with joy.

He was a friend to many. He was deeply involved in the life of their Church. He took it upon himself to care for handyman tasks about the Church building.

I remember holidays at their house in San Jose. All the cousins building forts in the living room out of chairs and blankets. Raiding the fridge in the middle of the night! I remember silly jokes and Hertz Donuts! I remember goofy sayings with just a little bit of an accent..

He is a man with a legacy.

My spiritual life is a tribute to his. He not only raised my mother to live in Christ, but was always there for me to see; a man of God. He is my grandfather, but he passed on much more than genes. He loved God deeply, and was deeply loved by Him. And so, God has brought Grandpa Jim to be with Him!

(I hope he gets the jokes!)

And now, we await the coming resurrection of the saints, when we shall see each other again!

Hollywood Does It Again!

Man! What a let down...

I saw the 2nd Narnia movie, what a horrible movie!

I was in pain the entire movie!

They added scenes, they deleted scenes, they changed characters around, invented plot lines that didn't exist, and removed ones that did...

I was literally cringing the entire movie!

Why would you make a move based on a book and do something like this?!?!

I guess you can get away with it if the author is DEAD!

I wanted my money back! (Which wasn't much because we went to the $3 theater...)

If the same guys rewrite the 3rd one, I may not see it...

No Easy Answers...

So I read this interview with NT Wright about the recent Lambeth Conference (a once every ten years, gathering of worldwide Anglican Bishops to address issues the global Anglican Communion is facing) which had been addressing the issues surrounding the potential schism in the ranks of Anglicans worldwide.

Anglicans in Africa and elsewhere have been appalled at the decision by the US Episcopal Church to go ahead with the consecration of Gene Robinson as a Bishop in spite of appeals by Anglican leadership to refrain. Robinson is an openly practicing homosexual. The central issue for the conference was Church discipline, Church community, and the basis for the communions remaining whole; of course, this also touched very much on the issue of homosexuality itself (although, the wider world, both secular and Church, has seemed to act as though the sexual issue was the primary one).

After reading the article I ended up following links and reading various things...

The above link to the Wiki-entry on Gene Robinson, and this article. If you only read one of the links in this post read the last one (gettingit.com)

I had just had a conversation yesterday with a teenage girl, pregnant, homosexual, and deeply disturbed at the Church and the way it treats people; she was referencing the science that has proven homosexuality to be rooted in genes, and the history that shows Jesus as a man who had impregnated Mary Magdalene.

I read much more than the above articles, but I think the above is enough to give you the flavor of what I was ruminating about...

...so:

What does Scripture say to someone in Cheryl Chase's shoes?

How would various outcomes in scientific findings about human sexuality effect our understanding of what the Bible teaches about human understanding?

What should a pastor do with someone in Mrs. Chase's shoes? ...and how does that answer impinge on the issue of homosexuality?

Does the typical answer the Church gives on the question of homosexuality do justice to the uniqueness of the issue?

Questions abound!

Answers, perhaps, are more ambiguous...

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What I do know is this:

Pat answers are more about the self-image of the person giving them, than the person in need of wisdom, or the god who is said to endorse them.

Humble and genuine concern for the welfare of others should be the primary motive in offering wisdom.

"Jesus is Lord," is the proclamation of the gospel.
"I wanna have heterosexual intercourse," is not the proclamation of the gospel.

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If we can lovingly point all people to Jesus as the true King of the world, and encourage them to allow Him to become that for them, all the while acknowledging that this requires a death to self and death to sin for all people (primarily for us as His disciples and does not single out homosexual people in this respect), then I think we have made the first step down the right path...

...if, however, we are pointing to heterosexuality instead of Jesus; or singling out homosexuals as somehow fundamentally "other" than the rest of humanity; or if we are not speaking of Jesus in terms of absolute surrender; or failing to communicate that identity is found in Christ and no other place; or if we are bolstering our own position at the expense of people on the outside; we are walking a path that will lead to our own ruin, the abandonment of the very purpose for which God has given Himself to us, and the ruin of others.

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I'd love some comments on this one. It continues to be a very raw issue in Buffalo.

McLaren: Whipping Boy for the Conservative Church

I am amazed at the response I get to the writings of Brian McLaren.

It fascinates me the things people see in his words. He has regularly been vilified as a proponent of relativism (denying the validity of truth altogether), and is used as a by-word to scare people from the pulpits of conservative Churches nation-wide...

I happen to think he is a much-needed voice in the Western Church.

He has written one of the best books on the Kingdom of God that I have ever read (at least from the perspective of a pastor; looking for a book that is accessable to non-academics, personally applicable and engaging, and covers the range of the topic), has a firm grasp on the pulse of our post-Christian culture, seems to have real insight on how to preach the gospel in such a context, and he is a constant voice for intellectual humility amongst Christians.


I find his challenge to the Western Church to be spot on. We have become, in many instances, a self-contained sub-culture, completely irrelevant to the world. (I know the word relevance gets spit upon by conservative Christians, "what it really means is syncretism, going soft, letting the culture dictate to us, etc." but the simple fact is that God is NOT irrelevant to the world, and if we are, it is because we are out of sync with Him...)

I certainly don't want to go on record affirming everything he has said, but I do want to get him a legitimately honest and open hearing, before he is condemned to the Tower of the Inquisitor!

SO, let's have it, what exactly is your problem with McLaren?

Politics....

You know the old joke:

Poli-tics is a Latin phrase meanings 'multiple blood sucking creatures.'

I couldn't help but think of this when I came across the following phrase:

A columnist in the local paper referred to the congressional changing of the guard in 2006 as accomplishing nothing "except alter the label on the enema bottle..."

...amused chuckling...

;-)

I have had a few political conversations lately and it had me thinking through a few things. I am not a political junkie, but I keep an ear to what is going on. I read the local paper and listen to conservative and liberal talk radio throughout the day in my work truck; but I don't watch TV. I am independent and have only voted once for a member of either major party, I have what would be 'conservative' stances on some issues, and 'liberal' ones on others, but I am far too firm (even extreme) on most of my positions to be called a 'moderate.'

But here is where the rubber meets the road.

I am very firm on my political opinions, and I hold them because I believe them to be correct (I know that this seems redundant, but in today's intellectual climate it needs to be stated!!) and yet, I don't find my convictions to be a sufficient motivation to portray those with whom I disagree as incompetent, ignorant, or malevolent. It is precisely this that I find so repugnant about politics (as well as other arenas for intellectual debate):

The inability of most people to grant credibility to those with opposing views.

Without this willingness to allow others to hold opinions divergent from ours, we can never engage in real conversation and debate. You can't have intellectual debate if the real underlying issue is not the policy at hand but rather it is simply that your opponent is stupid, ignorant, or evil. If we never engage in honest interaction with those who differ from us, then how can we actually claim to believe that what we assert is in any sense of the word 'true?' If we are afraid to engage with others who hold different opinions without claiming that they are defective human beings, then we are really saying we have no faith in the veracity of our convictions. If, conversely, we believe our assertions to be accurate than we would welcome the opportunity for robust, lively, and cordial challenges to those assertions.

It is precisely this that I believe is necessary to any real dialogue:

A willingness to grant legitimacy to ones opponents.

This willingness should not be confused for a lack of resolve about ones owns opinions, moral character, or intellectual rigor. This willingness is not about our assurance of the truth, but rather about our honoring other human beings as such, as well as our resolute stance in open and honest pursuit of the truth!

Unfortunately politicians on both sides (and people in general) tend to be lacking in such a willingness. It is this emphatic need to demonize opponents that the younger generation finds so repulsive in the American Church.

N T Wright Interview

The cure is more complicated than the diagnosis, yes?

It is and it isn't. The relief of global debt has actually been figured out. There are serious economists and bankers who have worked on this. I'm not an economist or a banker, but I have seen and talked to people in that field. They've got strategies where if you do this now, then you can do that next year, and so on. There would be ways through. Somebody said the sort of broad-brush sums we're talking about would cost, say, America roughly the amount that it spends on going to the movies each year. It would cost roughly that amount to put the whole thing back the right way around. Then we could all proceed together. What really sticks in my throat is that while all this is going on, the American government, along with my own government and several others, talk about bringing freedom and justice to the world, when we are doing the precise opposite. Use of imperial rhetoric to cover up our own consistent greed . if we have any Christian moral courage, this is what we ought to be talking about. Face it, we are in a world where two-thirds of the people are poor and crying for justice. One-third of the people are rich and wanting more sex. I want to say, what is wrong with this picture? This cannot be the way the Creator-God intended the cosmos to work.

Spiritual Formation: Part 5

The Renovation of the Heart: Disciples in God’s Kingdom

At this point we have established the fact of the problem, and the nature of the problem. Here we come to the substance of Jesus life and teaching as a response to the problem. We read throughout the gospels:

"Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. 'The time has come,' he said. 'The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!'"

"From that time on Jesus began to preach, 'Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.'"

Which begs the question...

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What is the Kingdom of the Heavens (God)?

The Psalmist writes, "the highest heavens belong to the LORD, but the earth he has given to man."

The Kingdom of God, simply put, is wherever God is King; there is a realm where whatever God desires to happen, actually happens, this realm is called 'heaven' or God's 'Kingdom.' There is a realm where God has set aside His dominion and placed authority into the hands of human beings, this is the realm of the earth.

The earth is sustained and exists by virtue of God's will, however, human beings were given control over what God had made. We have seen elsewhere that man has excluded God's direction from the realm of human activity and this is the cause of the problem.

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Two Kingdoms

God has always intended for mankind to have their own authority! In the beginning God gave humanity dominion of the earth, it was to be our role to exercise concern and authority over the world; to protect and create, to cultivate and care.

Just like the ultimate goal of all healthy parenting is children who become parents, so God wanted to give power into the hands of human beings. Like adult children who love and obey their parents, and parents who love their adult children and respect them as fully capable and mature human beings; so God wants to see us mature and align ourselves of our own free will with His power and authority!

Of course we have worked towards two kingdoms in a very different way! We have rebelled! Like a child stealing the car out of his parents drive-way that was intended for them on their 16th birthday, we have taken by violence that which was ours by birthright!

We have worked toward a human kingdom that was autonomous but in rebellion, as opposed to reaching autonomy through maturity. God always wanted us to have our own dominion, but not the way we have made it...

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You must have often wondered why the Enemy does not make more use of His power to be sensibly present to human souls in any degree He chooses and at any moment. But you now see that the Irresistible and the Indisputable are the two weapons which the very nature of His scheme forbids Him to use. Merely to over-ride a human will (as His felt presence in any but the faintest and most mitigated degree would certainly do) would be for Him useless. He cannot ravish. He can only woo. For His ignoble idea is to eat the cake and have it; the creatures are to be one with Him, but yet themselves; merely to cancel them, or assimilate them, will not serve.

God is wanting to have a relationship with His children, but a relationship of mutual affection, and mutual engagement. God wants to share life with us!

Just like a mother wants her children to do good, not merely out of obedience, but out of the depths of their character, so God wants us to submit our will to His, not merely to 'do what He says,' but to will it! Phillipians 2:13

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The Invitation to the Kingdom

When Jesus arrived on the scene preaching a message of God's Kingdom coming, what He was essentially saying was, "God is bringing His rule, and His reign; God is going to put everything back together the right way!"

This is Jesus invitation to allow God to become our king. We are invited to partner with God; to allow the Kingdom of God to merge with the Kingdom of Man; to allow the dictates of heaven to direct life on earth; to cooperate with God.

In a very real sense, we are not having our will overrun by the will of God; it is not one kingdom taking another over by force. Instead we are submitting, choosing God's will over our own; it is more like a nation petitioning for entrance into the E. U.

This is God's plan for putting the world right: inviting individual women and men to become disciples within His Kingdom; willing subjects who want to put God's good authority into effect in every aspect of their being.

It is this willing cooperation with the Spirit of God that works for the effective renovation of our hearts, and the subsequent transformation of our world.

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With these concepts and observations under our belt, we turn to approach the teaching of Jesus called 'the Sermon on the Mount.'

Divine and human agency are not mutually exclusive...

Heaven and earth are not so sharply divided as we might think.

DTS Promotional Trailers

What a Week!

Clean-up day in the Pooley Place neighborhood



BBQ at Pooley Place



BBQ at Pooley Place



BBQ at Ashland Avenue



Clean-up at Lisa's house



Pizza and water give-away at the Thursday in the Square Concert



Pizza and water give-away at the Thursday in the Square Concert



Pizza and water give-away at the Thursday in the Square Concert



Pizza and water give-away at the Thursday in the Square Concert



Church @ Cafe 59



BBQ at Pooley Place



Neighborhood Clean-up on Pooley Place



BBQ on Ashland Avenue



Clean-up at Lisa's house



Clean-up at Lisa's house



Someone tell Jason you're only supposed to get sick from the tapwater in MEXICO!



Nursing Home visit on Sunday Morning



Clean-up after Church @ Cafe 59



BBQ at Pooley Place



BBQ at Pooley Place

We had a couple of BBQ's, a couple of clean-up days, passed out free goodies at an outdoor concert, and visited our adopted grandparents (all 50 of them!), and had church on Wednesday and Sunday! We ran the teenagers pretty hard! They were a great blessing!

Make sure to ask those youngsters about their week in Buffalo!

Response to a response

"The problem is that my generation has decided that what they decide from all of there questioning is that what they come up with IS truth, which may not be the case."

I don't much think that this is true only of our generation. Our parents generation has done the same thing, only without the questioning! They have decided that what they come up with IS truth, however, they didn't arrive at those notions through serious wrestling with the Spirit, but rather through acceptance of dogma.

Accepting the party line, and chucking the party line, neither of these is acceptable (have you heard Derek Webb's track A New Law?) but merely a way of avoiding a life with an ear to the Spirit.

I think what Wright was getting at was exactly this, we must seek God, not anything else. No substitutes. Not even when honest and godly men stand up in the pulpit and say, "Here is truth, this is what the Bible says." There is no short cut.

It is this that our generation inherently grasps with all of its deconstruction and rethinking of established ways of doing, thinking, and being. And it is this that the previous generation often fails to grasp with its desperate hunger for the comforts of conformity. (Including theological conformity.)

I guess I see the previous generation of Christians as hopelessly enmeshed in cultural syncretism. Evangelical Christians are in bed with the Republican machine, for all of our (yes I consider myself a part of the flock) pro-life rhetoric, we really don't think through the inconsistency of supporting 'pro-life' politicians who rabidly support pre-emptively bombing foreigners, capital punishment, etc. (for example)

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There are problems with giving people the freedom to wrestle with God on their own. But those problems are less than the ones that come from refusing to let people wrestle with God. It all boils down to trusting the Holy Spirit in people's lives...

...will we point people towards Jesus? Or towards our own conceptions of truth?

...will we release our control of others into God's hands? Or will we continue to impose our own frame of reference on others?

It is scary to say to someone, I don't want to answer that question for you; I would prefer that you seek God, wrestle with scripture, pray, read, contemplate, experience, and hear the voice of God for yourself! But this is of course, where Jesus has much to teach us about pedagogy. He pointedly refused to answer people's questions.

The goal of Jesus interactions with people was never to transmit information, but to instigate a radical shift in worldview; He did not seek to give people techniques, but to foment rebellion; His aim was not to educate, but to demonstrate and make available crucifixion and resurrection as a superior mode of living.

This poses real problems for the forms of Western Christianity that our parents grew up with (and I caught the tail end of in my own upbringing). This simply isn't comfortable for people who want to view Jesus through the lens of "absolute truth that I can rest on." This is not to say that there are not things that are real, or statements that do not correspond to reality, but merely that the post-modern critique of modernism's intellectual arrogance must be heard and taken into account (even if we ultimately come to different conclusions than that of certain postmodern philosophers!).

I guess it boils down to this. Our parents tend to think of truth as something static. Our generation tends to view it as dynamic. While I don't necessarily go so far as to agree with our generation in total (although a strong case could be made for truth being personal as opposed to propositional ie "I am the way, the truth, and the life"), we have to acknowledge that our experience of truth is dynamic, and that this requires an intellectual humility that older Christians lack (this, unfortunately, has not gone without notice by the world looking on, to the detriment of our witness)

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This finally gets us, however, to the deeper issue:

God is not interested in us 'getting it right;' as though holiness was akin to having the correct answers to the math test, and it didn't matter if you worked the sums out yourself or copied your neighbors scan-tron sheet, so long as the machine read your answers as the right ones you "passed the test." He is interested in us 'becoming' holy; holiness is like the ability to take the equation and solve it, using your own resources to solve real mathematical dilemmas.

There is, of course, some value in possessing truth the way the cheater possesses correct answers to math questions. Knowing true things about reality has value. But of infinitely greater value is the ability to discern reality, to be able to answer math questions as they come. If someone parrots (and sincerely believes), "God loves me," they will have gained some significant benefit, however, if that person has a deep experience of the reality of God's love, they will take that with them into all sorts of diverse circumstances and automatically apply that love to various situations in their own life and the life of others.

This is where this conversation ultimately ends: God is not interested in have us 'do good,' but rather 'be good.' He is not interested in us 'saying truth' but in us 'aligning with truth.' It is not the external actions that God is primarily concerned with (adultery and murder) but the realities of the human will (lust and contempt) that God wants to deal with. The fruit of the tree is a mere byproduct, God is concerned with making the tree 'good.'

Perpetual Wrestling

There is a deep theological point underneath all this. I believe, as an a priori, that
he church will never get to the point where it has solved all the exegetical
questions, understood all the theology of the New Testament, so that subsequent
generations can sit back and look it up and not have to think for themselves. I have
come to believe that God has so ordered things that each generation will have to
wrestle afresh not just with a few details on the side but with the large questions of
Jesus and the kingdom, of Paul and the faithfulness of God, of John’s view of God
and the world, of Revelation’s vision of the new Jerusalem coming down from
heaven. If the church as a whole is not doing this, it is not growing into the wisdom
it will need for its many-sided mission. And that means that though most church
members will not give themselves professionally to the tasks of scholarship, they
need to be part of a fellowship in which such tasks are being energetically pursued
and the resultant challenges and dialogue given proper space and weight. This means
– and I don’t think either the church or Christian scholars often reflect properly on
this – that the task of biblical scholarship is a necessary part of the church’s life in
every generation. It isn’t just that, as an unfortunate accident, we don’t quite
understand the Bible yet as well as we should, but perhaps another few monographs
and commentaries will do the trick. It is, rather, that each generation needs to
struggle with the big questions as well as the small ones as part of its own healthy
witness and worship.

Ballerina Monkeys

Hip Hop Monkey

Spiritual Formation: Part 4

It’s Terminal: This is a Diseased Tree…

Jesus pulls no punches when it comes to the human heart. He compares the hearts of the holiest people of his day with dishes full of last weeks dinner, and tombs full of rotting flesh!

We read in Matthew 23:25-28, Jesus critique aimed directly at the heart (the will, the spirit).

Jesus uses the apt metaphor of a tree producing fruit; you can tell what kind of tree it is by what kind of fruit it produces; but the important thing is the health of the tree. If the tree is good and healthy, you will see good, healthy fruit; if the tree is bad and diseased, you will see bad, diseased fruit.

Tying fruit onto a dying tree is about as useless as good deeds that come out of false motives. Jesus will have none of it; He wants us to be healthy, not merely appear to be so.

The flaw in the human heart is equivalent to a diseased tree.

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The Reality of Our Disorder

Of course, many will say, "You can't expect perfection! We are merely human!" We often excuse ourselves with phrases like, "I was acting out of character," or, "I wouldn't have done that if..." or "I just blew it!"

Now in one sense these are fair concerns; if we are not the sort to curse unless we are in physical pain, that certainly says something about our character, but it also says something that we curse when we are hurt. The act reveals our character; we are the type of person who curses when we smash our thumb.

When we do these things they are evidence of our character…

We are the kinds of people who “blow it!”

Jesus tells us that "the good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks."
(Luke 6:45)

We have said elsewhere that the world is what it is largely due to humanity's role within it.

This means we must come to terms with the reality that we are the kinds of people who produce global pollution, societies of abuse and violence, parents who neglect their children, cultures with little value for women; in short we are the kinds of people who will take God's beautiful creation, and turn it into hell.

Spiritual Formation Part 3

Process: Disease of the Heart

The Biblical Doctrine of the Fall

The previous post outlined what we can observe in the world around us. The Bible gives us much the same picture (with added detail):

We read in Romans 1:18-32 that humans turned from God, and ended up turning away from their humanity in the process. This lead to brokenness on the inside, causing brokenness on the outside.

The above passage is tremendous in its assessment of the state of our world:

Rebellion lead to sin; sin lead to a fundamental corruption of our human nature; that lead to acts of destruction; this wrought havoc on human life both individual and corporate; which worked itself out into the very creation itself suffering corruption

==============================

The Process of Spiritual Formation

The passage above also points to another reality: we are all in process. Our spirit is formed. We did not get to the place we are at without numerous influences. We are all going through “character development;” (just as we all have received an education, the question being "what kind of education") the question is what kind of character is being formed in us?

We have all, from the moment of conception, been pressed upon by outside influences; our genetic stock, our social environment, our physical environment. We, too, play a role in the formation of our spirit/will; every decision we make serves to shape our spirit, to form it... do we do this intentionally or unintentionally?

To what end are we being formed?

What is the end result or goal of the process we are in?

Are we even engaging with the process, or are we merely passive reactors?

This brings to mind a poster I read (one of those "inspirational" posters they sell in the airline magazines), it said:

“Be careful what you think, your thoughts become your words.
Be careful what you say, your words become your deeds.
Be careful what you do, your deeds become your habits.
Be careful what habits you form, your habits form your character.”

==============================

Diagnosis: The Problem is a Twisted Will

The Psalmist prays:

Turn my heart toward your statutes;
Turn my eyes away from worthless things.

The problem according to the Buddhist (as much as I can grasp) is simply that we have a heart! There is the problem; the solution is to eradicate desire, eradicate the will/heart/spirit, and suffering will cease. With this the Christian must disagree.

The problem according to the "secularist" (as much as I can grasp) is simply that our will is frustrated! The solution is to find ways to just give people whatever they desire. With this, too, the Christian must disagree.

We read in James 1:13-18 that there are "good and perfect gifts" to desire! The problem is not desire in and of itself. Neither, however, is the problem simply that we do not get what we want, when we want it. (This passage states that some desires, when fulfilled, lead to death!) The problem is that our desires are evil!

Our will is twisted, our heart is diseased, our spirit is wounded.

==============================

The core of man is the will or spirit, it is the part of us that desires and chooses; it is what it is as a result of a process of experiences and choices; by effectively shutting God out of that process, we have brought ourselves to a place where our hearts are set upon desires that (if fulfilled) will destroy us and our world.

What is the solution?

Mono riendo

Boxing Monkeys

If you're scared of monkeys...

...don't click on the link:

Wild monkeys in action!

Spiritual Formation: Part 2

The title link will take you to Part 1

Symptoms: Observations

It takes little observation to come to the conclusion that the World is in chaos. War, extinction, pollution, genocide, hunger, disease, drought, hurricanes and typhoons, the list could continue...

It also takes little observation to come to the conclusion that this state of existence has a root cause, namely homo sapiens sapiens (for those of you who don't speak Latin, that means you and me!). War, pollution, hunger, and disease are easily traced back to human activity or inactivity; more recently we are hearing that human beings are also major causes in factors that create drought, famine, and even storms on the far side of the plant.

It takes even less observation to see that humanity is in chaos. Murder, rape, torture, theft, dishonesty; alienation, loneliness, depression, anxiety, suicide, emptiness; abandoned children, betrayed spouses, addicted bodies; in the words of an old-dead-guy, "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short."

The conclusion, simply, is this:

The world is broken because humanity is broken.

==================================

So what is the problem with humanity?

At this point there is obviously some diversity of opinion. However there is also remarkable continuity amongst thinkers from many diverse contexts...

A cross-section of thinkers, observers, ethicists, educators, theologians and spiritualists from all cultures and times (as best as I can understand them), line up to support this conclusion:

The problem with humanity lies in the human will.

Granted, not everyone would use this terminology, however, if we continue to use the term will as we have been (synonymous with heart, and spirit; the seat of human desire and choice), I believe that this statement is consistent with the understanding of Classical Greek thought, Buddhist thought, the Monotheistic tradition, and even some of what might fall under the rubric of "eastern philosophy." *

Arguably the dominant paradigm in our own culture (what we might here call Modern Western Secularism), it should be noted, seems to move away from this conclusion**

==================================

The problem lies in the human will.

The Ancient Greeks concerned themselves with implanting virtue (the capacity to will and to act for good) in the heart of men. Muslims, Christians and Jews speak of repentance, obedience, and submission; subjecting our will to that of God. Buddhists speak of desire as the source of suffering, and so work to eradicate the yearning will within a human being.

The capacity for choice, the ability to create, the drive for purpose, that comes from the heart of a human being is also the source of human evil. We find ourselves in a state where our will or spirit does not rule the self, but is rather subject to it; emotions, thoughts, and physical sensations telling us what to choose, as opposed to our capacity for choice and purpose re-aligning our thoughts and emotions around the will.

The emotional and intellectual states of a six month old with the body of Lou Ferrigno would be an appropriate mental picture to associate with such a state (helped of course by Mr. Ferrigno's portrayal of a man who's capacity for choice was completely overrun by his emotional states).

Our will (the center of creative power, choice, and purpose) flails around at odd times and places, in total disjunction to any real sustained agenda. We choose to honor our commitments and then to break them, act selflessly toward a stranger and then stab a friend in the back, depending on which set of emotional attachments are screaming loudest in our mind at the time the decision presents itself...

There is something drastically wrong in the heart of man.

==================================

The conclusion, simply, is this:

The world is broken because humanity is broken and...

...humans are broken because our spirit is broken.

==================================

...more to come.


*I am fully aware that there has also existed throughout cultures and times the gnostic view that the essential problem with the world is that we lack the proper knowledge (gnosis). This seems tied either to the pantheistic view that Good and Evil (and hence moral action, including choice) are actually an illusion, or the dualism that calls the world Evil and and escape from it Good. How these ways of seeing speak of human choice (the will) I don't really know. But they seem (to my best way of understanding) to either deny the existence of the will, or to marginalize it's role in the problem of human nature.

**Interestingly enough Modern Western Secularism seems not so much to ignore the will, but rather to view the fundamental problem with humanity is the frustration of the human will for any reason. The real problem is that the Universe doesn't acquiesce to our demands; we don't get what we want and when we want it! The solution then becomes a special kind of gnosis that allows us to better manipulate our bodies, or the physical world around us, to produce the desired results.

Kingdom

These are thoughts from a few years ago...

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Church = Red

Kingdom = Black

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One circle, both red and black; representing the Church is the same as the Kingdom.

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Two separate circles, touching at one point where the Church will be replaced by the Kingdom, at the Return; the Church is separate from the Kingdom (and will someday be replaced by it)

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The Church is a manifestation of the Kingdom; the Church is a smaller circle inside the larger Kingdom circle.

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The Church manifests the Kingdom; the Church is a larger circle with the Kingdom inside it.

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The Church is a manifestation of the Kingdom, and also a catalyst for the Kingdom, expanding it; the Church is a smaller circle inside the larger Kingdom circle, but it is pushing forward, creating a bulge in the Kingdom, out into the World.

=================================



The Church is the outer edge of the Circle of the Kingdom, with the center Being God/Heaven

The Church is the outer edge of the Kingdom, Heaven (God) is the Center, outside of the Kingdom is the Outer Darkness where ultimately no-thing exists; perhaps it is better to think of God as directly touching the outer darkness (by way of the Crucifixion) and the Church and the Kingdom also coinciding at that point. In one sense it is the absolute center, in another it is the utter edge.

=================================

...probably none of these diagrams are anywhere near appropriate. The real questions are:

What is the Kingdom of God? What is the Church? How does the Kingdom relate to the Church? How does the Church relate to the World? How does the Kingdom relate to the World? What are some other possible Venn Diagrams we could posit? How does this help us to understand the Kingdom? The Churches' role in the World? ...?

The Blind Watchmaker?

"Dawkins' work here is not in the line of Darwin, but of metaphysical speculation which attempts to hitch its wagon to Darwin's star. His soul-mates are people like Ernst Haeckel and Herbert Spencer--to mention only two of the more respectable from a logically pretty grubby bunch. When he writes a book like the present one he is not functioning as a scientist. If he were, he should incorporate his "findings" into the most advanced textbooks in the field and see how they fare as representations of established knowledge. He complains that "the true, Darwinian explanation of our own existence is still, remarkably, not a routine part of the curriculum of a general education." (4) Then by all means let him enter the academic arena and present his views about the watchmaker as established knowledge. He should not reserve his views for infliction upon a largely helpless public whom his scientific credentials and elaborate rhetorical devices will overwhelm and make incapable of any accurate assessment of argument. When he writes books like The Blind Watchmaker he is just a naturalist metaphysician, trying to cozy up to the scientists and blend into their company in such a way that his true colors will not be noticed. He takes the liberty to dress down what he calls "redneck creationism" (252), but unfortunately there are rednecks on the side of "Darwinianism" as well. He is one of the most outstanding."

Spiritual Formation Part 1

We had fun last night...

There were several new faces, which is always exciting.

====================================

We talked last time we gathered about:

Spiritual Formation

With the Great Commandment as a template we defined a human being in terms of neighbor (social aspect), strength (physical aspect), mind (emotional and intellectual aspects), heart (the will; the spiritual aspect), and soul (the holistic; all-inclusive personal aspect).

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We defined the spirit in synonymous terms with the heart and the will:

Heart
We call it the heart because it is the core of who we are; it is not all of who we are, but it is the part that gives shape and drive to the rest of our person.

Will
We call it the will because it is the part of us that desires, yearns, chooses, creates and originates.

Spirit
We call it the spirit because it is non-physical; it is not sense-perceptible.

====================================

The spirit is not perceivable through the five senses, however this does not mean that it is non-existent.

We are used to thinking of the spiritual in very cloudy imagery, but the spiritual is not fluffy, nebulous, or even metaphorical. By contrast it is concrete, specific and very real; fiercely and intensely real! We remember going to church, or even viewing awe-inspiring landscapes and thinking, "This is a spiritual experience," and so we define spiritual as, "warm-fuzzy feelings." (This is actually the realm of the emotions!)

In reality the spirit organizes human life. Whenever we want something, choose something, originate something; our spirit is active. When our desires are frustrated by the desires of another, our spirit/will is bumping into theirs! In point of fact, we interact at the spiritual level all day long!

It is simply, what one author has called, the Failed Enlightenment Experiment that has convinced (through repetition and propaganda, not through logic and sound evidence) that what is real is what we can "clunk with our knuckles..."

Simple reflection will allow us to realize that we operate under constant interaction with non-physical realities.

====================================

...more to come.

A Call to Artists...

The following excerpt from N. T. Wright's recent book Evil and the Justice of God is a compelling charter for painters, sculptors, authors, musicians, playwrights, et al.

"How can the Christian imagination be reeducated so that we can become conscious of living between the victory achieved by Jesus and the ultimate renewal of all things? At this point we must speak about art. One aspect of being made in God's image is that we ourselves are creators, or at least procreators. The extraordinary ability to bring forth new life - of course through begetting children, but in millions of other ways as well - is central to the mandate the human race is given in Genesis 1-2. To make sense of and to celebrate a beautiful world through the production of artifacts which are themselves beautiful is part of the call to be stewards of creation, as was Adam's naming of the animals. Genuine art is thus itself a response to the beauty of creation, which is itself a pointer to the beauty of God.

But we don't live in the Garden of Eden. Art which attempts to do so quickly becomes flaccid and trivial. We live in a fallen world, and any attempt to plug into some kind of pantheism, worshipping the creation as if is were itself divine, always runs up against the problem of evil. At that point, art, like philosophy and politics, often swings round the other way, and determinedly responds to ugliness with more ugliness. The British arts world has a rash of this at the moment: a kind of brutalism that, under the guise of realism, simply expresses futility and boredom. Surely there is a wonderful opportunity here for Christians with an integrated worldview and with the longing to love God with heart, mind and soul, to find the way forward - perhaps to lead the way forward - beyond this sterile impasse.

Once again Paul can help us. In Romans 8 he affirms that the whole of creation is groaning in travail as it longs for its redemption. Creation is good, but it is not God. It is beautiful, but its beauty is at present transient. It is in pain, but that pain is taken into the very heart of God and becomes part of the pain of new birth. The beauty of creation, to which art responds and tries to express, imitate and highlight, is not simply beauty which it possess in itself but the beauty which it possess in view of what is promised to it, as an engagement ring is beautiful not least because of the promise it symbolizes, and as a chalice is beautiful because we know what it is meant to be filled with. If Christian artists can glimpse this truth, there is a way forward to celebrating beauty, to loving God with all the soul, without lapsing into pantheism on the one hand or harsh and negative "realism" on the other. Art at its best not only draws attention to the way things are but to the way things are meant to be, and by God's grace the way things one day will be, when the earth is filled with the knowledge of God as the waters cover the sea. And when Christian artists go to that task they will be contributing to the integration of heart, mind and soul which we seek, to which we are called. They will be pointing forward to the new world God intends to make, to the world already seen in advance in the resurrection of Jesus, to the world whose charter of freedom was won when he died on the cross. It is by such means as this that we may learn again to imagine a world without evil and to work for that world to become, in whatever measure we can, a reality even in the midst of the present evil age."

p 126-128

I challenge those from among us who are creative, what is it you are doing?

...reacting to the world you see?
...or working to create a new one?

...simply describing the way things are?
...or subverting the status quo?

Anyone can engage in culture, or even engage in cultural critique... Christ's call upon us, however, is neither engagement, nor is it mere critique, rather it is change; implementing in advance what God is promising to do for the world as a whole.

Oi...

For sense perception gives us knowledge of very little of significant human interest, least of all knowledge of knowledge itself.

Empiricism (later often called "Positivism") is simply a failed ideological gambit in Western culture that prevailed from, roughly, the 18th Century on, and should be regarded as nothing more than an instructive historical episode. It arbitrarily specifies the senses or 'feeling' as boundary marker for knowledge and reality. But it cannot guide us in the interpretation of knowledge and reality, for it fundamentally misconstrues them. Its primary function was to replace religious orthodoxy with a secular, epistemological orthodoxy, as cultural authority was passing from religious to merely intellectual institutions in modern Western society. As an orthodoxy, it is of course repressive and, among other things, makes impossible knowledge of the human self. One can judge for oneself the cost of this by candidly observing the intellectual and moral chaos that rules modern society--not least, intellectual society itself. Of course Empiricism is not itself an empirical theory, and in the nature of the case could never be.

Big Church?

Dr. Dwillardo

A Great Friend

Click on the link to read an article in the local Redding newspaper on a great friend of mine...

D Will

Ehrman and Wright debate

But it leads me to my final question – to press a point I made in our radio interview: Why, granted your view of the world, should we bother? Why not ‘eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die,’ and thank our lucky stars that we can do so? The other side of the coin of ‘the problem of evil’ is, after all, ‘the problem of good’: if there is no God, no good and wise creator, why is there an impulse to justice and mercy so deep within us? Why is there beauty, love, laughter, friendship, joy? How do you then tell the difference between Ecclesiastes and Sartre? The Bible of course has some answers to those questions. But I’d be interested to hear yours.

What moves you?

Emotions are part of what makes up our humanity, they are not bad or wrong, nor are they good and right...

The question is, what causes us to have various emotions and what do we do when they arise?

Do we love what Jesus loves, and hate what Jesus hates?

What do you care about?

Luther's Success...

Luther has been famous for many things, one of which is his disapproval of a few of the New Testament letters, notably James. He contemplated removing the book of James from the cannon of Scripture. He disliked the emphasis that James placed upon action, feeling that it cast a doubtful light upon the reformation battle cry 'salvation through faith.'

It seems, at least in my estimation, that he succeeded in that regard.

James' letter is still in our Bibles (and not even in a separate section at the end of the Bible as Luther did in some of his translations), but it's 'teeth have been pulled.' I have heard it interpretted away on numerous occasions, and even heard one radio preacher flatly contradict some of the things he read from it; yet one has only to look at the Church to see that 'grace' has become a thinly veiled code for a life of self-focus.

Luther has indeed succeeded.

(Okay, okay, so I am judging him outside of historical context, my diatribe isn't aimed at him, it is aimed at us!)

NT Wright Interview

"There is something really ugly about most of the world crying out for justice while the rich parts of the world argue about sex."

SEX

Thought's about sex through the eyes of a 21 year old virgin.

I love the blogs Steve has posted having to do with sexuality, I will reference some of the things he says in his blog. I am not an expert on any of this. I am just in a process of learning.

Here it goes!

I am blessed. I am blessed that before I was a Christian I didn't have sex. Growing up in a world where everyone just wants to be accepted, I managed to escape finding my acceptance in having premiscuous sex. I did have my sexual issues and like most people it did consume my thoughts. I did dress to "impress" and such, but by the loving grace of God I never had sex. I am glad and excited that when I get married I can give myself completely to my husband, in such a way, the way it should be. Many people have not been able to do this. But the thing is, my view of sex is still tainted by what the world speaks of this topic. Even people who have never had sex still need sexual healing. I still have a hard time believeing that something so abused and dirty can be viewed as an act of worship. God is sadden by that statement, because he created sex for a husband and wife, and it was good and a beautiful thing. Then the serpent came and Eve started to think "What if Adam doesn't find me attractive? Maybe I should put on some make up and dress scandalous." And Adam was like, "Is she getting all dressed up for another man?" Okay so maybe it didn't happen quite that way. But I think what everyone is really looking for is that deep reconnection that Steve was talking about. I desire deep reconnection, reconnection to God and if he wills (which I'm not going to lie, I hope he does) with another human being. I think that God allows us to marry so that we can also taste a little bit of his love for us and so that we can give love back.
Sex has been so twisted. Something so simple and so beautiful now can be done with more than one person, you can go so far before you "actually" do it, you can do it with men or women, boys or girls, you can do it for money or drugs, you can pay back favors with it, you can get a promotion with it, you can do it with however many people you want to in one night, or life time, you can watch it, you can do it with someone without even knowing their name. I grew up in this society, and like most people media was my sex-ed teacher (hence all the examples of it). So how I have viewed sex came from that. Scary, awkward, emotionless, loveless, something everyone does the rest who don't are shunned or gay, shameful, lustful, and the list goes on. Up until probably this last year (since moving in with 2 married couples) this view has probably stayed this way. After a few talks with the married ladies in my life I have heard more about what it should be. Loving, beautiful, worshipful ( I still don't get that one too much ) a gift and I believe that God will heal the areas that have been tainted by this world. I belive that there are men out there that can be trusted, I have even witnessed these men in loving relationships with their wives. I have witnessed these single men doing everything they can to keep their hearts and minds pure. I have witnessed women willing to wait till their wedding day to even partake in a little kiss. I have witnessed women call off relationships for the sake of just being with the Lord. I have witnessed married couples lay their lives down for each other. These are all beautiful things.
So what to say now? Now that I have witnessed the good things? I guess I can only encourage people my age to make the same choices that I have. People younger or older than, gay, straight, whatever. God is bigger that this issue, he is bigger than peoples sexual preferences, he's bigger than the relationships that are consumed with lust.

To burn with Zeal!!

So this is pretty raw, little post I have rumbling around in my mind!!! Steve and I have been having this discussion lately about our little church and what God is doing in it. It can be so discouraging at times because we don't know what we are doing here or if we are doing enough of it. We question what it should look like, are people meeting with God, what is happening here? We have also been talking about the way we do church, is it effective, is it what God is doing here? There have been a few people here in our little church who have brought up a few times the way we do church, in that it might get more people here if we had a building and sunday service and the things that go along with that. So this is that backdrop for my thoughts and ponderings today....

I am by no means opposed to have a meeting place out of our home, in a building to carry out some of the activities of a church body, like worship, prayer, celebration, group discussions, teachings. But I feel like this is not what people are asking, they are not wanting a building because we have out grown out of our home and need a bigger place to meet. I feel like rather people would like us to open another church building so that they can come on sundays, listen to music, drop their children in sunday school, hear a sermon and then go home.

Why do Americans want to settle for a dose of God once a week?

It breaks my heart because idealistic or not I came here because I wanted to see people's lives changed and surrendered to God. I wanted to help be part of an army of people who want to change the world by loving it, living in it, dying for it. I feel like I have this passion in me to be part of something bigger than a sunday church service with small groups during the week for added holiness.

I am not trying to bash the way that church is done here but I have come to believe that there is something more than that and I know it cause I experienced it!!!!! I came from a regular church in some ways (it met on sundays, had sunday school, had small groups during the week) but it was so much more than that. I found a community of Christ followers, who had laid down their lives to take up Jesus' and they were reaching out to a broken, fallen world around them and trying to participate in what God was doing. I feel like I am running into maybe American Christian Culture, we just want to go to church on Sundays and lives our lives Monday thru Saturday. I know there is more though and I guess that I feel hesitancy and discouragement about people here thinking that we should have a building, when we don't need one yet.

All things...

Ephesians 1:7-10

Have you ever stopped to consider what this means?

Two little words, usually glossed over, "all things;" what do they mean?

What are the possible implications for a proclamation that God intends to reconcile all things?

How does the flavor and scope of our individual salvation take on new and different connotations?

How does the shape and reach of the mission of the Church change and redirect under such an overarching goal?

Certainly we must come to see that our Western, consumer, materialist, individualist, capitalist, democratic, culture has blinded us to the possible answers to such questions; in fact, has blinded us to the questions themselves!

What things does God intend to reconcile to Himself in Christ?

Make a list... what is on your list?

What is not on it?

Money

...thoughts from Sunday.

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Our culture tells us in a thousand ways, big and small, that "money makes the world go 'round."

We are bombarded with images and slogans convincing us that we need the bigger grill, the better vehicle, the more expensive shoes, or the newer house; then we will be happy!

We are told we earned it; that the wealth we possess is our right.

We are taught to define ourselves by the income we make and the associated status symbols. Our individual and cultural identity is wrapped up in symbols of wealth.

Even those caught up in poverty often mistakenly believe that the solution to their problems is money!

“If your relationship with God doesn’t bring you into conflict with your culture, then you need to reevaluate your relationship with God.”
Pastor Rob Owens

The truth is that these things will complicate our lives and end up making us less satisfied with our lives! Once basic needs for food, water, shelter, health, and freedom are met, any increase in wealth leads to a decrease in felt happiness.

We operate from within a vastly unjust global economic system, and it is tilted in our favor! We haven't earned the wealth we have, it is a gift; the job, the economy, even the strength, health, intelligence, or skill that we possess that enable us to procure and maintain the levels of wealth we are accustomed to, are not things we are responsible for. They are a gift!

...and our value has nothing to do with the amount of stuff we control. We have value because God says we do! Our identity is in our reflection of His image, not in our hoarding of His possessions!

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The simple fact is that money is not central, it is peripheral. God is central. Whenever we allow our culture to convince us otherwise, our lives and our world suffers for it!

Even in the church money can gain the place of prominence. Churches command tithes to line the pockets of clergy, others preach a message that says "Jesus died to give you a big house and a nice car." Even the extreme ascetic streak that has run throughout the history of the Church can often be simply an unhealthy emphasis on the role of money (albeit a negative one) instead of putting money in its proper place.

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So what does God want us to do with money?

...a brief perusal of the way the topic was handled in the Jewish Scriptures is illuminating.

From the very beginning Jews recognized that all wealth comes from God. God is the creator of the earth, wealth included. He owns it all and has merely placed it in human hands to act as God's caretakers. We are YHWH's gardeners.

The wealth of the Nation of Israel was literally handed to them by God. They were a nation of slaves who left Egypt with the riches of their oppressors on their backs. God carved out a country from the surrounding nations and handed it to a people with no country.

The Law then proscribed that Jewish households were to periodically set aside 10% of their wealth for God and His purposes in the nation. (Some estimates are that this amounted to approximately the equivalent of a 25% yearly income tax) This was done for three specific purposes:

1) Maintaining the system of priests and Temple. This was essentially a tax to support the religious, educational, and judicial system of the country (as the priesthood fulfilled these roles in some capacity).

2) Redistributing wealth to those who had little or no capacity for generating income, orphans, widows, foreigners, etc.

The first two purposes fit well within our modern conception of taxation, the third, however, is uniquely surprising:

Deuteronomy 14:22-26

3) The Jewish People were commanded to use a portion of their Tithes to throw a tremendous nationwide party! Eating and drinking was not merely encouraged, but commanded!

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God loves stuff, that is why He made it! He wants us to enjoy it! Food, drink, beautiful scenery, physical pleasures, fine art, colors, smells, textures. Not only did God invent these things, He also designed us with the capacity to enjoy them! (Check this out.)

The problem is not with wealth. The problem is never in the stuff. The problem is in what we do with it, how we get it, why we want it, how much of it we use, whether or not we share it...

In short...

...the problem is us!

(More to come)

Exclusion and Embrace

Click on the title link to read the intro to the book, really just the first few paragraphs. Intriguing, the book is coming...

Judas and the Gospel of Jesus

...the Gnostic presentation of Jesus (setting aside for now the opinions of the historical scholars on the date for the Gnostic texts in comparison to the canonical ones...) fails in a singularly striking way:

What the canonical gospels communicate almost in every paragraph the Gnostic gospels never do -- explain the reason for Jesus crucifixion.

The Gnostic communities were notoriously free of persecution precisely because they posed no political threat to either the Jewish establishment or the Roman one, whereas the disciples of Jesus (and Jesus himself) were so threatening to the status-quo that they were vehemently eradicated wherever possible.

The Gnostic (or New Age, for that matter) picture of Jesus as a kind of Platonic Buddha figure simply can't explain why anyone in power would be threatened by Him; the accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, however, provide a picture of Jesus as a Jewish Reformer-Prophet-King who is a constant threat to those in power, and hence crucified.