Grace Abounds

Who's In Charge?

2012-02-01T13:06:00.000-08:00

Bemoaning the dismal state of the world has been a staple of Christian preaching for centuries. I guess preachers aren't much different from politicians, the news media, or anybody else trying to get an audience. We all know that going negative works and grabs people's attention. Humans love to freak out about things in general.

Not long ago I was listening to an evangelical preacher on TV tell his large congregation that they didn't need to worry about buying life insurance and that they should cash in their retirement accounts because he just knew "in his bones" that Jesus was coming at any time. The crowd ate it up. But it's not just evangelicals. I've heard plenty of mainline preachers decry cultural decline as well.   It's an old refrain that many of us buy into too easily:   "The culture is collapsing. Values are erroding. Crime is running rampant. The church offers the only hope for the world, etc."

The real story about what's going on in the world is quite different, however. Steven Pinker's latest book, "The Better Angels of our Nature," makes a convincing argument that people almost anywhere in the world today are safer and less likely to die violent deaths than at any point in human history. He backs his argument up with some pretty impressive statistics documenting the dramatic decline in human violence in recent centuries. (Yes, he even includes all the deaths from World War II, and it has no impact on the statisical trends towards an overall safer world.)

In recent years violent crime has taken a steep nose dive in the U.S.    In 2011 the homicide rate in Houston was the lowest its ever been since 1963. And Houston is not an anomaly.   Similar trends are being reported across the country. In the 1980's New York City's Central Park was known as a dangerous place, a haven for muggers and drug dealers. Today, however, Central Park at night is filled with people jogging, roller-blading, and walking their dogs.

Could it be that God actually knows what he's doing and he's not letting his creation go to Hell-in-a-handbasket after all?   Christians have traditionally decribed God as omnipotent, omnisicent, and omni-benevolent. Life would be a lot less fearful if we could learn to live as if those attributes were really true.

Or Else...

2011-12-22T05:58:00.000-08:00

First of all, my apologies for the long silence. I've been tied up with some other things which have diverted my attention from the blog; but I hope to be posting again on a more regular basis.

I enjoy watching all kinds of preachers on television.   From time to time I might find the theology a little disagreeable; but it's always fun to watch a good public speaker.   So the other day I was watching a sermon by Dr. Charles Stanley of Atlanta. He's a gifted preacher and teacher I've enjoyed watching over the years. It was a Christmas-themed message and he was speaking movingly about the significance of the Incarnation. He talked about how, because God had come to earth as a human to share our life with us, God completely understands our hurts and struggles in life.   He knows what we've been through because he's been through it too. It was just a really nice, message.

And then came the kicker at the end of this message about a loving, gracious, and understanding God. He looked straight at the camera and said that if you don't have a relationship with Jesus, he's going to send you to hell for all eternity. Believe in Jesus or else...

In so much of Christianity today, there is always an "or else" lurking somewhere in the message. This is true for both conservative and liberal Christians.   In the conservative world the message tends to focus on personal behavior. Yes, Jesus is your savior, but you've still got to do your part: clean up your act, get your life together, quit drinking, quit swearing and stuff like that. Or else... (This is actually an ancient heresy called Pelagianism, but people seemed to have forgotten about that one.)

More liberal churches often talk about God's "preferential option for the poor." Yes, Jesus is your savior, but if you're really serious about your faith then you're going to demonstrate that by fighting global warming, alleviating world hunger, occupying Wall Street, and going vegetarian. Or else...
Liberals may be less likely to talk about Hell than evangelicals do, but threat is still the motivating force in the program. The implication is: "Get on board with our agenda, or else God is going to be very disappointed in you."

Does there always have to be a threat lurking in the background of the Christian message? Or could it be that the gospel message is something more wonderful and transcendent than our pathetic attempts to coerce people into adopting our conservative or liberal agendas?    There are plenty of scripture passages which suggest that God's love is truly without restriction and without constraint. John declares of Jesus: "Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." Note that there are no conditions whatsoever attached to that declaration.   And Jesus himself says in John 12:32 "And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself." Again--no strings attached. Jesus says all people, not even all Christians. All people. Period.   No "or else" lurking behind this passage.

Sure there are also scripture verses that seem to imply some threat of punishment. But then if God punishes sin, why did Jesus die for our sin? Doesn't that make his sacrifical death kind of pointless?

So what will it be? A God who ultimately relates to us on the basis of threats? Or a God who truly loves us without constraint or without restriction--not as we should be but as we are right this very moment. You can't have it both ways. I'm putting my money on the God of extravagant mercy.

More on Mormons

2011-10-20T08:33:00.000-07:00

This post is really a quick response to the questions rasied by Tom as a comment to yesterday's post. (Thanks, Tom, for sharing your thoughts.)

Are Mormons Christian? Mormons have some distinctive beliefs that put them outside of what most people would consider normative, orthodox Christian tradition. Such beliefs and practices include: the baptism of the dead by proxy, wearing special underwear often believed to confer unique protective powers, and the rejection of the Trinity. (Mormons think of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit as distinct beings, which has sometimes left them open to the charge being polytheistic.) I'm not trying to ridicule or belittle their beliefs; it's only to delineate some big differences between their theology and mainstream Christian tradition.

Tom is right that Christians over the years have spent far too much time labeling other groups as non-Christian or, at least, not "fully" Christians--whatever that means. Both Catholics and Protestants have engaged in this kind of bickering over the centuries. (In the 1600's they even held the Thirty Years War on the issue.) And just the other day a Professor of Religion at Brigham Young commented in a newspaper article that Mormons believe other Christians are going to heaven; it's just that the best blessings of heaven are reserved for Mormons. And that raises the possiblity that people could experience jealousy and resentment in heaven, which doesn't sound very heavenly. Oh well, I guess we'll see when we get there.

Jesus once said, "Whoever is not against us is for us." (Mark 9: 40) Seems like a helpful attitude for us to strive for.

Cults?

2011-10-19T13:21:00.000-07:00

The other day a prominent evangelical preacher caused something of a stir in the media when he called Mormonism a "cult." A few folks have asked my opinion on what is and is not a cult, and does Mormonism qualify? So here it goes...

First of all, I don't think there is real consensus on what the word "cult" means. Sure, there's a dictionary definition, but I think in real life the word means different things to different people. Nowadays the word definitely seems to have a pejorative connotation. When the preacher called Mormons a "cult" he certainly was not complimenting them.

In my mind, the word cult suggests at least a couple things. First of all, it's a religious community that relies on a fair amount of coercion. They use high-pressure tactics to get you to join. Once you join, the religious community controls much of your life. And if you try to leave, they make it hard for you to do so. I have no idea whether this applies to Mormonism or not.

Secondly, cults seem to be characterized by secrecy, especially with regard to doctrinal teaching and worship ceremonies. Mormons definitely have at least some secret ceremonies, including every ceremony that happens inside one of their temples. (Non-Mormons, referred to as "Gentiles," are not permitted inside Mormon temples after the buildings have been dedicated.)

Yet, the in early centuries of Christianity, the church made a similar distinction between insiders and outsiders. Once upon a time people who were not yet baptized were dismissed from worship before Holy Communion.

Mormons have many distinctive beliefs and practices that put them outside of mainstream Christianity. But I'm not qualified to decide whether or not they should be called a "cult." I guess my feeling is that name-calling is generally not helpful and not conducive to building bridges to other groups. Probably the best policy is to try and extend towards others the same grace and understanding that we ourselves would like to receive, and leave the rest for God to sort out.

Giving the Shirt Off Your Back

2011-10-17T08:58:00.000-07:00

I sometimes think that Christians are often unduly tormented by the dilemma of whether or not to offer financial assistance to every random panhandler or indigent person who approaches you while you're stopped at an intersection (which seems to happen a lot in Houston these days.) Even if you choose not to give them a dollar or two, you might experience a momentary twinge of guilt. After all, didn't Jesus say in the Sermon on the Mount that if somebody asks for our coat we are to offer them our shirt as well? And doesn't Jesus expect us to "go the extra mile."

Well, these passages don't exactly mean what we often think they mean. What Jesus really says is: "If any one would sue you and take your coat, let him have your cloak as well." (Matthew 5:40)   The cultural context is important here. He is referring to a legal procedure, probably in debtor's court. In Jesus' culture when a person wanted to take out a loan, typically animals or land were used as collateral. But if a person was very poor and had no land or animals for collateral, he could pawn his outergarment. Since this outer garment was necessary for protection against the elements at night, the Old Testament commandments said that a poor person had a right to get the outer garment back each night in order to sleep in it. (See Deuternomy 24:10-13)   But the creditor could come back and take the coat again each morning, harrassing and nagging the debtor day after day until the loan was repaid.

So what Jesus is basically saying is this: "When your creditor is harrassing you to repay a debt and asks for your coat, give him your 'cloak' or 'tunic' as well." In those days they didn't have underwear.  If the debtor took off his cloak in addition to his coat, he would be standing stark naked before his creditor. It would be a dramatic way of saying, "Here, take it all. Take everything I have."

Unlike the ancient Greeks and Romans, the Jews viewed public nakedness as extremely shameful--not just for the person being naked, but even more shameful for the person causing the nakedness. In a sense Jesus was encouraging poor debtors to turn the tables on their creditors.

These phrases we get from the Sermon on the Mount--turning the other cheek, giving the shirt off your back, going the extra mile--We often understand these to be encouraging us towards generosity and altruism. In reality each of these is an example of subversive, non-violent resistance against oppressive authorities.

(I covered "turning the other cheek" and "going the extra mile" in last Sunday's message, which you can see at http://www.theophilushouston.wordpress.com/)

Updating the Cross?

2011-10-11T09:49:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I wonder if the cross is pretty much useless as a religious symbol any more. It's been so domesticated and beautified that it has lost its shock value. For the earliest Christians, the cross was a potent symbol of Roman power and bruality. It was an instrument of state-sponsored torture. I think the early Christians more vividly understood what Jesus' death on the cross really meant because they literally lived in the shadow of the cross in their daily lives. For us the cross has largely become a decorative ornament. When we see crosses on churches and on jewelry, I doubt that we primarily see them as a means of capital punishment.

Maybe we need to update the symbol. What would be a more modern way of depicting the significance of the cross? A hangman's noose? An electric chair? Or maybe a syringe, since lethal injection is the preferred method of execution in most American states. Can you imagine churches with syringes on their steeples and in the stained-glass windows? Sounds horrifying, doesn't it? But that's the point of the cross--Jesus' love for the world was so great that he was willing to subject himself to the most horrifying and humiliating punishment humans could devise.

No doubt, some might find the discussion a bit morbid. But if we forget or downplay the extent of Jesus' sacrifice, the good news of the gospel becomes much less good. That's probably why Paul gave us this reminder in 1 Corinthians 11:26 "For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes."

Pharisees

2011-10-10T08:56:00.000-07:00

Today I'd just like to share a quick thought about a common misunderstanding I have frequently run across in leading Bible studies over the years. Many people are under the impression that in the New Testament when you run across the word "Pharisee" it's short-hand for "bad guy" and that all Pharisees were enemies of Jesus. It's easy to see how folks come under that impression. Indeed, in English the term Pharisee has come to be synonymous with hypocrisy and self-righteousness. But that's really not what the term means in the New Testament.

Pharisees were a faction within the Judaism of Jesus' day, and they were just one of several factions such as the Sadducees, the Essenes, and the Zealots. A Pharisee was not necessarily a high-ranking religious dignitary. It was not a rank or an office in ancient Judaism. They were not a separate "denomination" of Judaism. To be a Pharisee was simply to be a member of this faction.

We really don't know very much about the distinctions among the various Jewish factions in Jesus' day. A few of the ideas that seem to characterize the Pharisees included: 1.) a rigorous compliance with the commandments of the Torah in daily life, 2.) a policy of cooperation with the occupying Roman government, 3.) a belief in the resurrection of dead--especially the resurrection of righteous Jews.

One possible reason why we see so many Pharisees hanging around Jesus in the gospels could be that some of the Pharisees were intrigued by his teaching and felt an affinity with his ministry. In fact, after Jesus was crucified a particularly prominent Phrarisee, Nicodemus, honored Jesus by bringing a very expensive mixture of myrrh and aloes to the tomb. (John 19:39)

Anyway, I hope that brief explanation clears up some misunderstandings. The Pharisees weren't the "bad guys"--just sinners like the rest of us struggling to understand God.

2011-10-05T09:31:00.000-07:00

Jesus said, "Unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 18:3) I've always that one reason Jesus praises children is their ability to savor life and find miracles and wonder in the ordinary moments of each day. The following link from "The Atlantic" has some great ideas on how adults can recover some of that creativity. It's a sampling of simple, creative things we can do to put the wonder back into our quotidian existence. http://t.co/f1xUxThS

Loving Our Neighbor?

2011-09-26T12:34:00.000-07:00

So just how loving does Jesus expect us to be towards our neighbor? It's a question that bugs a lot of Christians who often beat themselves up for not being "loving enough." I think we have widespread and fundamental confusion around the New Testament commands to love our neighbor. The confusion springs from translation problems. As you may have heard before, Ancient Greek had several different word for love. Storge is the kind of love that parents experience for their children. Eros is romantic love. Filia is the love that friends have for each other. In English the word "love" can mean all those things and more. I think the Greeks were on to something by differentiating these emotions with unique words.

When the New Testament tells us to love our neighbor, the verb for love is agape--sometimes described as self-giving, sacrificial love. In 1 Corinthians 13--the famous love chapter which is read at so many weddings--the love Paul is talking about is not storge,eros, or filia; it's agape. Significantly, the old King James Version does not even translate this word as "love" but as "charity." So, "Faith, hope, and charity abide, these three..." This makes a lot of sense. There is no way any of us could love a random stranger with the same love we feel towards our closest friends or towards our children. When the New Testament encourages us to love our neighbor, there is no expectation that we will feel warm, fuzzy emotions towards everybody we meet. That would just be impossible.

But it is possible to cultivate a sense of charity towards all people. It is possible to feel empathy and compassion towards all. In this context, the command to love our neighbor makes a lot more sense. It's not an idealistic dream that could never be realized. It's something quite achievable--with Jesus' help of course.

The End of the Game

2011-09-18T13:27:00.000-07:00

In general sports have never interested me that much. Just not my thing. There is, however, one exception: college football--specifically Michigan football, which turns me into an emotional basket-case every autumn Saturday.

So last Saturday night I was watching the Michigan-Notre Dame game. Michigan was losing throughout much of the game. So I'd watch a few minutes until I couldn't take it any more. I'd get up, do something else and later turn the TV on again to check the status of the game. Late in the game--miracle of miracles!--Michigan took the lead and I sat down to enjoy watching the rest of the game. My hopes were rising. Then with just less than a minute left on the clock, Notre Dame re-took the lead. Michigan had totally blown it. That was it. I'd had it. There was no way they could win now. I turned off the TV in disgust and stormed off to bed in a terrible mood, anticipating yet another mediocre Michigan season, which has become the norm in recent years.

The next morning I was at church and one of the ushers asked me how I was doing. "OK, I guess." "Why just OK?" he asked. "For a while I was hopeful Michigan might pull it off against Notre Dame, but they blew it." He stopped, looked at me wide-eyed and said, "Michigan won." "What?!!"
"You didn't stay up for the end, did you?"
"Nope."
He then went on to describe the final play which put Michigan over the top in the last seconds of the game.

Saturday night I had gone to bed grumpy and angry for no good reason. I chose to believe a pessimistic version of reality which was not reality at all. If I had only watched the final seconds of the game, I could have gone to sleep elated.

It's one of the most important lessons in life: Always stay awake until the end of the game, no matter what. The tomb is empty. You never know what surprises God has up his sleeve next.

What is Faith?

2011-08-23T11:49:00.000-07:00

A common misconception among Christians is that faith is something you have to conjure up within yourself in order to get things done and to get God to act on your behalf. If you only had "enough faith," you could heal your illness, or if you only had "enough faith" God could do something really spectacular in your life, but, because of your lack of faith, God is holding back and not releasing his blessing. Lots of folks think like this. People sometimes even wonder if they are being punished for their "lack of faith." But when you stop and think about it, faith could not possibly work in this way.

Christians believe that God is omnipotent--all powerful. And if that's true, then God must be a totally free agent. Nothing God can do could possibly be limited by anything that we think or believe. The law of gravity, for instance, seems to apply to pretty much everybody in the world whether or not they believe or understand it. Same goes for the laws of thermodynamics and every other law that controls the physical world. There is nothing in creation that depends at all on our belief or faith in order for it to function. Uneducated people can disbelieve in Darwinian natural selection all they want--their disbelief does not alter the fact that they themselves are products of the very process which they deny.

And that's the way it is with this thing we call faith. Our faith--or lack of it--does not alter anything about how God acts in the world or how God feels about us. Faith is not a semi-magical power that unlocks divine favor. God's favor and love for us are there whether we believe it or not.

So what is faith? The Bible defines it this way: "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." (Hebrews 11:1) Faith then is simply trusting in God's goodness and God's promises. And what are those promises? Well, in the Bible most of the promises God makes to us can be lumped into three major categories: 1.) You are a child of God, beloved by God for all eternity and nothing could ever separate you from that love. 2.) God has declared numerous times both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament that he has decided not to hold your sins against you. 3.) After this life is over, you will spend eternity with God. From the Christian perspective death is just a really big change-of-address.

Those promises are not a reward for having faith. Faith is just trusting that the promises are true and effective. Not belieiving in God's eternal love for you is kind of like not believing in gravity. The love is going to work on you whether you like it or not, whether you believe it or not.

Who Speaks for God?

2011-08-15T12:51:00.000-07:00

Last week I had to make a couple trips across long sections of West Texas. While trying to stay awake at the wheel I ended up listening to quite a bit of religious broadcasting on the radio. One of the things that stuck me was the great diversity of opinions expressed by people who all claim to be speaking for the same God. Whether you are listening to the likes of Charles Stanley, T.D. Jakes, Robert Schuller, Kenneth Copeland or even the Pope (on the XM Radio Catholic channel) nobody seems to be able to agree on anything. Some preachers still maintain that earthquakes, tsunamis and other natural disasters are epxressions of God's displeasure with the state of the world. More than one radio preacher theorized that there was an element of divine judgment involved in Texas' ongoing severe drought. Some preachers focus on the "prosperity gospel," emphasizing God's desire to make you wealthy if you would only muster up enough faith for him to make that happen. Still others are more interested in political issues. Current theological schools of thought such as "Dominionism" and the "New Apostolic Reformation" are dedicated to the proposition that Christians have both the right and the duty to take over the government and impose their brand of theocracy on the rest of us.

On virtually any topic the diversity of opinions expressed by those who speak for God is astonishing. How do we know who is correct? The problem is, of course, that all theology is ultimately speculative. There is no empirical evidence we can use to evaluate the theological claims of any preacher. If God is omnipresent--accesible to all people all the time--then just because somebody has read a lot of the Bible doesn't mean that he or she has any more insight into God than you do. Given the speculative, non-empirical nature of theology, the claim that anybody speaks authoritatively for God seems to be sheer hubris.

Maybe the Quakers have it right. When they worship they simply gather in silence and wait for the Spirit to move somebody to speak. When it comes to God, ultimately all of us are only operating on hunches.

Eternal Life?

2011-08-09T12:42:00.000-07:00

In this past Sunday's The New York Times Book Review there were no less than three titles on the Paperback Best Sellers list having to do with heaven: Heaven is For Real, The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven, and 90 Minutes in Heaven. ( I sometimes wonder how somebody could write an entire book about heaven when any actual details about heaven in scripture are pretty sparse.) Yet, for all the abiding interest in the topic of heaven, why aren't Christians in general more excited about going there?

Although the details in the Bible are sketchy, scripture makes it seem like life in the hereafter is going to be pretty wonderful. Jesus told us that he was going ahead of us to create dwelling places for us so that we can be with him one day. (John 14) The book of Revelation says that heaven is an existence with no more crying and pain. (Revelation 21:1-5)

But the way that most Christians actually behave when it comes to issues of life and death suggests that we may not really believe in the reality of heaven all that much. If Christians really and truly believed in the resurrection of the body, then you would expect that our attitudes towards death would be radically different from those who don't believe. Upon finding out that a Christian friend was diagnosed with a terminal illness, you might expect us to say, "Congratulations!"--because we are so absolutely convinced that person is going to a far, far better place, and, in the not-too-distant future, we will be there too. If Christians really believed in the resurrection of the body and the reality of heaven, we would throw going-away parties for people who are dying rather than holding solemn funerals after the fact.

There are other practices that make little sense in light of the doctrine of the resurrection: the ritual of visiting gravesites, for example. This is puzzling because there is nothing in Christian doctrine that suggests the deceased person is there at the grave. We are supposed to believe that the faithful departed are in the presence of Jesus in the kingdom. The molecules and cells that constitute their new life do not reside in a plot of earth.

On one level our general hesitancy about going to heaven is completely understandable. The fundamental drive of every living organism is to live, or at least to survive long enough to get copies of our DNA into the next generation. Nevertheless, the promise of heaven is so mind-blowing and wonderful, you might expect that it could trump basic evolutionary drives. On the other hand, maybe the general ambivlence about embracing our heavenly destiny is a symptom that, deep down, we don't really buy into it?

The Third Man Factor

2011-07-26T09:06:00.000-07:00

There is a well-documented phenomenon that frequently happens to people who are undergoing extreme stress. Mountain climbers, marathon runners, long-distance solo sailors and others who are pushing the limits of their physical endurance often later report that in their time of most difficult struggle they experienced the tangible presence of another person with them. After one of his grueling Antarctic expeditions, the great explorer Earnest Shackleton said that he and his team had a constant sense that there was one more person in their party than could be accounted for. In his 33-hour solo flight across the Atlantic, Charles Lindbergh said that he had the sense that there was somebody else with him in the cockpit of his plane. After becoming the first person to successfully scale the ninth highest peak in the world, noted mountain climber Hermann Buhl said that, while he was descending from the mountain, he constantly saw a figure ahead of him leading him down and calling him by name. This sense of being accompanied by an extra person has come to be called "The Third Man Factor." (See, "The Believing Brain, by Michael Shermer, pp. 100-1.)

I think we seen examples of the Third Man Factor throughout the Bible. One instance that comes to mind is the story of the prophet Elijah in 1 Kings 19. He had just successfully challenged the false prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel and was at the height of his fame and prophetic power. Yet, when his adversary Jezebel, the wife of King Ahab, threatens to hunt him down and kill him, he retreats to the wilderness and goes into a profound depression. He even becomes somewhat suicidal. While hiding in a cave at Mount Horeb he experiences a strong wind, an earthquake and a great fire and expected to encounter God in these powerful natural forces. But God was in none of those things. Instead, after the natural disasters subside, Elijah experiences the presence of God in a "still small voice." (1 Kings 19:12) Other translations say, "the sound of sheer silence." Just like endurance athletes, mountain climbers and polar explorers, Elijah found out that in his time of duress, he was not alone.

And neither are we. I think we all know the explanation for "The Third Man Factor" and we probably all experience it one way or another throughout our lives. It's nothing less than what Jesus promised in his last words on earth: "And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age." (Matthew 28:20)

Is the Old Testament Safe for Children?

2011-06-22T11:50:00.000-07:00

Lately I've been re-thinking the widsom of our tendency to teach Old Testament stories to children in Sunday School, Vacation Bible School and other venues for religious education. I'm afraid the stories might be doing more harm than good, and they might actually work against the end goal of encouraging children to develop a strong, personal faith in a loving God.

The story of Noah, of course, is one of the stories we most commonly teach children. The story is often featured prominently in beautifully illustrated children's Bible story books. I remember that when my own children were little, they had at least a couple toys based on the Noah theme.

The Noah narrative in Genesis ends with Noah planting a vineyard and getting so drunk that he collapses naked in his tent. He then curses his grandson, Canaan, setting the stage for continued enmity between the Israelites and Canaanites for generations. Of course we never teach this part of the Noah story to children--nor should we. Yet it is an essential component to the integrity of the whole narrative.

So we typically just teach children about the ark, the animals, the flood and then the rainbow at the end of the flood. At least that part of the story is fairly innocuous and has some value for them, right? Except that the attentive child might reasonably draw this lesson from our beloved story of Noah: Once upon a time, God was so angry at people that he killed virtually all of them--therefore, he could do it again. Not even the beautiful covenant sign of the rainbow is of much help here. The rainbow is merely a sign that God promised never again to destroy the world by another great flood (Genesis 9:15) which leaves wide-open the possibility that God could choose to destroy the world through other means.

The story of Joshua is another story that gets frequent mention in children's Christian literature and lesson plans. It's the thrilling story of a courageous military leader who relied completely on his faith in God for victory in battle. There's even a catchy old gospel tune that sometimes gets taught to kids: "Joshua fought the battle of Jericho...and the walls came tumbling down."

And then after Joshua captures Jericho he commands his forces to kill every man, woman and child in the city, with the exception of Rahab and her relatives. (Joshua 6:24-25) Do we really want our young children learning about that? And what valuable life lesson does this brutal story impart to them?

I could go on. One possible lesson young people could glean from the story of David and Goliath is that violence solves problems. (The young shepherd boy David, who we lift up for emulation in the story, of course, goes on to become a cruel and bloodthirsty king who commits numerous atrocities that would be considered war crimes today.)

The Old Testament is a rich, complex, fascinating work that shows the development of the relationship between God and his people and lays the groundwork for the ministry of Jesus. But more and more I'm thinking we simply should not be teaching it to children. Yes, Christians should read the Old Testament, but we should save it for an age when our young people can handle it and appreciate its nuances and its extremely realistic portray of life's brutality.

If we want our young children to unambiguously grasp and internalize the concept of a God who loves them without restriction and without reservation we had better stick with teaching them about Jesus.

Cultivating Wonder and Amazement

2011-06-14T08:27:00.000-07:00

In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus encourages us to overcome anxieties of life by contemplating the beauty and the little miracles that surrround us all the time. "Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like on of these." (Matthew 6:28-29.) Too often we let the worries of the day consume our lives to the point that we miss the very real and immediate blessings in front of our face each day. Cultivating a consistent sense of amazement helps us to not miss the joy and wonder if it all. Of course this approach to life is not unique to Christianity. Developing the habit of being fully present and fully aware of the wonder of each moment is central to Buddhism as well. Buddhists refer to this as "Mindfulness." (Buddhism, by the way, is not so much a religion as it is a life philosophy. When I lived in Japan I met many church-going Christians who also considered themselves Buddhists.)

In my Sunday message a couple weeks ago I shared part of the following passage, and several of you asked for me to put it out here on the blog, so here is the passage in its entirety: "What these people have realized is one of the best secrets of life: let your self go. If you can approach the world's complexities, both its glories and its horrors, with an attitude of humble curiosity, acknowledging that however deeply you have seen, you have only just scratched the surface, you will find worlds within worlds, beauties you could not heretofore imagine, and your own mundane preoccupations will shrink to the proper size, not all that important in the greater scheme of things. Keeping that awestruck vision of the world ready at hand while dealing with the demands of daily living is no easy exercise, but it is definitely worth the effort, for if you can stay centered, and engaged, you will find the hard choices easier, the right words will come to you when you need them, and you will indeed be a better person." ("Breaking the Spell" by Daniel Dennett, p.303)

I find that passage powerful and compelling. And the amazing thing is that the author is an atheist. If an atheist can find that much wonder, amazement and joy in life, what's our excuse? We , as Christians, are supposed to have even more to rejoice in and be amazed at. In addition to the wonder and the beauty that surround us every day--we have this marvelous promise that there is a God who cares for us and loves us without reservation and without restriction for all eternity. What could possibly top that?

The monk Thomas Merton stated it this way: (Pardon the non-inclusive language, but he wrote these words quite a few years ago.) "Every moment and every event of a man's life on earth plants something in his soul. For just as the wind carries thousands of winged seeds, so each moment brings with it germs of spiritual vitality that come to rest imperceptibly in the minds and wills of men. Most of these unnumbered seeds perish and are lost, because men are not prepared to receive them: for such seeds as these cannot spring up anywhere except in the good soil of freedom, spontaneity and love."

Human Universals and the Universal Message of Jesus

2011-05-24T07:44:00.000-07:00

In general we make too much of a big deal over "cultural differences" between ethnic groups and nationalities. Many of the apsects of culture which we consider to be unique to a particular group are actually borrowed from other cultures. Take food, for example: Germans are known for their German potato salad. Italian cuisine makes ample use of tomatoes. Hungary is known for paprika, and the spiciness of much Indian food comes from hot chile peppers. All those food products, however, are not native to those countries. They come from plants which first grew in the New World and were later transported elsewhere. These "traditional" foods don't actually have a long history in the countries we associate them with. Martin Luther never had German potato salad and Leonardo DaVinci never tasted a good marinara sauce.

If you keep digging into other characteristics of a culture, like language, arts and religion, you will quickly see that there is no such thing as a truly unique or distinct human culture. Everybody has always been borrowing from everybody else constantly throughout history. The really amazing thing about humans is that, despite our superficial "cultural" differences, deep down we are really all the same.

Anthropologist Donald Brown has compiled an exhaustive list of hundreds of "human universals"--traits, attitudes, and behaviors that are found in every human culture ever studied. Here are just a few:

abstraction in speech and thought
aesthetics
baby talk
body adornment
childbirth customs
cooking
dance
death rituals
dream interpretation
fear of snakes
gossip
hairstyles
hospitality
poetry
food taboos
proverbs
sweets preferred

That's just a sample of the list. You can find the complete list in "The Blank Slate--The Modern Denial of Human Nature" by Steven Pinker, pp. 435-9. Reading the entire list makes one realize how much we share in common with every person anywhere in the world. Fundamentally, we are one human tribe.

Maybe that's why one of the words Christians have traditionally used to describe the church is "catholic," meaning "universal." The Christian message is not catholic or universal in the sense that one day everybody in the world is going to get baptized and join the church. That's just never going to happen. (Plus, there really is no such thing as "the church" anyway--just hundreds of different brands of Christianity.) But the Christian message could be seen as catholic in that it addresses the spiritual yearnings of all people everywhere in any culture: redemption for all, grace for all, forgiveness for all, and the promise of a life beyond this world. One of my favorite scripture passages hints at this catholicity, or universal nature, of Jesus' message: "And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself." (John 12:32)

The Joy of Living Dangerously

2011-05-05T13:56:00.000-07:00

Several of you have asked for a copy of a passage I shared in my message last Sunday. It was from the British educator, Frederick William Sanderson (1857-1922), commenting on a quote from Nietzsche. I'm a little hesitant to put it here outside the context in which I used it in the sermon. So if you didn't hear the message on May 1, you may want to check it out at www.theophilushouston.wordpress.com. Anyway, here's the passage:

"I agree with Nietzsche that 'the secret of a joyful life is to live dangerously.' A joyful life is an active life--it is not a dull static state of so-called happiness. Full of the burning fire of enthusiasm, anarchic, revolutionary, energetic...Dionysian, filled to overflowing with the terrific urge to create--such is the life of the man who risks safety and happiness for the sake of growth and happiness." (quoted by Richard Dawkins in "A Devil's Chaplain", p.59, Houghton Mifflin, 2004.)

As I've been pondering this passage, it strikes me that this describes the lives of so many people all throughout the Bible: Noah daring to build an ark. Abraham and Sarah taking the risk of leaving Mesopotamia and starting over again very late in life. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea, Amos and many other prophets risking ridicule and persecution to bring a prophetic message to the people of Judah and Israel. Paul exposing himself to numerous dangers and difficulties in taking the Christian message around the ancient Mediterranean. The list is really endless. The Bible is filled with the stories of people who refused to settle in life, who refused to accept the boring stability of the status quo. They risked safety for the sake of growth and happiness, and, in the process, discovered how to live joyfully.

Tribalism

2011-04-13T08:31:00.000-07:00

Several mornings a week, I begin my day with a jog along a running trail. As I head down the trail, I usually encounter an elderly gentleman taking his morning walk, almost always decked out in a University of Texas Longhorns cap, shirt, or sweatshirt. All his exercise gear features the UT logo. When I first started seeing him on the trail on a regular basis, I'd say "Hi,' and he'd respond with a monosyllabic grunt, which is the typical way most guys greet each other, especially guys who don't know each other. Then one morning, on my way out the door for my run I grabbed a t-shirt, which happened to be a Texas Longhorns t-shirt my kids had given me. As I was running down the trail and said "good morning" to the UT guy, he looked up and noticed my shirt. He smiled and said, "Hi"--a far more effusive greeting than he had ever given me before. The next time I went running, I wore the UT shirt again, and this time when he saw me coming down the trail, he waved, smiled and said, "How's it going?" And now when we see each other in the mornings, he consistenly greets me like a long lost friend. The shirt made all the difference. He is clearly a big fan of his UT tribe and when he saw me consistenly wearing the uniform of his tribe, he assumed that I too was a member of the tribe, and he started greeting me accordingly. (Little does he know that I'm actually a Michigan Wolverine in disguise.) Tribal behavior is deeply engrained in the human mind. Evolutionary psychologists suggest that the roots of tribal behavior stretch way back to the early days of our species. Banding together with other humans was advantageous to survival in a hostile enivronment. So humans first felt kinship for their family and for their small hunter-gatherer tribal unit, and that was about it. The sense of caring and compassion for others did not extend beyond one's tribe. Then humans settled down into small agrarian villages which eventually morphed into ancient city-states. In the Fifth Century BC, Greeks didn't feel patriotic about being "Greek;" they felt patriotism towards Athens or Sparta. And so throughout history humans have experienced this ever- expanding notion of their "tribe," the modern nation-state being the largest tribal unit that most people relate to today. Will our sense of tribe continue to expand as it has in the past? Will we slowly begin to see that even the modern nation-state is just another stage in the expansion of our circle of compassion? It seems to me that the very future survival of humanity will depend on our ability to eventually see all humans as fellow-members of the same "tribe." I think this is what Jesus was talking about in the Sermon on the Mount: "For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?" (Matthew 5:46-47) Jesus teaches us to develop a "super"-natural love which overcomes the natural human inclination to love only those who are like us and can love us back.

When You Think God Can't Use You

2011-03-28T14:35:00.000-07:00

The following piece comes from a card I found tucked inside my Bible. I read it as a part of my message last Sunday and immediately received several requests for copies. So I thought the best way to handle it would be to simply post it on the blog. Unfortunately I can't remember where it came from or who wrote it, so I can't acknowledge the original source. The next time you feel like God can't use you just remember... NOAH was a drunk. ABRAHAM was too old. ISAAC was a daydreamer. JACOB was a liar. LEAH was ugly. JOSEPH was abused. MOSES had a stuttering problem. GIDEON was afraid. SAMSON had long hair and was a womanizer. RAHAB was a prostitute. JEREMIAH and TIMOTHY were too young. DAVID had an affair and was a murder. ELIJAH was suicidal. ISAIAH preached naked. JONAH ran from God. NAOMI was a widow. JOB went bankrupt. JOHN the Baptist ate bugs. PETER denied Jesus. MARTHA worried about everything. The SAMARITAN WOMAN was divorced several times. ZACCHEUS was too small. PAUL was too religious. TIMOTHY had an ulcer... AND LAZARUS WAS DEAD!...no more excuses now.

What Happens to "Unsaved" Friends?

2011-03-08T13:54:00.000-08:00

Many Christians are tormented by this question: What is going to happen to friends and relatives who are non-believers? Throughout my life I have met numerous Christians who are convinced that their unbelieving friends and loved ones will be spending eternity in hell if they do not make an explicit confession of faith in Jesus Christ before they die.

What the Bible actually says about salvation, however, is not nearly as narrow and restrictive as many Christian traditionalists believe. Paul's epistles contain intriguing passages which point to the possibility of universal salvation. For example: "...for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ." (1 Corinthians 15:22) And: "Therefore just as one man's trespass led to condemnation for all, so one man's act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all." (Romans 5: 18) Even Jesus himself says "And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself." (John 12:32) Christian traditionalists deny that these passages point to the universal scope of God's redemptive love. But I think one would have to engage in some crazy contortions of logic to reach that conclusion.

The New Testament clearly teaches that heaven is not a reward for having faith in Jesus. Salvation is a free gift (Ephesians 2:8-10). Faith doesn't make salvation happen. Faith is the way we receive the free gift. Faith is simply the acceptance of our eternal acceptance by God. To turn faith into the mechanism that somehow triggers one's eternal destiny is just another form of "works righteousness"--earning one's way into heaven.

So if heaven is not the reward or trophy for being a person of faith, then why bother with faith at all? Well, couldn't it be that the ultimate reward of faith is going through life with a sense of "blessed assurance"--the assurance of being eternally loved by God, the assurance that nothing could happen that could ever separate us from God's love for us? (Romans 8:38-39) Isn't that sense of assurance reward enough?

It's high time for churches to stop implying that if people don't sign-up with their particular brand of Christianity, their souls are in eternal jeopardy. This is a form of spiritual terrorism which has brought needless angst into the lives of too many believers.

Scripture teaches that, in some way, all of humanity is safe in God's love. No need to worry about your "unsaved" friends. God loves them just as much as anybody else. And if Christians spent less time trying to convert people to particular doctrines, we might discover that more people would find the Good News easier to accept

"Cheap" Grace?

2011-02-15T11:56:00.000-08:00

The principle at the heart of the Christian message is Grace--God's unmerited generosity and mercy towards us which you can neither earn nor run away from. The New Testament clearly proclaims that, through the work and ministry of Jesus, God unilaterally reconciled the world to Godself. God's reconciliation has nothing at all to do with what we have done or not done. It is a free gift. "... in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them..." (2 Corinthians 5:19) There is no standard of behavior or spiritual achievement one must attain in order to access this grace and reconciliation. It is simply there, available to all, all the time. You don't have to "clean up your act" in order to be forgiven. Just rejoice and enjoy the forgiveness and pass it on to others.

Truth be told, this gospel message has made many--perhaps most--followers of Jesus more than a little nervous. They think that preaching the gospel of grace doesn't really work, and so throughout the centuries churches have sold us various systems of reward and punishment. The famous sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" by the 18th century American preacher Jonathan Edwards would be an example. No need to read the sermon; the title says it all.

Chances are, if you tell people that your salvation and reconciliation with God have nothing at all to do with anything you have done or not done, then somebody will eventually say to you, "Oh, that's just 'cheap grace.'" Ok. Ponder that phrase "cheap grace." If you think about it for even thirty seconds you will realize how illogical and oxymoronic it is. The minute you add qualifiers like "expensive" or "cheap" to God's grace, you turn it into a commodity, which it most certainly is not. The very phrase "cheap grace" cheapens grace by implying that you have to attain a certain level of moral achievement in order to activate or receive grace. And that totally destroys grace. God's grace is either an absolutely free and unmerited gift on God's part or it doesn't exist at all. There is no middle ground.

I guess you could say that grace is not cheap because it did actaully cost Jesus his life to get the message across to us. But from our perspective, it doesn't cost us anything at all. Nada. Zip. The really scandalous thing is you don't even technically have to go to church, or take communion or make your offering to access God's grace. The risen and victorious Jesus is omnipresent throughout creation. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. (Colossians 1:17) God's abundant grace, mercy and love is everywhere. Churches are not the dispensers of grace. They can't withold it from anybody. All they can do is proclaim it. Churches merely point to the reality and mystery of God's grace that is already present to everybody everywhere in the world.

So the next time somebody accuses you of believing in "cheap grace", you can tell them "No, grace isn't cheap. It's a gift. It's free." And here is some biblical ammo to back you up:

"For we hold that a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law."(Romans 3:28)

"There is, therefore, no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." (Romans 8:1)

"For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God." (Ephesians 2:8)

"And when you were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive together with him, when he forgave us all our trespasses, erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands. He set this aside, nailing it to the cross." (Colossians 2:14)

Does Anybody Ever Read the Bible?

2011-02-09T14:46:00.000-08:00

Does anybody really read the Bible? I don't think so, and I wonder why that is. It's one of the most perplexing aspects of the practice of Christianity. Most Christians would say that the Bible is, in some sense, the "Word of God." And, yet, there is little evidence that it plays any significant role in the daily life of Christians.

If we were actually reading the Bible, pastors' email in-boxes would be filling up every day with the difficult questions the text of the Bible raises. For example:

When Jesus makes reference to the time when David and his men ate of the "bread of the Presence," which was against religious rules, Jesus says that the incident happened when Abiathar was high priest. According to 1 Samuel 21, where the story is recorded, Abiathar was not the high priest but, rather, his father Ahimelech. So was Jesus mistaken? If so, that's a problem because he is supposed to be omniscient. Was the author of Mark responsible for the error? If so that raises problems as well--like what else did he get wrong?
The Pentateuch and the book of Joshua condone genocide. Nobody has ever asked me about that one either.
Why does the apostle Paul never once mention Jesus' miracles or parables in any of his numerous letters to the early church? (Paul's letters pre-date the writing of the four gospels by decades.)
After Paul's conversion he eventually goes to Jerusalem and meets the leaders of the early church, some of whom actually knew Jesus (Galatians 2). Yet when Paul describes the Last Supper and the institution of the Eucharist--the foundational ritual for all Christian worship-- he says he received the words from a personal revelation (1 Corinthians 11:23-26) This seems strange. Why did he not say that he learned about the Last Supper from people who were actually present for it?

And that's the tip of the iceberg. These are not obscure questions for biblical scholars. They leap out from even the most cursory reading of the text, which leads me to believe few people are reading it.

Again, if the scriptures were really an integral part of the fabric of our lives as believers, we would be quoting the words of Amos, Hosea, Ezekiel and Jeremiah to each other on a daily basis.

So what's the disconnect? If anybody has any insights, I'm all ears. Please share.

The Bible is an endlessly fascinating book. If we believe it somehow transmits to us the Word of God, then we should not be afraid of any question about it but rather approach it with a spirit of inquiry. If we don't think that the Bible has enough integrity to stand up to our questions about it, then that's an even bigger problem.

So with regard to reading the Bible, I can only echo the words of the old "Life" cereal commercial: "Try it! You'll like it!" And your life will be richer for taking the amazing journey through scripture.

Rethinking Hell

2011-02-03T07:38:00.000-08:00

The other day it dawned on me that the apostle Paul doesn't seem to mention the concept of hell very much in his epistles to the early Christian communities. So I got out my copy of "Strong's Concordance" to check out the frequency of the word "hell" in the New Testament. It turns out that Paul does not mention "hell" even once. The concept of God's eternal torture chamber designed specifically to torment the reprobate is entirely missing from Paul's letters. Surely this is not a matter of mere omission on Paul's part. He was a careful and articulate theologian. The Book of Romans is one of the most comprehensive and nuanced theological treatises ever written. If hell had been an important part of Paul's theology, he certainly would have included it there. But he didn't--not once in all his existing letters, which comprise one third of the New Testament.

This is significant because Paul's letters pre-date the writing of the Gospels by decades. Paul's letters are the earliest Christian literature we have. They give us our best glimpse of how the first Christians lived and what they believed. Based on what we read in his letters, apparently the early Christians were not motivated by a fear of hell but rather by the "love of Christ that surpasses knowledge" (Ephesians 3:19) The earliest form of Christianity was a religion of love and grace, not a religion of hellfire and damnation.

So where did the concept of hell come in? It's hard to say. But it's reasonable to conclude that it developed somewhat later, perhaps as a tool used by religious leadership to control the faithful. A doctrine of hell could be an effective means to intimidate the perceived disrupters of orthodoxy. It could also serve as a disincentive for those thinking about leaving the faith community, much in the way that modern-day cults sometimes try to coerce their followers into remaining in the fold.

But the good news for us today is that in Paul's theolgy and letters, the threat of hell is simply not there. On the contrary, the great central theme of Paul's message is the overwhelming grace of God which we can neither earn nor run away from. As he said so memorably in Romans:
"For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:38-39)

Creative Geniuses

2011-01-26T09:24:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure where the following story came from, but it's a good one:

Gordon McKenzie is a creative director at a major greeting card company, and he is also an artist. Once a month he goes into elementary schools to do some sculpting for the kids. When he gets to a classroom he says this: "Hi, my name is Gordon, and among other things, I am an artist. There are many pictures and drawings in this classroom, so there must be other artists here too. I'm curious, how many artists are in the room?" And he says the pattern of reponses never changes. He says in the first grade classes, nearly all the children leap out of their seats, arms waving wildly, reaching for the ceiling. In the second grade, about half the kids would raise their hands shoulder high. In the third grade classes, at best ten out of thirty kids would raise their hands tentatively. By the sixth grade, only one or two would raise their hands guardedly, glancing around fearfully at others. And Gordon asks them, "What happened? Did all the artists transfer out to other schools?" And then he says this: "You are being tricked out of one of the greatest gifts we have all been given at birth--the gift of bing an artist, a creative genius."

How true! Scripture says that we are all made in the image of God. God is the consummate creative genius. God created hummingbirds that beat their wings up to 75 beats a second, the only bird that can hover in one spot. The consummate creative genius created more than 9,700 species of birds, more than 4,000 species of mammals, and more than 16,000 species of fish. These figures do not include all the species of animals that have existed and are now extinct.

(A quick digression on creation: Creation did not end on the "sixth day" in the book of Genesis. Creation is still ongoing. God has never stopped creating stuff. Jesus hints at this in John 5:17: "My Father is still working, and I also am working." Astronomers tell us that every day stars in the universe are dying, and new stars are being born. Christianity really needs to develop a doctrine of continuous creation.)

You were made in God's image, and you too are a creative genius. The trick is not to let the world tell you otherwise.

A couple years ago I read a news story about a man who developed and marketed solar-powered flashlights. For every flashlight he sells here in the U.S., he donates a flashlight to people living in parts of the world where electricity is scarce and life after dark becomes a dangerous situation. Just a simple flashlight can make all the difference in terms of personal safety. The flashlights have become a big hit--so much so that the flashlights became targets for thieves. People kept stealing them. But it turns out that most of the people stealing flashlights were men. And so the man who invented the flashlights came up with a creative solution. They started making the flashlights exclusively in pink. And when the thieves saw the pink flashlights, they perceived them as being too "feminine" and stopped stealing them.

Anything is possible. Don't settle for things as they are. God is not static. God is always moving us forward into new possibilities.

A Christmas Carol

2010-12-22T09:02:00.000-08:00

A recent article in "Christianity Today" asked several authors to name their favorite Christmas story that's not in the Bible. A few of the stories mentioned were, "It's a Wonderful Life," "The Littlest Angel," and "Ben-Hur." It's a great question to think about. I guess my vote would be for "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens.

When I was in college, each year around Christmas one of the English professors would put on a performance of "A Christmas Carol." I believe he did it three nights in a row. He would dress up like Dickens and simply recite the entire story from memory. The one-man performance was gripping. And he would always pack the house. Each peformance was standing room only. And this amazed me because it was large secular state university. Religious expression was not in vogue. Furthermore, the performance always happened right in the middle of final exams, the very busiest time of the semester. Yet students and faculty alike made time to attend, year after year.

The lasting appeal of "A Christmas Carol" is remarkable. All around the world people are drawn to this story over and over again. Why? It's not like we don't know how it ends. There are no surprises waiting. The story never changes. And yet we can't get enough of it. The story clearly resonates with some deep longing in the human heart. The transformation of Ebenezer Scrooge reminds us of something probably most of us want to really believe: Life change is possible. The human heart can grow. People can and do become better. We can overcome the Ghost of Christmas Past. Love ultimately triumphs. Although "A Christmas Carol" is not an explicitly "Christian" piece of literature, it magnificently expresses the core themes at the heart of the Christian message: redemption and new beginnings.

Do you have a favorite Christmas story? If so, what is it and why do you like it? I'd be interested to hear.

Intelligent Design

2010-12-08T07:40:00.000-08:00

In recent years the concept of "Intelligent Design" has been much discussed. Proponents of Intelligent Design say that, from the structure of the cosmos down to the behavior of sub-atomic particles, order and intentionality are observable everywhere. All the conditions that make life viable on earth are so finely tuned, that life could not have just randomly emerged. (Although, the recent discovery that at least one form of life can surive on arsenic might have thrown a monkey wrench into the works.) At any rate, fans of Intelligent Design say that all the order in the universe points to a Designer behind the design.

It's an interesting discussion to follow, but some of the finer points of the scientific conversation go way over my head. Lately I've been thinking that one can appreciate the order and intentionality in creation without having to delve into astrophysics or chemistry. Don't we see evidence of "intelligent design" around us all the time just in the course of daily life? For example, it fascinates me how products from different parts of the world so often come together and complement each other in amazing ways. This happens frquently, and when it happens the end-product is something far greater than the sum of it's parts.

Consider, for instance, the Mocha you get at Starbucks. It's chocolate and coffee. Chocolate comes from the Western Hemisphere. Coffee was first cultivated in Africa. People enjoyed these products for a very long time before they ever tried them together. Then the "discovery" of the New World brought these two tasty treats together for the first time, and the world expereienced something new and wonderful. Chocolate and coffee were made for each other! I can imagine God watching this with delight and thinking, "They finally figured it out!"

A couple other examples come to mind: Sushi came to us from Japan. Avocados are a product of the Americas. Put the two together and you get the "California Roll" which is now ubiquitous at sushi restaurants. Sushi purists might turn up their nose at this invention, but I think it's great.

One of my absolute favorite cuisines of all time is Vietnamese. It's the best of Southeast Asian cooking with a lot of French influence thrown in. The Banh Mi (Vietnamese sandwich) puts wonderfully marinated meat, fresh herbs and veggies on a baguette with spicy mayo, you end up with an absolutely unique combination of flavors and textures--one of the best sandwiches ever.

The R&D departments at candy companies are always working on new ways to amaze us. They have products in the pipline for years before we, the consumers, ever get to taste them. (How long did the people at Hershey hold out on the dark chocolate Kisses before they were available in stores? A long time!) Anyway, I sometimes picture God as having an R&D department in heaven. They've given us all these amazing foods that make life so good. God had Mochas and California Rolls in mind a long time before we put them together. Makes me wonder what else God has up his sleeve.

The End of Theology?--Part 2

2010-11-24T07:48:00.001-08:00

Thanks to those who commented on the last post, "The End of Theology." I really appreciate you joining the discussion. The post was intentionally a tad on the provocative side. Clearly as somebody who is trying to follow Jesus and finds inspiration in the Bible, I believe we need to have a way to talk about matters of faith. But I do have this feeling that "theology" as we know it is hitting the end of the road and theological discourse is morphing.

The problem with calling theology the "study of God," is that, since all of the Judeo-Christian tradition is ultimately based on revelation, there is technically nothing "there" to study. You either believe the revelation to some extent or not. It's subjective and speculative. God is notoriously resistant to sitting down and submitting to any form of empircal verification by humanity.

I agree with Clayton's comments and I find the term "systematic theology" is oxymoronic. Once upon a time theologians would regularly produce systematic theologies--massive, multi-volume tomes that tried to nail it all down, from creation to redemption to eschatology. I wonder, are people even writing these kinds of things anymore?

There are indeed topics related to religious life that are worthy of formal study. We can't study God, but we can study how people throughout history have expressed their experiences of God. I guess that would fall into the category of cultural anthropology. We can and should study rigorously the historic context that produced the Abrahamic faiths. (A thought-provoking book I am currently reading is The Evolution of God, by Robert Wright. Two thumbs up on this one.)

But it seems to me that "theology" is more like poetry, music, or art than it is like any other field of study. Like music and poetry, theology is another way we attempt to describe intangible realities.

Finally, Jack's comment reminded me of an old story told about Karl Barth, perhaps the most famous theologian of the 20th century. In the 1950's Karl Barth left his native Switzerland for his first trip to the States. Apparently his arrival was really big news and garnered quite a bit of media attention. At a press conference on that trip, an American journalist asked Barth if he could sum up the gist of this theology. His response, "I believe you have a song here in America that says it quite well: Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so."

The End of Theology?

2010-11-10T08:55:00.000-08:00

I'm beginning to wonder if "theology" has outlived its usefulness to humanity and theology has become a more of a hindrance than a help to those who want to follow Jesus. Just thinking out loud, but it seems that over the centuries churches have created many layers of complex theological doctrines and formulas that have very thin scriptural support. Think about doctrines such as "transubstantiation" and "pre-lapsarian double predestination," just to name a couple. Christians take their various stances and split theological hairs over the nature of communion, baptism, election, end-times and numerous other topics that Jesus really didn't give us much direction on. In recent years, churches that are part of the Neo-Calvinist movement have been resurrecting some really old-school doctrines such as the Total Depravity of humans and the Limited Atonement, a doctrine that teaches Christ's atoning work on the cross is effective only for an elect few. (If you'd like to find out more about Neo-Calvinism, do an internet search on the acronym TULIP, and that should get you going.)

Meanwhile, fewer and fewer people in the world appear to be interested at all in any of these arcane teachings. They seem to have little relevance for the realities of daily life. Traditional denominations spend years training clergy in the theological rigors of their particular brand of faith, and yet many of the most influential and successful churches in the country today are led by pastors who have had little if any formal theological training. What's that all about?

In the Middle Ages, theology was known as the "Queen of the Sciences." Of course, those were the days when there was not much actual science happening. Today, I think the term "theology" may throw us off because of the "ology" part of the word, which makes it sound like the equivalent of biology, geology and other sciences. Theologians, and sometimes pastors, employ a puffed-up rhetoric and esoteric vocabulary, which gives the impression that theology is more intellectually rigorous than it actually is. And I say that as somebody who has enjoyed reading theological works for many years. I think we Christians need a little more intellectual honesty in the theology department and recognize that pretty much all theology is conjecture and speculation. There has never been an single empirically verifiable theological truth claim.

When I was an undergraduate I had the opportunity to be in a graduate seminar with the Catholic theologian Hans Kung. We were all assigned a topic to do a paper and presentation on. My topic was: "The Shift from Dialectics to Praxis as Foundational for Political and Liberation Theologies." It sounded impressive but I'm still not sure what that means exactly, and I'm not sure how the paper did anything to advance the kingdom or make Jesus clearer to anybody.

Obviously people of faith need to engage in something like "theological discourse." But the old way of doing business simply isn't working any more. People are not looking for a more complex faith, and they certainly are not looking for new doctrines that divide people into different theological camps. People are more interested in Jesus than in all the stuff people have simply made up about Jesus over the centuries.

More thoughts to follow in my next post.

Racism Alive and Well

2010-11-04T13:52:00.000-07:00

I think I almost got in a fight the other night. And I'm not the fighting kind of guy. (The last time I remember being in a fight was third grade--when my brother stabbed my hand with a pencil. The pencil lead broke off and is still in my hand today. Ever since that incident I haven't been pugilistic at all.)

Anyway, it was the night of Election Day this past Tuesday. I was enjoying a drink with some friends at a local bar. One of the the televisions in the bar was showing the election returns. When it became clear that the elections would result in a significant power shift in Washington, some folks at the table next to us rejoiced. I wanted to find out more about how they viewed the election and what they hoped it would mean for the nation, so I simply asked: "Why do you think this is good for America?" One man smiled and quickly replied, "Because it means we are two years closer to getting rid of that (N-word) President." I couldn't believe I heard what I just heard, so I asked him to say it again. "You heard me. It means we are two years closer to getting rid of that (N-word) President." Being in a mild state of shock, I didn't choose my next words carefully: "Well then, congratulations on being an ignorant racist."--definitely not a WWJD moment for me. He said, "Thanks, I've been working hard at it for a long time." Then we got into a stare-down. A woman at a neighboring table attempted to tone things down when she added helpfully, "Well, it's not like he's ALL-black. He has some white in him too." How enlightened.

I had to stop and do a quick reality check. "OK, let's see, I didn't just accidently fall through a worm hole in the space-time continuum and land in Alabama in 1963?" Nope, it was still 2010 in suburban Houston. The fact that racism persists is pretty well-known. But racial sentiments are usually expressed in more subtle ways these days. This was the first time in a long time I had encountered such blatant, visceral hatred.

Racism appears to be a fairly recent phenomenon in human history. In Ancient Rome, for example, visitors from Africa were not discriminated against on the basis of their skin. Rather, there is some evidence to suggest that the ancient Romans found people with darker pigmentation to be exotic and intriguing--but definitely not "inferior." The early Christians clearly accepted converts without regard to skin color. On the way to Gaza, the apostle Thomas baptized an Ethiopian eunuch by the side of the road. (Acts 8:26)

So if the ancients saw no connection between the color of a person's skin and the content of their character, how could so many people get it so wrong today? Why does racism persist? Was the racist at the bar the other night an isolated extremist? Or are his attitudes tolerated more broadly than we like to think?

And then I had to remind myself that a person who carries that much hatred must himself be in tremendous emotional pain, and he needs my prayers just as much as anybody else.

It's clear, however, that the magnificent dream of Dr. King still has not been fully realized. (It may not ever be fully realized until we all stand in the kingdom of God.) There is still plenty of work to do. Maybe one step would be for churches to eradicate all images of Jesus that make him look like a northern European. Give me a break. There is no way Jesus could have had blond hair and blue eyes. At least give him a dark Middle-Eastern complexion. That might help a little.

Original Sin and Original Blessing

2010-10-27T12:55:00.000-07:00

Most Christians subscribe to the concept of "Original Sin"--that there is a fundamental flaw inherent in the human character. The Fall of Adam, has infected all of humanity, and there is no way to escape being tainted. To be a "sinner" is part and parcel of being human. But not all Christians view Original Sin in exactly the same way. Different groups emphasize different nuances in their interpretation of the doctrine. Churches in the Western tradition of Christianity have typically described sin as something that separates us from God. Churches in the Eastern Orthodox tradition, while taking sin very seriously, have tended to speak of sin as something that distorts our relationship with God rather than severing it. The distinction is significant, and I think it's something we Christians in the Western tradition need to explore a little more.

The difference in the understanding of sin in Western and Eastern brands of Christianty reflects differing approaches to shame and guilt. Guilt is an appropriate feeling of remorse resulting from something you have done. Whereas shame is a feeling that arises from the belief the failure happened because of who you are. People who can bounce back from life's failures tend to see themselves as good people who made bad decisions. Feelings of shame, however, can be debilitating and crippling because shame tells you that you are inherently bad.

Cultural anthropologists have often said that Japan is a "shame-based culture," and that is why suicide is sometimes seen as an option for dealing with life's failures. In 1985, a 747 operated by Japan Airlines slammed into the side of a mountain near Nagano, killing hundreds. Not long after the accident, the CEO of JAL took his own life as a form of atonement for the failure of his company. An action like that is the product of shame-based thinking.

I wonder if we do not live in a "shame-based" culture as well. And I suspect that the doctrine of Original Sin in Western Christianty has been a huge factor in speading shame. Puritans and many other Christian groups throughout history have relied on shame-based forms of discipline: stocks and pillories, scarlet letters, shunning, ex-communication and other forms of humiliation.

Jesus' approach was different. He generally did not go around calling people "sinners" to their faces. He consistently showed grace, compassion and love to troubled people. I doubt that when Jesus looks at us, "sinner" is the first word that comes to his mind. Rather, when Jesus looks at us he sees us as beloved children of God. Children who mess up a lot, but beloved children nonetheless. I think the Eastern Orthodox churchea are more accurate when they say that sin distorts our relationship with God but does not separate us from God. After all, Paul says, "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:38-39)

Optimism and Resilience

2010-10-20T09:01:00.000-07:00

In 1958, at the age of 48, Momofuku Ando, who had suffered a string of business failures and had even done jail time for tax evasion, marketed the first-ever instant ramen noodles, "Chicken Ramen. "Then at the age of 61 he came up with another new product--"Cup Noodle." In 2007 over 98 billion units were sold.

If it is human to fail, it is also human to get back up and try again and again. Ian Flemming wrote four James Bond novels before he had any success at all. The first one, "Casino Royale," sold only 7,000 copies in its first printing. Can you imagine the effort it takes to write a novel and then to have it sell only 7,000 copies. What if he had quit? The world would have missed a lot of good stories.

A while back I read about a guy who was working on his doctorate in psychology, and then all his lab rats died, pretty much killing off the topic of his dissertation. So he decided to give up psychology and try to make a go of his hobby, which was drawing cartoons. He submitted some samples to the New Yorker. The samples were rejected. But he persisted. He eventually submitted something like 2,000 cartoons before a single one got accepted. And today he is the cartoon editor for the New Yorker, the premier publisher of cartoons in the nation.

Psychologists tell us that there are seven learnable skills of resilience: emotion awareness, impulse control, multi-perspective thinking, empathy, the belief that you can solve your own problems, taking appropriate risks, and optimism. But among these seven traits, by far the most important is optimism.

The Christian message is inherently optimistic. It teaches us that we have a God who specializes in new beginnings, a God who loves to resurrect the dead, a God who is at work for good in all of life's circumstances. (Romans 8:28)

Cultural Immortality

2010-10-07T12:46:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I was channel surfing on the car radio and stumbled across an interview with a local community activist. I didn't catch the man's name and I can't exactly remember which causes he is active with. But something he said in the interview has stuck with me. The interviewer asked the activist, who is in his seventies, to share an important lesson or two he had learned in his long career. He answered, "There is no such thing as cultural immortality. A thousand years from now nobody on earth will remember that George W. Bush or Barack Obama ever lived." He's right. A thousand years from now, even memories of the people considered the most "important" in our society will have disappeared into the dust of history. They will eventually be completely forgotten. Fame, recognition, and accomplishments are all fleeting and ephemeral.

The activist said that when it finally dawned on him that there is no such thing as cultural immortality, he realized it made no sense to spend even a minute of his time striving for it. He said it was an incredibly freeing moment. He no longer had to worry about building up his own little kingdom and he was freed to focus his life on the areas he was really passionate about. And he has enjoyed his life immensely ever since.

Most people are not striving for the type of fame or recognition that politicians, sports heroes or movie stars have. But many people are certainly looking for cultural immortality on a smaller level. Many people do concern their lives with building up their little kingdoms. You see it in the power games that people play in your workplace, in your church, on the board of the local PTA or Little League, and in numerous other venues.

The cure for the quest for cultural immortality is to have a profound sense of God's unlimited, unconditional, unrestricted love for you. Author Brennan Manning says that when you grasp and internalize this most fundamental fact of your life, it changes everything: "The drumbeats of doom in your head will be replaced by a song in your heart, which could lead to a twinkle in your eye. You will not be dependent on the company of others to ease your loneliness , for he is Emmanuel--God with us. The praise of others will not send your spirit soaring, nor will their criticism plunge you into the pit... You will live with an awareness that the Father not only loves you, but likes you." ("The Furious Longing of God" by Brennan Manning, p.22)

Psalm 46:10 is often translated this way: "Be still and know that I am God." But the New American Standard Version puts a different spin on it which I like very much: "Cease striving, and know that I am God."

Christians and the American Dream

2010-09-25T17:56:00.000-07:00

Here's a book worth checking out: "Radical--Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream" by David Platt. The book has generated some buzz because Platt, a mega-church pastor himself, takes on the mega-church culture. He makes a pretty good case that traditional churches are not very effective or efficient at helping change the world because they tend to get consumed with their buildings, their campuses and their little empires. (American Christians spend $10billion a year on their church buildings, and almost a quarter trillion dollars is tied up in church-owned real estate.) In his book, Platt does a good job of challenging Christians to start caring less about building fancy, state-of-the-art church campuses and, instead, to start caring more about impacting the world for good. He cites numerous examples of Christians who are making a difference through programs that feed, educate and provide health care for people in some of the poorest areas of the world.

I had read reviews of the book before picking it up, and I was really looking forward to reading it. From what I had read Platt sounded like a cutting-edge thinker. So I was surprised when I actually read the book and found out that Platt's ultimate impetus for service in the world is "saving the heathen." Numerous times in the book Platt mentions that 4.5 billion people are headed for an eternity in hell, so we had better get out there to save them quickly before it's too late. Although Platt definitely advocates that Christians work to alleviate suffering in the world, it turns out that there is an ulterior motive behind all the service projects-saving souls from hell.

Why do Christians and church leaders so often feel like they have to resort to threats and fear to motivate people? Fear is actually a lousy motivator. Political scientists, for example, have shown that using fear as a campaign tactic does not turn out the vote. Rather, people tend to show up at the polls when they are feeling inspired and hopeful. Hope works better than fear.

And so it is with our faith in God. I really think it's time for Christians to take on this notion that everybody who is not a Christian is going to fry in the fires of hell for all eternity. I've never understood the logic behind the idea that a God of Love would create billions of people just for the purpose of sending them to an eternal torture chamber. (If anybody out there reading this understands why, please enlighten me.) This pernicious doctrine is bad for business. It's driving people away from church. But, more importantly, it's not even what the Bible says.
Consider these passages:

"And I when I am lifted up from the earth will draw all people to myself" (John 12:31)

"Therefore, just as one man's trespasses led to condemnation for all, so one man's act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all." (Romans 5:18)

"for as all die in Adam, all will be made alive in Christ." (1 Corinthians 15:22)

And that's just the tip of the iceberg. The dirty little secret of Christianity is that the New Testament takes us right up to the precipice of universalism, and few people in "the church" want to talk about it.

So, if getting to heaven is not the point of believing in Jesus and going to church, why bother?
Well, it turns out that there are some very compelling reasons to become a Christian that have nothing to do with getting to heaven, but more on that later...

God and the Universe

2010-09-22T08:28:00.000-07:00

British physicist Stephen Hawking has been making headlines with his latest book, "The Grand Design" in which he apparently says that God is not necessary to explain the origins of the universe; the laws of physics alone are sufficient for explaining the creation of the universe. (In a previous book, "A Brief History of Time," Hawking had suggested that physics was on the brink of being able to see the "mind of God.")

But, even if Hawking is correct in asserting that science can explain the origins of the universe without reference to God, it still begs the question: "Where did it all come from?" Why is there something rather than nothing? Why does existence exist?

It only makes sense that we will never be able to "see" God within the closed system of our universe. If, as String Theory proponents suggest, there are numerous other dimensions beyond our three spatial dimensions plus time--and if God somehow dwells in a dimension beyond ours--we would necessarily never be able to access that dimension. We simply aren't equipped for it right now. Our sensory perceptions won't allow it.

There is a story that when Columbus' ships first drew near to the island of Hispanola, the native people living there literally could not see the ships as they approached. They had never experienced anything like large ships before and their brains simply were not wired to expect something like ships. Large ships were a brand new category for their senses that defied their experience of reality up to that point in time.

That's a small analogy for our relationship with other possible dimensions. They could be all around us all the time and we would never be aware of them because our brains are not wired to perceive that kind of reality. So, the only way we could come know to anything directly about God would be if God chose to reveal it, if God chose to invade our space somehow and reveal something about the nature of God within our spatial dimensions in a way that we could perceive--which I guess is what the Incarnation is all about.

I really doubt that humanity will ever be able to "prove" the existence of God in the scientific sense of testing a hypothesis with reproducible experiments. We could possibly set up some kind of experiment to test God's existence, but the experiment most likely would not work because it would depend on God deciding to actually show up to play along. So the whole experience of faith and religion hinges entirely on God's revelation and God's initiative.

What's a "Christian"?

2010-09-08T06:32:00.000-07:00

Last week in a television interview a prominent evangelical leader suggested that Mormons were, "the fourth Abrahamic faith" but certainly not "Christian." Mormons quickly fired back that they were indeed Christians because they follow Jesus Christ. And that seems to be the conventional definition of the term "Christian" in popular usage--some one who follows Jesus is a Christian.

The conventional definition, however, is problematic on a couple fronts. First of all there have been some people in history who have been significantly influenced by the teachings of Jesus but were not Christians. Mahatma Gandhi, for instance, based his philosophy of non-violent resistance on the precepts Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount. But Gandhi certainly did not consider himself a Christian.

The other problem with defining the term "Christian" as someone who follows Jesus is that nobody actually follows him very well, myself included. And what does it mean to "follow" Jesus anyway. Do we really even know what that means? It seems that folks are pretty selective when it comes to following Jesus. Yes, I guess everybody can agree on loving your neighbor as yourself and turning the other cheek. But even that's not a given. I met a Christian pastor once who described himself as an "eye-for-an-eye" Christian rather than a "turn-the-other-cheek" Christian. Huh? I didn't know that was an option.

If we were to get really serious about following Jesus' example, would that entail leaving our homes, wandering around the country for three years with a group of our best friends and mooching off the generosity of others? I personally resonate with the Jesus portrayed in the gospel of Luke--he attends a bunch of dinner parties, tells great stories, takes naps, goes fishing and seems like he's eating all the time. Now that's a Jesus I could try and follow.

Maybe we could use a new definition of the term "Christian." Or maybe we don't need the term anymore anyway because it's a loaded term. If you say you are a Christian people often assume that you listen to certain radio stations, buy certain books, vote a certain way and, in general, they peg you as being part of a Christian sub-culture.

Anyway, more thoughts on re-defining what it means to be a "Christian" later. Got to run now.

Muslims, Christians, and Mosques in the Neighborhood

2010-08-30T08:45:00.000-07:00

Anti-Muslim hysteria is sweeping America at the moment. In several locations around the country people are vehemently protesting the building of mosques. And the feelings of hostility seem to be intensifying. Apparently over the weekend the site where a mosque is to be built in Murfeesboro, Tennessee was vandalized. Some "Koran burnings" are scheduled for September 11.

The fear of Islam makes little sense on so many levels. There are so many unhelpful myths just floating around out there these days. One such myth is the belief that there was no widespread Muslim condemnation of the 9/11 attacks. Actually there were spontaneous outpourings of support and solidarity with the US all throughout Muslim parts of the world--including a candle-light vigil attended by thousands in Iran.

Many of the people who are protesting the building of Mosques are Christians. And this puzzles me because their phobia of Islam belies a fundamental contradiction in their theology. Most Christians believe that their God is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent. If that is true then there is no way, a "false" religion could ever pose a threat to their Christianity.

And creating a society which is hostile to Islam plays right into the hands of the Islamic extremists who have been telling other Muslims that the US is anti-Muslim. But I guess the people fueling the hysteria don't have a sense of irony.

It seems to me that this season of religious tension in our society presents Christians with a unique opportunity to be bridge-builders and ambassadors of reconciliation. We have a good example to follow in the Apostle Paul. The 17th chapter of Acts records Paul's visit to Athens. Upon his arrival there, Paul went to the Areopagus (also known as Mars Hill) which is at the base of the Acropolis. Philosophers would gather there for weighty discussions about the meaning of life. Here is part of the account: Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription: "To an unknown God." What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. (Acts 17:22-23)

Notice how Paul attempts to establish a rapport with the people of Athens. He doesn't label them "pagans" or "unbelievers" or "lost," even though they don't share his religious beliefs. Instead, Paul looks for common ground. He acknowledges their religiosity and does not belittle it. Paul knew that if he alienated his audience, there would be no possibility of conversation and no possiblity of sharing his belief in Jesus.

In this increasingly anti-Muslim environment, we could use a little more of Paul's rational and loving approach and a little less hysteria. This is a chance for Christians to defend their Muslim neighbors and speak well of them and actually demonstrate what the love of Jesus is all about. Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 16:14 Let all that you do, be done in love.

Plus, there's that old saying that goes, "What you fight, tends to ignite. What you resist tends to persist."

The Fed-Up Flight Attendant

2010-08-14T15:50:00.000-07:00

Well, the flight attendant who dramatically quit his job sliding down the emergency chute, beers in hand, has struck quite a chord across the country. Apparently, he had reached his breaking point in terms of being verbally abused by passengers on a regular basis. Perhaps he didn't make his statement in the best way, but at least he got his point across and nobody got hurt. Over the years I have known lots of people in various service-oriented jobs, and they tell me that they face that kind of abuse from angry and demanding customers on a daily basis. A couple friends in hotel management tell me that they often spend the better part of their day dealing with customers who demand that they be "comped" their room because of some imperfection they found in it.
I hope that the flight attendant's actions this week have caused more than a few people to pause and rethink some angry words they were getting ready to unleash upon somebody just trying to do their job.

The level of discourse in our country does appear to be taking a nose dive. There is definitely a scarcity of niceness. That's why I'm saddened that Larry King has announced his retirement. He seems like a supremely nice person, at least from what you see on TV. King has a unique ability to connect with the people he is interviewing and put them at ease. And he appears to genuinely like most of the people he interviews and strives to find something good and likeable in everybody. Unlike many others in the media, he is not combative or confrontational. He tends to let interviewees speak for themselves and not put words in their mouths. He doesn't look for the "gotcha" moment in an interview. At least that's the way it has seemed to me as I've watched him over the years.

The way Larry King has approached his interviews reminds me of what Martin Luther once said in his explanation of the Eighth Commandment--"you shall not bear false witness." He said this means that we are not to "betray, slander, or lie about our neighbor, but defend him, speak well of him and exlpain his actions in the kindest way." Precious little of that happening in the world today. I know I need to do better at it. I'm sure you feel the same way. But if we could all do that a little more consistently, it might start to turn around all the nastiness and meanness out there.

Christian or Follower of Jesus?

2010-08-05T06:36:00.000-07:00

Novelist Anne Rice made something of a splash the other day when she announced on Facebook that she was formally quitting Christianity. She said that she could not be anti-woman, anti-birth control, anti-gay, and all the other "antis" that she felt Christianity demanded of her. "It's simply impossible for me to belong to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious and deservedly infamous group," she said. Rice also affirmed, however, that she most certainly continues to be a follower of Jesus Christ, but she is no longer a "Christian." One reason the announcement caused such a stir is that in recent years Rice has been writing historical novels about the life of Jesus as an expression of her faith.

I was actually suprised at all the media attention Rice got this past week. Celebrities have been forging their own unique spiritual paths for a long time, so that's hardly newsworthy. (Louis Armstrong, for example, said he embraced the whole Judeo-Christian tradition without ever identifying with any particular tribe or expression of that tradition.) But I think Rice is on to something with her rejection of the "Christian" label. Recent surveys have indicated that among the general public, the term Christian is almost becoming pejorative. And when people hear that you are a Christian they tend to automatically assume that you hold to a certain set of judgmental and intolerant cultural and political views.

The Anne Rice story is a small part of a much larger story of massive upheaval that is happening in the Christian world. One of the fastest growing expressions of Christianity today is the "house church movement." Somewhere between 6-12 million Christians in America now no longer belong to a traditional church, opting instead to express their faith in small, home-based gatherings.

Rather than be threatened by all the changes that are happening, mainstream Christians should be rejoicing that God continues to move in new and exciting ways. And we should also take Anne Rice's critique of the "Christian" label seriously. I too think the term may have become too loaded. It carries too much cultural baggage. What is wrong with simply wanting to be known as a follower of Jesus?

And Rice is correct in saying that Christians are too often defined by what they are against. The challenge for us today is to create a version of Christianity that is known primarily for its commitment to postitive and uplifting virtues like grace, forgiveness, love, compassion and peace.

Christianity's Big Idea

2010-07-27T05:08:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, one simple idea makes all the difference. Think of all the great companies that have made their mark in the corporate world because one distinctive, defining theme that guides everything they do:

"When it absolutely has to get there overnight."--Fed Ex
"Fast, friendly, free delivery."--Domino's Pizza
"The low fare airline."--Southwest Airlines

Great companies tend to know their mission, stick to it with tenacity and not let anything divert them from that mission.

Similarly, the Bible has one great, defining theme: the unrelenting, unrestricted and unconditional mercy and love of God for all people (and all creation.) The Bible is a long and complex work, composed by dozens of authors over many centuries. People are sometimes indimidated by it's length and complexity. But, if you always read the Bible through the lens of God's unrestricted and unconditional love, then it really starts to make sense. The theme of God's grace eventually ties everything in scripture together, from Genesis to Revelation.

Unfortunately, over the centuries, organized Christianity has often forgotten the one, simple idea at the heart of Christianity. Various churches and denominations have added conditions and caveats which weaken and limit the message of grace.

Churches will say things like, "Yes, you're saved by grace...
BUT--you've got to do this or that if you want to be really saved
BUT--you've got to have a born-again experience
BUT--you've got to feel really sorry for your sins before you're forgiven
BUT--you've got to experience manifestations of the Holy Spirit
BUT--you've got to believe in the Rapture, the Tribulation and that the universe was made in six 24-hour days 5,000 years ago..."
or you are a substandard Christian or possibly not saved at all.

And the list of conditions and caveats goes on and on. I'm sure you can think of a few ways in which churches have tried to constrain and dampen the message of God's free grace for all people. I'm just thinking out loud right now, but maybe it's a control thing--maybe churches have worried that if they make getting to heaven "too easy," people might not buy what churches are selling any more. (Let's face it, the ultimate goal of any institution--including churches--is to perpetuate the institution.) So churches have come up with more religious products to sell, and we have told people that if they just come to worship more often, and attend more Bible studies and buy more Christian books and and go on more retreats and more service projects they would become closer to Jesus and become "better" disciples. The implication is that someday, if you work really hard, you will get your act together, you will arrive and become some sort of super-disciple. (Do they give a trophy for that?)

When the radical truth is: there is nothing you can do to make yourself more precious or more valued in the eyes of God than you are right this very minute. This very moment, as you sit in front of your computer screen, you are as close to God as you will ever get in this life. You are eternally, profoundly, and unrestrictedly beloved, right now.

The 16th century reformer, Martin Luther, understood the power of focusing on the simple truth of God's grace for all people. He once said, "The truth of the Gospel is the principle article of all Christian doctrine...Most necessary is it that we know this article well, teach it to others, and beat it into their heads continually."

Luther was right. That's what it means to grown in faith: to constantly remind yourself and other how eternally loved, forgiven and accepted they are by God right now. Everything else flows from that realization, from your consciousness of that reality.

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God--not the result of works, so that no one may boast." (Ephesians 2:8-9)

Random Thoughts on Meaning and Purpose

2010-07-20T13:03:00.000-07:00

A while back I heard that today Americans buy twice as many clothes per capita as they did in 1991. We are not merely spending twice as much on clothing--we are literally buying twice as many clothes as we did in 1991. Why? Do we need more clothing now than we did back then? You would think with global warming going on we would need less. But no, we have purchased more. Why? To fill a void.

Happiness levels in America actually peaked in the 1950's. Salaries have generally increased 300% over what they were in the 50's, and yet we are no happier than we were back then.

(This year in the US alone, people will spend some $18 billion on make up, and another $15 billion on perfume and cologne. It is estimaged that $10 billion would bring clean drinking water to everybody on the planet who needs it.)

I also read recently that, within two years of retirement, 78% of NFL players will be bankrupt, drug-addicted, divorced or some combination thereof. (The statistics are similar for the NBA and Major League Baseball.) Why? Because no matter how much prestige, power, postion and success people acquire, there is a hollowness unless we've got a sense of meaning or purpose.

People are "meaning machines." We have this almost irrational need for meaning and significance. We have this craving for destiny, to accomplish something signficant. We crave meaning and signficance so much we will look for it everywhere, and when we don't find it, we do other stuff to fill the void.

I think this was one of the main factors in the emergence of early Christianity. In antiquity most people did not usually experience a profound sense of meaning or purpose. In the 1st century Greco-Roman world, for most people life was not going anywhere. You were born where your ancestors were born, you worked the family trade for a few years, you died and that was your life. It had been that way for generations and would continue to be that way. "There's nothing new under the sun," was the prevailing outlook on life.

But all of a sudden, as Christianity started to spread, many people for the first time in their lives had a sense that life mattered, that history was going some place and that they were a part of it. They had this sense that what they were doing with their lives contributed to the kingdom of heaven and that nothing done for the kingdom would ever be wasted. God would use it all for his glory.

Second Thoughts About the Second Coming

2010-07-14T14:44:00.000-07:00

Belief in the Second Coming of Christ is a basic tenet for most Christians. It's mentioned in scripture as well as in the historic creeds of Christianity. Fascination with "end times" prophecy is just as rampant today as ever; witness the huge success of the Left Behind series, which has captured the imaginations of millions of readers. (Never mind the fact that the whole premise of the series has very little basis in either scripture or mainstream Christian doctrine. It's really just very entertaining theological science fiction.)

I've heard many Christians in recent years look at tragic world events and conclude that we are living in the "end times." 9/11, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Hurricane Katrina, tsunamis, the earthquake in Haiti, etc. Is the frequency of disaster really increasing around the world? Probably not. We just hear about tragic events more frequently than ever before because of the Internet and other technological advances in news coverage. The tendency to look at the tragedies of one's particular time and see them as unique has been a constant throughout the centuries. Christians of virtually every era in the past have believed that they were living in the end times. (Indeed, polling shows that a significant number of Americans today believe the world will end before 2050)

When we talk about the end of the world and the Second Coming of Christ, it is often assumed that these will be cataclysmic events accompanied by wars, natural disasters and a dramatic descent of Jesus from the clouds, coming to finally set things right and punish the "evil-doers." But lately I've been seriously re-thinking that scenario. First of all, I firmly believe that, despite all the tragedy and evil that persists in the world, generally things are getting better all the time. Yes there is still too much war, but there is actually less conflict going on around the planet than ever before. And in recent decades human knowledge and technological capacity have grown exponentially. Not only is life getting better on so many fronts, life is getting better faster than at any point in history. It's easy to focus on the negative, but when you look at the big picture, life is undoubtedly getting better for our species.

All this makes me think that we might be experiencing the Second Coming of Christ right now incrementally, without even being aware of it. As hunger abates, as wars are resolved, as poverty declines, as diseases are cured, the world is slowly becoming more like the world that Jesus and the New Testament authors envisioned--The New Jerusalem. Whenever we spread compassion, forgiveness, and love towards others, Jesus is coming again.

So I personally don't believe in a dramatic end of times fireworks show anymore. I think it's happening now in the midst of the miracles of daily life. After all, the first time Jesus showed up he was off everybody's radar. He didn't exactly appear in the way that most people expected a Messiah to show up. What makes us think he's going to fit into our expectations and preconceived notions the second time around?

I am reminded of the words of T.S. Eliot in his poem, "The Hollow Men.":
This is the way the world ends/ Not with a bang but a whimper.

The Gospel of Inclusion

2010-07-03T08:51:00.000-07:00

God is Not a Christian, Nor a Jew, Muslim, Hindu...is the title of a thought-provoking book I ran across recently. The author, Carlton Pearson, was raised in a strict Fundamentalist/Pentecostal tradition. He became a pastor of a mega-church and a celebrated preacher. Later in life, however, he began to question many of the fundamentalist doctrines he had been preaching his whole life. He learned the scriptural languages of Greek and Hebrew, and through a thorough study of the Bible came to believe that much of what traditional Christianity teaches is simply at odds with scripture and the teachings of Jesus. He began to develop a theology which he called, "The Gospel of Inclusion," and he started preaching God's radically inclusive and unrestricted love for all people. He has challenged many traditional Christian teachings regarding things like hell, the devil, the Second Coming and the scope of salvation. His shift in theology quickly brought him a lot of grief. People called him a heretic. He was vilified in much of the Christian world, and yet he has peresevered in preaching the Gospel of Inclusion.

This latest book certainly breaks the limits of Christian orthodoxy yet again. I certainly don't agree with everything in it. (When was the last time you agreed with everything any author said?) Yet I think the book is well worth reading because he challenges us to see old doctrines and beliefs with new eyes.

Here is a random sampling of the many provocative passages in the book:

It seems that it was (and is) human nature to instantly divide into tribes, clans or gangs based on the presumption of sacred knowledge, to presume that some have it and some do not, and those who do not are somehow less than those who do. (p. 170)

The difference between the Christian and the non-Christian is not salvation. In proper Christian theology, salvation is given, not just offered, by grace to everyone. Christians are simply those charged by God with a special mission, to bring light, wisdom, and self-awareness to the world. Not necessarily to convert the world, just to convince it of the innate beauty and love it has mislaid or forgotten. (p. 12)

Once we can accept the possibiltiy that we are beloved children of God and heirs of creation, partaking of the same substance and spirit that gives God being, we can begin to see the other truth: we are already saved, and, more importantly, we're safe! Inclusion recognizes that all people are divine in nature... (p. 179)

(all quotes from God is Not a Christian, Nor a Jew, Muslim, Hindu... by Carlton Pearson, Atria Books: New York, 2010)

Well, I guess in some circles Carlton Pearson would be considered a heretic. And he would be in good company because there were many Christians in the past who were called heretics in their time and later came to be seen as visionary leaders. I thank God for people like Carlton Pearson who are willing to push the limits of our thinking because so often, in doing so, they open up new conversastions, new insights and prompt new spiritual growth.

God's Longing for You

2010-06-21T07:04:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite authors, Brennan Manning, has a new book out. It's called, The Furious Longing of God. Manning has a unique ability to convey God's amazing, unrestricted love for you. While I highly recommend anything he has written, this book is one of the best things he's done. For me one of the highlights of the book is a section called, "The Postmodern Beatitudes."
The word "beatitude" is a reference to the opening section of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, where he says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are the peacemakers" etc.

Today I just want to quote some of Manning's "post-modern beatitudes." I hope they bring you blessing and affirmation today:

You are blessed! God's desire is for you. And
Jesus is the incarnation of God's furious
longing. He is your supreme Lover. It's true.

You are blessed. Your soul's winter is over.
The snows are over and gone. Flowers
are blooming inside of you. The season
of joyful songs has come. To you.

You are blessed! The love of God is folly. No
one is excluded. All (really!) are called to
the banquet table. Come, and be filled.

You are blessed! Heal and be healed. Reclaim
affirmations for the kingdom of God

Amen. Amen. Amen.

From: "The Furious Longing of God," by Brennan Manning, David C. Cook (publisher), 2010, pp.134-135

Hardship and Happiness

2010-06-15T14:02:00.001-07:00

It dawned on me the other day that we are probably the first generation in all of human history that really expects life to be basically happy. One of the things you notice when reading history books is that for most of humanity, for most of history, life has been pretty miserable. Generally most people in the world have had to deal with famine, disease, war and other disasters on an ongoing basis. And actually that's true for a large portion of humanity today. I've traveled to parts of the world where, when people get up in the morning, they expect most things not to work. However, in developed, industrialized nations, we generally expect most things to work well each day. We turn on the tap and expect clean, safe drinking water to come out. We flip the light switch and assume the electricity will be working. We put the key in the ignition and assume the car is going to work. And because we get so used to things working well, we extrapolate and expect that kind of performance in other areas of our lives--our careers, our marriages, our religion. We get used to a world with relatively few problems. So when life's inevitable problems and hardships happen, it can really throw us for a loop because we have lived with unreasonable expectations.

When tragedies and evil happen in life, we have a fundamental choice to make. We can let the hardship paralyze us, or we can take the hardship and transform the experience for a higher purpose. I saw a news story the other day about a man who was a musician--a drummer--who was paralyzed in an accident. Later he went on to develop a new technology that allows him to continute to perform his music with a device operated by his mouth. And now he is helping other paralyzed musicians learn to use this technology. It brings a huge smile to his face when he gets thank-you notes from around the country from people whose lives have been changed by his invention. Instead of allowing a tragic accident to define his life, the man transcended his circumstances and found a way to continue being a blessing to others.

And that seems to be one of the keys to happiness in life: find a way, every day, to bless others, unconditionally.

A Free and Merry Spirit

2010-06-04T14:33:00.000-07:00

Recently I've been reading some of the works of the Protestant reformers of the 16th century. These guys really understood the good news of the Christian gospel better than just about anybody. Here is a sample passage: "But when a person is born anew by the Spirit of God and is liberated from the law, he lives according to the immutable will of God as it is comprehended in the law, and, in so far as he is born anew, he does everything from a free and merry spirit." (Book of Concord, Solid Declaration, Article VI).

I was particularly struck by the phrase, "a free and merry spirit." That's what Jesus wants you to experience in your walk on earth, in your walk with him. When you realize how much he loves you, when you realize he has decided to drop the matter of your sins and to raise you to everlasting life beyond the grave--and that there are no catches or hidden conditions to this love--you will have a free and merry spirit that touches every area of your life.

When I was growing up there was a TV show that captured this "free and merry spirit." It was the old Andy Griffith show. Every episode of the show ended with a little melody that was whistled. (If I knew how to include an audio clip on the blog, this is where I would do it. But since I don't know how to do that, I'm sure you can go find it yourself. Sorry!) And while the tune was being whistled, on the screen you would see one of the most iconic images in television history. It was Andy and Opie, father and son, walking in a carefree way down a down a dusty country lane with fishing poles over their shoulders.

What I did not realize until recently was that there are actually lyrics to this famous melody. They go like this: "Well, now take down your fishing pole/ and meet me at the fishin' hole/ We may not get a bite all day/ but don't you rush away." And the last line goes like this: "Come on take down your fishing pole/ and meet me at the fishin' hole/ I can't think of a better way/ to pass the time of day."

And the reason that image of Andy and Opie is so iconic and why it is engraved on our memories is because the image speaks to us of a deeper longing in our hearts. It's the picture of the "free and merry spirit" the reformers spoke of. It's a picture of the joy and contentment in your heart when you are secure in your heavenly Father's love--a Father who would love nothing more than to spend time with you at the fishing hole.

Taking the Fall for Us

2010-05-16T05:56:00.000-07:00

The other day there was an amazing story on the evening news. It was about a woman who had always wanted to go skydiving and had arranged for a parachute jump on the occasion of her 6oth birthday. On the day of the jump, video footage from inside the plane showed the skydivers giddy with excitement. The woman was strapped to a skydiving instructor, and they jumped out of the plane. Then something went terribly wrong. The parachute did not deploy properly and the back-up parachute got tangled in the primary parachute. Their fall was slowed but not nearly enough. In the final seconds before hitting the ground, the instructor did a maneuver which placed his body underneath the woman he was strapped to, so he would land first. The woman survived with only minor injuries; the instructor became a quadrapalegic.

The news story focused on the first meeting of the woman and the instructor after the accident. She went to see him in a rehab facility where, through arduous work, he is slowly regaining some limited feeling in his limbs. The really amazing thing about the story was that, although the woman went to the rehab facility with the intention of thanking the instructor for his sacrifice and consoling him in his hardship, it was the instructor who cheered up the woman. His attitude was simply amazing. He smiled, laughed and joked with her that they should try jumping again because, what would be the odds of having that kind of accident twice? The news story was another reminder that people can come through just about anything with a gracious and positive attitude.

On another level, the flight instructor's sacrifical act of placing himself in a position to absorb the impact of the fall, is a reminder of what Jesus did for us. Is this not the good news of the New Testament? On the cross, Jesus somehow took the fall for all of us, completely absorbing into himself all the sins of the whole world, for all time. Paul says this throughout his letters in the New Testament, but I particularly like the way he describes it in Romans 5:6

For while we were still weak, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person--though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.

The Goat of God?

2010-05-13T09:46:00.001-07:00

Nothing too profound for you all today--just a question that came to me:

One of the great annual feasts in ancient Israel was the Day of Atonement. It was a national day of repentence. According to Leviticus 16, on that day each year the chief priest would slaughter one goat to atone for the sins of all Israel. Then the chief priest would take a second goat upon which he would lay both his hands and "confess over it all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions, all their sins, putting them on the head of the goat..." (Leviticus 16:21) Then, a specially designated person would drive the scapegoat out into the wilderness, far from the people and would set the goat free in the wild, where it presumably would not last very long.

On the most solemn festival of the year for ancient Israel, the animal which plays the prominent role in bearing the sins of the people is a goat. Why, then, did Jesus become the "Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world"? In the Torah, (the first five books of the Old Testament) the goat is the animal most often associated with sin offerings, not lambs. Yes, lambs play a big role in the Passover celebration, but that festival is not about the atonement of sins. Yet when Jesus is baptized, John the Baptizer proclaimed him the "Lamb of God" and not the "Goat of God." I wonder why. Maybe there is a simple explanation like, "lambs are cuter than goats." Guess I will have to wait to get to heaven to get an answer to that question. Why didn't Jesus become the "Goat of God"? That would have changed things quite a bit. You might have churches named, "Goat of God" church. You might have images of goats in stained glass, church banners and other forms of ecclesastical art.

Well, which ever animal metaphor one uses, the point is the same and the good news is just as good: In Jesus, God solves the problem of sin in the world once and for all, and "There is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." (Romans 8:1)

Which Jesus?

2010-05-08T08:19:00.000-07:00

The diversity of ideas about Jesus among Christians is striking. Visit half a dozen different churches and you are very likely to enounter half a dozen different versions of Jesus. Recently I visited two large churches about a mile down the road from each other. Church A was a mega-church where Jesus was portrayed as a fan of Sarah Palin and a member of the National Rifle Association. Church B is almost a mega-church, and there Jesus was depicted as a socialist, a pacifist and a universalist who blesses all spiritual paths. It's amazing how people can read the same Bible and come to such vastly different conclusions about who Jesus is and what he taught.

A few years ago an attempt to "re-capture" a more masculine Jesus was in vogue among Christian men's groups. "The Godmen" conference, for example, was a group billing itself as an alternative to the church which was getting too "feminine." They said the image of Jesus presented by traditional churches emasculates him and turns him into a wimpy guy, downplaying Jesus' aggressive side. One man at the conference said he was tired of "turning the other cheek," and he just wasn't going to "take it anymore"--which made me wonder if Jesus ever gave us that option. Did Jesus say in the Sermon on the Mount, "turn the other cheek, but only until you get tired of doing it"?

The image of Jesus we believe in probably says a lot more about us and the way we were raised than it does about Jesus. We tend to look at Jesus through the filters of our personal experiences and cultural biases. People who have a vindictive, punishing and shaming approach to life tend to portray Jesus that way. Kind, forgiving and compassionate people tend to believe in a kind, forgiving and compassionate Jesus. In the movie "Taladega Nights" NASCAR racer Ricky-Bobby (Will Ferrel) has a preference for directing his table graces to the "sweet, little baby Jesus."

So, what kind of Jesus will we finally meet face-to-face one day? I'm putting my money on the gracious, loving and tender-hearted Jesus. For me that's where the scriptural evidence points. But, whatever Jesus is really like when we finally meet him, I am confident that he will obliterate all our preconceived notions about him. And I am also confident that he will be far better, far more wonderful than any religious description of him.

Forgiving and Forgetting

2010-05-01T06:17:00.000-07:00

I was reading a book recently in which the author suggested that God indeed forgives, but God does not forget because forgetting would be impossible for an omniscient God. And that got me thinking about Peter. The night before Jesus was executed, Peter denied ever knowing Jesus three times before the rooster crowed at daybreak. I've often thought that in the subsequent days, early morning would have been the worst time of day for Peter. Every time he heard a rooster crow, he would relive his betrayal all over again.

Then, after the resurrection, in John 21 Jesus appears to his disciples and shares breakfast with them on the beach. After breakfast, Jesus asks Peter three times, "Do you love me?" Three times Peter tells Jesus he loves him. And three times he tells Peter to feed his sheep. Jesus is clearly offering Peter a new start and helping Peter move on from the guilt over his past. And I think the timing of the conversation is significant. It was early in the morning--probably around the time the roosters would be crowing. Jesus' words of grace are helping Peter to erase all the negative associations and memories that each daybreak held for him.

Later on, in the book of Acts, Peter is speaking before a crowd at Solomon's Portico at the Temple in Jerusalem, and he tells them: "Repent, therefore, and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out, so that times of refereshing my come from the presence of the Lord." (Acts 3:19-20) When Peter says that, he is speaking from profound personal experience. He knows first hand "the times of refreshing" that came from the grace Jesus showed him. The verb "wiped out" is also significant. It's a Greek verb that could also be translated "erased" and it's the verb that was used in reference to erasing inscriptions carved in stone.

Isaiah 43:25 reads: "I, I am He who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins." Does God both forgive and forget? Well, the author I was telling you about says that it is absurd to think that God can actually forget anything because God is all-knowing. But, omniscience is not God's only attribute. God is also omnipotent. It seems to me that the Bible is telling us God's omnipotence is so great that, in his grace and love for us, he can even will himself to not only forgive but also to forget.

That's what Peter experienced first-hand from Jesus. It's the same deal Jesus offers us.

Restless Hearts

2010-04-26T13:00:00.000-07:00

What was the first concert you ever went to? It seems like most people go to a really cool concert for their first one, like U2 or The Rolling Stones. Mine was John Denver. I know--not cool. But I was a fan when I was younger. He had an early hit that talked about how great West Virginia was. Later he discovered Colorado and wrote, "Rocky Mountain High" about "coming home to a place he'd never been before." All of us can probably relate to that experience of going some place for the first time and feeling it was strangely like home. So for a while John Denver was associated with all things Colorado. But that didn't last. When he died he was living in California. He was killed when he crashed his ultra-light plane into a cliff on the Pacific coast.

Now why would somebody who has achieved such success in life go and do something like that? When you apply for life insurance there is a lists of activities they ask you about: bungee jumping, sky diving, and other dangerous activities. Word to the wise: if it's on your insurance agent's list, don't do it! It means they've done the math and the odds are not in your favor. But people do these things anyway. Why? Restless heart syndrome. After everything he had experienced and achieved in life, John Denver was still looking for something. We all are. It's never enough. We all experience a longing for happiness and a fulfillment that we will never attain in this life. We all experience a longing for "home" that we will never completely find in this life.

So if we find within ourselves a desire which no experience in this world can ultimately satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were ultimately made for another world. Jesus told us in John 14 that we should not be worried about what is to come; he is going ahead to prepare a place for us in the Fathers' mansion. I think Jesus taught us to see all of life as one long road trip that will ultimately culminate in the homecoming we have always been looking for. All our earthly journeys, adventures and homecomings are dress rehearsals for what is to come.

Quantum Jesus?

2010-04-19T14:26:00.001-07:00

Physicists have been telling us for a long time that sub-atomic particles do some very strange things, like randomly appear here and there. We also know that certain particles which are the result of sub-atomic reactions can influence each other at great distances. What happens to one particle happens to the other, even though they are not close. Einstein had a phrase for it. He called it "spooky action at a distance."

Scientists have been puzzled, however, that we do not observe quantum behavior on a larger scale. All the spooky stuff happens in the very small world of sub-atomic particles. You and I cannot do what they can do. For example, we can't randomly disappear from one location and then almost simultaneoulsy pop up in another location.

The great question has been: how big do things have to get before quantum behavior stops working? The other day I heard a fascinating news story on a radio science show about a group of researchers trying to understand this problem. They put together some kind of molecular structure with the width of a human hair. Now to us that seems really small but in the world of sub-atomic physics, it's aboslutlely gigantic. And, for the first time ever, they actually observed "spooky" quantum behavior in an object which is visible to the naked eye.

Now, I'm no scientist and I apologize in advance for any inaccuracies here, but the implications of the experiment are pretty astonishing. Apparently, there is not an arbitrary limit to the size of things that are able to exhibit "spooky" quantum behavior. The only limit is human understanding.

The post-resurrection accounts in the gospels portray a risen Jesus who is able to do quantum-like things; he randomly appears to his followers and then disappears again. He is apparently not bound by our normal rules of time and space. I wonder if the resurrected Jesus we read about in the gospels had access to the fascinating world of quantum mechanics and was somehow able to make it work on a very big scale. We tend to speak of miracles as violations of the laws of physics. But could it be that the phenomena we call "miracles" are really part of the way the universe is structured? Perhaps miracles are not violations of the laws of nature but, rather, a deeper and truer manifestation of reality than we could possibly know.

Scary Jesus

2010-04-16T19:01:00.000-07:00

A while back I was walking along a city street, where somebody was handing out laminated cards with the letters, "WWJD" in bold print across the top. I took one of the cards, looked at it and was surprised to find out that WWJD did not stand for "What Would Jesus Do?" but, rather, "Who Will Jesus Damn?" Here is part of the message on the back of the card: Maybe, just maybe the Savior from the Bible isn't all about warm fuzzies. You see Jesus isn't just a teddy bear kind of guy to be ignored or simply mentioned as a curse word. He has all the evidence he needs to damn your soul to hell, and that day may be just one heartbeat away. Things aren't looking too good for you, my friend. There is only one way to be forgiven and escape your just and impending damnation.. Well, you get the picture. It goes on, but I'll spare you the wrath.

After I read the card I thought, if you had just one chance to put something on a card which would grab people and convey the essence of Christianity to them, would this be it? Is this really what Christianity boils down to? Repent or fry? Turn or burn?

I guess my main problem with the threatening evangelism card was that after I read it, I didn't feel like I had heard any good news--and, after all, that is what the word gospel means--"good news." After I read the card's message, my heart wasn't feeling lighter, my soul was not more joyful. In contrast, when you read in the Bible of Jesus encountering people, for the most part those people who encountered him left Jesus feeling better than before--burdens lifted, hearts lighter, sins forgiven. Think of the woman by the well, think of the woman who was about to be stoned to death, think of the lepers and the lame who leapt for joy after being healed. And the list goes on and on--the list of people who enountered the love of Jesus and went away happier than they were before they met him. Now isn't THAT what religion is supposed to do for you?

No Fear

2010-04-13T12:57:00.000-07:00

Researchers suggest that the emotion of fear is a vestige of evolution. Fear was a survival mechanism that served our distant ancestors very well when they were hunter-gatherers and were daily exposed to very real threats to their being. When you are living out in nature and don't know where your next meal is coming from--or if you might become something else's next meal, fear is a very good thing.

Nowadays, however, fear and anxiety may have outlived their usefulness. We don't really face many existential threats on a daily basis any more. Your likelihood of suriving the day is pretty darn good. Statistically speaking the single most dangerous thing we do every day is to drive our cars. Yet very few of us have panic attackes every time we get behind the wheel.

Religion probably first emerged in human history as a reaction to fear. In ancient times when bad things happened--like plague, drought, earthquakes, etc.--people assumed it was because the gods were angry. People came up with religious rituals as an attempt to exert some control over their environment. By sacrificing crops, animals and even human beings, ancient people believed they could placate the wrath of the gods and get the gods to bless their crops.

Vestiges of this ancient mindset still linger among some religious folk today. You see it when people insist that there is a "correct" way to worship, and if you can get the rituals just-so and perform them the "right way" then God will be happy with you. (Honestly, does God really care at all how you do communion or whether or not you wear your "Sunday best" to church?) Religion is often the last respectable refuge for obsessive-compulsive types.

The message of the Bible is the antithesis of fear. It is striking how often God tells people in the Bible not to be afraid. When the Israelites are getting ready to cross the Red Sea, Moses tells them, "Stand firm and do not be afraid." Through the prophet Isaiah God tells us, "Fear not, for I have called you by name, you are mine." The theme "do not be afraid" is all over the psalms, like in Psalm 27: "The Lord is my light and my salvation, of whom then shall I be afraid?"

When the angel Gabriel tells Mary she will give birth to the Messiah, he tells her, "Do not be afraid, Mary." When Jesus appears to his disciples, walking across the waves, he tells them, "Do not be afraid. It is me." When the women go to the tomb and find it empty, the angel says to them, "Do not be afraid." It is perhaps the single most-repeated phrase in the Bible, "Do not be afraid."

Too often fear and anxiety cast a cloud over our lives and ruin our days. I think scripture is telling us we don't have much need for it any more and just gets in the way. The gods are not angry at you. God has told you how he feels about you. He has said he will not count your sins against you. He has promised you will spend all eternity in his presence. There is nothing you can ever do to make God love you any more than he does right this very moment. Relax and enjoy the ride. There is no need to let fear spoil the adventure any more.

Seeing Opportunity

2010-04-11T12:33:00.000-07:00

I recently read about a fascinating man named Sunday Adelaja. He grew up in a forty-hut village in rural Nigeria. Abandoned by both parents when he was very young, Adelaja was raised by his grandmother. In the mid-1980's, while the Cold War was still going on, Soviet representives working in Nigeria recruited Adelaja to study journalism in the USSR. Shortly before leaving for Russia, Adelaja converted to Christianity. When he began his studies he found out, much to his dismay, that he could not openly practice his new-found faith in the USSR. After the fall of communism in 1989, Adelaja started a couple of "house-churches." And then he moved to Kiev, Ukraine where he started a church with a few friends out of his apartment. This church, known as "The Embassy of God," has become the largest Christian congregation in Europe, with more than 25,000 members. They have also started more than 600 other new congregations all over the world. By virtue of the church's size and influence, Pastor Adelaja has become a significant player and influencer in Ukranian politics.

From what little I know about the church I probably would not be on board with much of what they preach--a little too fundamentalist and charismatic for my tastes. Nevertheless I find Sunday Adelaja's story inspiring. I just love hearing about people who overcome great odds and go on to do great things. Adelaja's story is also about being able to see an opportunity, to seize that opportunity and to run with it.

The other day I was driving down a street that was all torn up with ongoing construction work. Clearly all the construction was having a negative impact on the local businesses along that stretch of road. Then I noticed that one of the businesses, a car wash, had this message on their marquee signboard out front: "Clean up concrete and over-spray here today!" Now that's an example of making the best of a tough situation! And it makes me wonder how many opportunities in life we miss because we we so often simply settle for the status quo. We often complain about the road construction holding us back rather than seeing the possibilities that exist even within the challenges of life. The life-stories of people like Sunday Adelaja show us that incredible possibilties abound each day.

A Child to Celebrate

2010-04-09T18:39:00.000-07:00

One reason, I suppose, that so many people in our culture have rejected traditional forms of Christianity is the problem of logical inconsistency. Much of the way Christianity has been marketed simply doesn't make any sense. For example, you have this all-powerful, all-knowing perfect deity who creates a bunch of imperfect people. And, furthermore, He knows from the beginning of time they are going to be terribly flawed and imperfect. Then He gives them a bunch of rules he knows they can't live up to, and He condemns them for falling short. Thinking like this is recipe for insanity.

I am reminded of an old Jewish story which tells about the Judgment Day at the end of history. God calls before Him all the people who have ever lived. "Here's what we are going to do," He explains. "The angel Gabriel will read out the Ten Commandments, one by one. As he reads them, those who have broken them will have to depart into everlasting darkness." Commandment number one is read and a number of people are led off. The same thing happens with each of the commandments until, having read eight of the ten, only a small crowd remains. God looks up to see this handful of stern, smug, grim-faced, self-righteous, joyless people staring back at Him. He pauses and ponders what it would be like to spend eternity with this lot. "All right," He shouts. "Everybody come back! I've changed my mind."

"People are not fundamentally problems for God to fix, but children for God to celebrate." I read those words a while back somewhere and unfortunately can't remember who said them. But it's a powerful idea. God doesn't see you as a problem to fix but a child to celebrate. That's a truth that could rock our world if people really believed it.

Easter Miracle

2010-04-03T18:29:00.000-07:00

One of the best books I've ever read is entitled, Christianity Rediscovered by Vincent Donovan. The author was Catholic missionary who lived and worked with the Masai people of East Africa. Among the Masai, according to Donovan, the worst crime a son could ever commit is to offend his father by committing a direct sin against him. This offense is considered so egregious that they believe it doesn't just threaten the relationship between the father and the son, but threatens the integrity of the whole community. As a result the son becomes an outcast, banished from his tribe, shunned by his family and friends. The son can become an outcast for months, even years.

Spit is considered a sacred thing to the Masai; they believe it contains the essence of life. For the Masai, spit is a sign of forgiveness and love. The Masai also believe that it's only really possible for God to offer forgiveness. So when a son sins against his father, the dad can spend weeks and sometimes even months praying and searching for God to give him a sign he can offer his son the spit of forgiveness. Finally, when the father believes he has been given the OK from God, the son is tracked down and brought back to the village. The father and the son meet in the middle of the village, with the other residents of the village surrounding them. The son then asks the father's forgiveness. The father spits on his son to forgive him. Then the whole village throws a great party to celebrate the son's return.

It kind of makes you wonder if Christianity had first emerged among the Masai instead of among the ancient Jews we might be sharing the "spit of forgiveness" in church rather than a "sign of peace.' Be thankful for small things.

For me the biggest miracle of Jesus' resurrection on that first Easter Sunday is that when he came back, he wasn't mad at anybody. I've often wondered if, when the disciples first heard the news that Jesus was back, they might not have thought it was such good news at first. They might have thought, "Uh-oh, we're in for it now. He's going to let us have it." But Jesus didn't seek revenge on those who had betrayed him, denied him and killed him. He wasn't mean or vindictive towards anybody in the least. He didn't say, "It's great to see you guys and I'd like to get caught up, but first we need to process what happened on Thursday and Friday..." He doesn't bring any of that up at all. When Jesus returns he greets his friends with the words, "Peace be with you." He only offers them, "the spit of forgiveness" and a new beginning. It's the same deal he offers all of us every day. And all he asks of us is that we return the favor by showing that same forgiveness to others.

Salvation, Part II

2010-04-01T07:42:00.000-07:00

Picking up from the last post, I'd like to continue the discussion of salvation and who it applies to. Many Christians still teach that unless you make an explicit confession of faith in Jesus, you will fry in the fires of hell for all eternity. They will often point to John 14:6 to back up their position: Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." But look carefully at what the passage says and does not say. First, the passage does clearly affirm that Jesus is the only way to God. Any saving that gets done, gets done by Jesus. On the other hand, the passage does not say that one must become a Christian or join a church in order to come to God. That part people just made up.

For too long much of organized Christianity has acted like it had a monopoly on salvation and unless you got on board with a particular church's program, you were not going to heaven. In part, this was an attempt by churches to maintain market-share in the religion world. And the whole "you-must-confess-faith-in-Jesus-to-get-to-heaven" approach begs the question, "Who's version of Jesus are you supposed to sign on to? You can watch half a dozen preachers on TV and hear half-a dozen different takes on Jesus. Sometimes you wonder if they are even talking about the same person.

The more I read the New Testament, the more I have come to believe that the Bible's take on Jesus is far larger, and far more generous than most of Christianity has ever admitted. In the last post we've already seen how the Bible teaches that the resurrection of Jesus somehow impacts all of humanity, not just believers. And then consider Colossians 1: 17: He [Jesus] himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. The implications of that verse just boggle my mind. It says, "all things" --not all Christians, not all churches, but all things. Could that mean that the resurrected and victorious Jesus is somehow actually holding together every molecule in creation?

The risen Christ can't be contained in churches and can't be controlled by preachers. He is literally everywhere in creation. I mean, omnipresence is in his job description, isn't it? And if that's the case, then it is entirely possible for people to respond to Jesus without them even being aware of it.

I carry around in my Bible a clipping from a magazine which contains a quote attributed to Billy Graham, in 1997, speaking at Robert Schuller's church. Here is part of that quote:

"I think that everybody who loves Christ, or knows Christ, whether they are conscious of it or not, are members of the Body of Christ...That's what God is doing today. He is calling people out of the world for his name, whether they come from the Muslim world, the Buddhist world or the Christian world, or the non-believing world, they are members of the Body of Christ because they have been called by God. They may not even know the name of Jesus, but they know in their hearts that they need something that they don't have and they turn to the only light that they have, and I think they are saved and that they are going to be with us in heaven."

I agree with him. The very act of recognizing that you need something you don't have and then turning to the only light available to you, is that not a form of faith? And after all, didn't Jesus promise, everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks the door will be opened?" (Matthew 7:8)

Salvation--It's Not Just for Christians Anymore

2010-03-29T14:44:00.000-07:00

For much of its history, the party-line in Christianity has been that you needed to be a Christian in order to get to heaven, that you needed to make an explicit confession of faith in Jesus Christ before the heart monitor flat-lines or you aren't going to make the pearly gates. Although that exclusivist perspective might still be the majority opinion in Christian churches, thankfully it is not as prevalent as it once was.

The thing is, the New Testament does not even really teach that only Christians go to heaven. The Bible's teaching on salvation is far more generous, far more inclusive than churches and preachers have often let on. Take, for instance, 1 Corinthians 15:21-22:

For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human being; for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ.

Paul's insight here is astonishing. Follow the logic of his argument: Sin came into the world through one person, Adam. That's a statement all orthodox Christians would agree with. It's just the doctrine of original sin, which teaches that all of humanity is tainted by sin because of Adam's first rebellion. (For a moment, let's lay aside questions about the historical veracity of Adam and Eve.) So, Paul says, just as all people have been negatively impacted by Adams's fall into sin, so now every human being receives the positive impact of Jesus' resurrection from the dead, which overcomes and reverses the curse of Adam. Paul, is really blunt here. He says, "All will be made alive in Christ"--not just all Christians, not just all believers in God, but ALL, period. And Paul is true to form here in his insistence that salvation is purely the act of God's gracious initiative. Paul doesn't say that only "good" people will be made alive in Christ. Goodness and badness have nothing to do with it. This is a flat out, unconditional promise made to all humanity.

I was once reading this passage in a particular study Bible, and the implications of the passage clearly made the editors nervous. So they felt obliged to insert this caveat in the study notes on this verse: "Paul is here in no way implying universal salvation." Really? How did they come up with that one? Be very careful of those "explanatory notes" in your study Bibles, friends. They are usually written by somebody with a theological axe to grind.

Anyway, you might be tempted to say, "But this is just one passage, and it is Paul after all, and we all know he could be a little over-the-top at times." Well, actually, it's not just one passage. There are other verses which push the New Testament to the very edge of universal salvation without actually going over the edge. And it's not just Paul who talks this way. Consider the words of Jesus in John 12:32: And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself. Again, note the universal inclusion of ALL people. It seems that the good news is actually far better than Christianity has often dared admit.

In the next post I would like to continue the discussion, and show how you can have your cake and eat it to. It is still possible to talk about the singular role that Jesus plays in salvation, and insist, if you will, that he is the "only way" to God, but still make room for people who aren't a part of his club on earth.

Easter's Coming

2010-03-25T07:55:00.001-07:00

Well, Easter is just around the corner. The other day I read in the newspaper that something like 57% of Americans did not associate Easter with the resurrection of Jesus. So apparently we've got our work cut out for us. There is so much potential out there for sharing the Easter message. If people started looking at all of life through the lens of Easter, it would transform so much of the pessimism in the world.

There are some high-profile and influential strains of Christianity that are predicated on fear and pessimism. You've heard the message: the world is going down the tubes, the culture is crumbling, it's the end of the world as we know it, etc. But, honestly, if Christians really believe that Jesus is victorious over sin and death and the resurrected Christ is alive and well in our world today, then there simply isn't much room for pessimism. If we really believe this Easter stuff, if we really believe the tomb is empty, and our names are written in the book of life, and we are going to heaven no matter what, how could we possibly believe the world is going down the tubes. If the tomb is empty and Jesus is alive and well in the world, there is just no way, for example, that fundamentalist Islam is ever going to take over the world and turn everybody into jihadists. So many of the fears Christians often express simply do not square with a theology of resurrection.

If Christians really took Easter seriously and started looking at all of life from the perspective of resurrection, it would change everything. It could start with small things, like the way we wake up in the morning. Take alarm clocks, for example. Why do we call them "alarm" clocks. Why don't we start calling them "resurrection clocks." Alarms warn us that something bad is going to happen: fire alarms, security alarms. "Alarm" is not a happy word. An alarm clock conditions us to expect the worst about the day. But if we saw it as a "resurrection" clock, we would wake up each day not expecting things to go bad. We would wake up with the expectation that sometime today we are going to have an encounter with the risen Jesus.

The standard greeting that people used in the 1st century Greco-Roman world was "kaire." It comes from the Greek verb "kairo" which means "to rejoice." Grammatically speaking, I believe it is a second-person imperative. So it's a literally a command telling somebody to rejoice. In English what do we say to greet somebody: "hello." It's got the word "hell" in it. Heck of a way to greet somebody. Can you imagine what would happen if we we started going around saying, "rejoice!" Try answering the phone that way. "Rejoice about what?" the other person would say. "The tomb is empty," you could respond.

I once knew a guy who was on a one-man crusade to change the way Christians greeted each other. Whenever you saw this guy he wouldn't say, "hi," "hello," or "how's it going?" Instead he would say, "He is risen!"--which was the way people in the ancient church would greet each other on Easter. And then he would expect people to respond, "He is risen indeed." Anyway, he was something of a fanatic about it, and if you didn't respond with the appropriate answer: "he is risen indeed," he would get made and scold you, which kind of defeats the purpose of trying to get people to rejoice. He was a little over the top, but he had a point. God has put Jesus-followers here to be a reminder to the world that the tomb is empty.

The Voice of Grace

2010-03-22T14:44:00.000-07:00

Wherever Christianity goes around the world, it is often the people on the margins who respond first--the people who have been criticized, put-down, and oppressed. Evidently that is what is happening in India where people in the so-called "untouchable" caste are really responding the message of Christianity. I have heard that if you are one of the "untouchables"--the Dalits--you are given only one name, and it is often a negative, demeaning name like "stupid" or "dumb." But when a Dalit becomes a Christian, churches in India have come up with a special naming ceremony, where each person is given not just one new name but three names. For the first time in their lives these Dalit Christians have names of beauty and esteem. Nothing else has changed about their daily lives. They still live in the same difficult circumstances as the other Dalits. But I have heard that there is something different about the Christian Dalits. They now have a sense of self-worth and dignity. There is something that sets them apart. They carry themselves differently, and there is a change in their fundamental outlook because of the naming ceremony. They begin to see themselves the way God sees them.

That is one of the most basic spiritual tasks of the Christian life--to try to begin to see yourself the way God sees you--not as a miserable sinner, not as a failure, not as an "untouchable"--but as one eternally beloved by God.

Did you ever stop to think that you have probably talked in meaner ways to yourself than you have to any other human being? Sometimes we make mistakes or we we say the wrong things and we think to ourselves, "You jerk," You idiot," "Why did you do that?" or "You always say such stupid things." When we fail we often don't cut ourselves any slack or grace. Instead we end up beating ourselves up over it all. (In fact, I am convinced that we are both far harder on ourselves and far harder on other people than God would ever be.)

If we want to begin to understand something about the way God feels about us, maybe we should start by speaking to ourselves at least as nicely as we would speak to our friends. Let's never again think to ourselves, "you jerk, you idiot" because that is most definitely NOT the way God looks at us at all. Do whatever it takes to start seeing yourself with the same love and tenderness that God has for you.

From time to time when I am channel surfing, I still stumble across re-runs of "Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood." When I watch it again I am struck at how basic the show was--the production values weren't all that great, the set was simple, and Mr. Rogers never fooled any kid with his puppet voices. Yet in every single show he always got to the part where he would say: "You're special. There's nobody like you. I like you just the way you are." And those lines alone are the reason why Fred Rogers will be the greatest "television evangelist" of all time. Those lines are the gospel truth on the way God feels about you. (And don't let anybody ever tell you any differently.) Every human being wants to know they are special. Everybody wants somebody to be their neighbor. Jesus fulfills both needs for all of us.

Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. (Isaiah 43:1)

No Fear

2010-03-18T20:14:00.000-07:00

We are being brainwashed by a pervasive crisis mentality. Notice how often marketing people use fear to sell their products. Pharmaceutical companies, for example, often try to convince us we have some horrible condition that they can help with. And this being tax season, tax preparation companies play on our fear of the IRS.

The 24-news cycle exacerbates the culture of fear. News stations are always breaking in with news alerts, generally accompanied by a bit of ominous music. (The actual "breaking news" item, however, usually turns out to be rather anti-climactic.) And have you noticed how even the coverage of the weather has changed? It's not enough for local news stations just to have the weather man anymore. They have to have a "Storm Center" or a "Severe Weather Center." So when the local weather report comes on, the weather man is standing at the "Severe Weather Center" desk which invariably features scary graphics of thunder clouds, lighting bolts and tornadoes. But the reality is that 90% of the time the weather is not scary or severe at all. Most of the time the weather is just delightful. What would happen if a local news station replaced their "Severe Weather Center' with a "Delightful Weather Center?" Would anybody watch?

Living in a constant state of fear and crisis is not healthy; it's not what we were designed for and not what God intends for us. When I was a kid I read a book about the French Foreign Legion, and I vaguely rememember a story about a French Foreign Legion outpost somewhere in North Africa that had been under siege for a long time. Ultimately all the legionnaires in the fort died--not from enemy gunfire and not even from starvation or lack of water. They died from stress, from an overdose of adrenaline. They died from the sheer pressure of being under siege.

If you want to learn how to handle life, make friends with some really old people. I'm not talking about moderately old people. Go out and find somebody really advanced in years, at least 90 or so. Over the years I have observed that people in that age range are invariably upbeat, cheerful and optimistic. We have this phrase, "grumpy old men," but actually I think there is no such thing; all the really grumpy people die off young. There are plenty of grumpy middle aged men, but really elderly men and women are not grumpy. They tend to be cheerful and enjoy life. It's not that they didn't have problems, challenges, setbacks and mistakes. They had plenty. But they survived so long because they trusted that God is good and life is meant to be enjoyed, not merely endured.

I once visited an aquaintance to wish her well on her 90th birthday. We were standing in her kitchen and I asked her the secret to her longevity. She smiled impishly, reached into her refrigerator, pulled out a cold bottle of beer and said, "One of these, every day!" (There is also probably a lesson about the value of moderation here as well.)

A while back on NPR I heard a story on a caste of people in India whose only job is to do laundry. They interviewed a man who has done this his entire life. They do the laundry by hand, beating it against rocks and hanging it out to dry. Then they fold the laundry, press it and deliver it to hotels. As you can imagine they make very little money doing this. The reports said that the man will most likely never be able to retire. The work is unbelievably hard. The man described how his hands get cracked and bleed all the time. But he didn't sound sad about his lot in life at all. Quite the contrary. There was contentment and even pride in his voice. He said he liked his work and was proud of what he did because every single day he helped make the world a cleaner place.

The Bible does not give us the option of pessimism--either about the state of the world or about the state of our lives. On page after page, scripture assures us that God is in charge, and God is favorably disposed towards us: For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope. (Jeremiah 29:11)

And you know what the most often repeated phrase from the mouth of the Lord is in the Bible?
"Do not be afraid."

Persistence

2010-03-16T05:15:00.000-07:00

Author Ian Flemming wrote four James Bond novels before he had any success at all. The first one, Casino Royale, sold only 7,000 copies in its first printing. Can you imagine the effort it takes to write a novel, and then it sells only 7,000 copies? What if he had decided to quit? The world would never have experienced the thrill of all the subsequent James Bond stories.

A while back I was reading about a guy who was working on his doctorate in psychology, and then all his lab rats died, pretty much killing off the topic of this dissertation. So he decided to give up psychology and try to make a go of his hobby, which is drawing cartoons. He submitted some samples to The New Yorker. The samples were rejected. But he persisted. He eventually submitted something like 2,000 cartoons to the magazine before a single one was accepted. But he still persisted. And today he is the cartoon editor for The New Yorker.

Here is another story of persistence: At the age of 9 his mother died. At 22 he lost his job as a store clerk. At 23 he went into debt to go into partnership in a small store. Three years later his partner died, leaving him with a huge debt to pay off on his own. It took him years to pay it all back. At 28, after being in a relationship with a woman for four years, he asked her to marry him and she said, "No." At 37 he was elected to Congress after his third try. He served one term, lost the next election and suffered a complete nervous breakdown. (He apparently suffered from serious depression throughout his life.) At 41 in the middle of a very unhappy marriage his 4 year old son died. The next year he ran for a local office and lost. At 45 he ran for the Senate and lost. At 49 he ran for the Senate and lost again. At 51 he was elected President of the United States. By now you've probably figured out we are talking about Abraham Lincoln.
Much of his life was a series of failures and obstacles, but he never gave up.

In 1958, at the age of 48, Momofuku Ando had his first business success after a string of failures and even a two-year prison sentence for tax evasion. His product? The first-ever package of instant ramen noodles, which he called, Chikin Ramen. According to Wikipedia, in 2007 over 98 billion packages were sold. And then at the age of 61, Ando had his greatest success ever with the invention of Cup Noodle. Late in life he became a billionaire.

Well, I could go on and on with other examples. The world is replete with stories of great people who only found their success after years of failure and seemingly unsurmountable obstacles.
Success generally does not happen over night. More often than not success appears to be the result of years of accumulated wisdom born out of suffering and adversity.

Whatever you are going through, never give up. God has great things in store for you.

Judgment and Tolerance

2010-03-12T18:26:00.000-08:00

Apparently CNN is getting ready to air a documentary about a city manager in Florida who had a sex-change operation two years ago. I saw a couple clips from the program which featured, predictably, local Christian clergy angrily and vociferously leading the charge to have the city manager removed from office. ( No matter where you stand on the ethics of sex-change operations, it seems to me that the question is irrelevant to the issue of job performance. And by all accounts this person was an excellent city manager.) I was again dismayed at how often representatives of organized Christianity show up on the front lines of intolerance and judgment. Sometimes it seems like the public face of Christianity is more often defined by what it's against than what it's for.

This stands in stark contrast to the ministry of Jesus. When you read the New Testament, it's striking just how much of Jesus' ministry is a lethal attack against judgmental attitudes. In the course of his ministry Jesus takes on racism, religious intolerance, attitudes towards women, and religious hypocrites who thought they were better than others. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus said, "Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged." (Matthew 7:1-2) This is a lesson that Jesus teaches over and over again.

To really drive the point home, in Luke 18 Jesus tells a story about two men who go up to the temple to pray: one is a respected religious leader, a Pharisee, and the other is a tax collector. As you have probably heard many times, tax collectors were considered the most "unclean" profession in Jesus' day. They cooperated with the occupation government of the Romans, and they ripped people off. In fact, I read a while back that tax collectors were considered so unclean that the next highest profession on the totem pole was that of "dung collector." Tax collectors were considered worse than dung collectors. There was actually a provision in Jewish law that said a woman who married a dung collector could divorce him at any time for any reason--like the smell just got too bad or something.

So this Pharisee and the tax collector are praying in the temple and the Pharisee's prayer went like this: "God I thank you that I am not like other men, not like extortioners, the unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector overe here." And he goes on about all the good religious things he did. The tax collector, on the other hand, stood in the back of the temple, beating his chest and saying, "God be merciful to me, a sinner." And Jesus says, "I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other." That word, "justified," in the Greek, means "being approved, being accepted, passing scrutiny." It's the same "justified" as in "justification by grace through faith"--the teaching that salvation is a free gift and not the result of good works.

So in this story, the respectable religious guy does not receive the stamp of approval but the despised tax collector is justified, passes scrutiny. In Matthew 21 Jesus says the prostitutes and the tax collectors will get into heaven before the religious leaders will. It's a consant theme of Jesus' teaching that he repeats time and again. There is a recurring plot-line that goes like this: "There is a good person and a bad person, and the bad person is saved and the good person is not." Go figure.

That is the counter-intuitive beauty and mystery of the Gospel. Why is it that the actual Jesus of the New Testament is far more provocative, far more compelling, and far more interesting than the institutions that claim to speak for him?

Perseverance

2010-03-11T08:21:00.000-08:00

Currently I am reading Dark Star Safari by Paul Theroux, which is an account of the author's journey by land across the entire continent of Africa, from Cario to Cape Town. During his trip through Ethiopa, he met a man named Nebiy Makonnen who had spent ten years, from 1977-1987, as a political prisoner. After a coup in the country, he was thrown into prison on no charges whatsoever other than that he had worked for the former government. As an educated man used to reading and writing, he struggled with life in prison where there was nothing to read and nothing to write with.

Then one day a new prisoner was brought into the compound, and when the guards had searched the man they neglected to find that he was carrying a book--a copy of Gone With the Wind. It was the only book the inmates had. There were 350 prisoners in that section of the prison, many of whom could read English, so they shared the book among themselves. Each person got to read it only for an hour at a time. While he was reading, Nebiy decided to start translating Gone With the Wind into Amharic, the language of Ethiopia. Using the foil from the inside of cigarette packs and a smuggled pen, Nebiy painstakingly began to write out his translation. It took him over two years to complete the translation on some three thousand sheets of foil. When prisoners were released they would smuggle out the sheets of foil in their pockets.

After ten years in prison, Nebiy was released. He set about the task of collecting all the three thousand sheets of cigarette foil--a task which took another two years. Finally, after re-assembling his manuscript, he published his translation, which is the version of Gone With the Wind that Ethiopians still read today.

That was the one of the most amazing stories I've read in a while. It's a testimony to the amazing resilience and perseverance of the human spirit. People can survive just about anything, and they can do more than survive. They can thrive and be brilliantly creative even in the midst of life's worst adversities. That same persevering spirit, that same creative potential is within each one of us. I think that's what Jesus was reminding us of when he said, "With God all things are possible."

The Beloved

2010-03-08T12:32:00.000-08:00

The gospels tells us that when Jesus was baptized, he came up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Holy Spirit, like a dove, came down. And there was a voice from heaven declaring: "You are my Son, the Beloved. With you I am well pleased." The Bible also says: "Every one who believes that Jesus is the Christ is a child of God." (1 John 5:1) That suggests that the words Jesus heard at his baptism apply to us as well because we too are now children of God. The late priest and author Henri Nouwen said that those words, "You are my Son, the Beloved," reveal the most intimate truth about human beings. The Christian life starts by hearing that voice, by claiming that promise and by letting that promise reverberate in every corner of your being: "You are the Beloved. With you I am well pleased."

We live in a world where it is not easy to hear that voice. Our daily experience of life is filled with voices and messages that tell us one way or another quite the opposite message: "You are no good. You don't measure up. You're not good-looking enough. You're not smart enough. You're not rich enough. You're so average, You're not thin enough . . ."

A lot of Christians still believe in something called Purgatory. Purgatory is the doctrine that when you die--and if you're not going to hell but going to heaven instead--you can't go directly to heaven because you are not "purified" enough yet. So you end up in this half-way house called Purgatory where your sins are burned off and you are made ready for the perfection of heaven. (My Catholic friends sometimes refer to it as "burn-time," and apparently the process generally takes a few centuries.)

Now, I personally don't believe in Purgatory and find no biblical basis for it whatsoever. Nevertheless, in a strange way it kind of makes sense. I mean, I know that if I die tonight I'm going to heaven, but there is very real part of me that feels like: "But before they let me in the Big House, I know I'm going to have to go to a little bit of reform school, or summer school--or at least basic orientation. They aren't going to just let me in like this, are they?" And I know I'm not alone in this feeling. Most people I talk to say they feel exactly the same way.

The good news of the Bible is that is not the way God feels about us at all. The way God feels about you is expressed in these words: "You are my Beloved. With you I am well-pleased."
The other day I got a taste of how God feels about us. My daughter has her own radio program now, and I recently got to hear her show on-air for the first time. When I heard her voice on the radio, I cried. And I thought, "I can't believe that's my little girl. In her I am well-pleased." If we take scripure seriously, that's exactly the way God feels about us.

Listen to what that voice has to say to you: "I have called you by name, you are mine. When you walk through the waters I will be with you, when you walk through fire you shall not be burned. I have molded you in the depths of the earth and knitted you together in your mother's womb. I have carved you in the palms of my hand and hidden you in the shadow of my embrace. I have counted every hair on your head. Wherever you go I will go and wherever you rest I keep watch. I will not hide my face from you. Nothing will ever separate us."

Every single one of those promises comes right out of the Bible, and every single one of those promises is meant for you. Listen to that voice. Claim that truth. Let the truth of your being "The Beloved" become real in everything you think, say or do. Let it reverberate in every aspect of your life: "You are the Beloved. With you I am well-pleased."

Predestination?

2010-03-04T13:34:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago I was headed out to hear some live music when the doorbell rang. It was a Girl Scout in full uniform doing the annual cookie sale thing. Now normally I can't resist buying a couple boxes of Thin Mints, but that day I was running really late. I was about to tell her I was in a hurry and would she please come back later. But then I saw her dad standing on the sidewalk, looking forlornly at me like, "Mister, please buy some cookies." The dad was pushing a wheelchair in which sat a young man who clearly had severe cerebral palsy. I thought, "OK, there is no way I can turn these people down, after what they must struggle with every day." So I reached for my wallet and bought the Thin Mints after all.

About a half hour later I arrived at the music venue. The woman who parked next to me was in a wheel chair and needed a bit of help negotiating the curb and getting into the venue. After I got into the venue I headed for the beer line, which was rather long. The woman behind me literally had only half a face. She had been through some kind of major traumatic event--a bad burn or something--that left her face permanently and severely disfigured.

Within an hour I had randomly encountered three people facing unique physical challenges, which is far more than I would normally encounter on a typical day. It got me wondering if I was being sent a message. Were the encounters truly random, or was I supposed to be gleaning some lesson such as, "You need to be more sensitive and aware of people facing special challenges" or "You need to be more grateful for the blessings you have." You have proably had days like that as well--days when you feel like the universe or God or Somebody is trying to get through to you on some level.

For centuries upon centuries religious people have puzzled over the topic of predestination: how much of what we experience is random and how much is simply just meant to be. Of course people have been all over the map. There are people who think that everything that happens is somehow God's will, and there are those who think that God just sits back and gives us free reign. Really, it's a question we will never be able to fully answer in this life. My hunch is that life is a joint venture between God and us. There are times when God lets us act as compeletely free agents. There are times when God is calling all the shots and we are just along for the ride.

Scripture assures us that God is very much involved in the details of our lives. Consider the opening verses of Ephesians: " . . . he chose us in him before the foundation of the world . . . He destined us in love to be his children through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will . . ." (Ephesians 1:4-5) "Chose," "destined," "purpose," "will"--lots of divine determination there.

I read somewhere that a life-sustaining planet like Earth needs a monster planet like Jupiter further out because Jupiter acts like a big magnet or vacuum cleaner, absorbing all kinds of space debris that would otherwise be pelting Earth all the time much to our inconvenience. And then think for a moment about the miracle that is you--a few trillion atoms brought together for approximately 650,000 hours of existence--in an absolutely unique combination that has never before existed in the entire history of the universe and will never be reduplicated. At the macro level and at the micro level, nothing has been left to chance.

The Bible tells us repeatedly that we have a "hands-on" God. There is a plan and there is a purpose and God has the whole situation well under control. On that basis alone, don't you think Christians ought to be known as the most optimistic and cheerful people around? Whenever Christians start grumbling about the decrepit state of the world and how our culture is going to hell in a handbasket and we need to "take back our nation for Christ," I feel like asking, "Just how powerful is your God?" In the Bible we read of a God who ultimately calls in all the important plays. In the Bible we hear of a God who has already defeated sin, death and evil. The game has already been decided. The victory is won. We live in the world AFTER Easter, not before. The last time I checked the tomb was still empty.

Taking a Short Break

2010-02-13T20:31:00.000-08:00

Internet friends,

For approximately the next two weeks I will be taking a break from the blog. There is an outside possibility that I might post something occasionally but more than likely not. Please check in from time to time and I will definitely see you all again in two weeks. Blessings!

A Society of Friends

2010-02-11T05:50:00.000-08:00

My favorite chapter in the Bible is Luke 15. It's the only time in the gospels that Jesus tells three parables in a row which all hammer home the same message: God's profound love for the lost and the last, for those who have been battered, bruised and broken by life. One of the parables is the story of The Lost Coin. Jesus says the kingdom of heaven is like a woman who lost a coin and turned her house upside down looking for the precious coin. When she found it, she was so happy that she invited her friends and neighbors to a party. (It seems entirely possible that the cost of throwing the party may have exceeded the value of the lost and found coin!) In that parable, the woman is God, the coin is us, and the party is what is happening in heaven right now. The good news doesn't get much better than that.

Talking about this parable, somebody once said to me, "You know, the problem is, a lot of us don't think we are worth the cost of the coin." That comment blew me away, and I thought it was really insightful. So often the good news just seems too good to be true. We just can't believe that God really feels that way about us. We suspect there must be a catch somewhere. Most of the time we go through life with no earthly idea of just how special we are in the eyes of God. The biggest stumbling block to our faith is our tendency to devalue ourselves, to put ourselves down. We have difficulty looking at ourselves the way God does and this impacts everything. If we can't see ourselves the way God does, then we are going to have a hard time seeing others as deeply beloved children of God as well.

There are a lot of reasons why we don't trust the goodness of the good news. And I can't help but think that churches haven't helped all that much over the years. One of the most influential preachers in colonial America was a man named Jonathan Edwards. His most famous sermon is entitled, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." ( Many of you probably read this sermon in high school literature class.) The central image of the sermon in unforgettable. It's the image of sinners on a thread attached to the hands of God who is dangling the sinners over a flaming cauldron ready to drop them into the flames at any moment. Even if you have not read this sermon you have been impacted by it. It's been my experience that many Christians see themselves that way, more or less. If not sinners in the hands of an angry God, then sinners in the hands of a mildly ticked-off God who is not so pleased with us.

Preachers and churches use the words "sin" and "sinners" a lot. And if you go to church enough over the years the cumulative effect is going to make you feel pretty darn sinful. The other day I went through a Christian hymnal and counted the number of references there are in the lyrics to the words "sinners", "sins", and "sin." I found 182 references. Then I went to the New Testament to check out how often Jesus used the word "sinners" to talk about people. He says that he was sent not to call the righteous to repentance but sinners--which was a slam against the religious establishment. He predicted that the Son of Man would be turned over to sinful men--another slam against the establishment. But aside from that, Jesus doesn't actually call people sinners very often. No, more often than not the word "sinners" is used by other people who are criticizing Jesus for the company he keeps--like when the religious leaders grumble: "This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them!"(Luke 15:2)

I find it striking that when Jesus actually gets into one-on-one conversations with people, he doesn't refer to them as "sinners." He never throws their sins in their faces.

There is this amazing scene on the last night of Jesus' life, found in John 15. Jesus tells his disciples at the last supper: "I no longer call you servants. From here on out I am calling you my friends." You know, we usually put a lot of stock in people's last words and last speeches. For example, just think of the importance of Dr. King's last speech the night before he was killed--"The Moutain Top" speech which ended with his prophetic last recorded words: "Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord." One of the last things Jesus said before leaving this earth is that his followers are his friends. He must have really meant it, and he must have really wanted us to see ourselves that way.

Over the years it seems like churches talk a lot more about sin and sinfulness than about God's friendship with us. Yet, the night before he died, Jesus wanted us to remember that fact above all else. He wanted his followers to see themselves as he saw them. He didn't say, "Remember you are wretched," or "remember you are sinners in the hands of an angry God." No, he said, "I am calling you my friends.

Getting back to that hymnal I was telling you about, there were only 29 references in the hymns to God being our friend, versus the 182 references to "sinner." The proportion is out of whack.

As far as I know the only denomination that has gotten this friendship thing right is the Quakers. It's in their official name: "The Society of Friends." It's the most brilliant name for a Christian group. Really, when you stop and think about it, the entire Christian church should be known as the society of friends, because that is exactly how God sees us. Christianity is all about God befriending us that we might befriend each other.

Eternity

2010-02-08T18:00:00.000-08:00

Take a moment to ponder the reality of heaven and what it means for your life right now. We sometimes speak of heaven primarily as a destination, someplace we are headed after this life is over. But it seems to me that Jesus also speaks of heaven as a reality that is breaking into our world right now. From the beginning of his ministry proclaimed: The Kingdom of heaven has come. (Matthew 4:17) (Many versions of the Bible translate this as "the kingdom of heaven is at hand" but the Greek verb is in the perfect tense indicating, "it has already come.") Jesus not only promises us we are going to heaven, he also opens our eyes to the signs of heaven all around us right now.

What are some of those signs? One of the ways all of us can know the reality of heaven is in the way we experience time. Time is not static. From the perspective of eternity time is expandable and compressible. Einstein first conceived of this and subsequent experiments done by others have proved him right.

But you don't need to be a physicist or mathematician to get this. You experience the relativity of time constantly. Doesn't it seem like you never have enough time for anything? When you greet people and ask them how they are doing, they will often respond, "I've been so busy." All of us often feel like that--like we start most morning of most weeks with twice as many things crammed into the schedule as we could reasonably accomplish in a day. We have all these time-saving devices in our lives now that did not even exist when most of us were children: microwaves, laptop computers, Blackberries. And the time-saving devices haven't given us more time. Dogs and cats don't have this problem. If your dog or cat could talk to you and you asked them when you got home at night, "How was your day?" they probably would not say, "I was just so busy. Couldn't get it all in today. All that running around and barking and sniffing. I'm exhausted!"

Humans, however, are never satisfied by time. We always want more of it. We crave long life. And yet no matter how long we live, we want more time. The author of Ecclesiastes tells us why this is so: "He has made everything beautiful in its time; also he has put eternity into man's heart." (Ecclesiastes 3:11). Scritpure tells us we were made for eternity. Eternal beings can never be satsified by earthly time.

All of us notice that the older you get the faster time goes by. When you were a kid it seemed like it took forever for Christmas and your birthday to come around. When you are older, it just seems like one Christmas after the other, one birthday after the other. When you talk to really elderly people, say folks in their nineties or older, they will almost invariably look back on their long life and say, "I just don't know where it all went."

Another way we glimpse the reality of eternity is when we are immersed in a good movie, a good book, or perhaps a great concert. There are certain movies that just completely capture me all over again whenever I see them: "The Wizard of Oz," "To Kill a Mockinbird," "Bridge Over the River Kwai," just name a few. The other day I was channel surfing, stumbled into the middle of the Godfather and ended up watching the entire rest of the movie. It seemed like just a few minutes had passed. Every year in the city where I live, they put on a production of "A Christmas Carol" down in the theater district. And every year it sells out. Why does that happen? We all know how the story ends. We all know that Scrooge becomes a nice guy in the end. And yet we want to see it again and again. Something inside of us yearns to be absorbed into the story all over again and lose all track of time. And one day, when we are completely and finally relocated to heaven, that is exactly how we will experience all of reality. Jesus said, "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end." (Revelation 21:6) Jesus encompasses all of time. And we yearn to experience time the way he does because he has placed eternity in our hearts.

Potential

2010-02-05T15:33:00.001-08:00

When I was a kid growing up in Baltimore our neighborhood had a rite of passage that went like this: When it came time to take the training wheels off your bike and learn how to ride on your own, your parents took you over to Mr. McGill's house after he came home from work. He was the designated bike riding teacher for the whole block.

I still vividly remember when it was my turn to learn how to ride. Mr. McGill was still wearing his dress shirt and tie. (This was the late 60's so everybody was dressed like the characters in "Mad Men.") I got on my bike with Mr. McGill holding on, and he started to push the bike slowly, walking along side. Then he picked up the pace a little until gradually he was in a full run. I remember thinking this was the fastest I had ever ridden and it felt great. Next thing I know, I heard him yell my name, and I turned my head backwards. He had let go of the bike a long time ago and stood there waving at me as I powered on without training wheels. Then I panicked and stopped. The "McGill Method" did not make you a proficient bike rider instantaneoulsy, but what it did was help you realize you had it inside you to do something you had never done before. He knew the zen-like secret of helping us release the "inner cyclist."

I know a man who, for much of his life, struggled with a fear of flying. He took ground transportation everywhere. Relatively late in life he took a new job that required significant travel and his fear of flying became a huge impediment to his work. But instead of giving in to his fear, quitting his job and looking for work that would not require flying, he did something very few would think of doing: he signed up for flying lessons, eventually got his license and is an avid pilot today. He did not let his weakness define him. He faced it head-on and his world expanded in amazing ways.

Change is always possible. None of us need be defined by our fears and weaknesses. This very moment all of us are capable of accomplishing things we never dreamed we could do. Paul knew this when he wrote: I can do all things through him who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:13)

Revolution

2010-02-03T19:45:00.000-08:00

A couple of you guys have asked me to share in the blog from time to time what I have been reading lately. So here it goes. Currently reading: "A People's Tragedy--The Russian Revolution from 1891-1924" by Orlando Figes, (Penguin Books, 1996, 824 pp.) For you history buffs out there it is one of the most amazing history books you will ever read. It feels more like a novel--it's a real page turner. And the research is impeccable.

So why would I mention a book like this in a blog devoted to faith and spirituality? Well, here is one insight I've gleaned. As some of you may recall, there were two revolutions in Russia in 1917. The first happened in February, the second in October. In February the Russians overthrew the Tsar in a true people's revolution with the expectation that Russia would become a constitutional democracy. The October Revolution is when the Communists took over. In the West the conventional wisdom is that the Communists then did their best to destroy Christianity in Russian for 70 years. And that is certainly true to a certain extent, but it's not the whole story.

What actually happened is this: Christianity in Russian began to collapse even before the Communist takeover. Here is what really happened and let me quote Figes directly here:
"The Church was undermined by its own internal revolution. In the countryside there was a strong anti-clerical movement: village communities took away the church lands, removed priests from the parishes and refused to pay for religious services. Many of the local priests managed to escape this fate by throwing themselves in with the revolution. But the rest of the Church heirarchy was thrown on the defensive." (Figes, p. 350) Bear in mind this reaction against the Church in Russia happened well BEFORE Communism! Why? Because the Russian Orthodox Church had been so tightly connected with the Tsarist system, which was horribly, unbelievably unjust and oppressive. Church and State were pracically one. The Church taught that the Tsar was God's annointed ruler of the Russian Empire, and to go against the Tsar was to go against God. Quite simply, the Church was on the wrong side of history and when the evil regime fell, the Churc quickly collapsed with it.

This raises several questions. What if the Church had been less enamored with secular power and less connected with an unjust system that caused enormous suffering in the lives of ordinary Russians?" What if, instead of being the purveyor of blind patriotism, the Church had been faithful to its prophetic role? What if the Church had been more concerned about the Kingdom of God than the political kingdoms of this world? If the Church had been true to it's calling, it probably would not have collapsed so quickly after the February Revolution. If the Church had still been a strong, prophetic voice after the February Revolution, would there have even been an October Revolution? If the Church had been more true to it's spiritual calling instead of being so intricately enmeshed in earthly political struggles, the Church might have survived the February Revolution. And if the Church had survived there would not have been a power vacuum that allowed the Communists to takeover in the October Revolution. And if the Communists had not taken over, the history of the entire world would have been completely different.

A lot of what ifs. Are there lessons for us today? I think so.

2010-02-02T17:06:00.000-08:00

Here is a passage from the 16th Cenutry reformer Martin Luther on how to read the Bible. It really opened up scripture in a new way for me and I just wanted to put it out there today in hopes that it might help some of you:

"When you open the book containing the gospels and read or hear how Christ comes here or there, or how someone is brought to him, you should therein perceive the sermon or the gospel through which he is coming to you or you are being brought to him. For the preaching of the gospel is nothing else than Christ coming to us, or we being brought to him. When you see how he works, however, and how he helps everyone to whom he comes or who is brought to him, then rest assured that faith is accomplishing this in you and that he is offering your soul exactly the same sort of help and favor through the gospel. If you pause here and let him do you good, that is, if you believe that he benefits and helps you, then you really have it. Then Christ is yours, presented to you as a gift." (What to Look for and Expect in the Gospels.)

We are to read the gospels trusting and believing that through them Christ is coming to us. So let's apply Luther's methodology to some well-known Bible stories. Remember the time when they cut a hole in the roof to lower a paralytic down in front of Jesus in the middle of a crowded house. According to Luther's way of reading the Bible where are you in the story? You are the paralytic on the mat who receives healing and forgiveness from Jesus. Or take the famous story of Zacchaeus, the despised and morally compromised tax collector in Jericho. Where are you in the story and how does it apply to you? You are Zacchaeus sitting all by your lonesome, dejected self in a tree. You are the one Jesus singles out for special grace and mercy as he announces he is coming to your house for dinner. And then there is one of the most commonly misunderstood parables of all--the Parable of the Good Samaritan. We think it's a story about the importance of helping others. It's not. Don't get me wrong, helping others is important. It's just not what the parable is about. Again, apply Luther's method to this parable and where do you find yourself? Where are you in the story? Ultimately you are the one who is wounded, helpless, left for dead and lying in the ditch of life. At great expense and danger to himself, Jesus comes to you, bandages your wounds, lifts you up, takes you to an inn and pays for all your lodging and medical expenses.

The old hymn had it right after all: "He walks with me, and he talks with me, and he tells me I am his own." That's exactly how to read the Bible. You read it trusting and believing that Jesus is coming to you, and this will bring joy to your heart. The joy will spill over into the rest of your life and you will be a blessing to others.

Transformation

2010-02-01T13:48:00.000-08:00

Picking up from the last post, there is a fundmental misconception out there--among religious and non-religious people alike--that the primary purpose of religion is to tell you what to do, what not to do, and how to live your life. But, think about it for a minute: is humanity's fundamental problem that we don't know how to live our life, that we don't know what we are to do and not to do? Honestly, are you ever going to get up, do your devotional reading, stumble across the Ten Commendments and think to yourself, "Oh, thou shall NOT kill! Guess I had better strike that one off my list today. Murder had been on my mind but now that I've read it in the Bible, I guess I'd better not do it! Thanks for the reminder, Lord." And the same thing goes for stealing, lying, coveting and everything else. Every Christian on earth knows they are supposed to pray for their enemies. We haven't forgotten that one was in the Sermon on the Mount. We just have a hard time getting around to it.

No, we know darn well what we are to do and not to do. The Christian life is not complex: Love others--do it. Forgive others--do it. Worry--don't do it. Judge others--don't do it. It's all really pretty basic. Our problem is not that we don't know what we are supposed to do and we need religious authorities to boss us around. No, our problem isn't a lack of knowlege; it's a lack of motivation. It's not a head problem; it's a heart problem. St. Paul got to the heart of the matter when he said: "I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but the very thing I hate."(Romans 7:15)

So how do you fix the problem? One approach is to scold, berate, nag and shame people until you get them to work the program. But the strategy of scolding, berating, nagging and shaming just ends up producing more scolding, berating and nagging people. Plus, the church has tried this path off an on for centuries and it hasn't worked that well. We Christians need to be honest about this. Christianity's track record in the behavior modification department hasn't been that great. e.g. The Spanish Inquisition, Salem Witch Trials, and, more recently, the genocide in Rwanda.

The other option is the strategy of Jesus. You melt the hearts of people with love, tenderness, grace, mercy, forgiveness, and then that makes them more loving, gracious and tender in return. Those are the only two options. They are mutually exclusive. You can't have a hybrid approach. You can't have a strategy of mostly grace with a little wrath and threat thrown in for good measure because the minute you turn wrathful and judgmental all the grace goes away. All you really need to know about how God feels about you is found in the story Jesus told of a father who welcomes home his wayward, wandering son with open arms, no questions asked. (Luke 15) We call it the parable of the Prodigal Son. But the story isn't really about the delinquent kid; it's all about the father's love and forbearance.

My children are away at college, but we stay in touch with phone calls and texting. And when I see their names show up on my caller i.d. my heart leaps for joy a little bit. Every single time. When they call or text it always brightens my day. It does not even matter why they are calling. It could be for the most mundane reason. I don't even care if they were calling for money. It's just so good to be in touch.

Jesus tells us that God loves us like a good and loving parent. If that is true, then when we come to God in prayer, the feeling God gets must be something like the feeling I get when my cell phone rings and it's one of my kids calling. When we come to God in prayer, it does not even matter why we are calling and what's on our agenda. We can come to God anytime, for any reason and God's heart always rejoices over us. Now, that is gospel, that is good news that can make our hearts sing. And, if you feel the love, it might just make you better person too.

Better Pizza

2010-01-30T08:50:00.000-08:00

People just aren't going to church like they used to. Numerous studies have shown that church attendance is plummeting across denominations. The percentage of Americans not attending church on a regular basis has doubled in the past decade. It looks like American worship habits are become more like western Europe faster than anybody could have expected. And I'm beginning to think God is just fine with that. I mean, given the fact that God is fairly ubiquitous, and also has the omnipotence market cornered, you have to think that the demise of a fair number of God's franchises hasn't gone without notice at the home office. My guess is that God is just changing the business model.

Now the factors which contribute to a major shift in society like the decline in worship attendance are clearly complex and various. But I've got a few hunches about what's happening. It seems to me that organized Christianity has too often forgotten what it is supposed to be about--not unlike Domino's Pizza finally acknowledging they've been selling lousy pizza for too long. The way I read the New Testament, churches are supposed to be, above all else, in the good-news-proclaiming business but, instead, too many churches are in the scolding, shaming, bossing-people-around business.

For example, here is quote I found in a magazine recently. It's from a Christian monk who has lived in a monastery for more than thirty years, so he's supposed to be some expert in the peace and tranquility department. He said, "There's nothing wrong with microwaves or mobile phones--they save time. But God will ask you what you have done with the time that was saved." When I first read that quote, I thought, "Well, that sounds profound and wise, something that you would expect a monk to say." But the more I pondered his words the more they bugged me until I realized, "Hey, this is just the same old judgment, scolding and legalism that religion is always giving us." On the surface the quote sounds nice and spiritual but underneath it all there is this not-so-subtle subtext of impending judgment: Go ahead and use your cell phones and microwaves, but there is going to be a reckoning for all the time you wasted. The ultimate message is "Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid." This does not sound at all like the message of Jesus who over and over again pours out tenderness, mercy and grace on hurting people. And this is what religion does again and again. Religion takes the message of grace and forgiveness and twists it around into a message of threat and judgment. Religion is ultimately suspicious of Jesus and his whole grace and mercy agenda. We don't think he really knew what he was doing when he went around letting really messed up people off the hook. Thank you very much, Jesus, but what people really need is a dose of that good, old time religion, putting a little fear of God into them.

This is is not a divide between liberal Christians and conservative Christians. Both camps mess it up equally badly. When I read things written by conservative Christians being a "good Christian" usually boils down to not drinking, not smoking, striving to be "pure." Liberal Christians tend to suggest that if you want to be a really committed Christian, then you are going to be about social justice all the time, you are going to be vegan, live simply and care for the environment. In both the modern liberal and modern conservative scenarios, the presumption is that the church is here to tell you how to behave, how to be a "real" Christian. And that's not why Jesus died on the cross.

Here's why Jesus died: And when you were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your fless, God made you alive together with him, when he forgave us ALL our trespasses, erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands. He set this aside nailing to the cross. (Colossians 2:13-14) THAT is supposed to be the message. Over and over again the New Testament clearly teaches that Christianity is not supposed to be about the stuff we have to do to curry God's favor to get into heaven or get a better seat in heaven. Jesus has done it all for us. Period. There is nothing else you need to do except rejoice and celebrate the overwhelming grace and tenderness of Jesus who has welcomed us into his presence and into his kingdom absolutely free of charge. And pass the joy on to others.

It's time for the church to start making better pizza.

(I realize I went a little negative on you all today, but this is just Part One. We will pick up the discussion in the next post which I hope is tomorrow.)

Forgiveness

2010-01-29T05:21:00.000-08:00

In Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. (2 Corinthians 5:19)

Forgiveness is the heart of the Christian message--God's forgiveness of us and our forgiveness of others. Yet forgiveness is also one of the most misunderstood ideas around. Churches and preachers often make it sound like God wants to forgive you but first you have to feel REALLY sorry and repent and ask for that forgiveness, and then God will think about it. But that's not how forgiveness works in the Bible at all. There are plenty of times when Jesus just goes around forgiving sins without people ever asking for that forgiveness. Think of the time when they brought a disabled man to Jesus, and because the house was so crowded, they cut a hole in the roof to lower the guy directly into Jesus' presence. Jesus' first words to them are: "Your sins are forgiven." I've sometimes wondered if that was a bit of a let down for the disabled man and his friends. I bet they were thinking, "Well, forgiveness is nice, but we were actually here to get the legs fixed."

Anyway, think of all the times Jesus told us to be forgiving: turn the other cheek, pray for your enemies, bless those who persecute you, forgive not seven times but seven times seventy times. He's pretty fixated on the topic. And he never attaches preconditions to the forgiveness. It's the Nike approach to theology: Just do it.

The biggest misconception about forgiveness is that by forgiving somebody, we are doing a favor for the person who caused the hurt. But really Jesus tells us to forgive more for our benefit than for anybody else's benefit. Jesus tells us to forgive because you can't love people and you can't be healthy if you have resentment eating away at your heart, stealing your joy. If you don't forgive people, all you do is rehearse the hurt over and over again and it becomes a cancer on your soul. Doing that only ends up hurting you more than anybody else. Plus, some brain research suggests that by going over the hurt again and again, all you do is burn it more deeply into the hard drive of your brain, creating nerual pathways of negativity that become very difficult to erase.

A while back I was watching a documentary about World War II which included an interview with an American survivor of the infamous Bataan Death March. He talked about how for the next 40 years after the war he had a visceral hatred for Japan and the Japanese people. He could never forgive the Japanese for what they had done. And then, very late in life, he finally realized that his inability to forgive was destroying him. Over the years he had become a mean, bitter, resentful person. It also dawned on him that his hatred was not inflicting any pain on the objects of his hatred. The Japanese didn't know or care that he hated them. They had moved on with life. He was still stuck fighting the war. When he made the decision to forgive, the change in his life was almost instantaneous. People around him said that overnight he became a more pleasant, loving and joyful person to be around.

Several years ago there was a shooting at a school house in Amish country. The day after the shooting, the father of one of the victims went to the home of the father of the killer and gave him a big hug. I heard a reporter interviewing a psychologist about this and the psychologist said something like this: "This is highly unusual behavior for somebody who has been hurt so badly to exhibit forgiveness so quickly." The tone in his voice was almost like, "This man is a little strange. He should have expressed more anger before he moved to forgiveness so quickly."
We often say that forgiveness is a slow, painful and difficult process. Well, it can be, for some people. But why can't we put forgiveness on the fast track? Weren't the Amish simply trying to put the Sermon on the Mount into action?

America is often referred to as a Christian nation. Indeed, we are the most church-going industrialized nation in the world. But I wonder, are we the most forgiving, most reconciling nation in the world? It seems to me that would be a better indicator where are heart is than mere church attendance.

Last Sunday I attended a church where they have the tradition of ending every service by singing "Let There Be Peace on Earth." It's one of the only truly multi-racial, multi-ethnic churches I have ever attended. When they got to the closing song, everybody in the congregation held hands and swayed back and forth to the melody. Frankly, at first it seemed a little cheesy to me. I felt like I was living in that old Coca-Cola commercial: "I'd like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony . . ." But, cheesy or not, I'd have to say the whole experience felt really good. I can't help but think the world would be a better place if more people started their week by grabbing the hand next to them and singing, "Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me."

Resilience

2010-01-27T19:48:00.000-08:00

The question that has fascinated me the most over the years is this: Why do some people go through extreme adversity and great tragedy with flying colors and emerge on the other side as positive, optimistic and loving people. Conversely, why do other people allow relatively minor speed bumps to competely derail their lives and make them bitter and resentful? What makes for human resilience?

Researchers who study this kind of thing have found out that people, in general, are extremely adaptable and resilient. People tend to cope amazingly well to change and even to the big traumas of life. People adapt to adversity much more quickly than they themselves would ever predict.

If you talk to any person in Japan who survived World War II, they will tell you that they remember vividly the day Japan surrendered. There was complete quiet outside in the streets as everybody gathered around radios to hear the announcement. People say that all the adults were sobbing with grief. The reason they were crying was that the emperor had spoken in a human voice. It turned out he was not a god after all. Until that point, no commoner had ever heard the emperor's voice before. And Japan had never been conquered by a foreign power before. Everything they had ever believed was now being called into question. It was an enormous emotional shock on national scale.

At the end of the war, Japan had been completely bombed back to the Stone Age. Yet within 40 years, Japan had the second largest economy in the world--a rank which they still retain today. The Japanese endured the unendurable but they thrived amazingly.

Harvard Psychiatrist Dad Gilbert gives the example of people who go through a major emotional trauma, like being stood up at the altar. Obviously at the time it's happening, the person who is being stood up considers it the most painful thing in the world. But studies show that a year later, people who went through that event tend to realize it was the best thing that ever happened to them. Being stood up at the altar probably saved them from being in a very bad marriage.

It turns out that we actually have a psychological immune system that is something like our physical immune system. And much of the the time, this psychological immune system that God has given us works very well. People have a tendency to go through ridiculously hard things and not crumble. They heal. They move on. They thrive.

And just as we can exercise and eat right to strengthen our physical immune system, it turns out that there are things we can do to strengthen our emotional immune system. And this is where faith comes in and why more than 95% of the people who have ever lived have had some kind of religious faith. That's the thing that amazes me about people like Christopher Hitchens who try to argue that religion is bad and belief in God has been detrimental to the development of humanity. People do very few things that are totally pointless. The overwhelming majority of all the people who have ever lived have been religious to some degree. Why? Because it works at some level. We realize intuitively that our faith strengthens our psychological immune systems.
In times of adversity, people of faith have the attitude of Paul who said: "We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose." (Romans 8:28)

You can handle anything life throws at you. God has given you every resource you need to cope with life's adversities. You are far more resilient that you even know, far more adaptable than you give yourself credit for.

The Cost of Discipleship?

2010-01-26T12:57:00.000-08:00

Jesus once said: "Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple." (Luke 14:26) In the past when I've heard people preach and teach about this text, it has usually been approached this way: Follwing Jesus is not always a bed of roses. Just because you are a Christian doesn't mean that you are exempt from problems in life. The road is going to get pretty rough at times--stuff like that.

Upon further reading and reflection on this verse, I was wondering how Jesus could say things like this and people would still respond to him. I mean, this is pretty harsh stuff. Doesn't Jesus know that people don't like this sort of thing? You don't ever see this particular Bible verse on anybody's bumper sticker or inspriational poster. Jesus should really get with the program if he wants to grow his movement. All this doom and gloom stuff about hating your family and giving up possessions--nobody is every going to buy that!

But they did buy it, and they did respond to him. And here is why: When people heard Jesus say this, they realized that he was giving them a compelling invitation to experience life like they had never experienced it before. The words of Jesus here are an invitation to give yourself to something far bigger than yourself. I would be willing to bet that people found this message thrilling and bracing.

At the supermarket the other day I was momentarily overwhelmed by the vast variety of it all. You find yourself surrounded by fresh and exotic foods from all over the world--tomatoes from Mexico, grapes from Chile, mangoes, plantain, daikon--you name it. We can pretty much have any type of fresh fruit or vegetable we want any time of year. And if I go to my local supermarket at the right time of day, you can taste much of it right then and there because they give you samples right and left. (There really is such a thing as a free lunch!) The reason I find this so amazing is that for most of human history, people never really ate like this before. You know what most of humanity ate for almost all of recorded history? Gruel, rice, potatoes, basic bread. The dietary selection has not been huge. I personally know people in Japan who ate nothing but sweet potatoes morning, noon and night for years after the end of World War II.
The luxury of actually having to make a decision about what you are going to eat next is a very recent development.

So here I am walking around in food Nirvana, amazed at all the choices available to us so cheaply. And the thing that strikes me is how many unhappy people I see at the supermarket. You see vacant stares, furrowed brows, parents yelling at their kids. Not everybody is bummed out, but too many are.

How is it that people can be surrounded by such an abundance of amazing foods, live in climate-controlled comfort, have access to constant entertainment and yet so many still feel fundamentally stressed, sad, lonely and unfulfilled? It's because creature comforts can only take you so far, and life is about far more than being as comfortable as possible. And as I write that phrase, "as comfortable as possible," it strikes me that the only time we really use that phrase is when somebody is terminally ill! "Let's just make him as comfortable as possible." So does that mean that if your primary goal in life is just to make yourself as comfortable as possible, you are, in a sense, dying?

People crave to feel really alive, and that's one reason that participation in extreme sports and individual sports is on a dramatic rise. Traditional team sports, on the other hand, are declining. Sports like skateboarding, windsurfing, snow boarding, mountain biking and para-sailing are booming. I can understand that. When I was in Little League I was a very mediocre ball player. As a consequence I spent a lot of time where I could do the least damage--in left field. Funny, I never felt very alive out in left field.

Deep inside the human spirit there is something that compells us to think we were made for extraordinary things. There is something inside of us that knows, deep down, that we were made for something far more exciting and significant than just being as comfortable as possible. When you ask kids what they want to be when they grown up, they always have great expectations. They want to be actors, astronauts, and professional football players. They want to grow up to do great things. They set the bar high. No child ever says, "I want to grow up to be Vice-President.

When Jesus says that following him entails hating your family, giving up your possessions, taking up your cross and following him, he was not trying to be all doom and gloom about the Christian life. Quite the contrary. He was inviting people to join him for the most thrilling and exciting adventure of their lives. It was like Frodo and Sam leaving the Shire and heading off to unknown lands to destroy the ring of power. That's why "The Lord of the Rings" is so popular. We all yearn to be Frodo and Sam setting off on a great adventure that really matters. Come to think of it, the three highest grossing movies of all time are all about people setting off on great journeys and adventures: "Avatar," "The Titanic," and "The Lord of the Rings."

When Jesus called his first disciples to leave their fishing nets behind and follow him, I doubt it was a hard decision for them. They were stuck in dead-end jobs in a backwater town. They had a hardscrabble existence focused on basic survival. They had never traveled more than a few miles from the place of their birth. So when Jesus asked them to join the team, I would be willing to bet that they threw down their fishing nets with gusto and maybe even shouted: "Woo-hoo! We are getting out of Dodge!"(pardon the anachronism.)

Following Jesus isn't supposed to be a chore, something that we stoicially endure just to get a prize in heaven. The pay-off starts now. It's the answer to the fundmental human longing to go new places and do great things. Following him won't alwasy be easy, but Jesus promises you will have the time of your life.

The Power of Affirmation

2010-01-24T04:20:00.000-08:00

The biggest spiritual problem in the world today, bar none, is that people just have no idea how much God loves them. Your number one spiritual task as a Christian is to profoundly experience the depth, the vastness, and the richness of God's love for you. Christianity is not primarily a list of rules to be followed; it is not even really a set of doctrines to believe. The heart of the Christian message is God's over-the-top, boundless love that God has for you right now, as you are. And until you grasp that--until you feel profoundly loved by you Creator, you really can't fully love others.

In the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke there is a story of Jesus' enounter with a rich young man. Reading this story you get the feeling that the young man was something of a jerk. He is totally focused on himself and his salvation, and he's pretty darn materialistic. It's all "I-Me-Mine." What strikes me about this story however, is that Jesus does not treat him like a jerk at all. Mark adds a nice touch: "Jesus, looking at him, loved him." Jesus knew that the thing this man needed more than anything else in his life was love.

Do you ever pull up to the stop light at an intersection and you find yourself next to a car where somebody is blaring music with the bass cranked so high it would register on the Richter scale? And the windows of the car in question are usually rolled down so that everybody else can "enjoy" their music. Where I live, the genre is usually heavy metal, rap or country. Obnoxious, isnt' it? Sometimes I am tempted to roll down my window and give them a run for their money. I want to crank National Public Radio. The sound system on my car is pretty good. I could take them on: "Hey, you, Mozart versus P. Diddy. Right now. Bring it on."

Well, you know why people do that--blare their music for the whole world to hear? Because they want to matter. Because they need love. Everybody needs to feel fundamentally and profoundly loved and if people don't have that they will setlle for getting attention. And if people can't get attention they will try to get negative attention. Subconsciously they are saying, "one way or another I will be noticed." It's like Willie Loman shouting in "Death of a Salesman:" "Attention must be paid!"

If I were more like Jesus, obnoxious and difficult people wouldn't bother me so much, because I would see through their obnoxiousness to the fundamental need for love that they are not getting. I think we need to take a page out of Jesus' book, when he encountered the difficult, rich young man. Jesus looked at him and loved him. Remember, when somebody is acting hurtful towards you, they are always doing that because they are hurting. That is true for every difficult person in your life--every rude, mean and judgmental person is simply acting that way out of profound hurt. And more often than not they are acting out of a hurt or void that can be traced back to family-of-origin issues.

It's probably a safe bet that most people you meet this week have not had enough affirmation in their lives. And it's not just a matter of the amount of affirmation but it's also the ratio of affirmations to negative comments. I read somewhere once that, in any relationship, there has to be a ratio at least ten postive comments for every negative one in order for that relationship to survive. Actually, the ratio is probably a lot higher than that, but you get the point. In any relationship, the number of positive comments must be exponentially more than the number of negative comments.

When I was in college I had a professor who understood the importance of affirmation and encouragement. When he graded papers, if you got an A on your paper, he would always put a little gold star sticker on your paper just like when you were in first grade. And the thing is, it really worked. We were all suckers for those little gold stars. You wanted one badly. When he was handing back the graded papers you not only looked at yours, but you were glancing out of the corner of your eyes to see if the others had gotten gold stars as well. But they did the trick. The gold star stickers made you feel great!

The good news of Christianity is that Jesus has already graded the papers. He is giving you a gold star and nothing can take that away. He thinks you are swell. The thing to remember is that every person you meet this week needs to hear that affirmation. Given the way the world beats us down, there is probably no such thing as too much affirmation. Tell everybody in your household today how special they are. Go around this week giving people high-fives, pats on the back, gold stars--whatever it takes.

And those guys who blare the music at the stop light? They are just looking for a little love. They are just looking for a gold start. So don't get mad at them. You are only going to sit next to them at the intersection for less than a minute anyway. Don't judge or condemn them. Let them know you think they have GREAT taste in music. Get into the beat. Bust a move. Give them the thumbs up. It might be all the affirmation they need that day. And when you do stuff like that, you should just see how it makes Jesus smile.

Finding Joy--Part 2

2010-01-22T20:06:00.000-08:00

So if joy is the ultimate reality of heaven and if God wills our total joy--and if the joy of heaven is already breaking in around us so that in this life we are constantly seeing flickers of the joy to come--what is holding God back? Why doesn't God just unload total joy on us right now? Why do we have to go through all the other garbage and pain in life that happens in between the moments of ecstasy and joy? Theoretically God could do that. God could just give us total and complete joy right now if God wanted to, but it doesn't happen. There must be a reason. Why? Ultimately it must have something to do with God's love for us. Maybe it's like surgery or exercise or many other things we go through in life that are painful at the time but eventually make us better and stronger. Maybe somehow God is working through all the pain so that one day our joy can be complete and total.

(That's why the old doctine of purgatory makes no sense to me at all--the notion that after you die you have to go through some kind of painful purification process before you are "ready" for admission to the Big House. Honestly, gang, isn't this life purgatory enough?)

Revelation chapter 7 has this amazing description of life in heaven--throngs of people living in a place and time where there is no more hunger, no more tears, no more thirst. And the Bible says this about those people in heaven: "These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have wahsed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." (Revelation 7:14)
We often have this image of people in heaven wearing robes of white, but did you hear how their robes became white? They had to be washed. That means they got their robes dirty in the messiness of this life. The people experiencing the total and complete joy of heaven right now are people who did not lead perfect lives-- far from it. They got their robes really mesed up.

So if God is pure love, and, in God's love, God wills your total and complete joy above all else, the only conclusion I can reach is that everything that happens is somehow mysteriously contributing to that goal. Every event, every loss, every tragedy, every accident, every illness is somehow working towards ultimate joy. Nothing will be wasted.

I am not a golfer and the sport of golf is largely a mystery to me. There is a golf course near where I live and from what I have seen, most of the people golfing spend a lot of time tracking down stray balls. As an outsider this is what golf looks like to me: mostly it is an exercise in frustration. You hit the ball and it goes all over the place and people throw golf clubs and curse. But occasionally you hit one beautiful shot that soars elegantly towards the green and you think for one shining moment that you could play in the PGA. And that's enough to get you through. That pretty much sums up life, doesn't it?

From time to time when I'm channel surfing I will flip over to one of the Spanish-language channels that seems to be all-soccer, all the time. I don't understand Spanish very well but I just love it when somebody scores a goal and the sportscaster shouts: "Goooooooooooooooooool!!!"
There is no other moment in sports quite like it. Sure, touchdowns and home runs are great, but they just don't reach that level. And whenever I hear the soccer announcer shout "Goooooooooool!!"I think of that verse from Philippians 3 where Paul says, "Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."(Philippians 3:14)

The promise of the gospel is that one day we will ALL cross that goal line, and when we do, the heavenly host will shout: Goooooooooooool!!!"

Everything that is happening in your life is part of the masterpiece that God is painting. Everything that happens to you is mysteriously working towards the inexpressible joys that are waiting for you in eternity.

Finding Joy

2010-01-20T19:35:00.000-08:00

God desires your total joy. I once heard a religious philosopher make that point and his argument, if I remember it correctly, went something like this: God is love. And the nature of love is that it always wills the joy of the beloved. Also, you are God's beloved. That is the gospel--the good news--that you are precious and beloved in God's eyes. If those three earlier premises are true then the following conclusion must also be true: God wills your complete joy.

The more you love somebody, the more you wish joy for them. God is way more loving than either you or I could ever be. Now Christians also believe that God is all-powerful and God ultimately gets anything that God wills. If that is true then you reach the inescapable conclusion that someday you will find complete and total joy. So at least for the next couple days, I want to explore this topic of joy a little more fully.

Joy and happiness are two different animals. Happiness is a fleeting feeling. When we are unhappy doctors can prescribe medication that helps in the happiness department. People talk about taking "happy pills," but we don't talk about taking "joy pills." That's because joy is not a feeling; it is more of a state of being. You really can't control joy. Happiness, on the other hand, can be controlled to a certain extent. You can plan a happy evening or a happy weekend. You can pick a good restaurant to go to or a good movie to see and you have a reasonable shot at a having a happy evening.

Joy just sneaks up on you. It's like joy comes out of nowhere. It's like those moments in worship when the congregation is singing one of the great, historic hymns of the church--like "How Great Thou Art" or "Just As I Am." And since it's a hymn everybody knows you can look up from your hymnal and you notice that people's eyes are getting moist and filling with tears as they sing from the heart. That's joy. Come to think of it, we never talk about "tears of happiness." Instead, we talk about "tears of joy." It's like sometimes our hearts can't contain all the joy of life and it has to spill over in the form of tears.

We have a word for this in English--ecstasy. We sometimes think of ecstasy as simply being very happy. But ecstasy is more than that. It comes from the Greek word, ekstasis, which means literally, to stand outside yourself. Life's little moments of ecstasy, ekstasis, are signs of the complete joy that God has in store for us.

Kids get ecstasy intuitively. On my daily walk I pass through a local park and sometimes stop briefly to watch the kids playing on the playscape. And I've often thought, "What if we could do a brain scan of these kids while they are playing. If we could get into their heads, what would we see them thinking about on the playground. And you know what they would be thinking about? PLAYING! They're not thinking about paying their bills or getting their cars fixed or stressing about their retirement. They are toally focused on playing , totally focused on the joy of the moment. Jesus said that unless you receive the kingdom of heaven like a child, you shall not enter it. When he said that I bet he was talking, in part, about the ability of children to experience pure, unfiltered joy.

Well, more about joy in the next post. Until then--may you have a joyful day and may you contemplate the complete joy that God has in store for you.

How to Read the Bible

2010-01-19T12:14:00.000-08:00

Much of the time I think we Christians miss the main point of the Bible. Many people see the Bible as a great big morality tale which is there primarily to tell us how to live, what to do and not to do. We sometimes see people like Abraham, Moses, David and Solomon as "heroes of the Bible" and if we only emulated them, we too could lead great and faithful lives like they did.
But simply having great examples in our lives is not enough to actually change our lives. I could admire Brett Favre or A-Rod all I want, yet their examples would never make me a great football player or a great baseball player.

Another problem with the "heroes of the faith" approach to the Bible is that upon closer reading all the so-called Bible heroes turn out to be complex and deeply flawed characters--just like us!
People sometimes praise Solomon because, when he could ask God to give him anything he desired, he asked for great wisdom rather than riches. So Solomon became the wisest man in the world. Yet, along the way, he also collected 700 wives and 300 concubines, many of whom were not Israelites. They involved Solomon in pagan worship rituals and drew him away from God. His brutal and unwise decisions as king created such political instability that after his death his kingdom split completely in two, never to be united again. So much for being the smartest man in the world.

So if the "heroes" of the Bible are not of much use to us as moral examples, at least we have the commandments, right? For many people Christianity boils down to following the commandments, living a good life and getting into heaven. But if the commandments alone were sufficient to solve humanity's problems, the whole world would have been healed shortly after Moses came down from the mountain. And that clearly did not happen. Anyway scripture itself says the function of the commandments is very limited: "No one will be justified by works of the law." (Galatians 2:16)

So if the Bible is not primarily a book of moral examples or rules for behavior, what is it about?
The great reformer of the 1500s, Martin Luther, says this: Be sure that you do not make Christ into a Moses, as if Christ did nothing more than teach and provide examples . . . as if the gospel were simply a textbook of teachings or laws . . . You must grasp Christ at a higher level. The chief article and foundation of the gospel is that before you take Christ as an example, you accept and recognize him as a gift, as a present that God has given you and is your own. . . This is the great fire of the love of God for us, whereby the heart and conscience become happy, secure and content. This is what preaching the Christian faith means."

Luther teaches us to see the Bible not as a textbook of teachings, laws and moral examples, although those elements are certainly part of scritpure. The Bible , however, is really primarily a book of promises and a record of God's overwhelming mercy and abundant grace for us. This, then, is how we are to read the Bible: always look for the word of grace, always claim the promises, always open the gift that is Christ. When you read the Bible this way, you will fall in love with scripture like never before in your life. My prayer for you today is that you will always know deep down in your heart the "great fire of the love of God" for you.

Come to Jesus Meeting

2010-01-17T05:51:00.001-08:00

There is a phrase I would like to eradicate from the Christian vocabulary, and that phrase is "come-to-Jesus meeting." It's usually used in the context of some problem or conflict. People will sometimes say, "So-and-so and I need to have a come-to-Jesus meeting." And that usually implies that the meeting is not going to be pleasant, and somebody is going to be confronted or shamed or scolded. Now, granted, there are times in life when you have to confront brutal realities, and it's not always pleasant. But why do we feel compelled to attach Jesus' name to it? I think the phrase probably really hurts Jesus' feelings. I bet he cringes every time he hears it.

In the New Testament when people have a "come-to-Jesus" meeting, it is always an encounter with grace. It is always an moment of acceptance, healing and new life. Nothing scary about it! Think about it--if Jesus had been a scary, condemning, judgmental kind of guy, nobody would have liked him. Jesus drew vast crowds of people wherever he went because when people were in his presence, they experienced blessing, joy, and--yes--even fun.

In general people are far harder on themselves and treat themselves--and others--in ways that Jesus never treated anybody. People go on diets and then they slip up and eat a donut. And then instead of saying, "Oh, well, I ate a donut, everybody makes mistakes," they become disguted with themselves for falling of the wagon and so consumed with self-hatred that they eat the whole box of donuts.

For me one of the most amazing aspects of the Easter story is that, when Jesus comes back from the dead, he is apparently not mad at anybody. He doesn't take vengeance. He doesn't condemn or even scold anybody. Jesus was the victim of the biggest betrayal and injustice in history, yet when he comes back on Sunday there is not a peep from him about it. He doesn't say, "Glad to see you, but first I really feel the need to process what happened on Thursday night. Remember that whole betrayal and denial thing?" No, when Jesus comes back to his struggling, weak friends, he brings them nothing but grace, acceptance, love and joy. In Matthew's account of the resurrection, Jesus first words to his friends are: "Do not be afraid."

Many--perhaps most--Christians believe deep down that at some level Jesus is not totally pleased with them. Many Christians believe that at some point in time, probably before you can get into heaven, you are going to have a "come-t0-Jesus" meeting which is not going to be pleasant. If thoughts like that trouble you, I would encourage you to remember the only real "come-to-Jesus" meetings that were ever recorded: Jesus forgiving Peter for betraying him, Jesus meeting the woman at the well, Jesus giving the despised Zacchaeus the honor of hosting him for dinner.

Friends, the only "come-to-Jesus" meeting you will ever have will be like what Jesus described at the end of the parable of the Prodigal Son: "Bring quickly the best robe and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet; and bring the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and make merry; for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found." (Luke 15:22-24)

Salvation is a Celebration

2010-01-16T06:02:00.000-08:00

While driving around the other day I found myself listening to a nationally syndicated religious show on the radio. The topic for the day was "real faith," and the gist of the converstaion went like this: It was not enough just believe in Jesus--you had to REALLY believe in him. It didn't matter whether you were going to church your whole life. You had to have a "personal" relationship with him. (That phrase--"personal relationship with Jesus"--has always puzzled me. How can you have an impersonal relationship with him? Aren't relationships by definition, "personal?")

The folks on the radio went on to say that you had to be able to point to a specific time when you turned your life over to Jesus. But that wasn't enough. The way you know that you REALLY believe is when you start living your life differently. And if you didn't start getting your house in order and cleaning up the mess in your life, then it was clear you didn't have real faith.

I realize the people on the religious radio show had their hearts in the right place. They want people to come to faith in Jesus. But I started wondering if they might be having the opposite effect. They were erecting all kinds of hoops and hurdles on the way to faith and they were making people question the validity of the faith that they actually did have.

So I started thinking, "If I had a few minutes on the radio to tell people something about Jesus, what would it be?"

I might start with Isaiah 25 in the Old Testament, where the prophet says that there is day coming when the Lord will prepare for all peoples a feast on his mountain--a feast of fat foods and well-aged wine. (Note: scripture says it will be a feast for all peoples--not just people who really, really believe.)

And then I might move on to John chapter 2--the kick-off of Jesus' public ministry. He makes a really big splash by producing 150 or so gallons of fine wine at a wedding reception so that the party could go on and on. I would also talk about Luke's gospel where in nearly every scene Jesus is either finishing a meal, in the middle of a meal or on his way to a meal.

Then I would talk about the stories Jesus told--about a guy who lost a sheep, found the sheep and threw a party--about a woman who lost a coin, found the coin and threw a party--about a man who lost his son, found his son and threw a party. He also told about a king who threw a wedding party for his son but instead of just inviting the respectable people he brought the poor, the blind and the lame to the table.

Then I might wrap it up by talking about the closing chapters of the Bible, the vision of the end of time which includes an angel who proclaims: "Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage feast of the Lamb." (Revelation 19:9)

Do you see a theme emerging here? From the Old Testament to the New Testament to the fulfillment of time, it's party, party, party. If you want to help people believe in Jesus, I wouldn't start by questioning the validity of their faith or their religious experiences or set up all kinds of hoops, hurdles and religious requirements to get through. Simply tell them that one of the main points of the Bible is that somewhere in the universe there is a celebration of enormous proportions going on and you are invited. And all you have to do to get in is simply not tear up or throw out the invitation. This is the good news that will melt your heart and change your life.