I have many friends who work in areas where life and death are truly in the balance.  There’s always a sense that if I work a little more, one more street child will be safe, one less person will die of aids or starvation, or one more slave will be set free.  Even in my pastoral work, there’s a sense that if I just spend a little more time with people it will make a difference.  These thoughts are evil!  They are a proclamation that you are the one holding the world together, that you love them more than God does.  Only when we are confident in our call and the character of our God, can we say no with the peace that God doesn’t need us to save the world, he needs us to do and be exactly that which he has built and called us to do and be, nothing more and nothing less.  The Kingdom of God comes when we each, with reckless abandon, fall into submission to God, not when we each pursue that which we think will maximize the work of our hands.

Read the rest…

Another problem with the way churches typically go about preaching is that it often comes at the cost of the preacher’s other gifts.

For example, my head of staff J. is an incredibly gifted preacher. (I’m not just saying that, person after person, friend after friend, repeatedly tells me how much they connect with her preaching.) In addition to gifts in preaching, she is an incredibly gifted theologian, pastor, teacher, church visionary, mother, wife, writer, disciple-maker, and the list goes on…

Sermons take a huge amount of time to prepare and are best prodded by the Holy Spirit instead of a weekly rhythm (IMHO). When our expectation is that J. preaches every week, we must realize that that comes at the cost of her using and developing some of her other gifts.

The problem is that, generally, communities assume that someone must preach each week.

My point is that churches need to examine whether that is truly the best use of the preacher’s time. Are there other gifts we want them to explore themselves and impart to our community?

However, my problem isn’t with preaching at all, it’s only that churches often recognize preaching to the detriment of other spiritual gifts. Assuming that preaching is the best way to share things week-in and week-out is a mistake (pedagogically and theologically). (It’s similar to my problem with relegating worship to only music.) It’s one of many ways to proclaim the Word. As such, it’s as problematic to never have preaching as it is to always have preaching.

The issue is that in many churches today we have legitimate avenues for bringing the Word (most notably preaching and musical worship) and illegitimate ones. Though we may use a medium poorly, there are NO inappropriate mediums for bringing the Word. We can bring the Word of God when we preach, when we care for the least of these, when we are alone praying, when we impart joy to others. We can proclaim the Word through fine art and music, through caring for our neighbors, through loving our enemies, through blogging, and through living the eucharist. The Word can appear in our discussions, in our cooking, and especially in our silence. We need space for all mediums.

If your gift is preaching, preach. If your gift is painting, paint. If your gift is cooking, cook. To bring the Word in greater fullness, we need everyones’ gifts.

I’m blessed to be a part of a community where people have not only learned and accepted the responsibility to feed themselves (Note: not talking individualism here, it’s God who does the feeding), but have also learned and accepted the responsibility to feed others. It’s not up to me to feed everyone, rather it is a communal responsibility to find and share spiritual (and actual) food. We teach, bless, and encourage one another (as our gifts allow) in our pursuit of God.

It’s sort of a spiritual potluck. 

We each bring a dish.

Some people bring old favorites, others bring new recipes that they’ve discovered along the way. Sometimes people can’t bring a dish because they are too tired or overwhelmed. Sometimes people bring a few dishes or one giant dish. 

Some people eat a little bit from what every person has brought, others just get a massive helping of a handful of dishes. 

There is plenty for everyone to eat and certainly something that will fill the hunger each brings.

We don’t just leave with our hunger satiated, but, as with any good potluck, we share the recipes so that we can make them later for others.

The cool thing is that it’s not incumbent on me (or anyone else) to make sure that everyone is fed. It’s a responsibility we share. I don’t arrive too tired to eat from preparing a massive meal for everyone; I get to partake in the spiritual feast as well.

And we each depart with more than we brought.

For those unfamiliar with Joel Osteen, he preaches a prosperity theology to, by many accounts, the largest church in the United States.  Essentially saying that being a Christian means that you will prosper.  Time Magazine did an article two years ago called “Does God Want You to be Rich.”

Coming into the stadium, there was a notable abscence of a cross (not that a cross can’t be an idol), but there was a large American flag displayed in the back (looking at later videos I think there were more than I could see from my vantage point) and a massive rotating golden globe emitting fog.

The problem with Osteen’s message isn’t that it is completely false (deception must always contain some truth), it’s that it is, at best, incomplete.  His message is at core, think positively (and give to Lakewood) and you will have your best year ever. Of course he talks about aligning oneself with God, but the only route to this provided is to think positively and recognize the God inside oneself.  He provides a false hope to the poor and greedy in the face of the other American churches which by in large provides so little hope it’s hardly worth mentioning.

Osteen’s narrative is not primarily that of Christ, rather it is the American narrative: work hard and you will prosper.  At core, it is a narrative of empire which makes the golden globe so appropriate.

While Osteen may be one of the most egreggious, most churches throughout the United States have traded the narrative of Christ with the narrative of America.  It is a narrative (familiar to Family Christian bookstores) of God’s favor and endorsement. Of the availability of an unquenchable river of cheap grace flowing with comfort, wealth, safety, and health.  In short, people get what they deserve, therefore I am entitled to that which I have and have no reason to share. I can have everything I desire and follow Jesus as well.  Sorry, but that’s simply untrue (see Luke 18:18-23 and Matthew 10:39 for a couple examples of the many times Christ rejects this Saducean viewpoint).

It is the narrative that says that God’s favor is on the United States, therefore our actions, whether the genocidal removal of Native American’s from their land or the exploitation of foreign labor, are unquestionably sanctioned, ordained, and blessed by God. What arrogance! What foolishness!

Quite simply put, that is completely against the narrative Christ offers.  Whether we like it or not, the United States is not the “new Israel,” the United States is the “new Rome.”

I should start off by letting you know that my hope is best described in Christ manifesting himself through the Church. I’ve gone the traditional political action path and it proved hollow to me. There is no legislation that can love. The checks and balances of programs whether governmental or church-based ensure that the least of these is never served. Programs are incapable of love, people of God love.

The average person walking down the street today sees Christians as hate-filled hypocrites who hate gays and want to outlaw abortion.

Christ says that they will know you are Christians by your love.

My call today is for us to die to ourselves and, instead, become a people of love—costly, difficult, wonderful, painful, relational, messy, uncomfortable, sacrificial, transforming, beautiful, unconditional, love.

We have become mesmerized by the power of this world—the hope of principalities and governments. We have done an analysis and figured out that we should best spend our resources in leveraging the government to coerce the world into behaving as if it were Christian. That goes for both the Christian right and the Christian left.

We have figured out that it is much less costly to comfort our guilt by having the government outlaw abortion instead of seeking to open our spare-bedrooms up and offering refuge to mothers and their babies. We have said that it is much easier to leverage the government to provide healthcare to those in need rather than to assume that cost ourselves as the people of God called to care for the poor. We would rather protest war than to go thousands of miles away from our homes to, as peacemakers of God, stand between oppressors and the oppressed.

We are more interested in proclaiming truth to government than living out truth as God’s people. And guess what? The world has called our bluff. Until we are willing to live by the call of Christ ourselves, we have nothing to say to our elected officials.

My call today is for us to be a prophetic witness of love, first to our brothers and sisters in Christ and then to the world. I don’t know about you, but I have a long way to go in this respect.

A few examples of how this might play out:

In the mid-1800’s, there was a similar amount of abortion per capita as there is today. The church saw that this was a problem and began to open up homes for women and their babies and even their spare bedrooms. The rate of abortion plummeted without any changes in the law.

Throughout the world Christians provide healthcare to those in need, in fact there is a history of similar action in the United States. Think of how many Methodist, Baptist, and Catholic hospitals you know of. These were originally founded by the church.

Christian peacemaker teams today choose the costly path of going abroad to stand alongside people being bombed and oppressed.

You see it is much more important what you do before and after voting than what you do in the voting booth.

If you are called to politics, do politics. Don’t however do politics because you believe that will maximize your impact. Be willing to seek after God and obey, even if that means you are called to do something that in your view will only help a handful of people.

The Holy Spirit deploying the people of God to do the work of God knows exactly where and how each of us fit in bringing the Kingdom of God to earth. It is up to us to make the decision to accept that call—the call that will cost us our life.

While there I met some amazing college students.  We had some great conversations–needless to say, they all left with Irresistible Revolution in hand.  None of them knew what the emerging church was, so, at their request, I clumsily tried to define it.

 The neat thing was, though none of them knew the term “emerging,” our conversations revealed that the concepts spoke of most often in emerging circles were in no way foreign to them, in fact, they were givens in their conception and understanding of God.

Many people think of emerging as a movement to do something different and shift thinking in the church.  This tends to be less and less the point the younger the person is.

I didn’t have to introduce my new friends to the concepts of emerging.  I didn’t have to show them how to be emerging.  At core, they culturally are already emerging.

It’s funny to me that most churches today decide if you are a disciple by a “conversion” moment, baptism, a profession of faith, or agreement with a belief statement.

Being a disciple of Christ has NOTHING to do with a mental assent and everything to do with having Him as the decisionmaker in each of our lives.  The gage Christ has given us is love not law.

Too bad gaging love requires relationship instead of a few words on a form.  God forbid we waste church resources on truly getting to know people instead of building better and bigger programs and expanding our rolls.  The way of the Kingdom is always ineffecient and ineffective in the eyes of the world.

Here’s how I tried to concisely describe what I am trying to say:

During college I experienced a lot of growth in my faith–I was surrounded by people seeking to give their whole lives to Christ, who challenged one another, lived simply, sought to love one another unconditionally, prayed and worshipped together throughout the week, met up throughout the day, shared possessions, and so fourth. When I got out of college, I discovered that, though I did all the churchy things like going to worship, being in a small group, leading the missions team, working with the homeless, and even practicing hospitality, I became more and more like the world and less and less like Christ. I was an A+ citizen of a church, but I was becoming less and less of a follower of Christ while I became more and more “American.” I continued to discover more and more how selective and myopic churches are as to scripture and the gospel. Because I wanted to be a follower of Christ (even though the cost was much more than churches let on), I sought a community of people dedicated to doing life together (much like I’d experienced in college).

I think that the Church is very specifically defined as people and, while theologically and rhetorically pretty much everyone would agree, churches structurally tell people that church is an event, a building, a club, or an institution. (Check out what I wrote about “my church” a few months ago: http://www.atthemargins.com/2007/05/04/where-do-you-go-to-church/ ).

I want to be a part of the Church that sets people free from those things that afflict them, that is powerful, that is known by it’s unconditional love for others, that radically follows Christ, that is willing to die to itself, and that, as a result of all this, sees people transformed day after day.

My friends and I are slowly, but surely learning to be that Church.

I came as Herod and shared in first person my/his perspective on himself.  Then I did a quick costume change and shared as Simeon.

I’d planned to repeat both Herod and Simeon last night, but, because of a wonderful discussion, I ended up just sharing as Herod.

I was just remarking to Israel, that the morning felt like a performance, while the evening felt like a conversation.  Perhaps it was just because I had already done it once, perhaps it was because I know the folks from Holy Grounds better.  However, I think it’s because of a difference in atmosphere.  I knew in the evening that all I had to do was spark–spark thinking, spark conversation–and we would be able to grapple with things together.  In the morning, I felt I needed to impress (ugghhh) and to do a good job–I needed to perform well. I knew that people were only going to be able to take away what I brought and what the Holy Spirit said through me, that we wouldn’t be able to process as a community.

What pressure people who preach week after week must feel!

Sure, He definitely died for us, but I’m not so sure that that was the sine quo non of His earthly mission. It seems to me the fact that He came to live as one us for 30 odd years is pretty important, not to mention the fact that He still lives now. Oh yeah, and there’s the whole ressurection thing.

I’ll be the first to proclaim that the cost of discipleship is death. Followers of Christ must both figuratively die to themselves for Christ and others and be willing to, in the model of Christ, literally die for Christ and others.

Fixation with Christ’s death however only fuels the oft-quoted, but seldom contextualized, Nietzschen axiom that “God is dead.”

The Church really needs a God that is not dead. A God who is speaking and active in His people. A God that is equipping His people to “to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners” (Isaiah 61:1). A God who continues to reveal Himself to us and show us the Way. A God who is actively involved in the continual transformation and liberation of His creation.

For a long time, I interpretted 1 Peter 4:8 as my love for others covers a multitude of their sins.  While this is certainly true, a few weeks ago I realized that my love for other covers a multitude of my own sins.

The interesting thing is that a relationship of unconditional love is the only environment where we actually have the freedom to expose our sins that we may be set free from them.

It’s kind of like my first year of college. I was pretty homesick. I longed for home day after day.

Eventually it dawned on me that I wasn’t in fact just desiring a place–home, but actually a time. The reality was that I could go back home, but doing so would do little to truly affect my homesickness as all my friends from high school were no longer there. I realized I was longing more for a season than for a place.

Given going back was not a possibility, I knew I had to embrace the new season God had given me.

Likewise, many are homesick for a church that no longer exists. No matter how much we try to keep everything physically the same, the reality is we cannot return to the season we are longing for, even if we think it was better, it has passed away.

Of course, the best way to get over homesickness is, instead of constantly seeking to return to where you were, to embrace the new place you are. Seek to know it, understand it, and live in it and eventually it will become home.

At the end, she and I talked about how hard it is for her to pray out loud (something I’ve heard from many people before).  She added that I pray so well.  I told her that one of my friends has often challenged me, “do you talk to anyone in the manner that you pray out loud.”  The truth is I don’t.  I use stilted flourishes, not to mention a different voice.

For a little while in high school I sang in the church choir.  We would pray at the beginning of each rehearsal and I remember always looking forward to hearing Ms. C pray.  Unlike anyone I’d known to that point, she truly prayed to “Daddy.”  Her prayers were simple, intimate, and loving, but at the same time, there was no confusing the awe and revere she had for her Father.

When I pray religious prayers, I enforce the lie that God desires prayers that are formal and articulate rather than personal and sincere.  My actions tell people that they are unable to pray.  For shame!  When I pray formally it is certainly not for God, rather for show and the institution. I need to pray simply, intimately, lovingly, personally, and sincerely—he’s my Dad after all—so that others may know that they are able to talk with Him as well.

“Someone somewhere along the line got the idea of putting on a ‘play’ for people and calling it church.”

Take a moment to read “What I think of Church”

In my interactions with people, I most often impart the love that Jesus has for his own people, stirring people up to love one another and to become connected in relationships with one another.  My calling is to the Church, helping people develop authentic, deep relationships of great love with God and with one another where they have freedom to seek after Him with reckless abandon, that is disciple-making.  I desire for people to come alive in their relationship with God—for Him to be the tangible and core reason for being and doing and the ultimate decision maker in their lives.  Often this requires people to leave the control, safety, success, and comfort they perceive themselves as having and simply trust what God has told/shown them to do.  This can only happen when people have a deep and abiding knowledge that they are children of God and that, as such, He loves them and desires for their best.  Having been loved and liberated by Christ, people gain freedom to reveal the sin and brokenness that afflicts them that they may be healed and set free to go and love more and more like Him—self-sacrificially.  As they love more and more like God, God uses them to make disciples and thus the Kingdom grows.

So practically, what does that look like?  For me it looks like (and I’m far from perfect at it):

• listening
• praying
• seeking to actively love all I come into contact/surrounding them with love
• sharing meals with people in groups and individually
• spending time with people one-on-one
• coming to relationships with the understanding that we both have things to teach one-another
• hearing people’s passions and connecting them with people of similar passions
• being available to people
• helping people discover/understand their spiritual gifts and helping them learn to use them
• helping people understand that they worship a God who speaks and learn to recognize and obey His voice
• helping people to allow faith to guide their actions/make God the decision-maker in their life (moving from belief in God’s existence to faith in God’s promises/identity)
• listening to the Holy Spirit and allowing Him to guide my conversations
• seeking to learn and grow each and every day
• seeking to chase after God with reckless abandon myself, making Him the decision-maker in my life
• being “discipled” myself
• living and functioning in community
• walking alongside people on their journey/getting on their sinking ships with them and helping them plug the hole instead of simply bailing out the water

Unfortunately, disciple-making is a messy, time-consuming, labor-intensive process that requires depth of relationship to be developed and, as such, is impossible to do in mass or quickly. The good news however is that, as people become disciples, the Holy Spirit will equip them and provide them opportunities to make disciples themselves… thus the Kingdom grows both exponentially and with power.

Sharing our stories is so important. 

I’ve found it the best foundation to lay for any group whether a missions team, intentional Christian community, or sunday gathering.

It enables us to love one another so much better.  Suddenly I have a glimpse into why Susan does all those things that drive me nuts and it’s not so bad any more. I’m able to sit in silence less awkwardly becaue I now know why John never speaks. Knowing how Jim grew up affords me more grace when he snaps at me.

A practical suggestion, having done this quite a few times by this point, is to have someone who is willing to be particularly vulnerable go first and set the tone.  It’s also good to encourage everyone to have a turn, sharing only what (and if) they are comfortable, taking particular care to value however much or little is shared.  It can take people a really long time to share their story, so I’ve found, if it’s a small group, taking a weekend retreat with the primary purpose of hearing everyone’s story makes it actually less arduous and forms a great foundation for authentic Christian community.

The last several weeks though, I have come into the realization that I am completely and utterly conflict adverse if the conflict has to do with interpersonal relationships or who I am.  It’s why I don’t speed when I drive.  Avoid breaking rules.  Hate getting into trouble no matter how minor it is.  And choose to ignore conflict instead of resolving it.  Real conflict exhausts me.  I don’t want to hurt or be hurt, so I pretend it doesn’t exist. 

I’m happy to change what I think–in fact I love for people to show me where I am academically wrong as it means I can be correct tomorrow.  However, I am not excited about changing who I am. I avoid conflict when it means that I might actually have to change what I do–become less selfish, love on another person’s terms, do something I find boring or banal.  Changing one’s position theologically takes mere moments and comes at little cost.  Changing how one lives takes time, long, arduous time.  It’s costly and it hurts–the Refiner’s fire is always uncomfortable.  Conflict requires me to contemplate the fact that I am not who I desire to be, that I am broken, sinful, and imperfect.  However, it is the only route to growth and holiness.

We live in community so that we can grow and become more like Christ.  Growth often, if not always, requires conflict. It’s why we have a committment to not only resolve conflict, but to acknowledge it when it exists.  It’s the thing I find hardest in community.  I love being surrounded by people 24-7–serving them and sharing the gospel.  I am easy-going and love sharing hospitality and bearing joy.  I enjoy listening to other’s problems and binding up their wounds.  I am made for community and so much of it comes completely and utterly naturally for me–it seldom if ever feels like a sacrifice.  And what a blessing that is!  The thing is, it means that I can so often ignore the fact that I am broken, selfish, and sinful; that I need to grow, need to learn, need to sacrifice, and need to change.  That I, too, am in need of the Spirit’s transformation.

It’s the story that is often used to instruct people to slow down and sit at the feet of God.

Rob chose a different exposition, encouraging a balance between prayer and simply time with God and with service.  Certainly a true and good teaching from the verses!

While he was speaking, I kept asking God to speak to me about the verses.

The imagery he put in my heart was about the homeless in DC.  On any given evening, you can sit in one of the parks and see church van after church van, coming by to drop off food.  Those churches are doing a wonderful thing and Jesus spoke a lot about feeding the hungry.  The problem is that there are very few Marys willing to sit at the feet of the homeless men and women and just listen.

So often I want to see the results of my work, to know that my labor is effective.  The problem is that Christ often asks us to do things which we will never see the results of.  Sometimes we are so focused on doing things that we forget to slow down to listen and love.  Love takes time.  Love takes sacrifice.  And scariest of all, loving someone else means that we will often get hurt.  Love is intangible–I can say I gave out 100 meals or built a home for a family, but it’s impossible to quantify love.  Besides telling people that you sit on a bench and talked to a homeless person all evening is a lot less glamorous than saying you fed dozens of people.  Even worse, people might think you are lazy.

For the past couple of years Grace Community Church has been sending teams to visit the Quaresma family–a brazilian couple that, after having 3 biological kids, began adopting.  Today their family is over 30 and by the grace of God they are the most functional family I have ever known.  The first year we went, we wanted to help them build their new house, instead we cleared a field and spent a lot of time with the family.  The next year, we painted their new house.  The thing is though, what the Quaresmas cared about was not the painting or the hoeing–the cost of our plane tickets alone would have paid for our labor many times over.  What they cared about was getting to know us and us them.  They would have been just as happy for us to just show up and hang out.

Our desire was to build something we could see and touch, God’s desire was to build love in our hearts.

A few months before coming to the Urban Prayer Breakfast, Momma had been on her deathbed.  She made a request from God that she not die with the anger she had in her heart.  You see, years ago, Momma’s husband had become a homeless adict.  God answered her request.  He gave her a reprive from death and sent her to lovingly cook breakfast for over hundred people every morning.  She described how he’d sent her to look into the eyes of dozens of homeless men each morning, see her husband, and choose to love and serve them anyway.  It was a daily discipline that wicked away the anger that had consumed her heart.  I love and miss Momma Charlotte so much.  Her cancer came back and she disappeared, literally without a trace.  Part of me thinks she is literally an angel.

Brother Maclean came to be chef after Momma’s departure.  Actually, he’d been the chef before Momma, but had been sick with cancer and had had a heart attack and had to spend some time recovering.  I am his adopted son and I love him so dearly.  He has taught me so much.  God wakes him up early every morning, and I mean early, usually around 4AM.  He fills the strength move out through his 76-year-old body, strength he needs each day to do the work Father has given him.

During the time Momma was there, so was Ray.  For months I just thought Ray was another volunteer.  One day I found out that he was homeless.  Ray was an incredible joy to work with in the kitchen, constantly cracking jokes and truly loving on everyone there.  After several months of workin alongside Ray, he found out he had colon cancer.  They successfully removed it, but within a month an infection had setup and he died.

One day I was driving away from the Breakfast when I saw Momma Smith, a woman in her late 80s who lived in the neighborhood and would often play the piano for us after she ate, pushing her cart along the sidewalk as was her custom.  I asked her where she was going and if I could give her a ride.  She said in a barely comprehensible voice that she was only going a few more feet to the bus stop where she was going to study the scriptures until it was time for the noon bible study at a nearby church building.  She then began to speak of a specific passage of scripture and how it applied to me that day.  From then on, I would seek to sneak a moment talking with Momma.  Only able to understand every few words, I would labor to understand what she had to teach me that day.  A few months ago, quite to her dismay, Momma went to an assisted living facility.

I haven’t seen Sister Lyles for a few months, but she is a woman who seeks after God with incredible, quiet, humility.  She’s an older woman who always wore a big red fleece sweetshirt, that is except for the couple of months she wore sack-cloth near the time I first came to the breakfast–I assume she was mourning, but I regret never asking her why.  Woman are served first at the Urban Prayer Breakfast, however Sister Lyles would often go at the very last, after all the men.  Like the widow, every morning she would bring her offering–a few coins, sometimes a dollar bill–but it constituted much, if not all of what she had.  What a testimony! 

One time I was at Union Station for a meeting and I saw Sister Lyles outside.  I stopped and we spoke for a little while.  At one point during the conversation God told me to give her the money in my wallet.  I grabbed the 20 dollar bill and gave it to her.  “Oh no.” She responded.  “I can’t take that… that much money is dangerous.”  Jesus had a lot to say about money and it was pretty much never good.  Money is dangerous.  So often I go through life with little thought to the 20 dollars I spend here and there.  What an important reminder from Sister Lyles!

My time at the Urban Prayer Breakfast has been an incredible blessing and I am so thankful God put me there.  What a blessing!

It was exhilerating!  Not to mention we came back with a ton of bread and bagels, banannas, bell peppers, some flowers, some cheese, and some carrot juice, just to name a few highlights.

 So why is it salvation food?  When Jesus referred to hell, it was actually a specific place, a burning dump heap on the outskirts of town.  When we take food from the trashcan, we save it from hell, allowing it to be used for what it was intended.

Thousands of people die each day from starvation, while Americans throw away tons of food that doesn’t meet our quality standards.  Sure, the bannanas were bruised and the peppers were scarred, but they still tasted great. 

The longterm desire is that such actions will free up resources so that others may eat.  We will see.  I’m just happy to no longer be a dumpster diving virgin.

Advent Conspiracy

Category: General

I just read about the Advent Conspiracy in the ePistle from Evangelicals for Social Action. It’s a program to help churches challenge their congregants to rethink the consumeristic celebration of Christmas by focusing on the worship of Christ and obedience to his message to the poor.

I recently saw God Grew Tired of Us with a friend. It’s a wonderful film about Sudanese lost boys who become U.S. refugees. During their first Christmas in the United States, one of the boys asks (forgive me, because I don’t remember the exact quote), What is this tree? Who is Santa Clause? They aren’t in the Bible. He goes on to remark, Christmas is different in Sudan. I don’t know what all this stuff is for, in Sudan we just celebrate Jesus on Christmas.

Christmas is one of my favorite times of the year—mostly because it’s an opportunity to have wonderful parties with friends and sing Christmas music all day long. My housemate and I have been talking this morning about how to rethink what we do at Christmas. Perhaps instead of a traditional party, we go spend the evening with friends in a barn full of animals, singing together, praying together, and talking about this baby called Jesus who was born in a similar barn a couple of thousand years ago and who created the world.

Unfortunately, I’ve often heard these verses misappropriated as a carte blanche for someone to do anything they want. “As long as I do it to the glory of God, I can do whatever I want.” Far from it. At times, doing something to the “glory of God” means not doing it.

That aside, I find it really exciting to ask what it means to do each thing I do to the glory of God…

What does it mean to eat to the glory of God? Perhaps, as John Wesley argued, not meat, since it is resource intense? Perhaps it means not over-eating (or under-eating for that matter)? Perhaps it means buying local?

What does it mean to work to the glory of God?

What does it mean to shop to the glory of God?

What does it mean to drive to the glory of God?

What does it mean to shower to the glory of God?

What does it mean to vote to the glory of God?

What does it mean to watch TV to the glory of God?

While these questions may seam simple to begin with, they are in fact quite difficult to answer. They even might vary from season of life to season of life. Praise God we have a lifetime to try to understand them and grace to fail.

I mean, Church is not a destination or a club, it’s not something that is even geographical. It is much more organic than that. I believe that I am not only called to be a follower of Christ all the time, but to be the Church all the time. This simply is impossible if I define Church by an organization or building. Not to mention unhealthy. Christ spent much of His time in the world. We have created churches that are clubs, places that shelter us from the world rather than equipping us to love those of the world.

For me, Church is and happens whenever 2 or more followers of Christ gather for the purpose of seeking after Him (the above diagram is far from exhaustive). Sure, it’s something that happens on Sunday mornings, but it’s also something that happens many times a day in my community. We can be the Church when we are having dinner with friends, during late night conversations, during Bible Studies. I’m having Church when I spend time with the homeless downtown. I’m having Church when I spend time with His Gathering in Ft. Myers, Florida and when I’m eating breakfast with Stu. In fact, I’m having Church when I’m praying alone, as the Holy Spirit dwells in me.

I recently read a great book about being the Church, So You Don’t Want to Go to Church Anymore by Jake Colsen. It’s available in print, but you can also download it online at http://www.jakecolsen.com/JakeStory.pdf. It’s not Shakespeare, but it was really interesting to me—it’s not social justice at all, but presents a view of the Church that is incredibly different and to which I’ve only recently begun to be exposed. It’s a very worthwhile read and, if you read it, I would love to hear what you think.

If the time comes when despair sees violence as the only possible way, it is because Christians were not what they should have been. If violence is unleashed anywhere at all, the Christians are always to blame. This is the criterion, as it were, of the confession of sin. Always, it is because Christians have not been concerned for the poor, have not defended the cause of the poor before the powerful, have not unswervingly fought the fight for justice, that violence breaks out.

A friend sent me an e-mail with the Alternative Allegiance Version of the Christian PEACE Witness for Iraq document. I think it does a much better job of expressing the point that we as Christians must first take responsibility instead of blaming the American government. The first 4 pages are the revised version and the next 2 are the original. I posted it on my webspace at http://www.mattpritchard.com/CPWalt.pdf.

What do you all think?

I’m even more disturbed because it is a view shared by many folks in churches across America. I struggle to find anything more offensive than my God crucified on a cross by His creation. To Christians, the cross must be simultaneously offensive and comforting.

As Derek Webb says, “the gospel is inherently offensive.” In Luke, Jesus, in reference to the gospel, states:

They shall be divided, father against son, and son against father; mother against daughter, and daughter against her mother; mother in law against her daughter in law, and daughter in law against her mother in law.

It bothers me that the American church by-in-large has forgotten that the message of Christ is literally earth-shattering, perhaps that is because the American gospel is easy, say these magic words and you will go to heaven. There is no committment, there is no cost.

The message of Christ is for people to die to themselves and follow Him. The cross is an enduring symbol of that. Of course it is offensive. Praise our God that it is!

Modernists argue that all Truth can be proven either rhetorically or empirically. This led to the scientific revolution, among other things. The problem is that in science, as in so many fields, we learned time and time again that we were constrained by a host of imperfections, whether they be incomplete information, imprecise methods, statistical issues, et cetera. Of course, modernists argue that this can simply be resolved with better mechanisms, i.e. we develop a better telescope and see more stars, it doesn’t mean that they weren’t there before, it just means that our equipment was insufficient to see them.

Postmodernists argue that truth cannot be perfectly derived rhetorically or empirically. That is to say that there is always a space of the unknown that breaks the continuity between rhetorical or empirical evidence and ultimate Truth. Secular postmodernists thus conclude that to say x is true is more a matter of personal understanding, values, or faith rather than in fact offering ultimate Truth.

Perhaps a chart would demonstrate better:

Science would say that all the evidence points to the truth being the green line. A philosopher might point to truth being the blue line. But in fact Truth or reality might be the red line. Given the simple fact that no one knows what happens in the area of the unknown, anything can happen and thus truth is subjective.

Of course, everyone continues to argue that their truth is in fact Truth from the philosophers, to the scientists, to the theologians, to the outright crazy. Many secular postmodernist take this an additional step to say that truth is solely based in perception and thus there is no ultimate Truth. This is where Christian postmodernists differ.

Christian postmodernists believe that there is in fact an ultimate Truth and, though it may be hinted at and pointed towards in science, philosophy, and religion, it is the sole dominion of God. That is to say that human understanding of Truth lacks perfection and by very definition remains always deficient from ultimate Truth, always in need of redemption, and always requiring faith.

All Christian efforts to prove God, whether scientific, philosophical, or theological have and always will fall short. Wonderfully, this simply not only affirms the requirement of faith, but the core and ultimate need we all have for God!

Providentially, Christians worship a God who speaks. The one true God who has chosen to share ultimate Truth with all of mankind through the Holy Spirit and through His Word. Our understanding remains deficient and must always be examined and challenged, but we get to experience ultimate Truth, here and now, like no other people and in eternity, in perfection.

Soli gloria Deo.

While she was visiting I learned about the removal of the cross from the Wren chapel at William and Mary and she said she was writing an editorial. My instant reaction was to think removing the cross was a nonsensical thing to do and my face and huff betrayed my perspective. Her response was, “I’m writing in support of its removal.” Instantly, I understood. Seeking the cross be returned runs parallel to insisting that “under God” remain in the pledge of allegiance, fighting for “In God We Trust” to remain on our currency, or for a moment of silence to open our school days. They are acts that in actually do very little to further the cause of God and by-in-large detract from it. In fact, all of them are more about giving lip-service to God than bringing a worthy sacrifice. They in no way help us continue to be a Christian nation–an historically bankrupt concept anyway.

Kate insightfully uses Isaiah to point to the idolatry of worshipping symbols. Take a look at her opinion editorial in the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Link

Created: Wed, 01 Nov 2006

My friend Colin just sent me a link to a set of Christian parodies of the Mac/PC commericals. It’s a great concept, but I’m afraid they fall short.

Essentially it’s an issue of good concept, poor articulation. These are anti-Christendom, but leave one thinking that being a Follower of Jesus is even more meaningless. They spent a lot of time dismantling Christendom but failed to equally develop what it means to Follow Jesus.

My friend and housemate Ryan provided a very good critique:

Good application of the Mac/PC ads. But, as Colin says, poor and lukewarm generalization of Christian and ‘Christ-Follower’ (Shouldn’t they be the same? Let’s not draw even more lines to define who we are by differentiating ourselves
from others.) Another attempt to market Christ on a platform of feel-good Christianity? Probably. “Hey, I smoke, have a tongue-piercing, don’t take showers, AND I love Jesus; so that makes my relationship with Christ more authentic and me more ‘real’, man.” Would have been better if the ads de-emphasized the very things it brought to light.

At any rate I think they are interesting and worth discussing.

Worldmapper

Category: Tool / service

To commemorate World AIDS Day one of my friends sent me an e-mail with a map with countries resized according to the prevalence of AIDS. It’s part of a large collection of comparative maps at http://www.sasi.group.shef.ac.uk/worldmapper/index.html.

“Everybody wants to change the world and nobody wants to change themselves.”

As those who know me are well aware, I often fail to adhere to the theology I so strongly purport. I am a theologian who is all about a theology of action, but most of the time I find myself just writing and talking about it, not doing it. In fact, to be completely upfront, I am often trying to convince myself as much as I am trying to convince those I talk with.

The reality is that I know that Christ calls us to suffer, to leave those things to which we cling and cling to him, but I am so afraid. My heart desires to chase after the Master with reckless abandon, but my body says, “Why? You love people. You serve the poor. You proclaim the Gospel. Certainly that is enough.” And, though I live in a society and church that says my body is right, I know it is lying to me. Still I continually give in.

I am a hypocrite. But please do not let my hypocracy dampen the Truth of what I say, for they are two separate issues. The question is not if I do what I say, but if what I say is True. It is my prayer that you may inhabit the Truth of God with great boldness and zeal!!!

He lost the election when we chose to proclaim the Gospel with our votes as a substitute for our lives…When we decided it more expedient to manifest the kingdom in our laws, in our congress, and in our courtrooms than in our neighborhoods, in our families, and in our hearts…

I pray that we may repent and leave our comfort, our security, our control, our success, and the ways of this world so that the Kingdom of God may break forth more boldy among us!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There are some verses that have been particularly memorable in this journey:

John 14 – 9Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 11Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves. 12I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. 14You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.

As Tony Campolo puts it, when Christ was here he could look into one face at once. When He left, He gave us His Spirit to dwell within us. Now, with just the folks in this room, Christ can look into the face of 200 people at once. Because of the Holy Spirit, we no longer have to wait for the Kingdom.

John 5 – 19Jesus gave them this answer: “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. 20For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, to your amazement he will show him even greater things than these…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Christianity is not about morality, justice, or even really about an afterlife. Christianity is about communing with our creator here and now. The Holy Spirit is a huge part of that.

In a very real sense, the Kingdom dwells in us and among us. When we seek after and obey the Holy Spirit, we no longer have to wait for death to experience Heaven, for the Kingdom breaks forth among us. “Thy Kingdom come,” is not just for later, but for now.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I love that we worship a God who speaks. I always find it funny when I hear people say something along the lines of “well if God came to me and spoke like He did in the Old Testament of course I would obey.” It misses the Holy Spirit completely. I think the problem is less that God isn’t speaking and more that God speaking is much more normal than we think and thus we dismiss it. Of course I’m not immune to this problem. I mean, I will tell you that God speaks to me every day, multiple times a day. It is something that I am confident of. Now if you were to ask me what was the last thing He said to me and what it was, I would probably go back several months to come up with something. I know God speaks to me, but it makes me uncomfortable. I mean how crazy is it to say that the Creator of the universe speaks to me? Why would He speak to me? I don’t deserve to be spoken to (or loved by Him for that matter). How can I tell His voice (I mean this in a wide sense) from mine? What happens if I ascribe something to God that isn’t His? What happens if I ascribe something to myself that is from God?

There is plenty of Grace for us to seek after God and getting wrong and I believe that God places a lot of value on us humbly seeking after Him–even when we get it wrong.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Expand your vision of what God might call you to. I think a lot of times we have trouble hearing God because we don’t think He would ask us to do such a thing. For instance, longterm missions or giving up all our belongings and following Him.

As one of the IJM staff members said when talking to a bunch of folks thinking about going to work for them: God calls us to leave our “comfort, security/safety, success, and control.” It is when we have left these things that we are forced to no longer rely upon ourselves, but to seek after God for everything grasping upon the promise that He is our provider. Our independence is a big barrier to hearing the Holy Spirit, because we somehow convince ourselves that we don’t need to hear Him. It is only when we leave these things behind that we truly gain them. (Honestly, I’m pretty stuck on my independence, keeping my self-gained comfort, security, success, and control.)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Holy Spirit is a necessary component of our life with God. Without the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the Bible is just a bunch of words.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Also, as I’ve been seeking after God, I’ve discovered that it is quite messy. I mean, it seems that God has a what, a when, and a how and He doesn’t always give them to us at once–essentially we can obey the what while disobeying the how.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I’ve been thinking of some questions in discerning what is from the Holy Spirit:

• Does the calling align with the character of God? Can you undertake it righteously?
• Are your trusted advisors who you are in community with confirming that this is what the Holy Spirit is saying?
• Can I do it with the fruits of the Spirit? (I’m a little rockier on this one).

If the answers to any of these is no, then there are problems. There are a few possibilities:

• A false spirit is confusing you.
• It is not yet time for the specific calling you are hearing.
• You are seeking to do it on your terms.

Seeking to do it on my own terms is something I fall into a lot. Kitty’s Dad Stew has a wonderful story to illustrate this:

My friend’s Dad Stew tells a wonderful story that illustrates this point. He was in Africa preparing to speak to a congregation. The Pastor was standing behind the most ornate pulpit he’d ever seen. He hears the Holy Spirit tell him, “when you step up to speak, speak from there (a location down in front of the platform).” The Pastor proceeds to usher Stew into the pulpit. What should he do? If he turns around and leaves the pulpit it is culturally parallel to slapping his host in the face in front of his flock and conflicts with loving his brother. If he insists upon staying in the pulpit, he fails to obey the Holy Spirit. What would you do?

My tendency would have been to simply do what I heard from the Holy Spirit. I would be wrong however. Stew said to the Holy Spirit, “these two things are in conflict, please provide a way for me to obey you and to love my brother well” and he stepped into the middle of the pulpit. Before he could get a full sentence out of his mouth, someone called up to him, “they can’t hear you in the back, would you step down to here (pointing to the exact spot the Holy Spirit said) and speak?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

At any rate, I think that the most important thing we can do is to seek after God with great zeal! I’ve been thinking about writing a book about the Church and speaking about the vision for the Church God has placed on my heart and so many others in our generation. I know that if I do write it that the first section will be about seeking after God with reckless abandon with the confidence that He will speak and guide and then obeying what He has said.

The reality is that I am much happier if people seek after God and decide I’m wrong than if they don’t and decide I’m right.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Redefine successful Church as exclusively obedience to God. The question isn’t how many people came or how many people were saved, rather it is, were we obedient to the Holy Spirit?

Evangelicals Fear the Loss of Their Teenagers

Authors: Laurie Goodstein

Journal: New York Times

Publish Date: October 6, 2006

Evangelicals (and the modern church in general) have set their own snare by making the appeal of Christianity exclusively life after death and selling Christ at the bargain price of simply proclaiming an incantation. I am working on a paper about the problem with the prevailing view of evangelism (as I spoke about before). Hopefully I will finish it soon and post it. I’m excited about it because I believe that a false view of evangelism is a root cause for many of the problems facing the institutional church.

I’ve arrived upon incarnational. I believe that we are to seek to incarnate the model of Christ’s obedience to the Father and that, in the model of Christ, we are to seek to love others with complete self-sacrifice, even to death. Of course it could be misinterpreted as simply another way of saying we should emulate the specific life of Christ (see my post “What Would Jesus Do? Really???” What I mean by it is that we are the body of Christ acting in the world and that Christ is incarnate in us through His Holy Spirit which dwells in us.

I’m not sure if incarnational is the best description (probably not), but it’s the best I’ve come up with so far. Any other ideas?

I understand why these are so popular in churches, it’s what people want and thus attracts more people.

However, it buys into the Christian subculture which implies that singles are incomplete until married. Ack!!!! This is simply untrue and hurtful to those who have been called to singleness (even if for the time being).

“…others have renounced marriage because of the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 19:12

After all there are many singles who have dedicated their life to the Kingdom, Paul, John the Baptist, even Jesus for that matter. For some reason modern American protestants (want to?) forget this fact.

It is clear that singles have an important role in the Kingdom of God and we as the Church should seek to help them serve out of this calling.

Instead of singles ministries seeking to remedy the problem of singleness (which as I’ve pointed out is in fact not a problem at all), singles ministry should provide opportunities for singles to live out the particular service they are called to and equipped most for. Here are a couple of examples:

1. Singles are much better placed to assist in last minute situations or emergencies than their married counterparts and thus this is a key function in the service of singles to the Church and to the world. If I receive a call from a friend who needs immediate assistance, I am able to know what I am doing and make a quick judgement of whether or not I can assist. If I was married, I would need to check with my wife first, and if I had kids, I would have to deal with taking care of them first also (I realize this applies less to singles with children).
2. Serving at an overnight shelter is another excellent example of an opportunity to serve in which singles are better equipped than marrieds (for many of the same reasons listed in 1).

I realize that my examples are weak, so I would love to hear more examples from you! Please post them to a comment.

You may say, wait, but shouldn’t there be social opportunities for singles within the church. I would say no. However, I would agree that there should be opportunities for real Christian community encouraged by the Church. Of course, then it doesn’t make sense for it to just be singles anyway, because rich and deep Christian community should be diverse–we have much to learn from people who are different from ourselves.

Now I am not saying that we should seek to keep singles single, not at all. Let’s face it, it is quite probable that singles living in community and serving together will often develop romantic relationships and marry. This is a wonderful thing.

However, marriage should never be the goal of singles ministries, worship and service to God should. Singles have a great service in the work of the kingdom which should be lauded and encouraged to live it out now. We should particularly embrace those who have chosen to remain single for the Kingdom.

Thoughts? Comments? I’d love to hear what you think!

It occurred to me during this conversation, just how much I want to start a movement–to see the Church transformed to that which Christ intended. How arrogant of me to 1) think I could do such a thing and 2) think that I’m somehow better than all those who have tried before, that our generation gets it and will somehow succeed where every generation before us has fallen short. It seems that real movements in the church (I’m no Church historian, so chime in with more information) don’t start off as movements at all, but rather are born from people seeking to be faithful to scripture and the Holy Spirit. We worship a God who time and time again uses the micro to change the macro (I just can’t get away from econ, can I?); who uses the small, the weaker, often the unwilling, to transform the greater, the stronger.

Seeking large scale Church reform, though tempting, is seeking one’s own glory–is idolatrous. If we as a people, as a generation of believers, would seek to be about the Father’s business in our lives, loving the unlovable, seeking to hear and obey, than our communities would be transformed–certainly not easily and not without much suffering, but in amazing ways. I don’t have to start a movement (nor should I). It is readily apparent as I travel and meet people that God started the movement long before I did (and will continue it long after I am gone). That there is a calling on our generation (not sure if it is unique to our generation) and that there are groups and individuals all around this country and world seeking to inhabit this calling. Christ is moving in His bride with boldness! We are a movement that cannot and should not be contained by a vision statement, not connected by x statements of belief, not beholden to a five-year plan, but rather a movement convened and ordained by the Holy Spirit Himself. We are the Church. We must encourage, even demand, from one another that we seek after God with reckless abandon, for it is when we seek after Him that we see His Kingdom break forth on earth, that we see His bride in greater glory.

But here’s the thing, we’re going to get it wrong, like the generations before us we are going to fail to fully manifest the vision God has placed on our hearts. We must have the courage to grow and mature, to look back and see where we have been wrong and to move forward with new zeal in the face of knowing we will once again fall short of perfection.

And as our kids mature we must not only tell them, but show them the story of the God of Abraham working today to help them to, not simply rest on the word we have received, but to listen and obey His voice themselves. We must have the courage to not only allow, but encourage them to tear down the asherah poles and high places built by us, as we did for our fathers.

What exciting times we live in. The Kingdom is alive and among us! Praise be to God!

Instead, I have been thinking about the story of the Bible in different terms. The Bible provides a default rule set for our lives and we should seek to obey. However, at times He calls us out of this default. I would site a few examples:

• Peace is a Biblical directive, however God calls David to war (interestingly, David is not allowed to build the temple because of the blood on his hands route from this obedience 1 Chronicles 22:7-9).
• The Bible commands us not to sacrifice our children, yet He calls Abraham to sacrifice Isaac.
• The Bible forbids us to marry whores, yet He commands the prophet Hosea to marry a prostitute.
• The new testament indicates that only men should be in leadership, yet He calls Deborah to lead Israel.

Any time we seek to read the Bible simply as a rulebook, we deny the working of the Holy Spirit and make a book an idol above God. If Israel had enforced the rule that women were never allowed in leadership, then they would have disobeyed God by not allowing Deborah to lead. That is we must acknowledge the fact that God may call us out of the Biblical framework (certainly not to something against His character) and that we must seek him out in all things.

Of course, it must be acknowledged that it is unusual for God to call us out of Biblical rule-set and thus if we believe that God is calling us out of the default (note: silence is a call to the default), we must take great care to ensure that we are hearing the Holy Spirit and not false spirits. A couple of questions useful in this endeavor are:

• Does the calling align with the character of God? Can you undertake it righteously?
• Are your trusted advisors who you are in community with confirming that this is what the Holy Spirit is saying?

If the answers to either of these is no, then there are problems. There are a few possibilities:

• A false spirit is confusing you.
• It is not yet time for the specific calling you are hearing.
• You are seeking to do it on your terms.

I would like to take a moment to address the latter (most because I like this story and feel it teaches a great lesson):

My friend’s Dad Stew tells a wonderful story that illustrates this point. He was in Africa preparing to speak to a congregation. The Pastor was standing behind the most ornate pulpit he’d ever seen. He hears the Holy Spirit tell him, “when you step up to speak, speak from there (a location down in front of the platform).” The Pastor proceeds to usher Stew into the pulpit. What should he do? If he turns around and leaves the pulpit it is culturally parallel to slapping his host in the face in front of his flock and conflicts with loving his brother. If he insists upon staying in the pulpit, he fails to obey the Holy Spirit. What would you do?

My tendency would have been to simply obey the Holy Spirit. I would be wrong however. Stew said to the Holy Spirit, “these two things are in conflict, please provide a way for me to obey you and to love my brother well” and he stepped into the middle of the pulpit. Before he could get a full sentence out of his mouth, someone called up to him, “they can’t hear you in the back, would you step down to here (pointing to the exact spot the Holy Spirit said) and speak.

I often dismiss or disobey the Holy Spirit because of my attempts to do things my way.

The alternative to this view is that the Bible speaks general revelation and provides an unalterable framework for our lives. We must rely upon God for the specific articulation of this framework in our lives, but he never calls us outside of the rules of the Bible. For example, we are all called to missions however God must guide us specifically where. This has historically been my view, however, it doesn’t square with the Biblical storyline of God calling people out of the default.

Perhaps, the best is a merger of these two views, that the Bible provides a default framework for His people, God tells us how to specifically articulate this framework and sometimes calls us outside this framework. Our ultimate responsibility is obedience to the Holy Spirit not to elders, not to ourselves, not to a book, even if the book is written by God.

Anyone have any thoughts or comments?

“Don’t let the car fool you, my treasure is in heaven”

Arrrggghhhhhh!!!! Why is it that American Christians (perpetuated by the American church) think that we can have Jesus and all our personal preferences? Guess what folks, to follow Jesus is to die to oneself daily! The scourge of cheap grace has infected our nation. Like the good kings of old, we must tear down the asherah poles and high places built by our fathers.

A revelation? – Bible’s book of Revelation presented in another light

Authors: Steve Arney

Journal: Pentagraph of Bloomington-Normal, Illinois

Publish Date: October 2, 2006

Check out this article in the Pentagraph of Bloomington-Normal, Illinois about a professor’s non-traditional interpretation of Revelation. I think I’ll probably get his book. I’ve often commented on my generation’s (including my own) lack of eschatology. I believe God gave us Revelation for a reason, so to neglect it is bad, however, there are certainly sections of the church with an unhealthy obsession with it.

While I was there, I got to hear yet again how God is speaking to so many people in our generation. He may call us to different specific things, but it is apparent that God is uniting a generation of believers to seek after Him and inhabit His promises and commands with wreckless abandon. It’s amazing!

Unlike our parents, the people of my generation much more typically are either hot or cold with their faith. Either we desire to give up everything and follow Him or we don’t and realize that it’s not worth going through the motions. That’s an exciting thing for a generation who, more oft than not, grew up in a luke warm American gospel of cheap grace–a faith in which we could have both Christ and all our personal preferences–a gospel without sacrifice and a gospel without love.

We have inhabited a church so long that forgets that Christianity is more about having a relationship with our loving Father and Creator today than about salvation (route by phrase) tomorrow, that Christ calls us to daily take up the cross and follow him, and that our God is worth dying for (and thus worth obeying and worshiping).

It is a time of rebirth in the Church, when the poor, the fatherless, and the stranger will be welcomed into our homes (and more importantly our lives), when we will love the unlovable and heal the broken, when God’s revelation will flow in abundance and we will see Him with new and glorious clarity, when we will be persecuted for living a life in accordance with Him, when we will give up comfort, control, safety, and success to boldly follow after our Father, our Savior, our Creator, our Lover, and our King, and when we will see glimpses of Heaven breaking forth among us!

It is a wonderful and amazing time! Praise the Living God!

This cycle of revenge is age old. In fact, it’s a simple reality for most of the world, from the internal fighting in Iraq and Sudan to the age old battle between the sons of Ishmael and the sons of Isaac (hear an exegesis on this from my friend Tripp Sanders at http://www.newcity.org/audios/sermons/2006-07-09.mp3).

To be honest, often reprisals seem to me as just and right. Why should my friend not take the life of the man who’d taken the life of his family member. “An eye for an eye.”

Christ calls us to another way and I actually don’t think it’s because revenge is wrong or not within our right. As is often the case, Christ calls us from what is within our right to what is obedient. This sacrifice, this forfeiture encompasses much of the lesson of the Gospel.

His call does not stop with do not revenge, but continues with turn the other cheek and love your enemy. How would the world be different if we took His calling seriously?

Christ substituted His life for ours, and in that vain He bids us to sacrifice our lives for Him.

For some Christian Peacemakers this means volunteering to trade themselves with hostages seeking to incarnate the life and death of Christ. Many folks find this practice at best odd and ridiculous and at worse stupid and offensive. They fail to see even the practical implication that these Christian Peacemakers know our Savior while the hostages may or may not. What’s more, what a loud and resounding statement about Christ, that someone would give their life for someone who they don’t know and who may not even deserve it!

I’m inclined to agree that it is ridiculous, but certainly no more ridiculous than the creator of the universe leaving heaven to be mocked and murdered by His own creation. Christ will use the ridiculous to thwart the plans of the wise of this world for “greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13 NIV).

As I began my commute, I looked up into the sky–bright blue rising from a fiery horizon. The distant-most clouds were bleached white from the rising sun’s illumination, while nearer was a streaked patchwork of grayish blue. It was magnificent.

As I consumed the view, my heart began to realize that it was for me. That my Father had painted the sky that morning just for me. Tears welled up.

I am used to thinking of God creating for us, but not for me. I know God loves me, likes me, even delights at me, but it’s most-often hard for my heart to believe it. I think, “of course God will equip me for His work,” but that He would give me a gift of such decadence, of such abundance and excess, remains difficult for me to even begin to comprehend (and at times to accept).

Thinking of God as my Father, as my Savior, as my Lord, is so much easier for me than thinking of Him as my Lover. But what an act of passion, romance, and pursuit for Him to paint the heavens this morning just for me!