The Route Ahead

The Vortex of Self

2010-10-15T21:24:00.009-04:00

Too much time to think. I've been out on a boat, isolated, bored by excessive traffic delays, time going by like speeding escargot. The media news, which I've chosen to ignore is all abuzz again with the seasonal sickness we call election campaigning.

I simply rips my heart apart to see how low, unprincipled, deceitful, and self-serving this entire process is. The worse part is how it draws the masses into it's cold, sick vortex. Divide and conquer. Confuse and confound. Total loss of context, value, and vision. Complex issues and their proponents dismissed with a two-second sound bite lie. Good names, as if there were even any left, are slandered by half-truths which is really no truth at all.

The saddest thing is that all of these are merely symptoms. Though they are bad enough and in a strange way contagious they are not the problem that needs addressed. Fortunately the cure for the disease was discovered some 2,000 years ago; unfortunately it costs far too much and tastes so bad that nobody wants to take it. The medicine IS the gospel (Greek for "good news") of Jesus Christ. But this too gets clouded. Place into bottles and jars, artificial colors and flavors added, watered down and before long it gets stale and diluted and it no longer cures anything.

So we want to send a representative to Washington, Charleston, Columbus, Harrisburg. But what do we expect from them? Well we generally expect, these days, for them to GET something for US. Then everybody else sends their representatives to GET something for THEM. Hmmm.

All those competing wants. It would be a novel idea if there were nothing at all to be had. That they might just go to insure our freedom from oppression and tyranny. Yet instead we play right into the tyrant's game. What they bring us was already ours at the first; at least it was once upon a time. We focus on us. But if we don't who will? Our "fair share" will be lost to others whom we deem less "deserving". Now the pattern emerges in our own backyard; our own living rooms and our own hearts.

Repent and believe the "good news". There is no real mystery to the word repent. The Greek μετανοέω (metanoeō) means simply to "think differently". That differential was framed, defined, and modeled by Jesus. He showed us a kingdom where in the leaders are humble and serve others, where those who are considered least by a society are given equal honor, where residents of that kingdom would absorb harm so as not to have harm come to another; burdens would be shared.

That we would behave as the brothers and sisters that we truly are under a government of God and that we would love our neighbor as ourselves. This is nothing less than super-human. Mankind as he was destined to be. But the supernatural and mysterious action of Jesus absorbing the sin that plagues mankind makes being super-human possible only as much as we are ready to become "strangers and sojourners" in a foreign land. This is not without heartache as we will be misunderstood by those closest to us and paradoxically by those who profess a similar looking faith.

All these things considered is probably why the most apropos prayer may remain maranatha meaning, our Lord, come!

Peace

Community: Model, Foundation, or Challenge?

2009-11-05T20:03:00.013-05:00

“Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name, and they’re always glad you came.”

Who hasn’t heard those words from the theme song of the 1980’s sitcom “Cheers” and felt the twinge of longing for that sense of belonging, family, community? Yet just below the surface of the individual longing is the unrealized fact that it is so very difficult to attain and hold onto.

I’ve read and participated in many discussions about community particularly in the context of the Christian faith of how it is or was a model for Christian living, or the foundation of church life and interaction but all of those discussions, after a while, seemed to dissipate like the morning mist. They run their course, reach no conclusion, and the participant’s sort of drift off to other topics. Never fails.

I'm thinking what if the community you see in the New Testament was neither model for us to imitate, or foundation for us to build upon, but a challenge. From the many letters and instructions given to various groups in the Bible one might think they hadn’t really known what they were in for, or what they were doing exactly.

Sometimes we seem to have truth bounding around in our heads, understanding just out of reach and then you see or hear or read something that brings it all into focus. This is what I found recently in an early book by Reinhold Niebuhr entitled “Moral Man & Immoral Society”. The primary thesis is that there is a basic difference between the morality of individuals and the morality of collectives. This includes ethnic, political, class, religious, or any other collective “community” of persons.

Humans individually are plagued by, what Niebuhr terms, a “predatory self interest” which can be sometimes overcome by individual moral effort but within the dynamic of community moral effort wanes or is other wise sidetracked in deference to the needs and desires of the group. The idea of "predatory self interest" is not really a great revelation but its application to the problem of why collectives of people struggle and conflict both within the group and against other groups is a new understanding, at least for me, and it is this self interest that is at the core of why community, more than anything else, might be a challenge above all.

Jesus has called us to relating to him, without reservation, whose requisite is putting aside our lives. This is a frontal challenge to the predatory self-interest described by Niebuhr. It is also our challenge when we enter into a group. It seems every group may be infected with, and or controlled by, the self-interest of one or more of its members. How else could there be group cohesion? This I believe is the crux of the problem. This seems to change the question from how to "have community" to how to keep Jesus as the focal center of a communal life.

The communities that we saw portrayed in the New Testament were to have Jesus at the center. He was the cohesive element. Or at least that’s what Paul and others had to continually reassert to the believers in their day. So has this then become the discussion of community that is like the morning mist? Or might we enter into such community looking first in ourselves for the destructive element of self.

When I ponder this it already feels as though defeat is at the door before it’s even opened but this is why it is the challenge to our faith that out reaches our own personal moral struggles; It is one of the heights of selfless love to defer to Jesus first and to our brothers and sisters in His name. In the day (the Bible day) the community of believers were called περιούσιος, or per-ee-oo'-see-os, a "peculiar people" being beyond usual, that is, special. It seems the struggle toward community in the face of our predatory bend would truly make us peculiar.

Peace,
Mark

The American Experiment

2009-10-18T16:19:00.030-04:00

As we have our "coming out" from the American experience, as it seems clear is happening, some thoughts come to mind. Referencing a quote from George Washington, who said:

"Making voluntary sacrifice the operative principle of a republican government has proved to be a romantic delusion both individual citizens and sovereign states require coercion to behave responsibly".

Freedom as we see remains commensurate with the responsible behavior of the populace. If you cannot behave, you cannot be free. You don't have to look far or deeply to see where this outcome is heading. Most of our public "servants" are either unrepentantly corrupt or criminal. This doesn't even begin to survey the rest of us.

It seems the very reason that God establishes civil authority, and directs us as his followers how to relate to it, is because he already knew what Washington had discovered. I wonder how Washington might have viewed the fact that the very civil authority used to compel 'responsible behavior' has modeled quite the opposite.

But in contrast to all of this isn't voluntary sacrifice exactly what Jesus calls us to in him in the first place? He spent no small amount of time teaching and demonstrating this as the way of peace, life, and freedom.

Does this make Jesus delusional? The fact that we are where we are simply shows that we aren't living that message too well as "the church" and that the world has not apprehended-nor have we often enough-the gospel message.

We clamor for our freedom but neglect what will bring it. Freedom is still framed within the idea of us, all of us, having it our way as opposed to His way, the way of the cross. We move forward toward the end of the American experiment because we've made room for the power seekers to bear gifts to those in need simply because we have failed to live up to our calling.

Our system is irreparably broken and is heading for the next iteration of national life whatever shape it takes; That system will begin irreparably broken reflecting the cyclical history of the old testament which can be broadened to the history of the world. I fear the next version will merely consolidate the selfishness and greed of the masses within increasingly smaller groups leading to huge injustice and oppression.

As believers I don't think this changes our focus as we are to continually default to following Jesus, living for His sake and for the sake of the world around us in the places he has each of us. How we face these changing times should reflect that focus.

Jesus has given us plenty to keep us busy till he comes and makes it all new. Not that we'll be able to fix it all, he knew better, but he also knew that the effort would be a testimony to the world of his love.

Peace,
Mark

The Speed of Life

2009-10-09T22:34:00.005-04:00

It’s funny how life goes. We say we would never do this or that; Line item our perfect mate, disqualify certain types of folks from our company. Then something happens. We find ourselves thrust in the middle of someone’s life through means we couldn't have imagined.

Our role in these lives isn't clearly defined. It ebbs and flows just as all of life is a dynamic dance of uncertainties. The only solid ground in this dance is the development and expression of love and care between participants.

Should we call this "ministry" in the conventional sense? It almost seems sacrilegious to do so, to minimize the dance of lives to a religious "act". The systematized vehicles that attempt to address the "needs" of the broken fail in the fact that the action is merely an added on part of an overall religious experience instead of the very heart of the type of religion that Jesus would promote.

It seems that to be validated in the larger sense it must be quantified, verified, advertised, and appropriated for further resource development. The pace of play is artificially accelerated never allowing the full measure of life to take place. The dancers are stepping on each other's feet.

Doing this dance at the proper pace, what I call, moving at the speed of life, is simply about validating another by taking them into your life and entering into theirs.

A "leader" who was part of a men's group working towards keeping in touch with one-another throughout the week once apologized to me that nobody called me when working a extended time away to which I replied: "I'm not a ministry opportunity."

If they don't want to dance then fine, don't ask. I wasn’t particularly offended by this it was more a revelation as to what our systems have made us into.

I choose to move at the speed of life, I won’t tell you of success or failure, unless you ask, though it will be measured in the incidence of love. I will allow others into my world and if welcomed, will enter theirs.

Peace,
Mark

Is Socialism the manifest Kingdom of God?

2009-08-16T10:19:00.040-04:00

This post was prompted by a God Journe y podcast and a consequent comment and question by a brother in Australia, he writes:

“For those of us living elsewhere in the world (Australia in my case), the US presents us with many contrasts. We see a nation with a dominant and highly vocal Christian faith, but also a nation which scores rather poorly on some measures of compassionate civilisation, (eg. lack of universal health care, high levels of poverty and incarceration).

“This podcast provides a good snapshot of an apparent dichotomy.”… “God is clearly prepared to take the risk of his unearned favour being “taken advantage of”. Do we have a better plan?”

The first thing I would like to address is the idea of “compassionate civilization”. I’m not quite convinced that we can be excused of our call under Jesus by allowing the state to take on our “compassion” burden. If the state provides this for everyone then we may feel somewhat freed from our obligation to compassion and justified in it because of being oppressed for its provision. That the commenter judges us lacking in "civilized compassion" is somewhat indicative of this, he claims the compassion of his nation as his own. To go even further, “civilization” has somehow gotten a good rap. Who’s to say (depending on how you define it) that civilized is better than uncivilized? Civilization has often only systematized corruption and violence (read John Crossan’s book “God And Empire” for a more thorough look at this topic).

I agree with the commenter about the dichotomy between the unearned favor we gain from God and whether we should not extend it to others. We should, individually, from love, even go so far as the apostle Paul’s admonition among believers in 1 Co 6:7 "The very fact that you have lawsuits among yourselves is already a defeat for you. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated?" But that is the call of the church, not society and individuals at large. So as believers, should we rant against the public theft of freedom in exchange for a false sense pubic benevolence? Each of us has to decide how we approach this within our own conscience. Following Jesus is like that, some days I think we get it and other days are wrought with abject and undeniable failure to love as He has clearly shown how.

God’s call in Jesus is extreme, the only way not to see it is to turn our heads for the shame of our failure. But it is because he first loved us and shows us how to love others and to lay our own lives aside for the good of others that we should tread that path, not because of forced submission by those whose thoughts are not benevolent but as selfishly corrupt as our own. This discussion is allowed only by the weakness of the virtues of men. To force others to do what we ourselves are want of is against the very spirit of God’s intention that we should be free to love Him and others. Or not. So God's "better plan" is to lay our lives down for the sake of the world as He has shown and to be adopted by those who call him Father. It is not to foisted upon those who don't or those whose faith is weak. "There will be many in that day say 'Lord did we not...' and I'll say; "depart from me I never knew you!" The implication here seems to be we never knew him either.

Peace

Microcosm of Kingdoms Part 2: Solutions?

2009-07-29T13:07:00.013-04:00

So referring back to Part 1, what is an appropriate response to this dilemma? The best response is one that shifts the context to another kingdom entirely. Anyone in this scenario can shift the context into the highest Kingdom.

The offending girl could have simply not taken excessive liberty where not warranted, and in a perfect, idyllic world that would have been the case.

The group of 5 attempting to “corrupt” the young boy could have collectively agreed to move behind us so that they might all ride together.

The pair might have asked beforehand if they might move ahead of us, which would have been met with agreement.

To insist that the first girl take a place behind us with the boy might be the “right” thing to do it would still be of the same kingdom. It comes with an attendant sense of MY selfishness built in.

There existed options, good solutions toward true peace, but the reality is the kingdom of the world, of “darkness”, permeates our very bones. It is exemplified in the tongue-in-cheek saying that “I’d rather ask forgiveness than permission”. Asking permission forces us to potentially yield to another, taboo in the kingdom of the dark.

Another option exists here. One overlooked for the sake of the experiment. Having already been slighted, deferring to their selfishness without stipulation I could have simply, willingly, allowed the young boy to join his friends. So even as a follower of Jesus why does the fact of having been offended still have a hold that is in danger of dictating my actions? Why not, in the words of the apostle Paul, "rather be offended". And if this is the case in a life that is being regenerated how could I expect anything better of those still caught in the down draft of a sinking world.

To sum this all up is a reminder to me from a blog post of a brother quoting from the book of Matthew, chapter 5 verses 45 and 48 from the Message bible:

45 for then you are working out of your true selves, your God-created selves. This is what God does. He gives his best—the sun to warm and the rain to nourish—to everyone, regardless: the good and bad, the nice and nasty. . . 48“In a word, what I’m saying is, Grow up. You’re kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you.

So then the ultimate solution? Jesus makes a call to repentance. As N.T. Wright makes clear this does not mean to lay aside your personal sins and become a christian. It means completely lay aside your agenda, your modus operandi, for life and adopt His; The one who lays his life aside for others. Granted the full benefit of his kingdom living can only be completed and consummated by Him but we are called to imagine that world and to begin to bring that kingdom here, now "on earth as it is in heaven".

Peace

Microcosm of Kingdoms Part 1: The problem

2009-07-29T12:34:00.010-04:00

Allow me to set up the following account that I allowed to play out as an observational experiment of social dynamics. It may seem simple and possibly stupid to some but it was none-the-less enlightening. Of course the contrasting kingdoms that will be referred to are the kingdom of “this world” and the kingdom of God.

On a recent trip to an amusement park with my youngest son as we were taking our place in line for the final roller coaster ride of the day a young, maybe early teen girl jumped ahead of us in line to join four friends already there. A young boy accompanying her was reluctant to jump ahead of this gruff looking bearded man (me) after I had commented (not quite below my breath) that the girl’s action were grounds for ejection from the park. The more intrepid and inconsiderate of the girls was, with persistent coaxing, trying to get the young boy to now very deliberately jump line and join them to which he timidly refused.
At a later time when I, not unaware, turned and looked very deliberately in another direction he made his move to join them. After this his countenance displayed his guilt. At least he still had a shred of decency remaining, but for how long?

Ok, so what? So how could this scenario have played out and how and what “kingdoms” were represented? I’m thinking of kingdoms as “seeds”. The action of those kids, which is not unusual for kids, were the seeds of selfishness and passive disregard for the place that others occupy in their immediate world.

This is the seed that becomes a corrupt politician, overbearing egotist boss, abusive, abrasive, or critical partner or parent. Yes these tendencies are tempered by the hard knocks that occur when they bump against these “seeds” in stronger, more positioned personalities in life but that is not something different but alike; The same kingdom, the kingdom of this “world” which can never find peace only a tenuous and unstable balance.

Hoops Of Heartbreak

2009-05-16T19:08:00.007-04:00

It's been a month since my last installment. With the onset of spring and so much going on I haven't taken time to reflect deeply on what's happening. As a matter of fact sometimes it's just enough to keep up with daily events.

Mother's day has just passed. We have been taking our youngest son to a local church at his request. If it hasn't clearly come out neither of us care to darken the door of these institutions, but since it is a child's request we submit to at least transportation and staying locally on premises (Ok, my wife will go into the sanctuary, me, the cafe'). Mother's day is the one day my wife does not want to be near a church. The services cause her to reflect on her mother, who passed away during our first year of marriage. So being the thoughtful husband I am I offered to take our son that day.

En-route I asked him what he likes about going, what does he do? He said he goes to help out in the nursery, ages 3 and under. He say's he really likes being with the kids and the adults there say he's an enormous help and very good with them. This, of course made me proud.

As I was sitting in the cafe' indulging my caffeine habit and a small book by N.T. Wright, the middle school leader popped his head in and asked if my son was at the church today, I replied that he was and was helping out upstairs. He stated, "well he needs to be down here in the middle school group." I didn't reply as he walked toward the stairs, I just picked up my book, my coffee, and moved to the door. You see I know my son. He doesn't want to be in the group. He wants to hang with and serve the kids. He's quite emotional so I expected him to come, if at all, with tears in his eyes and I was fully prepared to launch a firm defense of his choice and to take him by the hand from that place.

I was relieved that the middle school leader came back down alone and said: "He's being a big help up there, I'm just gonna let him stay." As we were leaving that day my son told me that they now have a rule that if you want to help out you need to go to the class. That would mean attending back-to-back services. He was pretty upset about this "rule" change but he wants to help so much that he's willing to jump through their hoops to do it. But the disappointment and frustration in his face was clear.

I suppose this is a reminder of why we no longer are "club" members. I see a similar pattern in the way Jesus was treated. He broke all the rules, did all the "wrong" stuff, hung out with the wrong people, said the wrong things. Would not conform to the image that his contemporaries felt necessary. Is it any wonder that these institutions have not been for a very long time purveyors of life; only bondage and the murder of the spirit?

It broke my heart to see my son, so intent on loving and serving, having to concede to a pointless exercise in religious training without the life of the Spirit; "they teach the same thing since I was a little kid". "How many times do I have to hear the same thing?" In the end we'll back him up but it seems that we didn't have to sway him in his opinion of the wastefulness and lifelessness of such things. Isn't it amazing that people have brains and if given the freedom to work them in an environment of love they can sort out the mystery and incongruity in life. In the meanwhile we'll love, guide, and give straight and clear biblical counsel to help him along.

Peace

Symbols

2009-04-12T09:19:00.003-04:00

As I began considering this topic it suddenly dawned on me that this is Easter morning. Even now as I think about it I want to dispel straight away that my intention was not to approach the symbols associated with this holiday but something broader.

This morning I came across some excerpts from a doctoral thesis by an online acquaintance. I think there is much that can and probably should be developed here for our time and in regard to the entire view of, if not community, our present lives as twenty-first century western believers.

“Both Reinhold Niebuhr and Lesslie Newbigin make the salient point that if the gospel is to make sense, it has to be communicated both in the language of those hearing and clothed in symbols which are meaningful to them.”

As I’ve read and listened to much by N.T. Wright the idea of symbol has been elevated to an important consideration in the communication of ideas. Jesus often used symbols relevant to his time to get his message across. Often many of those can be adopted across boundaries of culture and time. But more often still is the idea that in order to properly understand and embrace his message to his own people we need to “get inside their heads” so to speak to really understand what they made of their own symbols. For Wright some of the predominate symbols were temple and Torah. There are, of course, many more but the point is that Jesus used-and often redefined and re-constituted-those symbols around his message of the Kingdom of God. While his vocation was different in many ways from ours there is the primary similitude of taking the same message, the gospel, good news of the Kingdom, to the world-our world. We cannot appropriate all the same symbols as Jesus did. They don’t mean the same things to us in our time and cultural contexts.

So the challenge is-and I put this out for the more creatively visionary among readers here-to identify the symbols and stories in our own time that can be taken and re-drawn in a manner that can communicate what the gospel and the Kingdom is at it’s heart; The world and all it’s empires and methods is always doomed to fail and cause suffering. There is a good and wise God whose purpose it is to redeem the cosmos beginning by redeeming the heart of fallen mankind. We have been adopted into a family and community of faith who get to participate with that good and wise Creator to begin righting the wrongs through the leading and strength of the His Spirit through an administration of love.

Peace

Fishing for Truth

2009-03-25T10:33:00.002-04:00

Since separating myself from contemporary structured institutional religious expressions (what a mouthful eh?) and accepting that Jesus was fully able, via the Holy Spirit’s working, to bring me to a fuller embrace of what it means to be a “little Christ” the past few years have been quite enlightening and exciting. The past has been so full of religious training, teaching, reading, and thinking that it’s often difficult to keep track of just what I’ve believed-since it all didn't seem to connect in a necessarily coherent storyline-and going forward learning what to keep, modify, and discard. Often I’m surprised by just how much I’ve accepted and assumed without really giving any independent thought to it.

The link that follows is but one example of the kind of “enlightening” that I’m referring to. This is a very good short story exploring what might be behind Jesus “calling” the first disciples and not even so much as his call but the apparent ease with which those ordinary fisherman left everything to follow. The significant point for me is not the same as the author. The assumptions that I was apparently ignorant of holding, formed via nature or nurture or both, have proved detrimental to my faith at a deeply fundamental level. Were I a good little believer then I should be able to walk away from everything, my “nets” as it were, without a second thought; since that isn’t about to happen then I’ve allowed myself to be identified as a cold believer or the even worse lukewarm believer and in either case not a serious and devoted follower of Jesus.

I am thankful that Jesus hasn’t left any of us on our own and that I can hear the voice of a brother in Christ that I may never truly know or meet in person but who has that uniquely God given space to fill in this world that has touched mine and in the process edified one tiny piece of the body of Christ…

Hope you find this as helpful as I have:

Parable of a college hopeful

Blessings

Empire 21st Century Style

2009-03-16T17:25:00.016-04:00

Are there really proper empires today? Aren't empires marked by conquest, expansion, and victory over places, peoples, and ideologies? Going back as far as the Romans the pattern is always the same; Expansion by conquest over others, victory over those others and then peace. Peace through victory. This is the theme that John Crossan emphasizes over and over in his book "God & Empire", "Jesus against Rome, Then And Now". It seems victory is important in many areas of this world system. "To the victor go the spoils". The victors get to set policy, make law and having done so get to write the history of how well (sic) they worked.

Something I only recently began to consider is that empire building must not necessarily involve physical conquest. It can be purely ideological in nature and still attempt to take in new "territory"; to win over to the "peace" through a victory of mind, will, and culture exerted over against others. The United States is such an empire. We have, often with good intentions, attempted to bring peace through spreading an ideology of democracy, personal freedom, and financial gain, wealth having been our primary power in conquest. To achieve victory by extortion and the seduction of material profit and solicit popular support by the promise of freedom and personal rights.

I've really come to love and value freedom and having codified rights but there is only one context where personal freedom can succeed and in all others is doomed to fail. Within the realm and ideology of empire it is doomed to fail. It fails because we exert our freedom over and against that of others instead of in deference to them. Of course any deference can only properly operate reciprocally. Instead we have couched our "rights" within a deeply self-centered way of life that disregards the rights of others. We fail to realize that this leads only to irresoluble conflict when up against like character. The only place that freedom-true freedom- can thrive is within the space created within the Pauline expression in his letter to the Galatians 5:13-14 "My friends, you were chosen to be free. So don't use your freedom as an excuse to do anything you want. Use it as an opportunity to serve each other with love. All that the Law says can be summed up in the command to love others as much as you love yourself."

All of this is why the message of Jesus is so radical and why when properly expressed in the lives of his followers it invoked such hatred in the power centers of his day. His message countered and condemned the way of empire-every empire-built on achieving victory by showing it the face of a Kingdom achieved by self sacrifice and love; one that has prevailed-if even only in a remnant-for two millennium.

True strength, true power, defers to the weak it doesn't build itself up at the expense of others. The very heart of empire is built upon assimilating others into itself, nullifying their freedom to choose and forcing all-if they want to thrive or survive-to play by the rules of empire. This is why even our great experiment in liberty is doomed to fail. We have separated the having of liberty from the responsibilities attendant to it.

"But if the sky is red and gloomy in the morning, you say it is going to rain. You can tell what the weather will be like by looking at the sky. But you don't understand what is happening now." Matthew 16:3

Learning Faith from Kids

2009-03-05T18:42:00.001-05:00

Previously and only briefly I alluded to how we might understand faith through children and how it might manifest itself through the parent-child relationship. Revisiting the well-known admonition to “do as I say, not as I do” I think, as fallen human creatures, sometimes this is the best we have to offer. In the biblical record the word we translate faith is pis'-tis meaning to have reliance upon and when someone is said to “be of little faith” the word used is oligopistos ; literally incredulous; lacking confidence.

As adults we’ve seen often enough the undesirable results of doing as we please and would prefer our offspring would accept our experience and wisdom in this and just “do as we say”. In effect we are asking them to have “faith” in us. We are asking that they accept that we have only their good at heart and if they follow our counsel things would likely go better than if not. A significant “aha!” moment occurred when I saw this. Realizing, in a particular circumstance involving my oldest son, I was vigilantly “checking up” on him to be sure that he wasn’t involved in something unseemly, and it happened; In that V-8 moment I realized that it wasn’t as much that I didn’t trust him, though true, but it was manifest because I understood that he didn’t trust me enough to follow my counsel, therefore his obedience-which is wholly beneficial to him not me- was questionable.

The importance of the application of this cannot be overestimated. God from beginning to end has asked us to have faith. He gave us free choice so we could exercise (or not) faith. Here is “A” not good, here is “B” good, choose “B”. Yet we all too often satiate the supercilious voice within us that screams: I WANT “A”, I WANT IT, I WANT IT, I WANT IT! We are, like children, too short sighted and self-consumed to choose “B”.
Just look at our global economic miseries if you need proof. This is not a financial collapse it’s a moral one precipitated by I WANT IT and I WANT IT NOW!

Hence the origin of the phrase to “be careful what you ask for” is directly linked to our lack of or misdirected faith and myopic view of our own lives and how we are connected to others. The delayed feedback loop on poor choices allows us to disconnect our own complicity in the brokenness of our little part of the world from the choices we make. This only gives us the illusion that our choices don’t matter and only affect ourselves. Both are wrong.

Learning God from Kids

2009-03-01T11:11:00.003-05:00

If you have children you’ll know that they can show us our shortcomings in the most innocent ways. Like when they unexpectedly parrot that little slip of the lip you had when you banged your shin. This is of course one of the most basic of lessons we learn; and often we deal with by telling them to “do as I say; not as I do”-which may or may not be good advice.

But here I’m thinking of something deeper and not something that shows me my failings but something that shows me God’s inestimable love and how faith really works. If you’ve raised kids through the teenage years (or if you’ve ever been a teenager) you know that there can be significant challenges. In confronting the challenges that stem from wrong behaviors and hanging with the “wrong” sort of people we’ve come to some enlightening observations. The first is in perceptual. We can see that maybe our children see the posture we take regarding unseemly friends as vilifying. That’s not our intention -at least not cognitively-but it can be perceived that way. Parents, being the visionaries they are (translated: been there, done that, know better now) see the end result. Not much good can generally come from that relationship so lets stand against it. That vilification ultimately steels the resolve to rebel.

I think our perception of God is often similarly afflicted. Sin, oh that word. We have so internalized it as a performance metric and that God is the great spoiler of fun that we’ve doomed ourselves to blindness to God’s real approach to it in our lives. And what is that approach? He loves us through and out of it! Somehow and often that message has been confused in the contemporary religious mind. When I take time to think more deeply about the message I drift back to a statement that goes like this: God’s wrath is the expression of the full weight of his being exerted against that which destroys the object of his affection. WE are the objects of His affection!

My children are the objects of my affection. My anger or impatience is rarely expressed against them but it is against those things that I know from experience are hurting them now and leading down a road to suffering that would best be avoided. Seeing my children struggle with these things in this light cuts my heart and leaves me searching for fresh ways to think and to speak about that love; make that love tangible and to put “flesh” on it and to broaden it to contain their world.

Now where can I find a model for this?

The Art of Confession

2009-02-25T18:05:00.017-05:00

What is artful about confession? Maybe it’s not confession itself but the propensity for those acts or attitudes that may beg confession to be artfully hidden or justified by mind, reason, or even truth such as “The ultimate result of shielding men from their own folly is to fill the world with fools"1. I suppose for me-apparently just learning this-the first clue is cynicism.

Oh it’s not that there aren’t things to be cynical about. Just look at politics! Corrupt public “servants” shaming corrupt auto industry executives into driving hybrid cars to their pillories while the politicians, in the face of the single largest economic crisis since 1929 sneak in a 10% pay raise for themselves hidden within a massive government power grab. Is that a merit increase for a job well done?

See my discussion has already sidetracked me! Oh how devious my own mind can be. Cynicism opposes love and love is Jesus' posture toward and his goal for my life.

Recently I participated in a Polling Point survey regarding the “economic recovery” package. One battery of questions, scaled strongly agree to strongly disagree to help for persons with mortgages on homes that had either lost their value or had their payments increase beyond all reason. I’ll tell you now my selections were no, no, no, no, and no to helping folks keep homes they never could afford! (oops I digress... again)

One of the final few questions on the survey was “Do you consider yourself ‘born again’”? I quickly and thoughtlessly checked “yes” and after a very quick mental review of the heart of my answers I attempted to back up and change that “yes” to “no” then the answers could be excused as merely "conservative". I found it very peculiar that as I tried to go back and make that change that I could review the questions prior to and after that one but NOT that one!
I was tricked into looking in the mirror at the face of (my) Christianity.

I think it was Wayne Jacobsen that said in an online conversation with a friend that "Truth is important but love is the most important part of truth". So though all my rationale may be true and right my heart is not excused from lacking love.

1 English philosopher Herbert Spencer

The Face of Christianity

2009-02-22T21:21:00.005-05:00

No matter how hard we try not to jump to conclusions about people, not to judge, it seems that the first thing that presents itself to us of another demands forming some sort of opinion. First impressions we call it. We’re introduced to someone, or we see somebody across the room and BAM! Before we can even reason there it is!

In the current cultural climate what has become of the face of Christianity? What do people see in their minds at that first impression if, for whatever reason, you say “I’m a Christian?” My suspicion is that often they see the worst, most visible expressions that have used massive resources to brow beat our media saturated culture (which translates into damning all the broken, hurt, needy people of that culture it doesn’t agree with). Should we say something to put them off balance like “I’m a disciple of Jesus” or a “follower of the way” or whatever to quickly get them past that first, possibly impedible moment? Or “let it ride” and maybe by entering the discussion that might ensue allow the face of Christianity to be remade in their minds?

Maybe it’s best to avoid the question. I think maybe the route ahead is to incarnate the face of Jesus to the world at large. I think that’s what Jesus is thinking; each with our own unique expression of Him but always marked by his love and compassion. It is the sacrificial love and compassion in Jesus name that should be the face of Christianity and it is certainly due for a makeover in our time. There have always been those who’ve done that well but many have been hijacked into thinking it was about something other than or of higher import than the redemptive actions of LOVE.

A similar and more often puzzle that my wife and I are trying to come to terms with is how to respond when someone from our past or someone new who may find we are believers asks “where are you going to church?” We are in many ways presenting a new face of Christianity to them also. We really don’t want to “bash” anything (well sometimes I do-grounded firmly in my own blindness and flesh) but finding a way to carry that conversation forward, without kicking anyone’s chairs over, is sometimes awkward.

Many of them know in their minds that the “church” is not a building, I remember being taught that but nobody ever suggested I leave the building to test the theory; they don’t believe it as reality. When you leave the building they can’t seem to reconcile that it really wasn’t the church you left. They are somewhat dismayed that you survive let alone thrive apart from the Sunday meeting. The reality of the church still contains enormous mystery for me but for now I’ll hang my hat on Jesus own words regarding church. He will build it! And the face of Christianity, for better or for worse, is going to be us.

Redeeming Love

2009-02-20T07:36:00.007-05:00

Those words crept into my mind in the quiet five-in-the-morning hour. Reflecting on this, I find it has become, over the past couple years, the Route Ahead. Not suddenly, not with particular action on my part, not really with observation, but with a certainty that the love of God shown to the world in general and me in particular is in every way redemptive.

Standing within this redeeming love is necessary when viewing everything that has come before-not to validate the past corruptions of God’s message after our own patterns and misconceptions some having centuries of history behind them-but to allow His vision of the way forward. I must add that none of the prior paths have ever led to the freedom of a life abundant. Contrarily they led to the mere bondage of life constrained. Contrasted to this is the redemptive nature of God’s love that has enabled healing, forgiveness, peace, and freedom from many struggles that twenty years of “church” involvement left intact. Considering this then the only one who can take any credit for righting the wrongs and re-establishing one’s faith around God’s redeeming love is Jesus.

N. T. Wright with keen insight speaking on world view stated that world view isn’t something you can stand back from and observe and alter to your liking, it is more like waking up to find your reading glasses with a screw out of place but you can’t quite see clearly to fix them, but they need to be fixed none the less. The route ahead has looked a bit like this; Wrestling with, reconciling, and forgiving the past while living by faith in the redeeming love of God for the present, and hoping, with somewhat myopic vision by that same faith in that same redeeming love, for the future.

The Route Ahead

2009-02-17T22:14:00.016-05:00

So what is the route ahead? It seems that there are a lot of people out there in churchianity asking that question but let me back up and put a general frame around the question in the context of a life of Christian faith.
Personally, having been raised in “church” since being old enough to remember and passing through some significant permutations before arriving near adulthood I wasn’t certain what to believe or how exactly it was to impact life. I thought, as I re-engaged the face of Christianity through the evangelical movement, that maybe here was finally something of what was missing in the life of Christian faith and for twenty years that was the route ahead.

Nearing the end of that road a peculiar thing began to happen. The charismatic evangelical experience turned out to be for me just another of the permutations familiar from my youth and leaving life with the same unanswered questions and in many ways had not only not enhanced my experience, but left it cold and dying. I was aware of deep sense of there being "something there" yet somehow it was clouded by inconsistency in message and purpose. Now a new intersection has been reached, one at which in a peculiar and dynamic way, I find many travelers through Christendom arriving at from the various directions represented.

But if everyone is arriving from each of the roads at the intersection which way is the route ahead? My hope is to explore this and other questions here with whosoever will.

Welcome!

2009-02-16T18:06:00.005-05:00

Well, I’ve been sitting on the fence for quite some time about entering the immense world of the blogosphere. As I’ve perused that mysterious world I find there are so many people with so much to say, and say it well, it’s at first a bit intimidating to consider throwing your lot in with such a community. It seems everyone has something to say and apparently each of us must need someone to listen. I’ve found over the years that in order to properly understand my own thoughts they need to be bounced off of another. That unlucky soul has been, very often, my patient and loving wife; Maybe this will lend her some reprieve, though I doubt it!

I think it was C.S. Lewis that said if we cannot properly and clearly articulate an idea to another then we probably don’t understand it ourselves. I think this reasoning is a correct though not limiting concept to communication. In the trying we come to terms with our own thinking and it gets clearer the more we engage others. We more readily allow the input of others, not that we have to agree, but that we accept the other in the process and together engage in just this one aspect of common humanity.

Thanks for stopping by!