#11 Church is the new scapegoat.

Have you ever heard someone say, "I'm spiritual, but not religious."?  I have been really close to saying it myself except you know I'm a seminary trained employee of the church, which means I am the poster board of religion.  I grew up in it, and I have pretty much never strayed.  Even during my period in college of searching out other faiths to see if one fits better, I was almost Buddhist you know, I still attended a church and my campus ministry.  So, ummm...I'm religious, but not spiritual.

When people say that they love Jesus and his ideals, but they don't like the church or the term Christian, I get it. My reasons for looking for a new faith community were the same reasons people have today.  People have done absolutely awful things in the name of Christ, from war to cheesy t-shirts that co-opt a corporate logo and give it a pseudo-Christian spin.  The Church has a 2000 year laundry list of mistakes, but does that mean it is evil?

In today's culture, people are suspect of the organized and established religion.  I can't blame them.  We love to blame other people and organizations for the struggles of the world.  Today, with Catholic sex abuse scandal, Westboro Baptist "Church," and crazy people saying things like God ordained natural disasters to punish us for homosexuality or whatever "sin" they think is the worst at the time.  Therefore, we have decided to use Christianity/the Church as a scapegoat.  If the church hadn't gotten involved in politics the nation would be in better shape.  If Christians would butt out there would be less wars because Just War Theory is bogus.  If the church was more like Jesus we would absolutely be involved with it, but it isn't.  It's actually the reason for all of the ills in the world.

You know what is amazing about the church.  It is a mix of people who meet together as broken, awful, sinful, wounded, and unloved people to hope for a life of fullness, grace, and love.  The Church has done awful things because it is made up of broken people.  We do awful things when we forget that we are in fact people who are capable of being wrong and horrible to each other.  Let's stop blaming the Church for our problems and start trying to authentically do our faith with other people who are hurting.  Then, we should call that the Church.

#10 Being God-forsaken brings meaning to the Resurrection.

Whenever I hear the song "I'm Yours" by Jason Mraz, I want to, and often do, rant about how he says that it is our God-forsaken right to be loved, looooved, loved.  I didn't realize that God had in fact forsaken our right to be loved.  I think he probably meant God-given or something like that, and I can't believe none of the producers asked him about that line.  Whatever, we all have words we misuse, so I don't hate Jason Mraz or even think he's stupid, just made a very public mistake.

The song always makes me think about that idea of God-forsakenness (there is red squiggle under forsakenness, which I do not agree with at all).  Does God really forsake things?  I mean I've driven through Kansas on I-70 and it is boring and as much as I hate to say it there is still beauty and God in it.  If God hasn't forsaken Kansas, then God is not going to forsake anything.  See what I did there.

It's Holy Week so it seems the time to think about forsakenness some more.  I am reminded of Jesus' haunting cry from the cross, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me!"  It is a moment that should bring a little confusion to anybody who believes in the Incarnation.  How is it possible for God to have forsaken Jesus, since Jesus is God?  It's the kind of question that makes my brain hurt.  How does God abandon Godself?

In reality, does God really abandon anyone?  Jesus on the cross is having a real feeling of being abandoned.  In his being, Jesus does not feel like God is moving or in this situation at all.  God feels exactly what the rest of us feel from time to time.  God feels like God is not present and does not care.  God feels forsaken.  We all have those moments of feeling like God has left the building and doesn't give a flip about the awful, excruciating, and all-consuming pain and grief that we are feeling.  Does that mean that it is okay to feel that way from time to time?  I mean Jesus did.  Obviously, most of the time we aren't dying a horribly painful death when we shout the open of Psalm 22.  Usually, it's because the peanut butter has run out, or something equally as horrible.

In that moment when Jesus felt forsaken and we feel forsaken, it might be good to realize that God is present.  God is present in the junk as well as the joy..  God is present in suffering.  God is present in Kansas. God is present in our abandonment.  God is present.  I believe that God is present all around us, and that Good Friday and Holy Saturday are the days when we are to feel with the disciples that feeling of abandonment or forsakenness.  We are to face our own fears, failures, suffering, and grief.  Then, see the Crucified God present in the suffering and participating in our suffering.  The power of the Resurrection and God's invitation to you in it will become significantly more meaningful if you force yourself to face your reality of pain and rejection and empty peanut butter jars.  Because we are never truly forsaken, but we have to face the pain we cause and feel before we can experience the joy of new life in Resurrection.

Did I just write a sermon?  What are your thoughts on forsakenness and Jesus' cry from cross?

Although I didn't cite anyone in this post, I do want you to know that I have been heavily influenced by Jurgen Moltmann and Peter Rollins on this idea.

#9 Protestant Christians suck at Rituals.

I've been thinking a lot about rituals.  You may not know this about me but I love the ritual of Holy Communion.  I think it is a moment when we intentionally enter into a reality that is always around us.  It is beautiful and mystical and most of all meaningful.  Rituals are ways that we are intentional with our rhythms to help participate more deeply with the world around us.  Here's what I figured out recently: Protestant Christians suck at ritualizing our faith.  In fact, I think we are scared to be too ritualistic because we fear we'll become Catholic (how about the new Pope, huh? Added hits with that comment).

I don't know if fear of becoming Catholic is really it because the Lutheran church kept most of the rituals and the Episcopal church has definitely keep up with rituals.  Do they have meaning?  I don't know I'm not really in these denominations.  And of course every local church has its own rituals.  For instance, I once heard a story of a monk who would bring his cat to lead morning prayers.  He would hook the leash on the lectern while he led the prayer time.  The same place still has a hook on a new lectern for the cat's leash because it became part of the tradition.  The monk had moved on to a different ministry setting, and on a visit asked why they had the hook on the lectern.  The answer was that they just always had, and it was part of how things worked there.  This act of bringing his cat to morning prayer created a culture that continued long after the man had left. (Side Note: I have no idea where I heard this story, if I retold it correctly, if this is remotely true, or why he kept his cat on a leash).

We have rituals that build just based on where we are that take on new meaning or are empty of meaning but we keep them out of comfort.  I think we have some work to do in the Protestant Traditions to bring our rituals home with us.  For instance, did you know that Jewish families celebrate most of their religious traditions in their homes more than at the synagogue.  The Sabbath has a set of rituals that happen in the home.  It's not just don't go to work instead go to church so that the pastor has to work on the holy day of rest but the rest of us don't kind of thing.  It is a ritual to remember our rhythms and set a pacing for our lives that centers around God.

I believe that we need a religious ritualization of the home.  I think we should set up a time to be in community as a family where we talk about how God works in this world.  It could be turning off the TV and  reading something together.  It could be talking to your teens about your faith and having them do the same (even God forbid your struggles with belief).  It could be flannel board hour at home with your two year old where you tell Bible stories.  It could be lighting a candle at sundown while saying a prayer together.  But we need a ritual at home to help make faith more than something that is done for an hour every Sunday and if your ambitious another hour on Wednesday.  Let's do church, religion, faith at home with the people see most.  Oh and atheist, you can even do this and talk about whatever your brand of atheism believes; science is the new Catholic, or humanism is the new Protestantism, or Nietzsche is the new Jesus, or whatever (I think I lost all the atheist with the first line, so if you made it this far, congrats, we must be friends).  Regardless of your belief, if you make a meaningful ritual out of it, then it becomes part of how you participate in a greater reality on an ongoing basis.

#8 Just because a lot of people are coming doesn't mean you're doing something right.

The very first time I met a certain pastor he said to me, "I think the Church Growth Model and the Prosperity Gospel are really the same thing."  At the time I totally shrugged it off, and yes I'm pretty sure he capitalized those terms when he talked. It left me wondering, "What the hell was that?"

Usually people don't start first time conversation by linking dangerous theological concepts with a certain model of the church.  It was really completely outside the social norms that should have dictated the conversation.  It went from, Hi, I'm Mark and I'm new youth pastor in town to his assertion.  Now that it has been nearly three years since that conversation I can honestly say that it was one of my more memorable "nice to meet you" conversations I have ever had.

I have thought about what he said, which by the way does have some merit.  There have been times that I have looked at an organization like a church and said they must be doing something right because they have a lot of people supporting it.  Is that true?  Is the number of people a direct correlation to the rightness of the program?

Let's follow that logic out a little shall we.  Let's say that an organization is gaining a lot of followers.  This organization has over the course of just a few years built up a following of several hundred thousand people. This is a pretty big organization.  Now, let's say that the reason this organization is growing is because it is placing irrational amount of blame on one ethnic group for the struggles that are going on in the world, and promises to make the world a better place through relocating this group and stripping them of power and wealth.  Is this organization doing the right thing?  Most would say no, yet they are getting a large following, therefore, just because a lot of people are supporting something doesn't make it right.

My assertion is that just because a lot of people coming doesn't mean you are doing something right.  It means you are doing something popular.  It means you are marketing well.  But it doesn't mean that theologically or ethically you are doing the right thing.  This is the basic link my awkward conversationalist was making.  Church Growth is about getting lots of people and it follows that if you are faithful to God then everyone will flock to your church, which is in fact prosperity gospel.  Maybe if we follow the line of the prophets, we are following God when the majority of the people in the world are ignoring you.

Therefore, it is not that you're doing something right if you have a lot of people attending, but it is not that you are doing something wrong either.  High church attendance means you have lots of people interested in what you are doing.  It could be right or it could be wrong.  Growth doesn't mean you're right theologically or ethically it just means there are a lot of people checking out what you're doing. Let's not read too much into numbers, please.

#7 I feel like I know Portland thanks to the show Portlandia.

We don't have a TV anymore, but we do have a lap top computer that Netflix streams TV shows and movies to.  It's pretty awesome.  But it means that I am always at least one season behind on every TV show, which I have to just live with.

Because of Netflix though I have been exposed to shows that I probably would have never watched without their recommendation.  Portlandia is one of those shows.  So I really like the first two seasons, and because of this show I'm pretty sure I can count Portland as a place that I have visited.  I've never physically been there, but I think the show has shown me exactly what it is about and, therefore Portland has been checked off of my bucket list.

I would like to conclude this post by saying that this has been, indeed, my most meaningless assertion.  I'm not sure I can top this, but stay tuned and I will try.

P.S. I also have checked Gotham City off of my list because of the new Batman movies.  There's nothing wrong with living life vicariously through my lap top computer, right?

#6 I like to read about the Bible more than I like to read the bible.

I have found as I try to prepare for lessons for my youth group that I don't really enjoy reading the Bible itself.  I can open the Bible up and decide that I'm going to read Romans or something, and I absolutely can read it.  The problem is I don't really care that much about it when I just start reading it to read it.  The text means very little and I get a little caught up in the rhetoric and lost in the words and miss most of the meaning.  Then I get a little bored.

Rather if you give me a book that is a commentary on Romans, I will eat that up.  I love reading about the historical social world of the original writers.  I love read about what we know of Paul and what letters are actually his and which might not be.  I love the read about the ideas people have about how Paul's mission actually may have happened.  Or how in the letters Paul seems to have done things differently than how Acts portrays them.  I like to know what words and sentences could be translated differently with the chance that they are actually a veiled slam on the Roman Empire.  I like reading about Jewish revolts and the destruction of the Temple and disputes on when these books may have been written and disputes on authorship of these books of the Bible.

The story underneath the surface of the Bible that scholars have dedicated their lives to discern is way more fascinating to me than the actual texts.  But once I learn more about the background of the text it changes the way I may understand parts of the Bible.  Meaning changes and it becomes more interesting.  Trying to figure out the motivation behind the letters Paul wrote changes the feel of the letter, which in turn makes me think about it differently.  Maybe he wasn't writing to us today, but we can still learn from it.

In closing, I don't really like to read the Bible, but I love to read things about the Bible.  Reading about the Bible is way more interesting to me.  And maybe in the long run it makes the Bible come to life a little more and speak to me differently.  Bible reading plans for me suck, but reading plans that include books about the Bible sounds way more interesting.

Is anyone else like me?  What's your favorite book about the Bible?  What's your favorite book of the Bible?  Why?

Does anyone really comment?

Assertion #5:New Year's Resolutions make me feel bad about myself.

It's the start of another year.  Somehow we made it through another one despite the threat of certain doom from various contemporary and ancient sources.  And although I'm thankful to be alive at the end of this tumultuous year, there is one thing I hate about the new year.  A new year always makes me feel bad about myself.

 A new year means a time of reflection and evaluation, then setting the dreaded New Year's Resolution.  I don't know how you are, but I am really hard on myself.  When asked, I struggle to come up with strengths but I'm ready to tell you all my weaknesses.  It is a problem I have always had, and as a kid it meant at certain things I tried harder.  Like basketball, I was a short kid who was told that I probably shouldn't go out for the team next year.  And with true Michael Jordan flair (sometimes I overstate things) I came back the next year as the starting point guard of an undefeated team.  Basketball became my obsession because I was told I was bad at it.  I knew my weaknesses on the court and always did my best to work on them.  That didn't really get me anywhere, but it is a way my personality flaw worked to my advantage.  (Some would say that was more of a pride/proving people wrong issue, but whatever)

So as I look at myself in the mirror and reflect on what could change in my life, I always dwell on the negative.  Then, my self-esteem goes down.  Because over time, my determination and resolve have gotten weaker while self nit-picking has gotten stronger.  I've nearly defeated myself.  Then, I just start to feel bad about myself, and this whole New Year's thing starts to smell like my childhood home on liver and onion day, absolutely gag-worthy! (Sorry, Mom.)

So this year, while I will be trying to work to improve on some things, I am going to start thinking more about my strengths.  I've beaten myself up for my weaknesses enough.  It is time to concentrate on what I do well, and reflect on those things, so that while I'll occasionally give in to dwelling on my weaknesses, I won't forget that I'm actually do some things quite well.  This is the year that I will focus on the positive in my life instead of worrying about the negative.

What are your resolutions or goals for this coming year?  Upon what are you going to improve this year?  Of what are going to rid?  (I'm working on the don't-end-sentences-with-a-preposition syndrome this year, but it makes questions seem awkward.)

Assertion #4: Most Christians are not Christian

I think about this a lot.  I mean, this is the kind of thing that will keep me up at night.  I think what does that word actually mean.  How has its meaning changed overtime?  The word Christian often is a word I think about.  Well, I finally looked it up!

First, here is my own weird misconception on what that word means.  To me, for years, I have thought that Christian means "little Christ."  So that made sense to me.  We are to be little anointed people called to do God's work in the world.  We are all anointed, set apart, and called to continue Christ's ministry.  Of course, we all disagree on what that is.  Most evangelicals have made it a political party platform.  Whereas others have made it a list of rules to follow, or beliefs to verbally agree with.  Others have made it all about caring for the poor and suffering.  Or just a way to escape eternal torment in hell (because that's the God I want to follow, one which will torture you until you love him).

What I discovered is that the word Christian (Christianos) is only found 3 times in the Bible.  And like all good names for movements, it was originally meant as an insult.  It was a way to degrade those who follow and continue Jesus's ministry.  This word means a slave of Christ.  In the Greek speaking Roman Empire, this ending was used to denote whose slave you were.  It was a dishonoring title.  So if you were a slave of Peter's then you would be called Peterianos, as a title denoting your status.  You are not free and you belong to Peter.

So I assert that most Christians (including myself) are not Christian in that we are not truly slaves of Christ.  Our titles tends to be whatever our jobs are.  And I would find it weird if someone said their title was Christian.  I would assume it is ploy to sell me something.

By the way, Christ is an Eschatological title.  It is a title that points to a future that is being ushered in by this person.  It is an anticipation of the full realization of the coming Kingdom of God, which has no death and dying (a.k.a. sin). So being a slave to this person means that you are participating in the coming of this Kingdom.  You are participating in making this partially realized Kingdom a full reality. It is not an honorable position.  It is a servants position in which you lose your identity as whatever you are in this current age and you are fully identified in this future.  It is a position with a foot in two eras being split in half by participating in both at the same time.  Bringing eternity to right now while staring in the face of death and despair.  Speaking hope in the place of despair.

I am not a slave of Christ the way I should be.  I fall in and out of bondage to the gospel and bondage to sin and death.  I would venture that most people who call themselves Christian would not like being called slaves. We prefer follower or occasional church attender.  Slave is such a harsh term with a lot of baggage. It was originally meant as an insult, but the early church decided to make the normative title. So normative that today it means almost nothing.

Assertion #3: Moving to another country due to an election is just a silly threat

I hear people say things like I'm moving to Canada, or Australia, or umm...Uzbekistan (I've never hear this one, but still) because whomever has been elected to whichever office.  The absolute worst thing in the world is that they elected some communist, fascist, elitist, backwoods, Muslim, Christian, baby killer man or woman to this important political office (that list of adjectives was kind of fun to make).

After every election cycle we should lose about a quarter of our eligible voters to some other country that may or may not follow whatever principle that they are looking for.  I don't think people actually do the research on these countries.  I mean Uzbekistan, really?  Strangely, this quarter of the eligible registered voters and their families are still here to make this empty threat again.  Until people follow through with this threat, I condemn it as stupid.  When someone from Australia says to me, oh I met this guy who moved here because Obama was re-elected, I'll have to reconsider my thoughts somewhat.

Side note: I think conservatives wouldn't like Australia or Canada.  I hear Uzbekistan is nice (I haven't really heard that) or maybe Germany or Portugal or Saudi Arabia or Mexico, why doesn't anyone say they are leaving for Mexico when their politician loses?

Anyway, what makes people think that another country is going to be any better.  I mean our political system was designed to be slow and it is intentional that everything always grinds to a halt.  Our system is working because it is still really hard to pass a law.  Of course, stupid laws get passed all the time. And yes, the political game is totally annoying and entertaining and stupid (I'm a fan of this work today). Although things change as new people become in charge in this republic, nothing changes super fast.  So stick it out, fight for the changes you think are most important, and fight to preserve things that you think need to be preserved.  In the end, if things get really bad you can always go to a place where nationalize healthcare is in place like Canada or Australia and then everything will be better for you.

Assertion #2: Money is an Evil I'd Like to Try

There are so many cliches about money.  Things like, money doesn't buy happiness, money is the root of all evil (which is a misquote of a bible verse). I totally agree that money does not bring about happiness. As the late rapper will attest to "Mo Money, Mo Problems."  Greed can be the cause of all kinds of horrible things in this world.  The pursuit of money above all else creates sweat shops where poor kids work 12 hour days for little money in horrible working environments.  It causes wealth at the expense of others.  It causes unnecessary competition between people.  Greed creates a lot of problems, that's why it's a deadly sin.

Money itself is neutral.  It doesn't create anything.  The correction to the misquote above is something like, "the love of money in the root of all kinds of evil" (1 Timothy 6:10).  Not that money is evil.  Money is a tool. Greed is evil.  I disagree with our late rapper friend, Biggie Smalls, I believe mo money, different problems,  which doesn't flow as well in a song.  Not being able to pay the rent, feed your child, feed yourself are all real problems.  Not knowing where your next meal comes from is a problem.  Deciding between whether you are going to eat or child will have diapers is a problem.  There are a lot of problems that go along with little or no money.

I can talk about the problems associated with not having much money.  Student loans helps me understand some of those problems, but not the extremes that I mentioned above.  I don't know what the problems are with having "mo money".  I would like to experience those problems.  I would like to know the problems, but only for research, of course.  This isn't greed, right?

Here is the song I referenced several times:

Assertion #1-Manliness is not selfishness

I have decided to change my format on this blog a little.  It has been called meaningless assertions the whole time, but I have not been very assertive in my assertions (see what I did there, that was fun).  So, from here on out, I'll be making assertions and number said assertions.  They may be social, political, theological, or just random assertions, but above all they will be meaningless and mine.

Assertion #1-Manliness is not selfishness.

Do you remember that Dodge Charger commercial from 2010?  It was a Super Bowl commercial I believe, and I can say honestly it really irritated me.  If you don't remember here it is:

It's called "Man's Last Stand."  Here is my problem.  It basically says, "I will be considerate of you as a person implying that being considerate is emasculating as long as I can drive this powerful 'manly' car."  I will be considerate of you, only if it will get me what I want.  I can understand the office things.  I mean let's face it two hour meeting are horrible, but putting the seat down, cleaning the sink after shaving, these things are just being considerate.

Increasingly, in my view of the world, being a man means being selfish.  Look at most Vince Vaughn movies.  He plays a petty selfish man perpetually stuck as a 12 year old boy.  There is nothing wrong with 12 year old boys, but a 40 year old needs to act differently.  It cannot be all about self and satisfying your own desires. Side note: that shouldn't be what 12 year old boys should do either.

Being manly in my view has nothing to do with selfishness.  In fact, I believe the best thing you can do as a man is to be selfless.  Obviously, there are times that you have to take care of yourself, but you cannot always do that.  Being a man or being mature means caring for others and being considerate of others regardless of your reward for it.  Being a man should be defined by how you put your abilities to work to make this world a better place.  Having a penis doesn't mean that you have the right to be selfish, instead it means that you need to understand that everyone has personhood and needs to be respected.  Manliness is being considerate and caring, not self seeking and overly aggressive.

How would you define being a man?  Does the way being a man is portrayed in the media ever make you angry?

There is No Cosmic Why!

Tragedy is everywhere.  We all face some pretty horrific things in our lives and we all hear about even worse things.  From war, to rape, to other acts of senseless violence there is a normal question asked into the universe..."Why?"  God gets this question in response to tragedy all the time.  Why did so and so have to die?  Why did that happen? Why is there war, famine, drought, pain, suffering, sorrow?  Why is there so much bad?

I believe, along with others I hope, that God does not cause these things to happen.  Therefore, there is no why.  There is no cosmic reason for pain and sorrow.  The only reason is people are stupid or there is a scientific reason for most natural disasters.  There is natural cause and effect, but there is no cosmic reason for the bad that happens.

If I truly believe this line of thinking then it has to apply to everything.  Thus, I have to ask did God really caused the pain and suffering of Good Friday, or did humanity?  It's often thought of as part of God's master plan, but why would God cause so much pain if God doesn't still cause it today.  Is this the one exception to my belief?  I was told as a kid and teenager that God orchestrated the whole cross thing because it was God's way and plan for redemption.  But what if just like God doesn't cause the hurricane that rips through a major coastal city, or doesn't cause the car crash that killed that teenager, God didn't cause the crucifixion?  Would it change anything?

Here is my assertion: I believe that God didn't cause Christ's crucifixion, but instead knew it was coming.  All of those times when Jesus is predicting his own death had less to do with God's causation and more to do with humanity's own patterns and causation.  Jesus knew that things he was saying and doing was in direct contrast to the ruling authorities of the day.  It was especially an affront to the Roman way of life.  Therefore, he knew he was going to be crucified, but he also knew that he couldn't live any differently than he was.  He knew that there was a better way to live and a just kingdom to look forward to.  He knew that he has the start of the that just kingdom, so he had to live in it now realizing the consequences of his actions.  Therefore, God did not cause the crucifixion to happen, but instead it was caused by our own systems.  The crucifixion exposes our systems of domination and violence for what they are.  And they are not of God!

There is a second half to my belief that God doesn't cause the bad things to happen in our lives.  And it is but God brings the good in the bad situation.  What I mean is that in the face of tragedy, people will throw aside differences to become one for the greater good.  They will rebuild cities.  Cry with a friend who lost a loved one.  Decide to dedicate her life to the research and cure of a disease.  Educate people on the dangers of drug and alcohol abuse.  In the face of tragedy when everything is looking absolutely horrible there is always a little good that God is working into the problem.  Just like how on the third day, God raised Jesus from the dead, ushering in and validating the kingdom that Jesus had started to build.  In the face of death there is always resurrection.  So in the face of tragedy, we should absolutely mourn, but also have hope that in the face of violence, pain, suffering and sorrow there is the crucified Christ reminding us that there is always resurrection.

Amen?

Misunderstood Words

So, I've been reading and thinking a lot about misunderstanding words.  Or more accurately, the way words change in meaning over time.  Since, I'm a big geek and mostly ready theology books (especially Biblical Theology books) I've been mostly thinking about the way a 1st Century Palestinian would understand a word versus how we understand it today.  Appropriate for the season maybe we should look at what the word resurrection means.  The first thought that come to my head is zombies.  We have the popularity of "The Walking Dead" to help us all think about zombies.  Doesn't resurrection sound just a little like zombies? Jesus got up out of the grave after being dead for a while and on top of that we eat Jesus' flesh and drink his blood...zombies.

That's definitely not what first century folks were thinking about when they heard the word resurrection, and probably not most of you.  Sometimes as N.T. Wright writes about in "Surprised by Hope" we confuse resurrection with a great soul migration.  We dismiss the material and make it a move to the spiritual.  This is an easy move to make.  This world sucks so we are going to leave it behind as we transition through death to a purely spiritual life.  This is what Plato was apparently all about (I'm excited because I'm going to read some Plato soon).  It's what the Gnostics were all about.  If you don't know they were a heretical sect of Christianity that considered the material world to be evil and the spiritual was good.  The only thing that mattered was the non-corrupted soul because your body was evil.  It's an easy thing to slip into because we can look around and see how much evil there is.  But God did call the world good in Genesis and the end of that story called everything very good so maybe the material is rebellious and incomplete rather than evil. 

So what does resurrection mean?  Jesus' resurrection was the first resurrection of many to come.  The resurrection was so surprising to the first century because they thought it was going to happen all at once.  All of the faithful who died was going to be resurrected all at once into a new life in which God dwells among the people.  It's an end times vision, not end of the material world, but rather the renewal and completion of the material world. Christ's resurrection means that this renewed age has begun and was a sign that this world is being transformed into the complete vision of God.  Resurrection is a symbol, which participates in and points to God's coming transformation of this world into heaven.  And we are called to continue showing glimpses of this resurrection to the world that is continually being transformed into something better than we can ever imagine. 

What do you think about when we talk about resurrection? Zombies? Going to Heaven? Something else?

Doubting

I just did a message with my students about doubt, and I'm not sure I really said anything.  I told them of times of doubt in my life.  I said that doubt can be used to deepen or further your faith.  I'm not sure I really explained how.  It turned into a "look at other people who doubted but chose to act on faith anyway" message instead of a "this is how doubt can be good for you" message.  All I really said is that you are going to always have doubts and questions, but I didn't get into how it works.  Maybe it's because I have some residual "it's not okay to doubt" lesson leftover from my childhood.

As I think more about it, I keep coming back to the book Insurrection by Peter Rollins.  In this book, Rollins talks about what he termed "Pyro-Theology" (please excuse the lack of page numbers, I don't have the book with me).  This is the process of lighting everything about your faith and religion on fire.  Whatever stands at the end of the fire is what faith is about.  Run with your doubt so that it completely deconstructs all that is part of your religious and faith experience until you get to the stuff that can't be taken apart any further.  Then, build your life on that.  Doubt is what you use to grind away the unnecessary fluff of religion, the stuff that doesn't make sense, the stuff that is contrary to real life experience, the stuff the leads to hate or destruction.  Doubt is needed to get past the junk in our faith traditions so that you can truly come face to face with truth.

Trying to do this Pyro-Theology would definitely not be easy.  It wouldn't be comfortable, but maybe it's comfort that is keeping us from authentic faith.  Maybe authentic faith cannot come without setting fire to the faith you have.  Maybe doubt is more important to faith than acceptance.  And perhaps once you burn it all down to see what's standing, you'll find that all the fluff that burned to the ground makes more sense.  Then you can build it back up with purpose and understanding, while replacing the structures that don't fit.

What do you think?  How has doubt helped you go further and deeper with your faith?  What have you burned to the ground?  What was left standing?

Immutable

Today, I was trying to center myself and get in tune with God.  I was laying on the floor praying, meditating, contemplating, when I started saying in my head, "Thy will be done" over and over.  Then, it morphed from the Lord's prayer to something more like "Not my will but yours be done."  Which I think is from Jesus' prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane (only took two times to spell that correctly).  

Then, my contemplation broke down, or at least changed.  I began to think about immutability. I began to ask is God immutable or am I?  Is the problem God or me?  I've been having a hard time conforming to God's call and I found myself wondering if God has compromised as much as God will.  Maybe I'm the one stubbornly standing my ground.  Is it me digging my feet in, not willing to bend a little?  Maybe God isn't the "Unmoved Mover" that Aristotelian thought has poisoned our faith with.  Maybe God is super flexible, yet knows when to stop. 

There are a couple of different lines of thought that remove immutability from the list of attributes we give to God.  Most notable is the Open Theism of the Evangelical movement (Greg Boyd is a big proponent of this), and then there is Process Theology, which is based from Alfred North Whitehead's philosophy.  Both of these visions of God show a God who is moved by us.  A God who loves us and responds to us, who is changed by us (this might more process than open theism). But I wonder what the Eastern Church or the Church fathers thought of this.  If you know feel free to leave a comment. 

This process/openness thought seems much truer to the God who offered to spare Sodom and Gomorrah (three tries on that one) as God struck a deal with Abraham.  The God who changed plans in the desert during the Exodus as a response to the way the Israelites acted.  This seem more mutable than immutable.

So what do we do with this?  Is helpful to recognize that God is bending at least to point to us and is inviting (not forcing) us to bend a little more towards God? 

The Prayer Exchange?

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about prayer, partly because I'm doing a series at my church on it, and partly because I've been struggling with prayer.

The struggle I have often with prayer is simply, what does it do?  I know that it is a way to connect and build a relationship with God.  That seems to work in a contemplative style of prayer, which I love.  But what about those prayers of petition.  You know the prayers asking God for things.  Besides the feeling that God should be a cosmic vending machine giving us what we ask for if we can only put the combination of change together and hit the right button (part of the message for tomorrow), I just wonder what the point is if God is really going to do whatever God feels is best at the time.  And looking around the world, it can be pretty hard to see what God is doing.

So I can pray for whatever I want and God will answer however God wants, then what's the point?  Should we do these kind of prayers at all?  Even prayer request time can quickly turn into gossip time.  Someone will lift up a prayer and then we ask all kinds of questions to get more detail as if the more details we give God the better the chance of God granting that wish (Is God a Genie?).  Which seems to be a perversion of the spirit of prayer requests. 


In exchange for talking to God, God will grant us three wishes, I mean prayer requests.  Then all will be well.  Except it doesn't seem to work that way at all.  It seems like God works in this world differently than how we expect.  Sometimes it can feel like God doesn't work at all, or is that just because God refuses to encroach on our free will.  Then what do prayers of petitions do other than voice our deepest desire to the creator of the universe?  Maybe that's all it is...

Sacrifice

I don't understand sacrifice in atonement theory.  The sacrificial system is so foreign to me that I can't seem to wrap my head around it.  I kind of get it but not really.  More importantly, I don't understand how it relates to God.  Why does killing something bring us closer to God?  It just doesn't fit.

I have decided for 2012, or at least part of it, I'm going to research sacrifice and how folks following this Jesus guy understand him as an atoning sacrifice.  I think that means I'm going to have to look at the biblical mandate for sacrifice and reinterpretation throughout history.  I'm going to have to look at Girard's thoughts, which I'm not sure I'm going to be able to get a hold of.  And, I'll have to look at evangelical interpretations of it.  At the end of the research, I hope to have some understand of how sacrifice fits into bring creation into a right relationship with God.  Along the way, I'll post thoughts here.

But I'm going to need your help.  What are some great books and resources for the concept of sacrifice?  I took an atonement class in seminary, so actually I have some evangelical books.  I'm looking for some thoughts from more progressive, process/relational sources.  As well as, Jewish understanding of the ancient sacrificial system and why it is no longer necessary.  Please, leave any resources in the comments section. 

Jingle Bells

Every year my wife and I start listening to Christmas music together, and it is an absolute must that a Bing Crosby Christmas album gets listened to, as well as Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong, and others.  Although, my wife and I disagree on when the starting point of Christmas music is, she thinks after Halloween, I think after Thanksgiving, we agree on what quality Christmas music is.  We are not of the opinion that all Christmas music is worth it.  For instance, there is a song called "Christmas in Kansas City" that I hope is only played in KC because it is like radio active noise pollution.  I'm pretty sure it causes auditory cancer.  (Side note: cancer is not funny and neither is this song)

There is one song that we have from Bing Crosby.  It's an old hymn originally penned by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.  It was written towards the end of the Civil War, but every year this song really strikes me.  The song is called "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day," the poem was originally called "Christmas Bells."  Two things always strike me about this song.  First, the gender exclusive language which my 21st Century sensibilities struggles with.  Second, the emotion in the last two stanzas of the song/poem.

I'm going to write little about the first thing.  It just bugs me that we can't just put the word "all" in place of "men" in these songs.  But it was a different time with openly misogynistic views instead of our veiled misogynistic views of today...

The second thing is the reality that 2000ish years ago Christ's birth was supposed to bring about peace on earth, but what do we have.  We just ended one of two long running wars in the US, and worldwide there is so much struggle.  Let alone all the haunting memories and internal struggle that each individual faces.  Peace doesn't seem to be something that we really have.  The verse says "for hate is strong and mocks the song of peace on earth, good-will to men!"

The following stanza or verse says, "Then pealed the bells more loud and deep."  The bells are the signal, a reminder that God isn't gone or inattentive or asleep.  The bells are a reminder of the peace we can have through Christ.  The peace we can have because God came as a person, experiencing all that it means to be human, so that we can experience a little more deeply who God is.  God has poured out Godself for you so that you may know peace in a way that this world doesn't seem to understand.  A peace through forgiveness, nonviolent correction, not through force.

Let the bells of Christmas truly remind you of the peace we have through God in Jesus the Christ so that you may strive to share that peace with everyone you meet!

Amen and Amen!

P.S. Here is a version of the song from Youtube for your listening pleasure.

Following Devotionals

I'm really bad at following devotionals.  Right now, I'm trying to read through "The Journey" by Adam Hamilton.  It's an advent devotional with a book attached and a dvd series as well.  I've read some of the book, but I'm trying to do the devotional each day.  I'm currently three days behind.  It's not that it's bad or anything.  Actually, it has helped me refocus a little and think a little more clear about the nativity. 

I struggle to carve out the time to sit down and just do it.  In years past, I've tried setting up a specific time for it.  That's not worked and this year was harder, not impossible just harder, to set aside the daily time.  My one year old has seen to that.  So this year, I read it when I think about it.  Which is usually mid morning while sitting in my office.  I'm three days off because I'm not in my office every day of the week. Plus, forcing it seems a little off.  Shouldn't I want to read a devotional in order to dive deeper into to the divine reality?  Why does it feel like work, even when I enjoy the writing?

I could use some input from my one lone reader who stumbles across this.  What do you do to get in the habit of doing a devotional?  What time of day?  How do you hold yourself accountable? 

June to Decemeber Not Bad

My last post on here was 7 months ago, and was a post about small groups being a fuller incarnation of church than a worship service is, especially in large churches. 

I don't have anything specific to write about today, just felt a little like writing publicly private thoughts on Christmas in list form:

1. Wise Men have little to do with Christmas.
2. Santa is creepy but St. Nick's my hero...although I don't hate Santa, he does come off as a creepy old dude with ways to peep on kiddies and deal harshly when they don't act as he deems "good."
3. I don't really know what Egg Nog is, and it's gross...but do we nog other things beside eggs?  Have some delicious cheese nog!
4. Matthew and Luke seem to see Jesus' birth very differently.  Why can't we just keep them separate and within their own stories? 
5. Commercialism is the new Jesus!
6. Advent is not a thing anymore...or is it?  Maybe advent is the time we buy things in preparation of better 4th quarter profits--our true god.
7. Justin Bieber should not have a Christmas album, or a recording contract.  I blame Usher!
8. When is someone going to write a new Christmas song that will be covered for the next century or so?
9. Winter is not Christmas.  Winter songs should be enjoyed all cold and flu season.
10. Pre-lit Christmas trees are a pain and should be outlawed.  They are only good for a couple of years then you have to take the lights off or throw it away.  Wasteful!  

Bonus:  Artificial Christmas Trees hurt my hands when I put them up, yet I put up three of them this year.

What would you add to this list about Christmas?  Who are you?  Do you even still look at this page?  Are you spam, or a robot?