"Tanzania" by Alli Rogers

Wendy and I went to hear Derek Webb last Sunday evening at Eddie's Attic with Eric & Veronica, two new and really good friends. What a blessing that night was! Webb is a prophet after the order of Micah or maybe even Jeremiah. Sandra McCracken's music (she and Derek are married) was incredibly moving. The surprise of the evening for me, however, was the music of Alli Rogers. Most intriguing lyrics and vocals Check out the video (lyrics supplied below).

It’s eight hours later in Tanzania.
When Jen lays down
Mary’s just opening her eyes.
Her child’s feet land on the ground
and dirt scatters,
And she feels left out in the open,
always left out in the open.
She says, “son, wear my shoes to school today”.
He turns and smiles and walks away,
and she thinks to herself…

Someday I will wake
where the earth is clean and safe.
My children have a place to play,
not here in Tanzania.
And someday I will live
in a house that’s built by
hands that hold the world.

It’s eight hours earlier in Chattanooga.
Mary sits down and Jen’s just put the coffee on.
Katie Couric is talking news and fashion,
and Jen feels pushed into a corner,
always pushed into a corner, she says
“Baby I know what girls at school are like”.
And her daughter rides off on her bike,
and Jen thinks to herself…

Someday I will wake
where my children get a break,
And there are chances that they’ll take,
not here in Chattanooga.
Someday I will live
in a house that’s built by
hands that hold the world.

Well it’s hard to be mother,
and it’s hard to be a woman,
and it’s hard to live in Africa sometimes.
It’s hard to be mother,
and it’s hard to be a woman,
and it’s hard to live in America sometimes.

But someday I will wake
in a body that won’t break,
On ground that doesn’t shake, not here.
And someday I will live
in a house that’s built by
hands that hold the world.

Quotation of the Week

If the very nature of the church is to confront evil with suffering, cross-carrying love, and if the very nature of the state is to confront evil with threat and if necessary to confront violence with violence, how can a person be involved in both at the same time? Can a person simultaneously pull out the sword and "turn the other cheek"? --John Howard Yoder, Discipleship as Political Responsibility (p. 26)

Pretty decent questions.

The Cross is Not a Totem Pole

"In the beginning God created human beings in his own image, and we've been returning the favor ever since." I'm not sure who said that, but shut up!

Tough as it is to be told that we often create God in our own image, I suppose it's true. It's probably true of everyone, including Christians. We Jesus followers seem to be in a never ending struggle against "creeping totemism." You know what totemism is; it's a system of belief centered around a totem. Duh. A totem is a representation of an animal or object thought to possess those attributes that a clan or tribe most appreciates in itself. If the clan cherishes wisdom, the owl may be the totem. Wise as an owl. If power or majesty are cherished traits, the eagle or lion may be the totem. Soars like an eagle or strong as a lion. You get the picture.

I've never seen a totem pole in person. Sure, I've seen pictures of them in books and on TV, but never in real life. As a kid I always imagined them to be about the size of an average human being, maybe a little taller. The first time I ever saw a cigar store Indian I thought it was a totem pole (Is that politically correct? 'Cause I'm all about political correctness). When I finally saw a picture of people standing next to a Native American totem pole I was shocked. It was at least twice their height, a broad heavy thing. Mysterious, colorful, imaginative. People obviously put a great deal of energy and devotion into the making of their totems. Problem is, with a totem they end up worshiping a representation of themselves - powerless to protect. "God is not man said in a loud voice" (thank you, K. Barth).

Hopefully this will not come as a surprise, but the Bible takes issue with all that stuff. God did not create us in His own image so we would return the favor. It seems recently, however, many of us have been doing just that - fashioning a Jesus that looks strangely, well, like us. Compile the traits and values that Americans admire. What is on the list? We certainly commend those on top, people who bring something to the table. People whose hands are full, not empty. Winners, not losers are the stuff of Americana. Ladders are for climbing; any fool can see that. Climb or be climbed over. That's how we do it. It's how success is made. It's how we make ourselves. It's the rugged individualist. Applause is for the strong. He is the man who needs no help. She is the Type A who cannot be stopped.

Maybe the recent election got to us or maybe our misplaced investment in this world's power struggles brings what is already there to the surface. In any event, when Jesus begins to sound more like a CEO than a Galilean peasant, when he sounds like Nancy Pelosi or Rick Santorum, or when Jesus is wrapped in the flag or if he's burning one, I begin to wonder if we haven't taken our most cherished traits, attributed them to Christ and set him up on a totem pole of our own devising. Derek Webb is certainly on point with his song, A King & A Kingdom:

"There are two great lies that I have heard: 'the day you eat of the fruit of that tree, you will not surely die' and that Jesus Christ was a white, middle-class Republican. And if you want to be saved you have to learn to be like Him."

Jesus was a Jew. He was poor. He loved God. He had almost no stuff. He live the ethic of the Sermon on the Mount. He did not put his family first. He loved his enemies. He prayed for his persecutors. He welcomed sinners. He inexorably pursued outcasts. He refused to draw the sword and forbade it of his followers. He chose death over a violent self-defense. All you politicians who are born again, put that in your campaign ads. You'll get my vote.

(Wendy and I are going to see Derek this Sunday evening at Eddie's Attic in Decatur, btw. Here's a link for tickets. Come join us!)

Now, if the church will only follow suit...

We must face the fact that in America, the church is still the most segregated major institution in America. At 11:00 on Sunday morning when we stand and sing that Christ has no east or west, we stand at the most segregated hour in this nation. This is tragic. Nobody of honesty can overlook this. Now, I'm sure that if the church had taken a stronger stand all along, we wouldn't have many of the problems that we have. The first way that the church can repent, the first way that it can move out into the arena of social reform is to remove the yoke of segregation from its own body. Now, I'm not saying that society must sit down and wait on a spiritual and moribund church as we've so often seen. I think it should have started in the church, but since it didn't start in the church, our society needed to move on. The church, itself, will stand under the judgment of God. ~Dr. Martin Luther King, 1963

Dr. King's words would almost be funny if they weren't so terribly tragic: "I'm not saying that society must sit down and wait on [the] church..." It's a darn good thing society hasn't waited on us. In our defense, however, we've been busy considering some really critical issues like coffee cups in the sanctuary.

Prophets have always been a royal pain in the behind.

Only two more days! Saturday will be another wonderful MORE Hands for God Day as Disciples of Christ churches from all over Metro Atlanta meet at the City of Refuge in downtown Atlanta to share the love of Christ through service to our neighbors.

Too often in my life Derek Webb's haunting lyrics ring true:

Who's your brother, who's your sister
You just walked passed him
I think you missed her.

Together we resolve no longer to pass by or miss our brother and sister. Please keep praying that God will use our work to His glory and for His purposes. See you Saturday morning at MORE Hands for God Day. NOTE: Registration and Breakfast are at 8:30 AM!

Quotation of the Week

We do not have a blue print for what a new world of peaceful and just relationships with one another will look like. We do not know for sure how we will survive in a world yet conditioned by the logic of race. But we know that the only place where we will have the power to figure these things out is in the resurrected body of Jesus. And He is going ahead of us into Galilee. So, we follow the lead of the women – Mary, Mary and Salome – and chase after God’s new world, assured that our identity as disciples offers us a better hope than the cultural identities that we are leaving behind.
Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, Free to Be Bound: Church Beyond the Color Line, 192.

Just Once

The laws of the United States provide an alternative to combat for the person who believes that all war is wrong. For our purposes, anyone who is convinced that as a follower of Jesus Christ, he or she should never take part in the violence of war may be excused from that "duty." This is to say, the laws provide for the pacifist conscientious objector. It is an altogether different situation for the person, Christian or otherwise, who adheres to the just war tradition. The person who holds that war may be morally justified under specific and limited circumstances has no legal recourse if, in fact, he or she determines that any given war fails to meet Just War criteria. Such a person will either participate in the military or face criminal prosecution. It matters not to the law that one's Christian faith may have something to say about the unjust nature of a conflict and that one is being asked to fight against religious principles. There is no legal provision for a selective conscientious objection to wars of the United States.

Most Christians in the USA, however, hold to precisely that view. Most claim not to be pacifists (despite the fact that the earliest Christians appear to have been almost universally pacifist), but rather Christians in this nation are almost all "just warriors" -- holding the position that if the nation's conflicts meet the criteria of a just war they may participate righteously.

That surely raises a serious practical question. When do the nation's wars not meet the criteria? When was the last time we saw conservative, "pro-America" Christians come to the conclusion that any armed conflict of the United States was "unjust"? When did we last hear evangelical leaders cry out against war? Oh, sure, we heard whines sounding eerily similar to just war rhetoric when Bill Clinton bombed an aspirin factory to divert attention from Monica-gate (though I suspect the real reason conservatives were upset was not the reckless use of force, but their inability to keep the nation's attention on the President's cigar collection). The point is, those who claim to be faithful to the Bible, who claim to follow the Prince of Peace, almost never find their own nation's wars unjustified. It is impossible to believe that all our armed conflicts have been a last resort -- and that is to name but one of the criteria for a just war. Yet evangelical Christians almost never protest against let alone refuse to take part in this nation's wars. They rally, wear ribbons, fly flags, preach sermons and enlist by the thousands. What we almost never hear is serious reflection from evangelical leaders on when Christians cannot participate in the war plans of the nation.

If the tradition which claims that war may be justified does not also admit that it could be unjustified, the affirmation is not morally serious. A Christian who prepares the case for a justified war without being equally prepared for the negative case has not soberly weighed the prima facie presumption that any violence is wrong until the case for an exception has been made. We honor the moral seriousness of the nonpacifist Christian when we spell out the criteria by which the credibility of that seriousness must be judged. (John Howard Yoder, When War is Unjust: Being Honest in Just-War Thinking, p. 82).

Two things I am waiting to see. I am waiting to see one single war waged by the US that is judged unjust by my "Just War" friends, and then I want to see a Church exploring Scripture and Tradition to determine what it means to follow the Crucified God in light of that judgment. When I see that -- just once -- it will be easier to take Just War tradition more seriously.

Prophets of a Future Not Our Own

Poem by Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador
Martyred on March 24, 1980 while saying Mass

It helps, now and then, to step back
and take the long view.
The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts,
it is beyond our vision.

We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of
the magnificent enterprise that is God's work.
Nothing we do is complete,
which is another way of saying
that the kingdom always lies beyond us.

No statement says all that could be said.
No prayer fully expresses our faith.
No confession brings perfection.
No pastoral visit brings wholeness.
No program accomplishes the church's mission.
No set of goals and objectives includes everything.

This is what we are about:

We plant seeds that one day will grow.
We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise.
We lay foundations that will need further development.
We provide yeast that produces effects beyond our capabilities.

We cannot do everything
and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.
This enables us to do something,
and to do it very well.
It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way,
an opportunity for God's grace to enter and do the rest.

We may never see the end results,
but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker.
We are workers, not master builders,
ministers, not messiahs.
We are prophets of a future not our own. Amen

On Not Being Content with ‘Going to Church’

When he returned from a “mission trip” to Brazil, one church member said this: “The church in Brazil behaved as if it were a mission church, which made sense to me while I was there, because they are in a foreign field. It was only later, and I admit this to my embarrassment, it was only later that it dawned on me that Brazil isn’t a foreign field to them! All they were being was what they are called to be.”

That the church has a God-given mission is clear to most of us. What is not always so clear is this: the church doesn’t just have a mission; the church IS a mission. No matter where an authentic Christian community is located, be it Beverly Hills, downtown Atlanta, or Port-au-Prince, it is a mission: sent, empowered, and directed by Christ Jesus himself.

Poverty is clearly greater in some places than in others, but the need for the gospel of Jesus Christ is great everywhere. Thus it is no exaggeration to say that Brazil is no more of a mission field than Atlanta. Haiti is no more of a mission field than Buckhead (there’s a head-scratcher for you). You can go on a mission trip without ever leaving town – because God has set you and this church in a mission field.

I visited a church once that had a large sign at the parking lot entrance which said “Welcome.” Nothing remarkable about that. The thing about this sign was it had another message on the back, turned in toward the church so that you could read it only when leaving the property. It said simply, “You are now entering the mission field.”

It’s possible we’ve contented ourselves with just “going to church” when our number one priority is to “be” the church, i.e., God’s mission to the last, the least, the lost. Faithfulness begins when we discover that, while we have a mission, it is just as important to see that we are a mission.

What can one person do?

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted

I am so tempted to help this stuff make sense. Surely you can see why. On its face this beatitude is absurd. "Blessed are those who mourn." What the heck does that mean? Happy are the sad? How fortunate are those who are weeping? Congratulations to you with broken hearts? If that makes sense to you, then please take a seat at the head of the class and leave me here with my dunce cap because to me it seems the exact opposite would be true.

I might expect to hear Jesus say, "Go and comfort those who mourn," or "Tough break all you mourners," or "Keep your chin up, mourners," or even "What a rotten thing it is to mourn." But no, Jesus says that those who mourn are blessed. They are fortunate and have reason to be glad. And just what is the reason mourners are blessed? Help is coming. They will be comforted.

Now, that's a divine passive if ever there was one. God is the great Comforter. It's a reminder that God never abandons the grieving. Though He may seem distant, silent, even cold -- Mathew says He sees our grief and he will make it right. Thus, mourners are fortunate and even they -- no, especially they have reason to be glad.

Commentators seem drawn to tell us what the mourning is all about. Mourning over personal failures, or over the state of the world, over sin, decay , disease. Mourning over lost persons. But Jesus doesn't complete the painting, he merely makes a broad stroke. "Blessed are those who mourn." If He doesn't qualify its meaning, then perhaps we shouldn't either.

Mourning cannot be limited exclusively to expressing sorrow for one's sin... or grief surrounding death.... Rather, "those who mourn" has the more comprehensive sense of Isaiah 61:2-3, an inclusive grief that refers to the disenfranchised, contrite, and bereaved. It is an expression of the intense sense of loss, helplessness, and despair. --Robert A. Guelich, The Sermon on the Mount.

Sometimes when we are filled with gladness and life is easy, we feel less need for God and have less room for Him in our lives. Maybe, and I imagine you've experienced this before, maybe suffering and pain, mourning and grief are blessing, even cause for gladness at times because they hollow out in us a space for God and his comfort. Blessed are those whose grief reveals in them the God-void, for God Himself will fill their deepest need.

What Becomes of the Brokenhearted?

SPOKEN:
A world filled with love is a wonderful sight.
Being in love is what's heart's delight.
But that look of love isn't on my face;
That enchanted feeling has been replaced.

As I walk this land of broken dreams,
I have visions of many things
But happiness is just an illusion
Filled with sadness and confusion

What becomes of the brokenhearted
Who had love that's now departed?
I know I've got to find
Some kind of peace of mind
Maybe

The fruits of love grow all around
But for me, they come a-tumblin' down
Every day, heartaches grow a little stronger
I can't stand this pain much longer

I walk in shadows searching for light
Cold and alone, no comfort in sight
Hoping and praying for someone who'll care
Always moving and going nowhere

What becomes of the brokenhearted
Who had love that's now departed?
I know I've got to find
Some kind of peace of mind
Help me

I'm searching though I don't succeed
For someone's look, there's a growing need
All is lost, there's no place for beginning
All that's left is an unhappy ending

Now, what becomes of the brokenhearted
Who had love that's now departed?
I know I've got to find
Some kind of peace of mind
I'll be searching everywhere
Just to find someone to care

I'll be looking every day
I know I'm going to find a way
Nothing's gonna stop me now
I will find a way somehow
I'll be searching everywhere
(fade out)

The kingdom of heaven can be received only by empty hands

It is really only the poor in spirit who can, actually, have anything, because they are the ones who know how to receive gifts. To them everything is a gift. --Simon Tugwell, The Beatitudes: Soundings in Christian Traditions

We are to be spiritually poor only for the sake of becoming spiritually rich, detached from what own so that we can be attached in a different way to what we cannot own, detached from consuming so that we can be consumed by God. --Peter Kreeft, Back to Virtue

Right at the beginning of his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus contradicted all human judgments and all nationalistic expectations of the kingdom of God. The kingdom is given to the poor, not the rich; the feeble, not the mighty; to little children humble enough to accept it, not to soldiers who boast that they can obtain it by their own prowess. --John R. W. Stott, The Message of the Sermon on the Mount

Blessed are the Poor in Spirit: A verse that puts a smile on the face and a spring in the step!

I think if most of us were really familiar with the text of the Bible we'd soon discover that Matthew 5:3 contains our favorite part of Scripture. Not John 3:16, not Psalm 23. Not the creation stories nor the Passion. I'm not suggesting that this is one of our favorite parts of the Bible, rather I'm saying it is our most favorite part of the Bible, though I think we'll all take umbrage at the idea. But it's not the whole of the verse, mind you, only the particular phrase "in spirit." Blessed are the poor in spirit. "In spirit" is our favorite passage. No need to memorize it because it is already in our hearts. Enjoy it; savor it; own it: in spirit.

All I can say is thank God for the "in spirit" addendum. Jesus really had me going there for a minute. And I bet I'm not the only one. Blessed are the poor? Riiiiiight. You just knew Jesus had to be setting us up with the whole "Blessed are the poor" thing. Startling us a little to get our attention before adding the liberating phrase, "in spirit."

"In spirit" is wonderful. It does everything we need it to do. Frankly, it salvages the whole verse by spiritualizing words of Jesus that were otherwise decidedly unspiritual. "In spirit" completely saves the first beatitude. A rather earthy and, if I may say so, objectionable saying (blessed are the poor) becomes a quite palatable. It allows us to understand that there are a lot of types of poverty all of which can affect our spirit. But mostly, "in spirit" is wonderful because it allows us to remain rich and still be "blessed." Why? Well, because we are "poor... in spirit." God bless us all -- everyone!

What a wonderful thing it is to know that we can still be utterly self-reliant, high achievers living high lifestyles, who need nothing from anyone -- and still receive the blessing of the Kingdom -- because of our rich poverty.

A few heads nod in puzzled agreement.
Nobody laughs.
Very few weep.

But those who do weep know what's up. Rich people, even rich church members are in a heap of trouble. Why? Because we have all we need. We have more than we want. We smile when talking about security. We don't need to rely on others, or even on God -- only on ourselves. Our plates are piled high, our closets are overflowing, our confidence soars. We are blessed!

To the losers, to the abjectly poor, to those whose circumstances beat them down so low that they are forced to turn to the only real Help anyone can get anyway -- to these, but never to the rich Jesus says, "You, my friends, are fortunate indeed. You get the whole kingdom"

The Sermon on the Mount

The Sermon on the Mount is like the "constitution" of the Church according to Emory professor Tom Long. It is the charter document for life in Jesus' Kingdom. Much like the U.S. Constitution sets forth, among other things, the sort of citizens the founders hoped would make up the United States, in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus draws a picture of those who belong to His Kingdom. It is Jesus' own understanding of what his followers are, should be, and will be. In our denomination (Disciples of Christ) we often refer newcomers to the wonderful little book Handbook for Today's Disciples by Duane Cummins. If there is a definitive handbook for how to follow Jesus, it is his Sermon on the Mount.

There was a time when the Sermon played a huge role in the life of nearly every believer. For the first few hundred years of the church's existence it was the most often quoted part of the Bible. In preaching and teaching -- allusion to and quotation of the Sermon was central. Today it is mainly ignored and/or interpreted away except maybe in the Anabaptist traditions where they still think Jesus wasn't kidding. I leave it for others to tell us how and why the Sermon went from the center of the church's teaching to the periphery; rather, my concern is to place it once again in the center of my little corner of the church.

So today I'll begin blogging through the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5-7. There are a couple of things that might be helpful to keep in mind, or maybe to use as guidelines in reading the Sermon.

1. The Sermon on the Mount “is not a list of requirements, but rather a description of the life of a people gathered by and around Jesus” (Hauerwas, 61). That is to say, you will not find in the Sermon rules that must be kept in order to be saved, but a picture of the way those who are saved live. This is what followers of Jesus look like.
2. The Sermon is not to be dismissed as an impossible ideal that is wonderful to strive for, but cannot ever be reached. Jesus, as we will learn, really expects us to love our enemies, pray for our persecutors, turn the other cheek, and go the extra mile. One of my fundamental convictions about Matthew 5-7 is we make very poor disciples apart from the Sermon on the Mount. Converts, yes. Disciples, no. And it is disciples that Jesus commands us to make -- and become.

At the very end of Jesus' time on earth, in the days after his ministry had ended, in the time after Easter but just before he was to ascend back into heaven with His Father, Jesus gathered with his friends on a mountain top to deliver his final instructions (28:18ff): Make disciples, he says. Baptize them. And then Jesus instructs the group...

"Teach the new followers to obey all things I have commanded you."

In telling the story this way, Matthew wants us to hearken back to an earlier time, another mountain -- when Jesus delivered his most famous Sermon, in which Jesus lays out his program, his vision of life in God's Kingdom. It is the single most important passage in the Bible for those who want to know, "What does God want of those who are saved by His grace?"

At the close of the Sermon, Matthew notes that, "When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching." They are astonished at Jesus' preaching. I suppose we'll have to wait to see if their astonishment turned into something more substantial.

The Encounter

Dawn Husnick was a young nurse in a Chicago Emergency room when she had The Encounter . He was a “lock-down” patient -- violent, with psychotic episodes who had been brought in off the streets one evening. His feet were wrapped in plastic bags, barely disguising their mold-covered, puss-oozing state. Dawn was instructed to take him to the hazmat shower, and though the man desperately needed his feet treated and tended to with antiseptics and antibiotics, the charge nurse's instructions were simply to get him into the shower as a bare minimum.

She wasn't terribly anxious to treat the man, but reflecting later on the episode Dawn writes: “This poor shell of a man had no one to love him…No one in the ER that day really looked at him and no one wanted to touch him. They wanted to ignore him and his broken life. But as much as I tried…I could not.”

So she laid out all of the tools and supplies to treat his feet, prepared warm towels and a chair, and when he was finished with the shower, she led him to the chair and she knelt down to tend his broken feet: “The room was quiet as the once-mocking security guards started to help by handing me towels. As I patted the last foot dry, I looked up and for the first time [his] eyes looked into mine. For that moment he was alert, aware and weeping as he quietly said, ‘Thank you’. In that moment, I was the one seeing Jesus. He was there all along, right where he said he would be."

It was in a Chicago Emergency room that Dawn Husnick had her Encounter. Where will you have yours?

Jesus Doesn’t Do Hyperbole

It was a moment that could only occur in one of those Bible studies that can only take place among Christians who live privileged lives -- who have a lot invested in the here and now, who have a great deal to lose. We were studying the the Sermon on the Mount. As you know, that’s not the easiest piece of Scripture to swallow, so one has to read it with defenses at the ready. And we were ready. You simply have to be when you know how prone Jesus is to making unworkable, unreasonable demands.

And the timing of the moment was perfect. Someone read Matthew 5:38-48 with all its gristle (which is no problem because you can always spit it out), and before our teacher could even begin the lesson some obviously experienced Christian provided the moment: “Does Jesus really mean to say…?” And with that one move, we emasculated the Sermon and empowered ourselves. Listen. Can't you hear the honesty, the searching, and the humility in the question? “Does Jesus really mean…?” Trouble is, it's not really a question. It is a declaration, and the declaration is this: Long live me.

Of course, we never simply deny that Jesus is Lord, flatly rejecting all his impractical commands (we are Christians, after all). No, instead we simply ask the question that allows us to take Jesus’ Sermon “seriously” without going crazy and having it destroy our lives as we plan to live them.

I remember that someone in the class that day noted, "It’s really hard to tell when Jesus is using hyperbole and when he wants us to take him literally." Heads nodded.

Here's a hard truth to remember for your next Bible study: Jesus doesn’t much deal in hyperbole.

Do not resist an evil person
Turn the other cheek
Go the extra mile
Love your enemies
Pray for those who persecute you

Understatement maybe, but not hyperbole -- even though we’d rather they be. Because if Jesus is just the Great Exaggerator, then I can dismiss what he says and determine the level of "self-sacrifice" I'm comfortable with in my "discipleship." But if he’s speaking literally then, well, he wants my whole life. All of me.

"What do you want from us, Jesus?"
And Jesus sighing, answers, "Take up your cross and follow me."
"Wonder what he could mean by that?" we ask each other with a shrug.

It's a fairly typical day when Jesus comes walking into my home, your office, our church. Just as he had done with the fishermen by the sea of Galilee, Jesus looks us squarely in the eye and challenges, "Follow me."

Some will.
And some won’t.

Take up your... ballot?

Every political season you hear it. Most of the time it comes from the religious (Christian) right, but the left is hardly immune. Shrill. Frantic. Almost panicky they tell us that "this is the most critical election ever..." All sorts of doom is predicted for the United States (and beyond) if their candidate is not elected and if the opposition's candidate is elected. We heard it when Reagan ran against and defeated Carter.
"Carter will destroy the country!"
"Reagan will destroy the world!"

I am hearing the same thing now. I read this on a "Christian" website: "This is the most critical election of our lifetime! What’s at stake? The definition of marriage as one man, one woman. Protection of unborn children, Religious freedom, and so much more!"

Then they tell us (Christians) that we should get out and vote (for their candidate) as though the most important contribution the church can make is to vote the right people into office thus helping make the nation a little more moral. Do they really think that's all this nation needs?

Let me be clear: the church does not exist to make a contribution to society, but to witness to the world's true Lord. The church's political responsibility is to call principalities and powers to repentance, and to model an alternative "politics" (as seen in everyday, ordinary Christian community) in which turning the other cheek, giving up the best seat to others, serving the poor, loving the enemy, and practicing nonviolence are everyday occurrences.

A few thoughts about politics;

1. Nations do not rule the world; God rules the world. Thus the seat of power is not the White House, the Kremlin or any such place. He who sits in the heavens laughs.
   
2. The church does not exist to make the nation a little more ethical. Our concern is death, burial, and resurrection -- a message and a way of living that nations find unhelpful to their cause.
   
3. We Christians look to the secular political order to affect lasting change and to "make a difference" in the world precisely to the extent that we despair of the power of the Gospel to make all things new. Christ is "the world's last best hope" with all due respect to Bill Bennett.
   
4. Our first allegiance is to Christ. Number two is not even close. There may not be room for a number two. This may be among the toughest lessons to learn for Christians who live in relatively "prosperous," "peaceful" and "free" nations.
   
5. If you vote, do so as one who follows Jesus -- and not as one who merely follows his or her own interests. Any narcissistic fool can vote his wallet, and most do. At the very least, baptized citizens of the Kingdom that Jesus proclaimed have just a little bit more than that to consider.
   

Take up your ballot and follow me?

"It is not the healthy who need a doctor..."

Bishop NT Wright: "Life After Life After Death" or "Why We Care About the Poor & the Suffering"

A Rabbi's Penetrating Question

Ever wonder what it might take for the world to consider the church interesting again? Sure, we can offer "contemporary" worship, buy billboards, have great kids' programs, and a cutting edge website. I am willing to go on the record as being in favor of all these things, by the way. I'm also willing to say that none of these things are capable of capturing the interest, let alone the hearts and minds of an unbelieving world.

I came across this question today by a Jewish Rabbi, Zalman Schachter-Shalomi. Surveying the American political-religious scene, Rabbi Schachter-Shalomi wants to know...

Why is it that people like President Bush, who pledge allegiance to the teachings of the master from Nazareth, ignore the teachings of lovingkindness, of feeding the hungry, of taking care of the sick?

I know some will resent the question even being asked, but President Bush invited such question every time he used his Christian faith to ingratiate himself to the electorate, not to mention the day he acknowledged the Lordship of Christ. We will reasonably ask the same questions of Obama or McCain

If he were to follow those teachings in relationship to health, education, and welfare and follow the tenet that “blessed are the peacemakers” rather than produce the greatest number of weapons of mass destruction on earth, I would believe his religious commitment.

... Someone who simply takes doctrinal clues, rather than those that arise from compassion, will not know what to do in the voting booth.

A Savior on Capitol Hill

Turn up the speakers and check this out. The lyrics are supplied below.
I'd love to hear what you think about the song.

I’m so tired of these mortal men
with their hands on their wallets and their hearts full of sin
scared of their enemies, scared of their friends
and always running for re-election
so come to DC if it be thy will
because we’ve never had a savior on Capitol Hill

you can always trust the devil or a politician
to be the devil or a politician
but beyond that friends you’d best beware
’cause at the Pentagon bar they’re an inseparable pair
and as long as the lobbyists are paying their bills
we’ll never have a savior on Capitol Hill

[Bridge]
all of our problems gonna disappear
when we can whisper right in that President’s ear
he could walk right across the reflection pool
in his combat boots and ten thousand dollar suit

you can render unto Caesar everything that’s his
you can trust in his power to come to your defense
it’s the way of the world, the way of the gun
it’s the trading of an evil for a lesser one
so don’t hold your breath or your vote until
you think you’ve finally found a savior up on Capitol Hill

(music and lyrics by Derek Webb)

Unleash Your Inner Rock Star

Our nephew came over to the house one day last week, and brought his Guitar Hero with him. If you're not familiar with Guitar Hero, it is essentially an interactive game in which the "player" (and I use that word very loosely) is equipped with a "guitar" (another word I use very loosely) that is a linked to a game console (like a PS2) which is also linked to your TV. And as I understand it, the "player" takes the "guitar" thingy, turns it on, and the game console begins to play some classic Rock & Roll song over the TV. As colored notes cascade down the TV screen, the"guitar player" must press the corresponding color-coded fret buttons on the neck of the guitar -- precisely as the notes hit the bottom of the TV screen. Whew! It's all very complicated to anyone over 15 years old -- and apparently not real easy even for kids.

Carl Sandburg once wrote, "Let's be honest now For a couple of minutes Even though we're in Chicago." Maybe we could apply that suggestion to life in the church. Much of what we (note: 1st person plural) do in the church, ostensibly in the name of Jesus, much of what we spend money and time and talent on (meetings and programs and activities and stuff) has very little to do with actually following Jesus. I'm not sure how we got into this, but I am sure that's so. Maybe it's because we forget sometimes that becoming a disciple of Christ is a life-long journey, and not a moment in time when we "give our hearts to Jesus" (and I'm all for giving one's heart to Jesus), and so we mistakenly think we've "arrived." I don't know, maybe. Or maybe we forget that we need to develop certain practices in our lives, practices that take a long time and great effort to learn. And maybe we've found things, good things, religious things, things that are a lot easier than turning the other cheek, feeding the poor, telling others about Jesus, taking up our cross and we've hidden inside these good things instead of abiding in Jesus. Maybe. Let's be honest now for a couple of minutes even though we're in the church. Isn't it possible that we've created a safer, simpler, more socially acceptable version of what Jesus calls us to be and to do. It's close. It's very much like the real thing -- and sometimes, by God's grace it even is the real thing. But not that often, not really.

Benjamin, our 14 year old son, was excitedly telling me about his Guitar Hero experience late the other night.
"Is it hard to do?" I asked.
"Oh yeah. You have to practice for hours and hours to be any good at all."
"And does it teach you how to play a real guitar?" It was an honest question. Promise.
"No, dad. Geez," rolling his eyes. I am so stupid sometimes.
"It doesn't teach you how to play a real guitar?"
"Nope," uttered in pretend exasperation. A playful smile crossed his face.
"So let me get this straight: it's a game which is designed to have a "player" hold a "guitar" or at least something that looks like and functions similarly to a guitar which also requires hours and hours of practice just so the "player" can master the like-a-guitar-thing without ever learning how to actually play a single song on a real instrument? Right?"
"See, dad? Even you can learn new things."
"Ben, here's an idea: instead of practicing for hours on Guitar Hero, why not practice on a real guitar and learn to play, you know, like real songs?"

He just stared at me a few seconds with a blank "does not compute" look on his face and just turned back to whatever he'd been doing.

Now, I'm not against games. I love games. I'm not even really opposed to Guitar Hero (taken in moderation). Lord knows I've spent a few evenings playing Monopoly and am yet to buy my first railroad or hotel.

But isn't there something sad, something empty about spending one's life practicing something that is very much like the real thing? Close. Close, yet not... not quite it.

Imagine This

Poor, starving, war torn, and desperate, they borrow from the wealthiest nations and then cannot repay the loans. Their debt undermines any hope of economic recovery, which means more poverty, more starvation, more war, greater desperation. Sometimes the loans are taken out by tyrants, dictators (often "puppet regimes" placed in power by wealthy Western countries). Long after the dictator de jour is gone, the debt remains and precious monies that could alleviate suffering flow into the hands of the über rich.

Just imagine that, when your uncle died, you discovered your family had inherited his debts...

Just imagine that the banks seized your home and much of your parents’ wages, forcing you all to live on a rubbish tip...

Just imagine that you were turned away from school, because the money had been used for debt repayments...

Just imagine that when your sister went to hospital to have her baby, they turned her away too...

Just imagine that, having only polluted stream water to drink, several of your brothers and sisters sickened and died...

Just imagine that you see your parents worn out by work and worry, and you know that you will inherit the debt...

This isn’t imagination! This is the tragic reality of the lives of hundreds of millions of young people in the poorer countries. (from On Dropping the Debt)

You'll have to look high and low to find someone who knows less about third world debt, national economies, and the actual impact of debt-relief than I do. But these things I do know:

• Jesus said rich people are in a heap of trouble (Luke 6:24f; Mark 10:17-29).
  
• How we treat poor people anticipates how Jesus will treat us (Matthew 25:34ff).
  
• The spirit of Jubilee is not completely gone, amazingly (Leviticus 25).

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

Don't miss this wonderful evening!!

Book Discussion this Saturday Night -- August 9
Good Friends and Lively Discussion

Make plans to attend our exploration of
The Shack by William P. Young

Hosted by the Michael and Jennifer Higgins

Potluck dinner at 6PM

For more information, please email me: RBarnhart@peachtree.org

"Hey Dad, I need a [fill in the blank]..."

"And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus."

Philippians 4:19

Big whoop. What American doesn't already know that? If we hadn't been created by such a God, we'd almost surely have created Him. In fact, God (this particular God) is all we ever wanted, and I have serious doubts as to whether we would put up with any other sort. We are served by a God who sees our needs and acts with some serious divine need-meeting. This God is like a Genie in a bottle, and our only wish is, "I wish that my every wish would come true."

This really is a great deal. We have needs (do we ever?!), and God meets every single one of them. I'm not making this up; it's in the Bible and Paul said it. If you have a need, God will meet that need. How do I know I have a need? It's easy. If I want it, I need it.

I need a haircut (and not some $12 hack job).
I need a late model BMW (God's servants must show forth His generosity).
I need new clothes (I'll donate the old stuff to make room in the closet).
I need a hamburger ("give us this day...").
I need to be happy (surely God wants no less for me).

The list goes on and on and on and on. Not to worry, though. God will supply my every need.

The church has to be very careful when it begins to talk about "meeting people's needs." What are needs, and who decides what they are? Given that we live in a fundamentally narcissistic culture driven by ever unquenched desires, um, excuse me, "needs," can we really be trusted to determine what our real needs are?

Jesus doesn't meet our needs; he rearranges them. He cares very little about most things that I assume are my needs, and he gives me needs I would've never had if I hadn't met Jesus. He reorders them.

I used to ask seminarians, "Why are you in seminary?" They'd say, "I like meeting people's needs." And I'd say, "Whoa. Really? If you try that with the people I know, they'll eat you alive."

Now, if you're a pastor in Honduras, it might be okay to define your ministry as meeting needs, because more people in Honduras have interesting biblical needs – food, clothing, housing. But most people in the churches I know get those needs met without prayer. So they've moved on to "needs" like orgasm, a satisfying career, an enjoyable love life, a positive outlook on life, and stuff the Bible has absolutely no interest in. (from an interview with Will Willimon).

It is more than merely possible that most of what we consider needs are not really needs at all. Maybe we have developed some itches that are not worth scratching. And beyond that, maybe one way the church can serve Jesus faithfully is by pointing out those things that are worth wanting and those that are not. In doing that we might even learn not to want them ourselves.

Anyway, I'd write more, but my kids need a PlayStation3 and I need to get to Walmart.

Vaya Con Dios

Dearest Jeremy and Tracy,

Nothing very poetic or profound is coming to mind right now. Silly as it is, I'd hoped to write you guys something that sounded a little like Frost wrote it, something with depth but also a little emotional, recalling the last several years and anticipating the great adventure before you. Alas, it's still my fingers at the keyboard, and despite my efforts not to be selfish, I feel a great deal of loss right now. I'd hoped that somehow plans would change, and that you would stay in Atlanta. I've put this letter off for weeks, but it is time to write.

Let me hasten to say that despite my melancholy I am very happy for both of you. Tracy, this move will be a great blessing to Evan and Garrett. I know you already create a wonderful environment for your children, but the benefit of your presence at home will be beyond calculation. I am very happy for the kids, and for you.

In Hauerwas' book, A Community of Character, he wrote: "...one of the most morally substantive things any of us ever has the opportunity to do is to have children. A child represents our willingness to go on in the face of difficulties, suffering, and the ambiguity of modern life and is thus our claim that we have something worthwhile to pass on." (p. 165)

I read Hauerwas' comment to mean that the bearing of children is a type of ethical dissent from the world's authorities. The world may thunder, "No!" but in Jesus Christ we are made bold to answer, "Yes!" We do more in becoming parents than merely say "there is something worth living for," although that is no small claim. We are also saying there is something worth dying for, something worth teaching, something worth handing down to our children. In short, we have children so that we might make them disciples of Jesus Christ - a mission clearly not lost on you.

Jeremy, do you remember when we were discussing forming a new Sunday school class? When you shared your vision of what the class might become I knew it was going to be tremendous success. By the way, is it possible that was really six years ago? Brother, thank you so much for your faithfulness to the Open Word. I've never seen a better Sunday school teacher, or one who thought more pastorally about his or her class than you. The members of your class have benefited greatly by your teaching and much more so by simply watching you follow Jesus.

It would be difficult to overstate how important the two of you have been in the life of PCC for the last several years. I am certain I couldn't overstate how important you've been in my life. You've been wonderful friends to me. At times when I needed friends, you've been there. The times we've prayed together, studied together and discussed theology and discipleship over lunch have been more important for my life than I let you know. You've both reminded me, and in many ways, that there is no disconnect between true theology and praxis; rather, they are two sides of the same thing. Your thoughtful ways of approaching issues not only helped me clarify my own perspectives, but also enabled me to be a better disciple. Thank you.

May you meet your new opportunities and challenges with the grace and faithfulness that have been yours through Jesus Christ. May your expectations for your lives and those of your children be as high (and as low) as the Father would have them. May your new home be a haven for those shoved to the margins. May your children grow up to be followers of the Way, and may you live to see their professions of faith and baptisms. May your new careers be a source of joy, not only to you and to others, but primarily to your King. And may you, my dearest sister and brother, be always and forever loyal subjects of "the world's true Lord."

Pax Christi,

RB

My Cheesus, I Love Thee

Apparently not everyone in the "show me" state is as hard to convince as the nickname implies. Kelly Ramey of High Ridge, MO recently opened a bag of Cheetos (presumably looking only for crunchy cheesy delectables) when she discovered the Lord of the Universe revealed therein. A seemingly ordinary sack of snack contained One very special Cheeto -- the Divine Cheeto. Cue organ music. As Mrs. Ramey feasted on the cheesy goodness one unique Cheeto caught her eye. It was wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in her fingers.

Just kidding. I made that part up, and I apologize. There is no need to get silly when discussing Jesus in Cheetos. Actually, Mrs. Ramey nearly ate the aforementioned epiphany when she noticed that her next morsel looked just like Jesus on a cross. She and her husband, unnamed in the report (which makes him the smartest person in the "news" story), named the Cheeto, "Cheesus." Perfect. I don't want you to miss this point (we preachers always have points): Mrs. Ramey actually had the courage to show Cheesus to her friends and neighbors and explain to them what she saw. In my estimation, this makes her, the boldest witness in the history of Christendom. Most agreed with her -- it looks like Jesus. Still others doubted. Go figure.

The story did not say whether Cheesus has healing abilities. You have to wonder, though. The whole thing raises for me another, less exciting question: where should we expect to find Jesus?

Enter the expert. Knowing at least that you can't leave these things in the hands of the untrained, someone in High Ridge, MO summoned the local pastor. When asked, the preacher said he saw nothing "theologically special" about the Cheeto Thank you, Cheesus. What a relief! But, does that mean there could be something theologically ordinary about the Cheeto? It's worth considering.

Anyway, Cheesus, it turns out, is not for sale. The Ramey's intend to put Cheesus in a box (don't we always?) and have him/it on display for all to enjoy. Mrs. Ramey added, "I think the bottom line is the joy that it is bringing; I really do." Maybe she's right, but I disagree. To me, the bottom line is that they are cooked to a crackly crunch and are yummy beyond description.

Of course, people have seen Jesus in a lot of things over the years. I once served in a church camp where kids were encouraged to see Jesus in everything -- Jesus in the bark of a tree, Jesus in the dung left by wild animals (it was a raccoon), Jesus in the gravel dumped the day before by a big truck, and Jesus in weeds winding their way up a pole. So, to me, seeing Jesus in Cheesus is not so big a stretch. Isn't that the way God works? Always surprising us and appearing where we'd expect him least.

Call me a fundy and hand me a big black Bible, but my suggestion is that, instead of looking for Jesus in Cheetos and raccoon poo, we might try seeing him in the poor. Take the Cheeto (or maybe something a tad more nutritious) and hand it to the homeless man sitting by the curb. Make some sandwiches and deliver them to a shelter. You may well be surprised whose face you see there. While we're at it, maybe we should also look to see Jesus in the word of Scripture. It is a dusty, archaic old book, but it has served us well for a long time and delivers far more nutrition at funerals than Cheetos.

Someone said of the whole Cheeto ordeal, "This is not a divine discovery, but some good could come from all of this." Um, I'm not so sure. Especially not if you swallow it.

The "Take Up Your Cross" PJs, on the other hand, aren't selling so well.

Open House?

"If they so much as start toward the bedrooms I will tackle them on the stair case or yell, 'Fire! Fire!' and run out of the house."

Wendy knew I wasn't kidding. It had been one of those weeks (or one of those months) in which we'd had meetings or ballgames every night, and ballgames all day on Saturdays. No one had done any laundry or made a bed or picked up a stitch off the floor. The last thing we wanted was for anyone to see what pigs we were, so of course, you know precisely where this story is going.

The phone rang; I answered, and the conversation went something like this:

"Hey Rev.! We're right around the corner, and just wanted to make sure you were at home. We'll be there in a couple of minutes. We can't stay long. I hope it suits..."

"Well, as a matter of fact, this is not a good... [click! bzzzzz]. Hello? Hello!!?? Awww @#$%! Wendy!"

The next two minutes were spent trying to close bedroom doors, tidy up the downstairs bathroom, which was hopeless because we have two boys who, when they were younger, thought using the toilet was sort of like horse shoes. Just get it close... Thank goodness the kitchen and downstairs were semi-respectable.

The doorbell rang roughly 30 seconds after the phone call ended. I swear they were already in the driveway when they called. Panicked that someone might just see us as we really are or at least as we are when we haven't cleaned up for company, I turned to Wendy with a big smile (because our "guests" could see me through the glass on the front door): "If they so much as start toward the bedrooms I will tackle them on the stair case or yell, 'Fire! Fire!' and run out of the house."

Like Adam and Eve covering themselves with fig leaves and hiding from God, we spend much of our lives not wanting anyone, not anyone, to see us as we really are. How far removed we are from Eden.

[As Christians,] we aren't meant simply to invite people into our homes, but into our lives as well. Having guests and visitors, if we do it right, isn't an imposition because we aren't meant to rearrange our lives for our guests—we're meant to invite our guests to enter into our lives as they are. It is this forging of relationships that transforms entertaining (i.e., deadly dull parties at the country club) into hospitality (i.e., a simple pizza on my floor). As writer Karen Burton Mains puts it, "Visitors may be more than guests in our home. If they like, they may be friends."

I don't find inviting people into my life much easier than inviting them into my apartment. At its core, I think, cultivating an intimacy in which people can know and be known requires being honest—practicing that other Christian discipline of telling the truth about where we live and how we got there. Often, I'd rather dissemble. Often, just as I'd rather welcome guests into a cozy apartment worthy of Southern Living, I'd rather show them a Lauren who is perfect and put together and serene. Often, telling the truth feels absurd (Lauren F. Winner, Mudhouse Bath, p. 50f).

So you see, asking people into my life isn't so different from asking them into my apartment. Like my apartment, my interior life never is going to be wholly respectable, cleaned up, and gleaming. But that's where I live. In the certitude of God, I ought to be able to risk issuing the occasional invitation (Mudhouse Bath, 53).

Axe Murderers, Angels and Alex

"Dad, pull over and pick him up! He's just a kid."

I had seen the hitchhiker way over on the right side of the highway, but since we were in the far left HOV lane and moving sort of fast, and since I knew it would be dangerous even to try to stop, I had not considered it. The fact that I don't want a knife planted in the back of my neck may have also played a role in my decision to keep going.

"He's probably an axe murderer," I said. "Plus, I am needed at the hospice," - a beautifully played religion card.

"Dad!" Andrew would have none of it. "Pull over."

"Ugh. " I said, the love of Jesus evident in my groan. Pulling over I promised Andrew that when this guy drew his knife or gun or whatever he surely had in store for us, he would need kill only me because the first thing I was going to do was dive for Andrew's neck! Andrew smiled as if happy at making the old man live up to all that Jesus stuff he's endured since birth.

So, at great peril to myself (not unlike St. Paul enduring raging seas en route to share the gospel in new territory, I might add), I cut across four lanes of I-75 and pulled over to a stop - about 200 yards past the hitchhiker. I could see him running toward us and I sized him up all the way. My car was still in gear. He had one small blue duffel bag and an extra long skateboard that was nearly as big as he was. He stood all of 5'6" and weighed no more than 100 lbs. Red, unkempt hair and pimples. He wore tattered jeans and a green tank top. A checkered scarf lay round his neck. It looked like it needed a broach on it. A very skinny kid, he looked real young - 15, 16 maybe.

"Where you headed?" I asked as he got to the car. "Please say 'next exit'. Please say 'next exit'," I thought.

"Far as you can take me," he said.

"But specifically where are you going?"

"Salt Lake City, Utah" he said with the faint sound of resignation in his voice.

Relieved that we were going different directions - soon - and that we thus couldn't take him very far at all, I replied, "Well, we'll be heading East on I-285," gesturing toward the large green sign above us. "That's only about two miles, but I guess we can take you that far." I must have sounded quite chipper. It feels good to help people.

"Every little bit helps," he replied, quoting the hitchhiker creed.

Turns out he was actually 18 years old though he did not look it. He'd been on vacation in West Palm Beach with his (soon to be former) roommate and some "friends." Three mornings earlier he'd awakened to find the room empty and his wallet gone. He had four bucks on him. Hitchhiking for three days, sleeping in the woods, eating whatever he could, he was now in my car. Ugh.

We hadn't traveled 100 yards together when I knew we were going places I would not choose. I hate admitting it, but I wasn't really excited about helping this kid. No warm feeling of the good volunteer swept over me. This was an interruption. I had important God-business to do. I was on my way to the PCC Hospice to visit a dying friend and I was in a hurry to get there. Further, I was delighted that my college sophomore son Andrew had been willing to accompany me, and I was looking forward to some rare time alone with him. But this hitchhiker kid was small, frail looking, and had the proverbial deer-in-headlights look. Ugh. Every once in a while Jesus gets in the way of my serving Jesus.

So, instead of pulling off the road at the junction of 75 and 285, I continued north. "We'll get you just a few exits up the road, but then I have places to be," still lying to myself about how this was going to turn out. I immediately dialed FREE-411 and got the 800 number for Greyhound. After pushing a few buttons, I discovered that it would cost 183 bucks to put this kid on a bus to Salt Lake City.

"You interested in a bus ticket to Utah?" I asked.

"Sure!" he said, "but I've only got four dollars to my name." He was unable to suppress his smile.

"Well you're going to have to ride with us for a while, because I have to visit someone in a hospice," I said. I wanted him to know my visit was more important than whatever business he might have. "Then we'll see about a bus ticket. By the way, what's your name?"

"Alex."

We made it to the hospice and I spent about a half an hour there. A wonderful saint has leukemia; she's dying. We talked about that a little, though I'm not sure how much she really understood. She was pleasant as she has always been. I prayed with her, and then we left.

We drove straight to the bus station in downtown Atlanta. If you've ever been to the Greyhound station, you know the scene: a lot of people milled about on the sidewalks, both sides of the street. Talking, smoking, some sharing brown bags. Weather beaten faces and dirty clothes. A guy asked me for my spare change. Alex and I walked into the station and waited in line for about thirty minutes before he got his ticket. The bus was going to leave at 12:45AM (Monday morning), and in just under two days, he'd be home. He felt good. I felt good. And just as I was about to shake Alex's hand and wish him well, I got the impression that Jesus was not done yet. Next thing I knew I heard this voice that sounded strangely like mine saying, "You need to come home with us until time for your bus." Ugh. We stopped at WalMart to buy Alex some snacks for the trip. Two days is a long time when you've got four bucks, and Alex loaded up on drinks, cookies, crackers, trail mix and slim-jims.

Wendy has always been pure gold when I pull these stunts, and Sunday night was no different. Sh had an unmistakable delight in her voice when I informed her I was bringing Alex home for a few hours. I know you're thinking that I should have asked Wendy first, but I know her. It was a gamble, but not much of one. She got out ham for sandwiches along with all the trappings. A bag of those little baby carrots, a couple of bottles of water. She kept shoving food at Alex until he said, "Ma'am, I don't have anywhere else to put any food."

Alex took a shower (his first in three days) , and Wendy found him a pair of fresh socks. He plopped down on the sofa and watched TV. It turns out Alex was a really bright kid who made good grades in high school, graduated early, and even had a year of college under his belt. At eighteen, however, he was completely on his own in the world. We chatted a bit about life, religion, his family -- such as it was. He had, as he put it, "lots of 'dads' that were [his] mother's friends." His birth father abandoned them when Alex was about 5 years old. Alex said he had reached out to him in recent years only to hear, "I'm not your father. I just got your mother pregnant a long time ago." Alex just stared out the window a while after telling me that.

When the time came for me to drive Alex to the station he thanked everyone in the family. Wendy slipped him a twenty, and he gathered his few things. We drove in silence for a while until I could bear it no more. I began the parent routine: do not leave the Greyhound station for any reason. Do not leave your bag unattended for any reason. Do not look anyone in the eye, and if you do, don't lock in on them. Did he still have that twenty? I forgot to tell him not to accept candy from strangers. I was very caring and quite impressed with myself.

Alex's response was perfect: "Do you mind sitting in the car while I stand just outside to smoke a cigarette? This doesn't look like a safe place."

"Sure."

A man came up to Alex while he smoked and offered to sell him something. I think he was selling crack, but neither of us could understand him. Alex finished his cigarette in a hurry, and opened the back door. Before he got all of his stuff out of the car, I asked him if I could pray with him.

"Oh yes," he said, "would you please?" I was surprised to hear that.

We bowed our heads, held hands, and prayed a long time, street toughs just a few feet away, watching. I squeezed his hands when I finished. When we finished praying Alex looked me in the eye and said as sincerely as I can imagine it being said, "Thanks." And with that he was gone -- the 183 dollar Greyhound ticket in his hand.

I believe that was gospel money well spent. I hope you do, too. But this was no good Samaritan type story. Rather, looking back, it gives me the odd impression of having been oblivious to an angel in my presence.

Whether we realize it or not -- and we need to realize it! -- we are more intimately connected to those with whom we share worship and prayer -- rich and poor, black and white, American, Asian, African, the immigrant crossing the border, the victims of violence, the reviled, the outcast, and the pariahs, heterosexuals and homosexuals -- than to partisan allies or compatriots. That might sound like a dangerous notion, but Christian discipleship is a venture filled with difficult risks and demands. The love that is perfectly lived and share in God is the same love felt, tasted and celebrated in the church, and because that is true, the members of the body of Christ, citizens in the Kingdom of God, live according to a different standard than political loyalty and personal preferences. (Charles Marsh, Wayward Christian Soldiers: Freeing the Gospel from Political Captivity, 118)

Who Will Be Saved? (Continuing our discussion of Will Willimon's book)

Chapter 4 -- Christ Triumphant

Will Willimon wants to believe that everyone, believer and unbeliever, Christian, Jew, Muslim, Hindu, atheist, agnostic and all those in between will be saved. I join him in that hope.

We don't know the fate of those who reject Jesus. I'm aware it doesn't take even a modicum of humility to write that sentence, so I don't offer it looking for admiration. Only those who claim to know what God knows may profess also to know who will be "in" and who will be "out" in the end. But the sentence above says more than just that. It's not that we don't know the fate of this or that individual. Of course that's true. Rather, we do not know if any human beings who decide not to follow Jesus will be damned. Yes, the Bible teaches there is a place or state of eternal punishment, but we do not know if it will be populated by any human beings. We do know it wasn't made for humanity. We do know that "with God all things are possible," and that we serve a God who is, it appears, less than impressed with our failures and utterly determined to be triumphant in his effort to redeem all of creation -- human beings included.

To reject the salvation that is offered in Jesus Christ would be a tragic decision, a slap in God's face. Yet it is hard to know just what such a human decision means, in the final scheme of things. Scripture is clear that our human decisions are relative to all the decisions God is making for us (55).

God's "yes" may, in the end, trump our every, "no." Over and again the God of the Bible demonstrates his determination to have his way with us, not because of us, but because of His nature, His love, His prodigal nature. Ultimately, Willimon concludes "something like 'universal salvation' is a fair implication of what we know of Jesus as well as what he taught" (66).

Will God save everyone? There is an awful lot in the Christian scripture and tradition which indicates otherwise even if the good Bishop chooses not to dwell on it in his book. As much as Willimon hopes (as do I) that in the end God welcomes everyone, receives and saves everyone, I'm not so sure that is the most complete reading of the Bible. I admit, however, it is the most appealing.

July 4th, Indepence, and true Freedom

The Second Continental Congress voted to adopt the Declaration of Independence on July 4th, 1776. It was then that the colonies formally and most decisively declared that they would be under no one's rule, save that government created by the "consent of the governed." Today is the day citizens and friends of the United States celebrate socio-political freedom (I borrowed that phrase, but I can't recall where). Let Christians in the United States of America join with others in this nation to celebrate the great value of that freedom. Can anyone disagree that it is better to live under a democratic/republican form of self-government than it is to live under a totalitarian regime of any stripe? At the same time, let believers be clear: as wonderful as socio-political freedom is, it is not the freedom won for us in Christ Jesus. It is not that for which Christ died. Neither is the success of the gospel is tied to, or dependent upon an American form of freedom. God is God whether socio-political freedom exists for us or not. Let us be thankful for this freedom, but let us never confuse it with anything lasting -- or anything distinctively Christian.

New York, New York

We landed in Newark this morning safe and sound (thanks, AirTran), and then made our way to the hotel before completely conquering the city by early evening. That might be a slight exaggeration, but Wendy moves at such a pace that it felt like we covered all of Manhattan in a half a day! By the way, among the millions of things I love about NYC is the fact that you can just say, "the city," and no one asks, "Which city do you mean?" There really isn't another, is there? We enjoyed a delightful Italian dinner some sidewalk cafe in Soho or Greenwich Village or some such hip place.

Tomorrow morning (while Andrew and Benjamin run a few miles) Wendy and I will visit the great Riverside Church, Union Theological Seminary, and St. John the Divine be fore heading down to "ground zero." The day holds a lot of promise. Then again, most of them do.

On Watching Your Language

I never used “bad” language around Momma. Expletives were rarely heard in my parents’ home, and never from my mother. I can remember pushing the envelope around my dad a few times, and I remember paying for it, too. Daddy wore a size 32” belt. He wasn’t terribly strict, but he drew a definite line as far as language went. But around Momma we didn’t test the limits. There was no wiggle room. Crude, rude, discourteous language was simply never allowed in her presence. Not because she thought she was born 15 miles from the nearest sin, but because she knew our words would, in part, determine what sort of people we would be. Whenever my tongue dared venture too far, Momma reined me in with this warning, “Watch your language.”

I mention all of that because it's past time we Christians learned to watch our language. I’m not so concerned that we’re using the popular, if crude, words for flatulence, feces and fornication (though that may well be an issue). My unease is over our failure to use first person pronouns properly. I, me, mine, we, us, our are simply killing our conversation. They can be harmful, dangerous, even fatal.

Huh?

Maybe this is not altogether clear, but I want you to help me keep my tongue in check. Help me watch my language. Sometimes I forget who I am. Occasionally I don’t remember where I’m from. Sometimes I can’t seem to recall my family name.

So, when I say “I” it should be in reference to one who follows Jesus. That should also be true when I refer to “me.” Especially help me make sure that when I say “us,” I mean church. When I say “we,” I need to mean God’s people. And when I say “our,” I want always to have in mind “us” because that’s who God wants “me” to be.

If "we" can win the battle for “our” language, and if "we" can remember who "we" are maybe, just maybe God can use “us” to make a difference in His world. There's little chance of that happening until "we" are sure who "we" are -- as well as who "we" are not. Our words form us at least as much as we form them.

Divine Abundance

Chapter Three of William Willimon's book, Who Will Be Saved? just read me.

That's not a misprint.

The book read me.

Just as I was getting comfortable with the book, asking my questions, making assumptions, questioning the direction the author was heading, in general assuming the posture of an active reader, it suddenly became clear -- I was no longer the reader. I had become the text. The book was reading me.

Good books turn the tables on us in precisely that way, and this is a very good book.

Here's where the book got me: "If we think about salvation at all, it is curious, and a bit sad, how we tend to move from the claims that 'Jesus saves' immediately to the question, 'Who is saved?'" (44). Ouch. That's exactly what I was asking: Who is saved? Who's in? Who's out? Willimon's talking about how "the grace of God appeared bringing salvation to all" (Titus 2:11), and the only response I can think of is, "Yeah, yeah -- but just who does it mean by 'all'" (38)?

I am getting ahead of myself, and ahead of the book. Chapter three begins by noting that questions having to do with salvation are first and foremost questions about "the identity of God. Who saves?" (35). The Bible answers the question with stories. A farmer sows seed; a fisherman's net catches all sorts of fish. The God of Israel throws seed about indiscriminately, haphazardly even, not concerning himself at all with what type of soil the seed finds. The God who saves us doesn't keep the good fish and throw out the bad, but happily pulls in the entire catch.

"Who saves?", we ask. And the Bible answers us by telling us about a farmer whose crop of wheat had all sorts of weeds in it (the work of an enemy). Don't try to remove the weeds, we're told. That's God's business. God seems to be "more into careless sowing, miraculous growing, and reckless harvesting than in taxonomy of the good from the bad, the worthwhile from the worthless, the saved from the damned" (36).

The God Jesus called "Father," is like a shepherd who risks all his "found" sheep in order to go on a search for the one sheep who is lost. He's like a woman who tears the house apart to find her one lost coin. God is a broken-hearted father who welcomes home his selfish and wasteful son: "This son of mine was dead but now is alive; he was lost and is found"and who then throws a party to celebrate the finding.

[Unfortunately] most of us have been conditioned to read the Bible anthropologically rather than theologically, asking, "How is this story about me?" Therefore we need a general interpretive principle for reading the Bible: Scripture always and everywhere speaks primarily about God, and only secondarily, and then only derivatively, about us (37).

So rather than addressing our question, "Who is saved?" the Bible focuses on the more important question: "Who is the Savior?" The Savior is the One who comes for everyone regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, social standing, age or any other qualifier. He is the Savior of all.

There is a tension that exists in Scripture, a tension between "all" and "not all." On the one hand, the Bible says that there is punishment, a "place" reserved for all who are disobedient to God. On the other hand there are passages in the Bible stating that "God has imprisoned all in disobedience so that he might be merciful to all" (Romans 11:32). Who, then, is saved? Everyone? Much of the Bible points away from that conclusion, attractive though it is. Three things we know for sure: we are all sinners in need of saving, God alone saves, and God desires salvation for all.

There is, of course, a distinction between "Jesus died for all," or "God seeks to save all," and "All will be saved." We trust in the God of abundance, the God who always wants more fish in the net. But what about the people who refuse the gift of God in Jesus Christ, who take a long look at Jesus and say, "No thanks"? First we can agree that we don't make the call of who is in and who, if anyone, is out. That is God's call and not ours. C.S. Lewis wrote in The Great Divorce: "There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, 'Thy will be done' and those to whom God says, in the end, 'THY will be done'" (79). Following Karl Barth, Willimon suggests

To the person who doggedly denies the Lordship of Christ and turns away from the open hand of salvation, 'God does not owe eternal patience and... deliverance'... But if there are limits to the love and patience of God, or if there are no limits on the love and patience of God, those matters are in God's hands, not ours. Though we cannot expect certitude in such matters...we can still hope" (49).

I do hope that God will save everyone. It is difficult to conceive of Jesus' Father doing otherwise as it is also difficult to get around the hard words of Scripture regarding punishment. Our role in the meantime, therefore, is to preach the good news that God saves -- all.

Beware of Dogma?

Most of you probably don't read such high-brow social commentary and theology as that found in the National Enquirer. That's okay, because I do, and I promise to keep you informed. Maybe you saw this cover in the supermarket. Take a good look. No, not at Kirstie Alley's now famously fluctuating waistline, and not at the story of the sad departure of Tim Russert. Just between Alley and Russert there is a story entitled, "World's Only Church for Dogs."

A church for dogs? I'd never heard of such a thing (despite what you might think given our annual blessing of the pets), so I decided to investigate. After a few Google searches - sure enough - I found a story on a church just for dogs. I found some other interesting things, too. I found the Virtual Church of the Blind Chihuahua. There was also a headline that read something like, "Legal Woes Dog Church," but after staring at it for a few minutes I discerned that it was talking about something altogether different. There were the usual sites with Pet Blessings and stuff, along with lots of people wanting to know if their dog went to heaven (and lots more people to reassure them that they had).

All this thinking about dogs and church caused me to reflect on my two Labs. I must admit that my two dogs, "Seven" and "Comet" do not go to church willingly, and I am pretty sure they are sinners of the worst sort. My guess is they are in serious jeopardy. They run away whenever they can. They bark at night - a lot. They never, ever share with each other. They sniff perfect strangers in highly inappropriate ways. They have even been known to express amorous intentions with the leg of just about anyone who stands still and appears willing. Yes, my dogs need church. Once a year for the PCC Pet Blessing/Animal Baptism doesn't seem to be doing the trick. Question is, what church will take them?

Which brings us back to the "World's Only Church for Dogs." It was founded by a Vermont artist, Stephen Huneck, whose five dogs kept him company during a long and difficult illness. He built a chapel in their honor, complete with stained glass and everything. Even little doggie pews. "I want dogs and people to feel as if they are in a cathedral," he said. The ecumenically minded church has no formal creeds, and dogs of all faiths are welcome. It's hard to envision, but from what I've read they simply throw the doors of the dog-cathedral wide open and allow dogs of all sorts, smelly ones, big ones, little fluffy French ones, dogs from the AKC and dogs with questionable pedigrees, even God-awful strays -- all of them are invited in. Now, that's what I call a church. An amazing place -- where any ol' dog who shows up is truly welcome.

Match Made in Heaven? NT Wright & Stephen Colbert

NT Wright seems "surprised by silliness," so you have to wonder if he'd seen The Colbert Report before agreeing to the appearance.

Blessed are the peacemakers...

True pacifism is not unrealistic submission to an evil power...it is rather a courageous confrontation with evil by the power of love, in the faith that it is better to be the recipient of violence than the inflicter of it... (The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr., IV, 479.)

You see, this method has a way of disarming the opponent. It exposes his moral defenses. It weakens his morale, and at the same time it works on his conscience, and he just doesn’t know what to do. If he doesn’t beat you, wonderful. If he beats you, you develop the quiet courage of accepting blows without retaliating. If he doesn’t put you in jail, wonderful. Nobody with any sense likes to go to jail. But if he puts you in jail, you go in that jail and transform it from a dungeon of shame to a haven of freedom and human dignity. And even if he tries to kill you, you’ll develop the inner conviction that there are some things so dear, some things so precious, some things so eternally true, that they are worth dying for. And I submit to you that if a man has not discovered something that he will die for, he isn’t fit to live (Speech at the Great March on Detroit, June 23, 1963).

Who Will Be Saved? (continuing our discussion of Will Willimon's book)

Chapter 2 -- "The Eros of God"

Erotic is not the word Christians usually employ to describe the love of God. Erotic speaks of lingerie, candles, soft music, and massage. It's the Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition (not that I've ever seen it), or it's an open-shirted Fabio gracing the cover of a romance novel. The word erotic is used in a lot of ways, but until I opened the book Who Will Be Saved?, I don't think I'd ever seen the word "Eros" or any form of it used to describe the passion God has for creation, for humanity.

When you see the word "Eros" or "erotic," what comes to mind? I invariably think along the lines of the steamy stuff suggested above, and I imagine you do, too. Surprisingly, however, my mind wanders away from the swimsuit edition toward C.S. Lewis' wonderful exploration of The Four Loves: storge (fondness of family), philia (love among friends), eros (sexual, romantic love) and agape (unconditional goodwill). If all of these loves are good, and they surely are, then we can safely say all of them originate with God. Of the four it is the word agape that is typically used of God's love. Anders Nygren calls it "the distinctively Christian love," the love (unlike eros) that is not motivated by its object. "[But] we make a mistake to separate agape from eros in speaking of the love that is experienced as the Trinity" (21).

Drawing on generally disfavored traditional interpretations of the Song of Solomon (for whatever that's worth), Willimon suggests the love Song is not simply "the erotic thoughts of two heated adolescents" but is rather "an allegory of the love of Christ for his church. Isn't it scandalous that the closest analogy for the love of God in Christ is the infatuated, sensual ramblings of two adolescents consumed with lust -- I mean love -- for each other (22)?

Consider the shocking suggestion that the church is the "Bride of Christ." The relationship between Christ and the church becomes that of a husband and wife. Seeking each other, wanting each other, their relationship is passionate and unrestrained. "Jesus looks upon the poor old church the way a proper groom looks upon his bride" (22).

"God erotically risks, desires union with humanity. So God comes close enough to be not only God for us, but to be God with us. In what the Biblical writers call 'the fullness of time' god steps up, steps in and steps out in a most amazing overture of love" (22).

Willimon may well overplay the subtext of eroticism in the Bible (maybe), but the notion of intimacy is unmistakably present throughout the NT. God abides with us; he is our shepherd; he is the vine and we the branches. He is the Bread on which we feed, the Living Water that we drink. He dwells in us and we dwell in Him.

God as a passionate lover is a difficult concept for children of the Enlightenment (that's us, by the way). Modern individuals view ourselves as our own sovereigns, separate, single, solitary, solo. We are special because of our individuality, and we are very capable (thank you) of standing alone, "self-sufficient, self reliant, and self made." We are at our best when as rugged individuals we need and rely on no one.

From a Christian point of view, in the Enlightenment the modern self did not grow; it shrank. The thin contemporary self, a creation of the individual's choices of the moment, responsible only for itself, having no greater project than itself was the self shed of the very qualities that previously were thought to be most humane (24).

Yet God presents himself as the one without whom we are lost. The One who wants to have us claims to be the One we must have -- if we have any hope of being saved. Rugged individualists don't like being told that. So we shrug in rebellion when we hear that salvation is being bound to a characteristically relational God that not only desires intimacy with us, but who stops at nothing to have it, to have us.

"Apparently God has got this thing for us almost like lust" (22).

Who Will Be Saved?

Chapter One -- "The God Who Refuses to Be Alone"

First and foremost, salvation is about something God does.

So says United Methodist Bishop William Willimon, author of our current read, Who Will be Saved? Contrary to what many otherwise smart people believe, the salvation of humanity, the promise of creation restored, comes not as a result of our own fine efforts, or from the skills of "the brightest and the best" among us. The salvation of the world will result not from collaborative work, or from nations agreeing to live together in harmony. History laughs at such nonsense, and it is almost silly that any of us (who actually live on this planet) can still be so credulous. Maybe there's a lesson in there for us as November approaches.

"Salvation is learning to live with the God that we've got, now and forever, learning to love the God who saves" (10). The problem with such a statement is that the meanings of the words "God" and "love" are not self-evident. These are words awaiting content, content that is supplied by the stories of Scripture. "We must attend to Scripture, listening carefully, enjoying the particulars, looking for the overall picture that emerges, so that we may know the God that we've got, or, more specifically to the way Scripture tells it, the God who has got us" (10).

We can begin, for example, with the story of the Good Samaritan in which a man, mugged, robbed and lying in a ditch, is passed unassisted by a priest and then a Levite, two very devoutly religious people. Finally a despised half-breed Samaritan comes along and helps the victim. "This is your ultimate hope for rescue," Willimon writes, "but you are aghast to learn that your hope, your salvation is none other than a good-for-nothing, anything-but-poor-and-pious, lousy Samaritan" (10). The story of the Samaritan is about "the odd, threatening, humiliating and extravagant form by which God draws near to us for our rescue. And in noting our reaction to the story, it's a story about our shock at the peculiar One who risked all for us" (11).

Like most of Scripture, the story of the man in the ditch is a story about God before it is a story about us, about the oddness of our salvation in Christ. I've used this interpretation of the parable of the Good Samaritan before, and I can tell you my congregation didn't like it. They like stories about themselves more than they like to hear stories about God. They are resourceful, educated, gifted people who don't like to be cast in the role of the beaten poor man in the ditch. They would rather be the anything-but-poor Samaritan who does something nice for the less fortunate among us. In other words, they don't like to admit that just possible they need to be saved.

Why is this story not about us? Doesn't the story end with Jesus saying, "Go and do likewise"" "Go" and "do" what? I'm saying that more difficult even than reaching out to the victim in the ditch (which is difficult enough for us) is coming to conceive of yourself as the victim, learning to live as if your one last hope is the Savior whom you tend to despise (11).

Salvation is when God finally gets what God wants in creating the world. Salvation means finally, safely to arrive where you have always been intended by God to be. One might expect God's restored good creation to be a redeemed garden to make up for the paradise we botched up in Genesis. Instead, Revelation says that God's crowing act of restoration is communitarian: New Jerusalem, a populous, raucously singing city, rather than a serene garden. You get this sort of result from a God who loves a crowd.

1 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 through the middle of the street of the city. On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. 3 Nothing accursed will be found there any more. But the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him; 4 they will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5 And there will be no more night; they need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever. (Revelation 22:1-5)

Litany of Resistance

Here is a litany that captures the spirit of the book, Jesus For President.

Jesus For President Litany of Resistance
Created by Shane Claiborne, Jim Loney and Brian Walsh

One: Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world
All: Have mercy on us
One: Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world
All: Free us from the bondage of sin and death
One: Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world
All: Hear our prayer. Grant us peace.
One: For the victims of war
All: Have mercy
One: Women, men and children
All: Have mercy
One: The maimed and the crippled
All: Have mercy
One: The abandoned and the homeless
All: Have mercy
One: the imprisoned and the tortured
All: Have mercy
One: The widowed and the orphaned
All: Have mercy
One: The bleeding and the dying
All: Have mercy
One: The weary and the desperate
All: Have mercy
One: The lost and the forsaken
All: Have mercy
One: O God -- Have mercy on us sinners
All: Forgive us for we know not what we do
One: For our scorched and blackened earth
All: Forgive us
One: For the scandal of billions wasted in war
All: Forgive us
One: For our arms makers and arms dealers
All: Forgive us
One: For our Caesars and Herods
All: Forgive us
One: For the violence that is rooted in our hearts
All: Forgive us
One: For the times we turn others into enemies
All: Forgive us
One: Deliver us, O God
All: Guide our feet into the way of peace
One: Hear our prayer.
All: Grant us peace.
One: From the arrogance of power
All: Deliver us
One: From the myth of redemptive violence
All: Deliver us
One: From the tyranny of greed
All: Deliver us
One: From the ugliness of racism
All: Deliver us
One: From the cancer of hatred
All: Deliver us
One: From the seduction of wealth
All: Deliver us
One: From the addiction of control
All: Deliver us
One: From the idolatry of nationalism
All: Deliver us
One: From the paralysis of cynicism
All: Deliver us
One: From the violence of apathy
All: Deliver us
One: From the ghettos of poverty
All: Deliver us
One: From the ghettos of wealth
All: Deliver us
One: From a lack of imagination
All: Deliver us
One: Deliver us, O God
All: Guide our feet into the way of peace
One: We will not conform to the patterns of this world
All: Let us be transformed by the renewing of our minds
One: With the help of God’s grace
All: Let us resist evil wherever we find it
One: With the waging of war
All: We will not comply
One: With the legalization of murder
All: We will not comply
One: With the slaughter of innocents
All: We will not comply
One: With laws that betray human life
All: We will not comply
One: With the destruction of community
All: We will not comply
One: With the pointing finger and malicious talk
All: We will not comply
One: With the idea that happiness must be purchased
All: We will not comply
One: With the ravaging of the earth
All: We will not comply
One: With principalities and powers that oppress
All: We will not comply
One: With the destruction of peoples
All: We will not comply
One: With the raping of women
All: We will not comply
One: With governments that kill
All: We will not comply
One: With the theology of empire
All: We will not comply
One: With the business of militarism
All: We will not comply
One: With the hoarding of riches
All: We will not comply
One: With the dissemination of fear
All: We will not comply
One: Today we pledge our ultimate allegiance… to the Kingdom of God
All: We pledge allegiance
One: To a peace that is not like Rome’s
All: We pledge allegiance
One: To the Gospel of enemy love
All: We pledge allegiance
One: To the Kingdom of the poor and broken
All: We pledge allegiance
One: To a King that loves his enemies so much he died for them
All: We pledge allegiance
One: To the least of these, with whom Christ dwells
All: We pledge allegiance
One: To the transnational Church that transcends the artificial borders of nations
All: We pledge allegiance
One: To the refugee of Nazareth
All: We pledge allegiance
One: To the homeless rabbi who had no place to lay his head
All: We pledge allegiance
One: To the cross rather than the sword
All: We pledge allegiance
One: To the banner of love above any flag
All: We pledge allegiance
One: To the one who rules with a towel rather than an iron fist
All: We pledge allegiance
One: To the one who rides a donkey rather than a war-horse
All: We pledge allegiance
One: To the revolution that sets both oppressed and oppressors free
All: We pledge allegiance
One: To the Way that leads to life
All: We pledge allegiance
One: To the Slaughtered Lamb
All: We pledge allegiance
One: And together we proclaim his praises, from the margins of the empire to the centers of
wealth and power
All: Long Live the Slaughtered Lamb
One: Long Live the Slaughtered Lamb
All: Long Live the Slaughtered Lamb

Jesus for President? -- (I've voted for worse)

(This is NOT a picture of Jesus)

During the Presidential Debates way back in 2003 (I think it may have been a Republican Primary debate) the would-be candidates were asked to name their "favorite philosopher." I can't remember who the others named, but I do recall cringing just a bit when George Bush answered confidently, "Jesus Christ." While I resort to stock Sunday school answers as much as anyone, I don't think Jesus was much of a philosopher. I do wonder, however, how much Jesus' "philosophy" actually influences the decisions of the ostensibly Christian President of the United States, not to mention the many church going members of the Congress.

I wonder even more, however, what sort of a President Jesus himself would make. Shane Claiborne is doing more than wondering; he's already nominated Christ for that highst of offices in his new book, Jesus for President: Politics for Ordinary Radicals. In case you don't know, that's Shane pictured above. He's an interesting guy who, as you can likely surmise from the photo, is not exactly corporate. Shane calls himself, "an ordinary radical," which has less to do with his dreadlocks and earrings and more to do with his taking the Sermon on the Mount seriously.

As you can imagine Claiborne has in mind "A different kind of campaign. A different kind of party. A different kind of Commander in Chief." What I'm going to do over the next few weeks is attempt to whet your appetite for this extremely interesting book. In the meantime, click this for someone who can do a far better job than I.

Who Will Be Saved?

If anyone was going to write a book entitled Who will Be Saved?, you almost knew it had to be Will Willimon. My only disappointment was the good Bishop didn't provide a definitive list of names. Believe me, the first thing I did was to flip through the pages looking to see if I was one of the chosen. Alas, there are no names; there is no list. But there is in this little book a wealth of insight into what it means for Christians to speak of salvation, and more importantly what it means to live as saved people. Here's a little taste:

Most Christians think of salvation as related exclusively to the afterlife. Salvation is when we die and go to heaven. To be sure, Scripture is concerned with you eternal fate. What has been obscured is Scripture's stress on salvation as invitation to share in a particular God's life here, now, so that we might do so forever. Salvation isn't just a destination; it is our vocation. Salvation isn't just a question of who is saved and who is damned, who will get to heaven and how, but also how we are swept up into participation into the mystery of God who is Jesus Christ (3).

If salvation for you has always meant an escape from this life, if it has always been "pie in the sky by and by," if it's never been clear to you what salvation has to do with how you live day to day, then check out Who Will Be Saved? I once heard a scholar poke fun at William Willimon telling him he'd never had a thought that he didn't publish. I think that's a good thing for the church.

So, how was your weekend?

Mine got a little interesting early Friday evening. I spent the day Friday at the theological library at Emory University. At a few minutes before 5:00PM I had an arm full of books and was walking back to my desk when the lights went out. The library was closing -- not what I was counting on.

So on an evening when I thought I'd be safely tucked away in a stack of books I was on my way home fighting Atlanta traffic. Little did I know!

Just after I turned onto West Wesley Rd. off of Moore's Mill a pick up truck moving at excessive speed swerved across the double lines and gave me a little kiss on the mouth. The other driver walked away. I walked away. And Friday the 13th became a really, really good day.

I don't want to jump to conclusions or make easy comments about "God watching over me" or speak too freely about how my walking away is "proof of God's goodness" or His love. I, like you, have known too many people who did not walk away. I've buried youngsters whose parents had to be pried off the coffin so we could have a funeral. Was God not watching over them? Was God not good then? Had I not walked away from this accident on Friday the 13th, would my family and friends still speak of "God watching over me" or of "God's goodness"? I believe so. I hope so.

When the lights went out in Pitts Theological Library yesterday afternoon I told the nice young lady who was closing up the place that a graduate school library should stay open late on weekends. I was right.

Gabi & Mara to speak at PCC Sunday school - 6/15

Be sure to come early to Sunday school on the 15th of June to hear about the work God is accomplishing in eastern Europe. The Agape and Open Word classes will combine to hear the wonderful testimonies of our missionary friends in Hungary, Gabi and Mara. Here's a video they put on Godtube.com.

Sources of Authority for What We Believe and How We Live

How do we determine what we, as Christians, are supposed to believe?
What are the appropriate sources of authority for Christian living, ethics, and virtues?

Protestant Christians, having no teaching magisterium to hand down correct doctrine, are left to discover answers to these questions via other means. Even though his use of what is called "Wesley's quadrilateral" is debated, it is most often assumed that Johns Welsey, the founder of Methodism implicitly relied on four sources of authority: 1) Scripture, 2) Tradition, 3) Reason and 4) Experience. The devil, of course, is in the details. My concern is not so much how did Wesley use them (although the answer might be instructive), but how do we? How might we?

The two diagrams above picture two ways of using of the four sources. Which of the two diagrams most accurately represents the way you approach theological reflection? Why do you approach things as you do?

One of the earliest memories of my life in church is learning the slogan: "Where the Bible speaks, we speak; where the Bible is silent, we are silent." That is to say (in good Campbellite fashion), Scripture trumps everything else. If my intellect demands a view contrary to that espoused in Scripture, the Bible wins. The same holds true for tradition and experience and anything else one might envision as a potential "authority." I'm not claiming that we actually practiced this when it came right down to it, but that was the un-stated, but nonetheless very clear belief of my childhood church. Wesley's four fold approach would have been seen as dangerous.

1. What are the differences between the two diagrams of Wesley's Quadrilateral?
2. What are the strengths of each of the two approaches pictured above?
3. What are their potential weaknesses?
   
4. Is it a given that we will use each of these four sources?
5. How do the four interact with each other in your theological reflection?

Stanley Hauerwas is sorry to tell you, "but your salvation is in doubt."

Stanley Hauerwas is worried about the church -- at least the church in the United States. I don't think it would be an overstatement of Hauerwas' position to say he believes that, like the Israelites at the foot of Mt. Sinai, the church in America has lost the ability even to recognize idolatry and is dancing merrily around a golden calf -- beautiful to be sure, but powerless to save.

Some dismiss Hauerwas as merely a "bomb thrower" or an "ivory tower prophet." Maybe such comments contain some truth, and maybe they don't. This much is clear, at least to me: dismissing Stanley Hauerwas because you dislike him is a big mistake. He works tirelessly to remind us that Christians who happen to live in the United States are surrounded by seduction, and it is not altogether clear that we even know it. That's a dangerous place to be.

Not too long ago he spoke to a group of youth ministers at Princeton Theological Seminary and was, um, provocative (surprise!). Here's a slice of some typically controversial Stanley:

I went to church summer camp once when I was growing up in Texas. I remember the highlight of the camp was watching the sun go down on the last night from a mountain—well, a hill (it was Texas)—while we sang “Kumbayah.” This was an attempt to give us a “mountain top experience” that we could identify with being or becoming a Christian. About the last thing I would want is for you to have such an experience here. I do not want to make Christianity easy. I want to make it hard.

I assume most of you are here because you think you are Christians, but it is not at all clear to me that the Christianity that has made you Christians is Christianity. For example:

How many of you worship in a church with an American flag?
I am sorry to tell you your salvation is in doubt.

How many worship in a church in which the Fourth of July is celebrated?
I am sorry to tell you your salvation is in doubt.

How many of you worship in a church that recognizes Thanksgiving?
I am sorry to tell you your salvation is in doubt.

How many of you worship in a church that celebrates January 1 as the “New Year”?
I am sorry to tell you your salvation is in doubt.

How many of you worship in a church that recognizes “Mother’s Day”?
I am sorry to tell you your salvation is in doubt.

I am not making these claims because I want to shock you. I do not want you to leave the Princeton Forum on Youth Ministry thinking that you have heard some really strange ideas here that have made you think. It is appropriate that you might believe you are here to make you think, because you have been told that is what universities are supposed to do, that is, to make you think. Universities are places where you are educated to make up your own mind. That is not what I am trying to do. Indeed, I do not think most of you have minds worth making up. You need to be trained before you can begin thinking. So I have not made the claims above to shock you, but rather to put you in a position to discover how odd being a Christian makes you.

This is the most provocative part of the essay, but by no means is this the best part. If you're still reading and want a little more, click this for Hauerwas' brilliant answer to the question, "Why did Jesus Have to Die?" You will be blessed.

Pray for Christians in Iran

Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering. Hebrews 13:3

This story really captured my heart today (click). Though it seems surreal, it's not a scene from an action movie. Men and women who convert to Christianity in Iran are being rounded up and imprisoned for it. Many believers sit in jail or worse as I write. This is not new, of course, but we tend to be a bit isolated here. Not too many of us know what it's like to be persecuted for our faith; I sure don't. Frankly, I fear that this has as much to do with how we live out our discipleship as it does with where we live.

If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember the words I spoke to you: 'No servant is greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. John 15:19-20

Following Jesus, or so He claims, will never be safe, although "going to church" seems to come with few repercussions. But we'll save that discussion for another day.

For now, let's all pray for our brothers and sisters in Iran who -- for following the Prince of Peace -- undergo unspeakable horror . This sort of thing is not so rare as we might think. It is not confined to any one region of the globe, and it is not absent from any either.

I came across these lyrics recently (though I've never heard the song). Entitled, "How Long?," it seems appropriate today.

As we bring our songs of love today
Do you hear a sound more glorious?
Like the mighty roar of ocean waves
Many witnesses surround us
It’s a harmony of costly praise
From the lips of those who suffer
Of sighs and tears and martyrs’ prayers
Until this age is over.

How long, Lord, till you come?
How long till the earth
Is filled with your song?
How long until your justice
Shines like the sun?
How long, Lord, till you come?
How long till the earth
Is filled with your song?
How long, how long?

Lord, help us to live worthy of
Our sisters and our brothers
Who love you more than their own lives
Who worship as they suffer
To embrace the scandal of the cross
Not ashamed to tell your story
To count all earthly gain as loss
To know you and your glory

O Lord,
We ask for strength beyond strength for those who love you even in the face of persecution, those who offer 'costly praise.' Deliver them from their captors, and protect them from all harm. Be with those who imprison Christians and let them see your love in our sisters and brothers in prison. Above all else, O Lord, may your Name be glorified as followers of The Way are faithful to you in all things. Through Christ our Lord we pray. Amen.

Bible Rap - Video of the Week

Bible Rap -- (only for those with 4 minutes to laugh)

NT Wright speaking informally about the Bible -- and other topics!

In an interview last year (the audio is also available), NT Wright had this to say about the Bible and his book, The Last Word:

Silly title, by the way. That was Harper’s folly to call it that. It wasn’t my idea. Fancy having a book called The Last Word! I mean… it’s very silly. If I was going to write a book called The Last Word it would be on Christology, not on Scripture. “In the last days, God has spoken to us by his Son…”

But I’ve been trying to stress that the risen Jesus does not say to the disciples, “All authority on heaven and earth is given to the books you chaps are going to go off and write.” He says, “All authority on heaven and earth is given to Me.” So that if we say that Scripture is authoritative, what we must actually mean is that the authority which is vested in Christ alone is mediated through Scripture.

That’s a more complicated thing than simply having a book on the shelf, full of right answers that you can go and look up. It’s more a way of saying that when we read Scripture and determine to live under it, we are actually saying we want to live under the sovereign lordship of Jesus mediated through this book.

When you say it like that, then all sorts of other things happen as a result, like what is the sovereign lordship of Jesus all about? Is it simply to fill our heads with right answers to difficult questions? Well, right answers to difficult questions are better than wrong answers to difficult questions. But no, the authority of Jesus Christ is there to transform and heal and save the world, to make the kingdoms of the world become the kingdom of our God and of his Christ. So the question then is, how does the authority of Scripture serve that purpose?. And that’s actually much more interesting than simply using Scripture to settle or raise indeed doctrinal disputes within the church.

Classic Wright.

The Last Word - Chapter One (God as our authority and authority as something altogether different)

"The risen Jesus, at the end of Matthew's gospel, does not say, 'All authority on heaven and earth is given to the books you are all going to write,' but 'All authority on heaven and earth is given to me'" (xi). When John declares that “in the beginning was the Word” he does not reach a climax with “and the word was written down” but “and the word became flesh.” The main thrust of Wright’s argument in The Last Word is that Christians must understand the “authority of Scripture” as shorthand for “the authority of God exercised through scripture” (p. 25).

Scripture itself assumes throughout that all authority to belong to God – and to God alone. Thus scripture points away from itself to the true authority – God, and to His Son to whom all authority has been given. Thus when Christians speak of “the authority of scripture” we are dealing with a highly condensed phrase that carries within it a lengthy narrative. “It must mean, if it means anything Christian, “the authority of God exercised through Scripture” (25). But what does that mean? And how does it function?

The situation is complicated because the Bible is generally “not the sort of thing that many people envisage today when they hear the word “authority” (25). For the most part it is a story. It is not a list of rules, though it contains rules. It is not a systematic presentation of doctrine, although it surely contains doctrine. It is, from beginning to end, the story of God seeking to reconcile His creation to himself. How can a story be authoritative?

Wright's answer is interesting: "If the commanding officer comes into the barrack-room and begins, 'Once upon a time,' the soldiers are likely to be puzzled” (26). But what if, Wright asks, the officer “briefs the soldiers about the nature of the mission and the people they will likely encounter, and how the current situation arose,” i.e. tells them a story? They will then understand more clearly the nature of their job as soldiers. Whether this is the way the military works or not, it is an exercise of authority, according to Wright, and likely a more effective one than a straightforward list of orders with no accompanying briefing.

What we need to recognize then, is not so much the authority of scripture, but rather the authority of God. This involves seeing God’s authority as his sovereign power accomplishing the renewal of all creation. The authority of scripture is a sub-branch of several other theological topics. The Bible is not simply revelation or a devotional manual.

Wright notes that the phrase, “authority of scripture” is prominently used by those who, usually in a minority, oppose something done or believed by the “liberal” establishment. When such dissidents find themselves in power, they very often quickly subdivide into groups reading the Bible this way or that. “This itself suggests that an over hasty appeal to scripture does not in fact work. We need to set scripture within the larger context which the Biblical writers themselves insist upon: that of the authority of God himself” (28).

But God’s authority is a different sort of authority from what we’re used to. It is less like a final court of appeal or a list of rights and wrongs, and more like what we see in Jesus -- healing power (authority over evil) and new teaching (authority that creates a new reality). This healing and new way of living is God's goal for all of creation - not just humanity.

The key question is what role does Scripture play within God’s accomplishment of this goal? According to Wright it does more than give us information about God; it actively takes part in the saving work God is accomplishing. “Scripture is there to be a means of God’s action in and through us – which will include, but go far beyond, the mere conveying of information” (30). Thus scripture is not mere revelation (in the conveying information sense) and more than a mere witness to revelation. God is not to be understood as absent, but sending us information (the Bible), but “present, albeit transcendent” (31).

“God does indeed speak through scripture… We must not confuse the idea of God speaking, in this or any other way, with the notion of authority. Authority, particularly when we locate it within the notion of God’s kingdom, is so much more than that. It is the sovereign rule of God sweeping through creation to judge and to heal. It is the powerful love of God in Jesus Christ putting sin to death and launching new creation” (33).

Wright concludes chapter one noting three things indicated by the Bible’s role in the church: 1) The Biblical God is a God who speaks. Thus reading to hear and to know God is not too great a stretch. 2) We need to think differently than what we're capable of left to our own devices. Part of scripture's role is to show us how to think -- and enable the thinking. 3) God’s power is available to all who ask for it in order to participate in God’s mission of re-creation.

Not the last word on NT Wright's The last Word

Continuing our exploration of this great little book...

I met an interesting guy in a Christian bookstore not too long ago. We were both looking at Bible commentaries, exchanging small talk. After a few minutes he began to comment on the commentaries I was favoring, and it became clear he was a bit bothered because I was, as he put it, “maybe focusing on the wrong kinds of commentaries.” Now, I know he was trying to be helpful, and he was a nice guy, but once I discovered he was a fundamentalist Baptist something in me wanted to say, “This is a Methodist bookstore. All they have are the ‘wrong kinds of commentaries.’” Biting my tongue, I kept looking at the books, tried to sort of listen, and just let him talk. He told me why this commentary was “untrustworthy”, why that one was “liberal,” and why another did not respect the “authority of Scripture.” What I wanted to tell him, but did not, was this: The Bible is not the highest authority in the church. Now, if you grew up in a fundamentalist church, or if you had your faith formed in such a church you might be bothered by the statement that the Bible is not the church's highest authority. But if we are to be a Christian church we would do well to consider just what is the church's highest authority -- if it's not the Bible. Chapter One - coming up.

The Jesus Creed

The Jesus Creed

This creed was originally shared at the Emergent Convention, Nashville, May 2004.

By Brian McLaren

We have confidence in Jesus
Who healed the sick, the blind, and the paralyzed.
And even raised the dead.

He cast out evil powers and
Confronted corrupt leaders.
He cleansed the temple.
He favored the poor.
He turned water into wine,
Walked on water, calmed storms.

He died for the sins of the world,
Rose from the dead, and ascended to the Father,
Sent the Holy Spirit.

We have confidence in Jesus
Who taught in word and example,
Sign and wonder.
He preached parables of the kingdom of God
On hillsides, from boats, in the temple, in homes,
At banquets and parties, along the road, on beaches, in towns,
By day and by night.

He taught the way of love for God and neighbor,
For stranger and enemy, for outcast and alien.

We have confidence in Jesus,
Who called disciples, led them,
Gave them new names and new purpose
And sent them out to preach good news.
He washed their feet as a servant.
He walked with them, ate with them,
Called them friends,
Rebuked them, encouraged them,
Promised to leave and then return,
And promised to be with them always.

He taught them to pray.
He rose early to pray, stole away to desolate places,
Fasted and faced agonizing temptations,
Wept in a garden,
And prayed, “Not my will but your will be done.”
He rejoiced, he sang, he feasted, he wept.

We have confidence in Jesus,
So we follow him, learn his ways,
Seek to obey his teaching and live by his example.
We walk with him, walk in him, abide in him,
As a branch in a vine.

We have not seen him, but we love him.
His words are to us words of life eternal,
And to know him is to know the true and living God.
We do not see him now, but we have confidence in Jesus.

Amen.

The Last Word: Scripture and the Authority of God – Getting Beyond the Bible Wars

Scripture is God’s true story. It not only tells the truth about God, but also renders the true God truly with us. The God thereby rendered is not the product of ancient fertile imaginations, not a projection of the highest and best aspirations of human spiritual striving, not some mythic configuration of the human psyche. This God is the stranger who comes to us and speaks to us Luther’s “external Word.” If not then we would have had absolutely no means of knowing this God. The primary agent of scripture is God; the primary author of scripture is God; the concern of scripture is God. This suggests that our toughest challenge in reading the Bible is not that it is ancient and written in foreign tongues but rather that we live in a narcissistic, self-obsessed culture that has a myriad of ways of deluding us into thinking that we can be gods ourselves.

Proclamation and Theology, William Willimon

Today we begin a study of NT Wright’s book, The Last Word: Scripture and the Authority of God – Getting Beyond the Bible Wars. NT Wright, Bishop of Durham, England, is one of the leading New Testament scholars in the world. He is definitely someone worth reading, and you can check out the unofficial NT Wright page online. It has a lot of free Wright stuff.

“Writing a book about the Bible,” Wright quips in the preface, “is like building a sand castle in front of the Matterhorn.” That is almost certainly true, but Wright’s The Last Word is one fine little ‘sand castle’ – and is worth our exploring as we continue to discuss the role and nature of the Bible for Christians. We might do well to consider Wright’s next comment: “The best you can hope to do [when building such a ‘sandcastle’] is catch the eye of those who are looking down instead of up, or those who are so familiar with the skyline that they have stopped noticing its peculiar beauty.” While we study about the Bible, let’s not even for a little while stop reading the Bible. That would be a travesty. It is not my intention to take your eyes off the Matterhorn, but rather to consider what it is about the majestic peak that moves us to approach it and blesses us when we do. It is in the reading and in the praying words of scripture that we come to understand God’s way and will for the world and thus for ourselves.

I began this post with a quotation from William Willimon not because it’s the best summary of what the Bible is or how it functions. It’s not. It does not deal with issues of inspiration or anyone's claims of inerrancy. It says nothing about how the Bible functions as authority for the church. It provides nothing for those who wonder how we got the Bible and little for those who wonder why we should believe it. But it does make a couple of enormous claims about the Bible, ones I think the church can ill-afford to forfeit, but which we are, in surprisingly large numbers surrendering, or at least never coming to terms with in our reading, our devotional lives, our community’s mission, and our ethics. I encourage you to return to Willimon’s words (but the Church’s claim from the beginning) as we discuss Wright’s book:

The primary agent of scripture is God; the primary author of scripture is God; the concern of scripture is God.

Continuing with the Preface (I usually skim or skip the Preface of books altogether , but not when the book is NT Wright’s) we find several great questions that Wright believes are crucial for our conversation.

How can what is mostly a narrative text be authoritative? It’s one thing to have commands, instructions on what to do or not do. But when we are dealing with stories, narrative, there tends not to be much explicit "ought, must or should." No direct address or orders. No stated guidelines for living. How does a story function authoritatively?

Wright also asks how we can consider the Bible our authority when Jesus says (in the Bible), “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me”? What does it mean to say that “the authority of Jesus is somehow exercised through the Bible”?

That’s a lot to chew on for one night, so I’ll end as Wright does, with this prayer from the Anglican tradition:

Blessed Lord, who hast caused all scripture to be written for our learning, grant that we may in such wise hear them, read, mark, learn and inwardly digest them, that by patience and comfort of thy holy Word we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life which thou hast given us in thy Son our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

What's Your View of the Bible? A thought provoking QUIZ...

Christians do some very odd things when they gather to worship. They rehearse the death of their founder, and eat a “meal” to commemorate that death. The meal has two courses: make-believe blood and faux flesh. Christians will ritually "kill" converts, burying them in water, and they sing songs of love to Persons their eyes have never seen.

Certainly worthy of mention among the weird and wonderful things Christians do is this: they open an ancient book (actually a collection of writings), read from it or listen to it being read, and with some few exceptions, they will expect to be addressed in some sense by the Creator of the Universe. They even give little speeches to explain this reading and to demonstrate its relevance to following their Leader.

Now, that may not strike you as an odd practice. And if it doesn’t strike you as odd, then you’ve probably been in the church quite a while -- because this is the picture: Ancient book, writers usually unknown, bizarre stories. The book is handed down generation to generation, so that we can read from it and say, “This is the Word of the Lord.”

Thanks be to God.

If I can remove my tongue from my cheek for a moment, let me ask you a question: what do we mean when we say things like “This is the Word of the Lord?”

What do you mean by it?

Are you saying it is inspired? Trustworthy? Beneficial?

I found a really interesting QUIZ that I think you’ll enjoy. Click this >>> Hermeneutics Quiz

What Christians never do is open Mein Kampf, or The Complete Works of Shakespeare, or the New York Times, and expect to hear the Word of the Lord. Why is that?

What is your view of the Bible?
What is your church's view?
Does it matter?

I was a Stranger…

"To welcome the stranger is to acknowledge him as a human
being made in God's image; it is to treat her as one of equal worth
with ourselves - indeed, as one who may teach us something out of the richness of experiences different from our own."

-- Sister Ana Maria Pineda

Every once in a while an extraordinary opportunity comes along – and you pray only that you recognize it and take advantage. Maybe it’s meeting someone who just might be the love of your life. Or the job offer that comes your way, and you’re not sure – should I accept it or not?

The writer of Hebrews says something about wonderful opportunities that come our way. “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” (Hebrews 13:2) I think the great opportunity is not that we hit the hospitality jackpot and have angels in our living room, although that would make for an interesting evening. The really important opportunity is to love someone who you do not know and who does not know you (a stranger).

Interestingly, the phrase “hospitality to strangers” comes from a single Greek word, philoxenia. Philoxenia itself is a compound word: from philos, meaning love (like Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love) and xenos, meaning stranger (as in xenophobia, fear of strangers). So what the writer tells his readers is that they “must not fail at loving the strangers” among them.

Why? Maybe it’s because when we love the stranger we love as God loves -- with a love that puts us at risk, a love that gives expecting nothing in return.

According to Jesus, the chance to do something truly great comes along more often than we may think. Problem is, we’ve been trained not to see the opportunities, or not to see them for what they really are (and the world has a way of making good students of us all).

The poor, the lonely, the hungry, the weak, the fallen, the strangers – all the marginal people – from one angle they are our opportunity to do something great: minister directly to Jesus himself. “I was once a stranger to you,” Jesus says, “and you took me in.”

The Thai family - strangers to us and we to them. PCC is thrilled to have the opportunity to reach out with the love of Christ to the Thais. Arriving this Tuesday (5/13) from Burma, the Thais bring to us an incalculable gift.

Compassionate God, make your loving presence felt to refugees, torn from home, family and everything familiar. Warm, especially, the hearts of the young, the old, and the most vulnerable among them. Help them know that you accompany them as you accompanied Jesus, Mary, and Joseph in their exile to Egypt. Lead refugees to a new home and a new hope, as you led the Holy Family to their new home in Nazareth. Open our hearts to receive them as our sisters and brothers in whose face we see your son, Jesus. Amen. (taken from United Nations High Commission for Refugees)

Why Ipsissima Vox?

1. Why start a blog?
   
2. Why start this particular blog?
3. Why the name Ipsissima Vox?

What the world needs now is just one more blog, right? Well, not exactly. There are millions of blogs on the web, covering every subject imaginable. Web logs on religion and faith are like Baptists -- there's seemingly one hiding behind every bush (no offense intended). So why begin another?

I'm beginning this blog in the hope that it will be an effective tool for generating reflection and open discussion among the friends and members of Peachtree Christian Church. We have precious little time for thinking together about the Faith. Maybe this blog will help provide us more opportunity for careful consideration of life together in Christ. Maybe it will also help us somewhat overcome our urban and suburban sprawl. Blogs allow people who can't literally gather together (or who can't gather easily) to join in a discussion despite their lack of proximity. As a church located in midtown Atlanta, Peachtree Christian Church knows all about the challenges of being spread across a large city. One goal of this blog is to bring us together through the sharing of ideas, insights, questions and encouragement. Along these lines, the blog is supplemental to our LIFE Groups (small groups devoted to fellowship and Bible study).

Some may question the suggestion that a blog can "bring us together." They make a good point. Virtual community is no substitute for actual community. So (though it really shouldn't have to be said) let us continue to meet together without fail each week: celebrating Holy Communion, working together on various ministries, encouraging each other, occasionally even exasperating each other, but always struggling by the power of the Holy Spirit to become the sort of alternative polis that reflects the image of Jesus to the world.

The phrase "Ipsissima Vox" (which is Latin for "the very voice") is used by Jesus scholars to describe a saying which, though it is presented in the gospels or other sources as the very words of Jesus is probably more like a paraphrase, or a summary of the type of thing Jesus said. Sometimes we don't have his exact words, but we can still hear his voice. The gospel writers didn't employ the precision of modern historians, but they did give us the gist, a reflection of what Jesus said - and it is enough. Ipsissima Vox. His very voice.

May we be led by the Spirit, informed by the Word, and guided by tradition -- so that what we share with each other on this blog will reflect and honor the very voice of Christ.

Ipsissima Vox.

No small hope.