Tag Archives: Christianity

Simple answers

22 Friday Jun 2018

Posted by in Humanity, Politics, Theology

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I have struggled with our national immigration system all week – or rather the implementation of it.  I’ve seen the pictures, heard the audio, from refugee seekers and those in detention facilities.  I’ve heard supporters carrying out the law.  I’ve heard the president shift from saying that his hands were tied to signing an executive order changing the situation.  I’ve read numerous accounts about what the law and policy is and is not – none really agreeing with each other – the same goes for the executive order.

I’ve found the policy to be immoral at its core, but at the same time, I think that’s simplistic.

It’s easy to complain and point fingers and to scapegoat.  I’ve seen plenty of that on social media. Heck, I’m willing to admit that I’m just as guilty.  Being right feels good after all.  Being able to point a finger and blame someone and label them as wrong, evil, or immoral feels really good.  And we as a nation are really good at that.

And it’s exhausting.  And it doesn’t end.  And we’ll be exactly where we are next week, only on some other divisive issue that will cause the nation to be divided, to point fingers, and to throw labels around.

I’m tired of it.  But I’m not quitting.  I will speak up – but hopefully in a different way.  Will I fail – most likely, I’m a broken and sinful person.  I have my opinions and ideas.  I have my biases and worldviews.

And like the disciples in the boat this Sunday, I’m sure I’ll be distracted by the storms of life, rather than focused on Jesus who is in the boat with me.  I’ll keep asking “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” And Jesus won’t answer.  He won’t answer because that’s the wrong question.  The better question comes from Jesus – “Why are you afraid?”  Ouch.

Good question Jesus?  I don’t have a good answer to that question.  But maybe I can start to ask that question to myself and others.  To really hear people where they are – what they fear.  To hear what they place as their identities.  To voice my own fears.  To really connect with people in a vulnerable way.

We want simple answers to these challenges that we face.  I heard plenty simple answers: “Just follow the law” “The Republicans can change the law anytime” The Democrats passed it – it’s their fault” “The Administration decided to carry this out six weeks ago” “Democrats didn’t care about this before six weeks ago.”  And back and forth it goes.  Until we get to the next issue that where the arguments are not really any different and people are forced to choose sides in the battle of partisanship.

And like the disciples in the boat, we are missing the more important question – Why are we afraid?

Are we afraid because we know that our memes, and tweets, and one-liners, and insults, are as empty as they sound?  Are we afraid because we know that our simple solutions aren’t solutions at all – but rather blunt objects meant to cause damage to our opponents and enemies?  Are we afraid because we don’t know the answers and we don’t like not knowing? Are we afraid because deep down we know we are not in control?  Are we afraid because the answers might require us to change?  Are we afraid because if we became vulnerable with each other, we might actually learn that we are more alike than we thought – not just political opponents, but refugees, law enforcement, people with different skin colors, people who speak a different language, Democrats, Republicans, Hillary, Trump.  Whoa!

It’s easy to offer simple solutions.  It’s easy to attack and divide.  It’s easy to dehumanize and devalue people.  It’s easy to do this either as an attack on someone or a group and it’s easy to fall into this for defense.  It’s so easy that often we don’t realize we are doing it and then what?

Right now I’m reading a book called “Living without Enemies” by Samuel Wells and Marcia Owen.  Yes, living without enemies.  The premise is that we don’t get to choose who is our enemy – we aren’t God.  And God sees everyone as a Child of God.  Because we claim to follow God, then we are to see the world the way God sees the world – God empowers us to do that.  And to God, there are no enemies.

One of the key ideas in this book is Being With.  It’s the theology of presence.   Not coming up with answers, because sometimes there are no answers.  When I sit with a family who’s 28-year-old son is dying, there are no answers.  There is nothing I can say that will change the situation.  All I can do is be present, to sit with them in their sorrow, their grief, their questions, their anger, their doubts, their fears.  That’s it.

There are no simple answers to our immigration system.  That doesn’t mean we sit idly by and do nothing.  I think the only way we will ever be effective is to start by being present with each other.

In silence there are no answers, only companionship.  There are no explanations, only humility.  There is no blame, only common humanity.  But that silence takes discipline, self-knowledge and many years of practice, because it runs counter to a great many instincts and social conventions.  Often we want to speak because we don’t want to feel.  And sometimes we speak to try to stop people from feeling.

(Living without Enemies, pg. 78)

Let’s start with Jesus and his question for the disciples – “Why are you afraid?”  We may not have an answer, just like the disciples.  So let’s sit with that for a while.  Let’s sit together and admit we are afraid and we don’t know why.  Let’s just sit together and be afraid.  It’s as good as any starting point that I know of.  It’s not a simple answer to the challenges we face.  But it’s the start of something different.  I want something different.  Don’t you?  Or would you rather wait until the next outrage happens and revert back to the same thing of seeking simple answers that don’t exist?

I don’t want to write about these things

21 Thursday Jun 2018

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I don’t want to write about these things.  Nor do I want to preach about them.  The smart ass response to that is “Well, you should have known what you were getting into when you signed up to be a pastor.”  Yeah, because everybody knows what the future holds.  Thanks for the compassion.

I really don’t enjoy writing about all of the things that are happening every day.  I don’t enjoy preparing a sermon that talks about all the things that are going on either.

I don’t want to, but yet I can’t avoid it.  I guess I could actually.  I could just stay quiet.  I could not speak about any of it.  I could not rock the boat and be vulnerable to the arrows that come my way in response.  I could allow the fear of criticism and negative comments to win the day.  I could allow the potential anger in response to have sway over what I say or write.  I could create a false sense of peace to make sure that no one walks out on the sermon or protests what I have to say.  I could interpret render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s to mean that as a pastor I have no say in politics or what happens in the world.  Jesus didn’t interpret it that way – he ended up being killed by the Romans.  Talk about meddling in politics.  And to anyone who interprets that passage that way, I have a question – what belongs to God?  And why do you get to determine where God gets to speak?

I don’t want to write about any of this.  Who in their right mind would?  Who wants to write or preach about children being separated from families at the border as they seek asylum?  Or trying to make sense of an executive order that allows for indefinitely holding onto asylum seekers?   Do you think it’s fun or enjoyable to point out the uncomfortableness of this, the messiness of this?  The sin of this?  Who wants to write or preach about how we treat our neighbors, our enemies, and refugees?  Who wants to write or preach about dehumanizing other people?  Who wants to write or preach about how they see a nation tearing itself apart because of fear and anger?  Who wants to write or preach about any of this?

Instead we want quick answers that make nice sound bites.  We want to make issues seem easy.  Things like, it’s the law, so we obey it.  Or it was passed by a previous administration, so they are to blame.  Or we should ignore the law here, but not deal with a broken immigration system.  Or so much more.  This isn’t easy.  There are no simple answers.

Most people would rather hear a sermon about mushy love and being nice and tell the pastor how nice the sermon was. Why?  Because that type of sermon or writing isn’t costly.  They require nothing of you.  They don’t require you to do self-examination.  They don’t require you to look at yourself in the mirror and question important things about yourself, what you believe, and what you stand for, and what Jesus is calling you to.  They don’t require a cost or a response or a radical reorientation.  They don’t require a sort of death of the self.  Those are cheap grace sermons that remain silent about the reality of evil in our midst.  Those are sermons that would rather close our eyes because the big bad world is just too scary to deal with.  You can hear many of those sermons in churches each Sunday.

And I don’t fault the pastors that preach these sermons either.  Preaching the Gospel is costly.  It’s disruptive.  It points out the unpleasant truth.  It’s scary.  I know I have failed in this regard plenty of times.  This Sunday we hear the disciples ask Jesus in the midst of the storm – “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”  Many a pastor asks Jesus the same question each week.  Just as Jesus didn’t answer the disciples, he doesn’t make it easy for us either.

I was going to write about where I saw things going – the path we are on, but really, what the heck do I know?

Instead, I’m going to tell you something else.  There is much to worry about in the world – let’s not kid ourselves.  We have an unhealthy society right now.  We are in the midst of a great storm of life.  We are calling out to Jesus – “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”  And like in the boat, Jesus doesn’t answer.  Why doesn’t he answer?  We want Jesus to say comforting things.  But he’s quiet.

Often, I think we get confused. That’s not a radical statement.  The disciples spent actual physical time with Jesus and they screwed up all the time.  Why would we think we are any better.  And after Jesus calms the storm, he asks them a question – “Why are you afraid?”  They completely miss the question.  They marvel about Jesus calming the storm, but miss what Jesus is really saying.

Did they really think that God would allow the storm to harm Jesus?  They were in the boat with Jesus, the incarnate Word.  Did they think that the storm was more powerful than God?  They were letting something else define them and who and whose they were.  They let fear define them and their existence.  And Jesus asks a simple question – “Why are you afraid?”  It’s as if Jesus is asking – did you forget whose you are?  Did you forget that your identity is as a Child of God?  Why are you letting fear define you?

As we hurtle through this immigration mess, I think Jesus’ question is so very important.  Why are we afraid?  What is our identity?  Is politics our primary identity?  Are we Republicans and Democrats first and then Children of God?  Are we Americans first and then Children of God?  Are we legal first and then Children of God?  Are we identified by fear first and then Children of God?  What are we?

If Christ is not the lens that we look through, the foundation of our identity, first and foremost, then there is no hope.  We will end up killing each other.  Nothing but Christ offers us any hope.  History shows that to be true.

Let us remember who and whose we are.  That Christ gives us a different identity.  That this identity doesn’t mean conformity of thought.  Rather, it allows us to have differences, even on important issues, and still see one another as Children of God.  We don’t have to agree, but can we find something, anything, that we overlap on?  Can we start with that?  Please.

Let’s start by acknowledging that we are afraid, and that we are having a difficult time voicing our fears honestly – with being vulnerable with one another.  Let’s start with the fact that Jesus’ question makes us uncomfortable because it touches us deeply and shows our own weakness and brokeness.  Let’s start with the fact that we don’t trust one another – actually voicing it out loud so that the reality is acknowledged.  It is only from there that we can move forward.

It starts with Jesus asking an uncomfortable question that gives us room to respond.

Why are you afraid?

I don’t want to write about any of this.  I don’t want to preach on this.  Yet, here I am.  Yet, there I will be on Sunday.  Silence is not an option.  Anger isn’t either.  The only thing that overcomes fear is love.  Let us speak in love.  Not mushy fake love.  Deep love that shows that there are no enemies.  There are only children of God.  It’s not easy.  We can’t do it on our own.  We follow Jesus who empowers us.  And we risk it all.

Why are you afraid?

 

What I would do with $54 million

01 Friday Jun 2018

Posted by in Church, Theology

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I’m sure by now you have seen stories about a televangelist who supposedly heard Jesus tell him that he needed a fourth jet to add to his collection – one that costs $54 million.  He already had the trinity worth of jets, this one must be in honor of Paul.

At any rate, it got me thinking about what I would do with $54 million.  I certainly wouldn’t waste it on a fourth jet.

No, instead, I would use it for ministry.  There’s an abandoned hotel – Hotel Carlisle – down on the Carlisle Pike, just past I-81.  It’s a large property that sits with a deteriorating hotel.  I’d buy it, level it to the ground and build a village of tiny homes for the homeless.  There would be plenty of room for a community center complete with separate shower facilities, laundry, and a community kitchen.  There would be plenty of money to hired the professionals needed to work with these folks too – social workers, medical professionals, etc.  And I would create the space for the residents of the community to be able to open businesses too, if they felt so inclined.

$54 million wouldn’t even be needed for all of that.

The point is, this is a big dream – one that would have a major impact on the lives of many.  This would be a huge sign that the Miracle Mile is where miracles are happening.

In the middle of this community of tiny homes, I’d build a modest church for people to worship in, but it wouldn’t be the typical structure.  It would be a worship space that could accommodate many different worship styles – dinner church, traditional worship, taize, etc.  You name it.  It would be an innovative worship space – a place to try things out because this would be a ministry with people where innovation was important.

Additionally, I would create a mission hub – a place to learn about homelessness.  Think of it as Homeless University.  The people who live there would help educate those of us who have never been homeless.  We’d hear from them of what the needs really are, how people survive, the networks that are created.  It would be a lab to test theories and ideas out about how to eliminate homelessness.  It would be a place for debate and conversation.  It would be a resource hub of information.  It would be a mission hub where new mission to other homeless communities could be launched and where these new missions could draw on support.

Imagine what could be done with $54 million.

That’s what I would do with $54 million.  I’d dream big and then carry it out.

Anyone got a few extra million sitting around and you don’t know what to do with it?

Let’s change the world.  Let’s get uncomfortable.  Let’s believe in miracles.  Let’s participate in the unfolding of the kingdom.

Praying

31 Thursday May 2018

Posted by in Theology

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How do you pray?  Do you really believe what you pray for?

Do you believe in the power of prayer?  Or are you just going through the motions, with an expectation that God will be silent and absent? If that is the case, why both to pray at all?

Let’s be careful here though.  Prayer isn’t like ordering something on Amazon – make your request and you get it like Amazon Prime.  In many ways, prayer is the exact opposite.  It’s often not about getting what we want at all. Prayer is more often than not something that is designed to align us with God’s will.

There’s a parable that Jesus told about a persistent widow that I think fits in this discussion.

Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. He said, ‘In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, “Grant me justice against my opponent.” For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, “Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.” ’ And the Lord said, ‘Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?’

(Luke 18:1-8, NRSV)

What would happen if we prayed like the widow did with the judge?  What if we were bold when we prayed.

What if we boldly asked for justice – to end human trafficking, prostitution, homelessness, drug addition, domestic violence, war, etc.?

Do we really believe that these things would end?  These are selfish prayers – prayers of “give me more stuff God.”  These are prayers that are really about bringing about the kingdom of God.

Do we really believe what we are praying for or are we just being nice and mouthing the words fully expecting nothing to change?

Do we dare summon God into our midst?  Do we dare poke at God and remind God that God is a God of faithfulness?  There are several Psalms that do just that – why should we be any different?  Read Psalm 44 or Psalm 10 – these Psalms do not hold back.  They get in God’s face, much like the persistent widow in Luke.

Do we dare poke God and ask if God really is who God says God is?

Do we pray with imperatives – demands?

Psalm 88 is another prayer that gets in God’s face.

How do we pray?  And more importantly – why?

Jesus said: “will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night?”

Cry out to God day and night with your plea.  And be open to how God answers.

Things I struggle with

30 Wednesday May 2018

Posted by in Theology

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There are many things that I struggle with – questions I ask often.

All of the things I struggle with end up dealing with the ultimate question of am I doing the right thing.  Am I offering the right advice?  And the answer is – maybe, I hope so.

Being a pastor doesn’t mean I have all the answers, or many times, any of the answers.  It means I sit with people where they are, in their situations that have no black and white easy answers.  I sit with them in their gray situations and let them know that they are not alone and that God loves them.  What else am I to do?

Having the answers often doesn’t even matter really.  That’s not what most people are really seeking.  They want to know that they are not alone in the world.  The answers will come, or they won’t.  But facing the world alone – that’s a scary prospect.  Being alone – that’s terrifying for most people.

I struggle with the question of evil in the world – as many have before me and many will after me.  How do you respond to evil?  Do you fight evil and destroy it?  Or by doing so, do you yourself become evil?  Does the method determine the outcome?

I struggle with some of the things Jesus taught.   There are things that I just want to scream about and some people who I would love to see punished for their actions and attitudes.  Yet, that is not what Jesus taught.  And if I am going to claim to be a follower of Jesus – well, then that means I have to give up those desires.  To forge a different path – one in which I take up my cross and follow Jesus.  And often this sucks.

I struggle with not being able to unsee the things I have seen and unhear the things I have heard.  Once you see them and hear them, there is no turning back.  There’s no going back to the way it was before.  And they break your heart – over and over again.

Things like homelessness – homeless men and women and families, who live in their vehicles in a parking lot.  Things like human trafficking and prostitution. Things like drug trade.  Things like dehumanizing rhetoric and talk – certainly from politicians, but more disheartening is from “average” people you see on the streets.  Things like domestic violence.

I struggle with how cruel humanity is and has been to itself for so many centuries.  So cruel.  And for what?  What purpose?  The cruelty makes no sense – yet it persists.

I struggle with people living in anger and fear.  I struggle with people wanting to have all the answers – especially where answers are vacant.  I struggle with people believing being right is the most important thing in the world.  I struggle with loyalties to things that will not last.

I struggle with people not being open to conversation or challenging beliefs to discover the truth.

I struggle with people choosing comfort and convenience over following Jesus.

There are many things I struggle with.  I ask God about these things every day.  Why, Oh Lord, does this persist?  How long Oh Lord will you allow this to go on?

But, regardless of the struggle and how long it grips me, I know I am not alone – Jesus walks with me.  Jesus walks with me in the uncertainly and struggles of life.  I know this because there is no way I could do this alone.  It would be overwhelming.  It would be too much.

I struggle, but Jesus is there.  He struggles right along side. Actually, he’s been struggling for so very long.  I’m new at this in comparison.  It’s not even close actually.  The weight of the world isn’t on my shoulders – it’s on his.  I’m responsible for adding some extra weight onto his shoulders too.

And so as I struggle, I pray.  I pray that the struggle will be worth it.  That no one will be alone.  That I can be an instrument of God’s mercy and grace.  I struggle.  But I am not alone.  And neither are you.

But the economy…

21 Monday May 2018

Posted by in Politics, Society, Theology

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Acts 16:16-24 tells the story of Paul and Silas being jailed in Philippi.

One day, as we were going to the place of prayer, we met a slave-girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners a great deal of money by fortune-telling. While she followed Paul and us, she would cry out, ‘These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation.’ She kept doing this for many days. But Paul, very much annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, ‘I order you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.’ And it came out that very hour.

But when her owners saw that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the market-place before the authorities. When they had brought them before the magistrates, they said, ‘These men are disturbing our city; they are Jews and are advocating customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to adopt or observe.’ The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates had them stripped of their clothing and ordered them to be beaten with rods. After they had given them a severe flogging, they threw them into prison and ordered the jailer to keep them securely. Following these instructions, he put them in the innermost cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.

In this story we see a radical message – that when the kingdom of God is proclaimed and where it is unfolding, the status quo will be upset.  Often in Scripture we see a linkage between evil and profit-making at the expense of humanity.  Profit itself isn’t evil – profit-making at the expense of humanity is.

And in this story we see it vividly.  The owners of this woman only cared about her as long as they could exploit her and make money off of her.  And when they could not do that, it wasn’t her well-being they were concerned with.  It was the fact that she no longer made money for them.  She became worthless to them.

They saw it as an attack on them and on their profit motive – or really, their abuse, manipulation, and power trip.

Paul and Silas literally affected the economy of Philippi through their proclamation.  This is what happens when God’s kingdom comes near.  The status quo is flipped on its head.  And many weren’t happy about it.  When people’s money is affected, people start to pay attention.  They know that what is happening is real – and they see that they are not in control.

But as long as the economy is humming along – allowing some to benefit at the expense of others – many turn a blind eye.

When money becomes prime in life and society, humanity suffers.  When money is more valuable than people, then everything is out of whack.  People are not valued for who they are, but rather for what they produce.  Humanity ends up with a price tag.

When money takes this type of central role, then it becomes an idol, a god.  No wonder Jesus spoke about money more than any other subject.

But making money into an idol, a god, has deeper ramifications than this – When producing becomes the prime directive, then the Sabbath is broken.  Sabbath doesn’t mean sitting around doing nothing all day.  It’s about resting from work in order to pay full attention to God – to focus on God and listen to what God is calling us to.  If there is no room for Sabbath, then there is no room for God.  Instead of listening to God, we listen to what the almighty dollar instructs us to do.  And people suffer.

We are no longer made in the image of God, but rather, we are just workers whose purpose is to make a profit.  We snuff out the Imago Dei in which God created us.

This is why Paul and Silas were beaten, stripped, and jailed – upsetting the entire belief system that worships money.  It was an act of defiance against the entire empire, its economic system, its message that salvation comes through the empire and Caesar.  Paul and Silas’ proclamation meant that the empire, Caesar, and their economic system of exploitation were empty and valueless.

Another blog I visit often said it best:

Jesus knows that the greatest obstacle to entering into and living in the kingdom of God instead of under the reign and rule of man is our own economic self interest.   When we are dominated by economic self interest it’s like squeezing a camel through the eye of the needle, and it’s hard.

For several decades our politicians have been giving us a message that needs to be weighed against the Gospel.  Sometimes it comes through a question – “Are you better off than you were four years ago.”  And other times it comes in campaign slogans – “It’s the economy, stupid!”

The economy is a powerful pull.  It has the power to determine our elections more often than not.  Candidates, politicians, and presidents of both political parties are often very flawed – caught in controversy, investigations and scandals, sexual philandering, and dehumanizing rhetoric, supporting policies that do not support the general welfare they are sworn to uphold, but rather to support the status quo where some benefit at the expense of others – where people are valued for what they produce, rather than who they are.

But if the economy is humming along, many are willing to overlook these character flaws.  Many are willing to put blinders on to the plight of our neighbors because “the economy.”  Many are willing to rationalize away dehumanizing policies and rhetoric because there is more money in some people’s pockets – maybe even our own.

But Jesus has a different message.  An upsetting message.  A message that conflicts with our own economic self-interest as we turn a blind eye to our neighbors’ plight.  A message that doesn’t always match up with our national narrative and what we value politically.  Ouch.

Then Jesus told his disciples, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life?

(Matthew 16:24-26)

Jesus is asking us – what’s more important, the economy or humanity?  Money or God? And he is speaking in economic terms – savings, profit, gain, return.  Jesus directly confronts the economic systems that exploit others and those that maintain these systems and benefit from them.  Maybe that doesn’t sound very American.  But then again, Jesus wasn’t worried about wrapping himself in the flag.  He had another kingdom to advance – one that is everlasting.

Or as Jesus once said in the Sermon on the Mount:

‘No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.

(Matthew 6:24)

So which is it?

 

The appeal of violence

17 Thursday May 2018

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Violence has an appeal to it.

This may sound surprising to you.  But think about it a bit.  Violence makes up a great deal of our entertainment – from movies about war and crime to our professional sports that celebrate the hard hit.

Violence is celebrated when we attack whoever is considered the enemy.  Think back to the celebration that erupted with the news of Osama Bin Laden being killed.

But violence goes beyond just the physical.

We experience violence when we drive – how many times have you or have you wanted to give the finger to another driver on the road?  Or have it happen to you?  Or just witnessed road rage?

We hear stories of violence in relationships with others, even those that people claim to love.  We hear yelling and screaming.  We see violence through social media – people who are distant politically or on other identifications yelling at each other, demeaning and dehumanizing one another.  We may even participate in any number of these things ourselves.

We hear violent rhetoric from world leaders threatening others with weapons of mass destruction.

Violence has a great appeal – it is used often.

The late Walter Wink is quoted as saying “We trust in violence because we are afraid.”

I think there is great wisdom in this.  We are afraid that we won’t be in control, and so we turn to violence to get our way.  And it usually works. But it’s not a permanent solution or a solution that causes others to change internally.  People will comply when threatened with violence, but they will also look for a way to either escape it or return the violence.  Violence doesn’t bring about a positive change long-term.  It doesnt’ produce a thriving life.  It is totally focused on the short-term.  And, like any drug, it requires a greater dosage as time goes on.

How do we conquer the world?  The world answers with two answers – force and might.   The world conquers through violence and fear.  And it always falls and fails in the long run.  Once the person who has been doing violence to another goes away, there are very few who will remember fondly that person.  And they shouldn’t.  Violence leads to death.

Instead, Scripture gives us another option.  In 1 John 5:4, we are told:

for whatever is born of God conquers the world. And this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith.

And John 3:16 says:

‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

Violence doesn’t conquer the world.  It just brings destruction.  Faith and love conquer the world.  Not just for a short time, unlike violence, but for eternity.

Faith and love are both vulnerable.  It’s scary to be vulnerable.  And so when we are afraid, we turn to violence.  We take matters into our own hands.  We enact our own version of justice.  We put ourselves in the place of God.  And we end up suffering the consequences of these decisions.

Then Jesus said to him, ‘Put your sword back into its place; for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.

(Matthew 26:52)

Put your sword down Christ-follower.  We are not called to fear and violence.  We are called to vulnerability – faith and love.

Embassy move

16 Wednesday May 2018

Posted by in Politics, Theology

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The US embassy in Israel was moved to Jerusalem on Monday.

I have a range of emotions regarding this.

I’m saddened.

I’m saddened by the move.  Those who know a thing or two about foreign policy and especially the Middle East warned that this would cause an unsettling in the region.  It’s an act of provocation that was unnecessary and potentially dangerous.

In response we saw Iran shooting missiles into Israel from their positions in Syria and Israel shooting back.

In response there were protests.  Initial reports showed that 41 people died in Gaza.  New reports have the number climbing to over 55.  That number will probably rise.  And there will most likely be other incidents that will cause more deaths and killings.

The President sent Rev. Robert Jeffress to offer the opening prayer.  He went and offered a prayer which highlighted how great Trump is.  Jeffress has been on record as saying that Jews are going to hell.  Jeffress was sent.  To Jerusalem.  Where there are a great many Jews.

I’m angry.

I’m angry about this because we have blood on our hands for an unnecessary act that brings instability from the first moment.  But our president loves instability – he’s talked about it as a strategy that he uses.  He likes to keep everyone guessing as to what he will do or say next.  That’s not a leadership strategy – that a strategy for a TV show to get more people to tune in to the next episode.

Do the 55+ people who died in protest matter?  I think it’s time we start asking some serious questions – who counts as a person nowadays?  Did they deserve to be killed because they were protesting?  If your answer is yes, they deserved it, then I ask you – what/who counts as a person?  And what rights do people, human beings, have?  Who counts as a person that deserves to have their life preserved, even in the midst of protest?  Do Palestinians count as people?  How about Muslims?  How about Arab Christians?  How about those with dark skin?  How about those that don’t speak English?  How about those that disagree with those in authority?  Do any of these people count as people?

I’m wondering.

I’m wondering when Christianity will finally acknowledge the reality that there are Christians who worship Jesus as the Savior and there are Christians who worship the Empire and Caesar as savior.

Let me be really clear here – Empire and Caesar go beyond any particular country and can be found in probably every country – Empire is the idea that the might of the nation is of prime importance.  It is the belief that salvation comes through the conquering empire – through military might, cultural dominance, and force of will.  Caesar is the idea that a human leader who is strong – almost god-like – is the savior we yearn for.  We are to worship him and thank god that god sent him, a son of god, to save us from our enemies and establish an everlasting empire that will rule with force and crush anyone in opposition.  And do it in the name of the gods.  Empire and Caesar have existed as the predominate religion of humanity for many millennia, across the world.  Even sometimes under the label of Christianity.  And it is still alive and flourishing today in many places.

Here are the prayers offered by two “christian” pastors at the event.

“We thank you, O Lord, for President Donald Trump’s courage in acknowledging to the world a truth that was established 3,000 years ago – that Jerusalem is and always shall be the eternal capital of the Jewish people,” Hagee said.

“And because of that courage of our President, we gather here today to consecrate the ground upon which the United States Embassy will stand reminding the dictators of the world that America and Israel are forever united,” he added.

(parts of the Benediction prayer offered by Rev. John Hagee)

“We want to thank you for the tremendous leadership of our great president, Donald J. Trump.  Without President Trump’s determination, resolve and courage we would not be here today,” he said.

“And I believe I speak for every one of us when I say I thank you every day that you have given us a President who boldly stands on the right side of history but more importantly stands on the right side of you, O God, when it comes to Israel,” Jeffress added.

(parts of a prayer offered by Rev. Robert Jeffress)

Is prayer about the actions of a president and his courage and action and resolve, or is prayer an acknowledgement of God’s action in the world and about what God is calling us to?  Is prayer designed to worship the god of Empire and Caesar or the God of creation?

(If you think I’m far off base here, I encourage you to read George Will’s article in the Washington Post.  Throughout the article he talks about the words used by those who serve Trump – words that sound rather religious – “humbled,” “thank you for this privilege of serving,” “the blessing of being allowed to serve.”)

I’m just grateful that these pastors didn’t attribute this move to God.  Both of these pastors are huge proponents of Rapture theology – the belief that Jesus is coming back, will sweep away the faithful in a holy escape plan, then pull out his AR-15 and start kicking ass and taking names – bringing vengeance, destruction, and death over the world.  Apparently Jesus is just an extension of the god of Empire and Caesar.

I don’t worship the same god as Hagee and Jeffress.  I don’t believe in their god and what their god stands for.  Their god is the god of Empire and Caesar.  Their god is a god of vengeance, and military might, and might makes right, and the ends justify the means, and only the strong survive.  Their god leads to death and demands bloody sacrifices along the way.  55+ people have already been sacrificed to quench the anger of their god.  But their god will never be satisfied until there is total destruction.  I reject their god.  I reject the god of Empire and Caesar.

The God I worship is a God who calls on us to die – die to self, die to the idea of the Empire and that Caesar is the savior, die to our loyalties, die to our fears and anger, die to our desire to be in control and to know, die to might makes right and that the ends justify the means.  Jesus calls us to pick up our cross and follow him – to die to these things.  We die to these so that we can experience resurrection – new life, transformed life.  I worship a God who is love.  A God who weeps often because of the world and its sick adherence to Empire, Caesar, and Death.  I worship a God who accompanies and calls on us to accompany the outcast, the poor, the weak, those out of power.  I worship a God who does not delight in death and destruction, provocation, and war.  I worship a God who tells us that the world will be conquered by faith and love.  (1 John 5:4)  I worship a God who sends his actual Son into the world to save us from the world not through an divine escape plan, but rather through transformation and renewal.  Not by force and might.  But through Faith and love.  This is the God I worship and serve.  Who do you serve and worship?

What the Gospel is

10 Thursday May 2018

Posted by in Travel

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What is the Gospel?

Have you really thought about what the Gospel is and is not?

Here is your fair warning – you may not like the result and what it means for your life.

Is the Gospel something that offers us only comfort and security?  Is it something that confirms our beliefs and matches up with what we believe about the world?  Is it something that matches up with our political stances nice and neatly?  Is it something that never addresses touchy subjects?  Is it something that never addresses controversial topics?  Is it something that never challenges us?  Is it something that is can be claimed but makes no other claims on our lives?  It is something that is never political, but only used as a weapon in the ongoing partisan political wars for power over people?

There are many who proclaim this type of gospel.  There have been many who have proclaimed this message for many centuries.  It’s the gospel of don’t rock the boat.  It’s the gospel of comforting the comforted and ignoring the afflicted.  It’s the gospel which is used as a weapon for political expediency.  It is a gospel that is not the foundation of life, but merely just another tool to be used to our own ends.

The Gospel was never meant to be comfortable.  It is uncomfortable and inconvenient.  It is radical in nature because it flips the world right side up.  The Gospel calls into question our loyalties and allegiances.  It smacks us in the face more often than we prefer.  We try to put it away when it becomes uncomfortable and is in conflict with our preferences and beliefs.

The Gospel isn’t about membership – it is about discipleship.  It’s not safe – it risks bringing the world’s shame on itself.  It’s not wrapped in any flag, any nation, or any politician – it supersedes all of these things.  It is not the avoidance of death, but rather calls us to death.

But the Gospel is more than a political platform for some political party.  It is more than just some nice sounding rhetoric that we can voice and then set aside and do what we were doing.  It is a message of life – transformed life, renewed life, restored life.  It is a message of resurrection – that which comes after death.  The Gospel calls us to death – death of our egos, our loyalties, our desire to be right, our judgements, our separation from others, our ideologies, our desire to be strong and mighty, our sins, our brokenness.

When we encounter the Gospel, it changes our lives in uncomfortable and lasting ways.  And it causes conflict.  The conflict arises because the world’s ways are revealed to be empty promises that lead and end with death.  And the world doesn’t want us to see this for what it is.

It is only in the death of these things that resurrection can happen – where the Gospel is truly revealed.  And the resurrection that Jesus offers is life giving.  Where else are we to go to receive this kind of life?

The answer is this – no where.

Being Right

08 Tuesday May 2018

Posted by in Theology

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Everyone does this – they think they are right.  On any given topic.  Most people go through life thinking they have the Truth on any given subject.  Some of this is out of necessity.  We would probably literally go insane if we really embraced the reality that we don’t know very much about most things, and if we are lucky we know a little bit about a subject or two.

Most people want to claim the mantle of having the truth.  Except no one is completely right.  It’s impossible to be completely right.  We don’t have the ability to see things from all sides or even comprehend the variables that exist to get the whole truth.

Yet I think it is interesting that there are many who want to stand on that mantle of being right.  There are many who want to let the world know they have the answers to all of life’s situations and that everyone should just follow them.  And anyone who doesn’t isn’t just misguided, but falls under the label of “stupid” or some variation.  In theological “discussions” the labels usually fall into the category of “heretic” or some variation of this.

I find it interesting that the people who demand compliance of thought of others are usually the same people who aren’t very open to discussion, questions, or actual debate.  There is no variance to the belief system being expressed.  There is only those who agree and submit or there are those who are wrong because they disagree and are therefore heretics – to hell with them!

Yet, how certain are these folks of their beliefs?  I’ve never come across anyone who is certain that actually is willing to be vulnerable – vulnerable to the idea that their beliefs might be misguided.  Hence, the insistence on compliance of thought.  If there are no questions, no debate, no openness to exploring beliefs, then there is certainty.

Except this isn’t how we move towards the truth.  We don’t arrive at truth by eliminating questions, opposition, or opposing beliefs.  We arrive at truth by being open to explore, contrast, and seeing what holds up and why.  Opening ourselves up to different ideas doesn’t mean we have to adopt them.  It does mean we have to consider that someone comes to a different conclusion for very good reasons – reasons that are typically back up with reasonable ideas, a set of facts and data, and life experiences.  This is the exact same reason we come to our own conclusions – because of the reasonableness of the ideas we embrace (or so we think), a set of facts and data we are exposed to, and our own life experiences.

Being Lutheran helps in this matter – Luther was big on holding diametrically opposed ideas existing at the same time.  Something could be A and B at the same time – saint and sinner being the most famous.  A doesn’t exclude B.  A is true, and so is B.  It depends on how you look at it, what angle you are seeing it from, what set of information you are accessing, and where you are in life.

Yet, there are many in the world, and especially here in the US right now that are more concerned with being right than anything else.  I think I’m starting to understand why – fear.  The world is changing – definitions of things that have held for a long time are changing.  Technology moves faster than humanity could ever hope to.  Human identity is up in the air and changing.  Roles of different people and groups of people are changing.  The very nature of work is changing.  Our planet is changing.  What does this mean for us?  Security is something that many humans crave.  But the reality is that security is really just another name for control.  We want control of what happens around us.  We want predictability.  We want someone to control our environment in predictable ways.  We want God’s command for us to subdue creation to mean that we can do what we want with it – that we are just one step down from being God.

Many spend a great deal of time, energy, and attention on efforts at being right.  Being right about politics and religion are two of the biggest.  That’s because they deal with our identity – we are what we believe about these subjects, or so many people believe.  You are liberal, you are conservative, you are this, you are that.  Many people need these labels in order to put you in a box.  Once in the box, the label takes over.  There is no more thought needed.  You are labeled forevermore.  No struggling over a person.  No need to keep listening, to being challenged, to seeing a person as a person.

Many are busy fighting to be right and to show just how right they are.  We would rather fight and be right rather than spend time and energy to serve others.  We can make the excuse that we’ll serve once we’ve won the fight.  Except the fight never ends.  It’s an endless war with endless enemies.  And so many stay locked in perpetual thought war – stuck in their heads, never living out the beliefs they supposedly cling to.  I think most of the fighting is really about convincing ourselves of our beliefs.  If we really believed, really grasped what it is we claim to believe, we would just live it out and ignore the people who would rather fight.

While we’re busy fighting over conservative and liberal Christianity, over whether social justice Christians or doctrinally orthodox Christians are the “real” Christian, there’s a bunch of people who have real needs and are in different fight that actually matter – matters of life and death.  While we’re fighting over who has the right doctrine and belief system and not actually living it out, there are people who are struggling with depression and are considering suicide.  There are families with children and individuals living in vehicles at truck stops – it is their homes.  There are people who are trapped in human trafficking.  There are people held hostage in drug addictions.  There are people who are forgotten in nursing homes and hospitals, just waiting to die because they are forgotten and see no purpose for their lives. There are people who are shunned from their families because who they are doesn’t match up with what their families believe and what their churches tell them about how people should be.

But hey, we need to be right first, right?  Being right is what we are called to as a Christ follower, right?

If you want to claim the label of Christian, then it’s time to live it out.  To fully embrace what it means to be a Christian.  It means following Jesus, just as you are, not when you think you are ready and you have it all figured out.  Jesus never said: “Come and follow me when you have your act together and you have a sound doctrine and theology worked out.”  Nope.  It was just “come and follow me.”  So what are you waiting for?  The right time?  The right belief?  The right words?  The right ideas and beliefs?

Come and follow Jesus – he’ll fix your theology as you go. Stop making excuses.  Salvation doesn’t come by right thinking.  It comes through Jesus.  Following Jesus transforms your life, your thoughts, your attitudes, everything.  Come and follow.