So Joshua was leading the Israelites into their promised destiny after forty years of wanderings in the desert. Here's what happens from Joshua 4:
Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, "Are you for us or for our enemies?" "Neither," he replied, "but as commander of the army of the LORD I have now come."
This passage came to mind as I was thinking more about the Jerry Falwell effect and my post from this past Friday. If ever any government or people-group had an officially God-sanctioned mandate to do something, it was Joshua with the Israelites. Yet even here, even as God's People, the Israelites, are about to take the land promised to them by Yahweh, the angel of the Lord refuses to take sides other than His own.
God is not a Republican. He is not a Democrat. He is not for America. He is not for Israel. He is ultimately not on any side other than his own. God is passionate for His own kingdom, His own glory. We dislike people who are like this, but God is a little bit different.
For a human to worship anything other than God is idolatory. If God were to exalt anything over Himself, even and especially humans, he, too, would be an idolator. So thankfully He doesn't. He is always and ultimately for Himself...which blesses us immensely.
And this is why I'm so squirrely about the evangelical = Republican sub-culture monstrosity that Falwell helped to create, even though I tend to be conservative. Christians are not to be in anyone's back pocket, because God refuses to be. We are to follow Him, politically as well as in our private morality.
This will be crucial for evangelical Christians in the coming months as the volume slowly gets turned up on what's sure to be a heated presidential election and many folks court our vote.
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Servant Leadership
[This is an excerpt from a talk that I gave at Rockbridge two weeks ago entitled "Leader as Servant"]
People will often say that they like Jesus but dislike Christians or Christianity. They look at passages like the one we just looked at [Jesus washing the disciples feet in John 13] and they say, "Jesus is such a great teacher! And so very nice!"
I want to contend that Jesus is, indeed, always a servant leader. But that doesn't always look like what we want it to look like.Mark 10:17-22
17 As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. "Good teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
18 "Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good—except God alone. 19 You know the commandments: 'You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honor your father and mother.'"
20 "Teacher," he declared, "all these I have kept since I was a boy."
21 Jesus looked at him and loved him. "One thing you lack," he said. "Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."
22 At this the man's face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.
This is servant leadership—to invite this man to be freed from the love of money that would absolutely destroy his soul is absolutely loving service: Servant leadership is not people pleasing.
People like Jesus because they think that he’s nice, but here’s the deal: Jesus is GOOD, he is not NICE. Those are two very different terms.
Some of you are truth speakers—you are hard-core black and white, you know right and wrong from a mile away and you’re not afraid to say what you think or see. Truth speakers, you do need to grow and learn gentleness and love and patience and grace. I hope that the abuses or the wrong-uses of truth speaking are fairly well-known and recorded throughout history: tyranny, loveless-ness, overly-aggressive, angry, controlling, etc. Truth-speakers, you need to pay attention to those stories, to tread cautiously with your passions and your mouths!
But the majority of us are conflict-avoidant, people-pleasers, overly-passive, apathetic or some dizzying combination of all of the above. And the abuses of those ways of relating are not nearly as well documented but they are just as real and our world bears the scars just as much.
Friday, May 25, 2007
Falwell:Friend or Foe?
Earlier this week I was reading USA Today's on-line coverage of Jerry Falwell's funeral. USA Today has recently added a nifty thing to their articles: readers can comment just like on a blog. As you might imagine, Falwell's funeral drew lots and lots of comments. As you might imagine, not all of these were particularly gracious.
In the immediacy of the moment, my ire was raised and I decided to create a username and jump in order to defend Falwell. But I suddenly stopped. First off, those two words "defend Falwell" had never before been put in that order in my own mind in my entire life. And secondly, I couldn't think of anything really positive to say.
And so it leaves me at the end of the week pondering this man's legacy. On the 'friend' side, Falwell was certainly a fellow believer, a brother in Christ, and he woke up many conservative Christians who were apathetic about political issues.
On the 'foe' side, Falwell created a monster of a politically conservative Christian sub-culture that nearly demanded that the words "evangelical Christian" and "Republican" were synonymous. This was certainly not the case before his rise to prominence in the late 1980's. Conservative Christians were very instrumental in electing dark-horse Democratic candidate Jimmy Carter in the 1970's.
Falwell made waves everywhere he went. He took strong stands on significant cultural issues but often did so in ways that were alienating rather than bridge-building. The fall-out of this in my own experience has been that sometimes people on the journey towards Christian faith are worried that they'll be associated with folks like that. Or that they have to become an angry Republican in order to become a Christian.
Falwell will always be remembered for his fresh alchemy of politics and religion. From my little corner of the world as a Christian, I think that his net impact has been negative in the broader culture. But maybe one day when the curtain's pulled back and all is revealed for what it truly was, I'll see that I was very, very wrong.
In the immediacy of the moment, my ire was raised and I decided to create a username and jump in order to defend Falwell. But I suddenly stopped. First off, those two words "defend Falwell" had never before been put in that order in my own mind in my entire life. And secondly, I couldn't think of anything really positive to say.
And so it leaves me at the end of the week pondering this man's legacy. On the 'friend' side, Falwell was certainly a fellow believer, a brother in Christ, and he woke up many conservative Christians who were apathetic about political issues.
On the 'foe' side, Falwell created a monster of a politically conservative Christian sub-culture that nearly demanded that the words "evangelical Christian" and "Republican" were synonymous. This was certainly not the case before his rise to prominence in the late 1980's. Conservative Christians were very instrumental in electing dark-horse Democratic candidate Jimmy Carter in the 1970's.
Falwell made waves everywhere he went. He took strong stands on significant cultural issues but often did so in ways that were alienating rather than bridge-building. The fall-out of this in my own experience has been that sometimes people on the journey towards Christian faith are worried that they'll be associated with folks like that. Or that they have to become an angry Republican in order to become a Christian.
Falwell will always be remembered for his fresh alchemy of politics and religion. From my little corner of the world as a Christian, I think that his net impact has been negative in the broader culture. But maybe one day when the curtain's pulled back and all is revealed for what it truly was, I'll see that I was very, very wrong.
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Regrets?
I've had a great e-mail conversation with a student over the past couple of days. She voiced concern about something I said at the beginning of the year in a talk--that InterVarsity is a community of students who are living our college careers to the fullest and finishing out with no regrets. She opined that in a world full of sin (and a room full of sinners) regret is inevitable.
While I agree that sin is inevitable, the good news for her and for me and for all of us is that sin does not have the last word. Had Christ not been raised from the dead then sin and death and regret have the last word. But Christ has risen, the tomb is empty, victory is secured, death has been conquered. Sin does not have the last word. Neither does regret. Forgiveness does. Life does. Love does. Hope wins.
And so in a world full of regrets, Christians are invited to live differently. Reconciliation has the last word. And so we can move confidently not because we're so put together, but because we live in the light and the power of the empty tomb.
The trick here, as in so many other places in our lives, is that we think that what we do or experience is "real" and forgiveness, like so many other religious-sounding words, is only hypothetical, theoretical.
But the good news is that quite the opposite is true. What we do is mostly shifting shadows, a mist that happens and vanishes. This is conflictingly disheartening and a tremendous relief. Sin is barely real. The real thing, the most real thing, is forgiveness. When all is said and done, all our sin will be done away with forever. And redemption and forgiveness will reach all the way back to the very first sin and again-make, reconcile, restore, heal, redeem every single sin of the children of God.
May be we'll be given the opportunity to look back over our lives, to see the silly and petty and foolish sins that so often plagued us. And maybe we will look back with a mixture of bemusement, sadness, and deep and utter relief that the rock-solid story of forgiveness and redemption and healing is the thing that is eternally true. Not our sin. Forgiveness. Grace.
And so all Christians everywhere are invited to live a life of no regrets. What a glorious invitation!
While I agree that sin is inevitable, the good news for her and for me and for all of us is that sin does not have the last word. Had Christ not been raised from the dead then sin and death and regret have the last word. But Christ has risen, the tomb is empty, victory is secured, death has been conquered. Sin does not have the last word. Neither does regret. Forgiveness does. Life does. Love does. Hope wins.
And so in a world full of regrets, Christians are invited to live differently. Reconciliation has the last word. And so we can move confidently not because we're so put together, but because we live in the light and the power of the empty tomb.
The trick here, as in so many other places in our lives, is that we think that what we do or experience is "real" and forgiveness, like so many other religious-sounding words, is only hypothetical, theoretical.
But the good news is that quite the opposite is true. What we do is mostly shifting shadows, a mist that happens and vanishes. This is conflictingly disheartening and a tremendous relief. Sin is barely real. The real thing, the most real thing, is forgiveness. When all is said and done, all our sin will be done away with forever. And redemption and forgiveness will reach all the way back to the very first sin and again-make, reconcile, restore, heal, redeem every single sin of the children of God.
May be we'll be given the opportunity to look back over our lives, to see the silly and petty and foolish sins that so often plagued us. And maybe we will look back with a mixture of bemusement, sadness, and deep and utter relief that the rock-solid story of forgiveness and redemption and healing is the thing that is eternally true. Not our sin. Forgiveness. Grace.
And so all Christians everywhere are invited to live a life of no regrets. What a glorious invitation!
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
The 99%
Each morning at Rockbridge we gathered together the two leadership tracks (small group leader's training track and the Coordinating Team track--these are the core group of 4-8 leaders that sets vision and goals for each year) for teaching on Biblical leadership.
This year's "Leadership Summit" we walked through the Biblical identity of a leader: Leader as Child, Leader as Disciple, Leader as Servant.
The first morning, however, Joe Ho, IV Area Director for Shenandoah in western Virginia set up the week, exhorting us to consider seriously that understanding our identity is critical to genuine Biblical leadership. Here's a snippet of his excellent talk:
"In our culture we under-value the concept of identity and character because we vastly over-value decision-making. We think that leadership is all about decision-making. It's not. 99% of what we do every day is not about conscious decision making. We simply act. And we act out of who we are, out of character and identity. And so if we truly want to be women and men of impact who lead others with integrity, courage, and faithfulness, we have to be different types of people, not just better decision makers."
We got a little push-back from some folks in small groups who thought this was over-stated, but is it?
This year's "Leadership Summit" we walked through the Biblical identity of a leader: Leader as Child, Leader as Disciple, Leader as Servant.
The first morning, however, Joe Ho, IV Area Director for Shenandoah in western Virginia set up the week, exhorting us to consider seriously that understanding our identity is critical to genuine Biblical leadership. Here's a snippet of his excellent talk:
"In our culture we under-value the concept of identity and character because we vastly over-value decision-making. We think that leadership is all about decision-making. It's not. 99% of what we do every day is not about conscious decision making. We simply act. And we act out of who we are, out of character and identity. And so if we truly want to be women and men of impact who lead others with integrity, courage, and faithfulness, we have to be different types of people, not just better decision makers."
We got a little push-back from some folks in small groups who thought this was over-stated, but is it?
Monday, May 21, 2007
Rockbridge Re-Entry Meets NASCAR
The past several years post-Rockbridge, Kelly stays a few extra days at her parent's house in order to allow me to recover from the exhaustion of two weeks of non-stop work. It is one of the many great gifts my wife gives to me. Usually I sleep for thirty of thirty-six hours, watch some movies, and generally crash.
This year, however, there was an intriguing voicemail waiting for me when I got home. Lee Hilts, an old friend of mine, had won tickets at work for the NASCAR race and he was inviting me to go down with him to Charlotte. With my wife's gracious blessing from afar, I called Lee up and we game-planned my first ever NASCAR experience.
This was a bit of an unusual race to start with. The All-Star Challenge is basically an exhibition race. They invite the all-stars of NASCAR to come and race and lure them with a $1 million payday for the winner. The set-up is that the race is only 80 laps and it re-starts every 20 laps. This is cool because when the cars are bunched up together, it makes it much more likely that they'll bump into each other...which is why people go to the races to begin with.
The main race was enjoyable, but the highlights were tw0-fold:
1. They staged an opening race before hand as a sort of "play-in" game--the top two winners advanced to the All-Star Challenge for a shot at $1 million. These drivers were clearly less skilled and there were five or six wrecks right in front of us. No one got hurt, and it looked pretty cool. Double bonus.
2. NASCAR culture. There were two sizeable boo's during the course of the evening. The first was for Jeff Gordon, the pretty-boy who wins lots of races and who therefore gets very little love from rednecks across the land.
The second set of boo's came from our section. In between the pre-race and the main race (which started at 9 p.m.) there were lots of people taking pictures of this guy several rows ahead of us. Being NASCAR neophytes, Lee and I wondered if this was some sort of celebrity sighting. Alas, no. It was a drunk guy who had passed out sitting up. Women were posing for pictures sitting on his lap. No movement. The boo's came when security came to check on the dude, to make sure he was okay.
Okay, so I might not know much about NASCAR culture but booing the guy coming to make sure that someone is still alive should not be kosher in any culture.
Thanks to my bro for posting while I was away, lots of stuff to post on post-Rockbridge, we'll get back in the flow of things this week...after the ringing in my ears settles down.
This year, however, there was an intriguing voicemail waiting for me when I got home. Lee Hilts, an old friend of mine, had won tickets at work for the NASCAR race and he was inviting me to go down with him to Charlotte. With my wife's gracious blessing from afar, I called Lee up and we game-planned my first ever NASCAR experience.
This was a bit of an unusual race to start with. The All-Star Challenge is basically an exhibition race. They invite the all-stars of NASCAR to come and race and lure them with a $1 million payday for the winner. The set-up is that the race is only 80 laps and it re-starts every 20 laps. This is cool because when the cars are bunched up together, it makes it much more likely that they'll bump into each other...which is why people go to the races to begin with.
The main race was enjoyable, but the highlights were tw0-fold:
1. They staged an opening race before hand as a sort of "play-in" game--the top two winners advanced to the All-Star Challenge for a shot at $1 million. These drivers were clearly less skilled and there were five or six wrecks right in front of us. No one got hurt, and it looked pretty cool. Double bonus.
2. NASCAR culture. There were two sizeable boo's during the course of the evening. The first was for Jeff Gordon, the pretty-boy who wins lots of races and who therefore gets very little love from rednecks across the land.
The second set of boo's came from our section. In between the pre-race and the main race (which started at 9 p.m.) there were lots of people taking pictures of this guy several rows ahead of us. Being NASCAR neophytes, Lee and I wondered if this was some sort of celebrity sighting. Alas, no. It was a drunk guy who had passed out sitting up. Women were posing for pictures sitting on his lap. No movement. The boo's came when security came to check on the dude, to make sure he was okay.
Okay, so I might not know much about NASCAR culture but booing the guy coming to make sure that someone is still alive should not be kosher in any culture.
Thanks to my bro for posting while I was away, lots of stuff to post on post-Rockbridge, we'll get back in the flow of things this week...after the ringing in my ears settles down.
Friday, May 18, 2007
Barry's Birthday
I'm double posting from my own blog today. Not enough creative energy to do two originals, and I think that what I posted on sibboleth counts as something that won't put Alex's readers to sleep. (BTW, bro, when are you back from camp? I'm worn out!) And, it's fitting to post here because my first post about Barry was on Alex's birthday (Feb 25, see link below) and now this one is on Barry's birthday. Ooo... spooky...
For those of you who missed the Feb 25 post, Barry is a less-than-socially-integrated man who goes to our church. He sells his drawings for $5-10 a pop, smokes cigarettes, and hangs out at a coffee shop that I walk past as I take Cora Marie to and from nursery school every day.
On Wednesday, Barry flagged me down across the street and after chatting for a minute told me that Fri was his birthday. That would be today. Barry is now 55.
So on the way to pick up Cora Marie I stopped by the supermarket where I grabbed an individually sized birthday cake; I swung by Micky D's and grabbed him a gift card, then I circumvented his perch to go get CM. We found him near his normal spot; we gave him his cake and gift cards. He was a little disappointed not to get cash, but was relieved to hear that he could use the cards to buy coffee.
Then Cora Marie and I both had sad moments. Hers came when Barry didn't offer her any cake, even though we had sung happy birthday.
Mine came as Barry asked about my family, and I asked about his. He has siblings in MD, FL, and NY. I asked, "When was the last time you saw your family?" "At my mom's funeral." "How long ago did she die?" "1997. But my family sends me cards."
What about the house where he lives? "Yeah, other people live there." "Do you have friends in your house?" "No. My only friends are you and people from church."
Happy birthday, Barry.
For those of you who missed the Feb 25 post, Barry is a less-than-socially-integrated man who goes to our church. He sells his drawings for $5-10 a pop, smokes cigarettes, and hangs out at a coffee shop that I walk past as I take Cora Marie to and from nursery school every day.
On Wednesday, Barry flagged me down across the street and after chatting for a minute told me that Fri was his birthday. That would be today. Barry is now 55.
So on the way to pick up Cora Marie I stopped by the supermarket where I grabbed an individually sized birthday cake; I swung by Micky D's and grabbed him a gift card, then I circumvented his perch to go get CM. We found him near his normal spot; we gave him his cake and gift cards. He was a little disappointed not to get cash, but was relieved to hear that he could use the cards to buy coffee.
Then Cora Marie and I both had sad moments. Hers came when Barry didn't offer her any cake, even though we had sung happy birthday.
Mine came as Barry asked about my family, and I asked about his. He has siblings in MD, FL, and NY. I asked, "When was the last time you saw your family?" "At my mom's funeral." "How long ago did she die?" "1997. But my family sends me cards."
What about the house where he lives? "Yeah, other people live there." "Do you have friends in your house?" "No. My only friends are you and people from church."
Happy birthday, Barry.
Thursday, May 17, 2007
It's not about you
I'm preaching on 1 Cor 12 this weekend, "Now concerning spiritual gifts..."
As I've been going through the text this week, I am profoundly struck by how the text is not about Spiritual gifts! It's about core identity issues (you're no longer gentiles; you're Christ's body) and how these identity issues tell the people how they should be loving each other.
Less important than the "lists" of gifts Paul gives is that there is one and the same Spirit who gives them. Less important than the gift a person has is that the person realizes that the gift is given by God and therefore to be used for building up the body.
Less important than questions of what might have ceased is the issue of what must continue: our identity is shaped at its core by our union and communion with the triune God, through baptism into Christ by the Spirit.
As I've been going through the text this week, I am profoundly struck by how the text is not about Spiritual gifts! It's about core identity issues (you're no longer gentiles; you're Christ's body) and how these identity issues tell the people how they should be loving each other.
Less important than the "lists" of gifts Paul gives is that there is one and the same Spirit who gives them. Less important than the gift a person has is that the person realizes that the gift is given by God and therefore to be used for building up the body.
Less important than questions of what might have ceased is the issue of what must continue: our identity is shaped at its core by our union and communion with the triune God, through baptism into Christ by the Spirit.
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Church, Community, Membership
I had a conversation with someone from our church last night who was floating the idea of a "graduated membership" in the church. His main concern is to have a membership which is open to all irrespective of commitment to Jesus or the basic doctrinal standards of the church.
He sees this as a way to have folks folded into the community, to be a part without feeling like they are on the outside looking in, a way to signal to the world that we are a truly welcoming community, happy to have "whosoever will." The "graduated" part does set up an additional "hurdle" for serving in certain capacities (for taking communion, depending on the congregation), etc.
While his proposal was initially shocking to me, it did make me stop and think. In dealing with homosexuality, for example, churches will sometimes call themselves "welcoming but not affirming." Ok, then what does the "welcoming" part look like, and would anyone ever know it?
My first theological reaction was something like: "No, church membership is a human representation of the spiritual reality that someone is a member of the Church, which is the body of Christ--i.e., a Christian." But then there was a counter voice in my head as well: "Jesus comes not just to redefine a religious group, but all humanity; he is the sacrifice of atonement for our sins, and not ours only, but also for those of the whole world."
So is there something theologically sound in an open and/or graduated church membership? Does this idea freak you out? Does it sound good? Heretical? I know, I know, half of you are thinking, "That's what you get for having church membership in the first place..."
He sees this as a way to have folks folded into the community, to be a part without feeling like they are on the outside looking in, a way to signal to the world that we are a truly welcoming community, happy to have "whosoever will." The "graduated" part does set up an additional "hurdle" for serving in certain capacities (for taking communion, depending on the congregation), etc.
While his proposal was initially shocking to me, it did make me stop and think. In dealing with homosexuality, for example, churches will sometimes call themselves "welcoming but not affirming." Ok, then what does the "welcoming" part look like, and would anyone ever know it?
My first theological reaction was something like: "No, church membership is a human representation of the spiritual reality that someone is a member of the Church, which is the body of Christ--i.e., a Christian." But then there was a counter voice in my head as well: "Jesus comes not just to redefine a religious group, but all humanity; he is the sacrifice of atonement for our sins, and not ours only, but also for those of the whole world."
So is there something theologically sound in an open and/or graduated church membership? Does this idea freak you out? Does it sound good? Heretical? I know, I know, half of you are thinking, "That's what you get for having church membership in the first place..."
Monday, May 14, 2007
What is the Gospel?
When I asked my students this morning, "What is the gospel?" I was somewhat surprised at the answers I received:
"God is there." "There is hope." "We must respond in keeping with God's act of kindness."
In light of these answers, I asked if the students were intentionally avoiding "traditional" evangelical answers that quickly take us to Jesus paying for our sins, God loving us and having a plan for our lives, etc.
One students said that as a Campus Crusade staff worker he quickly found that "God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life" carries with it a load of assumptions that students on the Ivy League campus to which he was assigned did not resonate.
I guess it's a problem when folks don't mean the same thing as you do by "god," "love," "you," "wonderful plan," or "your life"!
This surprised me, because it was the first time that I found myself in a room full of future Christian leaders who had existentially felt that old ways of articulating the gospel simply did not work with their generation. I knew that, hypothetically, it should be happening, but I hadn't seen it yet.
I should add, here, that I was a bit concerned that some of the "gospel" stories were not sufficiently sharply focused on Jesus. (Before you get huffy and say that this is what new-fangled articulations do, remember that it's just as possible for "justification by faith" to become an articulation of the gospel that fails to mention Jesus.)
So what do you guys think? How do you briefly conceptualize the "gospel," and do people seem to have categories for the story as you tell it?
"God is there." "There is hope." "We must respond in keeping with God's act of kindness."
In light of these answers, I asked if the students were intentionally avoiding "traditional" evangelical answers that quickly take us to Jesus paying for our sins, God loving us and having a plan for our lives, etc.
One students said that as a Campus Crusade staff worker he quickly found that "God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life" carries with it a load of assumptions that students on the Ivy League campus to which he was assigned did not resonate.
I guess it's a problem when folks don't mean the same thing as you do by "god," "love," "you," "wonderful plan," or "your life"!
This surprised me, because it was the first time that I found myself in a room full of future Christian leaders who had existentially felt that old ways of articulating the gospel simply did not work with their generation. I knew that, hypothetically, it should be happening, but I hadn't seen it yet.
I should add, here, that I was a bit concerned that some of the "gospel" stories were not sufficiently sharply focused on Jesus. (Before you get huffy and say that this is what new-fangled articulations do, remember that it's just as possible for "justification by faith" to become an articulation of the gospel that fails to mention Jesus.)
So what do you guys think? How do you briefly conceptualize the "gospel," and do people seem to have categories for the story as you tell it?
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Thanks
One of our pastoral staff, Gerry Davis, preached a wonderful sermon this morning on thankfulness. He was just going along, minding his own business, convincing us that if we weren't thankful that we were a bunch of slobs, when all of a sudden I realized that he was intentionally painting a picture of empty emotion only to bring in Christ to show us the poverty entailed in failing to move beyond an "emotion" of gratitude and on to Jesus himself. Jesus is the one who can take the pittance we're supposed to be thankful for and supply and multiply that for the good of the Kingdom of God.
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Derek Fisher Story
In case you don't normally follow the NBA (normally the "Nincompoop Basketball Association"), last night there was a great story about Derek Fisher. Fisher's daughter had retinoblastoma, an eye cancer, and had to have surgery yesterday in New York. Fisher sat through his daughter's surgery in New York, then flew to Salt Lake City, UT about half way through the third quarter of his Utah Jazz' playoff game against the Golden State Warriors.
In the game, Fisher created a turnover and hit a crucial three pointer in overtime to help his team to victory.
Despite the fact that he left NY, here is an athlete who was willing to put his family first. And somehow he had enough in the tank to play an NBA game too. That is an amazing feat of emotional, physical, and mental strength.
In case you're wondering, retinoblastoma is something that a good doctor would be keyed in to during regular first year checkups. According to my medical-professional-wife, they check for red reflex when they do their routine general screenings if all is being done well.
In the game, Fisher created a turnover and hit a crucial three pointer in overtime to help his team to victory.
Despite the fact that he left NY, here is an athlete who was willing to put his family first. And somehow he had enough in the tank to play an NBA game too. That is an amazing feat of emotional, physical, and mental strength.
In case you're wondering, retinoblastoma is something that a good doctor would be keyed in to during regular first year checkups. According to my medical-professional-wife, they check for red reflex when they do their routine general screenings if all is being done well.
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
Christian Ed?
Last night I went to a banquet for a Christian school (actually, two schools that have recently merged). It got me thinking again: What do I think about Christian education?
Pro: It keeps children nurtured in the faith as they learn about the world around them, helping prevent the practical Deism that Christian Smith sees in today's churched youth.
Con: It starts shaping the minds of children, from a very early age, with the idea that the way to be a faithful Christian is to withdraw from the world and huddle with believers. It also fosters incompetence in dealing with folks outside the Christian ghetto.
There might also be pro's and con's based on a particular child's personality, emotional and mental maturity, etc.
What do you guys think? Christian ed? Pro or Con? And after childhood, what about Christian college?
Pro: It keeps children nurtured in the faith as they learn about the world around them, helping prevent the practical Deism that Christian Smith sees in today's churched youth.
Con: It starts shaping the minds of children, from a very early age, with the idea that the way to be a faithful Christian is to withdraw from the world and huddle with believers. It also fosters incompetence in dealing with folks outside the Christian ghetto.
There might also be pro's and con's based on a particular child's personality, emotional and mental maturity, etc.
What do you guys think? Christian ed? Pro or Con? And after childhood, what about Christian college?
Monday, May 07, 2007
Pastime Paradise
[Still Daniel posting for Alex.]
On the songs and futures theme, I heard Patti Smith's cover of Stevie Wonder's "Pastime Paradise" this morning. (Think, "Gangster's Paradise," and you're on the right tune.) Here's a snip of the song that reveals "the problem":
They've been wasting most their time
Glorifying days long gone behind
...Tell me who of them will come to be
How many of them are you and me
Dissipation
Race relations
Consolation
Segregation
Dispensation
Isolation
Exploitation
Mutilation
Mutations
Miscreation
Confirmation...to the evils of the world
Glorifying days long gone behind
...Tell me who of them will come to be
How many of them are you and me
Dissipation
Race relations
Consolation
Segregation
Dispensation
Isolation
Exploitation
Mutilation
Mutations
Miscreation
Confirmation...to the evils of the world
The call of the song is to look forward to the rectification of these evils:
They keep telling of the day
When the savior of love will come to stay
...Proclamation
Of race relations
Consolation
Integretion
Verification
Of revelations
Acclamation
World salvation
Vibrations
Stimulation
Confirmation...to the peace of the world
When the savior of love will come to stay
...Proclamation
Of race relations
Consolation
Integretion
Verification
Of revelations
Acclamation
World salvation
Vibrations
Stimulation
Confirmation...to the peace of the world
As in our little look at "Busload of Faith," I think that we see again the importance of knowing the future, of hoping for a future, and the calling that Christians have to bring the future to bear on the present. This is what Rom 8 is all about: the future resurrection life that we have in Jesus is something that we begin living out here--that's why we're adopted children, that's why we're justified, that's why we have hope.
Looking forward to the coming day, to the "future paradise" is not a call for detached withdrawl. It is a call for faithfully connecting the dots between then and now. Will we be sanctified? Then we are called to pursue holiness. Will the world be redeemed? Then we are called to restore its order. Will the people of the earth be one? Then we are called to the things that make for peace and unity.
Sunday, May 06, 2007
Saturday, May 05, 2007
Busload of Faith?
WARNING: THE POST YOU ARE ABOUT TO READ WAS NOT WRITTEN BY ALEX.
Alex has asked me to be kind and gracious to his readers as I blog on his behalf while he's at Rockbridge. Thus, I won't be mentioning things like "The woman caught in adultery is a story that probably shouldn't be in the Bible based on textual evidence;" or, "Jesus probably didn't say, 'Father forgive them, for they know not what they do;" or, "The Lord's prayer doesn't really end with, 'For thine is the kindom and the power and the glory forever.'" Nope, I won't even mention that stuff!
Instead, I want to start my forray into the Piebald Life with the disturbing lyrics of Busload of Faith, by Lou Reed. The tag line seems warm and fuzzy enough: You need a busload of faith to get by. But...
Reed lists all the things in the world you can't depend on, beholding the world in all its darkness. You can't depend on:
familyfriendsintelligencegodthe goodly heartedthe sacramentfather, son, holy ghosta miraclethe aira wise man
So, what can you depend on?
a murder's drivea rape victim getting pregnantpro-lifers' wraththe worst always happening
Most of all, though, you can depend on needing a busload of faith to get by.
Now, I'm not the guy who is ever going to be accused of looking at the world through rose colored glasses (ahem), which means that I see the picture Reed paints of the darkness and think that he's probably just about right. But in a way somewhat similar to Peter Jackson's attempt to render The Lord of the Rings for the screen, he gets evil right but can't figure out what the good looks like. What is "faith"? What is it in? This is an empty hope, an empty faith, providing nothing but a warm sentiment in the vague sense that ... what? There is no object of faith that's going to help shine the light here.
Perhaps this is the lyric that needs to be transformed in order to see the way forward is this one: "You can't depend on a beginning, you can't depend on an end." That is precisely where the Christian vision of faith transforms the darkness into light. Not only is there the darkness, not only the evil, not only the crucifixion--there is also light, the triumph of good and the resurrection; that is to say, the end has begun, and because we know how the story ends (with resurrection life, the triumph of good over evil, the triumph of light over darkness, the triumph of God's wisdom over human folly, the triumph of vindication over injustice, the triumph of the family of God over the rejection of loved ones) there is an object of faith worthy to be pursued.
Yes, it does take a busload of faith to get by. Not the stirred up emotion with no object, the vague sense that something "out there" keeps me going. Faith that God raised Jesus from the dead, and that evil, therefore!, does not win.
Friday, May 04, 2007
Leavin' On a Jet Plane
We head out for Rockbridge tomorrow, the whole family for what we hope will be a less-than-completely-exhausting couple of weeks. In the mean time you might have noticed that my little bro has increased both the number and intensity of his snarky comments. This is in preparation for his role as Piebald Life replacement blogger while I'm away.
Daniel has his own high-brow blog, Sibboleth, where he and his other over-educated white guy friends convene to pop-off about PhD-level Biblical studies stuff. I've asked him to try to dumb it down a little over here on Piebald Life, a request which he has graciously agreed to.
It's really annoying when your little brother goes to school for a really long time and makes you call him "Dr. Kirk." I try to remind him that there was a short period of time in our lives when I was taller than he was.
I believe that Daniel will be double-blogging during this time--posting both on his own blog and on mine. Please, ladies and gentlemen, do not try this at home. Daniel is a professional.
I'll try to post a comment or two while I'm away. Talk to ya'll in a couple of weeks!
Daniel has his own high-brow blog, Sibboleth, where he and his other over-educated white guy friends convene to pop-off about PhD-level Biblical studies stuff. I've asked him to try to dumb it down a little over here on Piebald Life, a request which he has graciously agreed to.
It's really annoying when your little brother goes to school for a really long time and makes you call him "Dr. Kirk." I try to remind him that there was a short period of time in our lives when I was taller than he was.
I believe that Daniel will be double-blogging during this time--posting both on his own blog and on mine. Please, ladies and gentlemen, do not try this at home. Daniel is a professional.
I'll try to post a comment or two while I'm away. Talk to ya'll in a couple of weeks!
Thursday, May 03, 2007
Servant Leadership
This weekend I head out for InterVarsity's annual student training conference where I'll be training over 150 small group Bible study leaders to lead for next fall. I'm giving a talk next Friday on "Servant Leadership." Here's a sound-byte, the passage we're looking at is Jesus washing his disciples feet in John 13:
If someone falls out of a canoe it’s really hard to get them back in. The people in the canoe are trying to pull someone up onto the moving platform that they are sitting on. It’s an unstable situation that generally leads to everyone getting wet. However, if you’re standing on a rock or on land, it’s much easier to pull someone up to where you are.
There’s a “so” in John 13 that I think is just about the most ridiculous, most unlikely, most insane and crazy and non-sequitir “so” that I think anyone ever could imagine.
3 Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; 4 so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist.
Pretend for me that you had three wishes, even the oft-prohibited wish of infinitely more wishes. Jesus has this and more. All things under his power, come from God, returning to God. That pretty much means that he’s got just about every possible thing at his disposal. For most of us if we had access to anything like this kind of power, the last thing we would have done is serve anyone.
Jesus has all power possible in the universe available to him and he chooses to wash dirty feet of clueless disciples, even the one who will betray him.
Only when we consider the preamble to the act do we understand how Jesus is able to do this. Jesus is able to serve because he is firmly rooted in a solid place. He has no insecurities about who he is, no anxieties about where he belongs.
Jesus can serve his friends because he is so deeply rooted in the love relationship he has with his Father. He is living right-side up in an upside-down world. He can serve recklessly because he is rooted securely.
In Christ, you and I have this same gift. We don’t have Jesus’ power or authority, but we are tied to the one who does have these things.If someone falls out of a canoe it’s really hard to get them back in. The people in the canoe are trying to pull someone up onto the moving platform that they are sitting on. It’s an unstable situation that generally leads to everyone getting wet. However, if you’re standing on a rock or on land, it’s much easier to pull someone up to where you are.
All serving and all initiating is weight displacement, a shift in our center of gravity. Generally, my emotional center of gravity is firmly fixed on myself. To serve or to risk is to move my center of gravity: to serve is to step downward, to initiate is to lean forward. Either way, my center is no longer myself.
All true service comes from a position of strength and certainty, not neediness.
And then he looks at us, his children that he loves, and he says one thing: “serve.”
Wednesday, May 02, 2007
If I Started a Band...
If I started a band...
1. The band name would be "Edible Spackle" as in: "Man, these mashed potatoes taste like edible spackle."
2. It would suck, because in spite of the fact that my family is swimming in musical ability I have none whatsoever.
3. We would cover songs from non-Christian bands that had significant spiritual meaning. I heard this early-90's flashback the other day while shopping at Kroger. It's by Extreme, the same band that stole women's hearts by telling them to stop saying "I love you" and just sleep with me with the acoustic, misleadingly-sweet-sounding song "More than Words." This one's "Holehearted," and the grapplings are rich:
Life's ambition occupies my time
Priorities confuse the mind
Happiness one step behind
This inner peace I've yet to find
Rivers flow into the sea
Yet even the sea is not so full of me
If I'm not blind why can't I see
That a circle can't fit
Where a square should be
There's a hole in my heart
That can only be filled by you
And this hole in my heart
Can't be filled with the things I do
Hole hearted
Hole hearted
This heart of stone is where I hide
These feet of clay kept warm inside
Day by day less satisfied
Not fade away before I die
Rivers flow into the sea
Yet even the sea is not so full of me
If I'm not blind why can't I see
That a circle can't fit
Where a square should be
There's a hole in my heart
That can only be filled by you
And this hole in my heart
Can't be filled with the things I do
There's a hole in my heart
That can only be filled by you
And this hole in my heart
Can't be filled with the things I do
Hole hearted
Hole hearted
Hole hearted
Hole hearted
1. The band name would be "Edible Spackle" as in: "Man, these mashed potatoes taste like edible spackle."
2. It would suck, because in spite of the fact that my family is swimming in musical ability I have none whatsoever.
3. We would cover songs from non-Christian bands that had significant spiritual meaning. I heard this early-90's flashback the other day while shopping at Kroger. It's by Extreme, the same band that stole women's hearts by telling them to stop saying "I love you" and just sleep with me with the acoustic, misleadingly-sweet-sounding song "More than Words." This one's "Holehearted," and the grapplings are rich:
Life's ambition occupies my time
Priorities confuse the mind
Happiness one step behind
This inner peace I've yet to find
Rivers flow into the sea
Yet even the sea is not so full of me
If I'm not blind why can't I see
That a circle can't fit
Where a square should be
There's a hole in my heart
That can only be filled by you
And this hole in my heart
Can't be filled with the things I do
Hole hearted
Hole hearted
This heart of stone is where I hide
These feet of clay kept warm inside
Day by day less satisfied
Not fade away before I die
Rivers flow into the sea
Yet even the sea is not so full of me
If I'm not blind why can't I see
That a circle can't fit
Where a square should be
There's a hole in my heart
That can only be filled by you
And this hole in my heart
Can't be filled with the things I do
There's a hole in my heart
That can only be filled by you
And this hole in my heart
Can't be filled with the things I do
Hole hearted
Hole hearted
Hole hearted
Hole hearted
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