Playing in the Shallow End

Robert Campbell, the pastor of Santa Margarita Community Church, posted a quote on his Facebook page from Dick Keyes, the Director of L'Abri Fellowship in Southborough, Massachusetts: 

“If we avoid life’s complexity and confusion, if we can’t face pain in ourselves or others, if what we feel most deeply always references ourselves, then sure enough, we have already become –deep down– very shallow.”

Ecclesia Americana

Ken Myers, host and producer of Mars Hill Audio Journal writes an insightful article in the latest Touchstone Magazine entitled, Ecclesia Americana.  You can read the article at Ecclesia Americana.  Touchstone is the only magazine produced by Christians for Christians that I read through each issue.  It always forces me to think more carefully of my theology and my life.  You can subscribe by going to Touchstonemag.com.  Subscribers now have access to an electronic version of the magazine.

It's Only Fair

Let's be honest.  Most of us function on a daily basis like Lucy VanPelt.  Oh we say we believe something else, but our theology has not caught up with our internal wiring.  My wife recently re-read one of our favorite novels, Peace Like a River, by Leif Enger.  On the whiteboard in the hallway just outside our bathroom, she wrote a quote from this novel.  "Fair is whatever God wants to do."  I agree with that statement on the meta level, but what about the daily-ness of my life?  I find myself agreeing more with that great theologian Calvin than I do the character in Enger's novel:

I want life to be fair as long as it is fair in my favor. As long as things go along in a direction I desire, I think life is fair and I trust that God knows what He is doing.  But just let a circumstance come into my life, or a season of life take turns I hadn't planned on, and suddenly I am in Lucy and Calvin's camp.  It's only fair when my life turns out the way I wanted and it's unfair when life isn't unfair in my favor.

This tendency in all of us is one of the many reasons why God keeps repeating Himself throughout Scripture, "You're going to have to trust me, I know what I'm doing."---SLP version (Schliep loose paraphrase version)  This does not come naturally to me or to you.  It comes super-naturally.  It is something that is "above natural."  Jesus perfectly followed the will of God and yet it is appeared that, as he hung on the cross, God must have forsaken him. If ever things were happening that were "not fair" in light of the character of the person involved, it was this event in the life of Jesus. It is, in fact, this apparent unfairness that prompted Jesus' quotation from Psalm 22, "My Elohim [strong God who is able to deliver], my Elohim, why have you forsaken me?"  What the psalmist goes on to write (and what I think Christ was pointing to by using the opening phrase) is that God had not, actually, forsaken him.  In fact, God was very much present, even in the suffering. Part way throught his song there is a shift from a prayer for deliverance to an acknowledgment that God has delivered, or at least will deliver.  "...You have rescued me from the horns of the wild oxen! I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will praise you: You who fear YHWH [the promise-making, promise-keeping God who is to His people all that He is], praise him! All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him, and stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel! For he has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, and he has not hidden his face from him, but has heard, when he cried to him."---Psalm 22:21-24 (ESV)

I don't know what this season holds for you, but I believe, deep down and contrary to the apparent evidence, that Leif Enger's character got it right.  "Fair is whatever God wants to do."  Now if I could just trust Him enough to live like I believe it...  Lord I believe, help my unbelief.

I Wish I Went to a Church Like This...

"Sunday's Coming" Movie Trailer from North Point Media on Vimeo.

I've had days like this. Being a dad is hard work

Practice Resurrection

I recently finished Eugene H. Peterson's latest book, "Practice Resurrection."  It is the fifth and final book in his latest series.  This book is basically a distillation of his understanding of the book of Ephesians (which is one of my favorites).  It was my privilege to take a class on Ephesians from Peterson at Regent College in Vancouver, B.C. some years ago.  It was amazing.  Anyway, here are some select quotes to challenge your thinking:


Americans in general have little tolerance for a centering way of life that is submissive to the conditions in which growth takes place: quiet, obscure, patient, not subject to human control and management...Typically, in the name of "relevance," it adapts itself to the prevailing American culture and is soon indistinguishable from that culture: talkative, noisy, busy, controlling, image-conscious.


[A recent convert to Christ began attending church.]  These churches seemed to her to be full of ideas and projects that they used as she had once used alcohol, drugs, and sex--to avoid God, to avoid being present to life, being present to a neighbor.  They were doing everything religious except following Jesus.  They were feeding their most childish and adolescent impulses and refusing to take up the cross of Jesus.  They were not growing up in Christ.  Lots of doctrine, lots of Bible study, lots of moral and ethical concern, lots of projects.  But it struck her as pretty thin soup...It took her a while, but eventually she found a few friends, a teacher, a pastor.  She now had companions to a life of growing up to the full stature of Christ, becoming mature.


Church is the textured context in which we grow up in Christ to maturity.  But church is difficult.  Sooner or later, though, if we are serious about growing up in Christ, we have to deal with the church.  I say sooner.


Church is an appointed gathering of named people in particular places who practice a life of resurrection in a world in which death gets the big headlines...The practice of resurrection is an intentional, deliberate decision to believe and participate in resurrection life...This practice is not a vague wish upwards but comprises a number of discreet but interlocking acts that maintain a credible and faithful way of life...These practices include the worship of God in all the operations of the Trinity; the acceptance of a resurrection, born-from-above identity (in baptism); the embrace of resurrection formation by eating and drinking Christ's resurrection body and blood (at the Lord's Table); attentive reading of and obedience to the revelation of God in the Scriptures; prayer that cultivates an intimacy with realities that are inaccessible to our senses; confession and forgiveness of sins; welcoming the stranger and outcast; working and speaking for peace and justice, healing and truth, sanctity and beauty; care for all the stuff of creation.

Out of Abundance

It was my privilege recently to interact my brothers-in-Christ among the Balangao (Mt. Provinces of the Philippines) using the book of Deuteronomy as our text.  I was invited to work with these church leaders, using the Old Testament as the basis for my encouragement of their lives and ministries.  It didn't take long to discover that they were, in the main, subsistence rice farmers who also serve as leaders in their local church.  There is no real concept of being on "paid staff."  Many of them walked hours to attend the seminars.  In the United States it's difficult to get full-time pastors to drive across town for teaching and encouragement.  Sharon reminded me that these pastors were responding out of their need, while so many of the U.S. pastors respond out of their abundance.  Myself included.  What those of us in the States often fail to recognize is our need.  Even in the midst of abudance.

No Training Necessary

In his book, SoulTsunami, Leonard Sweet writes, "Our problem in evangelism is not a lack of training.  The problem in evangelism is that we don’t love enough.  Do you need training to talk about your grandchildren?"  I have used that quote off and on over the last few years in sermons, but now I know, by experience, the emotional impact of what he is saying.  


Raya Grace Mireles arrived yesterday at about 1:00 pm and I've told many people about her.  Her picture is on the desktop of my computer at work and my netbook at home.  She is also on the desktop of my smartphone.  When asked about her this morning by friends I probably told them more than they wanted to know about this incredible human being.  So go ahead, ask me about my grandbaby.  And about my Jesus.

ReJesus

Into my inbox this morning came an e-mail from my team leader containing the following short review from a friend of his.  

"One of the books I really enjoyed reading last year was ReJesus by Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch.  The sub-title of the book is A Wild Messiah for a Missional Church.  The book explores the connection between the way of Jesus and the religion of Christianity.  The authors ask a variety of questions including: Why is what we experience as Christianity discontinuous with the way of Jesus?  How consistent is our witness with his life and teachings?  Can we move away from his prototypical spirituality without doing irreparable damage to the integrity of the faith?  How far is too far?

I enjoyed the whole book, but their chapter on ReJesus for the Church and Organization really challenged me.  Here are some excerpts from the chapter" :

As Jesus’ disciples we are called to a Christ like life, and no matter how we configure it, that must surely mean that somehow our lives and our communities must be in significant congruence with the life, teachings, and mission of Jesus.  The degree that we are living the life laid out by our Master is directly proportional to the degree that we can call ourselves authentic disciples.

We have built and established a massive global religion comprising thousands of organizations with massive capital and resources.  The problem is these organizations drift towards pragmatism over radicalism, although, we suspect, in more honest moments many of them would probably admit that much of what we do seems to only have an indirect correlation to the uncluttered, nonreligious, life-oriented faith so compellingly portrayed in the Gospels.  These objectors might, in spite of their deepest spiritual intuitions simply say that we have no choice but to continue to operate the services and maintain the system or else the whole edifice might crumble.  But we cannot escape the question:  “Is this what Jesus really intended for his movement?”

Does advancing in the kingdom of God boil down to this? Running programs and services and/or guiding the laity through liturgical complexities in order to help people get to the God they are all meant to access directly through Jesus anyhow? Was this what Jesus had in mind when he established the church (Matt. 16:18-19)? And, whatever happened to the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers that many within the Protestant movements are meant to adhere to (I Peter 2:9)?

Unless we can validate who we are and what we do by lining ourselves up with the measure that Jesus laid down in his life and work, then what in God’s name are we doing? His modus operandi, teaching, his critique of religion, his commitment to the way of the kingdom, must become our primary source of guidance.

We believe that in order to find renewal we need to discover Jesus afresh even though this be a dangerous course of action because it calls into question so much of what we might build our various religious houses on.  At the beginning of this new century, we have never needed so desperately to rediscover the original genius of the Christian experience and to allow it to strip away all the unnecessary and cumbersome paraphernalia of Christendom.

Roland Allen wrote about missional movements: The spontaneous expansion of the Church reduced to its element is a very simple thing. It asks for no elaborate organization, no large finances, no great numbers of paid missionaries. In its beginning it may be the work of one man and that of a man neither learned in the things of this world, nor rich in the wealth of this world. What is necessary is faith. What is needed is the kind of faith which uniting a man to Christ, sets him on fire.

We need to learn from the story of the Israelites in the wilderness.  They tried to store up manna from heaven for another day.  Religion can give in to the same temptation to try to store up and rely on souvenirs of a past spiritual experience.  For how many years did the church rely on the system of holy Christian relics – a bone from Peter’s finger, a wood shard from the cross of Christ, cathedrals and sacred buildings, inherited rituals, even creedal formulas, more than it relied on a fresh, daily encounter with Jesus?  We, like Israel, are called to be willing to collect the fresh manna every day – and we are to do this without becoming spiritual thrill seekers but rather lifelong worshipers.  To do otherwise is to “outsource your encounter with Jesus” to a religious system of souvenirs, ritual, and religious paraphernalia.

To ReJesus the church, we must first look in the mirror and ask ourselves whether the strange and wonderful God-Man has invaded our life with purpose and freshness. If Christianity minus Christ equals religion, then Christianity plus Christ is the antidote to religion.

Max Weber, the famous sociologist, noted that in order to survive the loss of the founder, the movement has to somehow build the charisma of the founder into the life of the organization.  We also know from the Gospels that Jesus spent significant and strategic time devoted to initiating his followers into the ways of the kingdom and to discipling and teaching them to recognize the dynamics of what it meant to be one of his followers.

Likewise for the Christian movement, the founder must be able to be seen in the lives of the found. This must surely partly be what it means to live “in Christ” and he in us. People observing us ought to be able to discern the elements of Jesus’ way in our ways. If they cannot find authentic signals of the historical Jesus through the life of his people, then as far as we are concerned they have the full right to question our legitimacy.

"Frost and Hirsch certainly have some challenging thoughts.  They cause me to reflect on my daily encounter with Jesus.  Am I living on day old, or even month old manna?  Do I see regular evidence that Jesus has invaded my life with purpose?  Do people in my orbit see authentic signals of the Jesus life in my life?  So this month I’m praying that you will ReJesus.  That you won’t mistake the programs and rituals of Christianity for the authentic Christ. "

Discerning God's Will

I'm one of those who believes that, generally speaking, "if it isn't sin, it's an option".  That is, God's will for His children is much broader than some would assume.  It seems from Scripture that God is far more interested in who you are than where you are, for instance.  He is far more involved in developing your character than your career.  He's far more concerned about the kind of spouse you are than who you chose for a spouse.  God's will is our salvation, our sanctification, and that we keep in step with His Spirit.  All the rest of our decisions should reflect the reality of these larger realities.  Proverbs calls it the way of wisdom--factoring in God's existence and our relationship with Him into all we choose to do.  There is great freedom in this.  And, as a corollary, there is great responsibility.  I wouldn't have it any other way.

Getting Ready

Sometime in the next few weeks my first grandbaby will arrive.  I've had about 36 weeks to prepare, but most of it has been happening these last few weeks.  We've been sorting through the toys that we saved from our own kids (which we used when company came with small children) and setting aside those which she will play with first.  We've even hung the Noah's-Ark-cloth-bath-toy bag on a hook in the bathroom in preparation of some crazy fun.  We discovered the windup turtle's legs still rotate, propelling him around the tub.  I was saddened that the clam still had his shell, but not the soft inner clam that shoots water into baby's faces.  (Where does one go to find replacement parts for cheap bath toys?)  This is going to be fun.  Raya will, no doubt, be the a topic of many conversations since she will, of course, be above average in beauty, intelligence and talent.


So, for both of you who read this blog, be prepared for stories about my amazing grandbaby compared to whom all other grandbabies will pale in comparison.

Seasons

I had my birthday again a few days ago.  It comes every year whether I'm ready or not.  I enjoyed the time with family and friends.  I received a number of iTunes gift cards.  What surprised me a bit is what I purchased.  Crosby, Stills and Nash (C, S & N), Cat Stevens (Tea for the Tillerman, Teaser and the Firecat), Simon and Garfunkel (Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme), Gordon Lightfoot (The United Artists collection) , and Carole King (Tapestry, of course).  I guess I was in a mood to hear music that is connected to a much earlier season in my life.  Every album I downloaded is one that I had previously owned on vinyl.  (I think I also had Tapestry on 8 track).  


I have no doubt that I'll play these mostly when I'm on one of my road trips.  I'll leave it to others to figure out the "why".  In the meantime I'll enjoy the music.

Ordinary-Extraordinary

I had the privilege of preaching at the Yucca Valley, CA EFC yesterday.  I took the congregation through the familiar account of Jesus' birth in Luke's Gospel.  I asked them to pretend that they didn't know the end of the story.  If one is able to do that it's interesting (to me anyway) to note that the first 8 verses would probably have the reader asking, "So what?"  


It was an ordinary time.  Caesar is taking a census in order to levy taxes to pay for road maintenance, support of the armies of Rome and to keep him in the lifestyle to which he has grown accustomed.  There is nothing extraordinary about that.  


It was an ordinary place.  Both Nazareth, where the young couple starts out from and Bethlehem, where they stop, are backwater towns.  There is nothing extraordinary about that.  


It was an ordinary couple.  Luke does not give the back story of angel visitations, so the reader simply sees a couple, not yet married, who are expecting a child.  There is nothing extraordinary about that.  


It was an ordinary birth.  The time came for her to be delivered.  Like millions of women before her, the baby makes his way into the world.  She wraps him snuggly like millions of mothers before her.  There is nothing extraordinary about that. 


It was an ordinary setting.  The shepherds were doing what they always had done, watching their sheep.  There is nothing extraordinary about that.


In verse 9 everything changes.  Angelic messengers, a good news announcement from God for all people, a response of faith by the shepherds (who traditionally didn't get to the Temple much because of their profession), a glimpse at the face of God in the flesh, and an amazed wonder from Mary who treasures all that has happened.


I've been part of God's family through faith in Jesus since 1970.  One of the things I've discovered over those years is that God does extraordinary things, but most often He does them using ordinary people in ordinary circumstances.  Part of the reason, Scripture tells us, is that in this way, God gets the glory He deserves.  


Paul writes to the Christians at Corinth, "Remember, dear brothers and sisters, that few of you were wise in the world’s eyes or powerful or wealthy when God called you. Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful. God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important. As a result, no one can ever boast in the presence of God. God has united you with Christ Jesus. For our benefit God made him to be wisdom itself. Christ made us right with God; he made us pure and holy, and he freed us from sin. Therefore, as the Scriptures say, “If you want to boast, boast only about the Lord.”  1 Corinthians 1:26-31  NLT


So continue to do the ordinary and watch for God to do the extraordinary.

I'm Back

We finished the Bible in 90 Days.  It was harder than I thought it would be to read through the text and blog.  But it was, for all of us, a very helpful exercise.  Some will be finishing up in the next week or so, others slowed down more.  But we all agreed that reading it in a shorter period than a year was helpful for getting the bigger picture.

I blogged every day except when I was out of range of an internet connection (yes, there are places in the U.S. where that is possible.  I don't think I'll try to do the same with this blog, but I will try to post at least once a week.

BTW, just watched Slumdog Millionaire for the first time last evening.  Painful reminder of the brutality and poverty of the 2/3 world.  Yet even in that setting, a recognition of the image of God, however tarnished it is from the Fall.

Hiatus

I may blog some on this spot, but because of the Through the Bible in Ninety Days I am more liklely to post something at EFCHBBiblein90Days.blogspot.com through the end of November.

There Arose Another Generation After Them...

I'm still working my way through the Bible. This morning I arrived at Judges. Judges is that book with stories like the king who was so fat that his stomach closed around the hilt of the sword used to kill him, the woman who drove a tent peg through a man's temple while he slept, and the man who hacked his concubine into twelve pieces after she was raped.

But before all those stories there is a statement in chapter 2 that bothers me each time I read it. The passage begins by recounting, "And the people served YHWH all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great work that YHWH had done for Israel." You can almost see what comes next by the way the author makes a point that the people served YHWH all the days of Joshua and the elders who outlived Joshua. What the author says next concerns me every time.

"And all that generation [who had seen all the great work that YHWH had done for Israel] also were gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them who did not know YHWH or the work that he had done for Israel."

The generation referred to are the children of those who had experienced 40 years of God's faithfulness. Honestly, I can understand those children not knowing YHWH. We can never have a relationship with God for someone else. Everyone has to make their own decision about what they will do or not do with God. They could have decided, collectively, that they didn't want to know YHWH. But the verse goes on to say "...[they] did not know YHWH or the work that he had done for Israel."

How can they not know what he had done for Israel? Only because they were never told. I know that's an "all-ness", but isn't that what the text says? They did not know the work God had done for Israel. They were not there when it happened or they were too young when it happened. So how could they have known? Only because their parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, neighbors told the story. But they didn't. As a result an entire generation did not know YHWH or the work he had done for Israel.

Before we come down too hard on the generation who didn't tell the story, who are you telling?

What Goes Without Saying...

One of the lasting impacts of living in Santa Margarita was a new appreciation for Country Music. Our whole family became Paul Overstreet fans. One of his songs is What Goes Without Saying Should be Said.

"He stood looking at his father who was eighty-five years old
He remembered all the ball games they played so long ago
Then he put his arm around him and kissed him on the cheek
He say dad it's time I told you what a friend you've been to me.

'Cause when you love someone you gotta let 'em know
When you're thinking of someone you need to tell 'em so
Don't know what makes us think our minds and our hearts can be read
What's going without saying should be said.

She stood in the kitchen doorway all grown up with children too
Watching as her mama cooked just like she used to do
She slowly walked up to her and she held her wrinkled hands
She said do you know you are the greatest mom a daughter ever had.

No one needs our roses when the sun of life's gone down
If you're gonna send a message of your love then send it now.

Oh, I don't believe I've let you hear the things you should have heard
I don't believe I've truly put my feelings into words
'Cause to me you are so beautiful much more than words can say
And if you don't mind and you've got the time I'd like to try today."

In one of my favorite, quirky movies, "Waking Ned Devine," Jackie O'Shea pretends to be Ned who died upon learning that he had won the lottery. When the lottery officials arrive in town, the eulogy for Ned quickly turns into a eulogy for Jackie so that the officials will assume that Jackie is Ned. (Rent the movie, it'll become clearer.) Anyway, on the spur of the moment to the surprise of his fellow villagers, Jackie is attending his own wake. In those moments he hears from his friends what he has meant to them.

This past Saturday I was blessed to be at a similar occasion. Several former students of the now deceased Voyager's Christian School pulled together a reunion of what the school's only principal described as a "home school group that got out of hand." The students who were there on Saturday spent a significant time recounting [in the presence of Thenell and Gary Hanggi who served as principal, teacher, surrogate parents, mentors, sports coach, driver's education instructors, and all the other hats they wore throughout the life of the school] the life-transforming impact they had on the students. One by one these adults were able to articulate what a difference these two people had made in their lives. (One of the students calculated that Gary and Thenell were about the age the students are now when they began the school. That was sobering.)

Rather than waiting until some point down the road when or more of the Hanggi's were dead or dying, they set aside time to tell them now how God had used them to impact their lives for good. Is there someone in your life that needs to know how much they imprinted your life? What goes without saying should be said.

An Extension, not an Exemption

In his book, "Traveling Light, Eugene Peterson writes, "Paul will not permit us to compensate for neglecting those nearest us by advertising our compassion for those on another continent. Jesus, it must be remembered, restricted nine-tenths of his ministry to twelve Jews because it was the only way to redeem all Americans. He couldn't be bothered, says Martin Thornton, with the foreign Canaanites because his work was to save the whole world. The check for the starving child must still be written and the missionary sent, but as an extension of what we are doing at home, not as an exemption from it."

Earlier in Peterson's book he quotes from John Updike's novel, "The Coup." A U.S. embassy official, Don X. Gibbs, is murdered in his attempt to deliver a load of American junk food to the drought-ridden land of Kush. His wife later reflects, "I've forgotten a lot about Don...actually I didn't see that much of him. He was always trying to help people. But he only liked to help people he didn't know."

Life, and ministry in the context of life, is messy. As 21st century, North American Christians we have worked hard not to "do" messy. We have believed the lie that if we are good enough, life won't be messy; if we make enough money, life won't be messy; if we get enough education, life won't be messy. But the reality is, life is messy. And seeking to live out a relationship with Christ in the daily-ness of our lives is messy. And pointing people to Jesus is messy. And actually being in relationship with people is messy. That is why, it seems to me, we find it much easier to write the check or send the missionary than to engage the actual people in our lives.

B.I.N.D.

To both of you who read my blog:
Check out EFCHBBiblein90Days.blogspot.com. A group of us at the Evangelical Free Church of Huntington Beach (EFCHB) are going to read the Bible in its entirety in just 90 days (Bible in Ninety Days=B.I.N.D.). And we are going to read it chronologically. That means Job will follow Genesis 11. David's songs will be read during the season of his life in which they were written. The various prophets will be read during the narrative on the period in which they prophesied. Paul's letters will be read at the appropriate spot in the Acts narrative.

If you'd like to join us in the journey, you can do so anonymously (as the thousands do who read this blog and never comment), or you can become a "follower" by joining the blog and you'll be alerted when someone posts.

The blog will contain insights and questions submitted by those who are taking the challenge to read through the Bible in 90 days. If you'd like to join us, but don't attend EFCHB, you can drop me a line and I'll send you a PDF version of the reading calendar.

Our adventure in God's story will begin Monday, August 24 and end November 21. At EFCHB we will meet on Sunday mornings to talk about what we're learning beginning, Sunday, September 6 at 10:30 a.m. (sharp) in the Chapel of the Cornerstone Building and ending November 22.

So, if you're up to the challenge, join us on a 90-day, non-stop journey through the Bible.

Descarte Redeux