FAITH IN NOTHING IS SOMETHING
As humans we believe in something. Even if that something is nothing. We all display faith one way or another with regard to God, gods, religion, spirituality or no religion at all.
The New York Times recently ran an article highlighting the conversion of Jerry DeWitt from a preacher to an atheist. In it they highlight the growing faith that is atheism. Raising the question what makes one faith greater than any other?
Here is the article titled, "From Bible-Belt Pastor to Atheist Leader"
Late one night in early May 2011, a preacher named Jerry DeWitt was lying in bed in DeRidder, La., when his phone rang. He picked it up and heard an anguished, familiar voice. It was Natosha Davis, a friend and parishioner in a church where DeWitt had preached for more than five years. Her brother had been in a bad motorcycle accident, she said, and he might not survive.
LEAVING THE CHURCH?
"This place has a good spiritual vibe." This comment was made to me by a person the first time they attended a gathering at Denver Community Church. He went on to tell me that he had not been in a church building in a "long, long time." He actually could not remember.
There has been a lot of discussion in the last years around the trend of young people no longer attending church gatherings. All kinds of questions come up from within local churches about how they can continue to attract, connect of engage young people.
No matter how diligent the attempts, most seem to be failing. A recent article from David Kinnaman and Eric Reed reflected a few reasons young people leave the church.
One observation is that the term "leave the church" is ambiguous. Some feel that this means young people are giving up faith in Jesus. Yet for many, it simply means they do not feel compelled to attend a church gathering on a Sunday morning.
How does this strike you? Have you or a friend "left the church?" If so, why? Have you "left" Christianity or just stopped attending Sundays? What has caused you to stay?
Read the brief article by Kinnaman and Reed here: Six Reasons Why Young People Leave the Church.
DON'T F--- WITH ME!
I knew it was getting serious when he said he pulled out a golf club and said, “Don’t f--- with me!” Did I mention we were not on a golf course?
Let me back up.
I was 16 years old and my friend and I got into a verbal exchange with another guy. It started with taunting, grew to personal insults and finally into an all out shouting match. His pulling out a golf club was simply the next logical step in the progression of our conflict. Physical violence is what happens when the violent force of words is not enough.
It’s possible that we are just beginning to see the start of that in our world today. The words, language and rhetoric within politics and religion is growing in intensity all the time. Insults, name-calling and unfounded accusation are normal and even expected.
When one side is called out for their language, they simply excuse themselves pointing out that their opponent is doing the same thing. So it goes. But what happens when the force of the rhetoric reaches its limit? Violence.
In early August Wade Michael Page entered a Sikh temple in Wisconsin, murdering six worshippers. As details of his life emerged it was stated that he embraced hate filled ideas, words, music and philosophy. His violence was simply a natural outworking of his hate-filled words. They had reached their limit.
Page’s insidious actions made sense when the public learned about his connection to white supremacist groups. Why? Because something inside us knows that at some point hateful words will escalate into something greater. While it’s easy to connect the Page’s hate and violence, it is far more difficult to do that with our words.
In another extreme example, a judge in Texas is predicting civil war if President Obama is reelected. He has stopped just short of calling for an armed resistance. This should not be a surprise. The hate-filled language spilling out of politicians, political pundits and the media will at some point reach its limit too. When it does, violence will inevitably follow.
It is easy to dismiss stories like these, and tell ourselves that we are not like them. But if we are using hateful rhetoric and tearing others down with our words we are much closer than we may like to admit.
We are not exempt from the reality of violence. Perhaps it would do us all well to stop and consider our words. Not only the ones we speak or the ones we post on Facebook or the one we tweet – but also the words we hear on the radio, absorb through television and read in news sources.
How many of them are laced with hate and division?
In responding to this question we may soon realize that it seems that we have lost the ability to disagree or critique with any measure of dignity whatsoever. We are an angry, hostile people - this only points to our fear. And what do fearful people do? Typically one of two things: 1. Fight 2. Flight
Are we willing to choose a third, higher way?
We need to take our words seriously. We cannot use words of hatred and division believing there will be no consequences. We cannot fail to see is that any language promoting hatred always has violence lying just behind the words.
NO NEED TO FEAR
As I was driving today I had the radio on scan. It filtered through the stations skipping to the next station automatically. Station after station came and went. I finally stopped it on a talk show.
I listened for a time as the host was telling anyone who would listen including me that our country is moving full steam ahead in the wrong direction. He predicted the worst and called Christians to rise up and reclaim our nation.
This was not the first time I have heard such fear mongering. Not too long ago someone warned me that our government would soon “come after churches that don't toe the party line.” Another told me that our government was out to destroy the Christian faith. I think this sounds great.
NO HATE, JUST LOVE
We all feel like horrible, sinful, messed-up people sometimes, don't we? The only difference between people is how often we feel this way. For some, it's all the time. Perhaps this just comes with the reality of being human.
The terrible thing about this is too often the Church, without intending to, makes that feeling worse. But what would it be like if churches embraced everyone who walked through their doors? Rather than speak about the horrid, sinful condition of the person what if we just loved them?
Todd Morrison explores this idea in a recent article at Relevant Magazine titled, "Hello, My Sin Is ..." His words and story brought tears to my eyes, because what led to his heart change was not judgment but love. May we see the day when this becomes the first and only impulse of the people of God.
Todd writes:
Most likely, many of us would not have become followers of Jesus if an us-verses-them philosophy had met us at the church door. Yet if you look at the comment section of my previous article entitled “Can I Come to Your Church? I’m Gay,” it seems some Christians today still want to keep the lines clearly defined. The mantra “Love the sinner, hate the sin” is well-meaning, but it fails in one important aspect: It creates labels for certain sinners, when in reality, we are all guilty of falling short.
Chances are, if you go to church, there is a point in the service where you are asked to stand and introduce yourself to a total stranger. Sometimes they make it easier for us by giving us an icebreaker question to answer, like “Who’s the best father on television?” or “What’s your favorite ice cream flavor?”
+ Continue Reading
IT'S NOT BLACK OR WHITE ... OR GRAY EITHER
It’s possible that the categories of right and wrong are not always as easy as we make them. I’m not advocating relativism. I am, however, suggesting that we may not always look at things from all angles, and too often limit our scope and approach.
For many in our world right and wrong is a simple matter of black and white. In this kind of world there are times that black and white thinking do not work. This is when they defer to the “gray area.” This is the place that is spoken of when a decision for or against something does not seem to work.
But maybe there is a third way that goes beyond black and white and gray. All we need to do is look at our world and we will see it everywhere we look - color. It’s even in the Bible.
This sacred book is filled with stories of men and women living in this world of ours. They were just like us. They experienced it all - failure, success, death, birth, betrayal, friendship, love, hate, hope, fear tears and laughter. There are pages filled with insights, wisdom, instruction and observations about life. One writer in the Bible even said Scripture itself is alive and active.
Rightfully so, for thousands of years people have looked to this book to learn of who God is, who we are and how we can live in relationship to him and one another. The Bible weighs so heavy that some claim it is the final authority on all things.
But is it really?
But is it really?
Is it possible that this claim is something the Bible does not claim about itself? If we say it is the final authority, then why does it point to God as the final authority? Who makes the official decision on how its authority gets applied? Why do some Christians observe one rule for living while others observe another? What about the things the Bible does not address? Why is it unclear? Is it authoritative at all? Is this a gray area?
Questions like these and more may only reveal that we have applied black and white thinking to a colorful book. Sure, in a world of color we can see black and white, but it is always a part of a larger picture. This ought to make us stop and consider how we engage Scripture.
When we think in black and white categories, and then apply that grid to the Bible we may end up using it as something it was never intended to be. This is why many view it as a rulebook, a set of instructions or a reference manual that validates certain doctrinal beliefs. This kind of approach does an injustice to the beauty of the biblical narrative.
The Bible is so much more. We cannot forget that it teaches us about the massive story of God. It is a story that invites us to see and understand this present world, and the new world that God is bringing about right here in the middle of this one. We don’t just read the story of the Bible. We, along with God and others, participate in it.
It is this participation that calls us into conversation with God, one another and the Word itself. It is not just something that we look to for answers; it helps us to ask the right questions. It causes us to look within ourselves to see ourselves as God sees us. It allows us to better understand God, and yet reveals the mystery of God.
It is a book written in beautiful, vibrant color. Any attempt to make it black and white is not true to what it is. We need to engage the Bible on its terms and not on ours. In doing so, we may just find ourselves swept up in the story Scripture tells . When this happens we will discover the deep love of the God of whom the Bible speaks. And there is nothing black or white or gray about that.
*This blog was written as some thoughts and intended to be the beginning of conversation about how we can better engage the words of Scripture. My hope is that this blog is will be shared with your friends so that you can move on to discuss your approach to the Bible.
MORE THAN MORALITY
There they were. Stark naked, with the lights on with getting ready to make a decision that would impact the world in a way they never would have imagined. I’m speaking, of course, of the couple we call Adam and Eve.
As the story goes they eat from the tree that God commanded them not to eat from, and in doing so sin entered the world. Many believe that the story is about a wrong choice made by the man and the woman.
Perhaps this is why we have limited our understanding of “sin” to wrong choices. We boil sin down to whether or not an individual makes the right or the wrong choice. Sin is simply a moral wrongdoing committed by a person.
When we do this, we frame the rest of the bible in individual, personal terms. So when we speak of ourselves in light of sin it becomes about getting myself fixed and getting my sin taken care of. Eventually, even the story of Jesus is about mysin.
How many times have you heard that Jesus came to earth, lived as a human, and died on the cross to pay for my sin. As the story goes, he did all of this so that we can have our sins forgiven, and go to heaven when we die.
This is the kind of thing that some influential theologians claim. One such theologian claimed that the central issue to the entire Gospel of Jesus is the question of how I can make sure my sins are forgiven, because that is what bars me from heaven.
Ultimately we reduce the whole of the biblical narrative to a story about how God bailed out individuals because of their moral wrongdoing. Thankfully now, if we know and believe the story we can go to heaven. Does this sound completely underwhelming to anyone else?
If this is the story we have been proclaiming for years, then it’s no wonder people are leaving local churches in record numbers. A story like this is nothing more than a tale about a moral code and our inability to obey it. The good news of Jesus is then reduced to a story about you or me, our sin and our getting ourselves into heaven.
This is not to say that sin is not something we should care much about or not take seriously. In fact, the opposite is true. We should deeply care about it – the trouble is we have not taken it seriously enough. Sin is far more simple wrongdoing. It is an oppressive force.
Sin is the power of the kingdom of darkness that actively works against God’s good creation. It’s not so much a wrong choice that we make as much as it is the power of darkness in which we participate. When the man and the woman chose to eat the fruit in the garden all those years ago they gave their allegiance to the kingdom of darkness.
In doing so, they agreed to participate in it and live according to its rules. Because of this, all of us have been those who have actively worked against God’s good creation. Since that day, humanity and all creation have suffered beneath the crushing indignity of the power of the kingdom of darkness that we call “sin.”
It is this power and this kingdom that is at war with the Kingdom of God. The good news of Jesus is the story of how God won that war. The cross is the place where God drew all the power of sin and death and darkness into one place – namely on himself. Hanging on the cross, Jesus said, “Go ahead, do your worst,” and that’s exactly what they did.
In killing Jesus, they brought all the power of sin and death onto the person of Jesus. The problem is it wasn’t strong enough. In the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus, God stared down the powers of sin, death and darkness and said, “Is that all you got?”
The good news is that Jesus has shattered the power of sin and death – that which oppresses humanity and God’s good creation – once for all. We no longer have to live under its tyranny. We are now invited to live free lives and reclaim the beauty of being human.
We are invited to work together with God to reclaim and renew his good creation. With every word and every choice we make we have an opportunity to work for restoration. It’s not about our getting out of here when we die, but about our bringing the reality of heaven here to this earth before (and after) we die.
It’s God’s invitation to us to bring his healing, hope and love into this world. When we consider the massive responsibility that we have been invited into, it’s overwhelming - and this is a good thing.
The Gospel is the story of God reclaiming his rightful place as king. It’s not about us, it’s about Him and His inviting us right into the middle of it, here and now. Which raises the question, “What are we waiting for?”
What we need now, more than ever, is the ability to see the larger story, which means seeing well beyond ourselves, and reducing the gospel story to our moral wrongdoings. It means joining with God, where he is already active in this world. So that one day we will once again see his kingdom come and his will being done on this earth as it is in heaven.
DON'T SAY ANYTHING
As humans we do all we can to stay away from grief. I should tell you this blog is about grief. If that’s not something you like to think about, you can stop reading now.
I was reminded of this at a recent lunch with a friend whose father is dying. He told me that whenever he speaks about it people get uncomfortable and say, “I will be praying for you.” He said that it’s nice that people say that, but it often seems like they are just saying it so they can be done talking about it.
We really can’t blame those who respond like this. Our aversion to grief has led to us rarely speak about it. As a result, in times like this, most of us don’t know what to say. And that is precisely the problem.
We don’t have to say anything. We simply need to be willing to sit, listen, and grieve alongside others. We need to be willing to allow the pain of others to become our pain.
This is what we see in Jesus. The prophet Isaiah spoke of him as one who would suffer, and through his suffering bring healing. Isaiah wrote that he was “a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.” This pain was not his. It was our pain that he took on himself.
Because we are not familiar with pain, sorrow or grief whenever we see it in someone else, we try to get as far away as possible. What we fail to see is that what people who are grieving need is not more words. They need someone who is willing to take on their pain, and walk alongside them.
This does not take someone who is supremely smart. It does not demand that we understand the contours of the human psyche. It only asks that we, like Jesus, allow ourselves to take up the pain of others and bear their suffering.
Perhaps you are reading this, and you know of someone who is in a difficult place. If you are brutally honest, you may even admit you’ve avoided them at times because you don’t know what you’d say if you had to be with them.
Perhaps all they need is for you to be with them, to sit, to listen, and to allow their pain to become yours. When it comes to grief we don’t need explanations; we need friends.