How Easter is Messing With Us (Sam and Pete)

The women who went to attend to Jesus’ body – to prepare him for burial – were recorded in all four of the Bible’s Gospels as having first witnessed an empty tomb (Matthew 28, Mark 16, Luke 24, and John 20), with Mary Magdalene being the central female among them who was mentioned by name each time.  In two of the Gospels – Matthew and John – the resurrected Jesus himself appeared to at least Mary Magdalene if not all of the women.  Initially, however, it wasn’t obvious to them that it was Jesus – they didn’t recognize him.  Was it because they couldn’t imagine it?  Was it because he didn’t look all beat up like he did when he came off the cross?  Or was it that his appearance was so different that they simply could not recognize him?

Later on, in each Gospel, Jesus miraculously appears to the disciples who were behind closed and locked doors, which initially freaked them out.  Which is why Jesus told them not to be afraid.  In Luke’s Gospel, two disciples were making their way to a village called Emmaus when a stranger met them, walking with them.  It was Jesus, but they didn’t recognize him until he broke bread with them.  In John’s Gospel (John 21), Jesus shows up on the shore of the Sea of Galilee while the disciples are out for a lousy morning of fishing (I know – oxymoron – but they didn’t catch anything, and they were hungry and maybe broke).  Jesus had already caught some fish, and instructed them from the shore to try casting their nets one more time.  They scored a huge haul, which was the tip-off that the guy on shore was likely Jesus.  When they came ashore, however, he didn’t look like Jesus.  Yet they knew it was him. 

Stephen, the first disciple to be martyred for following Jesus, saw Jesus standing in the place of honor at the right hand of God in heaven just before he died (Acts 7).  Much later on, the Apostle Paul (Acts 9) would get stopped in his tracks by the resurrected Jesus on his way to arrest his followers.  He appeared as a bright, blinding light.  The Apostle John, exiled on the island of Patmos, experienced a vision where he saw Jesus looking absolutely other-worldly (Revelation 1:9-20).

I find all of this incredibly interesting.  The disciples and other followers of Jesus witnessed a resurrected Jesus that didn’t look like Jesus.  Yet they recognized it was Jesus.  How do we make sense of this?

I think a clue may be found in one particular appearance narrative (John 20:24-29) which made one of the disciples infamous.  It even gave him a nickname that stuck. Doubting Thomas.  Here is the account:

One of the twelve disciples, Thomas (nicknamed the Twin), was not with the others when Jesus came. They told him, “We have seen the Lord!”
But he replied, “I won’t believe it unless I see the nail wounds in his hands, put my fingers into them, and place my hand into the wound in his side.”
Eight days later the disciples were together again, and this time Thomas was with them. The doors were locked; but suddenly, as before, Jesus was standing among them. “Peace be with you,” he said. Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and look at my hands. Put your hand into the wound in my side. Don’t be faithless any longer. Believe!”
“My Lord and my God!” Thomas exclaimed.
Then Jesus told him, “You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing me.”

In Jesus’ response to Thomas’ awakening, Jesus might appear to be ripping Thomas here, but I don’t think that’s the tone.  I think what Jesus is driving home here, in light of all the people who recognized Jesus even though he didn’t look anything like Jesus, is that we need different eyes to see Jesus after Easter.  Limiting ourselves to the physical limits everything.  We need spiritual eyes.

Jesus spoke a lot about the Kingdom of God.  It’s in you.  It’s around you.  It’s everywhere.  To see it, you have to see with a different lens.  Cynthia Bourgeault offers this insight:

So what do we take it to be? Biblical scholars have debated this question for almost as long as there have been biblical scholars. Many Christians, particularly those of a more evangelical persuasion, assume that the Kingdom of Heaven means the place you go when you die—if you’ve been “saved.” But the problem with this interpretation is that Jesus himself specifically contradicts it when he says, “The Kingdom of Heaven is within you” (that is, here) and “at hand” (that is, now). It’s not later, but lighter—some more subtle quality or dimension of experience accessible to you right in the moment. You don’t die into it; you awaken into it… 

In Jesus’ day there was a division in thinking about reality.  The Sadducees, who controlled Judaism from Jerusalem, believed that there wasn’t anything beyond the grave.  This life is it.  Better enjoy it.  In contrast to this “city-folk” view was that held by the Pharisees, who held influence outside of Jerusalem in the synagogues.  Probably because they lived and breathed with folks struggling under Roman oppression, they believed that there must be something beyond the grave where God would exact justice (since it wasn’t happening in this life).  One view didn’t have any vision of anything beyond the physical.  The other view believed in the spiritual, but primarily in the age to come.  Jesus’ teaching, ministry, and resurrection, however, changed the paradigm.  God is present here and now and then and there in the future (beyond the grave).

If God is not just about afterlife, but God’s presence is here now, then how do we experience it?  Cynthia Bourgeault notes:

Author Jim Marion’s wonderfully insightful and contemporary suggestion is that the Kingdom of Heaven is really a metaphor for a state of consciousness; it is not a place you go to, but a place you come from. It is a whole new way of looking at the world, a transformed awareness that literally turns this world into a different place.

What Bourgeault and Marion are suggesting is that we acquire a new lens with which we view everything.  No longer separating physical and spiritual, we are invited to view everything through spiritually shaped eyes.  With this vision, we see God reflected in everything, everywhere.  Given this nondual insight, we are less likely to see others as inherently evil, and we are more likely to be graceful toward others, and more caring toward creation.  The resurrection of Jesus doesn’t just give us something to look forward to after death; Easter gives us something to look for – and live led by – now.

A disciple of the Apostle Paul would encourage readers decades after the first Easter (Ephesians 1:15-23 New Revised Standard Version):

I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power. God put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come. And he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

God is here, now, to be seen, to strengthen, to encourage, to guide, to comfort, to empower, to give insight.  The Ephesians writer gives us further motive to look and see and find and follow this God who has broken into history in such a profound manner at Easter (Ephesians 3:16-21):

I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

All of this together helps me understand why we, unlike Thomas, are blessed who believe without seeing: we do not have the luxury (or curse) of seeing physically, so we only have the option of looking with spiritually formed eyes, which, as it turns out, is the only way to see God in the first place.

My hope for you is that you will stop waiting for that someday to experience God, and that you will being to see God now, who is everywhere, speaking into your life today and everyday forevermore.

Cruciform: Getting to Easter

When I began this series, while I certainly challenged the idea of looking at the cross primarily through a penal substitutionary atonement lens (which is closely related to a ransom lens), I do not want to give the impression that that lens should be ground into dust.  On the contrary, fully understanding the cultural context which allowed such a paradigm to exist is critical to interpreting the texts which are replete with references to this rendering of the cross’ meaning.  I respect the view.  But I do not resonate with it, because I don’t live in a time when such a worldview is prevalent.  Staying in the substitutionary atonement zone requires a person to transport themselves back in time, into a worldview that in my opinion is antiquated and difficult to jibe with contemporary culture.  If you are able to pull this off, then by all means, stick with it!  The majority of church culture in the Western world revolves around it – you’ll find plenty of support.  I just ask that you respect the fact that there are completely reasonable, alternative, biblically-informed ways to understand what we can take away from Jesus’ death via an ancient, barbaric, humiliating, horrific form of capital punishment used liberally in the Roman era.  Besides, the whole point of the cross – and the reason we’re still talking about Jesus at all – is Easter. 

It’s always been about getting to Easter.

If experiencing Christ alive again after being dead for three days hadn’t happened, the story would have ended.  I’m not even sure any of Jesus’ ministry would have been remembered in history.  But seeing death defeated, witnessing with their own eyes that there was more beyond this life’s flesh and blood changed everything.  As Isaiah put it, through Easter God exchanged beauty for ashes, strength for fear, gladness for mourning, and peace from despair – the afterword of the call on Jesus’ life to bring hope to the brokenhearted, good news to the poor,  and release to those in captivity (Isaiah 61).  Easter/resurrection changed the paradigm for viewing reality, and defining reality.  God held the final say, and God was not limited to this plane of existence.  This is why the disciples were courageous as they experienced torture and death, and why the Good News is so good.

Easter isn’t just about an afterlife, however.  Easter communicates the possibility of renewed life, restoration, resurrection wherever the tinge of death exists.  Wherever there are ashes, beauty is possible.  Wherever there is mourning, gladness is available.  Wherever there is despair, peace is also there.  Everything about Jesus’ ministry was about getting to Easter – and long before he died on the cross.  Every healing, every word of hope, every act of grace, every confrontation of corruption, every act of service was Easter.  Restoration.  Renewal.  New life.  Wholeness.  Shalom.

By the way, I am fully aware that I am teaching this on Palm Sunday.  You may think that with all of this Easter talk that I’ve got my dates mixed up!  Nope.  We’re still in the cruciform series.  Here is a startling reality: you cannot get to Easter apart from the cross.  The path toward Easter is cruciform.  The way to the renewal, restoration of all things, new life, etc., is in the shape of the cross.

Where would you like to wave a magic wand today?  What would you like to disappear?  Syria’s civil war?  Terrorism?  World hunger?  Human trafficking?  Domestic violence?  Addictions?  Extreme poverty?  Wiping these off the face of the planet would be an act of Easter, a renewal to the nth degree, a true restoration of all things.  Even these massive issues can be “Eastered” – I believe God is already moving (and always has been) toward shalom in each of these and every ugliness in the world.  This means we already have God with us, God’s strength making up for our weakness.  But remember, getting to Easter goes through the cross.

The cross represents a choice and a stretch.  To pursue the restoration we dream after is a choice.  The choice between status quo and moving forward.  The choice between relative comfort and being uncomfortable.  Choosing Easter is essentially saying yes to join God in God’s healing work, to be part of the solution instead of the problem.  Part of the problems of the world are the bystanders who watch and do nothing.  To say yes to God is to no longer be a bystander.  That’s a choice we have the full freedom to make.  To follow or not.  In obviously big ways as well as nearly imperceptible ways.

The reason we all don’t make the choice to join God in the restoration of all things – Easter – is because we are aware that along with the choice comes a stretch.  This is where the uncomfortable part comes.  When we choose Easter, we choose to be stretched in our way of thinking, the way we hear, the way we speak, the work of our hands, the direction of our feet, the recipients of our resources – pretty much everything gets stretched at one time or another as we follow God in pursuit of Easter, of renewal, of the restoration of all things.  Jesus chose to join God to bring about Easter.  It stretched him in every way possible.  Getting to Easter comes with a choice and a stretch.

CrossWalk has designed her belief statement from the biggest themes found in the Gospel of John.  In the middle of the account of Jesus’ ministry, we see where his choice led him to stretch in ways that wouldn’t necessarily come naturally.  He knelt in service to everybody, regardless of their faith, medical condition, social class, or morality.  He spoke forgiveness and mercy to people who had been told by everybody else that they had earned a fast pass to hell.  He developed a pattern of breaking away to connect with God while the party was still raging where he had done incredible teaching and healing ministry.  And he chose to be near people in their lowest times of humility and ugliness as well as time of great joy – because the presence of God is intimately incarnate all the time with everybody everywhere.  Even on the cross we see Jesus’ choice stretch him to behave in surprising ways.

While in excruciating pain, his mind was on others’ needs, too.  He knelt one more time in service as he instructed his disciples to care for his mother.  He issued grace so powerfully when he asked God to forgive those who put him there (which indicates he had already forgiven them).  He cried out with unashamed honesty to connect with God who felt so distant as the fullness of hatred closed in.  Yet even in agony, as another condemned criminal was terrified in his last hour, Jesus was present to him, offering assurance and hope that there was more to life than what they were experiencing.  Jesus’ pursuit of Easter was a choice that stretched him to kneel in service to others, offer grace where it was needed, connect with God, and incarnate the presence of God with one who felt terribly alone.

God is always about getting to Easter, which carries a choice and a stretch that leads us to kneel, grace, connect and incarnate. 

Mahatma Gandhi heard the same call toward Easter, chose it, and stretched in similar ways.  Beloved by his fellow Indians, he used his popularity to call for non-violent protests in order to change the relationship between India and Great Britain.  He even used a personal hunger strike to get their attention.  On one occasion, as his strike endured, would-be militants pledged to drop their swords.  In addition, Gandhi was remembered telling a man who hated Muslims to adopt a Muslim orphan boy and raise him to be a faithful Muslim as an act of healing and restoration (watch video clip from the Gandhi movie here).  Gandhi’s work moved the ball of greater freedom far down the field.  And then he was shot and killed.  But the movement toward Easter remained.

Martin Luther King, Jr. heard a similar Easter call – a call to restoration, of renewal, of justice, of fairness, of equality.  The call to join God in the Easter call came with a choice and a stretch.  He chose to join God in the movement, and it stretched him to pursue justice through non-violent protests when everything in him likely wanted to fight back (which would only have led to more bloodshed).  He found himself kneeling in service, gracing where hatred loomed, calling out to God, and being with people in their most intimate spaces – all in pursuit of Easter (enjoy U2’s tribute to him, “Pride” here).  MLK’s work moved Easter forward significantly.  Then he was shot and killed.  But the movement toward Easter remained.

It’s unlikely that you’ll get shot and killed, but choosing and stretching in response to God’s invitation to sing the Easter song will mean you take some shots.  To your ego, to your calendar, to your budget, to your emotions, to everything about you.  But it is a pursuit of the most important cause, fueled by the very power of God, for the benefit of everyone who lives today and will live in many tomorrows to come.  The Easter pursuit is alive and well at CrossWalk, by the way.  Think about what it has taken for Darlene Tremewan and Helen Simpkins and Karie Nuccio and all the Food Pantry team to bring food to the hungry.  Think about what it means for our Project Hope volunteers to take food to the homeless.  Think about about it means for CrossWalk as a campus to be the home for hundreds pursuing recovery from addiction.  Easter isn’t just about nationally-recognized movements – it’s happening every day in every corner wherever people hear the song and join in.

Jesus himself extended the bold invitation to his followers, and God has not stopped extended the invitation from the beginning of time:

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me.  If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it.   And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?” – Matthew 16:24-26 (New LivingTranslation)

Or, paraphrased another way:

Then Jesus went to work on his disciples. "Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You're not in the driver's seat; I am. Don't run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I'll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self. What kind of deal is it to get everything you want but lose yourself? What could you ever trade your soul for? – Matthew 16:24-26 (The Message)

God has always been about getting to Easter.  But getting to Easter carries with it a choice and a stretch that leads to a very different way of life for a much bigger cause than just our little lives.  The call to Easter is before you.  A call to the cross.  What is your choice?  Will you stretch?

Cruciform: Between Hubris and Humility

Moana was just a little girl when she first felt the call to the sea.  As she grew into a teenager, she felt torn between what her father was wanting her to embrace for her future and the inner drive that was still calling (and encouraged by her wise, aging grandmother).    She eventually chose to listen to that call from the sea and made her way to find the demigod Maui, the only one who could help bring life back to a cursed world.  Little did she know that Maui would end up struggling with his own identity and calling.  Both of these characters found themselves living between hubris and humility.

The Bible is filled with stories of people living between hubris and humility.  In fact, every story of every person in the Bible plays that same story out.  Adam and Eve – representative of humanity as a whole – came to grips with this life tension, as did their children, and every child ever born after that.  Noah, Abraham, Ishmael and Isaac, Esau and Jacob, Joseph and his brothers highlight the major characters in the book of Genesis, the Bible’s book of beginnings where the people of Israel see that this struggle is central to being a human being.  Israel, in fact, translates as “struggles with God” – which is at once sometimes a struggle against God even as God helps us, walk alongside of us in our struggle living between hubris and humility.

Hubris refers to arrogance, pridefulness, a sense of identity that is distorted in such a way that one does not see themselves or others accurately.  Humility is on the other end of the spectrum, where a very different sense of self and others exists.  These terms matter a lot in this cruciform series where we are talking about the cross upon which Jesus died.  The way we view Jesus’ death calls us to wonder about where Jesus was on the hubris-humility spectrum, and absolutely calls us to wonder the same about ourselves.  It is entirely possible to view the cross in such a way that hubris is supported and perpetuated, when the whole picture is really about humility.  The hubris-driven approach sees God as one who requires sacrifice in order to accommodate us, which means we are so deeply fallen that we must sacrifice, and also means that if we get the sacrifice right, we’ve in some way earned our keep (even if the sacrifice is a statement of faith), which means we’re justified, which means others who have not done the same are not, which means that we have something over them which we have infamously wielded throughout history because we are the worthy ones and the rest of the world deserves everything they get.  Hubris writ large over the entirety of human existence.

But I do not believe God was ever really interested in sacrifice at all.  Not birds, not bulls, not lambs, and certainly not human sacrifice.  I believe God accommodated sacrifice because that was (and perhaps still is) the language of humanity.  God spoke in terms people could understand, minimizing the amounts of sacrifices “required” compared to other cultures.  The struggle was still there, however, between hubris and humility.  We usually prefer hubris.  The stories of the Bible, however, remind us that it is humility that works, and is core to our relationship with all reality, including the divine.  What does God really require or want for us and from us, the prophet Micah asked?  Pursue justice, love mercy, and walk humbly (Micah 6:8).

King David, according to the Bible, was a man after God’s own heart.  But if you know much about his story, you are very aware that David vacillated between hubris and humility.  Usually the humility followed his most infamous moment of hubris.  The Bathsheba scandal certainly outshined them all.  Holding all the power, he used his position to have his way with Bathsheba, who was married to a man at war for Israel.  David got her pregnant, tried unsuccessfully to cover it up, and eventually gave the order that led to Bathsheba’s husband’s death.  He kept on living from a hubristic, ego-driven arrogance until one of Israel’s prophet’s called him on it, asking, “who do you think you are taking this poor man’s wife?”  When he agreed with what had really happened (confession), he found himself, finally, operating out of humility.  Psalm 51 was written in response to David’s shift between hubris and humility.  The humility that David came back to again and again is what made him a man after God’s own heart.  Because when we’re humble, we can hear God.

Like David, people in authority struggle between hubris and humility like everyone else on the planet.  The difference is that, by nature of their position, their struggle is out in public for everyone else to see.  The Roman authorities we see in in Jesus’ storyline (Herod, Herod Antipas, and Pilate) all found themselves more on the side of hubris than humility, caring much more about their power than the people they oversaw.  Herod called for the death of the innocents in his attempt to kill Jesus long before he was an adult threat.  Herod Antipas had no care for Jesus if he wasn’t willing to perform to his liking.  And Pilate, while depicted as surprisingly hospitable toward Jesus, still called for his beating and horrific death.

Unfortunately, the same was true of the Jewish religious leaders as well, from the countryside all the way to HQ in Jerusalem.  During Jesus’ ministry they were constantly challenging Jesus lifestyle, teaching, and even his miracles.  He was arrested, put on trial and criminalized at the will of the High Priest, who eventually used his power to orchestrate Jesus’ death.  Hubris, hubris, hubris.

Jesus, on the other hand, lived on the other end of the spectrum between hubris and humility.  He was known not for lording his power and authority over people, but for just the opposite.  He was born humble and stayed that way.  He was with the people – all people – in their struggle.  The poor.  The sick.  The maligned.  The prostitutes.  The tax collectors.  Even Dodger fans (so I’m told, even though it’s not in the Bible).  When it came time for one last supper with the gang, everybody seemed to be living more toward hubris evidenced by the fact that nobody was attending to all the dirty feet in the room.  Everybody, that is, except Jesus:

Jesus knew that the Father had given him authority over everything and that he had come from God and would return to God. So he got up from the table, took off his robe, wrapped a towel around his waist, and poured water into a basin. Then he began to wash the disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel he had around him. – John 13:3-5 NLT

In this scene Jesus displayed his humility in an unthinkable way.  Nobody would have seen this coming, and nobody wanted it to happen.  But why would they be surprised?  This is how he lived his life.  His identity was not based on a distorted view of himself, but grounded on the fact that he came from God and was going to God.  When we choose to live by that definition, while we will still waver between hubris and humility, we will more often find ourselves on the humble side.  Which is what God desires.  Because that’s when life is marked more by justice and mercy and we all get along and the world and its people live in harmony.  Shalom.  Eternal life present.  Salvation realized.  These are ideas that represent God’s end game.

On his way to the cross, Jesus was asked (with attitude): who do you think you are?  The question was asked from people who, all hubris, were living out of their identity as big deal leaders.  Their question revealed what they thought of themselves, and their intention was to shape what Jesus thought of himself.  That’s the funny thing about hubris.  Sometimes it’s all arrogant talk and tweets, chest puffing and the like.  But hubris can happen in the other direction, too.  Sometimes a person’s identity gets distorted the other way and they feel like pond scum.  Jesus walked alongside many of them.  Lepers.  A woman at a well at the wrong time of day.  A bleeding woman.  A blind man.  These folks operated out of a hubris of self-loathing just as powerful as the other.  While they may seem humiliated, it’s not really humility.  It’s still hubris.  With a very different tone, by his actions and words Jesus asked them, in essence, “who do you think you are?”  Jesus wasn’t asking out of a holier-than-thou hubris, nor was he trying to create a scum-of-the-earth hubris in those he ministered to.  He was really, sincerely asking the question of them because he knew that how they answered that question determined nearly everything else about them.  He knew this because he had learned to live on the humble side between hubris and humility himself.  This is where real strength resides.  Knowing who you are, where you come from, and what you are capable of. 

Humility, paradoxically, is where life resides, not hubris.  We notice people with bravado and even respond to it with allegiance at times.  We perpetuate hubris wreaking of fame and fortune and power by what we value with our wallets and ballots.  This is human nature.  We like it until we don’t anymore.  When it comes and bites us and we agree with reality (confession) and find ourselves in a humble place, we can finally listen, finally see, finally get it, finally live, finally pursue justice while loving mercy. 

Jesus’ followers who carried the Good News forward got the message.  Paul told the church in Philippi, “Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.”  An early hymn reminded the early Christians what they were to be about: little Christs should look like Jesus Christ:

You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.
 

Though he was God,

     he did not think of equality with God

          as something to cling to.

Instead, he gave up his divine privileges;

     he took the humble position of a slave

          and was born as a human being.

When he appeared in human form,

     he humbled himself in obedience to God

          and died a criminal’s death on a cross.

Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor

     and gave him the name above all other names,

          that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,

               in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

                    and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,

                         to the glory of God the Father. – Philippians 2

To the Colossian church, Paul instructed, “as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.”

The writer to the church in Ephesus wrote: “Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love. Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace.”

Jesus’ brother, James, advised his readers, “God stands against the proud, but favors the humble…  Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.”

The writer of 1 Peter agreed with James’ theme when he wrote, “clothe yourselves with humility toward each other. God stands against the proud, but he gives favor to the humble.”

Current disciples have resonated with this truth as well:

Do you wish to rise?  Begin by descending.  You plan a tower that will pierce the clouds? 

Lay first the foundation of humility. – St. Augustine (354-430)

It is always the secure that are humble. – G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936)

True humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less. – C. S. Lewis (1898-1963)

Pride makes us artificial and humility makes us real. – Thomas Merton (1915-1968)

Show respect to people who don’t deserve it; not as a reflection of their character,

but as a reflection of yours. – Dave Willis

If you are humble, neither praise nor disgrace will touch you

because you know who you are. – Mother Teresa (1910-1997)

Who do you think you are?

Moana and Maui journeyed together to save the world from destruction.  As they faced great challenges, however, their mettle was tested.  Each of them had to work through the question Jesus’ ministry begged of his recipients: who do you think you are?  Moana discovered she was worthy or her calling not because of any external source, but because it was who she was inherently.  Maui decided he was really about doing the right thing instead of the selfish thing. 

Jesus knew who he was.  He knew that he came from God and was going to God, and that gave him great strength throughout his ministry.  This is why he was able to genuinely offer forgiveness to the scoffers who were insulting and spitting on him while he was dying on the cross.  He knew who he was.  They couldn’t touch him.  He couldn’t foster ill will toward them – it just wasn’t in him, and he wasn’t about that.

So, who do you think you are?  Where are you between hubris and humility?  Are you an arrogant bastard?  Do you find yourself wallowing in self-loathing?  Either of these might suggest you are on the hubris end of the spectrum. 

Let me remind you of who you are.  You are created in the image of God.  You are very good.  You are fearfully and wonderfully made.  You are loved deeply, unconditionally, eternally.  You are precious in God’s sight.  And so is absolutely everyone else on the planet who has ever lived, is living now, and will live in the future.  This fact doesn’t make you any less special, but it does equal the playing field and cause us to see everyone – and treat everyone – as we would want to be treated.  I wonder if this is why Jesus said the two greatest commandments are to love God, and to love our neighbor as ourselves.  Perhaps when we do, the world may in fact change.

Where are you between hubris and humility?  Who do you think you are?

Cruciform: The Politics of the Cross

We’re in the second week of our series on the cross. I don’t know if you were messed up by Pete’s teaching last week, but he did a nice job of showing how God isn’t and never has been a God who wants human sacrifice – the primary way Christianity has interpreted the cross for hundreds of years. So then the logical next question is, “If the cross wasn’t about a God who needed human sacrifice, then what is it about?” 

Like any good symbol, the cross has layers of meaning. It flexes and changes as we encounter God in new ways. Ancient Jewish teachers had a metaphor that might be helpful. They talked about scripture being like a thousand sided diamond, that as you turn, reflects light in different ways. That light (the divine) can look different depending on how you turn the diamond, but the light is the same. We could say the same thing about the cross. We can turn it, and experience the divine in different ways. So, now that Pete has maybe wiped away your understanding of the cross, we’re going to turn the diamond during this series and see how the cross reflects the divine in some beautiful and unexpected ways. 

Let’s start from the beginning. Before the cross was ever a religious or spiritual symbol, it had some really different implications. Ones that had a lot to do with power and politics. Marcus Borg once said, “Good Friday has more than a political meaning, but it does not have less than a political meaning." Don’t get hung up on the word politics. I’m not talking partisan politics. The cross doesn’t fit neatly into any current political ideology. But it was originally a political symbol used by Rome. 

The cross was one of Rome’s primary ways to keep the people they oppressed and controlled in place. It was a horribly brutal and public way to die. You were dragged through the street, beaten, and then hung up in front of everyone to slowly die. Then, after you died, your body was generally left up in public to be consumed by scavengers. The entire ordeal was a very public punishment that was meant to show everyone what happened when you tried to go against Rome. 

Theologian James Cone gives us an analogy from our recent history to help us understand the cross. He suggests that the cross was used just as the lynching tree was used in the south throughout the 20th century. When a white community felt that a black person had stepped out of line, even if it was just looking at them the wrong way, a mob would kidnap, beat, torture and hang the person from a tree as a reminder of who was in control – white people. If that image disgusts, angers or overwhelms you, it should. And it’s probably how someone would have felt when they saw a cross in the first century. 

So then what did Jesus do that deserved such a brutal, political death? History tells us that Rome used the cross for two offenses: political rebels and defiant slaves. We know that Jesus wasn’t a slave, so he must have been seen as a political rebel. But why? Let’s look at what Jesus did right before his death to find out. 

Jesus died at Passover. A festival where thousands of Jewish individuals descended on Jerusalem to remember how they were liberated from the bonds of slavery in Egypt. The occasion already had political implications. So Jesus and his followers were headed to Jerusalem for the same thing, and he entered the city in a very interesting way. 

Mark 11:7-10 tells us how it went: 

7 They brought the colt to Jesus and threw their clothes upon it, and he sat on it. 8 Many people spread out their clothes on the road while others spread branches cut from the fields. 9 Those in front of him and those following were shouting, “Hosanna! Blessings on the one who comes in the name of the Lord! 10 Blessings on the coming kingdom of our ancestor David! Hosanna in the highest!”

When a first century Jewish person saw this, they probably would have thought of two things, both of which were very political. First, they would’ve thought about their history. Two hundred years earlier, Judah Maccabees rode into Jerusalem to the waiving of palm branches and shouts of “Hosanna!” What we need to know about Judah is that he was nicknamed “The Hammer”, and for good reason. He was a guerilla warrior who, at least for a short time, overcame Israel’s oppressors on the battlefield. So, when the crowds greeted Jesus this way, it said to him, “Lay down the hammer on Rome!” 

Second, they would’ve thought about what was happening, probably at the same time, on the other side of the city. Jerusalem was a gated city. Jesus came through one gate, and historians tell us that, probably at the exact same time, Pilate was entering the city through another gate, with similar fanfare. Now, Pilate was Rome’s ruler and enforcer in Jerusalem. So we have this charged image of Jesus, Israel’s hope, entering on one side, and Pilate, Rome’s heavy-handed representative, entering on the other side. A collision is immanent. 

In this tension filled moment, people probably thought Jesus would make some big anti-Rome statement, or organize a revolt. But he did something else. He went to the temple – the center of Israel’s spiritual and communal life – and overturned tables. He turned his rage to the religious leaders who were spiritually and economically oppressing them. And then something weird happened. Those spiritual leaders colluded with their oppressors to crucify Jesus. Imperial power merged with religious corruption, because Jesus threatened both. So, together, the religious elite and a dictatorship crucified Jesus. 

A quick side note here: Christianity has a really ugly history of anti-Semitism, and it often is rooted in this story. Jewish people have been blamed for Jesus’ death, which has been used as an excuse for some really hateful acts. The story isn’t meant to condemn Jewish people. It’s meant, in part, to make us have the courage to question those who oppress others, whether religiously or politically. Ironic then that we’ve used this story to oppress others when it should shine a light on the way we oppress others.

When we look at the cross through first century eyes, it looks like Jesus was crushed and defeated as a political rebel. His followers went into hiding, seemingly overwhelmed at Rome’s victory. Whatever they thought Jesus was going to do, ended when he was crucified. But, spoiler alert, that’s not where the story ends. Resurrection happens. Resurrection was an unexpected, eleventh hour victory over the oppression of the cross. It was the divine answer to political brutality. 

Of course, all of this begs the question. What does any of this have to do with today? We aren’t in the first century. So if the cross was a political statement then, what in the world does it mean for us now? We’re in one of the strangest, most divisive political seasons we’ve seen. People across political lines are outraged, confused and overwhelmed by a wide range of issues. How can the cross help us find a way forward? There are endless ways we could explore, but let me start by suggesting two. 

First, I think the cross asks us to locate ourselves and God in this story as we think about translating it to modern politics. Once of my favorite things about the stories in the Bible is that they are bigger than their original context. They let us discover deeper truths by walking around in them. The story of the cross is really important because it locates God in a really unexpected place: in the position of suffering under an oppressive regime. It was meant, in some way, to give hope to others suffering under oppressive forces by locating God right alongside them. The cross, no matter what time in history it is, forces us to see those who are oppressed. So when we look at our modern politics and wonder where Jesus would be if he were around, the cross gives us a pretty good answer: with those who are suffering. So the cross asks us to think about, in every political move, who is being hurt by this? Who does this leave out? How will this cause suffering? And then realize that the cross locates God with those people. 

Let’s take this to a harder place. When we walk around in stories like this, we often walk around in the hero role. When I look at the cross, I often assume the Jesus role. So whatever the cross means must fit my context. But the truth is, I’m not always Jesus. Sometimes I’m Rome. Sometimes I’m the temple leaders. Sometimes I’m the crowd that was complicit. Here’s a helpful test for me: if I have a hard time identifying with a suffering Jesus, then I’m probably sitting closer to the oppressive forces than I am the cross. It’s an ugly truth to confront, but as a straight, white American guy, it doesn’t take many history lessons to realize the world was meant to work well for people like me. The cross asks me to hand over some of that political power for the good of others. We have the courage to face this tough reality because of what you hear week after week: you are deeply loved by God. And so is everyone else. 
Second, I think the cross and resurrection are asking us to elevate our political thinking.  Albert Einstein once said, “No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.” 

Israel, and everyone under Rome, had a political problem, and countless people had tried to solve it under the same terms that Rome used: violence and power grabs. The cross and resurrection refused to accept the terms Rome gave. The cross took all of the violence Rome had to offer, and the resurrection showed that it had no real power at all by creating what was meant to be a radically inclusive movement. Others at the time chose a more removed stance. Instead of confronting the reality of Rome, they thought that if they were religiously faithful, God would rescue them. Jesus didn’t take that stance either. You don’t get crucified if that’s your posture. 

So when we think about politics today, the cross asks us to elevate our consciousness to solve the problems we face. Confront oppression head one, but don’t accept the terms you’ve been given. It’s not a binary. You don’t have to oppose something just because it doesn’t agree with your party. We don’t have to think in “America First” terms. The radically inclusive community that the cross set in motion pushed beyond national, ethnic, and gender lines. The cross prevents us from ever thinking it’s us vs. them, no matter who “they” are. So when we think about our political options, drop the binaries. The cross gives us the power to face oppression head on, but with roots in divine love that is big enough to encompass both the oppressed and the oppressor. 

One last, big picture idea. When we talk about the cross and politics, we’re having an incomplete discussion. To talk about the cross in the story of Christian faith, we have to talk about the resurrection. They go hand in hand. They are the pattern of how God, and love, work in the world. We experience the cross – suffering, injustice, corruption and pain, but God is always working to resurrect. Love is always looking to breathe new life into what was left for dead. And if we follow in the path of Jesus, we too are called to foster resurrection. That, to me, is how Jesus informs my politics. In every political decision I make, I seek to bring resurrection in the world. To infuse life-giving love in places that have experienced oppression, suffering and injustice. That resurrection goal can help us transcend partisan divides. We can disagree about how to foster resurrection in the world, but if we share that common goal, we’re far from divided.

Cruciform: Sacrificing Sacrificing

Synopsis.  Sacrificial thinking was (and still is) a primitive way of relating to the world around us, including the Divine.  This mode gives us a sense of control over our world, and our gods.  Jesus’ Way, however, challenged sacrificial thinking at every turn, shifting away from religiosity to relationship.  The earliest followers saw Jesus’ crucifixion and subsequent resurrection as the deathblow to sacrificial religiosity, which is why they talked about it so much.  They focused their lives and faith on living Jesus’ Way of relationship to the Divine at all times.  We need to follow suit, sacrificing sacrificial thinking and embracing Jesus’ Way of relationship with God, others, and our world.  This, by the way, changes everything: how we view ourselves, others, our world, our politics – everything.

How do you show love to babies?  Do you send them flowers?  Maybe a Hallmark card?  Chocolates?  No.  You hold them, snuggle with them, feed them, change them, talk to them, read to them, sing to them, rock them…  Why do you do these things? Because this is the language they can understand.  If we want to communicate to babies, we choose to do so in their language, not ours.

Many cultures around the world practiced animal, and even human sacrifice to maintain or win the favor of the gods.  This was the language of the people trying to communicate to the divine.  Sacrificing gave humanity a sense of control in an otherwise out-of-control-feeling world.  In the biblical narrative, we see the same phenomenon right at the beginning.  Cain and Abel (Genesis 4) offer sacrifices to God.  The story doesn’t indicate that the sacrifice was required, yet God, in the story, accepted one and not the other (the heart behind the sacrifice matters).  Noah offered an unwarranted sacrifice, too.  Why? Because this was the language of faith for them (and still is today in some cultures).  Eventually, sacrifices became a regular part of the Jewish cultic life, but the sensed required number of sacrificed animals from God was greatly reduced for Jews compared to other religions.  Interestingly, Jewish prophets eventually sensed God speaking against sacrifices as a means to stay in good standing with God:

How can I stand up before God

and show proper respect to the high God?

Should I bring an armload of offerings

topped off with yearling calves?

Would God be impressed with thousands of rams,

with buckets and barrels of olive oil?

Would he be moved if I sacrificed my firstborn child,

my precious baby, to cancel my sin?

But he's already made it plain how to live, what to do,

what God is looking for in men and women.

It's quite simple: Do what is fair and just to your neighbor,

be compassionate and loyal in your love,

And don't take yourself too seriously—

take God seriously. - Micah 6:7-8 (The Message)

Jesus, Outlier.  While Jesus apparently honored certain aspects of Jewish religious life, he also challenged it continually (as well as Roman political and theological thinking).  He was famous for flipping currency exchange tables where the Temple was making a killing on sacrificial animal sales.  More significantly, however, his healing and forgiving was happening in strange place, well outside the Temple (where it was supposed to happen), and without sacrifices (which was the symbol and means of forgiveness).  The overwhelming majority of Jesus’ ministry and teaching happened apart from the Jewish cult – all a statement that God had moved outside the Temple long before the High Priest realized it.  Following the sentiment of earlier prophets, Jesus issued a scripture-referenced rebuke of some religious leaders who criticized him for mingling with the “wrong” people: “Now go and learn the meaning of this Scripture: ‘I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices.’ For I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners” (Mt. 9:13 NLT).  In this rebuke, he was quoting the prophet Hosea (6:6) who echoed Micah’s position, calling for a changed, loving heart over sacrifices.  Jesus’ death itself followed the same pattern, where his final pronouncement of asking God to forgive was while he was dying on the cross, and at his death, the curtain that served to separate God from the people was torn in two.  What had already been happening in so many ways – God moving in and through many people – was symbolically and dramatically accentuated at his death

After Jesus’ death and resurrection, his followers worked hard to understand how everything fit together.  Each Gospel writer slowed their retelling of Jesus’ life to a relative snail’s pace so that their listeners would catch the irony of Jesus’ death at the hands of leaders of their two biggest political and theological voices: Roman Empire and Judaism.  Recognizing that sacrifice had become completely obsolete since God was clearly working outside the system, they began speaking of Jesus’ death as a final sacrifice with two ends in mind.  First, they viewed him as representative of the blemish-free lamb of God whose death would reconcile all sin for all people for all time.  Because other religious cults also utilized sacrifice as a means to win grace from the gods, this resonated with Gentiles and Jews alike.

Second, however, was the idea that the final sacrifice signaled the end of thinking about God and ourselves through a sacrificial lens.  Sacrificing for atonement was over.  The implications of this are immeasurable.  Paul, who was the most formally educated of Jesus’ adherents, would have logically been the longest hold out in favor of keeping the Jewish cultic practices.  In fact, in many ways he was, as his story lives infamously on as one who sought to kill Christians before he “saw the light” and became one of Christianity’s greatest proponents.  He had to take time to work out the implications of what “final sacrifice” meant.  This was more than an historical footnote marking the last sacrifice (metaphorically, at least, since sacrifices continued right up to the destruction of the Temple).  The sacrificial system itself was just leveled.  With it, the way we think about God also got radically shifted.  Naturally, the way we think about ourselves got shifted as well.

The New Testament writers speak a lot about the cross, largely to an audience who needed to connect the dots about what it meant as a sign of God’s unwarranted grace for all people.  Extremely important and very powerful.  But like the prophets and Jesus, there was also a shift called for in regards to what it might look like to live in a post-sacrificial reality.  Like today, folks could pretty readily embrace the final sacrifice as symbol of God’s grace – their sin was canceled (awesome) – but they struggled (as we do) to move to the deeper implications.  They were satisfied with just focusing on their forgiveness.  This became a sticking point in the early church, as evidenced in the incredible letter to the Hebrews (5:12 NLT):

“You have been believers so long now that you ought to be teaching others. Instead, you need someone to teach you again the basic things about God’s word. You are like babies who need milk and cannot eat solid food.”

Long before Hebrews was written, Paul shared the same frustration with the Jesus followers in Corinth (1 Cor. 3:1-3 NLT):

“Dear brothers and sisters, when I was with you I couldn’t talk to you as I would to spiritual people. I had to talk as though you belonged to this world or as though you were infants in the Christian life. I had to feed you with milk, not with solid food, because you weren’t ready for anything stronger. And you still aren’t ready, for you are still controlled by your sinful nature. You are jealous of one another and quarrel with each other. Doesn’t that prove you are controlled by your sinful nature? Aren’t you living like people of the world?”

The writers’ frustration is that the Jesus followers were stuck on level one of the cross: we’re forgiven, but had not yet moved deeper into its broader implications.  What was the proof Paul leveled against the Corinthians?  Their lives had not yet changed.  They were still acting as they did before, only they had a new mode of embracing forgiveness (the cross of Jesus).

For Jesus followers, the final sacrifice means we need to sacrifice our idea of God as one who wants sacrifices.  Sacrifices are over – that implies that God does not want them.  I contend that God has never wanted them…  If this is the true nature of God, then not only is our view of God shifted, but our view of ourselves as well.  What does it mean for us to no longer wallow about with a view of ourselves as constantly stuck in sin at our core – despised by God and disgusting in God’s sight?  What does it mean that we are forevermore reconciled to God?  No longer looked upon with eyes of condemnation and demands placed upon us by our religious traditions, but free to live knowing God is no longer hidden behind the veil as is actually with us and for us and empowering us toward being fully and truly alive as we were meant to live?

It’s time to sacrifice sacrifice.  While we need to celebrate with humility what Jesus’ death and resurrection symbolized, we also are called to move to the solid food of living in the new reality of grace.  You are not a loser.  You are inherently good.  You do not need to keep looking over your shoulder – the only thing there is a cross and an empty tomb shouting that you’re okay.  This is not a denial of our human struggle, by the way – it is an act of embracing our actual, rock-solid foundation that has been there from the beginning.  You were born human yet in the image of God.  How are you living into that image which has been there all along?  How are you rooted in life that is eternal, and eternally good?  What are you dreaming about that is aligned with the character and nature of God?  Hint: God is marked most by love – when our dreams are marked and motivated and moved by love, we’ve found out center.

The writer of Hebrews argued it like this (10:10, 14, 18 NLT):

“For God’s will was for us to be made holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all time…  For by that one offering he forever made perfect those who are being made holy…  And when sins have been forgiven, there is no need to offer any more sacrifices.”

Paul challenges us forward (Romans 7:6; 8:3-4; 15-17, 38-39 NLT):

“But now we have been released from the law, for we died to it and are no longer captive to its power. Now we can serve God, not in the old way of obeying the letter of the law, but in the new way of living in the Spirit…  God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit…  So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father.” For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children. And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory…  And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Do you have ears to hear?  You are forgiven – embrace it.  You are free – live like it.  You have not been given a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-discipline (2 Tim 1:7).  Lost the idea that you are a loser.  Embrace the idea that God loves you and build your life on the foundation that God is for you and with you.

Watch the video here.

2017 Furaha Presentation

Enjoy the latest report from the latest team to venture into Huruma slum, just outside of Nairobi, Kenya, where our beloved Furaha Community Center educates the 500 orphans we feed each school day.

Jesus and Homosexuality

Note:  For deeper study of this issue, read Homoeroticism in the Biblical World by Martti Nissinen.  For insight how to engage in respectful conversations with people who don't share your views on biblical interpretation, read A Letter to my Congregation by Ken Wilson.  For a general understanding of how I approach, value, and apply the biblical text, Pastor Adam Hamilton wrote an easy-to-read book for his congregation entitled Making Sense of the Bible.  I fully agree with his approach.  In the Appendix, he also deals with this same subject well.

What color is the dress pictured here? This dress has become quite famous over the last couple of weeks because people are so divided about what they see. My daughter asked me what I saw, and without hesitation I told her the dress was blue with black lace. My son, who had seen the same picture, objected with “No way! What are you talking about?” Then my wife looked at it and answered my daughter, “It a white dress with gold lace.” Depending on your visual cortex wiring, some people will see blue and black, while others see white and gold. The issue of homosexuality in the Church is like that. Some people see it clearly as a non-negotiable sin, while others do not see our current issue as sinful at all. My hope is that this brief teaching will give you information to help you understand what you believe and why.

Think about this statement: Loving, covenanted, same-gender sexual expression can be compatible with being a committed follower of Christ. Do you agree with it or disagree? Why? Has your response been the same throughout your life? If not, what changed? Is your response similar or different from your family of origin? Knowing what we currently believe – and why – is very important as we consider the information we have to work with.

Now I’d like you to consider your opinion of the Bible. Which statement most closely aligns with your view?

o The Bible is literally breathed from God – every word is exactly what God intended – read it and do it!

o The Bible is inspired by God through human writers, but the inspiration overrode the human element sufficiently so that on the important content is what God wants us to know.

o The Bible was written by devout, prayerful humans who earnestly invited God into their writing process so that they were at times inspired with heaven-born insight. Inspiration is equally in the careful, prayerful interpretation among the faithful.

o The Bible is an entirely human creation on par with Greek myths of antiquity and should be treated as descriptive of its historical paradigms, but beyond very general principles does not speak to our present age.

How you view the Bible makes a significant difference with this issue – and many issues. If you most closely align with one of the first two statements, it may feel as simple as looking up some verses and making your decision – it’s right there in black and white. To question any part of the Bible is to question all parts of the Bible, which then undermines its authority. For you, then, it will be very important to know what the Bible says in its original language (Hebrew or Greek). We’ll get to that. If you most closely resonated with the third answer, you are also going to want to know about the original language and context as you determine how one should apply a text forward. Fourth option people don’t really care what the Bible says, and probably aren’t reading this anyway… The first three views are held by people who share respect for the Bible and also treat it as an authority for their faith. But realize that especially between the first two and third option, the blue/black or white/gold dress phenomenon occurs, with each group questioning the others’ sanity.

Before we take a look at the texts that address the subject of homosexuality, I want you to know something about how our brains work. When we hear something new, we try our best to understand it based on what we already know. We’ll label it with familiar terminology and metaphor. The car was first called a horseless carriage… If it doesn’t fit our way of seeing the world, however, over time we will discard the idea and forget about it. New ideas are difficult to integrate. In fact, sometimes we will reject an idea simply because it is foreign, like an organ transplant recipient rejecting the organ that is saving his or her life. Be open to what you read and how you feel. Be aware that every cultural shift was met with resistance.

There are 31,102 verses in the entire Bible. Given how much attention has been given the issue of homosexuality, we can safely assume that there must be a lot of verses on the subject. In fact, there are only seven texts in the entire Bible that deal specifically with homosexuality. Here they are, with brief explanations of their context.

·       Genesis 2:20-25 (Adam and Eve). The creation stories in Genesis, first and foremost, were to draw a clear distinction between the Jewish understanding of the creation of the cosmos in contrast to all others. When it comes to God creating male and female and that they were made for each other is shocking because God called them very good – much different than other cultures which believed the gods could barely tolerate humans. Obviously, procreation requires a male and female, and was the earliest motive for marriage. We live in a time where committed, lifelong, loving companionship is the primary reason for marriage, with procreation as a part of the equation but not the primary reason. There was no paradigm in the ancient world for sexual orientation, which makes this process reliant on theology more than exegesis.

·       Genesis 19:1-29 (Sodom and Gomorrah). This story is about violence, humiliation, and rape – not what we’re looking at.

·       Judges 19:1-30 (Levite and Concubine). Similar to Sodom and Gomorrah, this is a tragic story of rape, not love.

·       Leviticus 18:22, 20:13 (ceremonial and other sex laws). These specific laws refer to cultic practices outside of Judaism that involved temple prostitutes. The tip-off that this is the case is the word/phrase that gets translated as “it is an abomination”. The only time the writer of Leviticus uses that phrase is in the context of an act of worship to pagan gods.

·       Romans 1:18-27 (Paul’s “Gotcha!” Don’t judge.). Two things here. First, the same type of same-gender sex is what’s being talked about here. Second, Paul is suckering his audience using their own prejudices only to hold them to the same measure – they are as guilty and in need of grace as those they loathe. The last thing Paul was trying to do here is grant permission to judge people!

·       1 Corinthians 6:9-17 (sexual immorality). Same issue as the others – not what we’re talking about today.

·       1 Timothy 1:10 (perverts!). The Greek words used for homosexuality in this and the Corinthians verse

·       Jude 5-7 (general immorality/promiscuity). This short letter written by one of Jesus’ brothers simply highlights promiscuity in general, which most likely inferred the use of male prostitutes by the upper class. Once again, the sexual expression addressed here is one of exploitation.

I don’t know any person of faith that cannot get on board and affirm what every single one of the above seven texts are speaking into. Collectively, they condemn rape, cult prostitution, and the exploitation of minors. Anybody who seeks to love God and love others should stand against all of these things. But what do we do with the reality that none of these verses speaks anything close to what we’re talking about in this teaching? What about the fact that Jesus never uttered a word about homosexuality? He endorsed regular old heterosexual marriage, and spoke against promiscuity, prostitution, lust, and non-shalom sex altogether. In order to reconcile this mismatch, cultural and historical context must be addressed.

If we were to build a time machine and go back to a day when Jesus was teaching somewhere and asked him if he thought same-sex marriage was okay, what do you think he would say? Without a doubt, in 35 CE, Jesus would say “NO”. The reason I am confident that this would be his answer is because the only paradigm of homosexual expression available to them was violent. Rape. Prostitution. Exploitation. No faithful Jewish person would think these acceptable. So, does that settle it? Not necessarily. If you were to ask Jesus to share his wisdom regarding cosmology – the study of the universe – including how the solar system works and the basic shape of the earth, you would not take his answers seriously. He could only guess that the sun revolved around the earth. He could only surmise that the earth was sort of shaped like a snow globe with God’s heaven outside the “globe”, hatches that could be opened to let water rain on the land below, and an underworld where the dead reside – all describing the image given in Genesis. Do we blame him for holding such views? Of course not – it’s all he and everyone else in his time could come up with given their primitive stage of scientific development.

What would happen if we took Jesus in our time machine and rolled into 2015, somehow simultaneously downloading all the scientific knowledge that we’ve acquired over the millennia? I am confident that he would act like the Jewish scholars before him: he would take all the available information available to him as he sought to interpret the sacred texts. He would affirm God’s creative influence noted in Genesis 1, but would likely let the details slide about the order of creation and the shape of the earth alluded to with the word “firmament.” Sexual orientation – the idea that people are born attracted more to the one gender than the other, which means some are attracted to the same gender – was a completely foreign idea in the ancient world. Being introduced to a paradigm of homosexuality that can be expressed with the same level of mutual love and devotion – shalom sex – as heterosexuality would be a radically new thought to them. I think, in true Jewish Midrash fashion, Jesus would weigh everything as he thought about the kind of expression we’re talking about.

An example of making a massive break with the Law and Tradition… The Apostle Peter was meditating at a friend’s house when he was caught up in a vision from heaven. Three times in a row, a sheet was lowered from heaven, filled with all sorts of food Jews were forbidden to eat. Peter experienced a voice telling him to “Take, eat!” Each time, Peter vehemently rejected the notion. But after the last time, the voice told him not to reject as unclean that which God has made clean. Immediately after this, Peter was invited to come to the home of a Roman military leader where he and all of his household waited – all Gentiles. They wanted to know about Jesus. Peter knew he was doing something he shouldn’t – he was doing solid for the Roman oppressor, and violating a longstanding tradition of not mingling with non-Jews. He began his preaching acknowledging that he was doing something “wrong”. But as he continued, the Holy Spirit showed up – on and in the Gentiles! Peter could not deny what he was witnessing, and invited them to be baptized into the Christian community of faith. The vision he had prepared him intellectually for the experience he could not deny. Certainly, he was surprised himself at what happened. No doubt, he was shaking in his boots as he made his way to Jerusalem to explain himself. He was met with fierce resistance from his Jewish compatriots. But Gentile inclusion has taken root. God didn’t change. What happened? Peter experienced a new level of insight about the nature of God which caused him to view the world differently.

In regards to the statement: Loving, covenanted, same-gender sexual expression can be compatible with being a committed follower of Christ, my personal conclusion is “YES”. I agree with the biblical texts we examined, but I also believe it is in keeping with our biblical tradition to weigh all data as we move forward into the future. The same phenomenon happened within the Bible’s legal code books – over time “God’s” laws changed regarding women, orphans, and immigrants as new awareness about them evolved. Please remember: the ancient Jewish scholars believed the inspiration regarding the creation of the scriptures was equal to the inspiration regarding the interpretation of those texts. They treated their study, interpretation and application as a holy exercise. So do I. I hope you do, too.

Similarly, Quakers in 17th century condemned slavery as inhumane and began calling for its end. What they concluded intellectually was backed up with what they saw and experienced. Susan B. Anthony understood intellectually that change needed to come after she experienced the inequality women faced in a man’s world. Martin Luther King, Jr. committed his life to pursuing racial equality as he experienced discrimination as a human being because of his skin tone, even as he understood that God did not show such favoritism. In each of these examples, a combination of intellectual understanding blended with experience changed their minds and subsequently opened their eyes to a new understanding of what God was doing in the world.

Homosexuality is the next issue in a long list of divisive concerns where information and experience are shedding a different light on how we see our world. Just as with the Gentiles, women and African Americans, the Holy Spirit has been at work in and through Christ followers who happen to be sexually active homosexuals. Some of these folks are even pastors who have been helping others experience God’s grace even as they have experienced it.

What doesn’t this mean? It doesn’t mean that “anything” goes in terms of homosexual expression. The same sexual ethic guides heterosexuality and homosexuality alike: shalom is the goal, supported by love of God and love of others like we would hope to be loved. Cheap, shallow sex? Not shalom, regardless of sexual orientation. Exploitation through sex trafficking and prostitution? Not shalom, ever. Physical intimacy should be commensurate with the level of emotional, intellectual and spiritual intimacy in the relationship. Orientation is irrelevant at that point.

If you disagree with this conclusion, Jesus does provide instruction for you as you move forward: don’t judge. The role of Judge is God’s alone, not yours. Your primary role as you interact with the world and it’s people around you is to do your part to redeem it, to facilitate more and more of God’s grace.

If you call me your pastor, you can count on me to do my best to serve you regardless of whether or not we see this issue similarly. But you can be sure that you will never hear me condemn the kind of covenanted loving relationship we are talking about here, because I don’t believe God condemns it.

Some see a blue and black dress. Some see a white and gold dress. At the end of the day, it’s a dress. Some see homosexuality as sin, others see orientation as benign. But at the end of the day, we’re talking about people. A dress doesn’t have feelings or emotions; people do. Behave accordingly.

Eyes Wide Open (Ruth Series Part Three)

Jenny Matheny wraps up her three part series on the book of Ruth.  Enjoy!

Eyes of Grace (Ruth Series Part Two)

This teaching series if offered by Jenny Matheny.

Ruth 2:8-9The Message

2: 8-9 Then Boaz spoke to Ruth: “Listen, my daughter. From now on don’t go to any other field to glean—stay right here in this one. And stay close to my young women. Watch where they are harvesting and follow them. And don’t worry about a thing; I’ve given orders to my servants not to harass you. When you get thirsty, feel free to go and drink from the water buckets that the servants have filled.”

10 She dropped to her knees, then bowed her face to the ground. “How does this happen that you should pick me out and treat me so kindly—me, a foreigner?”

11-12 Boaz answered her, “I’ve heard all about you—heard about the way you treated your mother-in-law after the death of her husband, and how you left your father and mother and the land of your birth and have come to live among a bunch of total strangers. God reward you well for what you’ve done—and with a generous bonus besides from God, to whom you’ve come seeking protection under his wings.”

13 She said, “Oh sir, such grace, such kindness—I don’t deserve it. You’ve touched my heart, treated me like one of your own. And I don’t even belong here!”

1. Being in a new place feels very awkward at times. How do you think Ruth felt being new and a “foreigner” in this small town of Bethlehem?

2. Have you ever been new and felt like you did not belong? Did you experience the kindness of others in this new place? What did you wish was different?

3. How can we, as a church, extend a warm welcome to those who are new and help them to know they are a beautiful and important part of this church family?

Eyes of Transition (Ruth Series Part One)

This teaching - and the three part series - is offered by Jenny Matheny.

Ruth 1:1-19a The Message

Once upon a time—it was back in the days when judges led Israel— there was a famine in the land. A man from Bethlehem in Judah left home to live in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. The man’s name was Elimelech; his wife’s name was Naomi; his sons were named Mahlon and Kilion—all Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They all went to the country of Moab and settled there.

3-5 Elimelech died and Naomi was left, she and her two sons. The sons took Moabite wives; the name of the first was Orpah, the second Ruth. They lived there in Moab for the next ten years. But then the two brothers, Mahlon and Kilion, died. Now the woman was left without either her young men or her husband.

6-7 One day she got herself together, she and her two daughters-in-law, to leave the country of Moab and set out for home; she had heard that God had been pleased to visit his people and give them food. And so she started out from the place she had been living, she and her two daughters-in-law with her, on the road back to the land of Judah.

8-9 After a short while on the road, Naomi told her two daughters-in-law, “Go back. Go home and live with your mothers. And may God treat you as graciously as you treated your deceased husbands and me. May God give each of you a new home and a new husband!” She kissed them and they cried openly.

10 They said, “No, we’re going on with you to your people.”

11-13 But Naomi was firm: “Go back, my dear daughters. Why would you come with me? Do you suppose I still have sons in my womb who can become your future husbands? Go back, dear daughters—on your way, please! I’m too old to get a husband. Why, even if I said, ‘There’s still hope!’ and this very night got a man and had sons, can you imagine being satisfied to wait until they were grown? Would you wait that long to get married again? No, dear daughters; this is a bitter pill for me to swallow—more bitter for me than for you. God has dealt me a hard blow.”

14 Again they cried openly. Orpah kissed her mother-in-law good-bye; but Ruth embraced her and held on.

15 Naomi said, “Look, your sister-in-law is going back home to live with her own people and gods; go with her.”

16-17 But Ruth said, “Don’t force me to leave you; don’t make me go home. Where you go, I go; and where you live, I’ll live. Your people are my people, your God is my god; where you die, I’ll die, and that’s where I’ll be buried, so help me God—not even death itself is going to come between us!”

18-19 When Naomi saw that Ruth had her heart set on going with her, she gave in. And so the two of them traveled on together to Bethlehem. 

1. Have you ever been in a season of transition? List two areas you found difficult during this season:

2. When you think back through this season, what have you learned about yourself? God? Others? Still learning?

Galatians 6: Be Lovely

Be Lovely

Paul’s final words to the Galatian churches included words of advice, and one last rebuttal of the Judaizers’ errant teaching.  Since the instruction was given to the community, I thought fitting that we work it out in community.  So, as you read each excerpt from the final chapter of Galatians, take a moment and think through how you would summarize the passage.  I put down my own thoughts as well – not that my thoughts are the “correct” answer, but to let you know how the text came across to me.  Your insights may be entirely different.  Have fun!

Live creatively, friends. If someone falls into sin, forgivingly restore him, saving your critical comments for yourself. You might be needing forgiveness before the day's out. Stoop down and reach out to those who are oppressed. Share their burdens, and so complete Christ's law. If you think you are too good for that, you are badly deceived.

How would you summarize this excerpt?

Pete’s summary: Love people back when they mess up.  This is a wonderful idea that I think we can all agree on.  But when we are the ones in the middle of the muck, it’s easier said than done.  When someone has offended us, causing us pain, making a mess in our lives as well as theirs, costing us in myriad ways, my first thoughts are generally not loving.  Depending on the situation, I may feel hurt, angry, saddened, frustrated, disappointed, violated, let down, etc.  In those moments, my words reflect my humanity more than my Christ.  One thing that has helped me is this: when someone does something that negatively impacts me (or is just messing up in a way that I need to deal with it), I try to take a deep breath and distance myself from the mess itself, reminding myself that the person who is doing “whatever” is doing it for a reason.  I try to put myself in their place to gain understanding.  If I’ve done something to provoke their behavior, I need to own it and seek forgiveness.  A lot of the time, however, whatever is happening is not about me, and therefore personalizing it adds to my misery.  Helping the person work through what’s happening becomes an easier goal when I can view the person struggling as just that.  Be lovely to those who need it most.

     Make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given, and then sink yourself into that. Don't be impressed with yourself. Don't compare yourself with others. Each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative best you can with your own life.

How would you summarize this excerpt?

Pete’s summary: Be the best you – that’s all you can do.  In our culture, it is very difficult to live without comparing yourself to someone else, or comparing people to each other.  We are tempted to do this in so many categories of life: our looks, weight, financial position, sex life, education level, political stance, marriages, parenting, everything…  We likely feel stronger about some areas of our life than others.  Sometimes we feel so good in comparison to others that we become arrogant.  This, of course, immediately deteriorates the sense of community with others.  It’s difficult to be “with” someone when we feel “above” them.  Same goes for when we feel like losers in other aspects of our lives.  After many years of comparing myself to others, and being compared to others, I came to a conclusion: I can only do what I can do.  I am only responsible for doing my best in the areas I influence.  I cannot control anything beyond that.  How are you doing on this?  Have you been beating yourself up because you’ve been comparing yourself to others?  Have you been feeling uppity where you feel like you’re above others?  Be lovely toward yourself and others.

     Be very sure now, you who have been trained to a self-sufficient maturity, that you enter into a generous common life with those who have trained you, sharing all the good things that you have and experience.

How would you summarize this excerpt?

Pete’s summary: Support your church!  This is literally what Paul is instructing here.  There were people devoted to teaching and pastoring the people in the churches of Galatia at levels that made it impossible to earn money by other means.  The church community (if it wants to maintain that level of attention) needs to provide for those who serve her in a vocational way.  I am so grateful for so many who have made it possible for me to do my thing at CrossWalk!  Thank you!  Be lovely toward your church with support if you have benefitted and hope to continue benefitting.

     Don't be misled: No one makes a fool of God. What a person plants, he will harvest. The person who plants selfishness, ignoring the needs of others—ignoring God!— harvests a crop of weeds. All he'll have to show for his life is weeds! But the one who plants in response to God, letting God's Spirit do the growth work in him, harvests a crop of real life, eternal life.

How would you summarize this excerpt?

Pete’s summary: We still reap what we sow.  The reason I include still in this is because some folks I’ve run across understand the grace of God to mean that their sin is of no account because they are covered by the love of God.  While it is true that we cannot do anything to cause God to stop loving us, everything we do has an impact on our lives and those around us.  While we can move ahead with great confidence that God loves us unconditionally, we must also walk forward knowing that when we choose to walk in ways that are not lovely, we can and should expect some unlovely results.

     So let's not allow ourselves to get fatigued doing good. At the right time we will harvest a good crop if we don't give up, or quit. Right now, therefore, every time we get the chance, let us work for the benefit of all, starting with the people closest to us in the community of faith.

How would you summarize this excerpt?

Pete’s summary: Do good no matter what.  This seems obvious, yet we struggle sometimes, I think, and settle for less.  Probably because we’re discouraged, wondering “what’s the point?”, or we’ve just been going for a long time and we’re worn out.  Or we feel like it’s an uphill battle.  Whatever it is, Paul’s encouragement is wise and practical.  What do we really gain by doing a half-baked job except for more work down the road, anyway?  Be lovely in your work, whatever it is.

     Now, in these last sentences, I want to emphasize in the bold scrawls of my personal handwriting the immense importance of what I have written to you. These people who are attempting to force the ways of circumcision on you have only one motive: They want an easy way to look good before others, lacking the courage to live by a faith that shares Christ's suffering and death. All their talk about the law is gas. They themselves don't keep the law! And they are highly selective in the laws they do observe. They only want you to be circumcised so they can boast of their success in recruiting you to their side. That is contemptible!

How would you summarize this excerpt?

Pete’s summary: Stick to love no matter what.  Paul’s writing with his own hand authenticated the letter, and also added a powerful boost to his last shot at his detractors.  Circumcision represented the Law.  The Law had its place, but not in terms of winning or keeping God’s favor.  Love is what it’s all about.  God is lovely.

     For my part, I am going to boast about nothing but the Cross of our Master, Jesus Christ. Because of that Cross, I have been crucified in relation to the world, set free from the stifling atmosphere of pleasing others and fitting into the little patterns that they dictate. Can't you see the central issue in all this? It is not what you and I do—submit to circumcision, reject circumcision. It is what God is doing, and he is creating something totally new, a free life! All who walk by this standard are the true Israel of God—his chosen people. Peace and mercy on them!

How would you summarize this excerpt?

Pete’s summary: Join God for life and freedom.  I think we have something backwards.  We think about ways we should get involved in whatever God is doing to add to our lives like we would add an accessory to an outfit.  We think minimally, conservatively, wondering if we can afford to give up time or resources from our life to “help God out.”  This is off the mark.  God is life, the source of life, the fullness of life.  When we are fully immersed in tying into God, flowing in God’s stream, aligning with God – that’s when life truly sings.  Whenwe ignore it or avoid it, we essentially cut ourselves off from life.  Rather than wondering where we might fit God in, we’d be better served wondering how every aspect of our lives couldtie into what God is doing – because the Spirit of God flows everywhere.  When we do this, we see the fruit of the Spirit come on strong, and find it natural to be lovely.

     Quite frankly, I don't want to be bothered anymore by these disputes. I have far more important things to do—the serious living of this faith. I bear in my body scars from my service to Jesus.

How would you summarize this excerpt?

Pete’s summary: Living the faith beats arguing about it.  I’ve been in Paul’s shoes before, spending time debating about particular issues with other pastors.  There comes a point when you have to decide that enough is enough, you’ve said enough and heard enough, and need to get on with the actual living of faith and not just talking about it.  Dialogue is good, but can easily become a substitute for actually doing something.  Issues matter, but lives are changed when we decide to actually be lovely with our words, attitude, and behavior. 

Benediction: May what our Master Jesus Christ gives freely be deeply and personally yours, my friends. Oh, yes!

– Galatians 6:1-18 (The Message)

Process Questions…

1.       What from this chapter seems to be jumping out at you most?  Why?

2.       Assume God is involved here – what might God be trying to say to you?

3.       What is your response to what is happening here?  Next steps?

Watch the video of this teaching here.

Galatians 5: Freethos

What do you want to be remembered for?  Hold onto that for a bit…

In Paul’s letter to the Galatians, he made a concerted shift in what we call chapter five.  He expressed his disdain for the Judaizers’ insistence for circumcision and its ramifications.  He didn’t mince words: who cut you off from the path you were running so well?  I wish they would go the distance and castrate themselves…  Nice.  Would make a nice card from Hallmark.

Slowly moving away from a focus on the law, Paul chose to encourage focus on freedom instead – freedom found in knowing God’s love for us is not in any way dependent on anything we do or don’t do.  We are loved unconditionally, which yields great freedom from a sense of obligation to follow the law to gain merit.  But then, in a strange twist, Paul instructed them to give up their freedom!  He told them to become servants to others – loving others as they love themselves.  This, he went on to say, is aligned with living “animated and motivated by God’s Spirit.”  When we orient ourselves in such a way, we find ourselves less interested, less tempted by the things our “flesh” desires, which are nearly always self-serving. 

Surely those who were demanding adherence to the Law were suggesting that without it, lawlessness and immorality of all sorts would result.  Paul answers the objection by noting that there is another option that works far better than legalism.  When we love our neighbors as ourselves, we fulfill the Law – not to end it; love completes it, fills it up, makes it whole.  In another letter to a different church with related problems, Paul stated that he believed the law leads to death, not life, and that grace alone leads to life.

Paul also warranted against using freedom from the law as an excuse to pursue self-centered living.  He offered a brief catalog of what happens when we fall into that kind of life:  The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like.  Note what he emphasized: three sins of sexuality, two of false worship, two of wild partying.  But right in the middle there are eight outcomes of selfish living, and they all threaten unity within the community.  When we are selfish, we don’t just hurt ourselves – we hurt many others.  When we’re selfish, unfortunately, we don’t really care about anybody else. When we have presence of mind, however, we know it’s not what we really want.

In contrast, Paul paints a picture of what life led by the Spirit yields: love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  That’s good stuff.  The kind of stuff we hope is said of us at our memorial services.  I believe it’s what we truly long for.  So, how do we cultivate it?  How do we live life led by the Spirit?  Seems pretty fuzzy…

Writing for the Center for Action and Contemplation about non-dualistic thinking and living, James Finley writes:

“In my most childlike hour, I have tasted the presence of God that is perpetually manifesting and giving itself to me as my very life. While the value of my life is not dependent upon the degree to which I realize this unitive mystery that is always there, the experiential quality of my life is profoundly related to the degree to which I am learning to live in habitual awareness of and fidelity to the God-given, godly nature of the life that I’m living.” 

I like that he distinguishes between our inherent value and the quality of our lives.  One of which has been forever settled as far as God is concerned.  The other, however, depends on us to do our part, to seek God, and to seek to be faithful to the Way of God.

The fruit of the Spirit is more something we cultivate than we outright pursue.  The fruit is a product of caring for the tree, which requires intent.  Without intent, I really believe we can only get so far.  We will reach a peaceful place – a better version of ourselves – but not necessarily be truly transformed.  Genuine transformation is a metamorphosis whereby we are a new and continually renewing creation.  Born again.  The difference between a caterpillar and a butterfly.  This God-required shift needs us to play our role.  We need to pay attention to our steps in the dance if we hope for anything more than pie in the sky.

I’d like to suggest a new word: freethos.  It’s a combination of ethos – which has to do with our way of being, our ethics – and freedom that we have thanks to the Good News of Christ.  Freedom-informed and motivated ethos.  Freethos.  But in order to come to grips with this freedom ethos that is part of our metamorphosis, we need to do some work.  Work that requires reflection on questions like the following:

·       How do you determine what is the best way to live?

·       Who/what informed your ethics?

·       How does your ethic jibe with God’s love of everybody? 

·       How does your ethic love neighbors as yourself?

·       Where is there a shift needed?

·       Do you actually want the fruit of the Spirit?

To entertain these sorts of deeper questions requires some key components.  We need space to process this stuff, we need information to help us know the character of God, and we need support from other people who are on the same journey.  A huge piece of this for me is in how I try to start my day, choosing to be aware of what motivates my mood, my attitude, and my behaviors.  When I begin my day seeking God (created space), I find myself reset: my wakefulness starts with recognizing my value, which increases my desire to know and follow God – to love God and love others.  I prefer quiet space with a few readings (information), meditation, time to reflect (sometimes written), and pray.  Bouncing ideas off others helps further shape my thinking (community support), and having people around me on the same path helps as well.  This practice orients me so that as I face decisions through the day, I am motivated from the right place.  I think this orienting/resetting practice works for a lot of people, even if the methods we employ vary.  Some get reset by a meditative walk outside.  Some in music.  Some in an act of service.  How are you making room in your life for the cultivation to occur?

Once we have an idea what we want to be about – our freethos – we need to put it into practice.  Otherwise it’s not really worth much.  Practice is hard because it’s different; it’s change.  Nobody likes change.  But change is the hope for our lives and the lives of everyone in the world.  And it is possible.  And it is our destiny.

Ricky Gervais was interviewed by Stephen Colbert this past week.  Ricky is a self-proclaimed agnostic-leaning-toward-athiest.  Essentially, he dismisses a lot of holy writ because he recognizes the time-bound nature of all of it.  The Bible, Quran, Buhdda’s teachings and others all reflect the people writing them – their cultures, their time in history, their biases, etc.  Ricky trusts that scientific discoveries, by contrast, will be around forever, so he puts his faith in science.  Unfortunately for Ricky, he missed the larger message of all of the religious writings.  Despite their very human origins and flavorings, they are all saying in one way or another that they have experienced what we call the Divine, God, the Greater Other, Higher Power, our Ground of Being, etc.  That Presence, they say, is with us deeply, and for our best.  There’s no reason for so many people to make that up.  What this means for you is that as you pursue the cultivation of a life that will be marked by amazing fruit, you’ve got a very big Someone in your corner and on your side.  You are not alone.  The metamorphosis can happen – in fact, it’s meant to happen.

What is that possibility worth to you?  What are you going to do differently to cultivate it?  These qualities represented by the fruits of the Spirit are what I believe most people long to be known by and remembered for.  It’s there for the picking…

Review of Galatians so far…

Galatians One: Backstory.  In this introductory chapter, Paul set the stage for what is to follow.  He was deeply disturbed that Jewish Christians from Jerusalem came into the region of Galatia at some point after him with an addition to the Good News: grace is great, but once you receive it, you also need to follow key Jewish customs, including circumcision.  Paul reminded them of his testimony of being one of the most highly educated people in his age group on Judaism.  If he, of all people, did not adopt the Jewish rituals, that was significant.  This chapter calls us to consider our own backstory, asking why we believe what we do, querying into who informed what we think and believe and do.

Galatians Two: Chicken and Waffles.  The second chapter of this letter finds Paul continuing his backstory, recalling to mind a meeting he had with the highest leaders of the community of Jesus followers: Peter, James, and John.  They agreed that Paul was teaching correctly; the only encouragement was that he keep providing for the poor a top priority.  This was significant because when Peter arrived in Galatia, and found himself under the watchful guise of the “Judaizers”, fear got the best of him (he was a chicken), and he waffled, distancing himself from the Gentile believers and favoring the Jewish Christians.  Paul held him accountable for his cowardice in front of everyone.  Paul then encouraged his readers to realize that when we add anything to “grace alone”, we actually undermine and eventually replace it with something much less.

Galatians Three: You Belong.  In the third chapter of this letter, Paul deepens his argument regarding the fallacy of gaining God’s love through works by appealing to the story of Abraham’s faith.  It was Abraham’s faith – not what he did – that changed everything.  Everyone belongs in God’s family – there are no second-class citizens based on religious practices.  The whole point is to embrace what is simply there (God’s love) and move forward, allowing it to shape everything about you. 

Galatians Four: Training Wheels.  In this chapter, Paul continues trying to help the Galatians understand why moving from grace to Law is such a mistake.  First, he uses an analogy regarding children.  Until they are old enough, they were under the care of others to guide them.  Once they were mature enough, however, they knew who they were and how to behave, and no longer needed the others’ constant guidance.  The Law acted as a helpful guide for the Jewish people.  When Christ came, however, grace became the means of understanding God’s love and also the new guide to live.  Second, Paul interpreted the story of Abraham, Ishmael and Isaac as allegory to illustrate the fact that choosing the law over grace was a step down from the higher aim of embracing life through faith alone.

Galatians Five: Freethos.  Paul touches once again on the futility of legalism and following the law are for the believers in Galatia who have been captivated by God’s Good News of grace.  He draws a contrast between the self-centered life of the flesh versus the other-centered life in the Spirit.  Firsts, he notes what happens when we are living by the flesh – it’s not good.  Then he writes about the fruit that comes in our lives when we walk by the Spirit of God – it’s the stuff we all want more of in our lives.  If you want more love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, gentleness and self-control in your life, live your life in step with the Spirit of God.

Galatians 4: Training Wheels

Training wheels.  When my kids were little, we got them bicycles.  Do you remember getting your first bike?  Freedom!  The only trouble is, most kids have a hard time getting the balance idea down, especially when they are going slow or turning.  Our freedom rides suddenly become death traps.  Like a lot of parents, we threw some training wheels on the back of our kids’ bikes.  Magic.  Suddenly they could zip along and get the feel for the ride.  From the very beginning, however, we told our kids that the training wheels were temporary.  When the time was right they would be coming off.  The Law – as well as rituals and religious practices – are like training wheels.  They are helpful.  They keep us from falling over.  But sometimes we forget that they were meant for a time – the rules and rituals are a means to an end and not the goal themselves.  In his letter to the Galatians, Paul used the example of a mentor assigned to help a child (Galatians 4).  Eventually, the child outgrows the mentor and enjoys adulthood.  The mentor lasts only for awhile – not his entire life.  The Law was meant to be like that – guiding us like we need in childhood.  But we’re supposed to mature beyond the need of constantly gauging our lives by legalistic measures.  There is a better way – that way is faith.  The Galatians had learned to ride a bike unencumbered by training wheels, they strapped on a pair at the behest of the Judaizers.  Not good for literal bike riding, and really bad for metaphorical ones, too.

In another analogy, Paul referred to the founder of the Jewish faith: Abraham.  Abraham and Sara believed that God was calling them to start something new.  They believed God had told them to leave the homestead of Abraham’s father and start fresh.  They believed that God had told them that they were going to have a big mess of kids to insure the future, too.  So they left on faith.  After awhile, however, their faith began to wane, and they took matters into their own hands.  With Sara’s blessing, Abraham took her maidservant, Hagar, as his wife.  Nature took its course and along came Ishmael, Abraham’s first son.  Theirs was not an act of faith but of taking control of the situation the way they knew how.  It led to lots of problems for the rest of their days and into the days of Israel up to this day.  After many more years, Sara became pregnant – a miracle, really, given her old age.  Isaac was born – a child born of faith.  He was the child who would receive the greater blessing of God.  The child born in faith was the one God was going to build his people through.  Because faith is what it’s all about.  Paul’s use of this allegorized story is simple: we are meant to be “Isaacs” (faith-founded and motivated) but we tend to choose to be “Ishmaels” (taking matters into our own hands which nearly always means a return to Law).

We kind of like training wheels – putting things back to a measure of control even though we know they slow us down, making us less capable of making the turns we need to take, etc.  We don’t like not feeling in control, even if the feeling is really a false reality.  We like things neat and clean, not gray.  We like the Law more than grace because we can measure the law and judge with the law in ways we cannot with grace.  We like feeling like we’re in and others are out.  We like feeling like we’veearned our keep, our reward, our position in life, even if our feelings are pure fantasy for us (and nightmare for others?).

Putting the training wheels back on hurts all the way around.  It hurts our individual relationship with God because it takes the focus off of love and onto merit, which undermines the whole thing.  Community is also jeopardized because we tend to assess others according to what we think is right (because if we’re right and others disagree, it must mean they are wrong).  When we put the training wheels back on, it obviously compromises our capacity to serve.  Our motive is shot, and so is the very message we promote – both predicated on merit.

How do you know if you’ve put the training wheels on?  Religiosity is one great indicator – when we focus more on “right beliefs” instead of believing in the right way of love and grace.  It leads us to judge others, and even demonize those who don’t agree with us.  Politically we do this as well.  When we get to a space where we cannot see any good whatsoever in the leaders of the “other” political party, something has gone awry.  This is happening a lot right now, and the result is ravaged relationships, a deepening divide in our country, and binary thinking which has no room for actual dialogue.

I don’t care if you are Republican or Democrat or Libertarian or Green or…  But if you call yourself a Jesus follower, I am calling you to follow.  Jesus is our standard, not political leaders.  The mode of Jesus in everything is love – both the means and end for Jesus was always love.  As you are tempted to join in on the discussion, how do your attitude and behavior reflect Jesus?  If it’s not love, you may need to do some reflection.  You may have put on some training wheels unawares.

Review of Galatians so far…

Galatians One: Backstory.  In this introductory chapter, Paul set the stage for what is to follow.  He was deeply disturbed that Jewish Christians from Jerusalem came into the region of Galatia at some point after him with an addition to the Good News: grace is great, but once you receive it, you also need to follow key Jewish customs, including circumcision.  Paul reminded them of his testimony of being one of the most highly educated people in his age group on Judaism.  If he, of all people, did not adopt the Jewish rituals, that was significant.  This chapter calls us to consider our own backstory, asking why we believe what we do, querying into who informed what we think and believe and do.

Galatians Two: Chicken and Waffles.  The second chapter of this letter finds Paul continuing his backstory, recalling to mind a meeting he had with the highest leaders of the community of Jesus followers: Peter, James, and John.  They agreed that Paul was teaching correctly; the only encouragement was that he keep providing for the poor a top priority.  This was significant because when Peter arrived in Galatia, and found himself under the watchful guise of the “Judaizers”, fear got the best of him (he was a chicken), and he waffled, distancing himself from the Gentile believers and favoring the Jewish Christians.  Paul held him accountable for his cowardice in front of everyone.  Paul then encouraged his readers to realize that when we add anything to “grace alone”, we actually undermine and eventually replace it with something much less.

Galatians Three: You Belong.  In the third chapter of this letter, Paul deepens his argument regarding the fallacy of gaining God’s love through works by appealing to the story of Abraham’s faith.  It was Abraham’s faith – not what he did – that changed everything.  Everyone belongs in God’s family – there are no second-class citizens based on religious practices.  The whole point is to embrace what is simply there (God’s love) and move forward, allowing it to shape everything about you. 

Galatians Four: Training Wheels.  In this chapter, Paul continues trying to help the Galatians understand why moving from grace to Law is such a mistake.  First, he uses an analogy regarding children.  Until they are old enough, they were under the care of others to guide them.  Once they were mature enough, however, they knew who they were and how to behave, and no longer needed the others’ constant guidance.  The Law acted as a helpful guide for the Jewish people.  When Christ came, however, grace became the means of understanding God’s love and also the new guide to live.  Second, Paul interpreted the story of Abraham, Ishmael and Isaac as allegory to illustrate the fact that choosing the law over grace was a step down from the higher aim of embracing love and grace.

Galatians 3: You Belong

You belong.  That's it.  Full stop.  It's not what you do or don't do, because your belonging in God's "family" isn't yours to decide.  God's loving nature can't have it any other way.

Galatians 1: Backstory

Today we start a six week series on Paul’s letter to Galatians.  This is how he starts it:

"I, Paul, and my companions in faith here, send greetings to the Galatian churches. My authority for writing to you does not come from any popular vote of the people, nor does it come through the appointment of some human higher-up.

It comes directly from Jesus the Messiah and God the Father, who raised him from the dead. I'm God-commissioned. So I greet you with the great words, grace and peace! We know the meaning of those words because Jesus Christ rescued us from this evil world we're in by offering himself as a sacrifice for our sins. God's plan is that we all experience that rescue. Glory to God forever! Oh, yes!" – Gal. 1:1-5 (Message)

Backstory is what makes any story especially interesting.

Fifty or more years from now, the names of US presidents that we are pretty familiar with won’t mean as much as they do now.  Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump will just be names on a list of dozens of other presidents.  We have a different response to the names today more than folks in a distant tomorrow because we understand their backstory.  A Hollywood actor turned politician.  A thousand points of light.  Indiscretions.  Longest war in US history.  The first African American president.  The tweeter (for now).  These are just scratching the surface, of course, but you get the idea.  Because we know their backstory, the stories themselves are much more interesting and compelling.

The Bible is a collection of 66 writings of various genres from a wide variety of authors, all written for specific purposes with clear agendas.  Each writing has its own backstory, and so do the characters portrayed.  When we don’t know the backstory, it’s easy to lose interest.  This letter to the region Paul lived and worked in for a period of years where he starteda number of communities of faith starts like any other Pauline letter.  An introduction.  A word of blessing.  Usually Paul takes a moment to celebrate and praise the good things he has heard about the community he is addressing.  But in his letter to the Galatians, he doesn’t do that at all.  Instead, things take a sharp turn south:

"I can't believe your fickleness—how easily you have turned traitor to him who called you by the grace of Christ by embracing a variant message! It is not a minor variation, you know; it is completely other, an alien message, a no-message, a lie about God. Those who are provoking this agitation among you are turning the Message of Christ on its head. Let me be blunt: If one of us—even if an angel from heaven!—were to preach something other than what we preached originally, let him be cursed. I said it once; I'll say it again: If anyone, regardless of reputation or credentials, preaches something other than what you received originally, let him be cursed." – Gal. 1:6-9 (Message)

You may notice from the quote that Paul is a little agitated.  You can surmise pretty quickly some of the backstory without much help: Paul is accusing the Galatians of embracing a false message that someone has presented to them.  As far as Paul is concerned, those who persuaded them to follow a message different from Paul’s can go to hell.  He’s so mad he says it twice!  So, what happened?  We can’t be exactly sure, but apparently Paul moved to the region to present the message of Jesus to non-Jewish people.  They embraced it, formed communities, and things were great.  Paul left.  Not long after he left, some other Jesus followers came in after him and told these Galatians that if they really wanted to be right with God, they also had to follow the Jewish traditions that Jesus followed.  In particular, the guys had to be circumcised.  No big deal, really, it’s just a requirement to have some dude cut the foreskin off your penis.  Outpatient surgery.  That day was the start of when women outnumbered men in church…  This flew in the face of what Paul had taught them about the favor of God.  That’s the surface level of the backstory.  Makes the harshness of Paul’s statement a little more understandable, doesn’t it?  His impassioned tone continues beyond his cursing:

"Do you think I speak this strongly in order to manipulate crowds? Or curry favor with God? Or get popular applause? If my goal was popularity, I wouldn't bother being Christ's slave. Know this—I am most emphatic here, friends—this great Message I delivered to you is not mere human optimism. I didn't receive it through the traditions, and I wasn't taught it in some school. I got it straight from God, received the Message directly from Jesus Christ." - Gal. 1:10-12 (Message)

He's mad.  He’s frustrated.  He feels like his character has been put into question.  How will Paul handle this situation?  These people have clearly found affection for another voice.  What can you do to win them back?  Let’s take a look:

"I'm sure that you've heard the story of my earlier life when I lived in the Jewish way. In those days I went all out in persecuting God's church. I was systematically destroying it. I was so enthusiastic about the traditions of my ancestors that I advanced head and shoulders above my peers in my career. Even then God had designs on me. Why, when I was still in my mother's womb he chose and called me out of sheer generosity! Now he has intervened and revealed his Son to me so that I might joyfully tell non-Jews about him.

Immediately after my calling—without consulting anyone around me and without going up to Jerusalem to confer with those who were apostles long before I was—I got away to Arabia. Later I returned to Damascus, but it was three years before I went up to Jerusalem to compare stories with Peter. I was there only fifteen days—but what days they were! Except for our Master's brother James, I saw no other apostles. (I'm telling you the absolute truth in this.)

Then I began my ministry in the regions of Syria and Cilicia. After all that time and activity I was still unknown by face among the Christian churches in Judea. There was only this report: "That man who once persecuted us is now preaching the very message he used to try to destroy." Their response was to recognize and worship God because of me!" – Galatians 1:13-24 (Message)

What is he doing?  He is reminding them of his backstory so that they will remember why they listened to him in the first place, and why his argument made sense. 

When I heard Richard Muller being interviewed on NPR in 2007, I immediately bought his book, Physics for Future Presidents.  He is a world-renown Physics professor and scientist from UC Berkeley.  I bought it mainly because in his book he addressed many of the most important scientific topics of that day – many of which are still as hot today.  One of the chapters was on Global Warming, which left me a little bit numb.  He said he was sure the world was warming, but unsure of whether or not human beings were responsible for it.  When somebody with his credentials says something like that, you have to listen to the guy.  I wanted to buy the book because he seemed to be willing to be truly scientific in his quest.  Several years later, he decided to take on Global Warming.  With funding from one of the Koch brothers, he worked to try to understand the data related to Global Warming, going back further into history than any previous studies.  He took volcanic activities into consideration.  He threw out studies that were too small.  He looked for any and all factors that correlated to Global Warming.  The only one that matched up was related to carbon emissions.  Carbon emissions is driven purely by human beings.  So, in 2012, Richard Muller made the announcement that he believed that Global Warming is real, as critical as the numbers indicate, and that it is human caused.  Why did his announcement get attention?  Backstory.  His backstory.  The opponent became the proponent.   That’s why Paul’s story is so compelling.  He’s not just anybody saying that God bases God’s favor with us on grace alone.  Paul was the guy who championed the cause of the Law as the means by which we find favor with God. 

Alan Chambers’ backstory is similar.  He was the founder of the Exodus Program which worked to “cure” people from homosexuality.  As a man who has lived with same sex attraction as long as he can remember, even though married to his wife for many years, he finally conceded that he believed same sex attraction was not curable.  He said he thought he was wrong, and he apologized for any pain, suffering, and even death his program may have caused.  He’s not just anybody with a statement.  He’s a guy with a backstory, which makes his story interesting and perhaps compelling.  Again, this is like Paul, who was a guy out to round up and potentially kill Christians who later completely flipped his position, becoming the greatest influence for Christ in history.

Paul’s backstory and story was so powerful that it overcame natural skepticism among Christians.  At the end of the day, his story – so genuine an example of the power of the grace he proclaimed – overpowered doubt and fear and led to belief and praise.

We are going to talk a lot about why Paul was so upset about what happened in the coming weeks.  We are going to discover that we are Galatians.  We hear about the full grace of God, yet we get suckered for something less just as they did.  Why is that?  Backstory.

From the earliest moment human beings began to wonder about Ultimate Reality, a Greater Other, God(s), etc., who were supreme over them in every way, the idea of earning their favor entered.  Sacrificing animals as a way to show devotion and as a way to atone for sin became popular in many cultures.  To modern ears, it sounds primitive and barbaric.  Yet, if we dig a little beneath the surface, we must admit that we still make bargains in myriad form with God.  We make deals with God when things are bad.  We do spiritual things to make sure God stays on our side.  All of these are modern variants of the old idea that we must somehow win God’s favor.  Which happens to be diametrically opposed to the message of Jesus, and the overwhelming message of God from the creation of the universe forward.

The real backstory from the Jewish tradition which Jesus modeled and moved forward is that we are absolutely, completely, and eternally loved unconditionally.  The Good News, the Message of Christ is that we’ve gotten the whole thing backwards, thinking that we had to earn God’s love and favor for the rest of our lives.  In reality, we’ve always been loved.  The point is that we begin living like it’s true. No longer trying to get God to do stuff with our bargaining.  No longer trying to appease God with our trivial sacrifices.  Please!  The love is already and completely there – a foundation of stone upon which we can build beautiful lives, harmonious communities, and living, breathing, thriving creation. 

What’s your backstory?  What has shaped who you are?  What voices spoke into your life to help you form your identity?  Were they helpful, affirming voices?  How about your faith?  What compelledyou to think about God in the first place?  How have you bought into a false message that we need to somehow win God’s favor?  How has that shaped everything you are and do? 

The reality is that we are Galatians.  We struggle to stay true to the Good News that rescues us from all that seeks to destroy us.  We fail to realize that we are a story in the making – a collection of stories that just may cause someone, somewhere reason to overcome fear and doubt with reasons to sing praise to God.  If we’ll have it.  If we’ll pay attention to our backstories as we create the stories we weave together that are filled with the favor of God.  Because that’s the Good News.

Until we mine our backstories – individual and collective – we will be limited in our capacity to grow forward.  Every time Paul shared his backstory, which likely numbered in the hundreds of times, I imagine he learned one more thing about himself, about his motivations, his character, and his dreams.  When we share our backstory with others, we grow similarly.  Sharing our story out loud helps us hear it differently, and invites feedback which will help us gain further insight.  Those who get to hear our backstory benefit as well, as they learn more about us, but also are subtly encouraged to mine their own backstory as they are hearing ours.  Because sharing backstories is itself a catalyst for learning, the impact of our sharing goes well beyond our immediate audience.  While it may not be as dramatic as Paul’s experience, we likely will never have any idea how God’s work in our lives – shared with others – will influence people down the line.

So, don’t be slow to mine your backstory.  For your own benefit.  For the benefit of the immediate audience.  For whoever God impacts here and now, everywhere and for the rest of time.

Get to work!

Watch the video of this teaching here.

Peace is a Verb

Today is Christmas Day, the date we spend a month anticipating and celebrating.  A day that marks the giving of God’s gift to us – Jesus – as well as gifts we may not have realized we were given by other characters in his birth narrative.  While our focus is appropriately on God’s gift to us in Jesus, there have been many, many others in the Christmas story who gave us a gift, too.  We need to take note of their attitude and behavior, because it just might make all the difference in our personal lives, our community of friends and relatives, and even all of humanity.  After all, because the characters in the first Christmas story gave, we have been impacted along with the entire world and its history.

Mary was told that the Prince of Peace was on his way, which required quite a bit from her to pull off!  Her magnificent response, in fact, makes it clear that she realized the peace wasn’t just for her, but for the whole world.  Obviously, she realized that a lot was required of her to bring this peace to the whole world.  When asked if she would join in what God was doing, she said, “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true” (Luke 1:38).  Peace was a verb for Mary.  Action to receive the peace.  Action to move it forward.

Joseph also had a tall order to fill.  While not nearly as physically demanding as Mary’s role, his call was extremely emotionally challenging.  At times, he surely must have felt humiliated.  Yet he also understood that the peace that was coming was worth it not only for him, but for the entire world.  After hearing the angel’s pitch in a dream, “he did as the angel of the Lord commanded and took Mary as his wife. But he did not have sexual relations with her until her son was born. And Joseph named him Jesus” (Matthew 1:24-25).  Peace was a verb for Joseph.  Action to receive the peace.  Action to move it forward.

The shepherds heard the unexpected news that night from an angelic choir.  To see the Prince of Peace for themselves required some effort – what to do with all the sheep?  It was not easy for them to get there.  When they left the scene, however, they naturally continued in their activity.  “The shepherds went back to their flocks, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen. It was just as the angel had told them” (Luke 2:20).  In order for anybody else to have any clue about the peace that had come required someone to share the news with them.  Peace was a verb for the shepherds.  Action to receive the peace.  Action to move it forward.

After Jesus was born, astrologers from the East visited Bethlehem – Magi, or Wise Men due to their education and social status.  Once again, in order for them to experience the peace of Christmas, they had to do something to embrace it.  At great expense in their case.  When they left, they also intuited that they needed to be wise in how they moved the message of Christmas peace forward.  After their visit, “they returned to their own country by another route, for God had warned them in a dream not to return to Herod” (Matthew 2:12) .  Going another route when they were told to return to Herod required risk on their part.  Peace was a verb for the Wise Men.  Action to receive peace.  Action to move it forward.

We do not generate the peace – it comes from God as a gift.  To enjoy the peace requires us to open the gift.  It could be that we have not yet experienced the peace of God because we’ve done absolutely nothing to welcome it.  Often it is as simple as being open to the gift and receiving it.  It’s always there, like blue skies above the clouds.  I believe that it can be found, even in the most challenging of circumstances.  Have you received the Christmas gift of peace?

We just noticed that peace was a verb for the Christmas story characters.  And it needs to be with us as well.  The world will not know that the peace is available unless someone makes the effort to get the word out.  Paul understood this when he stated as much to the church in Rome: “But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? That is why the Scriptures say, “How beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring good news!” (Romans 10:14-15 NLT).   Action is required if we hope to see peace in our world and the whole world.  We cannot expect anything to change if we do nothing to help it change.  We cannot blame God – God has always been cooperative, calling us to join God in bringing peace into the world.

How will peace be a verb for you?  What act of chesed (lovingkindness) can you offer someone with your words or deeds?  How can you be a peaceful presence where there is hostility?  Who or what situations can you pray for where peace is desperately needed?  Who can you hug?  Who needs a cup of hot chocolate?  Who needs a phone call or note?  Who doesn’t have a voice that could use yours for their very survival?  Who needs an apology from you?  Who needs forgiveness from you?  Who needs time from you?  Who needs your ear?  Who needs your back?  All of these are examples of what it looks like when peace is a verb, when we put legs on shalom.  On this day, as you rejoice in the peace that has been given you, may you recognize the inherent invitation to move it forward as so many have since the very first Christmas morning.

Christmas Peace

Merry Christmas!

For some of you, this will be easy enough.  Life is going well, and you have much to be joyful about at this time of year.  Perhaps you will be surrounded by family and friends with food and drink and presents and lots of love.  Yet some of you may not find it so easy to adopt.  Life for you may not be marked by happiness, but rather sorrow, or stress, or anxiety, or fear, or loneliness, or anger, or…  Christmas is for everybody, and the peace Christmas brings is available for everybody, too.

The very first Christmas – when Jesus was born – was an extremely tumultuous time for Jesus’ parents and all Jewish people in Israel.  Their country hadn’t been their own for hundreds of years, which left them in a perpetual state of anxiety about the future.  They believed God to be faithful, however, and that God was loving and graceful.  As they hoped in God’s future for them, they discovered that peace comes alongside even in times of great uncertainty.  The uncertainty was still there, but it did not rob them of their life.  That’s peace.

Mary, the heroine of the Christmas story, also faced tremendous challenges.  While we often focus on the blessing of being the mother of Jesus, the reality for her was that she was told her world was going to turn upside down.  She was going to become pregnant apart from her fiancé, and that God was somehow involved in the process.  Thrown into the role, she would face the scorn of her family and friends as they would struggle to believe her story (even though it was true).  Peace comes alongside even when we feel conscripted, however, into roles we wouldn’t necessarily choose.  As she sought God’s help, her role and struggle continued, but so did peace.  That’s really hopeful if we feel like we’ve had to accept a life we didn’t sign up for.  It’s not the end of us.  We can still live with peace, because God is still with us.

Joseph was humiliated at the Christmas story’s beginning.  By all appearances, his bride to be stepped out on him.  Even though he was told by an angel that Mary was to be believed, he still had to live through what everyone thought and said.  He probably felt emasculated.  In trusting God, however, Joseph found that peace comes alongside even when we’ve been humiliated.  Maybe you’re in a season of humiliation.  Trust God, and get through it with peace.

Living nativity scenes paint a romantic glaze over the actual “birthing room” where Jesus entered the world.  It was likely a cave where filthy animals ate, slept, and did their business – the last place anybody would choose for a clean, peaceful setting for childbirth.  Peace comes alongside even when conditions are unhospitable, however, which we gather from the rest of the story.  In that “mean estate” the presence of God powerfully came, which implies that our circumstances do not indicate or dictate God’s presence.  God is present everywhere, no matter how dire things seem or how difficult the situation.  Peace is.

The shepherds watching their flocks by night drew the short straw – nobody wanted the graveyard shift.  It was boring, lonely, cold, and monotonous.  A lousy job.  Peace comes alongside even the most mundane situations, however, as was the case that first Christmas night.  As they returned to their boring jobs that night, they kept connected to God, and stayed in Peace. 

Wise men from a distant land who were always studying the heavens saw the signs and followed a star that led them to discover Jesus’ birth.  As wealthy aristocrats, they were well aware of the complex and often ugly geopolitical forces at play in the world.  They even experienced those pressures as they looked for the child they traveled to honor with gold, frankincense, and myrrh.  Peace comes alongside even the worst geopolitical contexts, however.  These highly educated men traveled back home, and the ugly political realities remained.  Yet peace stayed with them, too, as they stayed in tune with God.

Even though we may at times feel despair, or conscripted, or humiliated, or miserable in our circumstance, or like we’re dying of mundanity, or fearful of the political climate, the message of Christmas tells us that peace is there as well.  Jesus was a physical representation of “God with us”.  Alongside of us no matter what.  There to give us hope, purpose, strength, comfort, encouragement, and direction, whether you are on top of the world, down in the dumps, or somewhere in between.

May you embrace the peace of Christmas.  May you find the peace that is there, here, everywhere, then, now, and forevermore.

Aleppo et al.

Early in the week I was troubled by the news from Aleppo.  Syria has been locked up in a civil war that has cost tens of thousands of lives.  The news coming out suggests that long term agreements about warfare have been violated repeatedly.  Russia has stepped in behind Assad, which is disturbing on so many levels, making it harder for the international community to monitor or get involved on the humanitarian side.  Politics are playing a role, which means power is at stake.  When power is the primary goal, people take a back seat.  The most vulnerable people are the ones who pay the biggest price.  Children are the most vulnerable people everywhere – they don’t have the resources or power to help themselves.  Images of children fearing for their lives this week – and for so many weeks and months – have been haunting. 

A headline from China this week showed a child wearing a mask to help them breathe because the air pollution was so bad, she would not survive long without it.  Other images from the poorest parts of the world remind us how challenging getting through the day can be especially when there is not enough food.

As the thoughts of these children were running through my mind, I couldn’t help but think about the infant child we celebrate in our country beginning on September 6…  When this child was born, verses from the book of Isaiah was referenced, tying his birth to that of a king who lived hundreds of years before:

For a child is born to us,
    a son is given to us.
The government will rest on his shoulders.
    And he will be called:
Wonderful Counselor,[d] Mighty God,
    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
7 His government and its peace
    will never end. (Isaiah 9:6-7a, NLT)

I was struck by the idea that this Prince of Peace would also be called a Wonderful Counselor.  I wondered what Jesus’ counsel was regarding life and faith as the champion of the cause of Shalom.  Toward the very end of his life, we get a glimpse at what was most important to him in a prayer which can be found in John 17:

And this is the way to have eternal life—to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, the one you sent to earth…  I have given them the glory you gave me, so they may be one as we are one. I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me. – John 17:3; 22-23 (NLT)

What struck me here was that Jesus’ greatest hope was that we would be one with each other and with God, which in context would give us the experience of eternal life – not just a destination to come but a quality of life right now, in this life.  This being one with God and others thing was the secret to eternal life, which is marked by shalom, the fullest sense of peace and wholeness.

This same adult Jesus once was approached by parents who wanted him to bless their children.  The disciples thought it undignified and disrespectful, so they pushed them away.  Jesus had something to say about it:

 One day some parents brought their little children to Jesus so he could touch and bless them. But when the disciples saw this, they scolded the parents for bothering him.

16 Then Jesus called for the children and said to the disciples, “Let the children come to me. Don’t stop them! For the Kingdom of God belongs to those who are like these children. 17 I tell you the truth, anyone who doesn’t receive the Kingdom of God like a child will never enter it.” – Luke 18:15-17 (NLT)

This idea that children are recipients of the Kingdom of God – another way of expressing eternal life and shalom and knowing God – initrigued me.  Brennan Manning gave us a masterpiece about the love of God in his book, The Ragamuffin Gospel.  As I was thinking about this week’s teaching, I was reminded of this quote from his book:

In Manning’s view, it was the vulnerability of children that gave them their special status.  A way of being that we need to emulate, perhaps, because its inherent humility leads to openness and discovery.

Douglas Wood created a children’s story of the Old Turtle and the Broken Truth.  In this story, a village receives a truth from heaven itself – half of it anyway – on a stone.  The truth: You are loved.  The community that received it loved it, then honored it, then worshipped it, then assumed it was a truth for themselves alone which led to horrible treatement of their neighbors.  One day a child sought counsel from and Old Wise Turtle, who revealed the other half of the truth to her.  The first half, remember, was this: You are loved.  The second half was simply this: so is everybody else.  Sometimes children’s books pack the most punch.  In this story, the child is the heroine.

To recap.  Jesus’ last prayer was that we would know eternal life, which is knowing God, which brings unity to us all, which proves that we really are God’s followers in the firsts place.  In another instance, we learn that we are to enter that relationship as children – vulnerable, without pretense, yet at the same time fully trusting that this heavenly father/mother loves us fully.  Being childlike in our relationship with God is what leads us into eternal life.

Julia Galef discovered one reason why we think we’re right when we’re wrong.  In short, she contends that when we have a warrior mindset, we are inclined to stand our ground on the cause we’re fighting for, and don’t waste time on facts.  She encourages her listeners to adopt a scout mindset instead, which is all about discovery and learning to make sure we actually know what we’re talking about.  An approach of humility, which sounds a bit childlike to me.  This also reminds me of a parable Jesus spoke about concerning wheat and weeds growing together.  We don’t have the capacity to always distinguish a weed from wheat because we lack perspective. 

Jamila Raqib has invested her life discovering the secret to nonviolent resistance.  As a leader in her field on an international stage, she has learned that there are ways to combat even ISIS that do not require conventional weapons.  Ways of nonviolence that actually do defeat the most violent regimes.  Sounds like a childlike response.  Sounds like something more like an answer to the prayer Jesus prayed.

Irmela Schramm, armed with spray paint, is doing her part to create peace.  Living in Berlin, Germany, she was horrified to see the swastika appear in graffiti around her city, as well as stickers from hate groups.  Instead sitting around thinking about it, she acted.  With a can of paint and a paint scraper.  One wall at a time, she is removing hatred and replacing it with love.  Sounds like Jesus.

The child born to us is a Prince of Peace and a Wonderful Counselor.  The question is, will we follow this leader, and will we listen to his counsel?

Watch the video of this teaching here.

Christmas Chaos or Christmas Peace?

I was recently at a clothing store getting some Christmas gifts.  It was a Saturday, two weeks before the big day.  The line was really long, and barely moving.  A few customers behind me was a guy who had run out of Christmas cheer.  He grumbled at a cashier, “You gonna open up another lane, or what?”  The cashier said she didn’t know if that was possible, apologized for the delay, and thanked the grumpster for his patience.  “It’s not just me – all these people are waiting!”  Captain Obvious continued to murmur unknown things under his breath, trying to get other customers riled up with him.  Luckily, Mr. Grinch didn’t win any converts to his crusade of dissatisfaction.  But he certainly didn’t make the time go by faster or the line move more quickly.

Now and then, I get grumpy, too.  Not so much with long lines at a checkout.  There are two other contexts that mess with me much more.  Technology issues and traffic.  Anybody with me on one of those?  You’ve got stuff to get done on your computer, and it’s not working correctly, or it’s not connecting to the network, which means you can’t print or search the internet for anything.  Or the internet service itself is being overly taxed, or is just down for some reason out of your control.  Grrrr!  You’re totally stuck.  Like being in heavy traffic that just crawls along.  Especially if it’s the end of the day and you’re tired, your brain doesn’t want to think anymore, and you’re moving inches a minute.  And don’t you love it when the reason for the traffic is someone changing a tire that we all need to rubberneck at?  Grrr!  What sets you off, by the way?

I know.  Pretty minor stuff, really.  First world problems for sure.  I sleep every night in a warm home, a belly as full as I want it to be, and clean water on tap – even hot if I want to take a shower or wash dishes.  I do not live under any tyrant’s threat.  I have a good job.  My health is good.  My wife and kids’ health are good, too.  Maybe I’m a whiner…

Even so, my reality is still my reality, as is yours.  What sets you off, what adds to the chaos of life for you is your reality to live through.  Depending on internet service and traffic congestion, you’re at peace or in chaos.  We all live with a certain amount of stress and chaos, and sometimes it gets the best of us.  Sometimes Christmas – a season when we wish for peace of earth – becomes a season of chaos instead.  Sometimes we have really mixed feelings about the whole season because of the tension.  What do we do with it?  What can we do to increase the peace for ourselves and others, even in the midst of chaos?

We might take some comfort in the fact that the entire backstory that gave us Christmas in the first place was filled with chaos.  Zechariah was told that he would have a son who would prepare the way for Jesus (Luke 1:5-25).  He was an old man married to an old woman – way beyond childbearing and baby-proofing years.  Chaos!

Mary, the unwed teenager legally bound to Joseph, was told she would get pregnant in ways she could not have anticipated (Luke 1:26-56).  She would have to tell Joseph, her parents, her friends, her community, her rabbi, none of whom would be excited for her.  Her world was about to fall apart, even though she was a heroin in the story!  Chaos!

Zechariah and Elizabeth’s baby was born about six months before Jesus.  Traditions were in place so that everyone could guess what they might name the little boy.  “John” was not on that list.  When Zechariah finally got his voice back, announcing the name of his son, people flipped out, wondering what might become of this kid (Luke 1:57-66).  Old people have babies.  Naming the kid wrong.  Chaos!

Leading up to the baby’s birth (Luke 2:1-7), tradition has it that Joseph and Mary had to travel from Nazareth (think Calistoga, CA) and travel to Bethlehem, just outside of Jerusalem (think San Francisco).  Seventy miles.  On foot or on donkey.  How long before we’d do anything to sit in rush hour traffic to get off our feet?  What takes us an hour or so would have taken them several days.  Hungry, tired, pregnant, frustrated.  Arriving in Bethlehem – finally! – they found out the hotel lost their reservation because their network was down (GRRR!) and they had to settle for a night in the barn among cows, sheep, goats, chickens, and all the crap they produce…  Chaos!

Even the night Jesus was born was chaotic.  Beyond the fact that he was born in a filthy barn, the first people to hear about the news were not local dignitaries, but the youngest and newest shepherds taking the graveyard shift.  The lowest guys on the ladder.  Their night was chaos-filled, too (Luke 2:8-20).  If they wore underpants, they were surely well soiled after they received a visit from an angel from heaven, followed by a host of them giving the first Christmas concert!  Chaos!

So much for silent night! 

Sometimes I long for moments of peace.  I think of incredibly peaceful moments and want to escape to them: take me to a beach, or a redwood grove, or a stream, or a mountain lake, or a ski slope, or any number of natural spots.  Get me there, and I’ll be at peace.  And there are other moments as well.  Silence at times.  Quiet walks with my wife.  Memories of watching my babies sleep.  Playing with my dogs.  Being elevated by music or art.

But these are easy-outs.  We don’t live at the beach.  We can’t take the mountain lake into the clothing store where Mr. Grinch is spouting off.  Our network issues won’t be resolved by a walk through the redwoods.  Whatever the chaos is that we face, our efforts at escapism really is just a temporary fix, a momentary distraction.

Perhaps we should take a second and realize that those perfectly peaceful moments are exactly that: moments.  Maybe we would do well to lose the perfectionistic idealistic dreams of life being one constant experience lacking chaos altogether.  That’s not realistic.  And it’s not the experience of those who have gone before us who experienced and pursued shalom throughout their lives.  The postcard picture of peace is not what gave us Christmas.  Their lives were filled with chaos.  And peace that passes understanding.  That’s where the power is; that’s where real hope resides and Good News stems.  Christmas Peace in the midst of Christmas chaos.  Real life.

I recently attended the Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony at Pepperdine University, a private Christian school in Malibu, California, where my son is a Sophomore.  There were several hundred people – mostly students – in attendance.  Some were stacked pretty deep up toward the stage, paying close attention to what was being presented.  But perhaps half of the crowd was more or less on the periphery, huddled in groups catching up with each other, talking and laughing even while the program moved forward.  Some folks had no plans to be part of the ceremony, but were there briefly as they moved through that part of campus on their way from A to B.  Thousands of students were not there at all.  I have no idea where they were.  Studying?  Eating?  Working?  Shopping?  Working out?  And yet the ceremony continued, moving along with songs, liturgy, words of encouragement, etc.  Christmas was happening. 

And Christmas continues to happen.  Christmas – Christ’s day – the anointed one’s day – the day of anointing – happens every day.  Every day the presence of God is manifest in our midst in myriad ways.  No day is born where Christ is absent.  Christ is born, in a sense, with every dawn, because the presence of God is fresh and growing and redeeming every new day.  One ancient voice had the audacity to say that “the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end.  They are new every morning.  Great is thy faithfulness, O God!” (Lamentations 3:22-23).  These were written, by the way, as part of a book of lamentations – life was chaos for this writer, as it was also for his country.  But the steadfast love of God kept coming.

A strange, paradoxical peace does come when we realize that we don’t have to wait for chaos to end before we can have peace.  In fact, in the very midst of chaos, peace is.  Christ came in the height of chaos – the birth didn’t wait for just the right time when the flowers were in bloom, when everybody was in a good mood, when the network worked and traffic was light.  Nope.  The anointing of God came – and comes – all of the time.  Even in times when we absolutely cannot expect it.  Because God is I AM.  God is always.  God is Present.

More and more people are waking up to this real reality that we don’t have to wait for heaven to experience heavenly peace.  More folks are building lives of faith on a simple insight that “God is the ground, the grounding, that which grounds us.  We experience this when we understand that soil is holy, water gives life, the sky opens the imagination, our roots matter, home is a divine place, and our lives are linked with our neighbors’ and with those around the globe.  This world, not heaven, is the sacred stage of our times” (from Grounded, Diana Butler Bass, 30).  The implication of this is that we can expect to find God at all times, in every situation, because nothing exists apart from God in the first place.

I think Zechariah and Elizabeth and Mary and Joseph all discovered this after they entered chaos.  I think they all woke up to the reality that their chaotic circumstances did not mean that God was not present.  In fact, their chaos increased because God was present!  Maybe we should then take some delight when we see Godly chaos emerging?!  It’s pure speculation, but I wonder if they were all forced to see differently – and respond differently – because they embraced the chaos that was happening rather than trying to deny it or avoid it. 

That’s helpful for me.  When I deny the chaos, there is little need for Christ, because it’s all nicely organized in my little dream world.  But reality catches up eventually.  When I acknowledge things as they are, then I can call for help where I need God’s help.  I can also see people for who they are – “chaosed” yet made in the image of God.  It softens me toward Captain Obvious in the checkout line, and moves me to encourage the associate having to deal with grumpy customers.  I can feel “at peace” regardless of the circumstances if I simply acknowledge the chaos that is there, and at the same time believing that Christ is no less present because of it.

Jewish marriage was/is considered sacred, and a shared goal in marriage is expected to be pursued: shalom bayit.  This completeness or wholeness is achieved through nurture, respect, and chesed (loving-kindness).  Harmony in the home was the goal – a place where the present, anointing of God – Christ/Messiah – dwells.  As Jesus followers, we pursue the same goal, because we realize that our world is God’s home, and shalom is our potential.  So we pursue it.  It is core to God – it is the ground we walk on – and it is core to our life on earth.  Peace is not just to be enjoyed individually, as a form of present escapism.  On the contrary, shalom is something we only experience deeply as we sow it wherever we go – especially in field of chaos.

What do we do, then, while waiting in line with Sir Grumpy?  Or when moving through much more seriously chaotic segments of life, like health, relational, psychological, or economic chaos?  I have my thoughts.  What about you?  Can peace and chaos occur simultaneously?  I think the cloud of witnesses suggest they can.  How?