Our Old Friend Fear and You and Me

I thought I would offer a little Election Day advice: No matter who you vote for, if you’re a Christian, your voting is not to be compelled by fear. Fear is a motivating factor for many self-interested, self-centered, and self-protective things in the political sphere. And it has been used by politicians as a tool to motivate religious people for centuries. The fear-tactic is nothing new.

The biblical writers knew all too well that fear drives us to do crazy things that go against our otherwise firm beliefs. For this reason, the scriptural command that occurs more than any other in the Bible is, “Do not be afraid.”

Fear is the definition of insanity for Christians.

When we act in fear, we act to protect our own self-interest instead of the interests of others who are less fortunate than us.

When we act in fear, we act in a way that protects ourselves and our rights instead of seeking rights for people on the margins or people who are forgotten.

When we act in fear, we confuse this-worldly political agendas with the eternal kingdom of God.

When we act in fear, our world falls apart when elections don’t go our way.

When we act in fear, we degrade and dehumanize people who don’t vote the same way we do.

I don’t know who you’re voting for today. And I don’t think it’s my place to tell you how to vote. But I will say this; we are allowed to make mistakes in the voting booth (Lord knows, I’ve made some of my own) if we make those mistakes with good intentions. But we’re not ever allowed to act out of fear, for fear should never be a motivating factor for people who rightly understand the kingdom of God.

Our kingdom is not ultimately of this world. As great as Democracy is, it is Jesus Christ, not the next president or governor, who is the savior of the world. When you vote then, vote not with the rhetoric of fear and hatred in your mind from the political ads, but vote with the hope of a crucified savior who died for Republicans and Democrats alike.

Do I Even Want the Gospel for Timothy McVeigh?

Here’s the latest sermon I preached on the myth “All Good People Go to Heaven and All Bad People Go to Hell.” Timothy McVeigh is my case study for whether or not I would rather believe this myth or the true gospel. Let me know what you think.

http://www.mylhumc.net/502652.ihtml

Do you REALLY believe this is redeemable?

I’m preparing for my sermon on Sunday where I’m going to posit that the most heinous of criminals can receive the grace of God. While studying for it and trying to take it out of the realm of logical abstractions and into the world of real life, I came across this famous photo from the Oklahoma City bombing on April 19th, 1995.

Maybe it’s because I have a daughter now about this girl’s age, but I have to tearfully admit that this question really forces me to consider whether I really believe the gospel can redeem such evil. That I know, logically, that it does and can redeem such evil, forces me to bask in the greatness of God’s grace. But my heart still doubts and fears, not only for Timothy McVeigh, but for myself. – Matthew 5:21-22

Let’s Start a Revival

From the newest attempts to start a revival by “liking” Jesus on Facebook, to the more traditional attempts to start a revival by hosting a “revivalist”  to preach fire-and-brimstone sermon series, I am continually reminded that we contemporary American Evangelicals remain woefully ill-informed about what true revival actually is. Duped into thinking revival is something we initiate through our own activity, we’ve been convinced that if we just “did the right things” revival would come not only to our church, but also our nation.

But where is the Holy Spirit in that?

Where is the freedom of God to send or withhold revival at His own discretion?

Where is God in any of this?

The fundamental problem with our understanding of revival is that it simply doesn’t need God. All it requires is some effort on our part. All it requires is a good program. All it requires is the right politician. Even a good slogan might do the trick.

After all, if I can start a revival by getting a bunch of people to “like” Jesus, we don’t really need the Spirit’s activity.

But in the Scriptures, genuine revival is the work of the Holy Spirit challenging the church to repentance (something we’ve grown weary of hearing about), outward focus (something our narcissism disallows), and humility (something completely antithetical to our normal ways of operation in American culture).

We don’t force the Spirit’s hand by “liking” Jesus on Facebook. We don’t command the Spirit through organizing revival services. We obey in the present as we wait for the Spirit to come upon the church in that special way. We long for it, but we don’t make it happen.

Your job isn’t to start a revival. It’s your job to live in obedience so that when God finally decides to start a revival, you’re in a prime position to see it for what it is and join in what He’s doing.  When revival comes, it comes on those who have been faithfully, actively waiting for God to show up.

Worship: Finding the Right Preposition

This is a post by a friend of mine, Jonathan Powers. Jonathan and I have begun guest-blogging on each other’s pages in an effort to make our blogs more well rounded. He’s a Phd. student at the Robert Weber Institute for Worship and the Arts. I think you’ll find his discussion of worship well worth your time!

What is worship? This is a very basic question concerning who we are as Christians. It is also a question many find difficult to answer, even theologians haven’t settled on a definition. Some definitions are complex, “worship is an act of religious devotion where one fully submits and dedicates oneself to a deity, attributing to the deity a sense of worth.” Then there are simple answers such as, “worship is celebrating God.” However, neither fully grasps what worship is. (Churches often add to the confusion by focusing more on a style of worship than on the content of worship.)

Perhaps then, defining worship is not the best starting point for gaining a proper understanding of worship. Like love, worship is something done, something experienced, not just something talked about. Worship is both word and action.

I make no claims to be a great theologian, but in my search for a proper understanding of worship, I have found two terms that help in a way no definition has ever sufficed: revelation and response. In other words, God reveals Himself in either word or deed; His people respond in both word and deed.

Biblically, this is the form shown over and over again. Isaiah 6 and Luke 1 are great examples of this conversational form of worship. God speaks or acts first. His people respond in word and action. Christian worship then is a series of revelations and responses. Revelation is the Word of God at work within a Christian community. It is the truth of the Triune God and God’s relationship with God’s people. Response is the reply of God’s people to this truth, a prepared or spontaneous opportunity for His people to answer, reply, or react.

It is interesting to evaluate a typical Sunday morning on the criteria of revelation/response. Does God get the first word? Are we called into a revelation of God’s presence, (whether through song, Scripture, or spoken word), before we begin responding through praise, adoration, and thanksgiving? I am beginning to find my understanding of worship taking a subtle but important shift. It all has to do with finding the correct preposition: worship isn’t something I do to God or for God; it’s something I do with God in the sense that we worship with Christ (see Hebrews 5, 9, &10).

Worship is like a dialogue. God speaks, we respond. Perhaps this does not help us come any closer to settling on a definition of worship, but perhaps it will help us better understand our experience of it.

- Jonathan Powers

Crayons and God

My daughter’s recently developed an interest in crayons. She’s got really fat ones she can barely fit in her hands, skinny normal sized ones she breaks in half and sticks in random orifices, and crayons for the tub so she can color on the walls (I’m not sure who thought that was a good precedent to start!).

I love watching her try to grip the crayons, not quite sure how to hold it for effective marking. Sometimes she’s successful, other times she gets confused and picks up another one – assuming the crayon itself is the problem!

But when she does grip it right, she doesn’t quite get the concept of coloring in the lines. She’s just excited she made a solid, visible mark on the page and doesn’t even notice the actual figure outlined.

Nevertheless we celebrate with her like she just painted a Rembrandt.

In our more humble moments, we Christians realize this is the way we all are in our understanding of God – we’re little better than a toddler trying to color a masterpiece. We don’t even know how to hold the crayons, let alone color in the lines!

Unfortunately, whereas my daughter is not likely to get too prideful over a random red mark on a coloring book page, we are often quick to hold up a discolored, mismatched picture and say, “THIS IS GOD!”

We seem convinced that our depiction or God is perfect and anyone who colors with green instead of blue or uses a different crayon must be woefully wrong.

But what if every Christian, from the deepest theologian to the newest believer, is just a kid playing with crayons? What if we’re all just toddlers trying to color in the lines…that is, if we even notice lines?

And what if God celebrates when someone makes a mark of a different color? What if God is equally as excited when a new believer learns just enough to grip the crayon right, as when another kid moves from the fat crayons to the thin ones?

Genuine humility celebrates the diversity in the kingdom of God, the many colors, the varying abilities to color within the lines, and exults in someone else’s ability just to hold the crayon the right way.  It rejoices in the contribution of others to the great theological collage because it is only in the variety of angles, perspectives, and colors that God can truly be seen.

Imagine the Rembrandt we could color together! Imagine the joy of our Father!

Angels Mock Our Theology

German theologian Karl Barth, author of the many volumes collectively called Church Dogmatics, told of a dream he had of  dying, arriving in heaven, and being questioned by St. Peter:

“Who are you?”

“My name is Karl Barth.”

“What have you done?”

“I taught theology.”

“What have you written?”

“Church Dogmatics.”

“Can I see it?”

“Well, it’s a whole shelf.”

“Big isn’t it?”

(proudly) “Ja!”

“Here is a little red wagon. Put it in. Now, pull it up the street.” 

As Barth obediently pulls the little wagon, the angels line the street, and laugh!

Amnesia Leads to Idolatry, To Remember is to Worship

Amnesia leads to idolatry.

Amnesia leads to idolatry.

Amnesia leads to idolatry.

Throughout the biblical text, the followers of the LORD in the Old Testament and the disciples of Jesus in the New Testament were continually reminded to “remember.” One of the greatest sins for an ancient Jew was to forget the saving, liberating work of God in the Exodus. And by “forget” I am not merely speaking of a cognitive function of thinking about a past event, but am speaking of living life in light of some other offer of salvation, some other “god’s” promise of a better life instead of in light of being Yahweh’s chosen people.

In other words, in the Bible, remembering = living one’s life in light of the saving works of God (i.e. the Exodus, the Cross) and not trusting other deities/forces/governments for salvation or liberation, but only the God who brought us up out of (real and metaphorical) Egypt.

To forget these great acts of God (that is, to live like they don’t matter or to live like they don’t have an ultimate claim on our daily lives) is to have amnesia. Amnesia leads to idolatry. To fail to live in light of the cross and by what the cross demands of us, is to live by the standards of another god (money, power, violence, hatred, etc.). To live by the standards of another god, is to be a worshipper of that God. To be a worshipper of that God is to be an idol worshipper. Therefore, Amnesia leads to idolatry.

If I am right about this, then what the American church needs is not more self-help seminars, pep-talks, conferences, petitions, picket signs, money, or statements of conviction. What the American church needs most of all is to REMEMBER!

We need to remember that our lives are not our own, they do not belong to us, and we cannot do with them as we want. We need to remember that we have been bought with a price, and we owe our allegiances, loves, and gifts to the One who paid for us. We need to remember that the cross of Jesus was an act of love for God’s enemies, and therefore we, as followers of that cross-hung savior, are required of nothing less. We need to remember that the God of creation is a God of abundance and generosity and therefore we, as people who recognize ourselves as His creation, ought also to be ready to give up everything we own in emulation of His generosity and in trust of His abundance. And we need a good recovery (remembrance) of the biblical text as the starting point for thinking about God, politics, family, and enemies so that we might frame our opinions out of the text instead of out of our pre-fabricated notions of what is “possible” or even “right.”

Such remembering may go against our assumptions of private property, our notions of what is right and wrong concerning revenge, and our preferences regarding comfort and ease. But such remembering leads to true worship, while the alternative of amnesia leads to idolatry.

To remember is to worship.

To remember is to worship.

To remember is to worship.

Thy Will Be Done

Maybe You'll Stumble on God's Will Next Try!!

What if God’s will isn’t like a maze? What if one wrong move doesn’t end up in a dead end, forcing you to return 4 or 5 turns before you get back to where you messed up?

What if God’s will isn’t like a labyrinth where around every corner is a mythological lion telling you odd riddles with ambiguous answers that you have to figure out to make sure you’re perfectly in line with God’s will and capable of moving on to the next level?

What if instead, God’s will is like a mighty flowing river or a vast ocean of love that you can swim in without worrying about drowning? What if God’s will is about freedom and enjoyment instead of the burden of messing up?

And what if there’s no such thing as “God’s will for my life” because God has much larger purposes at stake – namely the redemption of the entire cosmos? What if God’s will is more about the community called “church” being the body of Christ, living in cruciform love, in order to work with God for the redemption of the world?

I dunno. Maybe I’m a bit naive or haven’t thought this out enough. But it just seems to me that when I read the New Testament, God has much larger purposes in the world than caring about whether or not I’m walking some pseudo-religious tight-rope I’ve labeled “God’s will.” I could be wrong, but I can’t think of a single place in the New Testament that talks about God’s will for ‘my’ life.

Maybe we need to rethink this whole idea of God’s will in light of the community called ‘church,’ the cross of Christ (which does not care primarily for ‘me’), and God’s purposes in redeeming the world.

If we’re going to say, ‘Not my will, but Yours be done’, wouldn’t it make sense to consider that His will is primarily about the reconciliation of the entire world to Himself through self-sacrifice and self-giving love instead of self-centeredness and self-focus on God’s will for ‘my’ individual life?  That just seems to me to be more of the focus of the New Testament.

The Safest Place to Be is Outside the Will of God

I know that church signs are easy pickings for a good rant, but every once in a while one seems just close enough to biblical, and yet so far away, that it is worth noting.

I pass a sign every day that reads, “The safest place to be is within the will of God.”

I think I understand what the people want to convey with such a sign – that God is ultimately our protector and shepherd who gives us comfort and wards us from evil. But in an American Christianity held captive by sentimentality and safety, I think the church sign sends the wrong message – namely that God is here for your safety and He will protect you from all wrong; that a life in the will of God (whatever that means!) will bring comfort and ease. In other words, it promises “peace, peace, when there is no peace.”

The problem is that this safety is, of course, never promised to us in Scripture.

You never once heard Jesus saying to the disciples, “Hey guys, don’t worry about the Romans. They don’t like me much, but you guys shouldn’t have a problem with them. Once I’m gone, I’m pretty sure they’ll leave you alone.”

No, quite to the contrary, Jesus tells them that before they follow him they are to be fully aware that this can only end in a cross. Death is where this Christianity thing is headed – therefore count the cost!

Jesus didn’t come to give us safe, sentimental religion. Jesus came to call us to revolution – to a life that is not afraid of death or those who can bring death because we believe that Christ has defeated death and our ultimate end is resurrection.

Safe, sentimental religion is not Christianity. Christianity is a religion of self-sacrifice not safety, death not sentimentality.

Therefore, quite contrary to the church sign, the most dangerous place to be in this life might very well be within the will of God. If you want safety, run from Christianity. If you want sentimentality, flee as fast as you can because the way of Jesus is the way of a cross.