Language and Gospel

I try hard very hard to be socially, ethnically and racially sensitive. One of the worst insults anyone could throw at me is to call me a racist. (Well, that and calling me a Cowboys fan). I’m all for truth and justice, but I know that the American way is only one way among many ways. I don’t expect the whole world to speak English. I BOTH regret that so many American jobs have been outsourced overseas AND I admire and respect people in other countries who work so hard and so long to better their lives and the opportunities for their children.

All of that aside... ARGH! I just spent an hour and a half on the phone with tech support at Xerox trying to get our copier/printer/scanner printing and scanning. All the network settings somehow got completely scrambled (I brought up the web interface for the printer, I got our web cam! Fun!) A network printer/scanner that has no network settings is neither a printer nor a scanner. So I called Xerox. The young woman I talked to was eager to be of assistance. Every time I called, she asked, “How may I be of assistance?” (At least, I think that’s what she said.) The problem was that she didn’t have the English skills to communicate clearly enough to walk me through the technical issue. Hey, I don’t speak Hindi or Bengali or Telugu, and I’m not trying to be the ugly American. But when communicating technical information to Americans is your job, you really need to be able to speak English. Or is it just me?

I eventually just let her think that she had solved the problem and then spent 10 minutes on Google and figured it out myself. After setting up a new IP for on the printer then changing the IP in the printer driver on the computers, I had to give it a 139 port number for the scanner driver. I don’t now why, but it seems to work; the copier is now a scanner and printer again. Roger is on his own changing his printer driver—I don’t do Vista. Vista is a foreign language.

When you want to communicate important information, it is up to you to make sure you are speaking the right language. I wonder if that is our problem when communicating the gospel to a world that is totally foreign. We tend to make arguments and stress issues that made little sense a generation ago and that now totally garble the basic message of the gospel. To be honest, postmodern people have little interest in arguments period; they want to see something working. So maybe the more we argue, the less it looks like the gospel is working. I’m not suggesting that we back away from truth; our story (metanarrative in postmodern parlance) is still the greatest story every told. But when we equate this story to our silly-isms and arguments from command-example-inference, we confuse people with what amounts to a foreign language. The world is asking today (even when they don’t know that it’s what they’re asking), “We would like to see Jesus” (Jn 12:21). We need to make sure we use the right words; we need to point to the Word.

Church Problems

A sad but true fact—all of us know of too many stories of churches that became so embroiled in conflict and disagreement that things happened that would be downright silly if they were not true—

• In one church, a leadership disagreement got so heated that a deacon’s wife whacked one of the elders with her purse! I’m not sure, but I think elder-whacking is wrong for most people. I hope I’m not giving anyone any ideas.
  
  
• After one church spent a long time in prayer and preparation, one congregation decided to begin using a praise team in worship. Not everyone was happy with the elder’s decision (if you can imagine that). On the first Sunday for the praise team to lead worship, someone went through and cut every mike cord with a pair of scissors. I hope I’m not giving anyone any ideas.
  
  
• An elder of a storefront startup church in our area became so angry after a meeting that he stormed out, and returned a short time later with a gun. He shot the preacher dead and then burned down the building. Boy, I really hope I’m not giving anyone any ideas!

We sometimes talk about restoring the NT church. We may have done a better job of that than we realize— every church we know about in the New Testament had unity problems! In fact, the reason that we know about churches like Corinth and Galatians is because they had these problems. Paul wrote his letters to help these churches solve their problems. So if there were any “problemless” churches in the first century, we wouldn’t know about them!

I heard one preacher suggest that Philippi was a church that had no real church problems. What book was he reading? Sure, Paul talks about joy a lot in Philippians, but he never really accuses them of having any! Three of the four things Paul tells the church to do in Philippians 2:2 are about having the same mind. Why? They weren’t of one mind. Hey Paul tells Syzygus, the loyal yokefellow, to step between two warring sisters and help settle them down. What are the chances that ol' Syzygus got whacked with a purse?

Philippi had the same church problem that my church has—it was full of people that want to have their own way. I look back at some of the rough spots that we have had here, and I have to admit that I was not always on the side of the angels. Sometimes I wanted my own way too much. After all, I was more consistent in my exegesis and smarter, obviously, because I knew how to say “exegesis.” What I wasn’t smart enough to see is that God was giving me a chance to do the Christ thing and lay down myself as a sacrifice. If I would have done that, I would have been walked on. But I might have also given the Spirit the space to do His holy work on the hearts of others.

I’m beginning to understand that the church will not have unity until we desire it more than we want to be right and have our own way. How do we do that? Paul gets us a long way down the road in what he says in Philippians 2:3-11 (NLT)

3 Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. 4 Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too. 5 You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.
6 Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to.
7 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,8 he humbled himself in obedience to God
and died a criminal’s death on a cross.
9 Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,to the glory of God the Father.

To Sleep, Perchance to Dream

I spent Sunday night alone in the Sleep Clinic. Lynn finally laid down the law in her gentle but firm way-- either I spend one night without her letting them figure out what can be done about my snoring OR I spend the rest of my nights without her. I chose the one night. As it turns out, I do snore... which surprised no one in our house (or on our block). But I also have sleep apnea, which did surprise us at bit. This is good news. Insurance companies consider loud snoring to be a merely social problem which they don’t cover at all. The surgeries or dental appliances needed to stop problem snoring are not covered, though broken ribs received from flying elbows because of chronic snoring are covered. But insurance companies do consider sleep apnea to be a medical problem, and they will evidently pay for all kinds of high tech machines. I am waiting for mine.

I never really thought I was eithger tired in the morning or sleepy in the afternoons, usually symptons of the condition. Sleep apnea wakes you up continually throughout the night so that you can get a breathe. You never get awake enough to remember waking, but you are not ever asleep enough to get the restorative sleep you need. Well, I never thought I was that tired during. In fact, I checked "no" several times on the questionnaires they give you prior to your sleep clinic stay. I don't get sleepy during the day.

But ever since they told me I have sleep apnea, I am seem to be tired all the time. It's the power of suggestion, I guessssssssssss. Sorry, must have dozed off. Paul said that he had “often gone without sleep” (2 Cor 11:27). Apparently, I have been following Paul’s example and haven’t even know it!

Live Forgiven

You have probably seen the video of a church doing the “Cardboard Testimonies.” Someone somewhere had a great idea, and great ideas usually get copied. And this was a great idea... and a simple one. People share how God has changed their lives by writing what they were (alcoholic, materialistic, selfish, etc) on one side of the cardboard and then flipping the card to reveal what they have become by the grace of God (sober, spiritual, giving, etc.). It is a powerful testimony to power of God change us.

Satan desperately wants us to doubt that God can transform us like this. He tries to create that doubt in one of three ways.

• First, he wants us to doubt we ARE forgiven. If we begin to doubt that God’s has forgiven us, then we begin to doubt God and we refuse to live like forgiven people. After all, if we spend all our energy wondering if we are forgiving and suspecting that we are not, we don't have time to actually live how God wants us to live.
  
  
• Second, Satan wants you doubt that God can forgive you. Sure God can forgive regular people of regular sins. God can forgive the guy I heard one time confess that he was addicted to buying too many neckties. (Too me, that is a big sin). God can forgive that, but he can’t forgive me because of what I have done. Satan wants us to think that it is hopeless to believe we can ever do any better than you are doing right now. You might as well give up.
  
  
• Third, failing those two, Satan wants us to think that forgiveness is easy, simple and no big deal. If forgiveness is as easy as falling off log, then it really isn’t that important, is it?

Notice what Paul says in 1 Timothy 1:15-17 and how he helps us to avoid all three of these traps. Paul certainly understand how bad sin is and this how complicated is our forgiveness. He accepts God’s grace and His power to change, and thus he is focused
on the majesty and glory of God. We must see BOTH our continual neediness and God’s eternal power. We need to be forgiven and God has the power to forgive. And once we are forgiven, then we can live forgiven.

Just Dining-Room Talk?

I ran across a story yesterday that I think illustrates the struggle of many Christians today. Ten years ago, a University of Notre Dame senior named Lacy Dodd found herself in a situation that she would never have imagined. Only weeks away from her graduation, she found herself pregnant. The nurse at the clinic confirmed the pregnancy and then told her not to worry because she had “other options.” That is not the message she wanted to hear.

Dodd’s boyfriend also tried to pressure her into getting an abortion. When she pointed to the teaching of her church and responsibility of her faith, he said, “All that talk about abortion is just dining-room talk.” All the pious and moralistic talk was fine for banter around the dining table, but in real life you have do what is best for yourself. Fortunately, Ms. Dodd did not listen to such reason, and today she is the single mother of a ten-year old daughter named Mary.

Why is it that Christians are overwhelmingly opposed to divorce but continue to get divorced at a rate higher than the national average? Why are Evangelical Christians almost 100% against abortion while 18% of Evangelical women had abortions (Barna Research)? Why have the social mores and moral choices of our culture become in large part the social mores and moral choices of Christians as well? Do we see the Bible’s call to a personal holiness that reflects the holiness of God in an unholy world “just dining-room talk?” Or maybe “just Sunday School talk?”

The story I read was reporting on an essay written by Lacy Dodd (the mother in the story above) entitled “Notre Dame, My Mother” timed to be released at Mother’s Day to coincide with President Obama’s visit to Notre Dame. President Obama, of course, has long been an opponent of any restrictions on abortion rights. Some, including Ms. Dodd, wonder at the mixed-message sent by the President speaking at commencement and receiving an honorary degree from a Catholic university opposed to the practice of abortion. Dodd ends her essay--

“Who draws support from your decision to honor President Obama — the young, pregnant Notre Dame woman sitting in that graduating class who wants desperately to keep her baby, or the Notre Dame man who believes that the Catholic teaching on the intrinsic evil of abortion is just dining-room talk?”

Good question. The more Christians look like the world around us in the moral decisions we make, the less of a message we will have for the world. If Christianity really is “just dining-room talk,” then maybe we just need to shut up.

The Man in Black

One of the highlights of the Pepperdine Lectures each year is getting to hear Dr. Randy Harris, a professor at Abilene University. Randy is a bit hard to explain. He is single, usually dresses all in black, and is the foremost theologian in our movement. And he is one of the funniest guys you’ll ever hear. His new book is entitled God Work: Confessions of a Stand-up Theologian. And Harris knows how to combine the two (humor and scholarship) in a way I’ve never heard before. You are laughing all the way through his presentation, and then realize you have learned some things that are important. It is not often that the smartest guy in the room is also the funniest, but that is the case in most rooms that Harris occupies.

To give you an idea of how Harris teaches, notice few quotes from his new book. OK, my copy is on order (we were so focused on not giving AirTran another $25 for a second bag that we were packed tight in one suitcase and didn’t have room to buy books; I had to make space to bring back the Hallal and Zoe CD’s we bought), so I borrowed these excerpts come from Mike Cope’s blog--

• “My friend Augustine died in 430 (most of my friends have been dead for several hundred years; I’ve found that makes the friendship much easier).”
  
  
• “Here’s the theme of the book of Revelation: God’s team wins. Pick a team. Don’t be stupid.”
  
  
• “My friends refer to me as the Dead Sea of e-mail. I receive and I receive but I do not give.”
  
  
• “I’m not a Calvinist. I do not think that everything happens in the world directly because God has caused it or desired it. I’m tempted to suggest that that makes God a monster. Nor am I a deist. I’m not one of those who think God wound up the world and hasn’t done much of anything since the closing of the last book of the Bible. What I am instead is a panentheist, which is one who believes that in all things God is working — in death as well as life, in sickness as well as health, in disaster as well as rescue.”
  
  
• “Loyalty to country, loyalty to family, loyalty to friends — all of those strike me as commendable things. The problem is when patriotism becomes nationalism. Now this is a different matter. Nationalism is always evil because it is idolatry. It is the point where we confuse the nation with God, where our primary loyalties become aimed at the nation instead of God. This is always bad news. And nationalism is often lurking just under the surface of much of what we do.”

Harris’ class this year was entitled “My Favorite Atheists: Conversing with the Enemy” and he did three presentations on what we can learn from Feuerbach, Sartre and Nietzche. It was very interesting. I remember reading these guys (when forced to in school) and I don’t remember it being particularly interesting. Perhaps I didn't read closely enough... but I passed the quiz.

Pepperdine Bible Lectures

Well, another Pepperdine Bible Lectures has come and gone. We got home Saturday night at 11:15; that always makes getting up and preaching on Sunday an exhausting experience… for both me and the church! This marked the 20th year Lynn and I spent the week in Malibu. What an incredible blessing it is for us each year; we appreciate our elders and church making this possible. It's always better when Denbigh folks go with us (this year it was Randy and Betty Tanner and Mike and Joann Guthrie). Why don't we all go next year? We'll just move services that Sunday to Malibu. What do you say?

What the best part of the Pepperdine Lectures? This year, the main theme lectures were some of the best we have heard—Monte Cox, Rick Atchley, Josh Ross and Mike Cope were particularly good. The theme was Colossians… which I taught here 6 months ago. I wonder if anyone would notice if I preached a series on Colossians… I may give that a try. The worship times were great, especially Songfest at 6:15 (led by Hallal, Zoe and Lighthouse). We actually got there by 5:15 each night to make sure we got a seat on the front row! That happens at church all the time!

If I were completely honest, I would have to admit that the worship times were not as desperately special as they were in years gone by. Our praise team now leads those same songs in that same way every Sunday… better in some cases! But we did bring back a list of songs we want to try... like an a cappella version of "Praise You in the Dance."

This year was a throwback for me in a lot of ways. Thursday night Late Night in Smothers with Hallal recaptured the good old days when I sprinted from Firestone to Smothers to make sure we got a seat. And listening to Rubel Shelly lecture on atheism (his topic was “Why Are Atheists So Angry?”) took me back to Freed-Hardeman days (where it cost Dad a lot of money for me to hear similar material). Spending time with people like Alan and Sueanne Smith, Bob and Lourene Clark, Eddie and Carol Hendrix, Carl Etchison, and many, many more also really took us back as well. When did all those people get so old?

This was a special, special week. We are already looking forward to next year. Seriously, let’s all go next year. Plane ticket-- $200 (AirTran). Room and Board-- $125 (on-campus). Spiritual experience-- priceless!