Neither Super Nor Natural?

I’m enjoying teaching a class based on Francis Chan’s book Crazy Love on Wednesday nights. I’m using short clips (many of which I’ve edited to make a little shorter) of him teaching on the material. OK, I didn’t love the fact that I spent $25 buying the teaching DVD only to discover that most of it is available on YouTube for free. And I’m not sure I like how much some of my class rave over how great he is. (Last week there was an audible groan when I announced we’d run out of time and wouldn’t have time for Chan’s video). Chan was pastor of Cornerstone Church, a megachurch in Simi Valley California, until he walked away last year to travel in China working with persecuted Christians and orphans. With life change as background, it is easy to see where this article.  Here's some of the article; you can read the full article here.

Church today has become predictable, says bestselling author and influential preacher Francis Chan. "You go to a building, someone gives you a bulletin, you sit in a chair, you sing a few songs, a guy delivers maybe a polished message, maybe not, someone sings a solo, you go home," Chan says in his latest "BASIC" video.

The Crazy Love author is concerned about the big disconnect between what the church looks like today and what it looked like 2,000 years ago. "When you read the New Testament, you see the Holy Spirit was supposed to change everything so that this gathering of people who call themselves Christians had this supernatural element about them," Chan explains in the video series, produced by Flannel…

Chan observes what church looks like today and what it's supposed to look like, according to the Bible. "I heard one person say the church nowadays is neither super nor natural," he says. "Everything is predictable and everything is expected."

"There's a truth to that," he admits. "I feel bad about it. Being around a church culture, even leading a gathering of believers, I've gotten pretty good at predicting what's going to happen in a church service. Was that the way it was supposed to happen?" 

"When Jesus said this power (of the Holy Spirit) would come upon you, it really did come upon them and they were powerful beings (Jesus' disciples)," Chan points out. "Why is it that in the church so many people are weak or defeated or we get so insecure because we look at ourselves rather than God? It doesn't make sense."

Though Christians believe in an almighty and all powerful God who places His spirit in believers, the response among His people today is: "Hi, welcome to church. Here's your bulletin. We'll get you out in an hour. Come back next week. I mean, really? Is that all God intended for us?"

Neither SUPER nor NATURAL?  I have felt the same frustration he expresses here. I grew up in a church that said it was serious about restoring the New Testament church (and that said it was the only church interesting in restoring the New Testament church). But what we talked about was restoring the forms and formats of “the ancient order." But even as we stressed a cappella church music and the place of baptism in the conversion process (which Chan does a good job in this sermon clip and this clip from his Crazy Love series), I never remember hearing too much about the the radical life of New Testament Christianity.  I mean, I grew up in a church that claimed to restore the church of the book of Acts but NEVER even mentioned the Holy Spirit?  Really?

So I’m looking forward to Chan’s new series “BASIC.” I'm sure that I won’t agree with everything he will say (but then I don’t always agree with everything that I say).  And I'm sure he’ll beat me up even better than he did in Crazy Love. May God help us to be more eloquent at living out His call to be His church in the world today.

Between Doubt and Faith

I think that the apostle Thomas just needed a better publicist. OK, so he struggled a bit with believing that the resurrection of Jesus had really happened. He wasn't there the first time Jesus appeared to the apostles, and  when they told him “We have seen the Lord,” he was a little skeptical.  OK, he was a lot skeptical, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.” (John 20:25). So we call him “Doubting Thomas.” We use his name to chide people anytime they are skeptical about anything, “The Redskins are going to be good this year; don’t be such a Doubting Thomas.”

Doubting Thomas? Remember when Jesus decides to return to Bethany after the death of Lazarus? Some of the apostles pointed out to Jesus that this might not be such a good strategic move, “A short while ago the Jews there tried to stone you, and yet you are going back?” (John 11:8). When Jesus insists on making the dangerous trip, it was “Doubting Thomas” who speaks up and says, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” (John 11:16). That doesn’t sound like doubt, does it?

And really, can we BLAME Thomas for being skeptical about the resurrection? After all, how do we respond to people (usually interviewed in those supermarket tabloids) who claim to have seen Elvis down at the 7-11 buying a Slurpee? Didn’t Jesus himself warn the apostles about false claims about people seeing Him? (See Matt 24:4). And don’t forget-- Peter and ALL the apostles doubted when the women first came to them with the report of the empty tomb, “But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense” (Luke 24:11). No one calls Peter “Doubting Peter.” But here Thomas does what all the rest of the apostle did when told about the resurrection, and he is forever known as “Doubting Thomas.”

The story of Thomas in John 20 doesn’t end with his doubt-- it ends with his faith. Jesus appears and offers “Doubting Thomas” exactly what he had said he wanted—“Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe” (John 20:27). We don't know if he really put his fingers in the scars, but he did believe.  The last words recorded from Thomas in scripture are these, “My Lord and my God” (John 20:28). The strongest and clearest words of worship and praise given to Jesus from human lips in all of scripture comes from the man we call “Doubting Thomas.” Yep, he needed a better publicist.

The power of the resurrection transformed “Doubting Thomas” in “Worshipping Thomas.” And that power of the resurrection can transform us as well. The resurrection is not just a doctrine to believe, it is the source of power in our spiritual lives. Paul said, “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.” The same power that raised Jesus from the dead also gives us spiritual life and eternal life forever.

His Love Endures Forever

I recently finished reading Rob Bell’s new (and controversial) book Love Wins. When I say “controversial,” that is really an understatement. Before the release of the book, Twitter and the Blogosphere lit up with condemnations and denunciations because Bell (an influential preacher) seemed to be suggesting that hell would be empty and that everyone would be saved. (The theological term for this view is “Universalism”). For many Christians, the very suggestion of such an idea is heretical, and Bell was written up and written out by many because of the book.

To tell you the truth, I was disappointed, not by Bell's conclusions, but because I was left without a really good grasp of why he held them.  Or maybe, what I really wanted was a couple of chapters showing how texts like 2 Thessalonians 1:7-10 fit into his thesis that eventually at the end of the final day, love wins and God has his way so that none shall perish but all come to repentance. I really liked a lot of the book, but as they say—“The devil is in the details.”  I wanted to see how he worked out some of those details.  Roger is reading it now; if you have any questions about it, ask him.

Haven't we have all struggled at times with understanding how a loving and gracious God could condemn people to everlasting torment in an unending hell? We had visitor one Sunday who was returning home after the funeral of a beloved uncle and who had stopped at Denbigh for church. She described how loving and giving her uncle had been and all the good works he had done to care for people and better his community. She then said, “It is such a shame that he had to go to hell because he was a Baptist and was so wrong on baptism.” Yikes! Any deviation from the "gospel" truth is enough to condemn?  And that's good news?  There is a great quote on the back cover of Bell’s book that says this--

“God loves us. God offers us everlasting life by grace, freely, through no merit on our part. Unless you do not respond in the right way. Then God will torture you forever in hell.” Huh?

OK, maybe I’m the only one (except Rob Bell) who has ever struggled with that question. What about people who never hear the gospel (OUR fault more than theirs)? What about honest and honorable people who love God as they know Him and seek to follow Him as they best understand Him but have just been misinformed about some issues of doctrine? That describes a lot of people, doesn't it? Actually, that describes ALL people to some point! How do we believe in a God of love and mercy who is also a God of vengeance and destruction?

 Well, the historical way to do that is quite simple-- you make sure the God of love and mercy is FOR YOU and the God of vengeance and destruction is AGAINST THEM. That was the technique of the Pharisees and the hard-shell Calvinist. God loves us (holy Jews, the elect) and God created them (Gentiles, non-elect) so he’d have enough fuel to keep hell burning for eternity. You might see how this idea might not play in postmodern Peoria. In fact, this image of the hating God (so graphically advertised by those Westboro idiots  and their signs) is perhaps the single major reason why so many Gen-X and Gen-Y people are rejecting the whole idea of Jesus and His gospel today. Those are the folks to whom Bell is writing. I don’t know that he is right; I do hope he get their attention and focus it on Jesus long enough for them to see Him.

But while I was reading Bell (and many of his critics and apologists), I was also reading the Bible. In fact, nothing gets in the way of theology quite like reading the Bible. The Bible seems to have no problem whatsoever in laying paradoxical images right beside each other without attempting to reconcile them. Our reading for today (readings that go along with our theme for Sunday) is from Psalm 136 that unashamedly gives thanks to God because his love endures forever—

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good. His love endures forever.Give thanks to the God of gods. His love endures forever.
Give thanks to the Lord of lords: His love endures forever. (136:1-3)

God is glorified because of his creation (136:4-9) and his protection of Israel (136:10-22). The psalm ends with a doxology that praises God for His care and mercy (136:23-26). After every single point is made about the glory of God, the creation of God, and the protection of God of His people, the refrain is repeated over and over in every verse, “His love endures forever.” I know that “His love endures forever” isn’t exactly “love wins,” but I think the psalmist and Mr. Bell could sit down and have a cup of coffee together. Except that right in the middle of this ballad of God’s love is the proclamation of his judgment on His enemies.

To him who struck down great kings, His love endures forever.and killed mighty kings— His love endures forever.
Sihon king of the Amorites, His love endures forever.
and Og king of Bashan— His love endures forever. (139:17-20)

God has enemies. God’s enemies don’t fare too well in the end (although they may seem to fare well for short amount of time). No one in scripture talks more about the love of God than does this Psalmist, but God’s love is presented with something of an edge. It always is. I am reminded of a quote I ran across years ago from P. T. Forsyth--

“God is love” is not the whole of the gospel. Love is not evangelical till it has dealt with holy law. In the midst of the rainbow is a throne.

I just read a great article in the current issue of Christianity Today by Linda Falter entitled, “A Beautiful Anger.” (sorry, no link; CT wants to be paid before you to read their stuff).  On the other hand, Richard Beck (a professor at ACU) argues quite eloquently for Christian Universalism on his Experimental Theology blog. (You'll have to scroll back through his blog for more in this series).  I thought I had other things to say here, but it is Wednesday and I want to have some things to say in my class tonight. Let me end this already too long blog with a quote from Patrick Mead on Tentpegs

And when I get to heaven … if I happen to look up and see every single person there who ever lived on earth — I will not feel cheated or lied to. I will rejoice and there will be no voice louder in praise and joy in all of heaven than mine. For who could fail to praise a God who loved that much?

When You Are As Mad as... Turn to Heaven

Think about the last time that you got really, really angry. Someone cut you off in traffic or cut in front of you in the checkout line. Maybe someone at work took credit for something that was really your idea. Or maybe you were watching either CNN or FOX News and that blowhard news person that you really can’t stand (take your pick) said something that was really, really dumb. You maybe it was your spouse or parent of child who said or did something that was extremely insensitive or hurtful. I don’t know what it was that real got you torqued, but chances are that you don’t have to look too far back in time to find a time when that happened.

Now, that did you do? How did you handle your anger? Most of us aren’t like Mr. Spock who finds emotions illogical. No, when we get mad, we become illogical. We often say or do things that we normally wouldn't. It is no accident that the term we usually use for being insanely angry is the same term that was meant to just be insane—mad.

So what is the best thing to do when you go insane with anger? Paul tells us as Christians that while we will become angry, we are not to sin in our anger… and we are not to hold onto our anger (see Eph 4:26). OK, that is good (and inspired) advice. So HOW do we do that. Frankly, some of us are wired to explode into anger more readily than are others. I remember the funeral of my Uncle Randolph where his kids, closest friends and co-workers all said, “I never saw him lose his temper or even get particularly angry.” I hope my kids and friends will say some nice things at my funeral, but THAT won’t be one of them. Most of us are going to get angry… so what are we supposed to do?

According to a research team which included Ohio State University communications and psychology professor Brad Bushman, one of the very best things you can do when you are very angry is to pray. The researchers found “that people who pray when they are angry feel less angry, behave less aggressively and are less likely to think that others are out to get them.” The group performed three different series of tests (using college student s as their guinea pigs) and all three studies indicated that prayer “has the power to quell anger.” Of course, the researchers did not attribute the power of prayer to God answering prayers; they found that the process of prayer itself helped people reinterpret what made them angry in the first place. Hey, God works through prayer in many ways; the point it, He works.

Next time someone or something really ticks you off—pray. Pray for God to soften your heart and fill it with the grace He gives. Pray for the person that has made you angry. After all, Jesus said “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matt 5:44) and “Bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you” (Luke 6:28). Pray for those suffering from the earthquake and tsunami in Japan and Christians suffering persecution in the Middle East (that may help to put your anger in perspective). We need to pray continually (1 Thess 5:17), but maybe especially when we are angry.

Harbingers of the End-Time or Opportunities to Help?

A recent poll (done by Public Religion Research Institute and Religion News Service) found that nearly six in ten evangelicals (a term always open interpretation) believe that recent natural disasters are signs from God that point to the coming end-time. By comparison, only about one-third of Catholics and mainline Protestants see natural disasters are signs from God. About half believe that natural disasters are the result of God’s judgment and punishment. You may recall that last year, Pat Robertson suggested that the horrific earthquake in Haiti was God’s curse on the country for its history of voodoo. (Robertson made similar remarks about Katrina and God’s punishment for abortion). I haven’t heard of any church leaders baling the Japan disaster as punishment from God.

Can God use natural disasters to punish his people and give them opportunity to repent? The message of the prophet Joes was an impending horde of locusts that would punish Israel for her corporate sons. The plagues on Egypt were a series of natural disasters that were God’s judgment on the various deities of Egypt. The difference in these Biblical examples of natural and the modern disasters in Japan, Haiti and the Gulf Coast is that in the former case, we have the commentary of inspired Bible writers telling us what it is that God is doing. Mr. Robertson, I’ve read Moses and Amos’ I’ve studies Moses and Amos. And Mr. Robertson, you neither Moses nor Amos! To presume to speak for God in what God is doing in the world today is the height of arrogance.

The message for the church in earthquake and tsunami ravaged Japan is precisely the message that millions of God’s people are getting. Here is an opportunity for the people for God to heal hurting people , to model the love of Jesus Christ and in the process to share the good news and the world sees that we are Christians through our love for others.

You can be a part of the ongoing relief efforts in Japan being done by our fellowship by giving to Healing Hands International.

Some Heavy Thoughts

And article on CNN Health yesterday entitled Frequent Churchgoers Frequently Fatter reports on  research that suggests that religiously active people (those who attended church once or more each week) are more likely than their non-religious counterparts to be obese. In fact, regular religious involvement almost doubles the risk of obesity compared with those who don’t go to church at all. That linkseems clear; what isn’t so clear is WHY church folks are so much more likely to more hefty than non-church folks.

My response was, “Sure... it’s all those potlucks!” And that really is a big part of the problem— church potlucks, small group dinners, prayer breakfasts, and the variety of setting for table fellowship. An old joke has as its punchline that our best know religious symbol is the casserole dish.  Erik Christensen of St. Luke's Lutheran Church in Chicago is quoted in the article as saying, “There's certainly a church culture around eating. What I see among congregants in their 20s and 30s is they are very fit and what I see among congregants in their 50s and 60s is disproportionate obesity." So the longer you stay in church, the more pounds you pack on. Christensen goes on to say that the virtual disappearance of church sponsored softball, basketball and volleyball leagues adds to the fact that active church members are no longer so physically active.

Another possible explanation is marriage. I gained 15 pounds the first 6 weeks I was married after I moving from Gano Cafeteria at FHC to Lynn's home-cooking (she was already an accomplished cook when we married). Kenneth F. Ferraro of the Center on Aging and the Life Course at Purdue University suggests that “weight gain is common after marriage and that marriage is highly valued in most religious groups. Thus, one wonders if the results could be partially due to religious people being more likely to get married earlier and then gaining weight." I like that explanation better than blaming the whole thing on church potlucks.

It is a bit surprising that the church has not been more active in addressing the issue of obesity. For years we preached against things like cigarette smoking and social drinking from the perspective that these are harmful to the body which is the temple of the Holy Spirit. It is becoming undeniably clear that obesity is one of the major health concerns in our society, the cause of all kinds of deadly things from heart disease to diabetes. And yet not only does the church say nothing about this danger, but we allow church to add to the problem.

An illustration from the article. One church wanted to get involved in helping to deal with the growing problem of childhood obesity. They called a meeting to discuss ways to help with this issue… with a potluck supper to start things off!  Maybe we should have fewer church feasts and more church fasts?

Lame Opinions

I remember Bruce Jackson telling the story of a man who came to be a leader in a church largely because everyone always thought that he agreed with them. He was actually an accomplished politician much like the one my Dad likes to tell about who says, “I have friends on one side of this issue and friends on the other side… and I always stand by my friends!” This guy lived by that credo. But there came an issue that needed resolution, and an emergency meeting convened. After arguments pro and con, a vote was called, “All in favor stand up!” This brother squatted uncomfortably in a half-crouch! He wanted it both ways.

The whole nation of Israel was that guy during “the days of Elijah.” Israel wanted to worship the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Queen Jezebel made the worship of God a little problematic by killing all the prophets of God she could get her hands upon, but Israel still had warm feelings for the God of their ancestors. But then there was this Phoenician fertility god named Baal who promised to make their land, their flocks and herds, and their wives, and they wanted to worship him as well. They were in a half-crouch between God and Baal; if they were uncomfortable in that awkward position, you would never know it by looking.

Well, these were the days of Elijah, and he came along to stir things up in 1 Kings 18 (our Bible reading for today). Elijah confronted Ahab with a little proposition, “Let’s have a little contest to see just who really is the true God.” So they gathered the entire nation together on Mount Carmel for the ultimate game of survivor. Elijah throws down the gauntlet in verse 21--

Elijah went before the people and said, “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.” But the people said nothing.

The NCV  frames the question as, “How long will you not decide between two choices?” The NRSV puts it “How long will you go limping with two different opinions?” That image is helpful, I think.  Israel had been crippled by their indecision; having two opinions was really lame. Elijah wants to force their hand and demand that they choose which god is truly God.

But no one said anything. No one would commit themselves one way or the other. No loudmouth in the crowd screamed, “Baal, Baal, he’s our god; if he can’t do then put us in the sod!” And no one was willing incur the wrath of Jezebel by saying, “The LORD is God; besides him there is no other” (Dt 4:35). They just stood there in a half-crouch saying nothing! A blurb in Reader’s Digest once said, “Pity the person with no opinion for they will go through life with no bumper sticker.” Well, Israel had no bumper sticker for their chariots. No one had an opinion. Or they shared both opinions. No one was saying anything. It was better to have it both ways that to make a choice either way.

Does that sound familiar at all? We live in a culture with competing and contradictory truth systems, each claiming to be valid. We live in an age when many believe at the same time that nothing is ultimately true and that everything is equally true. For many the only absolute truth is that there is no absolute truth. Christianity once enjoyed a favored status in our culture. The Bible was seen as “The Good Book” even if everyone didn’t try to live by it. Today, Christianity is seen as just one among many truth systems in a crowded marketplace of ideas. And frankly, it is easier to get along in our world if you just accept that some of your friends believe in God and other friends don’t believe in God… and then always stand by your friends. It is easier to just waver between two opinions.

In 2002, I took a graduate seminar class under John Warwick Montgomery, the noted theologian and apologist. He suggested in that class that liberal and fundamentalist churches have responded to the post-Christian, postmodern world that sees everything as equally true and nothing as objectively true in radically and entirely different ways.

• Liberal churches say, “If you can’t beat ‘em, then join ‘em.” They accept the philosophic presuppositions of the culture and dismiss the contrary parts of the Bible as myth and legend. They dress up social change and politics in religious ritual, and they differ from the secular world only in their religious vocabulary. This version of faith is so very thin that there is little to pass on the next generation.
  
• Fundamentalist churches tended to say, “If you can’t beat ‘em, then withdraw from them.” The secular world is such a threat to their faith that they insulate themselves from that world. Their kids go to Christian schools or are home-schooled in a “safe” environment. They socialize only with members of their church. They listen to Christian music, read Christian books and go to Christian movies. Their points of contact with the world “out there” are as limited as they can make it. They have circled the wagons to protect the faith that they live largely in a vacuum. But, Montgomery suggests, that kind of faith is usually pretty fragile and soon crumbles if it is exposed to the outside world.

Montgomery suggests that the right response (in other words, his response) is not either “If you can’t beat ‘em join ‘em” or “If you can’t beat ‘em, withdraw” but rather to just “Beat ‘em!” We are to live the truth of the gospel without compromise or apology. We are to preach the gospel as true. We are to be ready to give reasons why we believe it to be true (see 1 Peter 3:15). And we are to point to Jesus as the way, the truth and the life… and the only way, truth and life!

We can’t have it both ways. If Jesus is Lord, then he is the only Lord. If He isn’t, then we’re just wasting our time with all this church stuff. To live between these two opinions is just lame.

Live Like You Were Dying

The song running through my head right now is Please Mr. Postman... except in my head, it's "Please Mr. FedEx-Man (or "FedEx-Person"). According to Mr. Jobs and the FedEx tracking site, my new iPad is on the truck out to be delivered. Well, it's not a new iPad-- it's actually a refurbished old iPad that was marked down $150 to get rid of it to make room for the iPad2. I could have gotten one of those, but it would be worldly and ridiculous to spend that much money on a new something I really don't need. It just seems somehow more holy to spend $150 less on an old something that I really don't need. At any rate, here's the song that should be playing in my head--



The song is Tim McGraw's "Live Like You Were Dying." That is the point of the Bible class I'm teaching tonight (based on chapter 2 of Francis Chan's book Crazy Love). You see, once we understand who God really is (our last lesson), then we need to understand that today may be the day that we meet Him. In other words, we need to live like we were dying. In McGraw's song, he is talking to a man that found out in his forties that he just might be dying. So McGraw asks, "How’s it hit you when you get that kind of news? Man whatcha do?" The chorus is the dying man's answer and the point of the song--

An' he said: "I went sky diving, I went rocky mountain climbing,
I went two point seven seconds on a bull named Fu Man Chu.
And I loved deeper and I spoke sweeter,
And I gave forgiveness I'd been denying."
An' he said: "Some day, I hope you get the chance,
To live like you were dyin'."

The man sees it as a blessing to know that he's dying, because that allows him to live more like
he was meant to live. Well, not that he was necessarily meant to go mountain climbing, ride a bull named Fu Man Chu, or jump out of a perfectly good airplane. It changed him in more important ways as well.

He said "I was finally the husband That most the time I wasn’t.
An' I became a friend a friend would like to have.
And all of a sudden goin' fishin’ wasn’t such an imposition,
And I went three times that year I lost my Dad.
Well, I finally read the Good Book and I took a good long hard look,
At what I'd do if I could do it all again."

So the secret to living is really living like we know we are dying. There's something that rings true there. David says this in Psalm 39:4-5

4 “Show me, LORD, my life’s end and the number of my days;
let me know how fleeting my life is.
5 You have made my days a mere handbreadth;
the span of my years is as nothing before you.
Everyone is but a breath,even those who seem secure.

If we really see that we are dying, that should change how we live. If we know that our days are numbered, then maybe we'd use the time we have left doing things more even important than rising bulls or jumping out of airplanes... or sitting around waiting for the FedEx-Person. My Dad used to quote Eccl. 9:10 ("Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might") as if to say "Whatever is worth doing is worth doing well." That text has a much finer edge on it if you complete the author's thought, "Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the realm of the dead, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom." In order words, whatever you do, do it now because now may be all the time you have left. Live like you were dying.

To quote Forrest Gump, "That's all I have to say about that." Excuse me while I go look outside one more time... I think I just heard a truck!"

If You Can't Say Something Nice...

“God said it. I believe it. That settles it.” I remember that being pounded into me when I was a college student being taught to take the words of scripture both literally and seriously. The Bible and the Bible alone was the rule of faith and practice for Christians. To be faithful to God, one had to “read and study and then obey the B-I-B-L-E.” as the old children’s song declares. And, by the way, I still believe that.

The problem is that we tend to be pretty selective of the part of the Bible where “God said it, I believe it, and that settles it.” Jesus said a lot of things that makes us pretty nervous, and we tend to come up with explanations as to why what He said really wasn't what He said. Surely he doesn't expect us to sell all that we have and give it to the poor… like he said to the Rich Young Ruler. Surely he doesn't want us to give away our jacket when someone tries to take away our shirt… like Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount. And when Jesus tells us to love our enemies, surely He doesn't expect us to take that literally.

So maybe when God says it, that doesn't always settle it? I was reading an article by Catholic priest James Martin who suggests that Christians today really need to take Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:22 much more seriously. To refresh your memory, this verse reads--

But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.

When I was a kid calling a playmate “Dummy!” was OK; I got into only slight trouble if I called them an “Idiot!” But if I called them a “Fool,” then all the vengeance of heaven would come down upon me (in the person of my parents) because “Fool” was the very thing that Jesus said not to say. Personally, I was never tempted to say “Raca” to someone, but sometimes “Fool” seemed particularly like a relevant commentary on someone’s comments or behavior.  What is Jesus saying here?

The word “Raca” is generally explained in the footnotes of our Bibles as “an Aramiac expression of contempt.” The word literally meant “empty headed” or “fool.” Well of “Raca” meant “fool” when why did Jesus use the Greek word for "fool" in his very next line? Maybe it's not the particular words we choose that Jesus is trying to get us to change; maybe Jesus just doesn't want us using words of contempt in our speech at all. In fact that is EXACTLY what Jesus is saying. The question is, “Do we believe it and does that settle it?”

Communication in what is supposedly the “communication age” has gotten progressively less and less polite and more and more disrespectful. I don’t listen to cable news or talk radio anymore because I've grown so tired of supposed “pundits” shouting at each other and calling each other names. (OK, I also don’t watch cable news anymore because we don’t have cable, but that is beside the point). Is it possible to disagree with someone and be respectful at the same time? What is more, isn’t that exactly what Jesus tells us to do? Let me just end my tirade against tirades by quoting a section from Martin’s piece--

It's especially important to hear Jesus's words in our digital age, when snarky blogs, terrible texting, snotty Facebook posts and mean-spirited Tweets zip around the Web and cause serious harm. And it's essential to hear in our 24/7-radio-shockjock-TV-talkshow-endless-gabfest age, when the easiest way to get people to tune into your show is to call someone else a jerk, or worse. "Fool," raca, is probably the mildest of imprecations that you've heard lately.

That goes for Christians speaking about other Christians, believers speaking about other believers, and anyone else with whom we disagree on religious matters. Take a look at any opinionated religious blog, on the right and the left, and you'll see all manner of terrible name-calling -- again, much worse than raca.

We ignore the invitation to practice personal charity, to treat one another with respect, to give people the benefit of the doubt, to avoid name-calling, to curb our tongues and to simply be kind, at our peril. And this is not simply feel-good religion. It's not simply wishy-washy niceness. It's not an excuse to avoid tough conversations. It is at the heart of the Christian life.

Speaking charitably about others is a simple thing, but hard to do. Trust me, I've engaged in this kind of trash talk myself from time to time. I gossip. I may even call people names, like "fool," behind their backs. It's a terrible thing to do.

How do we know this? Jesus tells us in no uncertain terms. So don't overlook this overlooked passage, which contains a word that we can be certain comes to us directly from the lips of Jesus. Listen to his words and allow them to change yours.

My New Bible

For the first time since 1982, I am switching Bibles. Actually, I staying with the Holy Bible; I am just changing English translations.  Two years into my preaching career I noticed that I spent a lot of my sermon time explaining the various nuances and personality quirks of the KJV, so I started preaching and teaching from the NIV.  I still used the KJV (actually I still thought in KJV) and the NASB in my study, but the Bible I read from in class and the pulpit was the NIV. I took some flack from my KJV-only preaching buddies, and one area preacher wrote us off as an unfaithful church when we bought a case of NIV pew Bibles. (This was the same guy that kept a tally of every time the speaker at our men’s retreat “perverted the word of God” by reading from a non-KJV Bible. When I told him that the speaker was teaching from a Greek text and translating on the fly, he said, “Well if he’s smart enough to do that, he should be smart enough to use the KJV.” You think I’m making that up, but I'm not!)

The NIV was updated and revised in 1984, which meant the little pocket NT I used in preaching was slightly different in places from the whole Bible I used in study and class. (Fortunately, our pew Bibles were bought after the revision and that saved some trouble). Today I use multiple translations in my computer study Bible— the NIV, NASB, ESV, NET, NLT, and KJV all open automatically and I have 15 or so more I can open if I need them. But the NIV has been my main teaching and preaching text for almost 30 years.

But this Sunday all that will change. My new main English version is (cue the trumpet blast)… the NIV!!! (cue the applause). OK, perhaps some explanation is needed here. A new revision of the NIV was released online at Biblegateway.com last October and is now available in print form.  I received my pre-ordered $14 thinline bonded-leather NIV (2011) from Amazon yesterday... too bad the print is so small that I can’t actually read it. Logos Bible Research (my computer Bible folks) sent me a free update to my computer Bible this morning, so my total expense for the upgrade to the new NIV is $14! Not bad. (Of course, to get the  links to all the Greek and Hebrew tools in the new version, I have to pay $289.75… which is 3/4 of the iPad. I still haven’t bought. Those links work just fine in the ESV.)

So what do I get for $14? I don’t want to do a full review of the NIV(2011) because it’s Wednesday, and I really need to be working on my class for tonight. Patrick Mead did a good job introducing the NIV(2011) in his Tentpegs blog last week, (To steal a line from Jim McQuiggen, “Everyone should be forced to read Patrick’s blog… if they want to.”) Also, here are the translator’s notes on the NIV revision.

In my computer Bible anyway, new version of the NIV is known as “NIV” and the old NIV is now NIV1984. So when I quote from the NIV and it sounds different from your NIV, that’s because you are hopeless out of date and I am way cool.

Just Fine

“Just fine.” How many times do you hear that on Sunday mornings? You ask, “So, how you doing?” And (almost) everyone answers, “Just fine.” OK, there is the occasional person who looks at you, raises an eyebrow and asks, “You really want to know?” (And do we?).  But most people are “Just fine.” You may personally greet 50 different people (you can’t really talk to everyone) and everyone is “Just fine.” What are the chances of that? Just about zero!  No one is doing “just fine” all the time, and that means that no one is always “just fine” every Sunday morning. Now we might answer the question “How you doing?” with “Compared to what?” Compared to the homeless person with no teeth that I met begging in the Wal-Mart parking lot yesterday, I really am doing "Just fine."  But we all struggle with things, right? Jesus said, “In this world you will have trouble…” And we do.  And sometimes, we're not doing "Just fine: at all!

Barbara Crafton tells of meeting a Christian young man at a restaurant who was very obliviously not doing just fine. He was struggling with some deep emotional and psychological issues, but when she suggested he see a therapist, he said, “I could never witness to anybody again if I were in therapy. I'd feel like a fraud.” Faith should make all of our problems go away, right? The joy of the Lord should overwhelm all depression and emotional issues right? Crafton suggests that many think that the gospel is “supposed to be a happy tale.”

Although you're allowed many trials along the way, it must end up with your accepting Christ, and then things are supposed to be all right with you. You're not supposed to be hopeless and want to die. There's not a lot of room in this narrative for despair, so people committed to it who find themselves staring despair in the face tend to keep that fact to themselves.

Is there any room in the life of a Christian for depression? Isn’t the struggle with depression sign that one’s faith is defective, ineffective or at the very least weak? Is the believer who prays to and worships God but who also struggles with depression or emotional issues really, like this young man assumed, a fraud and hypocrite?

No! Most of us will go through difficult situations and struggles that will lead to “situational depression.” Others will suffer through chemical imbalances that (unless God chooses to work a healing miracle) that will not be praised or prayed away, no matter how genuine a person’s faith may be. Pick up the Bible and read the laments in Psalms and the words of Jeremiah (one of his books is entitled “Lamentations?”). Read the story of Elijah and his dark cave of despair (1 Kings 19). Read the book of Revelation and ask yourself how “happy-clappy” the first readers of this book must have been. Faith helps us “walk through the valley of the shadow of death” (“Even though I walk through the darkest valley,” NIV2011). But there will be dark valleys. And we should not suppose that faith has failed because I don’t feel just fine at the moment!

Church should be a safe place for those struggling with feelings of loneliness, depression and despair. But sometimes we make such people feel worse because of the implication that if people had the right faith, they wouldn’t feel that way—they would be “Just fine” like the rest of us! Well, Isaiah said that the Messiah would be “a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.” It just seems to me that it should be OK for His followers to feel the same way at times as well.

It's Good to Have Things Like This...

I remember the first time I used PowerPoint in making a presentation to an area preacher’s meeting years ago (it must have been years ago because we haven’t one in years). After my presentation, one of my (alleged and so-called) friends said, “Well, I guess if you can’t preach, it’s good to have something like that.” That was an accusation of the worst kind… a true one! Yesterday I used not one but two YouTube clips in my sermon (if you can't preach, it's good to have things like that). And most of the comments I received were about the clips and not about the sermon. Since people asked about them, I thought I’d post them here to make them easier to find.

The first clip is of “excessive celebration” during a ping pong competition. (Notice carefully the zoom-in on the scorer’s table at the end of the match.) The point of the clip is that most of us don’t have to worry about being flagged for excessive celebration during our worship before God. Getting carried away in the joy of the Lord isn’t really our biggest problem. You can watch the clip here (the embed code was disabled for this one).

The second clip come from the Tyler Perry feel good flick “Daddy’s Little Girls.” (Tressa brought it over for me to watch while I was recovering after my surgery). This is the story of a hard-working guy named Monty who tried hard to do right thing raising his three girls alone and dreaming of owning his own auto repair shop. His life comes apart when he loses custody of his girls to his ex-wife, who is the mistress of a drug-dealer and a truly horrible influence on the girls. The harder he tries to do the right thing, the more his life falls apart. He is about to give up when he goes to church and hears a word from God. OK, I know the actor who plays the preacher here is “Bishop” Eddie Long who has become just a bit controversial as of late, and I certainly don’t recommend everything he preaches. (Hey, I don’t even recommend everything that I have preached). But what he says in this movie sermon spoke to me and I think it spoke to some of our folks as well. (Again, I showed a much shorter version of this clip).



We sang twice as many songs yesterday as usual (most of them only one verse) and they all had to do with the joy of the Lord.  Sometimes we sing those songs because our hearts are bursting with the joy of the Lord. But sometimes we sing those songs because we desperately want to be reminded of the joy of the Lord that seems to be temporarily overshadowed by struggles and hardships and pain. Sometimes we rejoice because we know God’s joy; sometimes we must rejoice because we know that we will know it again if we hold on to our hope and refuse to give up or give in.  Either way, we need to sings those songs of joy!

Reflections on Joy

I'm preaching this Sunday morning on joy. A couple of things struck me as I was reading some of the many texts in the Bible that stress joy. First, joy is never really and encouraged suggested like, "You just need to try to be more joyful." Joy is COMMANDED. Paul says, "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!" You can almost see Paul here as a drill sergeant barking orders, "Rejoice in Lord always; I'll say it again, 'Get some joy!'" That's a command. That sounds way too much like my Dad saying, "You will eat your Brussels sprouts and you will like them." (I ate them, and they weren't bad!). Can you really command someone to be joyful. God evidently things so!

Second, joy is often spoken of along side times of pain, struggle and loss. Jesus promised that the apostles that despite the difficulty of the coming cross, their joy would restored in Him, "So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy" (John 16:22). The example Jesus uses is that of having a baby (John 16:21). There is great pain in childbirth, but then that pain is overwhelmed by joy when the baby is held in the mother's arms. So sometimes we must go through great sorrow, but that sorrow cannot overwhelm our joy. Jesus says, "Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete" (John 16:24).

Jesus wants us to know that joy and sorrow are never completely incompatible. Our faith that God is working in our struggle in ways that we don't understand at the moment means that we can know His joy even in the middle of the storm. He doesn't always stop the rain, but He always assures us that He is there with us. Because He is with us and assures us that He will make our joy complete, we can praise Him in the storm.

If You Can Read This... It Doesn't Apply to You

I just read an interesting blog post by Greg Boyd at his Christus Victor site entitled "Baby Universalism and Reasonable Infanticide."  I have filed this in my "Things I Have Never Really Thought About and Am Now Confused About" file... which is a huge file indeed.  His basic question is that if our free will choice to accept God's love and grace is so important (or else why didn't God create us incapable of not loving and obeying Him), then why do we assume that those who die before they can make that choice (i.e. infants) go straight to God without ever having to choose Him?  Boyd suggests that while this view is assumed by most people today, it has not been the common view held throughout much of church history.  He furthers asks if all babies go to heaven, then why not just kill them before they have a chance to reject God and go to hell?  (Some have evidently argued that point at some point in the past; we call such people "nuts").  Read his blog and tell me what you think.  Boyd wonders if infants or children who die before they can choose God in this life are not given some chance to choose in the next life.  The Bible is silent here, and that may be our best response as well.

But the point for you is (as my title here suggests), if you can read this, then you can make your choice and are held responsible for it.

The Force That's With Us

I must admit that my Super Bowl Party this year was a bit quieter than usual. I was worn out after my first day back at church after my surgery, and just didn't feel up to being at the church building for our annual Denbigh Super Bowl blow-out. (I assume that a local news crew did not cover us this year like they did the last time the Steelers were at the Big Dance because they thought Mike Tomlin had attended Denbigh Church of Christ as a kid rather than Denbigh High School next door). I did doze through parts of the first half (sorta like the Steelers seemed to) but then thoroughly enjoyed the game and even was pleased with the outcome.

 But the game was the only good part of the game... IMHO. The commercials were just not all that funny, and some were just totally inappropriate. Why don't advertisers remember that the Super Bowl is a family thing? (Lynn assumed that GoDaddy.com is a porn site rather than a web-hosting sight because of their advertising!)  And I chose to miss the half-time show, which from what I've read was a good decision.  And frankly, I wasn't nearly as upset at Christina Aguilera flubbing the national anthem as I was impressed that she got back on track so quickly!

There was one great commercial that was both funny AND came with a great spiritual reminder. It starred a pint-sized Darth Vader trying to use the power of the force to no avail until...



The pint-sized Darth Vader thought that his own power had caused the Passat the start. Of course, the real force that started it was his father (with his cool new VW autostart remote). And that is so much like us, isn't it? We think that our accomplishments, successes and possessions come because of our own abilities, talents and nose-to-the-grindstone work ethic. Sure, God does very often seem to help those who help themselves. He wants us to work hard, not just to bless ourselves and our families, but to be able to share with others in need (Eph. 4:28). We are to work hard at our work as if we were serving God and not just men... or ourselves (Col. 3:23-24).

But the force that allows us to work and succeed and bless others is from God himself. We may think the force is us, but our Father is behind us with the real power to bless us. Every good thing we have is a gift from our Father of lights (James 1:17). When we throw a light switch, the lights come on, but the real power is generated somewhere else. When we work to provide for our family, the power to earn and be blessed really comes from somewhere and Someone else. And we should always give thanks to Him. Moses gave Israel this warning as she prepared to enter into the Promised Land (Duet 7:17-18)--

You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers, as it is today.

Ecclesiastes further tells us that not only does God give us possessions, He also gives us the ability to enjoy both our work and the possessions we have, "Moreover, when God gives any man wealth and possessions, and enables him to enjoy them, to accept his lot and be happy in his work—this is a gift of God." (Eccl 5:19).

We are the little kid pretending to be Darth Vader thinking we have the power. Thank God that we have a Father behind us who is holding the remote!

More on Forgiveness

Yesterday I completed a short sermon series on our responsibility as disciples of Jesus to forgive others who sin against us.  I started the sermon with the following video and quote from Mary Karen Read, one of the victims of the Virgina Tech Massacre.

This struggle of forgiveness was made even more poignant when a sister and good friend came forward asking for prayers in dealing with the struggle for forgiveness for an act ever bit as heinous as that committed in Blacksburg, only smaller in scope.  The message of Matthew 18 is clear-- in order for us to be forgiven, we must be willing to forgive.  To refuse to forgive others is to fail to recognize all that God has forgiven in us.

Forgiveness like this makes no earthly sense, because it comes from above.  Corrie ten Boom was confronted with being asked to forgive one of the guards that had tormented her while in a Nazi death camp.  She tried to take his hand, but her arm would not move; her heart was filled with such anger, resentment and hatred for this man that represented what had killed her family. She writes this--

Even as the angry, vengeful thoughts boiled through me, I saw the sin of them. Jesus Christ had died for this man; was I going to ask for more? Lord Jesus, I prayed, forgive me and help me to forgive him. I tried to smile, I struggled to raise my hand. I could not. I felt nothing, not the slightest spark of warmth or charity. And so again I breathed a silent prayer. Jesus, I cannot forgive him. Give me Your forgiveness.

As I took his hand the most incredible thing happened. From my shoulder along my arm and through my hand a current seemed to pass from me to him, while into my heart sprang a love for this stranger that almost overwhelmed me.

And so I discovered that it is not on our forgiveness any more than on our goodness that the world’s healing hinges, but on His. When He tells us to love our enemies, He gives, along with the command, the love itself.

You Da Man!

The story of David and Bathsheba is one of the saddest stories in scripture. The great king and spiritual leader gave into his baser nature and committed adultery with Bathsheba. When he found out that she was pregnant, he began an elaborate cover-up to hide his personal guilt. When the integrity and loyalty of Bathsheba's husband Uriah continued to thwart David's cover-up, David set up Uriah to be killed in battle. To justify this action to his commander Joab, David responds rather coldly, "Don’t let this upset you; the sword devours one as well as another.” (2 Sam 11:25). David then married the widowed Bathsheba, and his sins were hidden... from everyone except God.

Then Nathan the prophet came to David with a sad story about a poor man whose little pet lamb was butchered and served as brunch by a wealthy man who had many flocks and herds. David was outraged and wanted justice... until Nathan pointed his long, bony finger at David and says, "You are the man!" In modern vernacular, that is a compliment. Make a long put, close a big deal, or complete a critical project, and someone may slap you on the back and say, "You da man!" David was the man... and it was no compliment. He could only stare Nathan and then at the blood on his hands. Guilt. Shame. The entire weight of heaven and earth crushed down upon him. And this was the critical moment of his life.

David responds, "I have sinned against the Lord" (2 Sam 12:13). And he meant it! He faced the utter brokenness of his guilt, and he could do nothing but humbly confess his sin, repent and plead for God's mercy. Psalm 51 captures the depths of his horror over his sin and his struggles with guilt. The words "I have sinned" are spoken in scripture by men like Pharaoh, Balaam, Achan and Saul... when they are caught and are sorry they were caught. But David feels the full weight of his sin and is driven to his knees in humility and repentance. It is in this moment of repentance that David shows the character that makes him "the man after God's own heart."

For the last three weeks, we have been looking at the subject of interpersonal forgiveness in our Sunday lessons. Our scripture reading for today is Colossians 3 which includes the following:

12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

“Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” Scripture consistently reminds us that we are to forgive others because God has forgiven us. Nathan points his long, bony finger at each of us and says, “You da man” (or “you da woman” as the case may be). We are all as guilty as sin, and yet we have been forgiven our blood debt through the blood of the cross. So how can we possibly refuse to forgive someone else? How can we refuse to forgive another sinner when we have ourselves been forgiven of so much so so gracious a God?

More on Baptism

If you have the time, listen to the sermon I posted last week on repentance, baptism and the Holy Spirit by Francis Chan and then contrast what Chan says about repentance and baptism with the change to the baptismal liturgy considered by bishops of the Church of England.

 According to this Daily Mail news article, the Anglican baptismal service “may be re-written to remove some references to Christianity.” The article characterizes this change as ‘baptism lite.’ The purpose of this liturgy re-write is “to make christenings more interesting to non-churchgoers” and to make the service more appropriate and accessible to “non-theologically versed Britons.” In other words, they are “dumbing down” the baptismal service. If I tended toward sarcasm, I might say something like, “They are baptizing babies; how much dumber can they make it?” But I’m not, so I won’t.

OK, I get it. Many people who aren’t Christians will visit churches to see the christening of the babies of family and friends. Many people in secular Europe attend church for three reasons—to be hatched, matched and dispatched (christening, weddings and funerals). So if non-Christians are going to be in church for the baptism of babies, then why not use language that will communicate the gospel in an understandable, non-overly-theologically-obtuse way. I get it. I really do think that’s a wonderful idea.

Except for HOW they do it. One of the sections they want to change is the challenge to parents and godparents to “reject the devil and all rebellion against God” and to renounce “the deceit and corruption of evil” and the challenge to “submit to Christ as Lord.” OK maybe the “deceit and corruption of evil” language could be modernized a bit, but if you remove the idea of turning away from sin (repentance) and acceptance of Jesus as Lord, then what is the point of baptism? Baptism is a picture of the cross. Take away rejection of sin and acceptance of Christ and there is nothing left… except the snacks afterwards.

Francis Chan on Baptism

Ran across this sermon by Francis Chan on Bobby Valentine's blog "Stoned-Campbell Disciple." Francis Chan is the author of the best-selling book Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God. He was the founding pastor of 4000 member Cornerstone Community Church in Simi Valley, CA, where this sermon was preached. Not long ago, Chan resigned from Cornerstone and is travelling throughout Asia, preaching and strengthening churches. This brother certainly has a pretty good handle on baptism... for someone who isn't a member of our religious tribe!


Francis Chan - Baptism & The Holy Spirit from Wes Woodell on Vimeo.

You Are God Alone

In our scripture reading for today, David proclaims that praise awaits God in Zion—“Praise awaits you, O God, in Zion; to you our vows will be fulfilled” (Psa 65:1). It is as if all the worshippers have gathered at the Temple and they are waiting God to get there. (This obviously isn’t Denbigh where no one shows up early!). As David gives promise of the worship to come, he also proclaims who God is to be worshiped:

• God is a God of GRACE (Psalm 65:2-4). God hears our prayers and forgives us when we cry out to him, even when we are overwhelmed by our transgressions. Not only does God forgive us; he also calls us near and allows us to live in His very presence.
  
• God is a God of GREATNESS (Psalm 65:5-8). God’s power and might called the mountains into existence and commanded the seas to be still. Even those who live far away see those wonders which fill our world from dawn until dusk. It is not that God once did powerful things; God continues to do awesome things, sometimes things that we do not expect (Isa 64:3).
  
• God is a God of GIFTS (Psalm 65:9-13). God takes care of his people by providing our watering our fields with rain, filling our carts with crops, and filling our fields with flocks. God gives good gifts to his people and cares for our needs, so how can we fail to worship (65:13)?

The point of worship is not for us to tell God that He is gracious, great and giving. God already knows that, and he doesn't need us stroking His ego. The point of worship is to remind the worshipper that God is God, and they He Is God alone. It is so easy for us to go do focused on ourselves that we forget who is God alone.

• We focus on how we have been offended by the mistakes others and forget how horribly we have offended God and how He has forgiven us time after time.
  
• We focus so much on ourselves and what we have done that we forget it that God not only created everything (including us) but He also gives us the ability to provide for ourselves and for the needs of others.
  
• We focus so much on what we want and do not have yet that we forget to acknowledge all that God has given us and continues to give us.

Worship forces us to take our eyes off of ourselves and focus back on God—His grace, His greatness and His gifts. Worship does not tell God how great he is; it reminds us that God is God… and that He is God alone.