Easter has just passed and, for many, it seems as if the Christian year has come to an end. However, after Easter we are called to wait expectantly for Pentecost. I have said time and again that in living out the Christian year we are brought through the life of the Gospels and this allows them to play out in our lives on a regular basis.
So, what is Pentecost about? In preparing our hearts for this season, we are reminded when the Holy Spirit came upon the Apostles and fulfilled Jesus’ promise that He would never leave them nor forsake them. That very same Spirit that fell upon the Apostles during those early days is available to us and communicates the presence of Jesus to our lives. It is through this Spirit that we are connected to Jesus because the Holy Spirit gives witness to Jesus. The Spirit tells us about Jesus, Jesus tells us about the Father and the Father spreads His love abroad in the world. This is the divine dance of the Triune God at work! So, with these words in mind, it is my hope that you will prepare your hearts for an experience of this Triune God over the next few weeks that we might be empowered to be disciples of Jesus. Please have prayerful hearts as we seek to have God move in our lives and our community.
It is my hope that the coming sermon series on 1 Peter will help us build a closer relationship with Jesus. While I’m preaching through this book, I hope you take time to read through it and familiarize yourself with it. This is a great book in the New Testament that helps guide us in knowing the Living Christ and in knowing this Christ we will serve our brothers and sisters better.
On a separate note, we also have the pictures for the church directory coming up. It is my hope that you will sign up for the directory because we really need it updated. If you’re unable to have your picture taken, we understand but we would really love to have any updated information added to the directory.
We also have special services coming up as well. Fairly soon, Mother’s Day will be upon us as well as the graduation of many of our High School students. I think it is providential that these two events occur during the same month. Without the helping hands of our mothers, many of us would not have made it through those years of High School nor would we have had the encouragement to go on to college. So, please spend time in prayer for our students and our mothers during the month of May.
I’m annoyed and irritated and it’s usually this feeling that gets me off my proverbial butt and begin to blog again. So, what has gotten me so irritated? What has me up in arms? Why am I just flat out angry?
Marketing. Now you may ask why marketing has me in such an uproar considering I enjoy reading about marketing and have utilized it in various jobs over the years. But it is the marketing of social media by the church that has me frustrated and angry. You see, I’m constantly getting emails from my denomination as well as numerous “church growth strategy” types about how the church can use social media to grow a congregation. Social media is the “new, hip” marketing tool.
Really? Are you serious? Are you kidding me? You’re just now getting around to thinking social media might need to be embraced by the church? One email I read had this line in it, “I believe the time has come for the church to wholeheartedly embrace this new media technology.” The time has come? Aren’t you behind the curve? How far must the church fall behind the curve of what is going on around them? How blind are people within the United Methodist Church and other mainline denominations to something that has been going on for a few years now?
One thing that the “old school” doesn’t realize is that 3 years in an age of digital communication is equivalent to 15 years in the previous analog age. The church has historically been known for being 10-20 years behind the current culture but at this rate we’re becoming 50, 60 and 70 years behind. Or at least those who are giving us these “great new ideas” are behind the curve.
Why do I say this? Because I have parishioners who are in their 70s and 80s who have been using Facebook long before I came to serve these churches. They adapted this media because of the social aspect of it. This is where all the marketing bigwigs are misunderstanding the medium of Facebook, Twitter and even the older internet forums. The marketing people that the denomination consults look at this as a campaign to drive business to your organization. They see it as a way of getting people in the door so you can drive up revenue. And it seems many Christian leaders are eating this advice up because that’s all they’re trained to be…..marketers. Someone selling a product.
However, for many Christians as well as other people who use social media it has become a way of building new communities in the 21st century. The “party lines” that many of us living in rural areas in the 70s and 80s had were really cool because we could sit around and chat with our neighbors over the phone without having to leave the house. Facebook and Twitter allow people to make new neighbors and build communities with people who might leave hundreds if not thousands of miles away. For someone who may think they’re theologically out of step with their local congregation, they can search Twitter and Facebook until they find others they can discuss these issues with….sometimes with an anonymity that gives them the freedom to explore matters they don’t believe they can explore openly in their current local context.
So, all you marketers, trying to use Facebook and Twitter as a way to get your product out to the public I would say you’re doing a good job. However, to the church, I would say that trying to market your organization like any other business is, ultimately, going to fail because someone else is going to come along and sell their product a little bit better and your congregation will dwindle in weeks and months if not days.
However, if you are using this media to actually be social with other people then you will find that you are able to actually build Christian community. Some of these people are the ones you will worship with on a weekly basis and some may be ones you only see once or twice a year at a “meetup.”
Is that no different than those Christians you only see on Christmas and Easter? Well, yes it is! It’s different because you’ve stayed in touch with them throughout the year learning about them as individuals. You may have supported them with your prayers and discussed deep theological issues with them via online media.
So, Christians, if you want to utilize social media use it in the way Christians have built real communities down through the centuries…..by getting to know people. Become a part of their lives.
This is a paper I wrote for an Organizational Management class I took in 2006. I have not had a chance to update it but thought it would be of interest to some friends who are currently discussing the authority of Scripture and the so-called “lost books” of the Bible. I hope you enjoy it and please feel free to leave any comments.
This paper will show that the Kolb Learning Cycle, Learning Style Inventory and the Johari Window are concepts that have been used throughout the centuries and have many similarities with the quality control used by the Church in the formation and completion of the New Testament Scripture.
Quality control and the release of information are important issues in any field but even more so for the student of Scripture. At a time when popular culture advocates adding “new” gospels, such as the Gospel of Judas, to the canon many Christians become doubtful and confused concerning battles which have already been fought and won (Arnold, 2006).
Since the Learning Cycle is based upon the premise that the “more often we reflect on a task, the more often we have the opportunity to modify and refine our efforts” (Swenson, n.d.) the similarities between it and the development of the New Testament canon will be easily demonstrated.
Marcion, an early Christian Gnostic, found supposed differences between God’s activity in the Old Testament and His work in the New Testament. As he reflected on this, he began to refine these thoughts and came to the conclusion that the God of the Hebrews was not the same God that the early Christians worshipped. His conception of these differences led him to the conclusion that the mean God of Judaism had Jesus, the messenger of a loving God, crucified. To support his theory, he chose only a few of the current Christian writings and edited them to support his own conclusions (Gundry, 1994).
On the surface, one can see that Marcion used thoughts and ideas that have great similarities with the learning cycle. He was engrossed in the task of doing, used reflection, interpreted the events that led to his conclusion and then planned on what actions to take to reinforce them (Swenson, n.d.). However, Marcion’s editing of the Gospel of Luke and choosing only Pauline letters which agreed with his viewpoint (Gundry, 1994) shows a personal bias as well as a desire to limit early Christian Scripture (Bruce, 1988).
From Marcion’s example we can see that every step of the Learning Cycle can be completed “while still perceiving, interpreting and acting in a biased way” therefore, “one should question the model itself; look for exceptions to the rule; and challenge the dominant paradigm to determine whether it still holds.” (Swenson, n.d.)
The catholic (universal) church realized that it must address Marcion’s limitation of the early Christian writings by expanding, rather than limiting, the information available to early Christians (Bruce, 1988). By doing this, they began the long process of developing what we know of today as the New Testament canon. They, unlike Marcion, were willing to use the same format but also realized the need to reevaluate their conclusions before fully deciding on an answer.
One will begin to see that these early Christians were also using examples of the four learning styles defined by David Kolb (Kolb, 2005). They had to take leadership in the task of deciding upon these Scriptures (Accommodating), solve the problems they were facing about the Scripture (Converging), gather information about these Christian writings (Diverging) and, eventually, gather these writings into a logical and cohesive unit (Assimilating) (Gundry, 1994; Kolb, 2005). The ability to use these varied learning styles seems to be a necessity when faced with such a task and is an essential part of the quality control process.
The two learning styles that seem to be exhibited most by the early Church Fathers were the Accommodating and Converging. Often it is seen in the development of the canon that leaders had to arise to deal with these problems and take charge of the situation. Many times they also had to deal with numerous persecutions some of which even threatened the burning of all Christian writings (Bruce, 1988). These very threats caused Christian leaders to examine which writings they could reasonably hand over while keeping hid those works which were truly authoritative (Bruce, 1988). It was by making these leadership decisions they were able to take great strides in assuring the quality of the Scriptures for future generations.
The monumental feat they faced in developing the canon of Scripture over a period of four to five centuries (Bruce, 1988) required they maintain a wide range of learning styles; an
absolute necessity in solving most problems (Kolb, 2006). If these steps had not been taken one could reasonably state that what we know today as the New Testament canon would be seriously limited (Bruce, 1988). This is, of course, contrary to the current misconception that there are many missing books of the Bible that were deliberately left out or obscured (Arnold, 2006).
As the church began to develop the canon, it eventually settled upon three major criteria for granting a book the authenticity of Scripture. These areas are Apostolic authority (was it written by an Apostle, disciple of an Apostle or within the Apostle’s style), Catholicity (was the information generally recognized and used by the universal church) and Inspiration (was the writing speaking with the authority of God) (Bruce, 1988).
These issues relate directly to the Johari Window. While the Window is primarily focused with self discovery (Knowles & Ervin, 2004), I believe that it can be used in a broader sense of distributing information for the purposes of quality control. If one is not willing to properly evaluate and release information then the quality of any product or research will always fall short.
Apostolic authority is a prime example of what is known as The Blind Self. Those who were trying to determine the canon of Scripture had to make sure that the letters that had this authority were made known to the churches at large thereby making information known to some available to all (Bruce, 1988). On the other hand, Catholicity is one of the best examples of The Public Self. Eusebius greatly uses this concept to show how many of the early Church Fathers accepted certain writings as part of Scripture because they commonly used these writings among themselves as well as their common acceptance among many of the churches (Eusebius, 1995). In fact, the Roman church accepted the book of Hebrews for this very reason. While it was not used within their local churches, they agreed “to receive Hebrews as canonical so as not to be out of step with the rest of orthodox Christendom.” (Bruce, 1988)
As one can see, widespread public knowledge was used to determine whether or not information should be used. Good quality control makes sure that all concerned parties are aware of the information.
Inspiration, however, is firmly placed within The Private Self arena. Most early Christian writers did not always claim to speak with the direct inspiration of God but, when they did, they had to choose whether or not this information should be made public. The early Christian community believed itself to be inspired by the Spirit of God but did not put forth these ideas as being authoritative for all Christians. Therefore, while this might be used as criteria for the canon of Scripture, it could only be used if the writer admitted to inspiration and the Church decided that these writings were, in fact, inspired (Bruce, 1988).
Ultimately, it can be seen that the development of Scripture is an excellent example of quality control. The same methods used today are very similar to those that have been used in the past; therefore any Christian should have no problem accepting the canon of Scripture as it stands simply because of the quality, time and effort that went into deciding it.
I would be remiss, however, in leaving out the most important step in quality control. Who makes the final decision and decides that the project is complete? As in any quality control situation someone must take this responsibility and whoever makes that decision should be an expert within that field (Tagliaferri, 2006). In the determination of the canon of
Scripture, even though it would still be debated over the next two centuries, it was ultimately set down by Athanasius, the bishop of Alexandria, in 367 AD (Bruce, 1988). He ultimately believed that these books had to be finalized to guarantee the quality of the Scripture against any past or future spurious writings (Bruce, 1988).
In conclusion, you will find that the quality put into the completion of the canon of Scripture is without measure. The people who spent their time, effort and lives in the development of this canon should cause Christians to bring the same care and quality control to their study and practice of this most ancient and authoritative work.
References
Arnold, Clinton E. (2006, May/June). A Response to the Gospel of Judas. Sacred History Magazine, 3, 22-24.
Bruce, F. F. (1988). The canon of scripture. Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press.
Eusebius. (1995). The history of the church from Christ to Constantine. (G. A. Williamson, Trans.). New York: Barnes & Noble Books. (Original work published approximately 325)
Gundry, Robert H. (1994). A survey of the new testament, third edition. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
Tagliaferri, Louis. (2006). Proceedings from Orientation to Adult Learning: Respondent Booklet for Hunt for T-Rex: An Experiential Learning Exercise. Jackson, TN.
In our second Scripture reading from Romans, we read an interesting word that Christians have used down through the centuries. This word has often been used to describe Christians who are supposed to have attained a certain level of “super” spirituality. The word used, of course, is saint.
In a variety of Christian traditions this word has been used in different ways. For example, within the Roman Catholic Church achieving sainthood is a long process that often requires many years and usually only occurs after someone has died. In more evangelical or revivalist traditions, the word saint is often used to talk about a gathering of brothers and sisters in Christ. The phrase “all the saints” got together for revival and phrases such as “How are the saints doing today?” is still asked from many pulpits and refers to all believers who are present.
The word saint, in Paul’s letter to the Romans, means “a most holy thing.” And what is holy? Something that God has marked as being special. If we understand a saint as someone special then every child of God is a saint!
With that word saint ringing in our hearts and minds, I want us to think about someone often overlooked during the Christmas season. This is a man who, despite your faith background, may readily be called a saint by most any definition of the word. We have already heard about him in our Gospel reading this morning: His name is Joseph.
Joseph’s story is a difficult one for us to process. It is very hard for us to enter into his world because we find it so different from our own experiences. Is it possible for us, living in our modern world, to imagine a young couple who were legally and socially referred to as husband and wife waiting until their wedding night to have sex? In their world, this was a common practice. This young couple would have been engaged for a year before proceeding with the actual wedding but for all intents and purposes would have been considered married. (Carter 66)
Oh, we often hear the Christian cultural myth that engagements occur where the couple will not have sex until the wedding night but statistics show there is little to no difference between Christians and the cultural practices around them. Because people have been more open about these practices, I have often heard others refer to those “good old days” when people still had morality and would never act in such a manner. Considering some of the conversations I have had with people from a variety of age groups those so-called “good old days” only existed as a nice memory. One individual was very honest with me when he said, “We did the same things you young folks are doing but we just didn’t talk about it as much!”
In fact, this type of relationship is so much a part of our world that pastors are often trained to handle the premarital counseling of couples who have lived together for a number of years. I know of pastors who have given premarital counseling to couples that had been living together longer than the minister had been married!
With all the nuances of our own world running through our minds how do we understand Joseph? How can we even comprehend what was going on in his world? Let’s take a moment and try. When we read the text we find that Joseph was a righteous man who did not want to expose Mary to public disgrace. In the English Standard Version of this passage, it reads that Joseph did not want to shame her. It seems that if Mary was unfaithful and others found out about it a small scandal might have erupted.
Maybe things in the ancient world were not too different than they are today. If you read the Bible with fresh eyes or look into many historical stories from that period in time, you will find that culture (much like our own) enjoyed the seedier stories of life. Those little tidbits of infidelity and promiscuity that are the lifeblood of our entertainment industry held a very similar interest in the ancient world; though the penalties for such behavior in that period in history were very different from ours!
In that time in history, sexual infidelity during this period of engagement/betrothal might have led to the death of the woman if carried to the most extreme consequences. In fact, the Mosaic Law dictated that this should happen. However, by Joseph’s day this capital punishment did not occur as often and it would have more likely had just serious social and financial consequences for Mary, her child and her extended family.
If we are honest with ourselves, in today’s world a story like Joseph’s would make for a nice segment on one of the many daytime talk shows.
“So, Joseph, you’re telling me that you two have been engaged for a year and you’ve never had sex? What’s the matter with you?” the host asks. “Is something wrong with you?”
Joseph replies, “But that’s not the point! Mary’s pregnant and that child should have been mine! How can I have any family now? Who is going to carry on my name?” Can you hear the shouts and jeers of the audience at the foolishness and naivety of Joseph? Do you see the crowd rising up to make rude suggestions and laugh at this foolish man? What an idiot this Joseph character must be?
In Joseph’s world things would have been very different from our talk show society. As a man, he held all the power in this “situation” with Mary. He would not have lost much honor in that society but Mary and her family would have been the one’s facing the social stigma attached to it. It was up to Joseph in how this situation would play itself out and it was within his power to take care of it in a way that made him look the best in the eyes of that society.
Interestingly, Stanley Hauerwas, in his book on Matthew, indicates that Joseph’s righteousness tells the reader that he is a person that was able to act with mercy. Hauerwas states, “Joseph refused to act according to the law [and] chose to act in a manner that Jesus himself would later exemplify by his attitude toward known sinners.” (Hauerwas, Matthew 1) It seems that the Gospel of Matthew is telling us in a not so subtle way why God had chosen him to raise Jesus: Joseph was a man who understood mercy and kindness and had learned to make those virtues an essential part of his life. Mercy and kindness were more important than the law!
In thinking about Joseph in this way, I began to apply it to the life of Christians within traditional church settings. So often when we Christians are faced with what appears to be sin, our first response is to react as Joseph did but often for very different reasons. Some of us might want to put away quietly what we believe to be sinful behavior within the church because it might cause a scandal or “hurt the witness of Christ” (whatever that is supposed to mean!)
Sometimes these actions we believe to be sin are hidden from the larger surrounding community because someone is afraid it might hurt a person with powerful connections. If only our motives could be as pure as Joseph’s but, sadly, they’re often very self-serving.
Sadly, this desire to put these so-called sins away quietly often happens because people rush to the judgment that what occurred was actually a sin! You see, Joseph had already made that very same judgment when he decided to show Mary mercy. He believed that Mary had committed an act of unfaithfulness but still desired to act with kindness toward her. Simply put, Joseph thought Mary had sinned! It took an angel of the Lord to reveal to Joseph that what had occurred was, in fact, no sin at all!
When I think of Joseph’s story, it reminds me of a man who had been a bachelor for much of his life. In fact, he and his brother had lived together for many years and most of his friends never thought he would marry. After all, he was a well renowned professor in England and had written quite a few books that had become very popular.
This gentleman had come to his faith later in life and joined the Anglican Church. There were times he disagreed with his church but, for the most part, he was a very devout member and took his faith very seriously. So seriously, in fact, that he had been invited to do a number of radio broadcasts on what he believed to be the basics of Christianity.
This man, this professor, this writer and great Christian thinker made what many thought was a mistake: He fell in love with a woman during a time when divorce and remarriage did not happen to “proper people.” This divorced woman’s remarriage would be even more difficult because she happened to have grown up in a Jewish home. To add to that scandal she was also a former communist! (Dorsett 50, 118) Can you imagine that occurring in the 1950s? Even though it was in Britain, that would still be a scandal of epic proportions.
What would people think if this great Christian thinker was to marry a divorcee who (for many) was still a Jewish communist? Would that be a sin? This was the current teaching of his church. In fact, if he married her he would be considered by many to be committing adultery as well. (Dorsett 119) The man’s name, by the way, is CS Lewis. He has authored a great many Christian books of the past century. You may know him from his writings for children called The Chronicles of Narnia. Another movie based upon his books has just been released and is playing in the theaters right now. If you haven’t read the books or seen the movies, I highly recommend them to you.
Is it possible for us to see Lewis in a similar place as Joseph? Was there something before both of them that appeared to be sin yet it was not? Lewis married this Jewish divorcee while she was battling cancer and she was able to live for a few years after their marriage. Some believe he may have married her because she was dying of cancer but when it went into remission even their worst detractors could not fail to acknowledge their love for one another. Eventually, she succumbed to her illness and the grief that Lewis felt was almost unbearable. Through that struggle and pain that he faced, he wrote one of the most powerful books about grief and suffering.
As Christians we often find ourselves facing a strange dilemma? Is it really our place to judge something or someone as sinful? Let us return to the story of Joseph and Mary. Is it possible that we might need to sit down, like Joseph, and dream new dreams? As followers of Jesus, are we willing to be like Joseph and hear from an angel of the Lord? Or are we afraid that in hearing from God we will begin to question our definitions of sin and, maybe, possibly, realize that what we once thought was a sin is, in fact, no sin at all?
Maybe, just maybe, as followers of Christ we ought to walk such a path of grace that we become instruments of God’s mercy and kindness. Maybe, just maybe, instead of looking for the sin in a particular person’s life or situation we might open our eyes and see God at work in the midst of it all!
Are we willing to have our thoughts and presuppositions challenged? Are we willing to have our world turned upside down? I hope so because maybe, just maybe, at the end of it all what we thought was sin is actually God being born into the world? In the midst of what appears to be sinful humanity and what appears to be sinful action, God came into the world. This is why we should ask ourselves during this Advent season for God to give us new dreams and, instead of seeing sin, we should look in the strangest, darkest of places to see where God is being born into the world. After all, didn’t God appear in the strangest place of all the first time? A virgin’s womb!
Works Cited
Carter, Warren. Matthew and the Margins: A Sociopolitical and Religious Reading. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2005. Print.
Dorsett, Lyle W. A Love Observed. Wheaton: Harold Shaw Publishers, 1998. Print.
Radical Inclusivity #geek style: You threw me in a trashcan when I was a kid, you made fun of me ’cause I sucked at sports, you called me “gay” and “fag” to make me feel bad. At times, I wished I was dead.
I hated you and all you stood for but now you work for me. I thought I would have a chance to get back at you but you and your friends still make fun of me behind my back. You’re still using me for your own entertainment.
What do I do? I smile, read my comic books and realize I have loving relationships way beyond those you will ever experience. Your friends like you because of your hate and pain….mine love me because of mutual interest and respect. You can’t show weakness to your friends but my friends and loves help me find strength in the middle of all my weakness.
All We Need Is A Little Patience
(Matt. 11:2-11; James 5:7-10)
In today’s Gospel reading, we see John sitting in prison and hearing about the work of Jesus. It seems that John must be getting this message from his disciples and so he asks that interesting question, “Are you the one who is to come or are we to wait for another?”
What an interesting question to ask. This is the same John who had baptized Jesus. This is the same John who had declared in Matthew’s Gospel that he was the one that needed to be baptized by Jesus instead of the opposite occurring. It would seem to be a strange question coming from him but for us to understand this better we have to realize that many Israelites had quite a different idea of what was to happen when the Messiah comes. There were quite a few, John possibly included, who were hoping that a cosmic justice would arrive which would vindicate Israel and bring about its deliverance. John may have thought this was the type of Messiah that Jesus was to be. (Matthew and the Margins, Warren Carter)
So, how does Jesus answer John’s question? Does he tell John not to worry about anything? Does he indicate that deliverance will come to John in the form of freedom from imprisonment? No, Jesus has John’s disciples tell him the type of ministry that he is doing. Jesus is going to the weakest of society: the outcast and the ones who don’t fit into “proper society.” Jesus grants the blind their sight, the lame walk, those unclean, filthy lepers no one wants to touch are healed, the deaf hear and the poor are given some good news. Jesus is showing that his mission is one of healing and it points to the one of healing that is to be anticipated in God’s Empire. (Matthew and the Margins, Warren Carter)
Jesus is saying that in one’s encounter with him, they are encountering God’s Empire at work and God’s Empire works differently than they expect other Empires to work. Where Rome comes in and takes things by force, Jesus says that God’s Empire goes to the weakest and brings healing. God’s Empire stands against those who are in the place of power and abuse by showing mercy to those who are on the fringes of society.
In our Gospel reading, we then see Jesus speak to the crowd about John. He asks them, “What did you go into the wilderness to look at?” and he answers that very statement with his next question, “A reed blown about by the wind?” We have to understand that a reed was a symbol that had been imprinted on Herod Antipas’ coins! Jesus is asking the crowd if they went out to listen to John so they could see Herod “blown about” or attacked by John’s critique of the political powers of the day. They probably did go to hear John’s critical take on the rulers. But, you see, the writer of Matthew is bringing something richer into the equation because that reed also has another meaning to these Israelites. For many of them, the reed would have symbolized the Sea of Reeds (or Red Sea) which was blown back by God as God freed the Israelites from slavery. (Matthew and the Margins, Warren Carter)
Jesus then throws the question at them, “Did you go to see someone in soft robes?” Jesus, in a way, is mocking the listener because John’s clothing was anything but soft or nice. Jesus is using this as a way of pointing out that John had no alliance with the powerful or the elite of his day and the people should realize this simple but striking truth. In the end, Jesus tells them that when they went out into the wilderness they were looking at a prophet. So, all of Jesus’ questions in this passage are a way of saying that John was performing the actions of a prophet. Prophet’s call into question the powerful, the elite, those who mistreat others and these prophets also offer hope for the people who are hurting.
In the end, Jesus is trying to show that John was the prophet who prepared the way for him even though that prophet did not have a clear understanding of Jesus’ purpose! Jesus was trying to show that in phrases such as “yet the least in the empire of heaven is greater than John” that greatness is being redefined in himself. Jesus redefines greatness as service to others. Greatness in God’s Empire does not come by or through domination!
This background is a key to understanding this passage but it’s also a key to understanding power structures in the world around us. John is sitting in prison, probably filled with impatience wondering when Jesus is going to bring the deliverance for which he is hoping. We can’t know for sure (and that’s the beauty of the story) but it’s very possible that John thought Jesus would bring about his deliverance from prison by overthrowing the powerful leaders of his day.
Honestly, this is what I see us dealing with all the time within the Christian church. So often we want to see God step into history and overthrow unfair and unjust power systems with all God’s mighty vengeance.
In the last week, if you’ve been watching (or as I do) reading the news online you may have heard about the Wikileaks controversy. WikiLeaks, a website which facilitates the anonymous leaking of secret information, began posting the first of more than 250,000 U.S. State Department documents late last month. Since then, the site has been hit with denial-of-service attacks, been kicked off servers in the United States and France, and lost major revenue sources. (CNN.com)
The powerful always respond the same way to those who air their dirty laundry. Wikileaks has aired the dark secrets of government and that doesn’t make powerful people happy. It doesn’t matter what your political affiliation is but when you let the dirty laundry out to air the powerful will do anything they can to shut you down. They don’t like their secrets exposed and will do anything to stop you. That’s what happened to John the Baptist. He was airing Herod’s dirty laundry and that got him thrown in prison. The problem, I believe, is that John was wanting deliverance in much the same way that Herod threw him into prison: through an act of powerful retribution.
However, the Jesus life doesn’t work this way. James tells us to be patient in the way the prophets were patient. Well, how were they “patient?” Often they were tortured or stoned or killed. They spoke the truth to powerful people and lived with those consequences. It was difficult for them but when you speak out against the powerful be ready for the consequences.
Today many people online and around the world want to respond to the attacks on Wikileaks in the same manner. They want to attack the infrastructure and the governments that insist on finding some way to censor online content. Some are hackers who wish to respond in force.
But for Christians, this is not the Jesus life. The Jesus life is something different and something special. The Jesus life calls us to a life of true patience. If you don’t mind, I’m going to take a line from a Guns-N-Roses song and do a little editing:
Shed a tear ’cause I’m missing you
I’m still alright to smile
Jesus, I think about you every day now
Was a time when I wasn’t sure
But you set my mind at ease
There is no doubt you’re in my heart now
God says take it slow
It’ll work itself out fine
All we need is just a little patience
Said love make it slow
And we’ll come together fine
All we need is just a little patience
Patience in the midst of what appears to be overwhelming power. Patience in the midst of a suffering world is a difficult concept. It’s even more difficult when it’s in the middle of the hurt and pain of our own lives.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, we are “summoned to share in God’s sufferings at the hands of the world” and Richard Beck clarifies it by saying “as God becomes radically available to the world (and suffers for it!), so the church becomes radically available to the world and will suffer for it! This is the crux of our difficult journey to which we’re called and it’s hard to be patient but during Advent we especially need to hear these words:
“The Church exists for the sake of the world into which Jesus enters and in which He acts and for which He gave up His own life.” (Bonhoeffer with a little clarification.)The way we find patience is to turn away from this otherworldly view of God which many Christians have been taught to have concerning their faith. This view says Christians should just sit around and wait for God to show up and wipe away all wickedness or a similar view that says God will just yank believers away from this world when things get too bad.
No, as the Church and as individuals, we must realize that patience is about walking with God in a world of suffering for we walk with the God who has suffered! Are we bringing Christ into this world? Are we preaching good news to the poor? (That good news means we are standing with them in their pain and helping deliver them from it.) Are we bringing healing to the hurting and lonely? The mistreated? The outcast? The lepers of our day and age? And who are these lepers in our world? Are they not the AIDS victims? The “freaks and geeks” of society? Aren’t they the homosexual community that is often neglected and kept on the margins of society? This, my friends, is the Jesus life and that is how we walk with Jesus in this world! We walk with those suffering and hurting standing on the margins of society.
In this Christmas season, I have to say that I’m worse than most people. I’m so busy with life, school, and work and everything else going on that I forget about the hurting. There are those who do think about the hurting and the outcast during this time of year and I appreciate the work they do but is this something we only do yearly? In this Jesus life, we are called to walk with the outcast and hurting throughout our life. It is when we are with the hurting that we are with Jesus.
Do you have enough patience to walk with Jesus? It’s not an easy walk but then Jesus didn’t have an easy walk from his first Advent to the cross. Are we willing to walk that road with him in this world? Walking that road is essential to the Jesus life but walking along this road means that, ultimately, we will arrive at the cross.
I thought I would put up this link to a YouTube video I did a while back since there have been a number of questions about the topic. If you’d like to make any comments, please feel free to do so.
Times are changing. Quickly. But if you’re reading this blog, I think you already know this simple fact that is changing our world moment by moment. As a geek, I live in a culture that expects you to know a little bit about everything. We’re expected to be a jack (or jill) of all trades; yet master of none. We live in a culture that often doesn’t look favorably upon “specialists” because, in some peoples opinion, they’ve become too narrowly focused.
While this has some truth in it, I’ve recently found that our busy lives require us to turn to a specialist. Life just has so much going on that we have an ever increasing need for specialists in this fast paced culture. When I was growing up, my dad prided himself on being able to change the oil in his car and do a wide variety of other types of maintenance. He taught these skills to me and while I didn’t enjoy doing it I knew how to perform quite a few of these tasks. However, after I began to work full-time and got married I realized that I just didn’t have the time to go buy the oil, set the car up on blocks, get under it and do all the nitty, gritty work that comes with changing my own oil. It was just much easier to drive it down to the local oil change service, wait 20 minutes and then be on my way.
Well, this whole truth has hit me home once again. I’ve had trouble maintaining my website over the past few years. It was, at one time, a good source of information and looked fairly nice. However, the “busyness” of life has once again caught up with me. I just don’t have the time to do it any more and I have also had to admit that web design has outpaced me over the last decade. It’s just no longer possible. So, I’ve looked around and found a professional to actually fix my site for me. Hopefully this will work out and everything will turn out well.
So, you ask, what does this have to do with spirituality? In living in a culture that so often despises “experts” and thinks everyone should be able to “do it themselves,” I’ve come to realize that there are a number of people that believe they can travel on their spiritual journey all alone. They believe themselves to be self-made people and since they’re supposed to do everything themselves then they better take care of their own spiritual life. They don’t need anyone else meddling about with it.
The only problem with this philosophy is that it’s very similar to the “do-it-yourself” mentality of our work culture. This is the mentality that leads to worry, ulcers, hypertension, fatigue and a variety of other illnesses along with burn-out in the workplace. We’re (hopefully) starting to realize that people need to slow down and let others take up some of those tasks they’ve been shouldering on their own for way too long.
This is where the spiritual life fits in. That’s the function an organic, living church or faith community should be giving to those walking through an increasingly busy world. The church and the Christian faith should be a place of shared community and one in which we pick up and carry each others burdens. Step back from trying to work out your spirituality in a vacuum and find some good, friendly, open-minded people with whom you can share your journey. Yes, you make yourself vulnerable in doing this and risk getting hurt but that risk, my friends, is definitely worth it in the long run! I’d rather be vulnerable to some pain caused by me being too open with my friends than face another bought of spiritual burnout.
Hopefully, my little ramblings here will be helpful to some of my readers. On the other hand, it may sound like pure foolishness to others. Whichever it might be, please feel free to dialogue with me at your leisure.
Here you go, folks. Sorry to invade this blog of geekiness with a bit of a personal rant (aren’t all blogs personal rants?)
As some of you already know, I recently moved to Bells, TN after staying in temporary housing in Brownsville, TN. The pastor at the church/charge that I recently replaced was very kind enough to let me move my numerous books into my new office a week early so I rented a U-Haul and with the help of friends moved all of my theology books into the new office. (We also have a number of my “geek” books in a spare room in the church stored safely away until my wife grants me permission to put them in the den at the new parsonage.)
So, what does this have to do with U-Haul you may ask? Well, here goes:
Never, Never, Never USE U-Haul in Brownsville, TN. I started off with very mediocre service and that should have been a warning. I pulled up to their office on a weekday and the sign said, “Ring the Bell someone is here.” I rand the bell and there was no answer. I called the first number on the door and their was no answer. I called the second number and someone answered and said they’d be there in a few minutes. By the time they arrived, another customer had shown up on the scene and they were waited on before me. After waiting a while, I was shown the U-Haul I would be renting so I paid a cash deposit and was given the key. I overlooked all the mediocre service because, hey, this is going to be a simple move, right? What could go wrong? It’s turned out worse than I imagined. This U-Haul location has taken bad customer service to the next level.
For quick info, I returned the U-Haul truck to them the next day on time and with a full tank of gas. However, there was no one in the office. I called them on the phone and told them that someone might want to come by as I might owe them a balance on the account. I was told it would not be a problem and then I mentioned that they could call me on my cell phone if there was any additional balance. I dropped the key in the box and that was it…..or so I thought.
Fade to 12 days later (today). I receive a phone call from a COLLECTIONS AGENCY saying that I had an $89 balance with U-Haul. What? This sounded crazy so I got off the phone with them and called the location in Brownsville immediately. Nothing but a constant busy signal. I then call their corporate office and they say, yes, there is a balance of $50. What? Hmmmm. Something seems odd.
Well, needless to say, I have been disconnected from their customer care line twice and have not yet resolved this problem. The worst part about the situation is that the amount is not a large one and it’s actually a reimbursable expense. This means that, in the end, this rental shouldn’t cost me anything at all. I’m angry and frustrated that this local U-Haul dealer never had the wherewithal to give me a call. It’s ridiculous and very bad business.
Sadly, this is the way things work too often in the world. Instead of dealing with a problem directly, openly and honestly people would rather put it off on someone else. They like to hide behind layers & layers of bureaucracy because of their own inability to face problems head on.
Thanks for listening to my rant and, hopefully, you’ll avoid the U-Haul location in Brownsville, TN and possibly any other U-Haul location. I never had this problem with other companies and I will not be having it in the future. My recommendation? If you ever rent something of this nature, make them bring someone out to check you back in and look over the merchandise. If you’ve arrived during normal business hours (like I did) and they refuse to help you then you immediately call their corporate number.