Our church is beginning to walk through the whole New Testament in 40 days. This, in my opinion, should be an amazing experience for all involved. It not only affirms those who are more versed in scripture, but also brings those who may not have had an opportunity to read the whole NT up to speed. I pray that this generates some great discussion and revelation to all those involved.
Mike King, one of our associate pastors, was setting this period of time up this Sunday. He was speaking about a ship that was funded by the US military as a troop transport. This ship was called the USS United States. The unique property of this ship was that is was massive and that is was created to be a cruise liner as well, knowing they wouldn't always need it to transport troops. So with a little paint and some engineering, they could transform this cruise liner into a massive troop transport vessel.
Although it was created to be a troop transport, the USS United States was never used for that reason. It continued to be a cruise liner until it became too outdated. It now is in a shipyard waiting to become scrap metal. The USS United States never lived out what it was created to be and eventually it was discarded... In relation, this is the potential for any person on earth. We either realize what we were created to be, or we live our lives in ways unnatural and end up in the scrapyard.
Mike brought this around with the kicking off of our study of the New Testament. What the USS United States didn't do was stay connected to what it was created to be. We as people, especially those who believe Jesus to be true, have the same task in our lives. But how often do we get distracted, or just don't know how to do that? I know I have found myself looking back on massive chunks of time and thinking to myself, "I haven't felt connected to God in soooo long..." Because that's what it's really about in the long run; staying connected to our creator.
And this was the point of Mike's discussion, and the ultimate point of reading through the New Testament. We as people become so distracted by our own lives and efforts that we often lose track of who we are and what we have been made to be. The only way we are to stay connected with these truths is to stay connected to the one who created us.
We do so much in our time here on earth to define who we are ourselves. We take other people's opinions, our experiences, our fears and victories, our lineage of family, our relationships, our likes and dislikes, etc., and construct a "This is who I am" statement. So much of that is external, though. Do we really allow outside sources define who we are on the inside? I would say most of us do. We allow this world to set us into motion, and heaven forbid we break the mold and be different!
The point in all this is that I have spent too much time allowing the world to define who I am. I have been used by the world for something I was never created to do; namely to be a consumer (more to come in another blog). But the things I buy do not define who I am. The world cannot define who I am. I only allow it to. No, my true identity is found in the one who created me, the One whom I have lost connection with recently. I have not spent time with my God in order for His truth about who I am to roll over me and wash me clean of this oppressive and wrong life I am living.
I pray and hope that this time with the New Testament not only opens our eyes to new truths about Jesus and God's character and love for us, but that it also sheds light on who we are as His beloved creation.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Sinners before the Throne
I am new to twitter, but I already love it. I can follow people, famous or ordinary, and get updates on what they're doing or what they're into without rummaging through all the extra crap of Facebook. That might seem lame, but if your list of people you follow is interesting, you get to read and watch some pretty interesting things that you normally wouldn't be privy to.
Recently I was on Twitter and my good friend Matt Nightingale had tweeted a link to the I Am Second website. I Am Second is a website primarily for people to share their testimonies about God. Some people are famous, but others are just ordinary people like you and me. This particular tweet sent me to the conversion story of Anna Rice, the author of Interview with a Vampire. At first I didn't know who she was. The name sounded familiar, but I wasn't quite sure why. After she said she wrote Interview with a Vampire I was very curious to her story. I have not read the book, but I enjoyed the movie very much.
Towards the end of her video, Anne Rice is asked what it means to be saved. Her reply was, "What does it mean to look at the cross and think Christ has saved me... It means that your sins are forgiven. That everything you have failed to do, everything you've done wrong... All of this has been forgiven by God. Understood, witnessed by God and that you are forgiven. There is no barrier to you being one with Him."
I love the simplicity of that answer. It's to the point and without all the academic jargon I have been cluttering the gospel with. It's a simple/complex person's understanding of a simple/complex gospel. The phrase that really struck me, though, was 'understood and witnessed by God'.
I am a youth pastor in Tulsa, OK. Having been a youth pastor for 4 year, I have heard a lot of the Christian clichés. One that I hear often, concerning prayer or thinking before you sin, is to picture God with you, because He is always with you. While that is true, we use this in order to guilt teens into not doing things we have deemed "bad." But the way Anne Rice uses it here, I believe, is much more real and beautiful.
It is true that God is with us and knows all we have done, but instead of using that as some sort of guilt trip (which is another thing God has freed us from) maybe we should expand that in the way Anne Rice sees it. In her explanation, grace, what was offered on the cross, is made more complete because God understands and witnesses.
It is a little weird to picture God with you as you commit a sin, but take that even further and think about when you step up to His throne and are humbled by his grace IN THE MIDST of Him knowing the things you have done.
There is a movie called Defending Your Life that I loved watching as a kid. I don't know why I liked it so much. Maybe the thought of everything tasting good and you can't gain weight was appealing? Anyway, in this movie the two main people have just died and they are taken to a place that is in between the earth and their final destination. The final destinations are either Heaven, or you go back to earth. The basis of this decision is how you led your life on earth before you kicked the bucket. Each person is paired with a lawyer who looks through events in your life to plead your case, while the plaintiff cross examines. As they talk about these events, either showing courage or some other virtuous quality, or not, there is a TV screen behind the subject in which those events in question are played back like a movie. As a kid, I hoped this was how the afterlife was... Not so much because I was a courageous kid, but because there was no hell and you could eat whatever you wanted and it would be the best meal you had ever had.
Anyway, the reason I bring that up is because it falls in line with what Anna Rice was talking about. She says that God understands and witnesses our "stuff," good or bad. And instead of having to sit and be subjected to people fighting over whether or not you have good character, God has watched the game film and knows no one has done it well.
As I approach the throne of God, I don't do it as someone who needs to confess things to God as if He doesn't know them already. God has watched our movie and knows everything we have done. If this is the case, we have to ask ourselves, why confess? If we're confessing to a God who knows all, doesn't that seem pointless? This is where Anne Rice gets brilliant. Confession is not just for the one receiving the confession, but also, and maybe more importantly, for the one giving the confession.
There is nothing we can do ourselves to forgive the sins we have committed. Only through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross can we be forgiven our sins. But God already knows this. I believe confession is for us to get off our shoulders the things that hinder us from people the people we were meant to be. We were made with much more in mind. We turned our back on God and have tried to do it our own way for so long. All along the way we have screwed it up even more than before. There is a truly humbling experience in the life of a Christian when they first realize this truth. But something we fail to realize, and churches fail to teach, is that we walk up to the throne of God not to pour out our secrets and things we've never told anyone... No, God has "witnessed and understood" those. We walk to the throne of God to express gratitude. Gratitude for the fact that 'while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.'
My church loves this idea, but never practices it... Our words say that we are all sinners, but our actions tell everyone that we must work out our own salvation before we enter the throne-room of God. These people will continue to carry around the weight of guilt because there is nothing we can do to forgive our sins. I am humbled at the throne room of God because I know God knows what I have done. I know God has seen the darkest, grossest, ugliest things I have ever done, said, thought, etc. and yet He continually asks me into the throne room because He has witnessed and understood me.
Recently I was on Twitter and my good friend Matt Nightingale had tweeted a link to the I Am Second website. I Am Second is a website primarily for people to share their testimonies about God. Some people are famous, but others are just ordinary people like you and me. This particular tweet sent me to the conversion story of Anna Rice, the author of Interview with a Vampire. At first I didn't know who she was. The name sounded familiar, but I wasn't quite sure why. After she said she wrote Interview with a Vampire I was very curious to her story. I have not read the book, but I enjoyed the movie very much.
Towards the end of her video, Anne Rice is asked what it means to be saved. Her reply was, "What does it mean to look at the cross and think Christ has saved me... It means that your sins are forgiven. That everything you have failed to do, everything you've done wrong... All of this has been forgiven by God. Understood, witnessed by God and that you are forgiven. There is no barrier to you being one with Him."
I love the simplicity of that answer. It's to the point and without all the academic jargon I have been cluttering the gospel with. It's a simple/complex person's understanding of a simple/complex gospel. The phrase that really struck me, though, was 'understood and witnessed by God'.
I am a youth pastor in Tulsa, OK. Having been a youth pastor for 4 year, I have heard a lot of the Christian clichés. One that I hear often, concerning prayer or thinking before you sin, is to picture God with you, because He is always with you. While that is true, we use this in order to guilt teens into not doing things we have deemed "bad." But the way Anne Rice uses it here, I believe, is much more real and beautiful.
It is true that God is with us and knows all we have done, but instead of using that as some sort of guilt trip (which is another thing God has freed us from) maybe we should expand that in the way Anne Rice sees it. In her explanation, grace, what was offered on the cross, is made more complete because God understands and witnesses.
It is a little weird to picture God with you as you commit a sin, but take that even further and think about when you step up to His throne and are humbled by his grace IN THE MIDST of Him knowing the things you have done.
There is a movie called Defending Your Life that I loved watching as a kid. I don't know why I liked it so much. Maybe the thought of everything tasting good and you can't gain weight was appealing? Anyway, in this movie the two main people have just died and they are taken to a place that is in between the earth and their final destination. The final destinations are either Heaven, or you go back to earth. The basis of this decision is how you led your life on earth before you kicked the bucket. Each person is paired with a lawyer who looks through events in your life to plead your case, while the plaintiff cross examines. As they talk about these events, either showing courage or some other virtuous quality, or not, there is a TV screen behind the subject in which those events in question are played back like a movie. As a kid, I hoped this was how the afterlife was... Not so much because I was a courageous kid, but because there was no hell and you could eat whatever you wanted and it would be the best meal you had ever had.
Anyway, the reason I bring that up is because it falls in line with what Anna Rice was talking about. She says that God understands and witnesses our "stuff," good or bad. And instead of having to sit and be subjected to people fighting over whether or not you have good character, God has watched the game film and knows no one has done it well.
As I approach the throne of God, I don't do it as someone who needs to confess things to God as if He doesn't know them already. God has watched our movie and knows everything we have done. If this is the case, we have to ask ourselves, why confess? If we're confessing to a God who knows all, doesn't that seem pointless? This is where Anne Rice gets brilliant. Confession is not just for the one receiving the confession, but also, and maybe more importantly, for the one giving the confession.
There is nothing we can do ourselves to forgive the sins we have committed. Only through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross can we be forgiven our sins. But God already knows this. I believe confession is for us to get off our shoulders the things that hinder us from people the people we were meant to be. We were made with much more in mind. We turned our back on God and have tried to do it our own way for so long. All along the way we have screwed it up even more than before. There is a truly humbling experience in the life of a Christian when they first realize this truth. But something we fail to realize, and churches fail to teach, is that we walk up to the throne of God not to pour out our secrets and things we've never told anyone... No, God has "witnessed and understood" those. We walk to the throne of God to express gratitude. Gratitude for the fact that 'while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.'
My church loves this idea, but never practices it... Our words say that we are all sinners, but our actions tell everyone that we must work out our own salvation before we enter the throne-room of God. These people will continue to carry around the weight of guilt because there is nothing we can do to forgive our sins. I am humbled at the throne room of God because I know God knows what I have done. I know God has seen the darkest, grossest, ugliest things I have ever done, said, thought, etc. and yet He continually asks me into the throne room because He has witnessed and understood me.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Weakness
I remember when I was younger I heard Jesse "The Body" Ventura say, "Organized religion is a sham and a crutch for weak-minded people who need strength in numbers. It tells people to go out and stick their noses in other people's business." Later on he went on to "clarify" his statement by saying he didn't mean "all" religious people are weak-minded... just those who feel they have the right to force their beliefs on others when, Jesse says, the constitution was founded with a right to freedom of religion. So, the weak-minded are those who have to have people agree with them to validate their own belief, which makes religion a crutch and the religious weak-minded... With that last part, I would agree with Mr. Ventura.
But when I heard this, actually I heard something to the affect of, "religion is for the weak," I became pretty offended. So I called up my friends who also believed in the same things I do and we talked about how we agreed with what each other believed. I felt better almost instantaneously. Just kidding. But it did affect me. I think it was the first time I can recall someone of high standings directly going against religion. I didn't really know what to believe or think... So I did what any other bored teenager did... I stuffed it back and didn't worry about it.
And now it has resurfaced...
I was, and still am in a lot of ways, a prideful person. When I heard Jesse Ventura call me weak, I reacted out of my pride and completely wrote him and his opinion off. I figured he was hardened to God and was probably very sad and lost. As I have grown more in my faith and stripped away my pride layer by layer, I am not offended by Jesse's quote anymore. I am actually saddened by it.
If I had to pick one attribute of the christian faith that was the most counter-cultural to this world, it would probably be weakness. Not that we are called to be weaklings, but we are called to be open about our weaknesses, so as to let people see the work of God in us.
The reason I am writing about this is because this morning I stumbled into something that I have been battling for a long time. Sometimes things are going well, like this morning, but my pride, apathy, sleepiness, whatever you want to claim as the culprit, wore me down and I fell back into the same slump I thought I was out of... and I think that was my problem. I thought I was out of the slump, I thought I had beaten it, but as it turns out I had not, and the only thing I could think was that I had been doing so well, how could I slip up!
Then it hit me! Nowhere in my struggle, when things are going well, do I acknowledge God as the one who is claiming victory in me. We go through a funny journey when up against an addiction or habit. We fight it so hard and lean on God so much when we are first battling out of the hole we have put ourselves in. But after some time we begin to believe it is on our own strength and clever planning that we have made it thus far. If you're like me, that is when we fall the hardest. I have found to be true in my life that pride is the silent instigator to all our pain, addictions and habits.
Pride is the one thing that keeps us from being humble. Pride drives us out of reason towards sheer selfishness and bitterness. Pride is the one things that keeps me from letting go of control and realizing that I am weak without my God (because I continue to screw it up when I don't acknowledge Him). Just as Harrison Ford said in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, "The penitent man kneels before God... Kneel!!!" How he knew to roll forward I will never know, but pride has kept me from kneeling before God and allowing Him to work in me.
Maybe it was the fact that I have fallen so many times with this certain addiction that the revelation hit me so hard... If pride is the biggest instigator to these things, what am I doing not only about my addiction, but my pride as well. It is through this morning, and God shedding light on the truth, that I am discovering that Jesse Ventura was right, so to speak. Religion is for the weak because we are all weak. There is not one person on this earth and in all of history who has lived a perfect life. We all have our short comings and failures. It took God to come in the flesh for us to see what a complete life on this earth could look like. But that was GOD IN THE FLESH. I am still waiting for Joe Schmoe to live perfectly... I have been so disappointed.
Paul was a great man. Even before he followed Jesus he was looked up to and respected because he was a jew to the "T," or should I say to the "J." But as he gave that life up to follow Jesus, he is now looked on with great esteem in the Christian world for the things God has done through him.
This mornings misgivings brought me to this passage in which Paul is addressing weakness in the Christian faith. 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 has Paul giving in to the truth that through his weakness he is made strong. What a weird conundrum!
In our church, this ethos would be rejected. Greatness is shown in strength, merit, money and status. Jesus preached us to be last, placing Himself and others first. We are called to be servants to all. If we are aliens to this world, nothing would show that greater than living a life that's ethos, or lifestyle, was counter to what the world believes.
May our attitude be the same as John the Baptist. In John 3:30 he said "He [Jesus] must increase, but I must decrease." Our pride tells us that we can do it without God. It tells us that to be humble is dumb. It tells us that in order to have any kind of fulfillment on this earth we have to follow the ways of the world... I have lived by the ways of this world for far too long and it has only brought me pain and grief because I am constantly striving for more and to put up some kind of facade so people will accept me... Read that last sentence again. People all around the world are living this way and it sounds incredibly terrible when you read it aloud. Try to read in a happy voice... Sounds weird.
Only in our weakness, in the reality that we cannot do it without God, will we find true contentment. Thank you Jesse Ventura for lighting the way for those who truly want to follow Jesus in a real way. We are weak, but in our weakness God is made strong.
But when I heard this, actually I heard something to the affect of, "religion is for the weak," I became pretty offended. So I called up my friends who also believed in the same things I do and we talked about how we agreed with what each other believed. I felt better almost instantaneously. Just kidding. But it did affect me. I think it was the first time I can recall someone of high standings directly going against religion. I didn't really know what to believe or think... So I did what any other bored teenager did... I stuffed it back and didn't worry about it.
And now it has resurfaced...
I was, and still am in a lot of ways, a prideful person. When I heard Jesse Ventura call me weak, I reacted out of my pride and completely wrote him and his opinion off. I figured he was hardened to God and was probably very sad and lost. As I have grown more in my faith and stripped away my pride layer by layer, I am not offended by Jesse's quote anymore. I am actually saddened by it.
If I had to pick one attribute of the christian faith that was the most counter-cultural to this world, it would probably be weakness. Not that we are called to be weaklings, but we are called to be open about our weaknesses, so as to let people see the work of God in us.
The reason I am writing about this is because this morning I stumbled into something that I have been battling for a long time. Sometimes things are going well, like this morning, but my pride, apathy, sleepiness, whatever you want to claim as the culprit, wore me down and I fell back into the same slump I thought I was out of... and I think that was my problem. I thought I was out of the slump, I thought I had beaten it, but as it turns out I had not, and the only thing I could think was that I had been doing so well, how could I slip up!
Then it hit me! Nowhere in my struggle, when things are going well, do I acknowledge God as the one who is claiming victory in me. We go through a funny journey when up against an addiction or habit. We fight it so hard and lean on God so much when we are first battling out of the hole we have put ourselves in. But after some time we begin to believe it is on our own strength and clever planning that we have made it thus far. If you're like me, that is when we fall the hardest. I have found to be true in my life that pride is the silent instigator to all our pain, addictions and habits.
Pride is the one thing that keeps us from being humble. Pride drives us out of reason towards sheer selfishness and bitterness. Pride is the one things that keeps me from letting go of control and realizing that I am weak without my God (because I continue to screw it up when I don't acknowledge Him). Just as Harrison Ford said in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, "The penitent man kneels before God... Kneel!!!" How he knew to roll forward I will never know, but pride has kept me from kneeling before God and allowing Him to work in me.
Maybe it was the fact that I have fallen so many times with this certain addiction that the revelation hit me so hard... If pride is the biggest instigator to these things, what am I doing not only about my addiction, but my pride as well. It is through this morning, and God shedding light on the truth, that I am discovering that Jesse Ventura was right, so to speak. Religion is for the weak because we are all weak. There is not one person on this earth and in all of history who has lived a perfect life. We all have our short comings and failures. It took God to come in the flesh for us to see what a complete life on this earth could look like. But that was GOD IN THE FLESH. I am still waiting for Joe Schmoe to live perfectly... I have been so disappointed.
Paul was a great man. Even before he followed Jesus he was looked up to and respected because he was a jew to the "T," or should I say to the "J." But as he gave that life up to follow Jesus, he is now looked on with great esteem in the Christian world for the things God has done through him.
This mornings misgivings brought me to this passage in which Paul is addressing weakness in the Christian faith. 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 has Paul giving in to the truth that through his weakness he is made strong. What a weird conundrum!
In our church, this ethos would be rejected. Greatness is shown in strength, merit, money and status. Jesus preached us to be last, placing Himself and others first. We are called to be servants to all. If we are aliens to this world, nothing would show that greater than living a life that's ethos, or lifestyle, was counter to what the world believes.
May our attitude be the same as John the Baptist. In John 3:30 he said "He [Jesus] must increase, but I must decrease." Our pride tells us that we can do it without God. It tells us that to be humble is dumb. It tells us that in order to have any kind of fulfillment on this earth we have to follow the ways of the world... I have lived by the ways of this world for far too long and it has only brought me pain and grief because I am constantly striving for more and to put up some kind of facade so people will accept me... Read that last sentence again. People all around the world are living this way and it sounds incredibly terrible when you read it aloud. Try to read in a happy voice... Sounds weird.
Only in our weakness, in the reality that we cannot do it without God, will we find true contentment. Thank you Jesse Ventura for lighting the way for those who truly want to follow Jesus in a real way. We are weak, but in our weakness God is made strong.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Called to Chameleon
To continue this question of calling, what does Paul mean in 1 Corinthians 9:19-23?
I once heard Donald Miller speak at a Youth Specialties conference about how the church (the actual buildings) have changed throughout history. As the world changed with each reformation and revolution, the church took a different form as well. I had never really thought about it in such a big scale, but as he laid it out it began to make sense. And as we sit (literally) in an entertainment age, our churches are integrated with tons of media and the center of our sanctuaries are stages.
In light of 1 Corinthians 9:19-23, one must ask the question: how do we live out our faith? Do we change our faith to be relevant in our culture, or do we move and breathe with the culture, welcoming it to dress us, so we can be more relevant?
That is a tough line to walk. Our church is wrestling with these questions right now. What is our community around the church? What is the culture around our building and does our church flow with that culture or does it push up against it? Do we continue with our traditions and disregard what the culture is outside our doors, because we believe by holding on to tradition we are holding on to Jesus. Or do we allow culture to paint our walls, hang TVs up and put movie clips in our sermons in order to invite the culture in?
It would seem that Paul is in favor of both. In each line of that passage Paul is saying that he becomes something that he is not in order to win them for the gospel. He becomes and does all things for the sake of the gospel, so that he can partner with the gospel. As we read, it seem as though Paul is changing his faith in order to win people over, but I think he is playing the part of a Chameleon. A Chameleon can blend in to its surroundings, but it remains what it is. Paul does not diverge from his Christian roots, but merely changes customs, speech, actions, etcs... (those that don't contradict or undermine his faith in Jesus) in order to become more relevant to those around him.
In our church I would say this would be a radical way to live out our faith. We hold on to traditions and the way church and faith should "look" because to let those go is to give up our God. And maybe, inadvertently, that is the answer to our problem... What is our God? Jesus or the traditions of the church?
So, maybe Paul isn't a great example. Maybe people see him as a rebel. Well, let's take Jesus for instance. How can you fight the example of Jesus? He's God! Did He not meet and move with the people that the religious elite thought were "sinners." This goes back to that Christian subculture I spoke about in my last blog. The Pharisees had created a subculture, a way of "doing" faith that separated them from the "cultural scum" of the earth. But Jesus (God in the flesh) comes and spends time with those whom society had thrown away. Not to say Paul and Jesus are on the same level, but don't you think Jesus adapted to His surroundings as He ministered? Don't you think He learned about their customs and ways of doing life and tried to enter into their world before He spoke to them about God? Don't you think people want to know someone is interested in them before they're preached at?
We are called to be reconcilers of God and His creation. At what point did we disregard how Jesus and Paul walked that out and claim that people needed to bend and break to our customs before we would socialize with them? We are called to partner with the Gospel and bend and break, become slaves, to those who are lost. We do not give up our faith by doing this, but actually move into a greater reality of what it means to be God's ambassadors.
Back to churches... Our church culture is made up of white, upper-middle class business leaders. We live in the bible belt and expect excellence in everything we do. We are a safe church that has difficulties leaving our walls to interact with the world around us. No one has anything wrong with them, but the prayer cards about the families in ruin, the addictions, the bitterness and hatred for others, the dead faith, etc. speaks otherwise... This is our ministry. Not only do we become excellent to reach the excellent, but we also become surgeons who delicately cut through the B.S. in order to reconcile the healer to the sick.
I often ask my students, "If we are called to be followers of Jesus, where is He going?" As I search the gospels to learn more about Jesus and how He lived His life, the more I am convinced that to follow Jesus is to enter in to the world of the sick. To go to the places no one else will go. To meet with the people no one else will talk to. To give people the time of day who usually get passed by. To become slaves to the gospel, the reconciliation of God and His people. Jesus was a slave to the gospel to the point of death. He gave Himself up for that reconciliation. We are called to do the same. Become the Chameleon in your church. Move and breathe with the culture, but never forget who you are: a sinner saved, the walking dead brought to life, the sick made well...
I once heard Donald Miller speak at a Youth Specialties conference about how the church (the actual buildings) have changed throughout history. As the world changed with each reformation and revolution, the church took a different form as well. I had never really thought about it in such a big scale, but as he laid it out it began to make sense. And as we sit (literally) in an entertainment age, our churches are integrated with tons of media and the center of our sanctuaries are stages.
In light of 1 Corinthians 9:19-23, one must ask the question: how do we live out our faith? Do we change our faith to be relevant in our culture, or do we move and breathe with the culture, welcoming it to dress us, so we can be more relevant?
That is a tough line to walk. Our church is wrestling with these questions right now. What is our community around the church? What is the culture around our building and does our church flow with that culture or does it push up against it? Do we continue with our traditions and disregard what the culture is outside our doors, because we believe by holding on to tradition we are holding on to Jesus. Or do we allow culture to paint our walls, hang TVs up and put movie clips in our sermons in order to invite the culture in?
It would seem that Paul is in favor of both. In each line of that passage Paul is saying that he becomes something that he is not in order to win them for the gospel. He becomes and does all things for the sake of the gospel, so that he can partner with the gospel. As we read, it seem as though Paul is changing his faith in order to win people over, but I think he is playing the part of a Chameleon. A Chameleon can blend in to its surroundings, but it remains what it is. Paul does not diverge from his Christian roots, but merely changes customs, speech, actions, etcs... (those that don't contradict or undermine his faith in Jesus) in order to become more relevant to those around him.
In our church I would say this would be a radical way to live out our faith. We hold on to traditions and the way church and faith should "look" because to let those go is to give up our God. And maybe, inadvertently, that is the answer to our problem... What is our God? Jesus or the traditions of the church?
So, maybe Paul isn't a great example. Maybe people see him as a rebel. Well, let's take Jesus for instance. How can you fight the example of Jesus? He's God! Did He not meet and move with the people that the religious elite thought were "sinners." This goes back to that Christian subculture I spoke about in my last blog. The Pharisees had created a subculture, a way of "doing" faith that separated them from the "cultural scum" of the earth. But Jesus (God in the flesh) comes and spends time with those whom society had thrown away. Not to say Paul and Jesus are on the same level, but don't you think Jesus adapted to His surroundings as He ministered? Don't you think He learned about their customs and ways of doing life and tried to enter into their world before He spoke to them about God? Don't you think people want to know someone is interested in them before they're preached at?
We are called to be reconcilers of God and His creation. At what point did we disregard how Jesus and Paul walked that out and claim that people needed to bend and break to our customs before we would socialize with them? We are called to partner with the Gospel and bend and break, become slaves, to those who are lost. We do not give up our faith by doing this, but actually move into a greater reality of what it means to be God's ambassadors.
Back to churches... Our church culture is made up of white, upper-middle class business leaders. We live in the bible belt and expect excellence in everything we do. We are a safe church that has difficulties leaving our walls to interact with the world around us. No one has anything wrong with them, but the prayer cards about the families in ruin, the addictions, the bitterness and hatred for others, the dead faith, etc. speaks otherwise... This is our ministry. Not only do we become excellent to reach the excellent, but we also become surgeons who delicately cut through the B.S. in order to reconcile the healer to the sick.
I often ask my students, "If we are called to be followers of Jesus, where is He going?" As I search the gospels to learn more about Jesus and how He lived His life, the more I am convinced that to follow Jesus is to enter in to the world of the sick. To go to the places no one else will go. To meet with the people no one else will talk to. To give people the time of day who usually get passed by. To become slaves to the gospel, the reconciliation of God and His people. Jesus was a slave to the gospel to the point of death. He gave Himself up for that reconciliation. We are called to do the same. Become the Chameleon in your church. Move and breathe with the culture, but never forget who you are: a sinner saved, the walking dead brought to life, the sick made well...
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Walking What I Am Teaching
This Sunday I taught on 2 Corinthians 5:17-19. The more I teach about reconciliation the more it penetrates my heart. I started by asking what Jesus came to do. The usuals were said, "To be an example." "To save us." etc... And those are true, but I think it goes so much deeper than we assume...
I am trying to look at scripture as an entire story, rather than books and letters. Then I ask myself, what is God doing throughout the whole story? It seems to me that since the fall of man in Genesis God has always been reconciling His people back to Him. God pleads with Adam right after their defiance, God uses many people to call His people back to Himself, God even sends prophets to warn people of their destruction, so they have time to change their ways and come back to God (How can He not be seen as graceful?). The shame in it all is that we continually turn our backs on God. How sad and frustrating it must be for Him to be pouring Himself out over and over again only to see a few turn around. If you do not know Jesus, I pray that you would see that it's not about rules or coming to church, but it's about being reconciled to your creator. How amazing is it that we have a God who would do that?
I want to be continually amazed by this truth every morning. Not only does it put me in my place, a sinner who needs to be reconciled, but it also sets me up for what God has called me to do...
The next question I asked the students is what they think we're (Christians) called to do.
The same passage speaks volumes about that. Jesus has passed the baton and now we are called to be ambassadors to God's reconciliation (Just as Jesus was). Had I really understood what Jesus had done for me in high school I think my outlook on life would have been different. I treated my calling as if it were a wardrobe to put on everyday. My calling (in my eyes) was to look a certain way. That meant being hip to all the new "Christian" trends: clothes, music, language, activities, books, etc... The more and more I looked like what a "cultural Christian" should look like the more it became my focus, and an unknown vanity was produced. I became more concerned about how I looked than others souls.
And so it goes for a lot of Christians today, especially in south Tulsa. We have created a Christian subculture. We can listen to Christian music, read Christian books, speak church language, wear clothes and jewelry we by from Christian stores, etc... But the most telling truth about this subculture is that we only hang out with our Christian friends. The more we sink into this cultural Christian paradigm and live in our Christian subculture the more we alienate the very people we are called to reconcile. How much closer to Jesus have I ever been then speaking to people who have never heard of Him? I feel different because I am awaking to the truth of my calling.
Matthew 23 is a scary chapter... As I look at my own life, especially in high school and in college, I am reminded of the Pharisees in this passage. I tried to conform to a look, which was artificially created by culture, and I tried to have others conform to that look too. All the while I am trapping myself along with these people in a downward spiral to hell because I haven't truly connected with Jesus. I haven't truly understood the gospel of Jesus and His reconciliation, which would mean maybe I wasn't saved? How can I have accepted the gospel if I never understood it? And when I think of hell, this is what I picture... A place where people are tormented but who live with the hope that some day a savior will come and only the devil knows that he is not coming...
And this is where I am today. I am fighting my comfortable vanity to be inconvenienced for the gospel. This vanity will never save me. The only thing that will save me is humbleness in the midst of Jesus sacrifice. I often tell students who are scared to share their dark stuff that they will never understand the fullness of what Jesus did on the cross until they understand the fullness of their depravation before Jesus.
So my prayer for myself, and for all those in the church, is that we can drop the vanity. We have created for ourselves a picture of what a follower of Jesus looks like and we are slaves to that picture, not Jesus. I pray we can take a long hard look at our own sin and be reminded that our deeds do not make them clean... only Jesus washes away our sin. I pray that we can then go out of our Christian bubbles and meet people who don't know Jesus where they are, physically and spiritually, and reconcile them back to God.
The Point
As you walk into a new country, one that is void of any norms you know, you have a heightened awareness of your surroundings and the undeniable truth that you are not from there. The Bible says that I am a stranger to the earth. Somehow, as I have been walking in this new land for some time, my senses have been dulled. My awareness has dissipated and I have actually grown accustom to this new land. But as I continue to grow closer with Jesus, I become more aware that I am a stranger to this land... This blog is about the struggle inside us all to remain strangers without becoming comfortable.
