Why The Economy is in Trouble

Book Review (Part 0)-- This Book Will Change Your World: How All Things Become New

Here's the book review as promised. I've decided to review this book one chapter at a time because of the weighty issues that author Kevin Beck addresses as far as Biblical interpretation and praxis is concerned. Part 0 of the review will deal with the book's introduction.

I’m writing this from my local café. Besides me, three tables are occupied—all of them with people doing Bible studies. The first is a young lady in private meditation. The second is a group of two men planning “strategic outreach.” The third has a gaggle of men discussing how we’re witnessing the unfolding of Biblical end-times events. I don’t know what the woman is thinking about, but the men are preparing the way for world domination or destruction based on their reading of the Bible. I can’t help but think that if similar conversations were taking place over an open Qur’an someone might call Homeland Security. (Beck, p.10)

Here's a very pertinent passage of Scripture. Please read it very carefully, although it is a bit lengthy:

And while some were speaking of the temple, how it was adorned with noble stones and offerings, he [Jesus] said, "As for these things that you see, the days will come when there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down." And they asked him, "Teacher, when will these things be, and what will be the sign when these things are about to take place?" And he said, "See that you are not led astray. For many will come in my name, saying, 'I am he!' and 'The time is at hand!' Do not go after them. And when you hear of wars and tumults, do not be terrified, for these things must first take place, but the end will not be at once."
Then he said to them, "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences. And there will be terrors and great signs from heaven. But before all this they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors for my name's sake. This will be your opportunity to bear witness. Settle it therefore in your minds not to meditate beforehand how to answer, for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict. You will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and some of you they will put to death. You will be hated by all for my name's sake. But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your lives.
But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation has come near. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, and let not those who are out in country enter it, for these are days of vengeance, to fulfill all that is written. Alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days! For there will be great distress upon the earth and wrath against this people. They will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive among all nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.-- Luke 21:1-24 (English Standard Version: emphases mine)

Before you read on, let the passage above speak for itself and let it soak in. Don't try to explain things away and dismiss them just because they don't fit your theology or what you have been taught. Set aside all preconceptions and everything you think you know. The Word of God interprets itself, and it can open windows to vistas you may have never visited before. It might even change the way you approach Scripture. It did for me.

Done? Great!

So, what was the above passage about? Are you sure? If you said that this section from the Gospel of St. Luke is about the last day of history, the end of time, or the catastrophic destruction of our planet and universe, look again. Would a natural reading of the text lend itself to such an intepretation? Would Jesus' audience have understood his words in that way?

The passage above is a prophecy by Jesus about the coming destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple. This is the most natural way we can read the text. We Christians today make a big mistake by taking texts such as this and project them into an indefinite future. It is vital to remember that Jesus was not prophecying into a void. The words of Jesus must be taken contextually and the context must be understood in its 1st century historical setting, for that is when Jesus carried out his ministry among the Jews.

This is exactly the point Beck is making in the introduction to his book. Of course, he said it much more eloquently than I just did. But the point is made. We are so accustomed to imposing a catastophic future onto the texts of Scripture that it has become second nature. Beck is calling us to stand back, take a deep breath, and look again.

Current conventional readings of apocalyptic sections of Scripture make Jesus out to be a soon-to-come, 80-foot, cloud-surfing tyrant who's hellbent on destroying everything, except for a chosen few who will be "raptured" away to heavenly bliss. For a growing number of people, that's not very good news. In fact, it sounds quite hopeless. You can say "Jesus loves you" all you want, but that doesn't help in alleviating so much end times angst among the people of God. There is still an unspoken anxiety among many Christians who have been taught that Jesus is coming back sometime in the future that there's a chance that they "might not make it." This is what happens in the hearts and minds of many who listen to preachers like me talk about the everlasting destruction of those opposed to Jesus. Says Beck,

For centuries, people have told the Biblical story in terms of humanity's rebellion and God's intense yearning to make us pay. That way of telling the story portrays an irate God who resolves to whack all humanity in a genocidal act of revenge because the first couple took a piece of fruit. He decided to give us a second chance by taking out his frustrations on Jesus. People who believe these facts will escape never-ending torture. Moreover, these believers need to think the right thoughts about the metaphysical make-up of the Lord God—sputtering doctrinal, traditional, and creedal shibboleths. Then they need to agree to a certain cosmology, regardless of what the visible evidence suggests, and they need to behave according to preset dictates; otherwise, they're going to regret it for a long, long time.
Those lucky enough to believe, think, and act in harmony with God's revealed and hidden purposes call their good fortune grace. To them, God in his infinite mercy is waiting patiently for all people to come to their senses. Yet, the vast majority of them won't. One day God's patience will run out and he'll get so fed up that he'll send Jesus back to earth. Upon his arrival, zombies will come forth from the ground and the planet will miraculously flourish and/or explode.
This is the good news?
No wonder there is so much anxiety surrounding religion. This way of telling the story portrays God as a petty, neurotic, and secretive tyrant. It puts humanity in the position of seeking to appease this God by the performance of enigmatic rituals and adherence to arbitrary moral standards. It gives us all one chance to get it right. Our fate is sealed by death, and even God is bound by death's decision. Most disturbingly, it places God at enmity with humans and our world. (p. 12, 13)

According to Beck, we have the power to tell stories any way we want. This can be a curse, as he demonstrates in a retelling of The Wizard of Oz in a way that makes Dorothy seem like a terribly naughty person, while keeping the narrative intact. However, we also have the ability to tell stories in a very positive light. What Beck suggests is that there is a way to tell the Biblical story in a way that doesn't make God out to be the godfather Vito Corleone. Again, Beck:

I simply must believe that there's a truer way of telling the story. One that pictures God as someone kinder and gentler than the godfather. One that honors God for walking with us through the hurts, sorrows, and wounds of life. One that depicts God as love incarnate. One that sees Christ on the cross as the ultimate expression of divinity and humanity. One that blesses all families of the earth. One that finds God to be infinitely immanent rather than completely separate. One that recognizes humanity’s comprehensive connection in the ultimate all-in-all. One in which God decrees, “There's no place like home,” and so God has already made his home with us—not as an abusive despot, but as a tender and understanding presence (Revelation 21:3). (p. 13, 14)

I agree. This kind of reading of Scripture is truer to the overall sweep of the Biblical narrative. Never once, as many scholars now point out, did God's covenant people foresee the annihilation of the space-time continuum. We must learn to tell the story of God as revealed in Jesus Christ in a way that isn't fatalistic toward God's marvelous creation. Kevin Beck has given us a fantastic start in understanding the Scriptural narrative afresh by the tedious, but ultimately satisfying, study of history. Beck realizes that this cannot be accomplished in the matter of a 137 pages of text. But at least it's a start.

I have taught the Biblical narrative all the way through (including the Apocrypha) twice in my 15 years of ministry and have become convinced that we read the Scriptures with predetermined doctrinal lenses that turn Jesus into an amateur philosopher. I've also become convinced that we must learn the themes that weave their way through the Bible, tie them together, and then behold the beautiful tapestry that the Lord God has made for us!

Part 1 next time.

How I got to know Kevin Beck

This blog entry is a precursor to the book review I promised in my previous post. I thought it would be fitting and appropriate to first write about how I got to know the book's author. It's a long story, so if you're willing to wade through it I'll try to make it as short as possible.

A few years ago I was involved in a Bible Study on the Gospel of Mark. In this study we made a cursory overview of the Old Testament and the Intertestamental Period to get somewhat of an understanding of what Jesus was dealing with in his ministry. In passing I should mention that the Bible Study leader was (and still is) a Biblical scholar in the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, of which I am a member. He is a man I greatly admire for his knowledge of the Scriptures and for his charitable work. When the course he was leading got to Mark 13, he told us that Mark's "Little Apocalypse" was not about the end of the world. I was shocked to hear this because I always understood Mark 13 as Jesus' predictions of the end of the world. I had always taught and preached that Jesus will visibly return on the last day of history, snatch up all of the believers to heaven, and destroy the planet and the universe in a ball of fire. And I regularly used the accounts of the Olivet Discourse (Mark 13, Luke 21, Matthew 24 and 25) and other statements in the Epistles as proof of what I taught.

The course instructor insisted that we have to read Mark 13 very carefully and make sure that we read it in its historical context. We already had in our minds, after surveying the Old Testament, a picture of God as a deity who takes great displeasure in any buildings that claim to "house" him and keep him locked in a room. The Jerusalem Temple served as one such building, confining the presence of God to a cubicle and all the while keeping people out. This "house" had to go, and Jesus was warning that such a day would occur "within this generation", meaning Jesus' contemporaries. I was so accustomed to projecting Mark 13 to some indefinite future that it never occured to me to read it as something that would have been very important to the Jewish people in the 1st century.

Now I need to back up a bit. A couple of years before I took this course on Mark I read a book called The Challenge of Jesus: Rediscovering Who Jesus Was and Is by N.T. Wright. In this book, Wright had made the claim that the Fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple was prophecied by Jesus in Mark 13 in its entirety. In other words, the whole chapter is devoted to the destruction of the Temple. So claimed Dr. Wright. I automatically blew off this assertion thinking that it had no real significance to the Biblical story anyway. But Wright's interpretation kept ringing in my ears. Lo and behold, I heard it again, and this time it was from the course instructor (did I mention he's LCMS?). But something was a little bit different.

In the course we were taught that Mark 13 is about the destruction of the Temple, but not in its entirety. Our instructor said that a division must be made at verse 32, because from then on, Jesus is talking about the last day of history. I won't get into the details of how that could be. Many theories have been offered to try to explain this division. But now I was a bit confused-- one scholar said that the entire chapter is about the destruction of the Temple; another one said that only part of the chapter is about the destruction of Temple. Who was right?

After studying the issue a bit, I started to side more with Wright because the flow of Mark 13 seemed to be maintained with his interpretation. The theories offered to explain a supposed division in Mark 13 seemed to me to be nothing more than mental gymnastics, desperately trying to hold on to deep seated beliefs about an end to the planet, while concurrently keeping up with modern scholarship about the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple. It's called "having your cake and eating it too"! So I concluded that Mark 13 is about the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, which occurred in AD 70-- the whole chapter!!

I then began to wonder if there was anyone else out there who was thinking along these lines. I went to Google and typed in the search bar "AD 70 destruction of Jerusalem". The first link was to a website called "Preterist Archive". Since I didn't know what a "preterist" was, I clicked on the link out of curiosity and found out that a preterist is one who holds to the view that all Scriptural prophecy has been fulfilled, the final event being the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in AD 70. I found the Preterist Archive website to be quite tedious and hard to navigate, but there were links to other sites. I clicked on them thinking that they would be much easier to glean information from. Most of them were just as noisy as the Archive, but there was one that, for me, stood out above the rest as far as navigability and simplicity. It was called "Presence Ministries". Here was a site with friendly voices and friendly faces. It was also a site that, while holding to a preterist interpretation of Scripture, worked out the implications of such interpretation. I became intrigued by it and delved a bit further. The site had an open forum that anyone could join, so I did! I "lurked" for awhile, reading what other people were saying. It turned out that there were more people than I thought who held to a preterist view of Scripture.

I was convinced that Mark 13 was about the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple, but I was not ready to hold to the preterist view. I was bound and determined to hold to the traditional Amillennial view that the Lord will visibly return in the future, but it was through the Presence site that I got to converse with a man by the name of Kevin Beck. At the time, he was serving a Church of Christ parish in Ohio, but was also the vice president of Presence Ministries, which is located in Colorado Springs, Colorado. I remember thinking that it's very odd to have your vice president living a thousand miles away!! The president of Presence Ministries was a man by the name of Tim King, who's father Max, wrote a 700+ page tome entitled The Cross and the Parousia of Christ: The Two Dimensions of One Age-Changing Eschaton. Tim is an author himself and wanted to spend more time in his writing career. Kevin Beck was then asked to become the president. He accepted and moved to Colorado Springs.

I have never met Kevin Beck face-to-face. We only know each other over the internet. I have met Tim King, who is a gentle giant of a man, and thought if Kevin is anything like Tim then he must be a great guy. I hope to meet him someday, and finally shake his hand for fielding my many questions, commenting on this blog, and being in charge of a ministry that is well-equipped to address pertinent issues facing our post-modern society.

Thanks for reading!!

Sorry for not posting in a while

I apologize for not posting in quite a while. I'm in the middle of reading a book written by a friend, and I promised I would write a review on this blog. So sit tight! I'll finish reading the book soon, think about it, and then write about my reactions to the book.

In case anyone is interested, the book is called This Book Will Change Your World by Kevin Beck. I'm enjoying the book so far, Kevin (in case you're reading this)!

I didn't want to say, "I told you so," but...

The recent Obama appointees don't reflect the so-called "change" Mr. Obama promised. As I wrote in a previous entry, change does not come to Washington; people go to Washington and are changed by the Washington culture. Our President-elect will be no exception to this.

Appointing Clintonistas is not change, statements by Lanny Davis notwithstanding. Davis claims that real change is in policy, not people. Nice try. That's like saying the Grim Reaper will reap no more.

Bringing in the same old retreads from the 90's will result in policies from the 90's. I don't see this as change. It's just reverting back to the 90's. Do we really expect people who worked for Clinton and Washington veteran insiders to enact policies that have never been seen before? Won't they just do what they did in the 90's? Doing something over again is not change. It's doing something over again.

Yes, I know-- the Clinton era was wonderful, despite the reproach Mr. Clinton brought to the office of President. The federal deficit was erased. There was a surplus of revenue. It really was about the stupid economy.

But that's not my point. The Obama Administration might be good for the country (which remains to be seen), but it is not change. Change is doing things altogether differently, not rehashing and replaying old policies.

This is why I never believe promises of change. It only turns out to be more of the same. Sorry to sound so cynical at a time when many folks are counting down the days to the inauguration with intense anticipation and celebratory spirit. Pardon me if I'm not dancing in the street. I just think we've put too many eggs in one basket.

I hope the Obama Administration proves me wrong and enacts creative and inclusive policies that doesn't cowtow to interest groups. I really, really do!!

C.F.W. Walther

The headline of the recent edition of Christian News poses a question that I would like to answer.

[What] if Walther was the president of the LCMS today?

My answer: If C.F.W. Walther was the president of the LCMS today, I would be a little bit more than surprised!

Things I've Learned in 15 Years of Ministry

This will just be a simple list of things I've observed about people and church from being a pastor for 15 years.

1) People are going to believe anything they want, no matter how much you preach, teach, cajole, counsel, summon, etc.
2) People don't accept you as you are; people accept you as they are. You do the same thing, don't you?
3) Money talks. Period.
4) People exaggerate. Things are either worse than they really are or better than they really are. Folks do this to give the appearance of being superior, smart or exciting.
5) Church is only one activity among many to choose from on a typical Sunday morning.
6) Most people do not read their church newsletter due to apathy.
7) Churches, like most other organizations, follow the 80/20 rule.
8) Church is the place for a person to wield power in areas where they are powerless in everyday life.
9) People who think God is angry at them are merely projecting their own anger.

Of course, I wouldn't want it any other way. I don't think things should be different. They're not, and it's unrealistic to expect them to be different. Things are what they are. Things change when they do, and not a moment sooner.

So, Where ARE the Virgins, Pure and Wise?

This past Sunday's Gospel lesson was the Parable of the Ten Virgins. I'm not going to retell the parable here, but the point of the parable was to keep watch "for you don't know the day or the hour" of the return of the Bridegroom. I have some very basic questions about this text.

1) Assuming that Jesus didn't tell this parable in a vacuum and was in fact speaking to a live audience, we can safely say that each individual in the original audience is now deceased. Since that's the case, are they still watching?

2) What are they watching? How are they watching?

Discuss, please.

Post-Election

A big congratulations to President-elect Barack Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden! I pray for their success and that the Lord will uphold them in their offices with wisdom and guidance. Also a big thank you to Senator John McCain and Governor Sarah Palin for their hard work and determination in a well-fought campaign! I pray that the Lord of all consolation and strength will give them comfort and the determination to carry out the duties to which they have been elected by their respective constituencies.

I have no envy for President-elect Obama. He is inheriting a mess, and his work will be cut out for him. But he seems to be gifted with a calm and cool head and a marked thoughtfulness, which is the kind of president you'll want when the country is faced with a crisis. Biden was right when he said the world will test this man. Both Clinton and Bush faced attacks on the WTC early in their first terms. I'm not saying that there will be another terrorist attack on our shores. I'm merely pointing out how volatile our world is. The world, including those who would destroy us, watched this election very closely. I really hope the Obama administration will make wise decisions when it comes to our relations with other nations, especially those in the Middle East.

I'm glad that the Democrats did not win enough senate seats to override Republican filibusters. This will mean that there will still be healthy and meaningful debate in this country and that, although the Democrats hold the majority in both houses of Congress, any Democratic legislation will undergo intense scrutiny before being passed. It will also mean that our country will not be subject to one-party rule. Power that is afforded one party is always a bad thing because it causes the political pendulum to swing too far, too soon.

It seems to me that this election was a clear signal to Washington that the American people really desire that politicians learn to work together with less bickering and downplaying power plays. In a word, change. What remains to be seen is whether or not Washington follows in step. My gut tells me that they won't. The political system is too big and will resist any effort to substantial change mostly because Washington insiders have too much capital and emotion vested in the way things currently exist.

Here's what I think Obama should do very early in his administration. It might sound crazy, but from what I've studied about Middle Eastern culture I think it will have a big impact on world relations: invite all of the leaders and presidents of Middle Eastern nations to the White House, both friend and foe, and have a dinner in which they all recline around the table (which will be the dining room floor). Before the meal begins, Obama should then walk around with a basin of water and a towel and wash the feet of these leaders. This act alone will speak volumes! I can guarantee you there will be tears in the eyes of the guests because they will see that the one who is undoubtedly the most powerful man in the world consciously chooses to wield his power in a way they had never seen before-- with gentleness and humility.

If you think this sounds like something Jesus did, you would be right. I'm convinced that of all of the peace plans forged by humanity, Jesus gave us the only one that works.

Election Advice

I'm not exactly what you would call "qualified" to give advice on this election day. But hopefully the things that I write here you already know in the depths of your bones. If you have already voted, good for you! Voting is one of the hallmarks of this experiment in democracy.

Obama or McCain? Whomever you choose, please remember:
a) Your candidate of choice is not a superstar or a deity.
b) The other candidate is not the incarnation of Satan.

The two presidential candidates are human beings-- no different than you and me. They have highs and lows in their own lives. They have families that love and cherish them. They eat food and use toilets. They have weak spots and strong points.

They are also two gentlemen who have been hyped by the media. Remember that the media hypes and exaggerates everything. EVERYTHING!!! People are made to seem better than they really are or worse than they really are. It's nothing to be angry or upset about because that's the job of the media. Hype everything. They want to draw audiences. They're looking for viewership, and the way to do that is to engage in histrionics. Things get blown way out of proportion.

Also remember that the president-elect (whoever that might be) is not going to wave a magic wand and solve all of our societal ills. He will be entering a system of checks and balances, which assures that we will never be governed by a tyrannical dictator or monarch. There isn't much wiggle room for mavericks or change agents. Candidates can promise you the moon and yet hardly deliver. I, for one, don't hold candidates at their word because I know that there will be very little they can get away with.

And finally, remember that you are voting more for a party platform than you are voting for an individual. The very best way to make your choice is to read the platforms of the Republican and Democratic Parties because those principles are what the candidates are running on. If you vote for someone based on status and appearance, then you are treating the election as if it were the Academy Awards or a popularity contest. Never vote for someone simply because they make you feel good.

Happy Election 2008!!

P.S.-- No matter who wins this election, God is always the King of the Universe!

Glory

...for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.-- Romans 3:23

I'm not a huge fan of John Shelby Spong, but I think he was onto something when he wrote that "sin is ontological, not moral." (This Hebrew Lord, p.65). I say he was onto something because he brought out a dimension of sin that we normally don't think about. Of course, his statement isn't completely correct. Sin is both ontological and moral. I don't like either/or proposals.

Sin is ontological in the sense that we live each day reaching for a target that we can't possibly reach. It is a description of our being, which is fallen and imperfect. Sin is moral in the sense that the ontological aspect manifests itself in our behaviors. The target we try to reach is the glory of God, and we'll do anything to get there. There's a real sense of alienation that we have when it comes to our thinking about God. He seems so distant, and that perceived distance is reflected in our behavior.

But... what if God has transformed the ontology altogether? And if so, how did He accomplish that? First, realize that Romans 3:23 isn't the end of Paul's statements on the matter. There's verse 24-- and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

In other words, God sent His glory to us so that our reaching would be brought to an end. But we keep reaching, don't we? Isn't it because we still perceive some alienation?

Look, there is no distance between us and God. Christ has bridged that gap. The suffering of Christ has ended, the tomb which held his body is empty, and the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed. God broke free from the cloister! The Lord has left the building and has poured out his Spirit on all flesh!! Our being, our ontology, is not defined by who we are but by who God is. And in the face of Christ we see God.

Bunions Gone; Feet Ready to Scare People at Halloween

As you know from a previous post, I had surgery on both feet to remove bunions. The surgery went very well, as expected, and the recovery isn't all that bad either. I was expecting to be in immense pain and agony, but the pain has been minor. I keep on top of it by taking an Aleve in the morning. I originally used Vicodin for pain relief but it made me loopy, and there's a risk of becoming dependent. I stopped taking it and moved to Aleve on the recommendation from a friend.

I'm now sporting layers of bandages and huge post-operative shoes. They look like something Frankenstein's monster would wear!! But that isn't what makes my feet look scary. It's the incisions!! They look absolutely ghastly. On top of that my toes are bruised and there is some swelling. Doc said it's from the steroids he injected into the feet before suturing.

Now, here's something I didn't know before: bunions are genetic. I thought they came from wearing lousy shoes, which is what most of the "experts" say. So there's a chance that the bunions could return based solely on genetic predisposition. It also means that I can wear high heels again!!

Kidding. KIDDING!!

No Wedding Clothes

Jesus' parable of the Wedding Banquet (Matthew 22:1-14) has a curious character who isn't wearing wedding garments and is bound hand and foot, thrown out, and designated to the outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. Apparently the feast has a dress code.

I've been one to buck the system when it came to dress codes, and to some extent I still am. I'm not much into uniforms. Today, students can get expelled from school for wearing gang-related garb or offensive t-shirts.

Could you imagine being thrown out of an event because of something you were not wearing? If someone told me I have to wear a certain piece of clothing, I would wear it begrudgingly, especially if I didn't think the piece of clothing was very fashionable.

Obviously, wedding garments were significant in 1st century Palestine. So, it seems to me that the man in the parable, sans garment, had no intention of celebrating the wedding. He might have been an interloper, riff raff, or just a plain old party pooper. He's obviously someone who didn't belong.

I'm going to assume that this parable is directed at the Pharisees, who wore flowing garments, huge phylactaries on their foreheads, and tassels reaching to the ground-- all just to get attention. They sat at places of honor at banquets and were placed on pedastals for their obvious superiority. But they aren't dressed for a wedding.

It's been said that church is where people come together to compare clothing. But what if the reality is that we're all wearing the same thing? What if we've been endowed with a wedding garment? What if it doesn't matter what we are wearing out of our own closets, but what really matters is what we've been given by God?

There's this sentiment in proper society that people should wear their Sunday best when they "go to church" (I hate that phrase)-- suit and tie, polished shoes, flowing dresses, jewelry-- to honor the King of kings. Honestly, I think we should wear our Sunday worst-- sweats, tennis shoes, ripped t-shirts-- to get rid of all pretense. It seems to me that the partygoers at the banquet in the parable were people who couldn't afford to be all spiffed up, the outsiders. They probably wore rags.

But they had the wedding garment, probably provided by the king. The interloper most likely refused to wear the garment, thinking that his own garments would do. They didn't.

How often have we offered to God our nice clothes as our ticket to get in? If you want to think of these nice clothes as our own merits and good works, that would be a great image to hold in your mind. Our supposed superiority over others doesn't work at this banquet. Even these are as filthy rags.

The only clothing that matters is Christ and what he has done for us. He has dressed us for the great Banquet of living in the Kingdom of our God. Jesus became a dreg to society to bring in the dregs (that's us!) as he humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross.

Oooooo, I Love Bunions

I have bunions on my feet-- a huge honking one on my right foot and two little ones on my left. And, yes, they are painful.

I'm having surgery on the 16th to be de-bunionified. It's an outpatient procedure and I'll be home that afternoon. I'm not really concerned because the surgeon made it sound like a trip to Nassau. He convinced me thoroughly, so I'm looking forward to the array of chemicals that will be pumped into my veins. If I really enjoy them I might demand a prescription.

Better living through chemistry! Whatever.

Late

So, the other day I ate a meal that was fit for a king.
"Here King, here King!"
(Thanks to the late Henny Youngman for that one.)

Why do we call dead people "late", as in "the late Henny Youngman"? What are they late for? A staff meeting?

"Where's Henny?"
"He's late."
"What, is he caught in traffic?"
"No. He's dead."

What about if you really are late for a staff meeting? Can you use the word "dead" in your excuse.

"Sorry I'm dead, but the traffic was awful!"

Cemeteries are full of late people. So don't be late or you'll be dead.

My Kid is Smarter Than Me

My youngest son, Cameron, read a Carl Sandburg poem about a man who sees another man, and this other man does everything that he does-- smiles, frowns, laughs, walks, etc. My wife asked Cameron if he knew how the man could see another man doing the same thing he's doing.

Cameron said, "He's looking in a mirror." When asked how he knew that, Cameron answered, "I dunno."

A mirror-- brilliant! That's exactly the right answer! But that's not the answer I was thinking.

I thought the guy was schizo and needed to see a doctor right away!! I really felt bad for him.

I will consult Cameron on poetry from now on.

Bite

One day I was eating a piece of chocolate cake when my friend asked if he could have a bite.

So I bit him.

It was quite disturbing to the other people sitting in church.

PETA Ice Cream

Did you hear about this?

I love Ben and Jerry's ice cream, especially New York Super Fudge Chunk. Having it made with breastmilk seems creepy to me. Breastmilk is better kept for babies. Does PETA really want to treat women like cows? Apparently. Are we going to have factories that milk nursing mothers? Who's going to volunteer (or even get paid) to go through the embarrassing process of getting hooked up to pumps and get milked?

By the way-- adult humans shouldn't be drinking milk anyway, no matter where it comes from. You don't see a full grown cow having a glass of milk with dinner, do you? You never see any men who are still nursing. Milk is for infants and babies because of the growth hormones contained in milk, which they receive from mothers of like species.

But anyway, I'm glad PETA at least came up with an idea, which means there are people thinking about this stuff. But I don't think milking humans for their milk to make ice cream is a very good idea.

Wake-Up Call

Most of us are very concerned about the financial crisis looming before our eyes. We keep hearing about a government bailout that will hopefully save us from losing all assets and zeroing out our stock portfolios. I personally believe that our country will come out of this and that plenty of safeguards will be put into place in an attempt to make sure it doesn't happen again. But safeguards won't be enough until we address one glaring issue: greed.

It won't do to say, "Stop being greedy!" because that will fall on deaf ears. The best we can do is point out the rippling effects of greed and ask people if that's the kind of world they want to live in.

I heard from a banker friend this week that the phrase "you can't afford it" has been essentially stricken from the American vocabulary. Someone somewhere will see to it that anyone can afford anything. How can anyone refuse a loan that requires no money down and only payments on mortgage interest? No wonder first-time homeowners buy palatial mansions instead of modest starter homes!! But, as we're seeing now, it was a recipe for disaster.

This is what greed does. It looks great in the short term, but in the long term it has disastrous results. What it also tells me is that, by in large, we Americans are not very good stewards and managers of the resources that are God given. We have yet to understand that everything we have in our possession does not belong to us. We own nothing. In fact, the whole idea of human ownership is a fallacy. And since we own nothing we can give nothing. Everything belongs to God, and the best we can do is take our hands off of that which belongs to God.

We are witnessing something that to me is a wake-up call-- God can fire us as stewards and hire new ones by taking God's resources away from us and giving them to someone else who will manage them properly. God has done this before, so don't believe it can't happen to us. We are the wealthiest nation on Earth and yet there are people on this planet who go to sleep each night with an empty stomach. The problem is not God's provision. The problem is human hoarding and greed.

The answer is to repent-- to change our way of thinking, admit that we've been greedy, and realize that we live on a planet that we did not make and do not own, and that God is not concerned with borders, flags, or embassies. We live in one world and we must learn the art of living simply so that others may simply live. But we can't do this on our own. We need God's help and reassurance that God never fails to provide for our needs and not our greeds.

I hope and pray that this whole episode teaches us the importance of being servants of all and slaves of no one or nothing. Christ set us free from bondage to ourselves and our greed. May we follow Christ as we were baptized in him to walk as children of the Light.

Next Installment as Promised

Another made-up trialogue with me, Barack Obama and Joe Biden

Me: I would like to see all of us work for peace.
Barack: Me too! But we have to get bin Laden in Afghanistan.
Joe: Yes, and be patriotic once again.
Barack: Yeah, patriotism would be great for all Americans.
Joe: It's especially patriotic when rich people give up more in taxes.
Barack: And then we can have a national peace rally in D.C. with Oprah and give everyone a daisy and a yellow ribbon.
Me: *sigh*

Trialogue with John McCain and Sarah Palin

Yeah, I made it up.

Me: I'd like to see all of us work for peace.
John: Well, that would be nice, Doug. But we have some unfinished business in the Middle East.
Sarah: Yeah, let's kill those bastards!!!
John: Very good, Sarah. Then I was thinking we could have a national cookout.
Sarah: I love it!! I'll bring the moose meat and all the trimmings!
Me: *sigh*

My next installment: Trialogue with Barack Obama and Joe Biden (also made up)

Another *sigh* coming your way.

All or None

Jesus' parable of the laborers in the vineyard (Matthew 20:1-16) demonstrates that the last shall be first and the first shall be last-- another way of saying that God's Kingdom is a level field of play and is not conducive to favoritism. The lowly are elevated and the high and mighty are cast down. There is no division between haves and have-nots or between peoples of different ethnicity. There is no class warfare in the Kingdom. It makes no distinction between the legalist and the libertine, so that no one can say he or she is above the other.

Also, don't be surprised when you discover that certain people you would have never thought of being included in God's Kingdom are in the Kingdom. And if they're in, they're in completely, not just halfway. The Kingdom is an all or none entity.

The Best Knock Knock Joke in the Whole World

Knock, knock!

Come in!!

WCPT

There's a radio station in Chicago that dubs itself as "Chicago's Progressive Talk". They are not progressive. They are liberal. Progressive and liberal are not the same thing. Liberalism is the same old "us versus them" mentality held by conservatives. The only difference is that liberals take the opposite position.

True progressives take the best and the worst of the warring camps and forge a third (and sometimes a fourth or fifth) way that both camps either fully embrace or fully reject, hopefully the former. This is not compromising or ignoring differences. It's a principle called "include but transcend".

Liberals and conservatives are so entrenched in their views that they feel threatened by someone who is truly progressive. That's why proposals put forth by progressives are usually rejected. Both parties cling to their foundationalisms.

The whole point of progressivism is to make progress. The D.C. Beltway, being currently run by both conservatives and liberals, only results in gridlock. That doesn't sound like progress to me. Promises to work together and change things have quite a hollow ring to them.

Watch This-- You Will Wet Yourself!!

This is absolutely hysterical!! Some guy took a video of Eddie Van Halen and dubbed over it with his own really lousy guitar playing that matches perfectly with the video. He makes it sound like Eddie is just learning to play the guitar.



Kudos to my brother, Jeff, for the link!!

Lipstick Bungle

McCain and Obama are not agents of change. Period. They are both Washington insiders using beltway lingo, such as "lipstick on a pig". Obama just happens to be the one who last used the phrase.

Change doesn't come to D.C. no matter what the politicians promise. Politicians go to D.C. and are changed by the beltway culture.

A politician next door
Swore
He'd set the Washington arena on fire.
Thinks he'll gladiate 'em,
But they're gonna make him a liar.
Well he's a good ol' boy who was born and raised
In the buckle of the Bible Belt.
But just remember when you step into your voting booth:
He'll never lie, he'll just embellish the truth!
--Steve Taylor: Whatever Happened to Sin?

Trouble Brewing

At one of the local hospitals, the cardiac care unit is on the same floor as the behavioral health unit. Who thought of this?

Well, I guess heart patients have to be put somewhere!

;>)

Get Right

People have told me that they need to get right with God, and it doesn't register with me, in the sense that I can't tell them how to accomplish what they've set out to do. I know what they mean, however. It's an angst that is expressed in a seeming distance from God. And so these poor people pray more, work harder, fret and fear, lose sleep, lose appetite, and have nervous breakdowns.

I just don't think God should be a source of anxiety for people. But it happens. And I don't believe for a moment that God is responsible for it. I think it comes from people treating God as a codependent. "I can't let God down," is often spoken by these benighted souls.

Is is possible to "let God down"? It just doesn't seem like it can be accomplished. The attempt to avoid this more often than not results in freak-outs.

Reconciliation is what God does through Christ. So leave the "getting right" to God (which has already been done) and stop fretting over something that can't be done by you.

Invite

I never seem to get invited to bar mitzvahs. I'm gonna try to find out why, but it could be because I don't know any Jewish people. Ya think... maybe?

Sing-a-Long

Do death metal audiences sing along with the band? Seems like an easy thing to do. Though it would probably be a good idea to hand out throat lozenges to people as they're leaving.

Why I Believe

I do believe in God. In a day when belief is hard (for some of us) and the road is difficult (for some of us), the end of the day arrives. At the end of the day, when the world is hushed from its feverish pitch of grasping at straws, there comes an ominous silence. And time to reflect.

I believe in God, not because I have scientific evidence, nor because I'm a master of puppets, nor because I have a wild imagination. I believe in God, not because I feel God in my heart, nor because I get telepathic signals, nor because I'm afraid not to believe.

I believe in God because there is love.

Love is all around us. It can be seen if we set ourselves aside for a moment and really take a look.

By love, I'm not talking about a sticky, sappy emotion that only seeks to benefit the self, nor am I talking about romance and being swept off of the feet. By love, I mean a selfless and sacrificial service that seeks the good of the other. This love is a giving away of the self to others so that others can be placed in a position to give themselves away to others. But this love doesn't demand the love of the other in return.

This kind of love cannot be measured in a laboratory. But it can be seen. Here's one example.

Think of the woman whose husband has been stricken with Alzheimer's Disease. She gets out of bed every morning knowing that her day is going to be completely spent in caring for her husband. She bathes, dresses, and feeds him. She has to stay with him because he can't take care of himself.

She can't hop in the car and go see a movie. She can't go for a hairdo and a manicure. She can't go sit in a park and read a book. She can't go out for lunch.

Oh, wait... I take that back. She can do all of those things if she wanted to. But she doesn't because that would leave her husband to fend for himself, which he is incapable of doing. So she stays home with the man she married.

To us, it would look like this woman doesn't have much of a life. To her, she wouldn't have it any other way. Perhaps she has more of a life than do many of us, for her life is not centered on herself. She gives of herself so her husband can be safe. She is present with him. And she has no regrets.

That is love. There are countless other examples, but this love cannot be bottled or placed in a beaker. It can only be seen in and through what it does. But the love itself is unseen.

And that's why I believe in God-- because there is love. It's all the evidence that's necessary.

And the end of the day, love reigns supreme.

"Political" Media Coverage is Great Entertainment

I'm not against politics. Actually, the root of the word "political" is polis (Greek, meaning "city"). Politics determines public policy and jurisprudence. It's necessary for an orderly and functioning society. We are a nation of laws, and most of us wouldn't have it any other way. So, in my book, politics is necessary.

Both Republicans and Democrats are trashing each other in this national election cycle. And people say, "It's just politics." And I say, "No, it isn't!" Trashing your opponent is trashing your opponent. It is not politics. Politics is what goes on in the crevices and crannies of governmental institutions, such as legislatures and executive offices.

The stuff you're seeing on Fox Noise, Cable Nuisance Network (CNN), and MicroSoft Nutcase Barack Climaxes (MSNBC) has very little to do with politics. It has more to do with party loyalties and personalities. If they were honest they would say their coverage is about politicians. But they're nothing more than big sales pitches to a consumer public without making this important distinction. There isn't much in the way of substance or something to think about. It's more like an unfolding soap opera. Politicians become rockstars and rockstars become politicians. Great stuff!!

And don't fall for this "fair and balanced" nonsense. Fox is definitely slanted right; CNN and MSNBC are definitely slanted left. There will never be a truly unbiased news network because next to no one would watch it. I certainly wouldn't. I would be bored out of my skull.

So, I watch the news networks. But I don't watch them to bolster positions I might hold. I watch them because they just ooze with B.S. And it's a lot of fun to me. It's great entertainment. Better than watching Survivor. My personal faves are Bill O'Reilly's Pinheads and Patriots segment, and Keith Olbermann's Worst Person in the World segment. Truly magnificent works of television artistry and punditry.

Please note that the terms pinhead, patriot, and worst person are descriptive terms originating from the biases and opinions of the people speaking them. They are not political terms. But they continue to call their programs "political coverage", and I love them for that.

Undoubtedly, my most favorite shoutfest is HANNITY!!!!!!! and Colmes. They bring on these supposedly insightful commentators and just let them talk over each other so you can't understand what they're saying. That's a pretty neat trick. Nobody is allowed to get their point across. It's just a bunch of noise. And it's hilarious!!

Character assassinations, half-truths, innuendos, rhetoric, hyperbole, hubris-- it all makes for a great evening of entertainment. Forget politics. If you want to watch politics, go to a city council meeting. Yawn. But if you want to watch people destroy each other, then the news channels are where you oughta be!!

On second thought, you're probably better off turning the tv off and reading a book before you become a miserable cur like me- hee hee!!

Guitar Praise-- Whoo. Hoo.

I don't know what to say about this. The words just escape me right now. I'm completely beside myself. I'm rendered speechless. My brain is about to explode. I'm afraid to get out of my seat for fear of leaving parts of me behind on the chair.

I wonder if they have a Christianized version of Grand Theft Auto.

BTW-- The same company markets a Praise DDR set. Yeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!!!!!!

Discuss, please.

When Did This Start?

I meet and hear so many people who think their deceased loved ones are looking down on them and smiling.

How and when did this sentiment start? I suppose it helps people feel better and deal with their grief, but it's tinged with Gnosticism. I've always found it to be a bit sappy myself. But I never know how to respond to it.

So, when I hear it I just smile and nod, smile and nod, smile and nod.

Resurrection for the 21st Century

"I am convinced that the climate of skepticism, which for the last two hundred years has made it unfashionable and even embarrassing to suggest that Jesus's resurrection really happened, was never and is not now itself a neutral thing, sociologically or politically. The intellectual coup d'etat by which the Enlightenment convinced so many that 'we now know that dead people don't rise,' as though this was a modern discovery rather than simply the reaffirmation of what Homer and Aeschylus had taken for granted, goes hand in hand with the Enlightenment's other proposals, not least that we now have come of age, that God can be kicked upstairs, that we can get on with running the world however we want to, carving it up to our advantage without outside interference. To that extent, the totalitarianisms of the last century were simply among the varied manifestations of a larger totalitarianism of thought and culture against which postmodernity has now, and rightly in my view, rebelled. Who, after all, was it who didn't want the dead to be raised? Not simply the intellectually timid or the rationalists. It was, and is, those in power, the social and intellectual tyrants and bullies; the Caesars who would be threatened by a Lord of the world who had defeated the tyrant's last weapon, death itself; the Herods who would be horrified at the postmortem validation of the true King of the Jews. And this is the point where believing in the resurrection of Jesus suddenly ceases to be a matter of inquiring about an odd event in the first century and becomes a matter of rediscovering hope in the twenty-first century. Hope is what you get when you suddenly realize that a different worldview is possible, a worldview in which the rich, the powerful, and the unscrupulous do not after all have the last word. The same worldview shift that is demanded by the resurrection of Jesus is the shift that will enable us to transform the world.
"Think of Oscar Wilde's wonderful scene in his play Salome, when Herod hears reports that Jesus of Nazareth has been raising the dead. 'I do not wish him to do that, " says Herod. 'I forbid him to do that. I allow no man to raise the dead. This man must be found and told that I forbid him to raise the dead.'
"There is the bluster of the tyrant who knows his power is threatened, and I hear the same tone of voice not just in the politicians who want to carve up the world to their advantage but also in the intellectual traditions that have gone along for the ride.
"But Wilde's next, haunting line is the real crunch, for us as for Herod: 'Where is this man?' demands Herod. 'He is in every place, my lord,' replies the courtier, 'but it is hard to find him.'

--N.T. Wright
Surprised By Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church
(Emphasis his)

To Infinity... And Beyond!

The title of this post, as most of us know, is that endearing line from the bumbling Buzz Lightyear from the movie Toy Story. I know he's just a toy in an animated feature, so he can be made to say anything. Even things that are completely outrageous!

Can we actually reach infinity? What is beyond infinity? Isn't it just more infinity? How does one go beyond that?

Of course, it's all just comedic hyperbole. No one can go to infinity and beyond. Not even Buzz Lightyear.

This brings me to the subject of complexity, which to me is baffling, but not as baffling as infinity. I can deal with complexity in the sense that I can study complex objects or issues. I have no idea how to deal with infinity, except just to call it "endless endlessness".

In previous posts I've been lauding the findings of science. There have been incredible advances in discovery and practical application. These are wonderful and have made our lives more...complex.

And that's one beef I have against science. Of all the wonderful things that have been done, there have also been a lot of frivolous and unnecessary things that have flooded our lives. Today we have gizmos and gadgets that are entertaining and can do spectacular things and some great work, like the computer I'm typing on (for instance). But they have made us busier than ever and have brought complexity to our lives. We are now expected to do more and more tasks with increasing speed. Hold on to your hats, folks! Our lives are going to get even more complex!!

Christians have argued in times past that complexity is proof of the existence of God. Atheists have rebutted by saying science is figuring things out and it won't be long before God will run out of things to do. Christians come back at this by putting forth the theory of the "God of the gaps"-- the "in between" of each and every discovery that scientists haven't quite gotten around to yet or can't quite wrap their minds around. And the arguments volley back and forth.

In my mind, the existence of God is something that cannot be proven by empirical data. As I've mentioned in previous posts, the Scriptures never attempt to prove God's existence. It is assumed and works from that assumption. Given that, it might be time to put away the noble but entirely irrelevant attempts of proving God's existence, Ray Comfort's banana notwithstanding.

I'm ready to start speaking in terms of infinity, something that scientists will never get to the end of. Under each discovery more things are ready to be discovered... and it will never end. The number of discoveries possible are endless, infinite! Scientists can discover many things, but it will never discover everything. Of course, this doesn't prove God's existence. But such existence is heavily implied.

For Christians, the proof of God's existence is not only found in creation, but in the revelation of Christ. In Christ the Ultimate Infinite (whatever that might mean to you) is contained in the finite, and the very nature of infinity is revealed. We can't perform experiments to verify it or to watch it work. We're dealing with infinity, after all. All we have is the witness of the Scriptures. The infinite God took on finite form in Jesus to dwell among us so that our finiteness can be swallowed up in the Infinite's ultimate love and mercy. And Jesus revealed that the Ultimate Infinite is, by nature, pure and unadulterated grace. That's the claim.

Really, it's the only way the Infinite can be revealed to us in a way we can comprehend. Christ is the way we connect with Infinity. If we can believe in the existence of infinity, then it isn't a far stretch to believe also in God. And in Christ, this infinite is touchable.

For Your Entertainment-- Unintended Consequences

As I was driving back to church this afternoon, the sign on the Burger King said,

Try a Steakhouse

Yeah, don't come to eat our cruddy food. Go to a nice steakhouse instead!

Sounds like a good idea!! But it might put our Burger King out of business if they continue to send customers somewhere else.

Talk about unintended consequences! Sheesh!!

Back From Out of Town

I'm back! I was with my family in Fargo, North Dakota for a wedding. The son of the pastor I worked with in my first parish got married. I was flattered to have been invited. We (my family and I) decided to make a vacation out of it and ended up spending a couple of days in Minneapolis. We did a lot of swimming and made a visit to the Mall of America (the Mega Mall). Great time! I wish we had had more time to drive. We drove straight from Fargo to Joliet, which took about 13 hours. We had to be back by Monday because the boys had walk-thrus at their respective schools, and I had to conduct a funeral.

Anyhoo, I've been thinking about a book I read a while ago that most people in my position wouldn't dare to read. I like reading such things because I know they're out there and people are reading them. I feel it's important to read what others are reading because people are taking the principles offered to heart. If you want to know what people are thinking you may want to take on this opportunity for yourself.

The book is called The Secret by Rhonda Byrne. It's been out for almost two years and remains on the non-fiction best seller list. Which means-- people are reading this book!!!! This is why I've been thinking about it. And, yes, I have read it AND watched the DVD.

What is this "secret", you ask? Basically it comes down to this: the universe conspires in your favor when you tap into it's power. The universe will give you anything you want. Anything!! Here's how you do it: you make your desire known to the universe. In other words, you state what you intend to get and then have confidence that you will receive it. Then-- you act as if you already have it. The universe listens to you and conspires to manifest your request. But you must remain positive and look forward to receiving what you've requested. People will swear on their very lives that this thing works, and that it is backed up by the solid scientific principle of the Law of Attraction. You can do wonders with this method. You can cure fatal diseases. You can receive untold riches. You can get a new house, or a new car, or a new boat (or yacht). Once you know the secret and use it you can open up a portal to the abundance of the universe.

Wow! There are so many things wrong with this that it's hard to know where to start. The overwhelming popularity of this book tells me that people are looking for a real Santa Claus. Apparently, God has failed in this area and people are moving on to something else. The late George Carlin once said that he stopped praying to God and started to pray to the sun and got the same return, about 50%. Just before his death he even stopped praying to the sun and started praying to Joe Pesci. Why pray to the sun and/or Joe Pesci? Because they can be seen. The same goes for the universe. Of course, we can't see the entire universe at one time. But all we have to do is look up to the sky and behold the sun, moon, and stars. They are real and are parts of our universe that can supposedly huddle together to fulfill our requests. They can be seen, so why not tell them what we want?

The problem here is not recognizing that the universe just is. It is not a deity, nor is it magician. The universe just does what it does. Much of what it does is a mystery, and hopefully we'll one day solve many of those mysteries. Although there is much we do know, there are still discoveries yet to be made. But one thing is for sure-- it is not available to any individual beckon call. Furthermore, although the universe is being discovered to act more like an organism than a machine, it is still not capable of manifesting puerile wishes.

People are looking for magic from any source they can get their hands on, thinking that miracle and magic will solve their problems and make their lives so much easier. What a great opportunity this poses for the Church!!

I'm not proposing we perform magic tricks or start acting like these TV faith-healer hucksters. But what I am proposing is that we start talking about the universe based on things that we already know, taking all of the guess work out of it. For example:

Stars are givers. We don't merely believe this. We know this!! Each moment, stars are fusing billions of tons of hydrogen atoms into helium. They are literally burning themselves up in order to provide light and heat and energy. Our sun, as we all know, is one such star. It is providing what we need to sustain life on this planet. If it wasn't for the process of photosynthesis (the ability of plants to use sunlight for growth and abundance) you and I wouldn't be able to breathe.

Someday, the sun will burn itself out. It will use up all of its available hydrogen. The helium will then begin to fuse into heavier elements and the sun will expand into the big red giant stage, which will increase its gravitational pull, causing the planets closest to it (including earth) to be absorbed into its fiery furnace. After the fusion has reached a point to where the heaviest elements are being created, the big red giant will then go through a stage of implosion into a glowing blue midget. All of the elements of the periodic table will be there. Then, in a dazzling spectacle that has been observed by scientists countless of numbers of times, the blue midget explodes, hurling its constituent elements out into space. It's called a supernova, and it's a regular occurance even in our local Milky Way galaxy.

Even in death, the star gives. That's what I call magic! You and I are going to be part of that magic. Lest that worries you a bit, it isn't going to happen for another 5 billion years or so. We will have long passed from this life. But there's no guarantee that the earth will even last that long. We are on a collision course with the Andromeda galaxy, which is heading toward us at a rate of 300 kilometers per second. At that rate, the collision will take place roughly 5 billion years from now, but it has the potential of hurling our planet off its course out into space. And of course don't forget about the possibility of being struck by a giant meteor, which will pretty much eliminate life as we know it. But here's the thing-- everyday stars are exploding, galaxies are colliding, and planets are being struck by meteors. It's very normal for these things to occur.

Thinking about this, read Psalm 19:1-- The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.

Boy, you said it-- the glory of God! God is there in, with, and under these processes and events!! How? Who knows?? God's omnipresence is much greater than what the Psalmist could ascertain; it's much greater than any of us can ascertain!! The Psalmist could only look up into the sky and write what he saw. You and I can not only look up, but we can also go onto the internet and look at incredible images from the Hubble Telescope. Psalm 19:1 is now taken to a level that the Psalmist could only imagine!

More on this later.

Naming the Animals

Then the Lord God said, "It is not good (a quick aside: isn't it interesting that something is called "not good" before "The Fall"?) that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him." Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him.-- Genesis 2:18-20

Canaan fathered Sidon his firstborn and Heth, and the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Girgashites, the Hivites, the Arkites, the Sinites, the Arvadites, the Zemarites, and the Hamathites. Afterward the clans of the Canaanites dispersed. And the territory of the Canaanites exteded from Sidon in the direction of Gerar as far as Gaza, and in the direction of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, as far as Lasha. These are the sons of Ham, by their clans, their languages, their lands, and their nations. (Genesis 10:15-20)

Discuss, please.

Look! It's Cheesus!!

Seems that Jesus is showing up everywhere these days: cat fur, sink stains, burnt toast. But this one has to top them all. It was even given a name, and you won't find it on eBay.

If I discovered this in my bag of Cheetos, I would've thought it to be an odd coincidence and eaten the thing. And I don't give names to snack foods I ingest.

It's a Cheeto.

I repeat: IT'S A CHEETO!! Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!

An Inside Job

I've been a little bit lax in posting of late. Sorry about that.

From the parables of Jesus this past Sunday, it occurred to me that the Kingdom of Heaven doesn't force itself upon us in a romp and stomp kind of way. It doesn't come with storm and fury, but gently, in a way that could only be described as an inside job.

In Matthew 13, Jesus describes the Kingdom of Heaven as being like a treasure hidden in a field, a merchant looking for a pearl, and a fishing net. Why a buried treasure in a field and not a fireworks display at the village commons (or a giant purple hot air balloon with the LCMS logo on it)? Why a merchant and not a mercenary or a murderer? Why a net and not a hookline or a harpoon?

A hidden treasure, a merchant, and a net seem so...unassuming. They just go about doing what they do best-- hiding, purchasing, and gathering. What does this say about where we find God doing His work? Where do we usually look?

Like most people, we look for God in places too high and too far. When we're asked to answer the question, "Where is God?", our answer usually includes one finger up in the air, pointing skyward.

We don't find hidden treasures, merchants, and fishing nets above the clouds. These are very down-to-earth realities. Such is God's Kingdom (or the Kingdom of Heaven, whichever you'd prefer). Merchants saunter quietly through the marketplace searching for that one pearl to purchase. Fishing nets are used to catch fish in a stealthy fashion. A hidden treasure quietly gives the field its value.

Jesus is the Treasure, the Merchant, and the Net all at the same time. He regularly acted out the reality of God's Kingdom in his ministry. The ones on the periphery of society were bought, caught, and valued by Jesus. He never did this with unusual force or with a heavy hand. But, he did do this right under the noses of those who were looking for God in places too high and too far.

The Kingdom is all around you. Stop looking up and imagining things (like people sitting on clouds playing harps). Open your eyes and look at reality. God is more likely to be seen in the ordinary, rough-and-tumble of life than in pie-in-the-sky, sweet-by-and-by flights of fancy.

Hat

"Gad, yer hat!"-- Suspected criminal Drew Peterson to TV reporter Joanie Lum as she was asking him about the new incriminating evidence against him.

Gotta love that southside Chicago dialect!!

God Is

God is not something to believe in or not. God is. The issue is one of trust. God is either trusted or not trusted.

The Pharisees believed in God. They didn't trust God, as could be seen by their scrupulosity and rigidity. The Sadducees believed in God, but they didn't trust God, as could be seen by their manipulative cultic and ritualistic practices. The Scribes believed in God, but they didn't trust God, as could be seen by their construction of a "fence around Torah." The Zealots believed in God, but they didn't trust God, as could be seen by their sharpened swords to fight a holy war.

Belief says, "God should do things my way."
Trust says, "God does things His own way, and it is always good no matter the situation."

Belief is something that should be left for the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus (or other mythical creatures). Trust is reserved only for God. I trust that God is. My trust waivers from time to time. I'm only human. But in moments of silence and reflection, my trust builds and I submit to the way of it all. Whatever happens, happens. I may or may not like it, but it is still what happens, and there was very little I could have done to prevent it or change it. Something will come out of it, and I can't prevent or change that either.

God is.

A Great Weekend

My parents, older sister Cyndi, and niece Kathryn were in town this past weekend. For the short time we spent with each other we had a very good time.

My parental units arrived on Friday via their van. Cyndi and Kathryn arrived at Union Station in Chicago via Amtrak. They walked around downtown Chicago and had lunch at the original Potbelly's. Kathryn works at Potbelly's in Dearborn, MI, and wanted to see how it all got started. When she informed the manager of the original Potbelly's that she was a Potbelly employee, she and Cyndi received a free lunch! Who says there's no such thing?

Saturday saw all 8 of us going to the movie theatre after having lunch at Pizza Hut. Mom, Dad, and Cameron saw Journey to the Center of the Earth; Cyndi and Michelle saw Momma Mia; Kathryn, Chris, and I saw The Dark Knight (which, by the way, was a great flick. Heath Ledger was superb as The Joker!). After relaxing at home we loaded up the vehicles again and went to Silver Cross Field to watch the Joliet Jackhammers take on the Gary-Southshore Railcats. Close game, but the Railcats prevailed in the end. The aftergame fireworks were spectacular. I like things that explode and make colors.

After church on Sunday I cooked some burgers on the grill and we all had a nice lunch together. Then, after picture taking and hugs we said goodbye. We got Chris ready to go to Walcamp. We loaded up the car and drove up to Kingston after stopping in Sycamore to have supper at Culvers. We got Chris to camp and situated him in the treehouse where he'll be spending the week. It's going to be a quiet week around the house. But when he gets back... the chaos will resume! Chris is definitely someone who makes things happen.

At the end of the week, after Chris returns from camp, Chris and Cameron are going to purchase a Playstation 2 and Guitar Hero paraphernalia with the money they have been saving. I'm really proud of those guys. They worked hard helping Michelle and me keep the household running with the daily chores that must be done. With the combination of weekly allowance, getting paid for performing tasks above and beyond the call of duty, and birthday money they managed to save enough for their entertainment wants. They have been dying to have their own Guitar Hero game instead of waiting to play everyone else's.

Yes, I do have a life apart from the world of pastoral ministry and theology!

Made-Up Jesus

I wanted to get this down on the blog while it's still fresh in my mind.

Jesus was someone who couldn't have been invented. If I were a Jewish man living in the first century, and if I wanted to invent a Messiah, it certainly wouldn't have looked like Jesus. I would have invented someone who kicked some Roman butt and told fabulously glorious militaristic stories on just how he accomplished it. I would have never made-up a story about Messiah getting crucified. Messiahs don't get crucified, period. They would die of natural causes, just like everyone else-- the way of all the earth.

This gives Jesus, as he's presented in the Gospels, a true ring of authenticity.

Hunker Down

I've been watching some vids of Christians debating Atheists on the existence of God. Christians, of course, offer proof of God's existence; Atheists, of course, offer proof of the non-existence of God.

The winners of the debates were already decided before they even aired. Christians are going to side with the Christians no matter what the Atheists say; Atheists are going to side with the Atheists no matter what the Christians say. So who won? It depends who you talk to.

I personally don't like these debates as they are absolutely pointless and merely add to the futher polarization that we experience in our society. People just choose their sides and hunker down, accusing the other side of being intellectually and morally wanting. It's just slinging arrows over the castle walls.

As a Christian myself, I can tell you that no one, absolutely no one, can be argued into the Kingdom of God, nor should they be. An Atheist doesn't become a Christian simply because he or she lost the debate. Similarily, a Christian doesn't become an Atheist simply because he or she lost the debate. Both sides go back to their drawing boards, lick their wounds, and stock themselves with more ammo for the next battle.

The Bible never tries to prove God's existence. It assumes God's existence and works from there. I see no need at all to prove God's existence to anyone. I would rather talk to people, as a Christian, about things that we already know as we experience them everyday. There are commonalities among us simply because we are humans living on a little blue dot in view of an utterly massive universe. We ought to be looking to build bridges. Perhaps we can seek ways to talk about the same things using different words. Let's take sin, for instance.

In Christianity, sin is defined as incurvatus in se, Latin for "turned in on the self". In a word-- selfishness. Christians and Atheists agree, as far as I can tell, that people are inherently selfish. An Atheist would explain this by saying that we are all equipped with reptilian and mammalian parts of the brain that work solely on instinct to survive. Christians would say something like "our hearts are in the wrong place." Fine. But I think we can both agree that selfishness is a willing rebellion, for whatever reason, against something that we know to be proper and right. I'm willing to go so far as to say that we have a part of the brain, the pre-frontal cortex, that is the seat of conscience. This is a part of the brain that mammals and reptiles don't have. It really doesn't matter how it got that way. We have them. Can we leave it at that? Maybe we can't, I don't know. But here's my point:

We all have a conscience that has the ability to "rope in" our rebellious ways. Christians believe that this conscience is informed by the Spirit of Christ. Atheists say that we have evolved from the instinctual actions of our very ancient ancestors. Alright. But we still have a conscience that can help us overcome our selfish and destructive ways. We were in bondage to sin or to our baser instincts-- two ways of saying the same thing.

The cross shows that the instinct to survive, while very real, doesn't save anyone. If the crucified Christ shows us anything it is that suffering in this world is inevitable for everyone. It's salvific to know this. So, instead of trying to rid ourselves of sin through self-flagellation, we would be better off if we tried to own up to our sinful nature/instinctual drives and accept them as part of our makeup, and seek ways to use them for the common good. This would make salvation from sin more realized to the average everyday person, Christian and Atheist alike.

And I could be wrong, but I see this as a viable alternative to the hunker down and lob bombs mentality. What do you think?

Change Your Life

For once I would like to see a book entitled, "I'll Change Your Life For The Worst". That would be so refreshing!

Really! I'd like someone to write a book about how they went from joyously happy to bottomless pit depressed-- and stayed there. Wouldn't that qualify as a "change in life"?

Yeah, I'm just being a wiseguy. I know that kind of book won't sell, which is why next to nobody's writing one.

Look, I'm all for changing one's life for the better. It's just that there are a plethora of books, articles, films, and websites about how to make life better. We're on self-help overload!! Just go to your local bookstore and you'll see that it's the largest section in the whole place. Looks like there's money to be made in this market! Climb on board if you want a piece of the action!

So, I'm going to write a self-help book. Alert the media!!!

I'll change your life. I just can't promise that it will be in the direction you want.

Proposed book titles:
How To Sleep All Day
Enjoying Everyday Lounging
Become a Bitter You
Learning to Loath
A New Girth
Sloth For Dummies
I'll Take All of Your Money
Victories of Vice
Become a Total Schmuck in 90 Days
The Purple-Skinned Life-- A Primer in Asphyxiation
Sucks-ess

Please let me know if I can be of any help to you.

Gadzooks!!!!

Check this out!

What's even more frightening is why they cancelled this giveaway.

Creation and Evolution

I have no interest in the ongoing Creation vs. Evolution debates. To me, they end up be contests on who can spit the farthest (or arguments on who has the better scientists). I'm not even remotely interested in harmonizing modern scientific discoveries with Scripture. The Bible is not a science text. Unfortunately this seems to be the modus operandi of Biblical apologists, as seen here and here. I'm one who firmly believes that religion and science do not necessarily have to be at constant odds with each other, but in fact can enhance one another by pushing each other to reach farther and deeper.

Science tells us that we theologians may have to do some rethinking on deep-seated beliefs. This is nothing new. Copernicus had the nerve to say that our solar system is heliocentric and that the planets revolve around the sun. He was quickly excoriated by the Roman Catholic Church as a heretic for even suggesting such a thing. Today, we know he was correct. The church should welcome scientific discoveries as possibilities rather than problems when they don't fit our dogmatic texts. It could very well be that our dogma needs freshening up a bit. Rethinking Genesis 1 might be a great start. It might very well be a metaphoric account of the creation of Israel and not a play-by-play account of the creation of the universe. There's always something about a literalistic and mechanistic reading of Genesis 1 that rubs the wrong way.

Theology informs science by holding it accountable. It's not enough to just look at raw data and draw conclusions. Any conclusion drawn from empirical data is debatable. Peer reviews, science journals, further experimentation, and new data should be welcomed as futhering the scientific enterprise. In other words, any finding should never claim to be absolute truth until all the data has been reviewed and all of the theories have been proven (which usually happens when all of the challenges to said theories have been thoroughly debunked). Science should never settle for overly simplistic answers and realize that their "pictures" may not be the "big picture".

Working together, science and religion can and should constantly call each other to humility, wonder, and awe, and not get so apoplectic when challenged. I am amazed when I see images from the Hubble Telescope. I am humbled when science tells us that stars throughout the galaxy are exploding and shooting all of the elements of the periodical table out into space. I'm also amazed that many scientists are beginning to view the universe as an organism and not a machine. The universe seems to have an emergent creativity to it. It's almost as if the universe has a goal as celestial bodies die and come to life, and order emerges from chaos. One could say that the universe is giving itself away and being reborn constantly.

Is This Even Possible?

I officiated a funeral today. After the committal service at the cemetery, one of the relatives of the deceased said to me, "God reaches out to us, but we have to reach back."

This sounds strangely like the addage, "God helps those who help themselves." This is nowhere found in the Scriptures. It even isn't implied.

I'm sure the gentleman meant well. He was probably expressing a deep frustration that his family members aren't much into church and religion. But the general implication of what he said makes God sound distant and untouchable.

I think a better way of saying this would have been, "God is with us and is all in all, whether we reach back or not. We then reach out to others in love."

Self-Talk

Do you talk to yourself? We normally judge people who talk to themselves as a bit eccentric, but there may be Biblical precedent for doing this. Read Psalms 42 and 43.

Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God. (42:5)

A Little About Me

In case you were wondering about the man behind the glasses (me) and what makes me tick, please refer to my sidebar on the right. I have a sentence there that tells my Myers-Briggs Temperament Instrument (MBTI) type as ISFP (Introverted, Sensing, Feeling, Perceiving). I won't get into the nitty-gritty details about what it all means, but I can give you a description of the ISFP type from people who have studied temperament and personality. I deviate from overall description in a few ways, but overall it describes me very well.

If you would like to find out your MBTI type, there are many sites online that let you take an instrument for free. Here are a couple of links:

Personality Types

Jung Typology Test

The ISFP Profile (The Artisan Composer):

More than the other Artisans, Composers are in tune with their senses, and so have a sure grasp of what belongs, and what doesn't belong, in all kinds of works of art. While the other Artisans are skilled with people, tools, and entertainment, Composers have an exceptional ability-seemingly inborn-to work with subtle differences in color, tone, texture, aroma, and flavor.

Although Composers often put long, lonely hours into their artistry, they are just as impulsive as the other Artisans. They do not wait to consider their moves; rather, they act in the here and now, with little or no planning or preparation. Composers are seized by the act of artistic composition, as if caught up in a whirlwind. The act is their master, not the reverse. Composers paint or sculpt, they dance or skate, they write melodies or make recipes-or whatever-simply because they must. They climb the mountain because it is there.

This ability to lose themselves in action accounts for the spectacular individual accomplishments of some Composers, and yet on their social side they show a kindness unmatched by all the other types. Composers are especially sensitive to the pain and suffering of others, and they sympathize freely with the sufferer. Some have a remarkable way with young children, almost as if there were a natural bond of sympathy and trust between them. A similar bond may be seen between some Composers and animals, even wild animals. Many Composers have an instinctive longing for the wilds, and nature seems to welcome them.

Composers are just as plentiful as the other Artisans, say nine or ten per cent of the population, but in general they are very difficult to observe and thus greatly misunderstood. Very likely the difficulty comes from their tendency not to express themselves verbally, but through their works of art. Composers are usually not interested in developing ability in public speaking, or even in the art of conversation; they prefer to feel the pulse of life by touch, in the muscles, in the eyes, in the ears, on the tongue. Make no mistake, Composers are just as interested as other types in sharing their view of the world, and if they find a medium of non-verbal communication-some art form-then they will express their character quite eloquently. If not, they simply remain unknown, their quietness leaving their character all but invisible.

Us and Them

Be careful who you label as "them", because when it's all said and done, "them" just might turn out to be you.

This was the thrust of Jesus' criticism of Israel. If you have ears to hear...

And Now For Something Completely Different

Speaking of worldviews, just what exactly is a Biblical worldview and is it possible to have such a worldview? Keeping in mind that the Bible was written at a different time, in a different culture, in different languages, and with a different cosmology, I have my doubts.

We've been told that in order to fully understand Scripture one must learn to think like an ancient Jew and obtain a Jewish mindset and worldview. I completely agree. But I don't believe it's possible. To try to internalize a different and ancient worldview so that it becomes our own is like trying to shove a square peg into a round hole. However...

We can study the Biblical worldview. We can learn from such a study and apply it to Biblical interpretation. This is good and necessary to do. But to take on a Biblical worldview (whatever that means) as my own is impossible. The life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus were interpreted through the lenses of a worldview and a story that was Jewish through and through. At the end of the day, I'm still going to view the world like a 21st century American. And so will you. We operate based on a completely different "Scripture", if you will.

Whatever that "Scripture" is needs to be cracked open and examined (in good old westernized fashion). This is what St. Paul did at the Areopagus in Acts 17. He broke open their "Scriptures", which turned out to be Greek and Cretan poetry. He then used them to proclaim the resurrection of Christ.

What would be examples of today's "Scriptures", and how can they be used to proclaim Christ? What would this do to our preaching?

Since I'm Not Preaching This Sunday...

... I thought I would give some random thoughts on the Gospel reading for Sunday (Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23).

The Parable of the Sower is a parable about parables and their effect on the people of Jesus' day. Some would hear and hear and hear and just won't buy it. And of course, Jesus' preaching had that effect upon the religious elite and their minions, who sought ways to have Jesus taken out. Some people just don't appreciate getting rained and snowed upon, not knowing that precipitation is necessary for growth and renewal.

We can be like little children who sing, "Rain, rain, go away. Come again another day." The Word of God is showered upon us "as the rain and the snow come down from heaven" to make our hearts fertile so that we become fruitful and multiply in works that "give seed to the sower and bread to the eater."

But instead, we come in out of the rain for one reason or another. It could be fear that God sends acid rain instead of pure water. It could be fear of becoming wet with the image of Christ. Or maybe we don't want to go through the troublesome task of drying off.

But what if we're never supposed to get dry in the first place? Baptism drenches us with water (the basis of all life) and Word (the sustenance of all life).

Jesus accomplished what God sent His Word to do. Parables were just the start of how he did it. Some people wouldn't have any of the freedom that Jesus was offering them. They were so used to their own ways and ideas of what freedom should look like that they were blinded to what God was revealing in Christ.

The tour de force was the cross. If people refused to see what was happening there-- the destructiveness of their own hatreds and biases and the identity of who they were to be-- then they would suffer the same fate, and suffer dearly. But if their eyes were opened to what God was doing-- showing the door to freedom from a destructive and self-defeating system--they would be transformed and become people with a mission.

Freedom never comes "as you want it". This is not bad news. The futility of thinking that we are the masters of our own destinies comes at great cost. Self-interest at the expense of the whole destroys the self. We are not the islands we believe ourselves to be. But by grace we are knitted together as self-interested individuals into a body that benefits from the body and blood of Christ, given and shed for us in the Eucharistic Feast, so that we reach and benefit those outside of the faith.

Moonwalkin'

A thought just occured to me and I wanted to get it out before I forgot.

What would the Bible say if humanity had its origins on the Moon and not on the Earth? How would it read? I suspect it would be quite different because the Biblical authors would have had the moonscape as their point of reference. How would Genesis 1 read then?

Just wondering.

Letters to Libraries (and beyond)

A letter.

Then alphabetized letters.

Letters combine to form words.

Words combine to form sentences.

Sentences combine to form paragraphs.

Paragraphs combine to form pages.

Pages combine to form stories.

Stories combine to form books.

Books combine to form libraries.

There would be no libraries, books, stories, pages, paragraphs, sentences, words, or alphabets if it weren't for letters.

Reality is series of nested whole/parts (holons). Each holon represents something that is whole but is part of a bigger whole. Every stage of development is dependent on the previous stage. Books can exist without libraries; libraries cannot exist without books.

These are not my ideas, but they make perfect sense to me.

God can exist without the universe; the universe cannot exist without God. God is the only "holon" (for lack of a better term) who is the "Whole", but yet is not a "part", and yet is immanent with every part "wholistically".

Make sense? Think about it!

Foxhole Faith

As the saying goes, "There are no atheists in foxholes."

In response to this, an atheist once said, "If I'm being bombarded in a foxhole, I'm going to do whatever I can to get out of there. I'm not going to sit around and wait for some God-guy to come and rescue me."

Exactly. This is what I call "foxhole faith". It's a faith that's just as valid a belief as any that I've ever heard. Perhaps even more so.

The late George Carlin once quipped, "Religion has convinced people that there's an invisible old man in the sky." And yes, that is the trajectory of most religious discourse. Unfortunately, it has led us to where we are today-- a world full of deists, atheists, and agnostics. This is why most churches are empty on Sunday mornings. An invisible old man who doesn't seem to know what he's doing is hardly worth getting up out of bed for.

To me it's quite simple: we're going to have to give up the interventionist and invisible God-guy if we're going to speak intelligently about our faith. We're going to have to stop speaking of God as an interplanetary cop watching and waiting to catch bad guys. In fact, we may even have to stop speaking of God in ways which imply that God is a sort of superhuman being who reminds us of how much we screw up. But what do we put in his place?

I propose we start speaking in terms of Ultimate Reality out of which all reality we experience with our senses arises, and that this God is constantly being revealed to us through ongoing discoveries in nature--medicine, physics, sociology, astronomy, archaeology, geology, anthropology-- as well as discoveries in Biblical and theological scholarship, linguistics, history, etc. Aren't discoveries made in these fields "revelations"? Aren't things being constantly revealed to us?

Of course, as Christians we believe that God was ultimately revealed to us in the person of Jesus Christ. That is something that cannot even be questioned. But I wonder if Jesus can be looked at from different angles. I believe that he can; it's why there are four Gospels and not just one. The first Christians saw in Jesus the fulfillment and the goal to which their collective stories pointed.

Today, our stories are huge by comparison and getting bigger by the day with the exponential explosion of our knowledge base. Wouldn't it be right to say that God is the Ultimate Reality out of which all of our discoveries and revelations, even our stories, emerge? We could even call this (to use a bit of Christianese) Divine Service. To use my own sophomoric term: Foxhole Faith.

No Scripture

What would the Christian faith look like if the Spirit hadn't inspired the Biblical authors to write? Almost all scholars agree that almost everything we have in the Bible started out as oral traditions, including the Gospels. According to Dr. Ken Bailey, the Gospels were written primarily out of necessity. The oral traditions and stories about Jesus were kept guarded in the various faith communities by the eyewitnesses of the events of Jesus' life. In the earliest Christian communities in Palestine, reducing oral traditions to writing was the same as burning them, which is why they waited until the last possible moment to write them down. The eyewitnesses (guardians) of the traditions were dying as the years passed, and writing would have been the only means of preservation. So...

What would the Christian faith look like if all of the original eyewitnesses of the life of Jesus died before their stories were written down? Remember, at the time of the apostles there was no such thing as a written New Testament, and the faith caught on like wildfire throughout the Mediterranean world.

Just wondering. Thoughts?