PublicChristian

A friend recently asked what it means that I use “emergent evangelical” as my religious affiliation on FaceBook. So here’s a look at what the phrase means to me.

I. “Evangelicals” Today

“Evangelical” has come to be a bad word in much of American society, for several reasons. » Continue Reading »

Listen to this sermon by clicking here: (Download)
 

ISSUES in “Our Patriotic Songs Have Some Serious Messages”:
  • God is looking for fruit (goodness, love) from every individual, every group, every nation, even the entire human race.
  • ”My Country” – It’s good in principle to love your country. It’s very normal. But it is sometimes done in very destructive, evil ways.
  • Some of these stirring songs have serious prayers in them, or frightening teachings about God’s action in America.
» Continue Reading »

Here’s the article I wrote for our church’s monthy newsletter for January. We need, want, and should want lots of good things. But I was looking for a list specific to a local church’s situation. This is derived from the first of the two letters we have from Paul to the church of the Thessalonians.

While it is local-church specific, it seems to me to have profound applications and implications far beyond that scope.

What Does God Want To Do Here in 2009?

That question – What does God want to do here in 2009? – no doubt has some answers we cannot figure out here in January.

But I think God has made a lot of it pretty apparent. Here’s a short Bible study from I Thessalonians – looking for what had been seen, or would be seen, as desirable developments in the believers in Thessalonica.

God wants to see more people doing / experiencing these things, and these things being done better and more consistently. What do you think of this list? Does any part of it particularly stand out to you?

1. PEOPLE WITH FAITH AND LOVE.

» Continue Reading »

“I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people.” Luke 2:10

Is God Sending Joy for ALL People?

Yes! Joy to those feeling terrible because they’ve been inattentive to God:

All the people had been weeping as they listened to the words of the Law. Nehemiah said, This day is sacred to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.
Nehemiah 8:9-10

Yes! Joy to those for whom God has already done great things:

The LORD has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy.
Psalm 126:3

Yes! Joy to those weeping, who desperately need God to do great things:

» Continue Reading »

I. Waves of Slander

I don’t have statistics, but we all know there’s a lot of falsehood circulating freely online.

An email arrives with frightening accusations or innuendos and the reader gets frightened (as was intended) and forwards the email to warn others of the great danger revealed.

But what if the email is one of the mostly false ones? How should we react if we’re not entirely sure of it’s truthfulness? After all, when we accept at face value lies about a person, group, or situation, and repeat those lies, we have put ourselves in a very bad place – we have become gossips and slanderers.

Slander, you may have heard, is not a Bible virtue, » Continue Reading »

Drew Smith, ordained Baptist minister, wrote recently about shallow sermonizing (at his blog , Wilderness Preacher, and at EthicsDaily.com.) It’s dangerous for me to complain about useless sermons, since I deliver a hopefully useful one every week – I’m very vulnerable to examination on this issue. In fact, I was told one Sunday morning not too long ago, “You ain’t no preacher!” (Actually, the guy managed to turn that into a compliment, but it’s still a pretty clear statement.)

But that doesn’t mean I can’t say what I think on this.

Smith’s initial complaint » Continue Reading »

A) List of sermons online

B) Sermon July 1: God Bless America

ISSUES in: God Bless America
Does God have favorites – people or nations?
If so, what are the standards God goes by?
In what ways is America heading for trouble? What are good things about America?

C) Sermon Aug 19: Living to Please God

ISSUES in “Living to Please God”:
– avoid sexual immorality
– love one another
– mind your own business
– God leads us into lifestyles of peace and blessing

I. Question

A question for the new year: What do you think are the most obvious facts about this Creation? – this human world, or the natural world, the universe(s) that we live in?

II. Answer

I think there are two very important, very obvious facts, and they are succinctly presented in this line from the Psalms.

The enemy has damaged everything within the Sanctuary.

That “Sanctuary” was probably Solomon’s Temple, a work of huge expense, a great engineering and artistic achievement, a major statement of national and religious pride. But then it was terribly ravaged. Imagine yourself walking around in that complex of buildings and squares after “everything” in it had been damaged. What would you see? What would you feel? Would there not be two very obvious reactions?

1. Wow. This is (or was) awesome. Incredible.
2. Wow. This is so sad. This is really messed up.

That’s my take on our world – breath-takingly awesome, and really really messed up.

Beautiful and ugly. Excellent and awful. Awesome and repulsive. Incredibly well-planned and ordered, and terribly chaotic and dysfunctional. And we, and all we care about, suffer in the midst of that contradiction.

To my mind that applies to the natural world as well as to all our human worlds that we of necessity devise and live in. I think it impacts us more frequently and painfully – if we are paying much attention – in the world of humans, in politics and economics, in social arrangements and personal relationships, in cultural patterns and national habits. Still, of course, the decay in the physical or natural world will get us all in the end. And death is generally not seen as one of the beautiful things – though the way a person faces it might be.

III. Do You Accept Those Facts?

What’s our response to this obvious mixture in our personal and social lives of wonderful and horrible?

Should we as Christians emphasize one side of the equation and ignore the other? If so, which? And if we do ignore half of this reality, do we thereby endanger ourselves and others?

How about us personally? Do you and I as individuals tend to focus our attention and interest on one side of it and ignore the other? Do we tend to interpret events mostly from one perspective or the other? And if so, what is the impact on our lives of focusing on either the excellence or the damage?

Lots of questions, I know. And it’s hard to pause and wait in this setting for the answers and discussion that could prove so interesting and helpful.

I wish we could sit around the living room and have that discussion.

IV. Jesus Lived It

We see this duality in Jesus’ life. Years of beautiful ministry, full of integrity, of impact, of hope and implications for the human future. Lots of connection, and the ability to really impact peoples’ lives. Then it ended in that horrible travesty of justice in Jerusalem, and the political murder at the cross.

(Of course, the Resurrection followed. But that was changing the script, you know. That’s not what the crowds had been hoping for. Their hopes were dashed. It seems, even, that he felt that way himself to some extent.)

V. Society

Much of the excellence and much of the pain are located in or derived from our human worlds. Jeremiah told the people to seek the welfare of the enemy city to which they had been relocated.

Jesus wept over a city. The people of that city loved the beauty of Herod’s construction projects (e.g. the Temple), and they loathed his personality and the bloodshed and other injustices he perpetrated so freely against them.

Our towns and cities are full of beauty. Every building, road, port, park represents a lot of cooperative effort, of excellent workmanship. Every school, church, business, home, yard or garden, or family is a miracle of order and energy.

And our towns and cities are well acquainted with decay and collapse, sorrow and brutality, ruined lives and ruined structures, betrayed promises, and institutions that are destroying the ends for which we brought them into being.

VI. We Live With It

Jesus saw the ugly AND the beautiful. And he clearly is teaching us that the beautiful is worth embracing, right on through the storms of ugly.

When the grain of sand gets into the oyster’s shell, that’s a pain (presumably – I’m not intimately acquainted with oyster perceptions). But the oyster goes ahead and covers it with what it has at hand – and thereby turns the irritant into a thing of beauty. But it remains an unsolicited interference. It remains. It gets “glorified” into pearldom, but it’s still there. That’s not what the oyster “intended��? its life to be like.

Remember the two “Great Commandments”? Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and love your neighbor as yourself. In a way we have there these two opposites – the Beauty, God, and the ugly, human society. Draw on the love of the Beauty in order to sustain practicing love in the world of ugly.

But the humans also are a thing of beauty. That’s what the Gospel means – we are worth it. We are all worth it. And if we’re worth it to God, we have to allow the others, the “neighbors,” to be worth it to us. And since we are to love them as we love ourselves, we have to allow ourselves also to be worth it to us.

“The enemy has damaged everything in the sanctuary.” But God still loves this sanctuary that is under such long construction. God sees the present and the potential beauty. And that makes all the difference.

So as to the question whether Christians should emphasize one side or the other of this, it seems not. We can see both, and we must.

Christians have the freedom – luxury maybe – of facing both the beauty and the ugliness straight. We are freed from having to pretend. We are freed from having to live in a pit of cynicism and anger. We are not surprised at evil, neither are we surprised at good. We are free to resist storms, disease, injustice, and hate or indifference. And we are not ashamed to get misty-eyed over babies and sunsets, concerts and even city government. We are free to be awed by all the beauties, natural and human-made, and to deliberately love all of our fellow-citizens of this beautiful, ugly world.

Aren’t we?

Some of us spent some time discussing John 15 Sunday morning. In the blockquote are some excerpts from the chapter, to refresh our memories.

Then there are six “simple” principles that stand out to me from the chapter. I say “simple” because they are simple to state. That does not mean they are particularly easy to understand, verbalize, or learn to practice.

I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener …

I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.

go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. This is my command: Love each other.

If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first … As it is, you do not belong to the world …

‘They hated me without reason.’

1.      Source

We cannot bring much righteousness, justice, or goodness – “fruit” – into this world from within ourselves. It has to be Sourced through us.

2.      Jesus

That Primary Source is Jesus (or the Spirit of Christ).

3.      Connection

The connection, or the means of the transfer of this goodness, is not physical, but personal. That is, not material or even worldly, but relational, spiritual, moral.

4.      Purpose

This is the source or means of real joy in human life – because it is what we are made for.

5.      Priority

The priority obligation laid upon us by Jesus, explicitly and twice in this short selection, is “love each other.”

6.      Difficulty

This style of life is probably not a route to acclaim in this world.

Jesus’ prayer in John 17 is unusual – for it’s length and for its “flavor.”

It is relatively long. Actually, it’s short by the standards of some preachers, but it’s long by New Testament standards, and there aren’t many prayers in the whole Bible that are longer.

To some – certainly often in the past to me – it feels rambly and incoherent.

But now on more careful familiarity it resonates for me with alertness and order. In fact it is almost stunning in its deliberate priorities, its insightfulness into the real world and its orderly approach to the great issues.

In this chapter we become eavesdroppers on a private conversation at a moment of great emotional weight and long-term significance for Jesus.

It’s between Jesus and the Father, but is a monologue (as prayer usually is). It’s very personal, but done aloud in the presence of a number of his friends (as prayer sometimes is).

I’m not here to write a sentence-by-sentence commentary on this prayer – that would take weeks of meditation and work – but just to commend it to our attention. I have read it several times over the past week or so, and highly recommend that.

Go to BibleGateway.com and copy it off. Remove the verse numbers and footnotes. Then just read it once or twice a day for two or three days – no annotations permitted. On the third or fourth day start making some notes on your printout.

Treat it with respect. Make the assumption that you are reading the output of a real person, a person of extraordinary insight, making a real prayer which has come down to us in close to its original form. That is an assumption that I believe will in this case pay valuable dividends.

What do you find? I’d like to know.

Last night I was doing a little review-browsing in a book I used a few years ago – a text for a “Life and Teachings of Jesus” class at the community college. The book is Living Jesus: Learning the Heart of the Gospel, by Luke Timothy Johnson, 1999.

Here’s part of his final summary of the character of Jesus. (p200)

First, he makes the very significant point that Jesus is indeed an appropriate model for life-values and personal (and public) character.

It is on this point, in fact, that we find the most consistent testimony in the writings of the New Testament — namely, that there is a necessary congruence between the character of Jesus’ human life and the character of Christian discipleship.

Here’s a little of how that character shows up in the Gospels.

Nowhere in the Gospels is there an image of the human Jesus that is compatible with attitudes of

• hubris,
• hedonism,
• envy,
• arrogance,
• acquisitiveness,
• self-aggrandizement,
• hostility,
• or violence.

Wow. What a thing to be able to say about someone – especially someone so impressive to his contemporaries and so influential in history since his day. Well, if that’s what was missing from Jesus, what was present in him?

Jesus is everywhere associated with faithful obedience toward God, and meek, compassionate, self-emtying service toward other people.

“Meek,” by the way, when applied to Jesus does not mean cowed or brow-beaten. Obviously! We’re talking here about a guy who called one of his closest followers “Satan,” urged his enemies to go give the bloody King Herod his (Jesus’) itinerary, and who often deliberately chose to publicly reject the authority of the powers that be.

Meek does not mean cowering and retiring, but something much stronger and more self-possessed. Strong, like the way Jesus practiced deep, active, independent-minded love for all humans while not getting into the hubris, violence, etc. of that list up above. Now that’s strong.

And in case we’re missing the point, Johnson goes on to apply Jesus’ character standards to us.

Similarly, we find nowhere in the New Testament an understanding of Christian discipleship compatible with a life devoted to one’s own

• success,
• pleasure,
• comfort,
• freedom from suffering,
• or power

at the expense of others.

Again, to fill that vacuum of what is absent, here is what is present.

Everywhere we find the qualities that are found in Jesus advanced as essential to the following of Jesus: the same faith, the same love, the same hope.

The basic pattern of faithful obedience to God and loving service to others is the image of Christ that the Spirit replicates in the freedom of those who belong to Christ.

Don’t you just love that last line – “that the Spirit replicates in the freedom of those who belong to Christ.” There is available to us a moral attachment to Christ that enables the Spirit of Christ to effect transformation, to generate character re-formation, not in suppression of our freedoms, but “IN the freedom” that is God’s gift to us.

[Here are other posts of mine mentioning this book: Jesus is Still a Significant Experience • Learning Jesus • Missing Jesus - Replaced by Machiavelli ]

My wife heard on the radio the other day that resistance to Bush is clearly “Satanic.” “Christian” radio is promoting some strange ideas, but this is one in particular to be very wary of.

We do need to judge spirits, but according to Jesus backwards judging of the spirits is very dangerous. He says there is an unpardonable sin, and it has to do with mis-judging spirits – calling movements of the Good Spirit satanic.

Remember this story? 1) Jesus cast out a demon. 2) The powers that be in the religious world said he was a servant of the devil. 3) Jesus said,

“I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.”

(Matthew 12:31,32)

They may have had problems with the history of Jesus, or with some of his teaching. But if they could not acknowledge that he really was going around doing good, then something was deeply wrong.

When you attribute to satan what is obviously good, well-intentioned and truthful, you are lining up with those Pharisees and hypocrites. And that is a place you don’t want to be.

And that’s what’s happening here.

I. Some Things that Clearly are NOT Satanic.

To speak out of a heart of integrity heavily burdened by the deceitfulness of this President and his regime (and it’s servants in the media) is NOT “Satanic.” It is just being honest.

To speak against contempt for the poor and catering to the wealthiest of the wealthy is not satanic. It is just caring what happens to your neighbor.

To speak for peacemaking and against dishonest, incompetent, and corrupt warmaking is not satanic. It is just trying to be a truth-teller and a peacemaker.

To speak against the manipulation of the churches into arrogant hatred of other Americans (and even of other Christians), as the radical right has done so much lately, is not satanic. To speak against false prophecy is just a way of trying to defend the truly prophetic.

II. When You Call the Activities of the Good Spirit “Satanic”, That is Blasphemy.

Jesus acknowledges that you could be wrong about him per se, and still be not a lost cause.

“Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven …” (Matthew 12:31,32)

But He seems to think you cannot be aggressively wrong about what is blatantly good and what is clearly bad in the realm of the spirit and still be reachable. You have lost a sense of the distinctions between what is holy and what is evil. You make yourself an outspoken servant of evil, and the good no longer exerts an attraction on you. You are really in trouble.

This is not always easy for a third party to judge. But the principle seems clear, and Jesus obviously thought himself competent to judge it.

When you see the good being done in a good manner by a good man – as they saw in Jesus – if you have any spiritual health or integrity you can at least recognize that good. You may have problems with the history of the person you are dealing with, or with some of their specific teachings. But if you cannot see and acknowledge those who are doing crucial good out of deep concern and at real risk to themselves, then you are negligent and need to start being more responsible, OR you have been very deeply corrupted.

III. Living in Fear is Not the Way Jesus Lived; It is Not the Way He Taught; It is Not the Effect of the Holy Spirit.

The American Christian right today peddles fear. It cultivates bogeyman jumpiness in the churches. And the fear becomes hate rather than hospitality (xenophobia rather than philoxenia – Titus 1:8, I Pet 4:9) There is also a refusal to practice listening to the truth as the antidote to fear. Without the antidote (truth and love) the condition just gets worse.

Conclusion

Judge the spirits. The spirit of fear, falsehood and hate is NOT the spirit of Christ. That, at least, we know for sure.

If we cannot see that many or most of those complaining about Bush and his ways are doing so JUSTLY, and on a basis of fact and truth, out of a deep concern for traditional American and ancient Christian values, then somehow or another we have become very deeply corrupt.

It is not a good sign. Obviously I am not The Judge. But I say we should be very careful about condemning those who are speaking the truth – it’s a very dangerous spiritual pattern to get into. It corrupts the judgment. So we find people who listen to voices like Rush because “he tells it like it is.” Wrong. He is a criminal, an inveterate liar, an abuser, a colossal hypocrite. If we cannot acknowledge where the liars really are we have a big spiritual problem.

“… out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him.”

(Matthew 12:34,35)

I got an email this week with some guidelines for resisting temptation. The author wrote, “I was just feeling overwhelmed by the wickedness and evil of this world” and offered some guidlines for resisting the moral undermining that comes at us in our private lives. “There is nothing new under the sun. Evil exists in this world and seeks to destroy us. God’s grace is abundant and reaches into the filth of this place … ”

Here’s my response, including a summary of the original points.

Good thoughts, good suggestions.

As you mentioned:

1. Awareness of – and learning to embrace – that availability of constant renewal in God’s presence and grace is crucial.
2. Valuing the great gifts and blessings in our lives that are under threat is a valuable tool. Valuing includes constantly choosing awareness of them, frequently focusing on them, frequently making explicit to ourselves why and how they are precious – and, in the case of persons, in what specific ways they benefit from our faithfulness or would suffer from its opposite.
3. Quick return is crucial – “get back up, get back to God”
4. We can Use Scripture to constantly influence what’s in our thoughts, and how our attitudes are changing (or not).

I’d add, FWIW:

1. Sometimes “flee” is just the best strategy. Physical (or mental) relocation is not cowardice. Sometimes it’s the only smart thing to do.
2. Use what Wm James called “the expulsive power of a higher affection.” As above, value the goods in our lives. Also make room frequently to just value the Lord, his wisdom, his good agenda, his love for our loved ones, the beauty of His plans for all of creation, his love for us personally. That generates and strengthens the most powerful available “higher affection” – though it takes time. That strengthens the inner man and the values. (But still sometimes you just have to flee, or change what you are occupied with.)

More from the original email (reminding us of that awesome duet of grace and holiness):

“Por lo tanto, ya no hay ninguna condenación para los que están unidos a Cristo Jesús …” (in Christ, no condemnation)

“Dios no nos llamó a la impureza sino a la santidad …” (called to holiness)

Sermon Title: What Should We Emphasize In Order to Promote True Christianity in This Country?

I “preached” Sunday. (Some say what I do is not really “preaching”, but that’s another question.) We began with these two lists of questions, and me asking what differences they could detect between the lists as I read them. The congregation had them on a handout so they could follow along.

Here’s list #1 – Eight questions to solve (or create?) the “9% problem.” These are questions that George Barna (the pollster) used so he could discover how many church attenders actually have a truly Biblical worldview. He concluded that only 9% of professing American Christians do.

1. Do absolute moral truths exist?

2. Is absolute truth defined by the Bible?

3. Did Jesus Christ live a sinless life?

4. Is God the all-powerful and all-knowing Creator of the universe, and does He still rule it today?

5. Is salvation a gift from God that cannot be earned?

6. Is Satan real?

7. Does a Christian have a responsibility to share his or her faith in Christ with other people?

8. Is the Bible accurate in all of its teachings?

Here’s list #2: – more questions, also difficult, but from the New Testament – from Jesus and the Apostles. The above list piqued my curiosity – I wondered what questions Jesus would be asking if he were circulating among the churches today. (”If he were”??!!) So I went browsing in my Bible. Here are some questions I found in the New Testament.

1. Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not do what I say? (Lk 6:46)

2. What shall I do, Lord? (Acts 22:10)

3. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? (I Jn 3:17)

4. What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? (Mt 16:2)

5. How can you believe if you accept praise from one another, yet make no effort to obtain the praise that comes from the only God? (Jn 5:44)

6. If you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? (Lk 6:33)

7. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? (Lk 6:41)

8. Who is wise and understanding among you? (Jas 3:13)

9. Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him? Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? (James 2:5)

10. Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard? (Gal 3:2)

What differences do you detect between these two lists? We’re not being fussy here – just want some feedback / observations. (I learn a lot that way!) I’ll comment further in a couple of days or so, and will include 2 or 3 of the responses we got to that query on Sunday morning.

The Bible fairly often makes a direct connection between the desolation of a land (and its people – and, obviously, its economic life) and moral corruption in the people’s prior social, legal, and economic patterns.

Here’s an example from Zechariah 7. The residents are a small fraction of the numbers present 80 years prior. They live among ruins and in largely unsettled country, though they are making serious efforts to rebuild Jerusalem and its temple and surrounding towns. They see the ruins and the surrounding emptiness every day.

The prophet refers them back to messages brought by prophets to their ancestors – people who lived in these very towns not all that long prior. Here is Zechariah’s summary of those earlier warning messages.

This is what the LORD Almighty says:

1. Administer true justice;
2. show mercy and compassion to one another.
3. Do not oppress
• the widow
• or the fatherless,
• the alien
• or the poor.
4. In your hearts do not think evil of each other.

What a list. Get a load of #4! For THOSE things they were willing to see their enitire nation, economy, people made a desolation. THOSE are the things God really cares about. Wow. What a surprise.

Those messages of the past were ignored, and the desolation that came, in which Zechariah and his countrymen were living, is blamed on that prior rejection of God’s priorities.

But they refused to pay attention; stubbornly they turned their backs and stopped up their ears. They made their hearts as hard as flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the LORD Almighty had sent by his Spirit through the earlier prophets. So the LORD Almighty was very angry.

Wow again. That is energetic stubborness, vigorous stupidity! I think the same pattern – of stubborn stupidity followed by desolation – can be expected to repeat itself even in our “modern” and “advanced” cultures and economies. In fact I think the pattern IS on track to repeat itself.

See how simple and logical – and unpleasant – is the LORD’s comment.

When I called, they did not listen; so when they called, I would not listen,’ says the LORD Almighty. ‘I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations, where they were strangers. The land was left so desolate behind them that no one could come or go. This is how they made the pleasant land desolate.

It’s called giving credit where credit is due.

I had been scheduled to preach in Pastor Greg’s place on January 8. Since my heart attack of the 1st was successfully treated on the 2nd and I felt pretty good by Wednesday the 4th, we decided to keep me on the schedule.

But my original topic (”Justice” in Jesus and Isaiah) was reduced to a cursory survey, and we spent some minutes together considering some things that went through my mind (and Connie’s) on the Sunday and Monday prior.

Here’s a summary from memory (skipping part I, the Intro):

II. Our Little Drama Sunday through Wednesday.

I know some people sitting here have been through a lot more trauma – and fear – than Connie and I went through Sunday and Monday. I’m not pretending my case is anything special. But on the other hand, it’s not every week a guy has a heart attack. It seems it might be appropriate to point out some of the things I thought about during those hours.

A. Contingency – You Never Really Know

Human life is very contingent. That means that my survival depends considerably on my own will and choices, but it also depends on a whole host of other factors that are beyond my control. We had no reason to expect a heart attack for me in the foreseeable future. It’s a very sobering experience to feel such pain and to find yourself saying, “I wonder if I’m having a heart attack!” We “know” from our culture that heart attacks are fairly often fatal, so admitting that you are having one is admitting that you may be on the very edge of the next world. That does kind of change the look of things.

The odds are very high that we will all still be in this world tomorrow night, but we do NOT know for sure that we will. That’s just one of the facts of life. And it IS certain that the day will eventually come when we will NOT be here 24 hours from that day. I don’t think it’s a bad idea for Christians to think explicitly about that now and then.

B. How do You Want to Have Lived?

Lying helpless on my back in the ambulance on the way to Kearney I knew Connie was following somewhere behind us, wondering what was going on in the ambulance. She and I knew it was possibly my last trip east down those familiar roads. There were lots of unknowns, but lying there watching the heart monitor I was able to pin down a couple of facts.

For one thing, I was glad to realize that there were no secrets or unpleasant facts that would later come out to hurt Connie – and other people important to me – if I were soon to step off into another world. That’s important.

For another, I quizzed myself a little. “What have I been doing with my time? What have I been concerned about over the last months and even years? Have these life-investments, especially my most recent ones, really been made in accordance with what is most valuable to me? With what is most valuable in how I see the universal scale of things?”

That’s a big and difficult question. And no doubt there are many choices I could improve if I could redo them, and many acts that could have been more effectively performed. But in general the answer was, “Yes. The things I’ve been investing my life in really do matter, and I’m not regretting having put my energies where I have put them.” It was a comfort to see and know that.

Three hundred years ago a book was popular by the title of “Holy Living, and Holy Dying.” In those days death was a much more public phenomena. It did not happen behind closed doors of medical facilities, and it often happened at a much earlier age than is likely today. The focus of his book was that if we want our last hours to be “holy” or “good”, we need to be living in light of that desire. The way you live is likely to have an effect on the emotions and atmosphere at the time of your dying. I don’t think it’s bad for Christians to think about those connections before they become realities.

So an ongoing question has to be, “Am I living like I’ll want to have lived if I suddenly realize it’s over?”

C. Wherever You Go, Bring Some “Home” There

Last week Pastor Greg talked about “the Kingdom,” and its function of altering our lifestyles in response to Greater Realities. He’s been talking for several weeks about the Kingdom and the Gospel as providing us with our real “Home”, and ended last week with an encouragement to all of us to “take a little Home” with us wherever we go in this world. I did think of that – in the ER, the ambulance, and the hospital. Those people serving me did not need for me to bring a little bit of hell to them! Admittedly, I was a bit crabby by the time we got to the ER. But I did try to bring a little “Home” wherever I went.

D. Thinking Members: We Really Do Need Each Other

It was so impressive seeing such an array of people kick into high gear bringing the maximum of their training and experience to bear on my situation. They did not wait for me to quiz them on the intricacies of their theology, or how they treat their family members, or whether the schools they went to were properly accredited and respected. Nor did they ask such questions of me. They just brought to bear what they knew was needed at the moment, and they did it with focus and with high skill.

Is it surprising that I was thankful for all that?

The 17th C French Christian philosopher (and mathematician) Blaise Pascal wrote in his “Pensees” about “thinking members.” All the parts (members) of our bodies work together with incredible coordination and mutual support, and – being non-thinking members – they don’t even realize the beauty, subtlety, and power of the project they are involved with. What if you could have a body of “thinking members” who actually realized what was going on – and voluntarily and delightedly participated?

Of course if one member then decided to start hoarding nourishment “that would not be love.” But if each was really looking out to fulfill its own role, and to provide for the welfare of the rest – that would indeed be a thing of beauty and power.

Well, that’s what God made – and makes – by arranging for human beings to function together in society, whether in general or in the specialized societies that constitute churches or medical facilities. All that high-intellect, high-tech, and usually high-energy effort on my behalf was a powerful illustration of the value of bodies of thinking members!

We really do need each other. We don’t need everybody doing the same thing. We need different people doing different things, and doing them well – and nobody “hoarding nourishment,” and nobody screwing the members farther down or up the line. And that applies in schools, homes, churches, city governments, and ALL the places where our mutual welfare depends on our mutual cooperation and responsibility. We really do need each other.

I recently put an article up over at BibleWeek about faith, discussing the first few verses in the book of James. What is the faith the Bible requires? You may not agree with my conclusions, but in a Christian context it is surely an important question. It’s kinda long so here are some excerpts:

the easy assumption is that “believe and not doubt” means either

1. “have strong feelings of confidence or certainty”, or
2. “be intellectually certain of something, know the truth of some particular statement.”

1. If “believe” means “have strong feelings of hope or confidence” then the vast majority of us do not believe all the time …

2. If “believe” means to be intellectually certain about, then there are many areas in all our lives about which we want to pray but we do not “believe” in this way …

But the primary meaning of “believe” (”faith” “trust” etc.) in the Bible is NOT either of those above two meanings.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BELIEVE?

3. … In fact, the Biblical idea of faith in God or believing in God is about one’s heart. It is not about assent to a creed, or feeling good about things, but a matter of the commitment of one’s heart.

The setting of one’s heart does involve emotions, certainly, but does not depend on emotion. It respects and uses intellect and reason, but it can go beyond what intellect can evaluate or approve. I think having one’s heart set on God – God’s good will, God’s being smarter than we are, God’s excellent moral insight – is what James is talking about here.

If you expect God to give you the wisdom you need – if you expect God to help you discern when and how you must persevere – then you need to have bought, down in your own heart, into God’s character and God’s competence in the long run to manage things very well.

What it’s not:
* That doesn’t mean you fully understand it.
* It doesn’t mean you always feel “up” about it.
* It doesn’t mean that you pretend everything is going to be easy or even marginally pleasant.
* It doesn’t mean you know how to go about progressing in God’s plans for you or for the human race.
* You don’t have to know how it all comes together.
* You don’t have to be succeeding wonderfully in living Christ’s life in this world.
* And you sure don’t have to be trying to shove it down anybody else’s throat!

But you do need to be committed to the idea that God’s take on things is worth your own total involvement, that God’s values are worth pursuing, God’s power is worth trusting, God’s insights into human life are worth trying to understand and live by. …

“Love of enemies has, for our time, become the litmus test of authentic Christian faith …. Love of enemies is the recognition that the enemy, too, is a child of God.”

The author of those lines was writing about thieves, extortioners, torturers, murderers, tyrants – not just someone who belongs to a different denomination. It’s a very costly standard Jesus asks of us – “love your enemies” and “pray for those who misuse you.”

But it goes beyond that. I have to assume that the efforts at grace, or at least careful honesty, that we expend in trying to deal with our enemies – whatever the type of conflict, whatever the situation – those efforts should be the minimum standard that we apply when dealing with our allies – whatever the conflict we have with them or the errors we discern in them.

If enemies deserve love, honesty and carefulness from us, how much more should allies deserve these things. And, at least in principle, it is easier to practice this with allies. Allies can be very irritating, and horribly offensive to one’s pride, but it’s REALLY hard with true enemies!

“And no one can show others the error that is in them, as Thomas Merton wisely remarked, unless the others are convinced that their critic first sees and loves the good that is in them.”

» Continue Reading »

One incident often comes up in discussions of Jesus and the generally non-violent flavor of his teaching – the time (or two) when he overthrew money-changer’s tables in the temple compound in Jerusalem. [Matthew 21:12, Mark 11:15, John 2:8]

I am assuming that the reports are accurate. I would like to point out a few things – to help us avoid the idea that Jesus here promoted the kinds of violence we tend to indulge in.

BACK THEN
» Continue Reading »

The “Project for the New American Century” has taken control of the most powerful force on this planet – the government of the United States of America. What do they believe in? What will they do? Well, they believe in dominating the world, and that’s what they intend to do. They posted a signed “Statement of Principles” on the web in 1997. Now they are running our government, as is indicated by the list of signatures. Here are a couple of key quotes from their “Statement of Principles”.

Does the United States have the resolve to shape a new century favorable to American principles and interests? …. We seem to have forgotten the essential elements of the Reagan Administration’s success: a military that is strong and ready to meet both present and future challenges; a foreign policy that boldly and purposefully promotes American principles abroad; and national leadership that accepts the United States’ global responsibilities.

• we need to increase defense spending significantly if we are to carry out our global responsibilities today and modernize our armed forces for the future;
• we need to strengthen our ties to democratic allies and to challenge regimes hostile to our interests and values;
• we need to promote the cause of political and economic freedom abroad;
• we need to accept responsibility for America’s unique role in preserving and extending an international order friendly to our security, our prosperity, and our principles.

Elliott Abrams – Gary Bauer – William J. Bennett – Jeb Bush – Dick Cheney – Eliot A. Cohen – Midge Decter – Paula Dobriansky – Steve Forbes – Aaron Friedberg – Francis Fukuyama – Frank Gaffney – Fred C. Ikle – Donald Kagan – Zalmay Khalilzad – I. Lewis Libby – Norman Podhoretz – Dan Quayle – Peter W. Rodman – Stephen P. Rosen – Henry S. Rowen – Donald Rumsfeld – Vin Weber – George Weigel – Paul Wolfowitz

Well, that’s not all bad, is it? It’s nice that they mention “political and economic freedom abroad.” Unfortunately they have shown us what they mean by that phrase – it means they will bring you the freedom to do what the US government wants you to do. They’ve also made it clear that they attach strange meanings to “strengthen our ties to democratic allies.” And they have selective memory (or perhaps “corrective memory”) of recent US history (the Reagan-Bush and Clinton administrations). Still, their professed intention to defend American interests seems to be a sensible enough goal.

The key here lies in what is missing. There are two hugely important streams of thought in American life that this document does not relate well to.

I.  AMERICAN LIBERAL (Representative!) DEMOCRACY

There are hundreds of documents and speeches in this stream of American ideals and commitment. Four wonderful ones are

• The Declaration of Independence
  “All men are created equal” does not mean that wealthy American Republican leaders are innately more deserving of power and of all good things than everyone else on the planet.
• The Constitution
  This document is devoted precisely to the idea that yes, we need power, but it is desperately urgent that we put limits around and watchers over that power. This is a document whose purpose is to “establish justice and promote the general welfare”, not to increase the absolute power of the sovereign group.
• Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address (”that government of the people, BY the people, FOR the PEOPLE shall not perish from the earth”)
• Lincoln’s Second Inaugural (”with malice toward none, with charity for all … to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan”)

PNAC is not much bothered about such things. Their statement is concerned with one trump value: power, control, domination.

Human history proves the deadliness of allowing only one party’s interests to dominate. We don’t need PNAC or anyone else re-establishing that folly in national or international life.

II.  CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY AND MORALITY

• “Love your neighbor as yourself” does not translate into “dominate your neighbor to satisfy your own ego or other lusts.”
• “The wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable” (James 3) does NOT mean “real wisdom is to violate any treaty or value system to force your will on all who resist you.”
• “Take up your cross and follow Me” is from a whole different Kingdom and a whole different King than “take up your weapons and follow me” (especially when those requiring us to take up our weapons managed to avoid taking up their own when they were called upon to do so).

The Neocon value system is pretty simple and straightforward. It greatly differs from traditional American values. And it greatly differs from Christian values. There are some choices to be made here.

(There is now a much more sensible “Project for the Old American Century” site that you might enjoy browsing.)

I don’t think the greatest enemy of monotheism is atheism, agnosticism, polytheism, dualism, or pantheism: It is bad monotheism, monotheism carried out in bad faith.

Yes! “Bad faith” is NOT a virtue even in our very freedom-loving society. Promises are to be kept, contracts fulfilled, responsibilities exercised “in good faith.” It’s actually a legal requirement, though often unenforceable.

And it applies very much to religious faith and behavior. As Scripture says, “the name of God is blasphemed among the unbelievers because of you.” We have a huge problem with that in America today. » Continue Reading »

In I John 4 the author makes a simple, blunt, logical analysis of our emotional attachments – or professed attachments. “If you do not love your brother whom you can see, how can you love God whom you cannot see?”

Well, that’s easy! Duh!

But no, this apostle John, who sees much more clearly than most of us, sees it differently. If you can’t love the present real persons in your life, you cannot be truly loving the not-so-present, not so in-your-face God that you imagine you are loving.

I say “you” because John said “you”, and because we must feel it personally. But it’s really “WE.” “How can WE love God” if ….

That logic applies in another way. persons whose lives intersect yours only because some tv network or popular magazine happened to feature them in order to make money? Well, duh! again. Some of those distant persons are suffering because of our activity / inactivity or because of deeds being done in our name.

Nevertheless the Bible does put some emphasis on proximity. What about my literal neighborhood? My own city? Kids living near “you” are going without school textbooks while enormously costly mansions are being built out on the edges of town. People in nursing homes close to you are not getting the care and courtesy that Christian decency demands, so their relatives have to go in and take care of them, even though thousands of dollars are changing hands every month to pay for that care and decency they do not get. Our great nation is locking up a much higher percentage of the young people from your city than is the case in the cities of any other ‘advanced’ nation. People who wait on you as fast-food clerks or bank tellers are literally not making a living wage.

This bites all of us. It is not easy to know how to love these people. It’s much easier to walk on by, and be angry and disturbed about – for example – a far distant Terri Schiavo case. I do know that people all over my part of the state were discussing that case, and often with considerable emotion, while almost no-one is talking about the school funding crisis, or the lousy care in some nursing homes, or the impossible-to-live-on incomes of so many people here, or the frightening number of our friends and neighbors who are now or have recently been in jail or prison.

I do know that Jesus said, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” And John said, “If you do not love your [neighbor] whom you can see, how can you [claim to] love God whom you cannot see?” And Jesus said, “Why do you call me, Lord, Lord, and do not do what I say?”

He also said, “You ought to have done this and not left the other undone.”

So I answer with a modification of the prayer one father spoke in the Gospel, “Lord, I do believe in and love You. I deeply respect your intelligence and insight. Help me to love and respect you more effectively, more presently, more fully, more realistically.”

These last two weeks I read through the Sermon on the Mount a few times (Matthew chapters 5 thru 7: see it at BibleGateway.com ). It is beautiful, difficult, profound, confusing, enlightening – all at once. But this time it seemed more united. Here are some notes I wrote myself as I read.

True Blessedness, now and hereafter, is on those who:

1) Pursue True Righteousness which does NOT equal forms, pretentions, common practices, special spiritual experiences (’gifts’), but DOES equal integrity, humility, love, golden rule, attention to fruit (actual consequences), attention to Jesus, love & truth, love and justice.

2) Do so Without Rage, arrogance, legal power plays, self-indulgence, or violence.

__________

There are lots of specifics of how we should think, talk, and act, with contrary examples taken from commonly observed behaviors, BUT with

• do not judge,
• do not think of others as dogs or pigs,
• do not retaliate.

__________

He prescribes a deliberate, self-aware holiness of attitude and life that is nevertheless without self-obsession. Conversely, there is a strong concern for how we relate to others — how others are seen and treated — but without any lessening of the rigors of the personal standards to which we are being called. And those personal standards are explicitly exclusive of prominent religious cultural standards.

__________

Point(s):

• Practical Holiness is the Standard for all of us,
• AND it is to be maintained without Arrogance, Rage, Violence, or the Supercilious Sneer.

I like this. Jesus really does see the whole thing – “God, the Universe, and everything” – from an uncommon perspective. It’s very attractive to me; seems very healthy.

I. THE PROBLEM

[See a summary of this post.]

Matthew 5:38-42

You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.

Is it ever appropriate for Christians to resist authority? Many of us feel there is much in the behavior of our national leaders that cries out for criticism and resistance. Are Christians permitted to do that? Does “turn the other cheek” mean we should be doormats?

“Doormat” was not Jesus’ style, nor the style of his followers » Continue Reading »

Here’s an op-ed type piece I wrote last Christmas about God’s strange approach to public relations issues that first Christmas.

Christmas: God’s public relations problem

by Larry Harvey, published in Southwest Nebraska News, Dec 12, 2003

That first Christmas was a public relations disaster. You know, the original Christmas with the baby, the shepherds, the angels, the magi from “the East.” That angel thing was a nice touch – brilliant in fact. It impressed the guys who were there; “they were terrified!” then “suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the first angel.” The angels were not the public relations foul-up. That was an excellent use of advertising dollars.

The mistake was in the choice of audience. The incredible show was wasted on a few unnamed shepherds (low-paid agricultural laborers) out in the hills. Just a few miles away, in Jerusalem, sat Herod the King, with all the power of the government, surrounded by the temple and the religious leadership of the nation. A message important enough to be delivered with shining glory by multitudes of angels is surely a message important enough to be sent to the top levels of human pride and power in Jerusalem, maybe even to the Emperor in Rome, not to a few rubes out in the hills! But the angels disappear without a trace; the shepherds make a short visit to the baby then they also disappear. What an incredible waste of a wonderful PR opportunity!

So what-s up with this? Is it incompetence? Does the Almighty need a better advertising agency?

Similar problems run through the whole story. Joseph went to Bethlehem “with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child.” Whoa! Stop right there. This looks really bad. Do they want to destroy the whole project right here at the beginning? Unmarried. Expecting. Traveling with a guy she’s not married to. This is not looking good. Do they really expect this to be the beginning of a moral revolution that will improve the whole human race?

Then there are the “three kings” who came to visit the young Jesus. “Magi.” As in magicians? As in fortune-tellers? Star-gazers? Astrologers? Please, can’t we find some nice respectable Jewish leaders, somebody really wealthy and honorable, to come and worship this “new-born king”? Why bring in these pagans (We’ve all heard about “Eastern religions”!), and foreigners at that?

And then there’s the political extremism in young Mary’s prayer-song (the “Magnificat”). “My soul glorifies the Lord . . . . He has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty.” Class warfare talk! People will get the wrong idea. Ah, the idealism of youth – she no doubt grew out of it. So why not just forget she ever said that? Maybe comments like that are the reason no good Jewish businessmen or prominent religious leaders were willing to come and honor this unwed and somewhat radical young woman’s cute baby.

With such an entrance, this child could be expected to exit history without making a ripple or leaving any legacy at all. But wasn’t God Himself supposed to be behind this whole thing? What’s up?

One of two things was happening. Either the culture was doing so well back then that the Holy One wanted to participate and enjoy it, and maybe coach them a bit; so He came as a baby, etc. OR they were doing so poorly that He had to start some radically new type of involvement and effort – if that’s the case, we should expect the story to develop in ways contrary to people’s expectations.

I think that is just what happened. And Jesus’ life over the next thirty or so years further illustrates this split: what God values and the ways God works are not the ways any of our human cultures have run or are now running. God is very interested in us, and He is present, but He and His activities often go unrecognized. God realizes that if you send angels to people who don’t really want Divine involvement, the angels will be ignored. And if you do everything as expected, there is no need to even do it; that also will be ignored. So God sent His message in His own way to those who could hear it. They were not the ones running things, whether in politics, religion, or the media.

But who knows? Maybe He has plans to change even that.