Rosary (Poem)

The dancing god lights up,

Hot and heavy, towards the ceiling

And the flickering light

 On the off-white...

I fight the thick air-
In and out,
In and out...
Deeper now, in...
And out.

Beads and a cross
And I recite the ancient
(W)holy (heretical) words
Lying to myself.

Be quiet...

.      .      .

Put out the lights.
The dancing god goes wild:
Spinning, swirling, swimming
Goes the dancing aroma god.

Linger with me scent,
I'll dance with you tomorrow.
Make haste to help me.
Amen

a father and his sons (part 3)

In my last two posts I talked about the story Jesus tells in Luke 15 about a son who runs away, wastes all his money and then comes home.

A father who is very generous and throws a huge party.

And a jealous older brother.

So when the older brother comes home from working in the field to find this big party being thrown for his younger brother he refuses to go in.

So his loving father comes out to plead with him. He basically tells him that he loves him just as much as the younger brother and that if he wanted a big party he could have asked for one at any time. He is after all a very generous man.

At this point in the story Rob Bell says in his book Drops Like Stars,

"The older brother then has a moment of profound enlightenment. He puts his arm around his father and says, "you're right, Dad. I'm sorry I've been such an ass. Can I get you a beer?"

... wait what?

Now, of course we know that he is joking. That isn't how the story ends is it?

The father goes out to plead with his son, he gives his speech and that's it.

We don't get to see what happens next.

It ends with a cliff hanger.

If this were a movie I would be really annoyed.

I can almost imagine his disciples being like, "How is Jesus ever going to start a movement telling stories like this?"

This story doesn't wrap up nice and neatly...

No condensed summary...

No three points of application all beginning with the same letter...

It just sits there... unresolved.

The most troubling thing about this story is not what it says. But what it refuses to say...

As I said in the last post I feel like I can really relate to the older brother in this story. But because Jesus leaves this story open ended it demands something of me. This story demands that I ask the question: what kind of son am I going to be.

Just like the older brother the choice lies before me. It happens every day.

I can choose to participate in what God is doing or I can be selfish, insecure and judgmental.

I enter into this story and I live in it on a daily basis... and every time I decide how this story ends.

Grace & Peace

a father and his sons (part 2)

In my last post I looked at the story that Jesus tells in Luke 15, and building off the posts about the same story at my friend's Josh's blog, how the younger son thought about himself and his father. In this post I want to look at the older son. But before I go forward I want to go backward.


At the beginning of chapter 15 the writer of Luke sets the scene for us:


"All the tax collectors and sinners were gathering around Jesus to listen to him. The Pharisees and legal experts were grumbling, saying, 'This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.'"


Now if you are not familiar with these stories it's worth pointing out that the pharisees and legal experts are Jewish religious leaders who, while very devoted to God, seem to miss the point of Jesus' life and teachings...


a lot!


So when they see that Jesus is hanging out with tax collectors and sinners (think of them as the equivalent of people that no one really likes - like modern day... well tax collectors and sinners I guess.) they get upset. 


Why?


Because "those" people are bad...


Something is wrong with them...


They are trash.


In the last post i looked at how some people view everyone as trash. In this post we will look at how some people only think that "those" kinds of people are trash.


"Those" people are the ones that are different than us. They don't live the way that we live.


If God loves us he can't love them...


right?


A few months ago I was walking with a friend one night near downtown.


As we were walking we passed some girls who were all dolled up with make up, short skirts and high heels. As they passed by us my friend cleared her throat rather loudly and then said, "I don't know why some girls have to dress like that to get attention."


The girls turned and looked at us since they obviously heard her. I could tell that they were not thrilled about being judged so harshly but after a second they just kept walking.


I was a little embarrassed and pretty angry but mostly disappointed.


We didn't even know these girls, and yet my friend acted like she had them all figured out.

Was she trying to shame them into changing the way they dressed?

Why did she think she had the right to look down on people just because she never dressed like that but they did?


It almost seemed like she saw the way those girls were dressed and she assumed they were trash.


That's what the pharisees and legal experts did.


They assumed that people who didn't live up to their standards were just trash.


So Jesus sees what they are saying. And he calls them out on it.


He tells a couple of stories about including the outsiders as insiders and those who were lost being found and how in his eyes this radical inclusion is cause for throwing a party.


Then after he tells the story about the younger brother he gets to the older brother:


"Now his older son was in the field. Coming in from the field, he approached the house and heard music and dancing. He called one of the servants and asked what was going on. The servant replied, ‘Your brother has arrived, and your father has slaughtered the fattened calf because he received his son back safe and sound.’ Then the older son was furious and didn’t want to enter in, but his father came out and begged him. He answered his father, ‘Look, I’ve served you all these years, and I never disobeyed your instruction. Yet you’ve never given me as much as a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours returned, after gobbling up your estate on prostitutes, you slaughtered the fattened calf for him.’" 


In his post Josh pointed out how the older brother thinks about the younger one. He doesn't even refer to him as his brother but as "this son of yours".

He's just like the pharisees and legal experts. He thinks that because of the way his younger brother lived that he is trash.

What a horrible way to think about your own brother!

But the reality is his incorrect view about his brother actually stems from his view of his father.

He says, "I've served you all these years".

As Josh points out he sees his father basically as a slave driver. He sees himself as a mere servant.

What a horrible way to think about your own father!

He thinks that because he has served his father that he has earned his father's affection. He sees his father as someone who only loves those who have earned it.

But I think his incorrect view of his father goes even deeper than that.

He's upset because his father killed the fattened calf for his brother and he complains that he never even got a goat.

When Josh, a few other guys and I were talking about this one night in a bar we discussed how the fattened calf was a big meal.

Along with bread and vegetables that would have been included in this feast that would have been way too much for three people. That much food would be enough to feed the whole village.

The whole village is at this party?

With all the music, wine and people at this party it's safe to say that this father knows how to throw down.

He seems to be a very generous man.

But the older brother doesn't see him that way. He says my friends and I never even got a goat.

A goat?

The fattened calf was juicy, meaty and great for throwing a feast. A goat was much tougher, gamier and didn't have nearly as much meat on it.

He doesn't have a big enough imagination.

He doesn't realize how generous his father really is.

Apparently he thinks his father is stingy.

But his father says, "Son, you are always with me, and everything I have is yours."


Everything I have is yours...


Everything!


It's like the father is saying, "Who wants a goat? If you wanted the fattened calf I would have gladly given it to you. After all I gave your brother his entire inheritance simply because he asked for it.You didn't have to earn  a party from me, you could have just asked. I would have loved to thrown you a party."


The older brother thinks his younger brother is trash because the older brother doesn't understand the way the father sees his children.

Does it seem like the older brother may even be a little insecure about himself?

Is that why he is lashing out at his father and little brother?

This is the part of the story that really hits home for me.

I'm so much like the older brother.

I'm a pro at using other people's failures to feel good about myself.

At least I'm not as messed up as that person...

At least I don't do what he does...

At least I'm not as judgmental as that girl...

right?

I think maybe I have a hard time seeing others the way God sees them because I don't understand how God sees me. So i project my insecurities onto other people and I focus on their brokenness so I don't have to own up to my own. Because if I own up to my own then I am faced with a very startling question - could anyone, let alone God, love me?

It's hard sometimes to see past your own shortcomings isn't it?

Sometimes it's hard to accept love.

Grace & Peace

a father and his sons (part 1)

A conversation in a bar and a Timothy Keller book provoked my good friend Josh to write a short series of posts on a story from Luke 15 (click here to read the story) on his blog Covered in His dust.

In his posts, "A story that blows my mind pt. 1 & pt. 2", Josh does a great job explaining what i think is at the heart of this story. But I think this story is deep and layered with all sorts of implications and I want to explore it a little more. I would recommend you read his posts first and view these posts as a continuation of the discussion.

In his posts Josh looks first at the younger brother and then in the second post he looks at the older brother. I will follow that same pattern.

So now the younger brother.

The younger brother is reckless and more than a little ungrateful.

He asks his father for his portion of the inheritance and he runs off with it.

Then he wastes all his money, a famine hits and he is lonely, broke and starving. In other words he screwed up.

Big time...

And he knows it.

Now at this point of the story I am interested in the way the younger brother looks at himself.

He says, "I will get up and go to my father, and say to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I no longer deserve to be called your son. Take me on as one of your hired hands.' So he got up and went to his father."


First he says, "I have sinned" which is his way of saying I screwed up. 


Then he says, "I no longer deserve to be called your son.Take me on as one of your hired hands."


He thinks because he messed up that he is not worthy of his father's love.


He sees himself as worthless.


He sees himself as trash.


Now in the traditional reading of this story that I was taught the younger brother represents the lost sinners who are not a part of the church. But to me the younger brother reminds me way too much of what I've heard in way too many churches and from way too many Christians.


It's the idea that because of the ways we mess up and because of our brokenness we are fundamentally bad. 


We are as one good friend of mine put it "trash in the sight of God".


I even had one preacher tell me that we are so repulsive to God that if it weren't for Jesus he couldn't even stand to look at us. (I kid you not...)


Which makes me think if that's his idea of "good news" I'd hate to hear his bad news.


This is why a lot of the atonement theories I heard growing up don't make sense to me. I was basically taught that on the cross Jesus had to die to protect us from the wrath of his very angry Father.

Apparently we are so repulsive to God that he wants nothing more than to torture us for all eternity?

Apparently Jesus and God are not even on the same team here?

All of this reminds me of a story from my childhood.

When I was very young my grandmother gave me a white teddy bear and I named it snowy.

I loved snowy and I took it everywhere I went (to this day snowy sits on my bookshelf in my apartment).

I remember one time snowy got a tear in it's arm and some of the cotton was starting to fall out. I was not happy about this to say the least.

Snowy was broken.

So it became worthless trash to me and I threw it away...

Actually that's not what happened at all. I was sad that snowy was broken but I still loved my teddy bear. So i took it to my mom. My mom put the cotton back in and sewed up the tear.

I tell you this story because my view of snowy did not fundamentally change because it was broken. Because it was broken I wanted to fix it.

No matter how broken my teddy bear was in my eyes it was never worthless trash...

So back to the story.

What's most compelling to me is not how the youngest son sees himself or he thinks the father sees him, it's how the father actually does see him.

As the younger son is coming to his father here is what happens:

"While he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was moved with compassion. His father ran to him, hugged him, and kissed him. Then his son said, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I no longer deserve to be called your son.’ But the father said to his servants, ‘Quickly, bring out the best robe and put it on him! Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet! Fetch the fattened calf and slaughter it. We must celebrate with feasting because this son of mine was dead and has come back to life! He was lost and is found!’ And they began to celebrate."


The Father doesn't even let him finish the little speech that he prepared.

Why?

Because the Father simply will not have that kind of talk coming from his beloved child. Even though the son thinks his Father will see him as trash the father doesn't. One of the very first things he does is to call him son. He doesn't seem very angry.

I mean imagine the kind of joy and longing it would take to provoke a grown man to take off running down the driveway to greet someone.

Even though his son had hurt him deeply by leaving he still considered him to be his son. His view of his son did not fundamentally change from love to repulsion simply because he was a messed up kid.

When Jesus tells this story he is inviting us to compare God to a loving father. So what kind of father would be repulsed by their child because the child messed up?

When God created the first people he called them good. Now according to the story those people messed up big time. Did things change when that happened? Yes. Where there major consequences for their actions? Yes. Did God's view of them instantly fundamentally change from love to repulsion? Of course not!

What kind of father would do that?

For far too long a lot of the Church has preyed off of people's low self- esteem.

We've told people that they were trash. Which to me seems very dangerous.

It's no wonder the Church has had such a checkered past ranging from apathy towards injustice to violence and abuse. Why wouldn't it with such a low view of humanity?

And we say that somehow this low view of humanity brings glory to God?

If God created us then isn't us calling human beings trash or totally depraved kind of like telling an artist that you think his artwork is garbage and expecting him to take it as a compliment?

That's just ridiculous...

Which is why I think it's time for our view of humanity to be redeemed.

We have to learn to see ourselves and others the way that God sees us.

Are we broken? Yes, of course. Any one can see that the way people steal from, rape, abuse and kill other people is messed up.

But we are worth fixing!

And you don't fix trash... it's not worth fixing.

That's why Jesus talks about God restoring all of creation- because God loves and values all of creation so much that he wants to make things right.

Grace & Peace

Book Review: "Evolving In Monkey Town" by Rachel Held Evans

How a girl who knew all the answers learned to ask the questions.

I know that I really like a book when I read the whole thing in one day. I picked up this book the other day and I couldn't put it down. 

Rachel grew up in Dayton, Tennessee - the home of the infamous Scopes Monkey Trial. She tells about growing up in a conservative evangelical home in the middle of the Bible belt, and how her education right up through college prepared her to have all the right answers in order to defend her faith and doctrine.

But then something changed.

She began to look past empty doctrinal statements to see people. The very people that her doctrines condemned. Rachel discovers the startling truth that it's easy to be condemning of people who are different then you as long as you can keep them at a safe distance, but once you start to get to know them or pay attention to them things start to change.

And suddenly all those tightly bound answers give way to questions.

This is a book about learning to be honest.

This is a book about learning to not be afraid of the hard questions.

I would highly recommend this book.

You can purchase a copy here:

http://www.amazon.com/Evolving-Monkey-Town-Answers-Questions/dp/0310293995

Higher Ways

"God's ways are higher than our ways".

This is a statement often used by Christians that I come in contact with whenever I bring up questions about God's goodness, mercy and justice.

For example when I bring up the question of how a God who claims to be loving can create some people to experience mostly torture and suffering during their lives on earth only to be faced with more torture and suffering for all of eternity simply because (if we are being honest) they were born in the wrong place and at the wrong time. Christian writer Rachel Held Evans calls it the "cosmic lottery" in her book Evolving in Monkey Town.

That doesn't sound like love to me.

And of course the response is usually along the lines of "Ah, but God's concept of love is different than our concept of love" and "God's ways are higher than our ways".

And I don't necessarily disagree with that,

but...

Why us the term "love" at all to describe God if it means something fundamentally different than what we think "love" means.

And why would "love" mean something fundamentally different when the word itself is defined in the Bible.

 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. (1 Corinthians 13, emphasis mine)

When we claim that God is love isn't this, then, how we should understand God. As one who is patient and kind. As one who is not easily angered. As one who does not delight in evil but rejoices in truth. As one who always protects, trusts, hopes, perseveres and never fails.

With that in mind let's go back to that phrase "God's ways are higher than our ways".

Let's look carefully at the passage in Isaiah that this quote comes from:

Seek the LORD while he may be found;
   call on him while he is near.
Let the wicked forsake their ways
   and the unrighteous their thoughts.
Let them turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on them,
   and to our God, for he will freely pardon.
 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, 
   neither are your ways my ways,” 
            declares the LORD. 
“As the heavens are higher than the earth, 
   so are my ways higher than your ways 
   and my thoughts than your thoughts. 
 As the rain and the snow 
   come down from heaven, 
and do not return to it 
   without watering the earth 
and making it bud and flourish, 
   so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, 
 so is my word that goes out from my mouth: 
   It will not return to me empty, 
but will accomplish what I desire 
   and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. 
 You will go out in joy 
   and be led forth in peace; 
the mountains and hills 
   will burst into song before you, 
and all the trees of the field 
   will clap their hands. 
 Instead of the thornbush will grow the juniper, 
   and instead of briers the myrtle will grow. 
This will be for the LORD’s renown, 
   for an everlasting sign, 
   that will endure forever.”
(Isaiah 55:6-13)

So it seems that God's ways of love, mercy and justice being higher than ours does not make them fundamentally diffirent than ours. In this passage the people often quote Isaiah speaks of God being more loving, forgiving and merciful than we can understand not more wrathful.

Because love isn't vengeful and it doesn't delight in evil. 

Because millions of people suffering eternally does not bring glory to God.

Because the gospel is good news for all creation, not terrible news for most of it.

Grace & Peace

the power of love...

Jesus' sacrifice on the cross teaches us that love has infinitely more power to change the world than hate, fear and violence.

Love can change the world!

Poetry: "Faithing the Truth" by Nick Ansel

Atheists claim that there is no God.

I think they're right.

If all we can see in the world is injustice, despair or boredom 

we are living in a world where God does not exist.

Atheists are simply facing reality.

Religion is wishful thinking.

But I'm not an atheist.

I just don't want to face reality. 

I want to change it.

It's up to us whether God exists or not.

If we live out God's justice and mercy

God becomes real.

Then the world of the atheist has to

make room for another world.

A world of compassion, hope and excitement.

This piece is a meditation on Jesus' words, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." It was given on a television program on BBC.

Repentance

"Repent, for the kingdom of Heaven is near."

Those were the words that Jesus taught. But what do they mean?

For some of you they may be the words that you heard shouted at you angrily from a bullhorn or the words you mostly ignore as you d rive past a billboard. For me growing up they meant something like "apologize and ask for forgiveness for your sins so that one day you can go to heaven."

But that's not what Jesus says it.

First of all when Jesus speaks of the kingdom of heaven he is not talking about somewhere far away up in the sky. The kingdom of Heaven or the kingdom of God is not primarily about where you go when you die. It's here and now according to Jesus. It's a reality to be lived into today.

It's urgent!

And not just because you never know when you will die and you need to have your ticket to heaven because it could be tonight. It's urgent because it's for today. It's urgent because its radically good news. It's urgent because God is doing something right here and right now. The kingdom of Heaven is an invitation to be a part of that.

It's why we repent.

But repentance is not primarily about apologizing, although it may very well involve that. It's about changing. Repentance is turning around and living a different way. It's about the starting of a transformation in your life. Repentance is realizing that the kingdom of Heaven offers a better way to live in God's world and then living that way.

The reason this message that Jesus taught was considered good news was not because it offered an escape clause from a doomed world. It was and still is good news because its a better way of engaging the world. It means being good news. It means being like Christ to the poor, marginalized, widowed and oppressed. And that is something that the world urgently needs.

It's a message of hope...

For all of creation.

Grace & Peace

The Cross

Without a doubt it's the single most common symbol of the Christian faith. From t-shirts to jewelry, church windows to tattoos, bumper stickers to web blogs. And it's been around for years - from King's crowns to crusader's shields.

The cross shows up nearly every where you look.

And yet I can't escape the feeling that despite it's prevalence we are missing something here.

For many when we look at the cross we instantly think of Jesus. But what's interesting is Jesus was not the only person who was ever crucified on a Roman cross. In fact according to the Bible story he wasn't even the only person crucified that day.

For the Romans the cross was a symbol of power and a tool of violent oppression. It was their way of saying, "This is what happens when you challenge Rome." Countless people who stood up against the violence and oppression of the Roman empire found themselves hanging on a cross.

You don't take on a massive system of corruption and not pay for it.

Because that's the way the world works right?

The biggest and baddest guys with the most swords, guns, crosses and warheads get to do whatever they want and those who challenge them pay for it.

Why?

Because they obviously must have god on their side... and you better not question that.

That's why when people started saying that a dirty, smelly, homeless Jewish Rabbi was the "son of God" it caused trouble.

Because the gods were Romans, and Caesar Augustus was the son of god.

Jesus and his followers were making radical political statements about who God was and what He was up to, and consequently who God wasn't supporting.

The beautiful thing about the cross is that it was just one of many executions on Roman crosses.

Because in a world where it was believed that God was on the side of  whoever was the most powerful, Jesus on the cross puts God right in the thick of things with the people who are completely powerless.

On the cross Jesus finds himself in the very midst of the oppressed and the "least of these."

And it sickens me the way we have somehow turned everything around so that the cross is once again a symbol of power, and empire, and far too many times violence.

We've taken Jesus on the cross and transformed it from a critique of power into the symbol of it.

Instead of rupturing the status quot Jesus on the cross has somehow become a defense of it.

We parade our crosses like a victory banner as we silence and subdue those who disagree with us.

So when Jesus tells us in Luke 9 to take up our cross daily, he isn't telling us to pick it up and wave it like a banner. We are to die on it.

We are to die to ourselves.

In doing so we lay down whatever power the cross has meant for us and we identify with all the other people who died on crosses just like Jesus.

On the cross we abandon our claims to God's preferential favor to find ourselves bloody and humiliated with the suffering and oppressed. Because when we find ourselves with "those" people that's when we find ourselves brushing shoulders with God himself.

Grace and Peace

Apocalyptic

The apocalyptic genre of literature is the literature of the oppressed. This is especially true of ancient Jewish apocalyptic literature. 

The Jewish people spent a considerable amount of time in exile and under oppression. They lived under systems and governments that did not look favorably on the Jewish ideas that Yahweh was the world's one and only true king, thereby making there gods and kings all inferior. In fact the claim would have been nothing short of treason.

In the Book of Daniel we find a deeply symbolic and coded vision of great beasts and kings who rule. Then finally "one like a son of man" approaches the Ancient of Days and is invested with worldwide dominion; moreover, his everlasting reign over all kings and kingdoms is shared with "the people of the Most High" 

This book was written to the Jewish people who were in captivity in Babylon.

For a Jewish person to pass around literature that overtly claimed that Yahweh would ultimately put the Babylonian kings and gods in their place would be an invitation to be tried, and likely killed for treason. But a coded story that says even in the midst of suffering Yahweh is still in charge would be a much needed source of hope in dark times.

We see Jesus use this same kind of language to offer hope to the people living under the dark rule of the Roman empire. John, the writer of Revelation, uses the same language in a letter he sent to his church community from his Roman guarded island exile.

Neither Jesus nor John was attempting to lay out an accurate description of future events that would directly proceed God ending the world, as some have proposed. They are not looking to give instructions that will only be of any real use to one generation of Christians living thousands of years in the future. They are speaking a radically subversive message of hope. The hope that, even though it may not seem like it, God's Kingdom is under way.

The hope that the oppressed and the abused, the foreigner and the outcast, the orphan and the widow, the poor and the downtrodden, and all those that are viewed as last place by the current power standards are exalted in God's eyes and will be the first welcomed into the new world that God is creating right under the noses of the unsuspecting empire.

Grace & Peace

Book Review: "Love Wins" by Rob Bell

"So when the gospel is diminished to a question of whether or not a person will "get into heaven," that reduces the good news to a ticket, a way to get past the bouncer and into the club.

The good news is better than that."

Rob Bell's most recent book ignited what has been called a "firestorm of controversy", especially among evangelical Christians. I think it's safe to say that is not an understatement. Much of the controversy was initially over a promotional video Bell released a few weeks before the book came out. You can watch that video here: http://vimeo.com/21214065. Upon the release of this video some rather prominent names in evangelical Christianity decided to take it upon themselves to nip this book in the bud so to speak. What played out was the exact opposite of that.

So before I dive into the book I want to take a look at the controversy surrounding it. Because the reality is this book (nor any book for that matter, but especially this one) does not exist in a bubble. Whenever you talk about this book you are inviting controversy and strong opinions. Now I don't want to turn this into me taking shots at people for criticizing a book, but I do want to talk about the nature of controversies such as these and what gets accomplished.

First if you want to stop people from reading a book don't make a big deal about the book. The reality is if it were not for all the negative reactions to the promotional video this book would not have been a huge best-seller. What we can learn is that aggressively condemning someone as "dangerous", "Unorthodox" and "heretical" does not make people not want to read their works. In fact it has the opposite effect. So by their condemning and aggressive attitude the people who felt it was their job to protect people from the ideas in this book actually ended up encouraging a lot of people to read the book.

Second for many people the biggest surprise about this controversy has been the one-sidedness of it. Now I know that many people on both sides of the controversy have been loud and angry, but they were not the person being attacked. Rob Bell has actually really impressed me with the way he handled the situation. It would have been easy to respond with the same energies of condemnation and aggression as his critics but he did not do that. Rather he seemed to practice more of a "turn the other" cheek mentality. 

I bring all this up to point out how the people who were aggressive and condemning in their approach actually had the opposite effect of what they were going for, while the "turn the other cheek" mentality actually is what has drawn many people to this book that other wise would not have bothered with it.

In short you could say that love wins over condemnation.

Now on to the book itself:

In the introduction to this book Bell takes some time to invite people to take on some of the big questions of the Christian faith. For many people, such as myself there are certain questions that are just too big and dangerous. Questions about the existence and nature of hell fall under that category. So Bell does two things here. He encourages us not to be afraid of those big questions. God is big enough, after all, to handle our questions. Then he point out that for many other people these questions have not been off-limits. In fact throughout the history of the church many Christians have asked these questions, and many of them have come away with different answers. As Bell says, 

"If this book, then, does nothing more than introduce you to the ancient, ongoing discussion surrounding the resurrected Jesus in all its vibrant, diverse, messy, multivoiced complexity - well, I'd be thrilled."

From here out the book flies forward at an exciting pace. The first time I read this book I literally did so in one sitting. This book is enjoyable and provocative. It certainly brings up a lot of questions that are worth addressing and yet does so with surprising humility an openness.

And I feel like I have to say this, Bell is not a universalist.

I actually enjoy reading and listening to universalist sometimes and I can assure that Bell is not one. (If you are not familiar with the works of Christian universalist Crystal St. Marie then I suggest you check her out. You don't have to agree with everything she says, I don't, but she has some great stuff to say nonetheless and it's worth paying attention to) 

First of all Bell looks at the idea of the Kingdom of Heaven as a here and now reality. For Bell Christianity is not ultimately about after you die but before (a topic i talk about more extensively in other post).

From there he moves to the idea that God is loving, kind and forgiving but apparently only until the instant moment that you die in which God's whole mindset towards you changes. So it would appear that either God changes his mind about people after they die or he doesn't have the power to save them from death. Obviously both of those understandings are problematic.

Then he looks at some problems with our ideas about eternity. Mainly that it is not shared with Jesus' first audience. In the Hebrew mindset there is no "eternity" in the way we think about it. The word we often translate to eternity is Aion which refers to an "age" or "period of time", and it can also be translated as the intensity of an experience. The closest idea they have to our eternity is Olam. In Psalm 90 Olam refers to God as being "from everlasting to everlasting". But in other instances the word seems more pliable. Jonah was in the belly of a fish "forever" (Olam). In this case forever turns out to be three days.

In fact in the Hebrew and early Christian mindset there is always the possibility for something after death. Resurrection can still happen. So Bell takes the view that people can spend time after death separated from God (Hell) but even then God does not give up on them.

But more than that people can live in hell here and now, and they do. There is hell now and a hell then.

But ultimately God has power over both.

As Martin Luther said on the possibility of "second chances" after death, "Who would doubt God's ability to to that?"

But Bell also points out that love requires freedom.

God does not force himself on us. We get to choice heaven or hell. We get to reject God if we want to.

Some believe that God pre-determined some to go to heaven and some to go to hell. Some believe that God predetermined everyone to go to heaven. But I agree with Bell on this one, I think that the things we say, and do and live for matter much more than that. I think our choices now have consequences and our choices will continue to have consequences.

So Bell says that while God will never give up on you (and thus you will not stop having chances to embrace God's grace even after you die) he will never force himself on you either. You can continue to reject God forever if you want to. God lets us have our own way.

Some have called this being a "hopeful universalist" and personally I like that name. I hope that every one will  one day embrace God's love and grace. But hope, by it's very nature requires an absence of certainty. I see people reject God's grace and love all the time, so who's to say they won't continue to do so.

But as I mentioned earlier Christianity is not mainly about something after you die, but something before. The Kingdom of Heaven is a present reality here and now. That's what this book is all about. The choices we make now are important! We only get a limited time on this earth so what kind of world are we working toward? Are we participating in the world that God is working towards? Because we get the opportunity to do so.

Because love still wins if we allow it to.

You can purchase this book here:

http://www.amazon.com/Love-Wins-About-Heaven-Person/dp/006204964X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1323120895&sr=8-1

And I'm excited to announce that the "Love Wins Companion: A study guide for those who want to go deeper" has just come out and you can purchase it here:

http://www.amazon.com/Love-Wins-Companion-Study-Deeper/dp/0062122800/ref=pd_sim_b_1

Grace & Peace

A New Word

I am studying through the book of Luke with the kids in my youth group and last night we talked about the Sermon on the Mount. As we were talking one of my older students brought up how, because of our familiarity with the passage, we might hear it differently than Jesus' original audience would have.

We've grown up with Jesus' teachings but for his original audience this would have been really revolutionary stuff. Not only that, but it would have been rather confusing.

One can't help but wonder if many of the conversations on the walk back to the village sounded something like, "What did he mean by that?"

So when we talk about Jesus' words we sort of view them as the final word on the issue.

Jesus says it

That settles it.

Right?

But for the first listeners Jesus would not have been giving the final word on the issue, but in some ways the first word.

Or maybe even a new word.

Jesus isn't really answering the question. It's more like he's opening up a whole new set of questions that people hadn't thought about before.

Jesus is inviting people to wrestle with God and to do so in the context of community.

Rhythm, Beat & Groove

Moses; being taught in all the fine arts, philosophies and sciences available to Pharaoh's household; was certainly well-educated. Being taught in Pharaoh's household at this time meant that you were receiving the best education that the most advanced society in the world has to offer. While he was alive Moses was likely one of the most well-educated people in the world.

His writings, especially his deeply symbolic story-telling in Genesis, are still considered some of the greatest pieces of literature in human history. So it's no surprise that Moses implements song, poetry, metaphor and symbolism into his creation accounts. He doesn't simply lay out the facts in a way that most of us western thinkers would expect him to.

He does not seem the least bit interested in whether or not the six days of creation are literal, or whether God implemented some sort of evolutionary system, or even with the question of whether Adam had a belly button.

Moses does not even argue for the existence of God, that much is assumed.

What Moses does do is invite people to experience what it means to be fully human.

To find their place within creation.

To describe in detail the way that God brought forth creation simply cannot be done within the restricted nature of human language. But give people a song or a poem: something with a rhythm, a beat, a groove, something that will become lodged in their memory, something they can feel and dance along with - that's how we are meant to experience creation.

Jesus Politics

For some reason, a lot of my Christian friends like to say that they are not political. In fact some of them even seem to see avoiding politics as virtuous. After all politics are the things of this world right? Is it not more virtuous to be focused only on heavenly things? Should we not avoid the dirty, messy, worldly things? Shouldn't we be focused on Jesus, not politics?

Maybe...

But the problem with that is when Jesus talks about Heaven he says that it is not just something out there, one day.

For Jesus the Kingdom of Heaven is here and now!

It means good news for the poor, food for the hungry, clothes for the naked, shelter for the homeless, healing for the sick, forgiveness for the sinful and liberation for the captive.

The Kingdom of Heaven is not about escaping the world, it's a better way of engaging it. It's the movement that God started in the world for the purposes of restoring the world to the way God wants it to be.

It's an invitation to participate in what God is doing.

That's why in Matthew 25 Jesus says that the way you treat the "least of these" (the people mentioned above) is the way that you treat him.

If you want to be focused on Jesus you have to focus more on the people that Jesus would focus on.

Because the truth is politics is much bigger than who you vote for on a ballot.

Politics is about how you vote with your time.

Your money.

Your efforts.

Mahatma Gandhi once said, "Those who say religion has nothing to do with politics do not know what religion is." I think they do not what politics is either.

We all engage in politics every day, whether we'd like to admit it or not. So we shouldn't try to avoid politics. We should examine our politics and think critically about them. We need to take seriously how we vote with our time, money, efforts, and yes even our ballots. It's time that we aligned our politics with the politics of what God is doing in his kingdom.

We need to engage in Jesus politics.

To do this, I think requires an awareness of what God is doing in the world. And for that a great place to start is in the Bible. Throughout the scriptures we are given glimpses of how God sees creation. We see what God's original intention for the world was and we get to see the world that God is working towards.

In Revelation 7 we see this beautiful prophetic image of a great multitude of people, more than any one could count, worshiping before the very throne of God. The people there are from every tribe, nation, people and language. And in Galatians 3 Paul says that in Christ there is no Jew or Gentile, Slave nor Free, Male nor Female.

So we can see that God is working towards a world where the things that used to divide us (race, gender, ethnicity, social status, wealth, language, sexual orientation, etc...) will no longer do so. Which means for us that we should be participating in the kind of world that God is making by going out of our way to form healthy relationships with all kinds of people. We should have a politic of reconciling our differences so that we can all love and learn from each other.

In Isaiah 2 we are given this prophecy of a day when God will be the judge over all people and "they will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks" and "Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore." And Jesus makes it very clear in Mathew 5 that we should love our enemies and not respond to violence with violence but with love.

So we should participate with God in a world where peace on earth is not only the goal that we are striving for but the means by which we achieve it. We should speak out against systems of darkness, like the military-industrial complex, that profit off of violence. We should vote for peace with our time, money, efforts, and ballots; but never should we use violence as a means of accomplishing it. Remember that love wins over violence. (Jesus gave the best example of what this looks like with his ultimate act of peace-making; not by fighting the violence of the Roman Empire with more violence but by sacrificing his very life willingly, thus calling into light the weakness of the violence of the empire while simultaneously overcoming it.)

Revelation 22 speaks of God's beautiful garden-city coming on the earth. This city has trees and fruits and lots of vegetation. And in Isaiah we see this prophecy of wolves, lambs, leopards, goats, calves, lions, yearlings, and human children laying together. Bears and oxen and cows are all living peacefully and children can even play with snakes.

But how can there be a garden if we destroy the environment? And how will all these animals live harmoniously with people if many of them become extinct? Acts 3 tells us that God is in the business of restoring all of creation. Which means for us, participation looks like protecting and restoring creation as well. We should be working towards caring for the planet God put us on, not destroying it. By the way, this also means that we don't steal the resources from those people from all tribes and nations that we mentioned earlier. And in following the golden rule we leave the planet the kind of place that we would want to be left to us.

These are just a few examples of what Jesus politics might look like, but we can think of many more. We just have devote ourselves to exploring and living out the way of Jesus. We do this with the prayer that God's will be done on earth as it is in heaven, just as Jesus taught us to pray.

Grace and Peace

Shalom

Shalom is the Hebrew word for peace.

But it connotates much more than that. Strong's Concordance says it also means: completeness, wholeness, health, peace, welfare, safety, soundness, tranquility, prosperity, perfectness, fullness, rest, harmony, and the absence of agitation or discord.

Shalom comes from the root verb shalom which means to be complete, perfect and full. The ancient Hebrew people used it as a greeting or a farewell (and as I understand many still do today) and they said in using it you are speaking into someone's life all the good things that it means.

Paul alludes to and expands upon this tradition in his letters using the phrase "Grace and Shalom(Peace)" as a greeting and a farewell.

But more than all that, it stands for the way God intended creation t be. 

The way things were in God's good garden.

In the ancient Jewish mindset God created things in Shalom and once that was broken He set about restoring Shalom.

The great prophet Isaiah told that one day God would send a liberator to Israel to set things right again, and he would be the "prince of Shalom".

God is still in the business of restoring Shalom!

Pub Theology

Once a month for the past couple of months I have had the pleasure of getting together with a group of guys at Winslow's Tavern.We gather with the belief that good food, good drinks and good friends creates the ideal space for meaningful conversation. I like to call it Pub Theology.

Pub Theology is based on the belief that Theology is much more than a high academic pursuit, but rather a conversation. A conversation that happens, not locked high away in the library's of Academia; but rather in pubs, coffee shops, restaurants, smoke shops, parking lots, and public parks. A conversation that takes place, not between scholars and professors; but between regular people in every day settings.

Because good theology doesn't seek to escape from the world. It offers a better way of engaging it.

After all, what good is theology if it doesn't offer something to all of us non-scholarly folks?

Why should we care if we don't have a chance to add anything to the conversation?

To bring our story to the table?

And what good is theology if it's always hidden away in a church building?

We shouldn't be ashamed of theology. The theological conversation is a beautiful thing. We should do it in public. Good theology doesn't just happen in a church; it seeks to be the church, especially in the kind of places that Jesus would hang out. 

Theology should be an invitation. It should be a place where any one can come and gather around the table. Theology needs to happen at the local "watering holes" because that is where the people are. Every one from the curious waitress to the guy at the end of the bar who's had a few too many should be invited to be a part of the conversation. After all theology isn't just for the "us" crowd, it's also for the "them" crowd.

It's really about the "All-of-us-together" crowd.

Grace and Peace

To Be...

In Exodus 24 God says to Moses, "Come up on the mountain and stay here". Some Rabbi's will point out that "to stay" means literally "to be". So God is telling Moses to come up on top of the mountain and be on top of the mountain?

Sounds a little redundant doesn't it?

But God understands that Moses will spend all sorts of energy getting up the mountain, and then once he actually gets up there it is likely that  he will immediately start planning how he is going to down. And if he does that then he will never fully be on top of the mountain.

Then he just might miss it.

Evening and Morning

When I speak of a day I usually refer to it as moving from morning to evening but the creation poem in Genesis 1 uses the refrain "evening and morning". For my Jewish friends out there the Sabbath starts when the sun goes down on the sixth day of the week and ends when the sun goes down on the seventh day of the week.

Some Rabbis said that Moses is giving us a picture of the journey that God has all on. A journey that moves from night to day, from darkness to light, from ignorance to awareness of the harmony and rhythm of creation and our role in it.

Book Review: "God's Silence" by Franz Wright

"At some point, forever, I crossed

into a state where my words

became more real than I am (even to me)

Is that a good thing

or a bad thing, I

have absolutely no idea

but every day I thank God for this consciousness

that neither

one is real"

-from "The Beloved Illusory"

Franz Wright is the son of renown poet James Wright. In 2004 Franz's collection Walking to Martha's Vineyard won the Pulitzer Prize, making Franz and James Wright the only Father and son to win a Pulitzer in the same category.

God's Silence (2006) is an absolutely breathtaking collection of poetry. It is simple and yet profound all the while being deeply spiritual. These poems move from darkness to light and they climb and fall and take you along with them. It is beautiful and yet humble at the same time.  Langdon Hammer, in the New York Times Book Review, wrote of God’s Silence: “In his best poems, Wright grasps at the ‘radiantly obvious thing’ in short-lined short lyrics that turn and twist down the page. The urgency and calculated unsteadiness of the utterances, with their abrupt shifts of direction, jump-cuts and quips, mime the wounded openness of a speaker struggling to find faith.”

I posted "Love", one of my favorite poems from this collection, earlier and even though I have finished the book and written a review I may still come back to it and post some more poems from this collection. I can honestly say that I've enjoyed this book as much, if not more than any collection of poetry I've ever read.

You can purchase the book here:

http://www.amazon.com/Gods-Silence-Franz-Wright/dp/0375710817/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1322323711&sr=8-1

Candle Liturgy

With the busy and often stressful Holiday season upon us I thought it might be helpful to share a very simple, yet powerful prayer liturgy to help you relax and get centered in the midst of all the hustle and bustle. All you need is a candle, matches/lighter and a quiet space to yourself.

Start off simply by thinking about all the things that might be stressing you out (you are probably already doing this anyway). Think about all the people you need to see, places you need to go and things that have to get done. But only think about it briefly, as in a couple of minutes at the most. Don't let it overwhelm you!

As you are thinking about all these things light the candle.

This is your Philippians 4:6 candle.

 "Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God."

Once you light the candle imagine that the flame is climbing upward toward God and taking all of the concerns you were just thinking about with it. Don't think about those things anymore! For the rest of the liturgy you have to push them out of your mind. Know that even as you are not thinking about them the small flame is presenting them to God for you and that He is taking care of you. God can handle all your stressors, even when you can't.

Now simply breathe.

Take a deep inhale,

then a deep a exhale.

In the Greek, Hebrew, and almost every other ancient language the word for "Spirit" and the word for "breath" are the same.

Consider this reading Job 32:8.
"But it is the breath in a person, the breath of the Almighty, that gives them understanding."

If you want to understand God, contemplate on breathing.

It is a truly beautiful thing.

As you inhale you are being filled with God - all His grace, love and kindness.

As you exhale you are overflowing with God's breath. His grace, love and kindness are so plentiful that they spill out of you and effect everything and everyone around you.

In closing thank God for his grace, love and kindness and pray that your life will overflow with these things.

Then as you put out the candle thank God that your worries and concerns are being taken care of even when you are not concentrating on them. Ask him to help you remember that as you enjoy the Holiday season.

Happy Holidays,

Grace & Peace