iMonk: There are still doors in Christendom where truth needs to be nailed

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From a classic Michael Spencer post. May, 2008

There are some places that Christians will allow you to stand up and say “the sermon is pop psych” or “I’m not a young earth creationist” or “why do we act like we just invented Christianity this year?” What a gift it is to be able to speak truth and be supported by a community of the one who IS the truth.

In the church I grew up in I always heard that we believed in freedom of conscience, the right of private interpretation, the priesthood of the believer, soul competency and the sacred right to differ from the majority.

I heard about all of that, and I heard that it was other denominations, with their bishops and their hierarchies, that were hung up on conformity all the way down the line.

Well….let’s just say that it’s a good thing they don’t give awards for “Ironic Reversals of Reality” anywhere. Someone would need to build a shelf. A long one.

…There are still doors in Christendom where the truth needs to be nailed, and some of them aren’t far away from where you are.

We need to talk about what is and is not happening among real Christians living real lives.

We need to hear the truth about the Christian experience, not just the scrubbed and glowing testimonials.

We need to have the assumed wisdom and answers of denominational leaders scrutinized, just like every pastor has to face his critics in every healthy church anywhere.

We need a vibrant discussion of the “whys” and the “what fors” in the things we require of one another in church, denomination and ministry.

We need courageous writers who will tell the stories that can’t be spoken among Christians who are determined to create a culture of secrecy and religious conformity.

There may be a price for honesty, asking questions and telling our stories. But there will never cease to be a need for someone who has the courage to ask tough questions and tell honest experiences in the midst of organized religion. We won’t ever get the truth of our human and Christian journeys from the official spokespersons or the press releases. We have to speak it to one another and support one another in the consequences.

We can’t speak falsehood to ourselves, one another and our children. Even if the truth is clumsy, painful, inconvenient or unwelcome, it is still the truth and we should love it for Jesus’ sake.

Saturday Ramblings 5.4.13

RamblerGreetings, fellow ramblers. Your Chief Rambler, the abbot of this abbey, has returned from his venture to the Buckeye state to serenade his father on the occasion of said dad’s 80th birthday. Cake was consumed with joy unspeakable and full of glory. You know, it is still only 762 miles from my driveway to my parents’ driveway, and it still only takes 12 hours to traverse those 762 miles, but it sure does feel longer these days. Am I getting old or what? One thing is for sure, this Saturday isn’t getting any younger. What say we redeem the time and ramble …

I received a package this week, and on the outside of the box it read Louisville Slugger. On the inside I found a custom-made red, white and blue baseball glove with my name stitched in script on the thumb. It is an amazing glove, one of the best I have ever put on my catching (left) hand. The thing is, it came with no card, no note, no nothing. I have no idea who sent it to me, but if it was you, you have my sincerest thanks. I cannot tell you how great it makes me feel to think someone would care enough to have this made for me and send it to me. Now to break it in.

The news of the week seemed to center on NBA player Jason Collins’s “coming out” announcement. Collins, who is a Christian, met with cheers and tears of joy from those in the sports world. But when ESPN commentator Chris Broussard shared his thoughts on the matter, he was met with jeers and scorn. Double standard? Seems that way. And when former Green Bay Packers player Leroy Butler tweeted his thoughts about Collins, he was invited not to speak at a Christian church. Double standard? How about no standard. And Religion Dispatches wants to know why Collins’s faith is ignored, while Tim Tebow’s is overplayed. Your thoughts?

In the above paragraph I wrote “Collins, who is a Christian … ” Should that be “a Christian” or simply “Christian”? What difference to the meaning does the single-letter word “a” make? Grammarians, this is for you.

Continue reading “Saturday Ramblings 5.4.13”

Respectful Conversation Project Begins

Conversation, by Lavanna Martin
Conversation, by Lavanna Martin

The first series of posts are up in Harold Heie’s Respectful Conversation project about “American Evangelicalism: Present Conditions, Future Possibilities.”

Here are the specific posts:

* * *

I thought I would highlight some quotes from these posts today to whet your appetite while encouraging you to follow this ongoing conversation.

Continue reading “Respectful Conversation Project Begins”

Review: Does Jesus Really Love Me?

ChuEditor’s note: I am always after Adam Palmer to write for us, as he has insights I seldom hear from any other. Unfortunately, AP is a freelance writer who is in great demand, so I don’t often get him to write for free for us. A few days ago he approached me to ask if he could review a book he thought was worth reading. I agreed. (This was before Jason Collins came out as a gay player in the NBA.) Read Adam’s quick review of Jeff Chu’s book, and then decide if it is something you will want to invest time in reading yourself. JD

I first came across Jeff Chu’s marvelous oddity through an infrequent perusal of Salon.com, where they posted an excerpt of the author’s visit to the infamous Westboro Baptist Church. After reading a setup that explained that Chu was both gay and a devout Christian, I began to expect some sort of Dan Savage-style shock-jockery, some explosive reality-TV shouting match between our hero Chu and the easy villain of Fred Phelps.

Nevertheless, I was intrigued and, as the book unfolded, I began to be drawn in by Chu’s literate, immediate, and honest style. There’s nary a raised voice to be found. Instead, Chu keeps the tone respectful and reflective (though he does allow himself the occasional wry, droll observation), which allows the reader to focus on the task at hand: can someone be both gay and a Christian?

Tangentially a memoir, Does Jesus Really Love Me?: A Gay Christian’s Pilgrimage in Search of God in America spends most of its word count in conversation with people from across the United States, many of them of same-sex orientation, many of those who often spent a lifetime growing up in the evangelical church. And then they came out and were told, “We don’t have a place for you here.”

Growing up an evangelical but accepting his sexuality in adulthood, Chu can correctly pronounce the shibboleths to gain insider access to both church leaders and LGBT activists. It allows him to  write like an insider but think like an outsider, bringing his journalistic ethos (in his other life, he is a writer for Fast Company) and a bloodhound’s nose for truth to conversations about faith, homosexuality, and the convergence of the two.

Peppered throughout, more liberally toward the end, are Chu’s own observations on what he’s uncovered about faith in general and Christianity in particular. For example, there’s this passage, the ending of a two-paragraph rumination on Chu’s favorite part of the “full armor of God,” the “shield of faith.”

There’s something appealing in the notion of carrying this picture of who you are into war. Then when, God willing, you come home, it comes too, changed, as you are, by the dings and scars of the journey and the battle. Your faith can’t emerge unscathed or untouched—not if you’ve really fought.

The more I read, the more fascinated I became not with just the picture that developed of the evangelical church’s treatment of homosexuals, but with the way we’re treating the non-Christian world in general. More and more of us are walking around with un-dinged, unscarred shields. Or perhaps we’re using them in the wrong battle. If nothing else, Does Jesus Really Love Me? is an indictment on many American churches’ insistence on joining the front lines of the culture war.

The oft-repeated mantra evangelicals love to give regarding homosexuality is “Love the sinner, hate the sin.” But as Does Jesus Really Love Me? shows, while we don’t yet really know what the loving part looks like, we have the hating part down pat.

 

Robert Webber on The Theology of Evangelism in the Early Church

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The late Robert Webber is best known for his writings on worship, but he thought and wrote about many areas of church life, seeking an ancient-future way forward in the post-modern age in which we live.

One of his last projects was called Journey to Jesus. It represents his attempt to adapt  for today’s congregations the way the Church in the third century provided a path of conversion and Christian formation. In the book, he outlines a fourfold process that:

  • Evangelizes the seeker
  • Disciples the new believer
  • Spiritually forms the maturing Christian
  • Assimilates the new Christian into the full life of the church

The book is called, Journey to Jesus: The Worship, Evangelism, and Nurture Mission of the Church, and in its second chapter Webber says that there were four theological themes around which the ancient church built their process for what many today would call “making disciples” —

1. The theme of Christus Victor

“Jesus is Lord.” This confession of the early church announced that by his incarnation, life, death, resurrection, and ascension, Jesus has defeated all the powers of the world, flesh, and devil and sat down his throne to reign. For the ancient Church, Christus Victor stood in dramatic contrast to “Caesar is Lord,” and it thus set those believers apart from their culture’s dominant ethos. This confession formed their primary understanding of what Jesus came to accomplish, and was the main theme of the liturgies by which they worshiped.

Robert Webber says,

The entire process of salvation…is based on the conviction that by his sacrifice Christ has defeated the powers of evil. Conversion to Christ is a turning away from an allegiance to evil and choosing to be under the reign of Christ. This theme is reflected in baptism. As the converting person stands in the water he or she is asked to show a sign of the rejection of the devil. The convert turns to the west (the symbol of the domain of Satan) and spits as in the face of the devil. A powerful way to symbolize the end of a relationship!

Continue reading “Robert Webber on The Theology of Evangelism in the Early Church”

Midweek Monkery 5/1/13

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luther-shadesNEW FEATURE!

Hey, your Chaplain understands that the weeks get long. You make it to Wednesday morning and you’re starting to feel weary. As MacDonald’s used to say, you deserve a break today, and I am ready to oblige. Over the course of a week, I run across so many funny things that I would love to share with you, so yours truly decided that Wednesday morning might be the perfect time to highlight a few of them.

I hereby declare Wednesday morning “Midweek Monkery” time. From this point on until further notice, when you open up IM on Wednesdays, you will find a few items that have made me chuckle. It is hoped that this will thereby lighten your load a bit, and make your journey all the easier.

So, without further ado, let’s enjoy a bit of Monkery.

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luther-shadesFunniest Prayer of the Week

Kylie Bisutti was a Victoria’s Secret model. Not that I would know about this, of course, except for an article in the Christian Post describing why she decided to quit said modeling gig. Apparently she got cold…uh…feet parading around in her underwear and decided it might not best way to live for God and honor her husband. Ya think?

Well, give her credit, but I have to share this with you. On a day that proved to be a turning point in her career, she uttered one of the funniest prayers I’ve heard in some time:

“God, why did you have me win the Victoria’s Secret Angel competition if it was going to make me feel this way? I’m not honoring my husband. I just want answers!”

No, I'm not going to put up those pictures.
No, I’m not going to put up those pictures.

What do we learn from this?

  1. That God was behind her winning the Victoria’s Secret contest. (John Piper aside, I’m not sure. Is Victoria’s Secret a young, restless, and reformed company?)
  2. That Kylie wasn’t astute enough at one point to realize that modeling skimpy underwear in public might not be the best choice for a young Christian woman and newlywed. (Who knew?)
  3. That… oh, I don’t know, this makes my brain hurt.

At any rate, if you want to know more of the saga of the nearly naked babe who got confused about why she felt bad being nearly naked all the time, you can (of course! — this is America after all) read her upcoming book: I’m No Angel: From Victoria’s Secret Model to Role Model.

Oh, and in case you hadn’t guessed, she is now focused on creating a Christian™ clothing line, doing speaking tours and writing her blog: www.imnoangel.org.

Yeah, go ahead and look at her blog. She didn’t post any underwear pictures, dang it.

Continue reading “Midweek Monkery 5/1/13”

A Structured Gospel

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“Go out and train everyone you meet, far and near, in this way of life, marking them by baptism in the threefold name: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Then instruct them in the practice of all I have commanded you.” (Mt. 28:18-20, MSG)

“I am Jesus, the One you’re hunting down. I want you to get up and enter the city. In the city you’ll be told what to do next.” (Acts 9:6)

* * *

My pastor and I were talking the other day about the persistent tendency among Christians, pastors, and churches to use law to try and bring structure and order to people’s lives. Together we agreed that our job as ministers in particular is to proclaim the Gospel through Word and Sacrament, not practice behavior modification.

However, as we were talking, it occurred to me that I am now in a church tradition that practices what might be termed a structured Gospel. The Gospel that brings forgiveness and freedom to obey comes to us through ordered means that provide clarity for the life of faith through disciplined practices. These are not “works” that achieve anything about which we may boast before God or others. Rather, they are “means” that the Spirit uses to communicate grace to us and form us in Christ.

Let me give an example that I formerly did not appreciate in the free-form evangelical world in which I used to live and serve. In revivalistic religion, few stories are more powerful than that of Paul’s conversion in Acts 9 (see also Acts 22, and Acts 26).  When reading these texts, the revivalist tradition emphasizes the personal encounter Saul had with Jesus. And this is certainly dramatic.

Now as he was going along and approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?’ He asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ The reply came, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.

The resurrected Lord appeared to Saul (1Cor. 15:8), spoke to him, and revealed his identity to him. He literally stopped the persecuting Pharisee in his tracks, knocked him to the ground, and blinded him. Jesus confronted him with the charge that Saul was actually fighting against God rather than serving him.

Let’s stop there for a moment.

Though this personal encounter with Jesus literally turned Paul around, it forms only the beginning of his conversion story. There is no word here about forgiveness. No good news was proclaimed. No “decision” was made. Paul did not pray a “sinner’s prayer,” confess his sins, or profess his faith. He did not simply pick up and go on his way rejoicing as a converted and transformed individual.

If I may put it this boldly, what happened on the road to Damascus was not enough to “save” Paul.

Continue reading “A Structured Gospel”

The Christian Monist on Celestial Dissatisfaction

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Note from CM: One of the blogs I turn to regularly is The Christian Monist.  J. Michael Jones always writes interesting and insightful posts, and I want to pass one of them on to you today. Some day I will do some writing about Woody Allen, who has been one of my favorite writers and filmmakers for many years, but today I will pass along what JMJ says about him.

* * *

A Celestial Dis-satisfaction in a Satisfied Pretense . . . Where Mick meets Woody
by John Michael Jones

So here’s the problem. Everything is going great! Life is swell! Honestly. I have all I need. My kids have turned out well. My mother is living longer than the average person. I live in the place I’ve always wanted to live in. My health, while not perfect, is pretty good. I lack nothing. So what am I bitching about?

I’ve tried and I’ve tried but I can’t get no satisfaction. But Woody said it best. He delivered the words that I could not find. While I question his personal choices in life, I admire his candor.

In an interview with Woody Allen about two years ago he made an uncanny remark. He said that his life had been perfect. He got do fulfill all his dreams. Here he was a homely-looking, short man with all kinds of limitations but was blessed, often by being the right place at the right time, to make movies, to be a professional musician, to have more money than he can spend and to make love to all kinds of beautiful women . . . far beyond his physical class. Yet . . . he felt this deep disappointment in life. He added that he wasn’t mad at anybody nor did he feel any injustice . . . but just deeply dissatisfied.

I know what he means. Now this is where I will give Woody some words. Not that he could have conjugated better sentences than me but during that interview he expressed that he didn’t know why. I think he does because he is quite a philosophical guy but just didn’t want to say it.

I’ve thought about this a lot. No, I’m not depressed right now. I am disappointed. I’m not disappointed at God or man (as far as I know).

The thing that disappoints me is the loss that comes with life. I’ve lost my dad. I’m losing my mom, whose memory is fading right before my eyes. I’ve lost my kids . . . to good things, like careers and distance. I’ve lost my youth. I’ve lost countless friends . . . most by moving, many by my leaving evangelism and a scant few by death. Of course the great loss will be my own life, which is inevitable.

If I tried to even think these thoughts outside my own head in the middle of an evangelical Sunday school class, it would be immediately scolded. Christians, after all, are to be satisfied. Anything less means that they are not pleased with God . . . such thoughts deserves the fires of Hell . . . or do they?

But I know God differently now. This isn’t elementary school anymore of pretending on the playground. There are big thoughts out there and God is the hyper-adult. I think that the dissatisfaction is intended. The only thing that could possibly fix it lies within the great unknown on the other side of life.

The fixing isn’t having more positive thoughts. The fixing isn’t filling your cranial space with praises of God, like inflating a balloon inside a bottle, so that no negative thought would ever have the space to enter your mind. I think that God wants it to go unfixed. The dissatisfaction leaves this bad taste that is always in your mouth that nothing, including Evangelicalism’s positive thinking, can purge. It makes me long for some type of remedy . . . something so amazing and satisfying that I can’t even imagine it.

So we can still live happily (as happy as any human can be), I think, while embracing the celestial dissatisfaction.

Nadia Bolz-Weber: A table in the presence of my enemies

mass soldiers

Note from CM: I love it when I hear or read a sermon that stops me in my tracks and wakes me up to the radical love and grace of God in Jesus Christ. Like a bucket of cold water in the face, Nadia Bolz-Weber’s sermon from Good Shepherd Sunday (after a very disturbing week of violence and fear in the U.S.) did that for me. I encourage you to read the entire sermon, but here is its climactic ending, which leads us to the Lord’s Table, desperate for mercy and divine protection.

* * *

…in the 23rd Psalm God does a counterintuitive thing when it comes to our very real fear of enemies. God doesn’t say “Let’s go smite them” and God doesn’t say “Let’s analyze the data ” God says “let’s eat!”

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

I don’t know what to tell you this week. And I’m too scared to be anyone’s shepherd.  I can’t lead you anywhere, But I can gather with you around this table – a table God has set in the presence of everything that attempts to snatch away our peace.  A table set in the presence of enemies and fear and evil. I have nothing to say.  There is no clever theology or social commentary that can take away the sting of this last week.  But I can gather with you around this table and I can tell you the story. I have no stories of my own…, but around this table I can again tell you the story of how God has come to dwell with us, to make us people of God.

I can tell you of how the God of Israel protected his people and walked among them. I can tell you how this same God took on flesh and was born in a time as violent and faithless and terrifying as our own and this Jesus of Nazareth was so full of grace and truth and love for his enemies that he was killed by those he came to save. And I can tell you how on the night before he died he gathered around another table with some real screw-ups and held up bread and said it was his body given for forgiveness and how he held up a cup and said it was for salvation and that when we eat this bread and drink this cup we do so in remembrance of him.

And I can tell you that even from the cross on which he was hung he did not stop loving the enemy – even those who nailed him to it and I can tell you that despite human fear and violence,  death did not have the final word and that after three days Jesus defeated death itself and then he again gathered his friends around a table from which he fed them breakfast and then he said for them to feed his sheep.  And as his sheep, it is at this table where he desires we be fed. Fed by his story and his body so that we can be the people of God who know that not even death can separate us from the love of God, and thus we can fearlessly face this world’s valleys of the shadow of death knowing that there is a love stronger than the grave.

Knowing that Love conquers hate and that death has no sting and Forgiveness is more powerful than violence and that despite it all it is always always worth it to love God and love people and to continue to gather around the tables God has set – so that we can behold who we really are and become what we receive in a world that like us, so desperately needs to be loved – and not feared.  AMEN.

As I Have Loved You…

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When he had gone out, Jesus said, ‘Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, “Where I am going, you cannot come.” I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.’

– John 13:31-35 (NRSV)

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As I have loved you…

Creating all things for your good that you might live in my blessing.

Covering your sins and giving you a way to come into my presence, though sinful and separated from me.

creationiconProviding cities of refuge for guilty wanderers that you may live.

Washing the land clean through the flood and giving you a chance to start again.

Graciously choosing an unlikely idolator to be the father of your faith, blessing him and making him a blessing.

Keeping my promises to your ancestors, though they were weak and deeply flawed.

Calling you out of Egypt, redeeming you by power and the blood of sacrifice.

Keeping you in the wilderness, though you kicked and complained.

Offering to make you a kingdom of priests, and when you hesitated and went astray, providing a Law and priesthood for you.

Leading you to the land I promised your fathers, though you were faithless and stiff-necked.

Keeping you through many dark days of chaos, when you had no leader to unify you in Me.

Providing you a king after my own heart and promising an eternal throne to his Heir.

Sending my prophets, time and time and time again, to turn you back to Me, when you and your kings went astray.

Protecting you in exile, where you learned to treasure my words and put hope in the future I promised.

Coming to you in ultimate humility and weakness, the firstborn Babe of an unwed mother, announced to the world by lowly shepherds.

Living in obscurity for years until the time was right.

Publicly announcing the arrival of God’s promised Kingdom, and proving it through words and acts that broke in upon the world from the age to come.

cross iconGathering my community of disciples, and teaching you the mysteries of God’s Kingdom.

Bringing you to this night, this occasion, when we gather at table around wine and bread.

Washing your feet, taking the place of your servant, loving you to the end.

Announcing to you that my greatest act of love is at hand, when the glory of God will be revealed in a fashion hardly to be believed.

Promising you that the darkness of that day and the emptiness of Holy Saturday do not mean the end of the Story, but the beginning of its fulfillment.

* * *

If you can begin to comprehend the love this Story tells, take it deep into your hearts.

Let it swell and burst the bounds of thought, imagination, and feeling.

Pour it out on one another, your neighbors, your enemies — the world.

As I have loved you.