What We Should Do

This morning I asked the question, “Where should we draw the line in the sand concerning sexual sin?” The comments to that post have been thoughtful, insightful, challenging. This is a very difficult question, with really no clear answers. Yet it is a topic we cannot ignore. Because of President Obama’s stance on gay marriage, this will be a battle in the upcoming presidential campaign. His appearance on the cover of Newsweek as the “first gay president” is but a sample of what’s ahead. And, of course, politicians must bring religion into their decision-making, which means we must face this subject.

Outside of the Potomac Beltline, we are still faced with where to draw the line. For instance, a same-sex couple was denied entrance to a Catholic school’s prom. And a recent Gallup Poll reveals that acceptance of homosexuality is the “new norm” among Americans.

What should we as Christians, followers of Jesus, do?

Here is what we should not do. We should not disengage from this conversation, circling our wagons and talking only among ourselves. We should not—shall not—remain a part of the “good us vs. bad them” discussion. Finger-pointing and name-calling are wrong, immature and wasteful actions.

So again, what should we do?

First of all, we are to do all in the shadow of Jesus. His command to “follow me” includes walking through, not around, these issues, letting our conversations and encounters, our successes and failures, shape us into the image of Christ. This is not an easy thing to do. But it is essential as sons and daughters of the King.

We need to become listeners. Listening is an act of love. Too often we close our ears and our hearts and become one big mouth. We need to listen to those who have been hurt. Pastors, you are in a great position to listen and to encourage others to listen. What are we listening for? We need to get to know the person talking or yelling at us as an individual, not as a stereotype. Notice I didn’t say we patronize the speaker. But we listen. Jesus listened to woman at the well. We must learn to do likewise.

We must understand that we are not all going to agree. Sorry, but there are no obvious “right” and “wrong” answers here. It’s a topic where you and your closest friend may have a strong disagreement. You do not have all the right answers. Remember that Jesus did not come to judge, so we must not either.

We should make this a matter of discussion in small groups and one-on-one rather than from the pulpit. This is a matter that cannot be decided by declarations from pulpits.  Pronouncements and proclamations are ok for some things, but this is such a volatile issue, and we don’t need to be throwing gasoline on an already roaring fire.

We should realize this is not the most important issue followers of Jesus should focus on. We were commanded to “go and make disciples,” not “go and rid the world of sin.” Realize that if homosexuality runs rampant, a gay politician is elected president, gay characters on TV and in the movies continue to increase, same-sex marriage is made legal in every state, and the U.S. flag is changed from stars and stripes to a rainbow, God is still God. Jesus still died and resurrected. The Holy Spirit still lives within the souls of those who trust Jesus for their salvation. It’s ok. Let God deal with what only he can deal with.

We are to love. Period. No restrictions, no conditions, no judgment. Love. You know, the act that covers a multitude of sins. We are to love and let the Lord take care of the rest. If you have any questions about what to say or do, err on the side of love.

If each of us reading this would begin to practice these few things—listen, talk in small groups, let go of the need to be right or in control, and love love love—we would begin to see changes. No, not in our culture or among homosexuals. Those may or may not come. But we most definitely will see changes in ourselves. And that’s where it all must begin.

Drawing A Line In The Sand

They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger.  [John 8:6, NLT]

I have a friend—let’s call her Gwen—who is searching for a new church. This is a popular pastime in Tulsa. Church-hopping is an artform for many here in T-town. But Gwen is looking for a good reason. The church she was attending moved to a new location further away from her house. So I talked with Gwen about the church I attend, inviting her to come visit if she wanted to.

“Are you open-minded?” she asked. “Are you inclusive in who you accept?”

I knew why she asked those questions. Gwen is in a same-sex marriage. But she also wants a church that teaches the Gospel, not just a motivational message. I immediately told her that of course, we would gladly welcome Gwen and her partner. Then I mentioned this to several friends at my church, friends who have been walking with Jesus for many years. To my surprise, these friends seemed less than excited to welcome a same-sex couple to our church. Oh, they said, they’d be welcome to visit, but as far as becoming part of the church, involved in small groups or helping with the kids, well, that would have to wait until they repented and were “delivered” from homosexuality.

A line was being drawn in the sand, a line that was clearly delineated and expected to be observed.

Continue reading “Drawing A Line In The Sand”

Made Known at the Table

The Emmaus Disciples, Bloemaert

Journey into New Life, part six
Made Known at the Table (Luke 24)

Our Gospel text for this Easter season is Luke 24:13-35, the story of the risen Lord’s encounter with his disciples on the road to Emmaus.

In this passage Luke tells us what it means to walk with the living Lord Jesus Christ. It is more than a story of something that happened back then. It represents what newness of life is all about, how it works, and what it is like to experience the new creation.

We are the disciples on the road, and Jesus comes to walk with us.

• • •

“He was known to them in the breaking of bread” (Luke 24:35)

I want to make today’s post personal.

This is the text that settled it for me. Luke’s inspired words convinced me that something more than “remembering” is going on at the Lord’s Table. There is a real presence: the living Lord is really and truly there. He meets us there and feeds us. He reveals himself to us in the Eucharist and welcomes us into communion with him.

Communion is more about Jesus inviting me, greeting me, blessing me, feeding me, and loving me than it is about me “remembering” him.

This is the passage that made me a sacramental Christian.

I don’t know how to talk about this in Aristotelian philosophical formulas. I have no Latin term to define it. I can’t explain the mystery of how the Lord Jesus Christ, who is seated at the right hand of the Father, also meets people personally and savingly all over the this world when they come to the communion table. I can’t give you a physical/metaphysical breakdown of the composition of the bread and wine.

But this eyewitness testimony from Emmaus is what first persuaded me that the table set with Eucharistic elements is one of the primary “thin places” in the world where the presence of Christ is manifested. It has to do with new creation breaking into this creation. It has to do with the Spirit making it possible for the Father and the risen Son to come and “make their abode with us” (see Jn 14:23). It is the living presence of Christ among his people. He is made known to us in the breaking of the bread.

I don’t think there is any argument about this, and I’m past arguing about it.

I’m also past regularly participating in Lord’s Day services where the Table is not prominent and featured. I do so once in awhile, and only because I’m invited as a guest speaker or visiting with family or friends in another congregation. Frankly, on those occasions, I’m left somewhat empty. I may appreciate the sermon, find joy in praising God through song, be comforted by the prayers. But I don’t find the same resolution; there’s no punctuation at the end of the service when we come forward as brothers and sisters together to meet Jesus and receive his gracious gifts.

To me, that’s what this Emmaus story would be like if it had ended on the doorstep of Cleopas’s house. The two disciples would have had good fellowship with a friendly stranger. They would have talked to him about their lives and disappointments, and heard a fine Bible study. A good walk, a good time together. Like a lot of services in which I’ve participated.

What if they had let him go on down the road at that point, as it seemed the stranger was wont to do? What would they have missed?

Jesus.

The Torah of Jesus (Matthew)

First Things First
Restoring the Gospel to Primacy in the Church
Part Three: The Torah of Jesus — Matthew

• • •

Jesus-shaped Christianity will grow out of the soil of a Story-shaped Gospel. The more we immerse ourselves in the Story and get to know the Gospels, the greater the impact the Gospel of King Jesus will have in and through us.

That is the burden of this series, which encourages Christians and churches to make the Gospels (and Acts) the primary documents for forming our Christian identity, theology, and calling.

For the next few weeks, we will give brief introductions to each Gospel to prime the pump for your individual and congregational study and contemplation. At the end of each, I will recommend a few good commentaries to take you further.

Continue reading “The Torah of Jesus (Matthew)”

“Normal” Is Not Enough?

Update: several have noted  the plane crash last Friday, in which Ron Luce’s daughter was seriously injured. Out of respect for the Teen Mania family, please stick to the concept we’re discussing and do not direct your comments at this specific ministry.

Note: This post is NOT a specific critique of the ministry cited. Please don’t focus comments on Teen Mania or Acquire the Fire. My point is that this slogan represents a fairly common (and in my opinion, misguided) mindset in the evangelical world.

• • •

The 2012 Acquire the Fire tour has begun and the message being proclaimed this year is, “Normal is not enough.”

For me, that depends upon what you mean by “normal.”

If the message is that Christians are to respond to the grace of God in Christ and center their lives on him in contrast to those who care little for Jesus and think that is “normal,” well OK.

But I suspect it goes beyond that. I’ve heard this message a thousand times, even given it during my years as an evangelical pastor. This is the “attempt great things for God, expect great things from God” message. The “no small ambitions” message. This is the challenge to be extraordinary: “the world has yet to see what God will do with one person who is wholly devoted to him.”

Which is fine, except that “great things for God” ends up only being a few distinctively “Christian” things. “Normal” things aren’t enough. A select few end up responding to this message and going into “Christian service,” and the vast majority go on to live “normal” lives. And wondering if they missed the boat, or let God down, or just settled for being second class in the kingdom. Or worse, they continually crash after experiencing any number of intense spiritual highs and decide the whole “Christian” thing is bogus and can’t be sustained in the context of “normal” life.

One of the great burdens of Martin Luther’s reforming efforts was to restore the dignity and importance of “normal” life as the main vocation highly honored and blessed by God. Luther had crashed and burned trying to be an “extraordinary” Christian in the monastery and out of that experience he came to preach passionately against any suggestion that such “works” put people in some “inner circle” before God.

As Rev. Paul T. McClain writes, “Encouraging people to seek to live a ‘higher’ Christian life in monastic communities, as Luther says in this article ‘conflicts with the chief article on redemption through Jesus Christ.’ How is that? When the Church teaches, or creates the impression, that by observing humanly devised services to God, one is in fact bringing oneself closer to God, making oneself more holy in God’s eyes, then the merits of Christ are obscured, clouded and eventually set aside in favor of a focus on the ‘higher’ calling invented by man.”

Come to think of it, when I read the Bible, I don’t see Jesus and the apostles engaged in this kind of hype either. Ever.

A normal life in Christ seems to be just fine with them.

Why isn’t it for us?

 

Nick Lannon on Lessons from Jr. Seau

From Derision to Compassion: The Death of Junior Seau
by Nick Lannon
Posted at Mockingbird on 5/9/12, and used by permission

Nick’s blog: My Series of Tubes

• • •

It was like a switch was thrown. I was at an open gym, shooting baskets with a bunch of guys, talking about the news of the day: the apparent suicide of former NFL great and presumptive Hall of Famer Junior Seau. Many of the guys couldn’t believe that a man who was so famous, so rich, who had so much, could be depressed. What could possibly be so bad about his life that it wasn’t worth living? The tone of the conversation quickly became derisive. Seau must have been weak. Fragile. Pathetic. Then someone suggested that his brain may have been irreparably damaged by the numerous minor head traumas he suffered over the course of his playing career.

It was like a switch was thrown. All of a sudden, no one had a cutting remark. No one was talking about how satisfied they were with so much less than Seau had. We recalled the story of Dave Duerson, another former NFL player who committed suicide, who had shot himself in the chest expressly so that his brain could be studied; he had known his depression was physically sourced (subsequent medical examination of his brain proved him right). The mood in the gym became somber, and the tone, compassionate.

Continue reading “Nick Lannon on Lessons from Jr. Seau”

My first thought wouldn’t be, “Let’s have a gathering.”

Francis Chan must be reading a different Bible.

The other day I watched a video clip from a message he gave at the 2012 Verve Conference in which he asserted that genuine Christian fellowship is missional fellowship.

I think Francis Chan is partly right there, but the way he said it was striking and revelatory of the way many evangelicals today read and interpret Scripture.

I have included a transcript of what Chan said below. If you want to watch and hear him say it, click HERE.

If I just read the Scriptures, I wouldn’t even think so much about the gathering. You know–Like, my first thought wouldn’t be, “Let’s have a gathering.” Out of the Scriptures, I would think, “I’m on a mission. Like, I love this God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength and now I’ve got to go out and make disciples.” That’s what I would think. I need to go out there and just reach as many people as I can! I’m supposed to teach them to obey everything that’s God commanded–that’s what I would get out of Scripture. And then what would happen as I did that–what I believe would naturally happen–is suddenly I would find those other people who are on that same mission because we’d be the weirdest people on earth. Right?

We would stick out, we’d be so different, and that pressure to always stay on that mission, everyone else would be beating me down, so I would actually need these brothers and sisters in my life and tell them hey don’t let me slow down, and I won’t let you slow down, we’ve got to stay on this mission together. See this is why I wasn’t into fellowship before–because I didn’t need any more friends. Okay, it wasn’t like “Oh yeah, let’s get another gathering together so I can have someone to talk to.” Like, I didn’t need accountability groups so I wouldn’t sleep around or whatever it was–I could do that, I can do that on my own. Like–not sleep around, you know what I mean? You know I don’t need that to do American church, I don’t need fellowship. But to stay on mission everyday? I need people because I’m going to get distracted–there are so many things I would rather do than make disciples. And so I need people in my life to tell me this. That’s what I would get out of Scripture, is I got to go out and start making disciples. And as I did that I really believe that I would start gathering with other people doing the same thing.

Continue reading “My first thought wouldn’t be, “Let’s have a gathering.””

A Lost Parable: The Sugar of the Earth

And Jesus spoke to them and said,

“You are the powdered sugar of the earth. As sugar is sprinkled on cakes and cookies to make them attractive and exceedingly sweet, so you shall make my church the most delightful confection the world has known. For the children of this world have an insatiable sweet tooth, and you shall satisfy those who hunger and thirst for empty calories.

“You shall sprinkle sugar on my words so that every bitter morsel is disguised beyond recognition.

“You shall fill your gatherings with nectarous delights, amusements that thrill the crowds, so that all who participate may leave energized by the sugar-high of my Spirit.

“You shall make your church program a veritable display window of sugary treats, so that all who pass by may salivate and be drawn to purchase your pleasures and be satisfied.

“Do not ever let your sugar lose its sweetness. for then your neighbors will see the true taste and texture of your lives — the salty and the sweet, the bitter and the bland — this mixture you deem so unpalatable.

“And what will attract them then?”

Mixed Marriage Messages

What an interesting cast of characters and what a conflicted conversation we’ve had in recent history in American presidential politics when it comes to the subject of marriage.

It wasn’t too long ago, we had public hearings about adulterous liaisons in the Clinton White House.

This year we are being treated to the spectacle of former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards’s trial, in which he is accused of soliciting and secretly spending over $925,000 to cover up his adultery.

Herman Cain, Republican hopeful, suspended his campaign when he could not overcome revelations of a 13-year adulterous affair and numerous allegations of sexual harassment by some of his female employees.

Likewise, on the campaign trail this past year fellow Republican Newt Gingrich had to deal constantly with public scrutiny of his marital and extra-marital affairs. Wed three times, his two previous marriages ended in divorce after he had affairs with younger women, once when his wife was seriously ill.

I guess it could be worse. France just elected Francois Hollande, the first French president to enter office unmarried and living with his partner. Just imagine how that would play in Peoria.

Well, at any rate, now it looks as though it will be President Obama vs. Governor Romney in the U.S. November election.

When it comes to marriage, conservative Christians get mixed messages from both.

Continue reading “Mixed Marriage Messages”