The End of Perfection?

Only the hardest-hearted Boston Red Sox fan is cheering this weekend.

On Thursday night, one of the most consistent, awe-inspiring, likeable and admirable players in baseball history suffered an injury that may end his stellar career.

Veteran New York Yankee pitcher Mariano Rivera tore his ACL while chasing a fly ball in batting practice before a game in Kansas City, a serious injury that threatens to shut down one of the greatest pitchers the game has ever seen.

Rivera, however, insists he will not be giving up.

The New York Times reports:

For almost 17 years, Mariano Rivera has starred for the Yankees with humility and grace. His dignified demeanor, as much as his famous cut fastball, has defined him in the public mind.

Now we can add another character trait to the most indispensable player of his generation: defiance. Less than 24 hours after tearing his right anterior cruciate ligament while chasing a fly ball in batting practice, Rivera told reporters in Kansas City, Mo., that he would not let the injury end his career.

“I’m coming back,” Rivera said. “Write it down in big letters. I’m not going out like this.”

Just recently, I watched Rivera pitch a perfect ninth inning against the Texas Rangers, earning one of his record 608 career saves (he also has 42 in post-season play). I feel the same way watching him pitch as I did watching Michael Jordan play basketball — it just doesn’t get any better than this; this is a privilege, a joy, an experience of common grace to be savored and treasured. What has always been most amazing about Rivera is that he basically throws one pitch, a cut fastball; he continues to throw it over and over again, and no one can hit it.

Rivera is a man of Christian faith and he is finding strength in that to stay positive and focused on doing his rehab and getting back to the career in which he has been so successful. “Miracles happen,” Rivera said with a smile. “I’m a positive man. The only thing is that I feel sorry I let down my teammates. Besides that I’m OK.” Whether he comes back or not, I have an idea from watching him over the years that he’s going to stay OK.

When Rivera’s knee buckled on the warning track the other day, and he went down, he fell against the outfield wall where a billboard exhorted: “Walk Off A Hero.”

Something tells me it’s going to happen, one way or another.

Which “Culture” Most Threatens the Church?

I don’t often find much but material to debate and argue against at the evangelical culture war “news” site, The Christian Post, but every once in awhile, something worthwhile appears amidst all the moralizing and political posturing.

Case in point this weekend: a CP interview with Ken Myers, called “Is the ‘Culture’ Really the Church’s Problem?”. Myers wrote one of my all-time favorite books on Christianity and its relationship to American culture: All God’s Children and Blue Suede Shoes, now available in a new edition.

Myers, a former NPR reporter, is the founder and host of Mars Hill Audio journal, a bimonthly audio magazine featuring interviews with some of today’s foremost Christian thought leaders in academics, politics, and the arts.

In this current interview, Myers contends that Christians are spending an inordinate amount of attention on the failings and dangers of the surrounding “culture” when what we should be truly worried about is the culture in the church.

This starts, he says, with an insufficient understanding of the Gospel.

What I mean is, we have reduced the Gospel to an abstract message of salvation that can be believed without having any necessary consequences for how we live. In contrast, the redemption announced in the Bible is clearly understood as restoring human thriving in creation.

Redemption is not just a restoration of our status before God through the life and work of Jesus Christ, but a restoration of our relationship with God as well. And our relationship with God is expressed in how we live. Salvation is about God’s restoring our whole life, not just one invisible aspect of our being (our soul), but our life as lived out in the world in ways that are in keeping with how God made us. The goal of salvation is blessedness for us as human beings. In other words, we are saved so that our way of life can be fully in keeping with God’s ordering of reality.

Continue reading “Which “Culture” Most Threatens the Church?”

iMonk Classic: A God-Shaped Void? Maybe Not.

Classic iMonk Post
by Michael Spencer
from May 2006

Nevertheless, young people do not feel disenchanted, lost or alienated in a meaningless world. “Instead, the data indicated that they found meaning and significance in the reality of everyday life, which the popular arts helped them to understand and imbibe.” Their creed could be defined as: “This world, and all life in it, is meaningful as it is”, translated as: “There is no need to posit ultimate significance elsewhere beyond the immediate experience of everyday life.” The goal in life of young people was happiness achieved primarily through the family…The researchers were also shocked to discover little sense of sin or fear of death. Nor did they find any Freudian guilt as a result of private sensual desires. The young people were, however, afraid of growing old. – Article in the London Times.

“I am a deeply religious nonbeliever…. This is a somewhat new kind of religion.” -Albert Einstein

Romans 3:11 — No one understands; no one seeks for God.

• • •

A few months ago, I noticed a mosque had appeared in suburbs of a community I drive through several times a year. It was the first visible reminder I’d seen that I was no longer living in a Bible belt culture in which the Christian faith, in some form, was dominant.

I’ve lived most of my life submerged in the world of churches, Christians, Biblical language, and the Christian worldview. As I’ve moved into the second half of life, I’ve become aware that I need to separate myself from the Christian culture that has dominated my life, and to look closely for where my own assumptions are deeply embedded with the concepts, presuppositions and categories of the spiritual/intellectual/social/religious environment that surrounds me.

As part of my journey to deconstruct this evangelicalism I’ve lived in, I have consciously attempted to appreciate the thinking and experience of those who do not share my Christian faith. This process has been difficult, because the “house” of my personal experience is completely furnished with the furniture of a Christian society, church language, Biblical presuppositions and the basic beliefs of the Christian community.

Continue reading “iMonk Classic: A God-Shaped Void? Maybe Not.”

Saturday Ramblings (5/5/12)

Greetings, all. Adam Palmer here, filling in for our illustrious Jeff Dunn as he sojourns on an enigmatic quest through the exotic and mysterious land known only as “Dayton, Ohio.” Hopefully he’ll file some reports from high atop some ancient ruin–if he can hack his way through all the jungle vines and make the ascent without disrupting some booby traps and taking a poison arrow to the solar plexus. You know Jeff is pretty much the American Bear Grylls, right?

Ahem. Shall we ramble?

You may have heard about a little motion picture coming to US theatres this weekend called The Avengers. Turns out the marketing pros at Disney are very forward-thinking, as they’re launching their superhero movie on the same weekend as the only so-called “supermoon” of 2012. The moon will appear larger in the sky than usual this weekend, and while that’s as good an occasion as any to gawk at our most beautiful natural satellite, the difference isn’t discernible to the naked eye. In food terms (which I always appreciate), it’s the same difference between a 15- and 16-inch pizzas.

Continue reading “Saturday Ramblings (5/5/12)”

Christ’s Triumph — Our Salvation

Fridays in Ephesus (4)
Christ’s Triumph — Our Salvation

During Eastertide on Fridays, we are reflecting on insights from Timothy Gombis’s recent book, The Drama of Ephesians: Participating in the Triumph of God.

• • •

Today, we come to the heart of Ephesians.

The body of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians grows out of his thanksgiving and prayer in Eph. 1:15-19. Tim Gombis notes that there is an inclusio that marks off the epistle’s main section:

  • 1:19 — “the working of the strength of his might”
  • 6:10 — “be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might”

The section that begins with the first use of this phrase forms Paul’s thesis statement:

“These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.” (1:20-23)

The parallel phrase in Ephesians 6 is the summary of Paul’s argument:

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand firm therefore, HAVING GIRDED YOUR LOINS WITH TRUTH, and HAVING PUT ON THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, and having shod YOUR FEET WITH THE PREPARATION OF THE GOSPEL OF PEACE; in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. And take THE HELMET OF SALVATION, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. (6:10-17)

Ephesians is a drama about God’s divine triumph in Christ.

Ephesians is a drama about the Church’s salvation and participation in Christ’s triumph.

Continue reading “Christ’s Triumph — Our Salvation”

Al Mohler’s Problem With Grace

Note: This post is not about homosexuality, though that is a topic I deal with. Keep your comments consistant with the theme of this post, and don’t drift into a pro- or anti-homosexual rant. Those comments will be deleted. 

The worms are loose after Al Mohler opened a can of them on his blog this week. Mohler stirred things up by, in a long and winding route, concluding that megachurches may be the new distributors of liberal theology. Or is it that he just took a backhanded swipe at a specific megachurch pastor? No doubt about this—in his blog, Mohler takes a direct shot at those who are working through the whole issue of homosexuality within the church.

Short and to the point version: Andy Stanley recently preached a series of sermons called “Christian.” One of these messages was titled “When Gracie Met Truthy.” (Stanley obviously needs help with his sermon titles.) To illustrate his topic—grace—Stanley shared a story about some in his church. It seems a woman decided to divorce her husband when she found he was in a sexual relationship with another man. Not only did she ask him to move out of the house, but she asked him and his lover to find another church. So the men started attending a satellite campus of Stanley’s North Point Community Church nearer their home. They were living in an open relationship, something that came to light after the men had begun serving as volunteer greeters at their new church. Stanley did a little more investigation and determined that the second man was not yet divorced from his wife. Stanley concluded their relationship was an adulterous one, and informed the men they could not serve as volunteers in that fashion.

The story came to a conclusion with the first man’s ex-wife and her daughter inviting the men to a Christmas service at their campus of North Point so they could celebrate the holiday together. Stanley shared this story as an example of grace in action, illustrating the topic of his sermon—grace.

Continue reading “Al Mohler’s Problem With Grace”

Extending Hospitality

The Road to Emmaus, Duccio di Buoninsegna

Journey into New Life, part four
Extending Hospitality (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.

• • •

“They were by now approaching the village to which they were going. He gave the impression that he meant to go on further, but they stopped him with the words, ‘Do stay with us. It is nearly evening and soon the day will be over’” (Luke 24:28-29, JB Phillips)

It has been said that this is an example of how we should invite Jesus into our lives.

The two from Emmaus arrived at their home (they may have been husband and wife). An intriguing stranger had joined them on their journey and caused no end of curiosity by the words he had spoken. As the sun was setting, it was only proper for them to extend an offer for him to join them for the evening meal. So they did, even though he looked as though he would be traveling on.

This was kindness, yes. Hospitality, yes. Proper manners, certainly. Perhaps it was also an indication that they had become profoundly interested in this fellow pilgrim and were interested in hearing more of what he had to say.

However, it was not an invitation that they knowingly extended to Jesus.

Continue reading “Extending Hospitality”

First Things First, part one

Shaker Village, D. Cornwell

First Things First
Restoring the Gospel to Primacy in the Church
Part One: Some Books Are More Important than Others

• • •

Some books of the Bible are more important than others.

This is not a matter of inspiration. Most of us know 2Timothy 3:16-17 — “All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.” I’m not questioning the inspiration or usefulness of any of the Biblical books. I accept the whole canon (I’m a Protestant, so that means 66 books). It’s all God’s Word, and though I’m sure we could have some interesting discussions about exactly what that means, it is not my subject in this post.

I am suggesting that there is indeed a “canon within the canon.” Certain books in the Bible are designed to be given greater priority in the life of the Church and the Christian. They are more foundational. They give “the message,” and the rest of the books set forth outworkings and applications of the message. The other books are superstructure, built upon the message.

To use a more organic metaphor that will shape our discussion from this point on, certain Bible books are like the roots and trunk of a tree, while the other books form the tree’s crown, with branches and leaves that grow out of its central stem.

Which books are more important?

Which books form the root and stem of our faith?

Continue reading “First Things First, part one”

Sights along the Road…(4/30/12)

Picasso Sculpture, Chicago Civic Center

Welcome back to this feature that we started on Sundays during Lent. I’m thinking we’ll take a road trip about once a month now. So, make sure your seat belts are fastened — Hey, everyone went to the bathroom already, right? Good, because it’s time to hit the road.

This week, Gail and I will head to Chicago for our annual spring trip to hear our son’s jazz concert at North Park University (note: news to come about NPU in this post). So I thought we would illustrate today’s trip through what I’m reading, watching and hearing by focusing on some of the more unusual landmarks around my home town Chicago, the windy city, the city of broad shoulders (and less-than-full trophy cases).

As of Saturday evening as I write, the Cubs are 7-13, the White Sox are 10-10, the Blackhawks have been eliminated from the NHL playoffs, and the Bears’ season is months away. However, no other Chicago sports fan disappointment this year can compare with what happened on the basketball court today when MVP Derrick Rose tore his ACL in the Bulls’ opening game of the NBA playoffs. Everybody now: “Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen…”

In spite of the Bulls’ bad news, you should still check out Mockingbird’s unique take on the playoffs. I mean, who else would tell you that “Joakim Noah is the living embodiment of the theology of the cross”?

Continue reading “Sights along the Road…(4/30/12)”

iMonk Classic: Enough Courage to Go Around

Country Road, D. Shortt

Classic iMonk Post
by Michael Spencer
from May 2008

If the truth about Christianity turned out to be very different from what we’d been taught as young Christians by people we look up to as mentors and authorities, would we stand up and tell the truth? Would we make the turn and go the other way?

Every so often, this situation occurs. Take, for example, the infamous interracial dating rule at Bob Jones University. Through whatever process- enlightenment, epiphany, embarrassment- it became obvious that the school’s prohibition on interracial dating was wrong, even though it had been taught as part of a “godly Christian witness” for decades.

On the day that became clear, someone had to come to this conclusion:

  • Jesus never endorsed this prohibition.
  • It’s counter to the Gospel to have this rule.
  • But our pastors, teachers, mentors, parents, grandparents, ancestors and culture have taught us that this kind of segregation is right.
  • They used the Bible to prove their point, but they used it wrongly.
  • If we are going to do what is right, we have to say that those who came before us were wrong.
  • It will be embarrassing, and some people will get angry.

Get that next to last sentence: If we are going to do what is right, then those who came before us are wrong and we must, in one form or another, say so.

Continue reading “iMonk Classic: Enough Courage to Go Around”