Addicted to “Answers”

By Chaplain Mike

Christians are addicted to “answers.” For some reason, we think the ultimate favor we can do for the world is to explain the ways of God.

I humbly disagree.

This issue came up again recently when John Piper wrote a blog post on the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

Of course, you knew he would.

Now, I happen to have a lot of respect for John Piper. Though I differ substantially on his approach to the Christian life, I have always considered him a brother who is serious about Christ and the Gospel, pastoral ministry and the church. But when things like this happen, he just can’t seem to keep from speaking up. And I happen to think that speaking as he does leads to more problems than solutions. There are times to simply keep your mouth shut, and an occasion like this is one of them.

However, John Piper didn’t keep quiet, and here is his rationale:

When Christians see suffering, they feel empathy. We too have bodies (Hebrews 13:3). Therefore, love commands, “Weep with those who weep.” (Romans 12:15)

Then comes aid. We want to help relieve human suffering—all of it, especially eternal suffering.

“So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.” (Galatians 6:10)

And that includes enemies.

“Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you.” (Luke 6:27)

“If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.” (Romans 12:20)

But sooner or later people want more than empathy and aid—they want answers.

When love has wept and worked it must have something to say about God.

The sentence I’ve underlined above is where I strongly disagree with Dr. Piper. I assert that he is dead wrong when he writes, “But sooner or later people want more than empathy and aid—they want answers.” That is just plain incorrect.

People ultimately want love, not answers. Answers are not the capstone; love is. Most can do without specific explanations. No one can do without love. Even when sufferers cry out, “Why?” they are not asking for answers. They are expressing pain and hoping someone is there to hear their cries. Above all, they want to know they are not alone, not abandoned, not rejected. They want love. They want the presence of someone who cares. They want reassurance that someone is there to embrace them, listen to them, hold their hand, be their friend.

To believe that “answers” are the ultimate solution is to take the position of Job’s comforters.

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Saturday Ramblings 3.26.11

Greetings from the desert edition of Saturday Ramblings. Your rambler is in the Phoenix area taking in some Spring Training baseball and In N Out burgers. Yes, life can get better than this, but not without involving legal action. I brought my allergies with me to the desert and was hoping to leave them here, but so far they are insisting on returning to Oklahoma with me on Sunday. We will see. In the meantime, are you ready to ramble?

Should there be another film edition of the Chronicles of Narnia series, it will be The Magician’s Nephew, not The Silver Chair. Walden Media is still in discussions with the estate of the late C.S. Lewis about making another movie from the series to go along with the previous three. My opinion: Stop it now. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader was an unmitigated disaster as the movie treated the story in a disrespectful manner. What do you think? Does Walden deserv another chance?

Meanwhile, production has begun on The Hobbit, Peter Jackson’s version of the prequel to the Lord of the Rings trilogy. No word yet on how they will work Liv Tyler into the story. But they will, won’t they?

And our final movie note, Soul Surfer is set to open in theaters on April 8. It’s the story of Bethany Hamilton, who survived a shark attack to win a world championship. Her faith in Christ is central to her story. This one could be very interesting indeed.

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Friday with the Fathers (3)

The Church Fathers, Kievan Miniature (11th c)

By Chaplain Mike

Thus far in our Lenten series on the Apostolic Fathers, we have discussed Clement of Rome and Ignatius of Antioch. Today we consider the last of the three chief Apostolic Fathers: Polycarp of Smyrna.

Polycarp and Ignatius knew one another, and Ignatius wrote one of his letters to Bishop Polycarp as he made his way to Rome in chains. The Bishop was so impressed with these epistles that he later attached them to one of his own letters and commended them to a church for their edification.

Polycarp lived c.69-c.155 AD and was a student of the Apostle John, who consecrated him as Bishop of Smyrna. The little we know about his life comes chiefly from the writings of Irenaeus and a letter from the Smyrnaeans recounting Polycarp’s martyrdom—the oldest written account of a Christian martyr’s death outside the New Testament. Irenaeus claimed to be one of Polycarp’s pupils, said that the Bishop knew and conversed with many of those who had been with the Lord during his earthly ministry, and he also noted that Polycarp was a companion of Papias, another representative on the traditional list of Apostolic Fathers.

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IM Book Review: Introverts in the Church

By Chaplain Mike

I think I may have found my doppelganger.

There were times as I was reading through Adam McHugh’s wise and helpful book, Introverts in the Church: Finding Our Place in an Extroverted Culture, when I thought he was reading my mind, representing my exact thoughts in the very words by which I would express them.

He and I are introverts, you see. We live among you. You will often find us out on the edges of the room, engaged in conversations with other individuals rather than participating in the raucous partying of the crowd. We may sit by ourselves in church. We don’t always speak up or initiate conversation in small group settings. We may disappear for awhile from all the banter taking place during the family reunion and everyone will wonder where we’ve gone. And you might find us taking a walk or sitting under a tree away from the din of the festivities.

If I were your pastor, you might wonder why I am not up front all the time or engaged in lively interaction in the center of the room at church fellowship events. I might be off in a corner talking to one or two people, in the kitchen checking with those who are serving, or down the hall seeing how the nursery workers are doing. When you think about what I do throughout the week, you might wonder why anyone needs to spend so much time in his study. If you are on the board, you might question my requests for regular personal retreats. You feel insecure sometimes because I don’t have a quick answer to a question or solution to a problem. You may inwardly wonder if I have the leadership skills to run a church. Me too.

Adam McHugh, fellow introvert, can identify with this. He writes:

My struggles to be an introverted pastor are representative of the struggles many introverts face when navigating the waters of Christian community, which can be unintentionally, or intentionally, biased toward extroversion. As a pastor who has participated in both independent and denominationally affiliated churches, it is my experience that evangelical churches can be difficult places for introverts to thrive, both for theological and cultural reasons. Just as I have had a difficult time squaring my own temperament with common roles and expressions of the pastoral ministry, so also many introverted Christians struggle with how to find balance between their own natural tendencies and evangelical perspectives on community and evangelism. A subtle but insidious message can permeate these communities, a message that says God is most pleased with extroversion. (p. 13)

It’s the story of my life, and I, for one, am glad Adam McHugh has told it so well.

Continue reading “IM Book Review: Introverts in the Church”

Does Jesus Really Mean It?

Confession time: I pray a lot, but I don’t often believe that God will hear and answer my prayers. And for me, that creates quite a bit of tension.

On the one hand, I believe that I should pray and pray frequently. We are told to pray unceasingly. We are to pray for those in authority over us and even pray for our enemies. And so I do—but when a prayer is answered, I’m shocked and surprised. In other words, I’m just not used to God actually answering my prayers.

So when I spent time reading Jesus’ last discourse with his disciples in John’s Gospel (chapters 14 through 16) on a recent retreat and saw that four times in that teaching he says for me to ask anything and it will be done for me, it really stood out to me. Does Jesus really mean anything? And does he really mean that all I have to do is ask? There has to be a catch to this.Continue reading “Does Jesus Really Mean It?”

Quotes

“The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies; probably because generally they are the same people.”  (G.K. Chesterton)

“Everywhere I go, I’m asked if I think the universities stifle writers. My opinion is that they don’t stifle enough of them. There’s many a bestseller that could have been prevented by a good teacher.” (Flannery O’Connor)

“Ring the bells that still can ring/Forget your perfect offering/There is a crack in everything/That’s how the light gets in.”  (Leonard Cohen)

“The main thing about Christianity is not the work we do, but the relationship we maintain and the atmosphere produced by that relationship. That is all God asks us to look after, and it is the one thing that is being continually assailed.” (Oswald Chambers)

“Between God and the soul there is no between.” (Julian of Norwich)

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Single? Need Not Apply

By Chaplain Mike

Alert reader Jason notified us about an interesting article that discusses a topic most evangelical churches don’t publicly acknowledge or talk about: discrimination against single pastors.

Writing in the New York Times, Erik Eckholm begins his story with an example:

“Like all too many Americans, Mark Almlie was laid off in the spring of 2009 when his workplace downsized. He has been searching for an appropriate position ever since, replying to more than 500 job postings without success.

“But Mr. Almlie, despite a sterling education and years of experience, has faced an obstacle that does not exist in most professions: He is a single pastor, in a field where those doing the hiring overwhelmingly prefer married people and, especially, married men with children.

“Mr. Almlie, 37, has been shocked, he says, at what he calls unfair discrimination, based mainly on irrational fears: that a single pastor cannot counsel a mostly married flock, that he might sow turmoil by flirting with a church member, or that he might be gay. If the job search is hard for single men, it is doubly so for single women who train for the ministry, in part because many evangelical denominations explicitly require a man to lead the congregation.”

Al Mohler is quoted in the NYT story as dismissing the criticism, saying the word “discrimination” implies that churches are doing something “wrong” in preferring staff members who are married with families. “Both the logic of Scripture and the centrality of marriage in society, justify the strong inclination of congregations to hire a man who is not only married but faithfully married.” Mohler also warns seminary students that staying single will significantly limit their opportunities to be pastors.

Someone should have told the Apostle Paul. In 1Corinthians 7, he expressed a wish that many Christians would remain single like him, so that they might serve the Lord “free from concern” that comes from having a wife and family. In contrast—

“Sometimes, parishioners have an unspoken preference for a happily married male with a wife who does not work outside the home,” Cynthia Woolever, research director at U.S. Congregations, wrote in a 2009 article. “She also volunteers at the church while raising ‘wholesome and polite children.’”

And so, more testimonial evidence that the real evangelical religious enterprise in America is building full service family-friendly activity centers led by those who place “family values” way up at the top of their list of priorities.

And this makes sense for those who claim to follow an unmarried Savior and whose favorite theologian was a single man?

Note: You can read more of Mark Almlie’s thoughts on this subject in his blog posts at Out of Ur from earlier this year.

Beggar of Bread

“Bread for myself is a material question.

Bread for my neighbor is a spiritual one.”

—Nikolai Berdyaev

Recently, a friend visited our family one evening and stayed a long time. I baked cookies during his visit and felt triumphant over that considering I’d been sick for one week and had not bought groceries in nearly two. Dinner earlier had been a patchwork of leftovers and strange items that lurked in the pantry. As our friend left at nearly ten o’clock, he mentioned he was stopping to eat on the way home.

What? He had missed dinner and sat in my house for three hours politely munching a couple of cookies? I’d never thought to ask if he’d eaten since we had finished long before he arrived. I apologized, mortified. To think that I would let someone walk away from my house unfed was more than I could take. Had I known, I would have exhausted all options to provide for him. I could have ordered a pizza, jumped in the car to fetch takeout or banged on my neighbor’s door. But it was too late. I withered in embarrassment and vowed to make it up to him. I even lay awake replaying the incident that night.

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Lent: “From that Point On” — A Difficult Journey

By Chaplain Mike

We are well on our way into the Lenten season. It may be a good time for a refresher on the relationship of this season to the Gospel story.

In our January 7, 2011 post, “Epiphany and the Days to Come,” we pointed out that the Epiphany season is representative of the first half of the story we read in the Synoptic Gospels. These are the days when Jesus reveals God’s glory. The Light of the world has dawned in our darkness.

  • The Child is recognized as the King whose star lit up the heavens.
  • The divine voice affirms his identity as he rises from the waters of baptism.
  • Jesus travels throughout the land and the sick are healed, the hungry are fed, the dead are raised, multitudes hear the Good News, disciples are called, trained, and sent forth, and Satan falls from heaven like lightning.
  • At the climax of this revelation, Peter confesses that Jesus is the Christ.
  • Then Jesus takes three disciples to the mountaintop and is transfigured before them in divine glory.

From that point on, Jesus’ teaching was dominated by predictions of his impending death and the disciples proved how “slow of heart” they were time and time again as their Master pulled back from the crowds and focused more specifically on the Twelve and the dynamics of discipleship.

This is the journey we travel in Lent, a journey to Jesus’ cross, and a journey of learning what it means to take up our cross and follow him.

From that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third day.

• Matthew 16:21

Let’s briefly survey part two of the Gospel of Mark to see this emphasis on the struggles of the disciples as they make this journey with Jesus.

  • After Peter confesses Christ and Jesus begins to teach about the cross, the Lord must rebuke Peter for his rejection of the message. Then Jesus teaches them about taking up the cross and following. (8:31-38)
  • After the Transfiguration, they descend the mountain, and the disciples are incapable of casting out an unclean spirit from an afflicted boy. (9:14-29)
  • Jesus again foretells his death, but the disciples fail to understand. (9:30-32)
  • Along the road, they argue with one another about who is the greatest. (9:33-37)
  • They try to stop another exorcist, casting out demons in Jesus’ name, but Jesus forbids them, and then teaches them about causing others to stumble and being at peace with one another. (9:38-49)
  • The disciples struggle to understand Jesus’ teaching about marriage and divorce. (10:1-12)
  • The disciples rebuke children when they try to come to Jesus. (10:13-16)
  • They find it hard to understand Jesus’ teaching about how hard it is for the rich to enter God’s kingdom. (10:17-31)
  • After a third Passion prediction, James and John ask for seats next to Jesus’ throne in glory. (10:35-43)
  • The disciples join the crowd in rebuking blind Bartimaeus for crying out to Jesus for mercy. (10:46-52)

That is the journey from Peter’s confession to the entrance to Jerusalem. The next story is that of the Triumphal Entry — Holy Week arrives. But the road that gets us there is marked by failure, misunderstanding, missing the point repeatedly, conflict and arguing — a general inability to grasp what Jesus is saying and doing. Every story emphasizes how the disciples fell short.

I call this “Jesus’ Discipleship Training Program.” It consists of two parts:

  • Teaching his followers things they do not understand.
  • Putting them in situations where they fail time and time again.

This is how Jesus turns us into disciples!

Remember, this is a journey to the cross. On our way we need to learn why we must go there. It is not because of our great wisdom and ability to be good disciples. It’s because of our weakness and sinfulness, our lack of faith and spiritual insight, our failure to love and be generous toward others, our discomfort with God and his ways. It is because we need forgiveness, cleansing, and renewal.

Lent is not so much about giving up something as a spiritual discipline, though there is a place for that. It’s more about giving up. It’s about learning to die. Daily.

The second part of the Gospel story is not pretty. Or easy. You can’t program discipleship like this and put it between the covers of a three-ring binder. It’s about stumbling and falling, ripping holes in the knees of my jeans and getting covered with mud. It’s a demanding hike along a difficult path.

To the cross.

Lenten Notes

By Chaplain Mike

Here are a few notes from around the web about what God is teaching some folks during this Lenten season. Click on the title of each blurb to go to the full article.

Margaret Feinberg is giving up prayer for Lent…

“As I’ve reflected, I’ve decided to give up prayer for Lent. Okay, maybe not all prayer, but lengthy prayers in my personal time with God. I recently heard a sermon by our friend, Jay, which highlighted the importance of praying simple but potent prayers. As I’ve been mulling over this concept, I realize how mindless I’ve become in my own prayer life. Yes, I feel free to express every desire, whim, ache and need to God–which is a good thing!–except that at times my prayers sound like a gushing four-year-old who talks in an eternal run on sentence. I realize that over time I’ve been increasingly unspecific and unattentive in my prayer life.

“That’s why I’m giving up prayer for Lent. Or at least long prayers. For the next 40 days, I’m committed to only offering God three word prayers.

“Help me Lord. Heal oh Jesus. Give grace abundant. Grant strength now. Thank you, God.

“I’m hopeful the discipline will help me be more thoughtful in my prayer, more strategic in the things I ask God, more focused on Jesus, more ready to listen, more prepared to unleash heartfelt worship and gratitude on Easter morning.”

Continue reading “Lenten Notes”