Chapter Two of the Christian Life

To start with, I want to endorse Jeff Dunn’s recent rant on iMonk.  He said this:  “Jesus is not a self-help guru. He is not interested in you becoming a better person. He could not care less with you improving in any area of your life. Because in the end that is your life. Yours. And he demands you give it to him. All of it. An unconditional surrender. He did not come to improve you, or encourage you, or spur you on to bigger and better things. He came to raise the dead. And if you insist on living, then you’re on your own.”

This is not just true, it is important, even crucial.

AND – not but, AND – I am going to expand our consideration of the Christian life.  It’s still true, as Jeff said, that in ourselves we are dead in our sins.  Any program we subscribe to is just prettying up a corpse.  Any program that’s offered as a substitute to being born again into the new life of Christ is a highway to hell.

I now want to take up the Christian life at Chapter Two.  Chapter Two is that part of the Christian life that comes as we are resurrected into union with Jesus.  It’s the life that we live once we’ve staggered out of the tomb and begun struggling with our winding sheets.  It can be a pretty long chapter.  Most of us are not like the thief on the cross, whose literal and spiritual death and rebirth happened in the course of an afternoon.  Most of us are going to live for years being remade into the image of Christ.  We are going to strive for “a long obedience in the same direction.”  (I love that phrase, although it was Nietzsche who first said it, not Eugene Peterson.) Infused with our new life, we are going to have to work, to train and exercise and perform acts of goodness.

Continue reading “Chapter Two of the Christian Life”

Fear Not, Little Flock

E. Dover Baptist Church, Sylvia Jones

By Chaplain Mike

Last Sunday, my wife and I entered the side door of the old church building. The small entryway had a few steps that led up to two vintage oak doors. The one on the left led to the back corner of the sanctuary. Next to it, the right door led to an overflow room that people walked through to get to the offices and classroom building.

As we opened the left hand door, it creaked. The floor creaked under our feet. Light streamed in from the bright winter day outside through the large stained glass windows set above the sanctuary. The room had been designed in a rather unique fashion. Square, the pulpit area was set in a corner and the pews fanned out and up from it in auditorium fashion. I walked to the platform and noted the ancient chairs and the pulpit with its small velvet-covered top. I looked out over wooden pews and surveyed a sanctuary that was over a century old.

It brought back memories.

Continue reading “Fear Not, Little Flock”

A Life in a Song

By Chaplain Mike

A song has been haunting my thoughts lately. Though recorded a couple of years ago, I have just become familiar with it.

It’s Glen Campbell’s cover of “These Days” by Jackson Browne. I remember the original from the early 70’s, when I was a Browne fan, but this cover is a revelation. In the music video, Campbell reminds me of Johnny Cash in his later days, when his voice and the songs he sang were so full of life experience, regret, maturity, and joy that it made one literally ache with human sympathy.

Amazingly, Browne wrote this song when he was only sixteen years old. In Campbell’s hands, it becomes a jewel of vintage beauty, enhanced by the sepia tones of the video, which contain evocative pictures of his long career in music.

Campbell’s life is the stuff of American dreams and drama. Born in the Depression to a sharecropper and one of twelve children, he got his start when his impoverished daddy somehow scrounged up the money for a $5 Sears and Roebuck guitar. He learned quickly and played publicly as a child, eventually leaving school at age sixteen and heading west to play in bars and roadhouses. Campbell formed a band, moved to L.A. and began writing songs and serving as a sideman to many famous musicians. After he was invited to tour with the Beach Boys as their bassist, he teamed up with Jimmy Webb to record his own records, which proved to be among the greatest hits of the era: “By the Time I Get to Phoenix” and “Wichita Lineman,” for example. He was invited to host the summer edition of the Smothers Brothers Show, and then got his own TV variety program, which made him an international star.

The 70’s and 80’s were not kind to Campbell, as he self-destructed under the influence of alcohol and cocaine addiction. However, he was able to overcome these problems and has testified that God, through faith in Christ, should get the credit for turning his life around.

There is a full lifetime of highs and lows in this song, and it speaks deeply to me.

Sermon: A Basic Conversation about Faith

By Chaplain Mike

Below, you can listen to Chaplain Mike’s sermon on John 1:35-42, preached at a local Presbyterian church on Sunday, Jan. 16.

http://www.box.net/embed/nq3870335mv9igp.swf

John 1:35-42 (NASB)
Again the next day John was standing with two of his disciples, and he looked at Jesus as He walked, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” The two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus.

And Jesus turned and saw them following, and said to them, “What do you seek?” They said to Him, “Rabbi (which translated means Teacher), where are You staying?” He said to them, “Come, and you will see.” So they came and saw where He was staying; and they stayed with Him that day, for it was about the tenth hour.

One of the two who heard John speak and followed Him, was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He found first his own brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which translated means Christ). He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon the son of John; you shall be called Cephas” (which is translated Peter).

Vocation: A Hopeful Sign

By Chaplain Mike

Scot, this sounds great. Too often in things I’ve read, “missional” is just another word for “church programs,” only this time they take place outside the church walls rather than within them. This, on the other hand, sounds more like the Lutheran doctrine of “vocation,” which I have come to think is under-appreciated by evangelicals. On Internet Monk, we have been calling for a return to an emphasis on vocation, and perhaps a book like this is a helpful sign that some are getting it. (Chaplain Mike, comment on Jesus Creed blog, 1/17/11)

I hope you will take a few moments and read the recommendation of a new book Scot McKnight has given on Jesus Creed today. The book is The Missional Mom: Living with Purpose at Home & in the World, by Helen Lee.

I think Scot hits the nail on the head when he comments,

I believe the central questions of missional people are “What is God doing?” and “What can I do to help you?”

This sounds like just the kind of emphasis on “vocation” that we’ve been advocating here on Internet Monk. I hope so. I’m looking forward to reading it.

A Suggested Program for the Church

By Chaplain Mike

Let me be honest. Sometimes the designation “Post-Evangelical” can be unhelpful. If we only focus on what has been left behind rather than looking forward to new possibilities, we will never find a way out of the wilderness.

I don’t want to be known as someone who just levels criticism. I won’t shy away from it when appropriate, but that can’t be the whole package. So, when I rant about:

  • churches that have turned into Christian activity centers, offering everything from applique to Zumba dance classes,
  • when preaching focuses on life principles or prosperity nonsense and it appears to be more about style than substance,
  • when worship has been transformed into a religious stage production,
  • when youth meetings resemble “Survivor” more than Sunday School,
  • when discipleship comes packaged in programs and adult education is utterly devoid of serious Bible study, theological depth, and historical awareness,
  • when pastors abandon pastoral care and the cure and formation of souls as their calling,
  • when evangelicalism offers an alternative culture that is “of” the world but not “in” the world, and separated from real world of life, work, neighbors, and community,

then I also want to be able to offer an alternative program for the local church.

Continue reading “A Suggested Program for the Church”

Jesus Calls Disciples

Ecce Agnus Dei, Bouts

By Chaplain Mike

Today’s Gospel: John 1:29-42

there he stood, pointing, pointing
day after day after day
and only sinners came
unwashed to be washed clean
then one day he pointed, hand trembling
gaze fixed on one he saw
pushing us away in his direction
he bid us go, go

and there we stood, wondering, wondering
and glancing back and forth and back again
we began to walk
hesitant, hopeful, eager, afraid
we picked up the pace
with one last look
we saw john turn his back
and we were gone, gone

the one before us stopped, stopped
and watched, and watched us approach
caught between our past
and who knows what
then he asked “why?”
we looked at him like children
both of us said “you”
and he said “come, come”

iMonk Classic: Jesus — The Glory of the Christian Journey

Raising of Lazarus, Giotto

Classic iMonk Post
by Michael Spencer
From May 4, 2009

I can’t speak for anyone else, just for me.

When I became a Christian in 1974, I was immediately taught to define myself three ways.

First, did I believe that I was a sinner and that Jesus died for my sins so I could go to heaven?

Second, was I doing the the things my church taught me to do: attend worship, pray, read the Bible, tithe, “witness”, come to Sunday School, be a good Baptist?

Third, was I not doing the things my church taught me were sinful: drink, dance, use drugs, watch R-rated movies, listen to rock music, have sex outside of marriage, use profanity, work on Sundays, marry a Catholic?

That was the menu. Simple. Comprehensive. Understandable.

Jesus wasn’t absent. He was the door in. But then he seemed to vanish into the background.

Continue reading “iMonk Classic: Jesus — The Glory of the Christian Journey”

Last Word On My Rant

Please read this post first if you haven’t already. Then you can be good and worked up before you read the following.

If you are up to your backside in credit card debt, Dave Ramsey may have some advice for you that may help you get out of debt.

If your marriage is in trouble, going to a seminar like “I Want A New Marriage” may offer you some advice that could encourage one or both of you.

If you need to lose weight, eating a healthy diet of fruits and vegetables such as Daniel ate could probably help you shed pounds.

There. Happy?

Continue reading “Last Word On My Rant”

Saturday Ramblings 1.15.11

Welcome to the new and improved Internet Monk! Like it? Take some time and explore the site. You’ll find the same writers, the same desire to picnic in the post-evangelical wilderness. The new site is available in a variety of languages, including Irish just for Martha. We have more elements to add to the new site, but those can wait for another day or two. In the meantime, have fun rambling around. After all, it’s Saturday.

Joe Stallard is the monk in charge of designing and developing this site. He takes no money for this. None. Oh, I buy him coffee when I am passing through his town. Joe does excellent work, and is incredibly kind to boot. If you find yourself in need of a new web site, or simply want your current one to work like it’s supposed to, you can contact Joe through his company, P12 Media.

And while we are thinking web sites, be sure to visit our cousin site, Good News Daily. We could all use a little good news today.

Pope John Paul II got some good news, albeit posthumously, when it was announced he will be beatified on May 1. The late pope was credited with a healing miracle after interceding in prayer for a nun with Parkinson’s disease. The nun was healed spontaneously after the pope prayed for her. Three different Vatican panels examined the claim of a miracle before passing it on to Pope Benedict XVI for his approval. CNN, meanwhile, shares nine reasons why Pope John Paul II “mattered.” Only nine?

Continue reading “Saturday Ramblings 1.15.11”