Nexus Jesus

Genuine Truth, Not False, Misleading Accusations

2008-10-09T18:43:00.012-04:00

Danielle wonders if it is possible for society to support one candidate without constantly ridiculing the other. Must we revert to [being] 5 year olds.

When I saw this on my friend Danielle's Facebook status update, I commented, "Ditto." I have been thinking the exact same thing lately regarding this presidential campaign. I mean really, isn't name-calling a childish endeavor? I don't think this is what Jesus had in mind when he said, "And a little child shall lead them." Why do candidates even spend their time doing this? I'm sure there are many reasons. Maybe psychologcial issues, power and control issues, issues related to fear and prejudice as well as outright disrespect. Maybe the fact that it actually works on so many Americans who buy into all the rhetoric of their own candidate (whether there is any real, viable proof of accusations or not), is enough reason for candidates to pursue those votes. But this is disingenuous.

What's really troubling to me is that all of these candidates claim to be not only people of faith, but people of Christian faith - albeit a variety of expressions within the Christian faith. However, what they are doing to one another does not seem very "Christian" in any way. Well...wait a minute. I guess if you are the variety of Christian who thinks it's okay to demonize, ridicule, and misrepresent or even lie about the other in public (or private) it might very well seem Christian. But certainly this is not Christ-like. And the truth is, there is a big difference between what is accepted as Christian in many of our institutional churches and groups that has nothing to do with actually following Jesus. If it is always true that we are guilty by our associations, then the Pharisees were right about Jesus. They said he was a drunk, a glutton, a man who hung out with sinners, Zealots (of which one was a disciple of Jesus named Simon - Zealots were terrorist in their day, seeking to overthrow the Roman government), and he broke the Sabbath laws among other things. This is what the Pharisees tried to convince people of regarding Jesus. And you know what? He did associate with those people and he did break their Sabbath laws. So, do you feel Jesus is guilty by association? I know people who go out and get drunk on occasion, but they are my friends and I love them, but associating with them does not make me a person who does the same thing. I know people who claim to be Christian, but are so full of hate toward some racial groups or homosexuals, or people of an opposing political party, I wonder whether they are indeed following Jesus into discipleship. But, my associating with them does not mean I feel the same way or support their hatred or prejudice. And, on top of that, I have my own sinfulness and lack of perfection to worry about. Maybe I should be focusing on that instead of the perceived sinfulness of others.

Maybe candidates should not be allowed to make public accusations toward another candidate without at the same time producing public documents, witnesses, and specific proof beyond a reasonable doubt. And then, whatever State in which the candidate made that accusation without indictable, provable, unquestioned evidence, that State would automatically be put in the other candidate's win column. I don't want the candidates to tell me about the other one. I want them to justify their own stances and positions on policy without resorting to telling me anything about the other. It seems like the campaigns are in this childish tattle-telling mode that is immature and unbecoming at best. I keep hearing so many people saying they want clean campaigns, no negative advertising, no attacks, just tell us what "your" policies and positions are and why you support them. But strangely enough, when it gets closer to election day, the attacks become even more prominent, and unsupported, unproven accusations fly from every corner. And, we, the voters, eat it up. If negative ads did not work on us, these candidates would not spend millions of dollars putting them on the air.

Let's hope that in the end, we, the voters, are more intelligent than that. We need to see beyond the rhetoric of both campaigns. We need to hold these candidates, both Presidential and Vice-Presidential, accountable to the truth and not accept half-truths and inuendos as fact. I cannot say that I support all the policies and positions of any one of these candidates, but I feel I will need to make a choice because I think it important that I vote and participate in the political process. It is a good thing we have a political system where we have checks and balances. Oh, wait, is that slipping away too? Well, maybe that's a blog for another day.

Maybe these words should rule the conduct code of candidates for all offices in our country They are Jesus' words, not mine.

Matthew 5:43-47 "You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' [44] But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, [45] that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. [46] If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? [47] And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? (NIV)

Matthew 7:1-5 "Do not judge, or you too will be judged. [2] For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. [3] "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? [4] How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? [5] You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye." (NIV)
Pray for the process of the election this year. Don't pray negatively about how we should be saved from the awfulness of the "other" person. We need to pray more honestly than that. Let's examine ourselves first. Let's wonder what would come out about us if our lives were put under the microscope like these candidates. Putting the rhetoric, policies, and positions of any of these candidates above following the path of Jesus is idolatrous. We need real, genuine, truth, not false accusations, inuendo, and misleading statements that only serve to demonize and ridicule others just to get votes from those who are looking for an enemy to hate.

Review of The Shack by Wm. Paul Young

2008-09-18T16:39:00.036-04:00

I just finished reading the novel, The Shack: Where Tragedy Confronts Eternity by Wm. Paul Young. A friend recommended I read it. He told me he had read part of it already and that it involved a conversation between this man and God (who was protrayed in the novel initially as a large African-American woman). That was about all he told me. And, being the person I am, I could not resist reading a novel that portayed God as an African-American woman - intriguing. I am always up for a challenge and for rethinking my assumptions and beliefs. As a matter of fact, a great quote from the book deals with just that - challenging our assumptions about God. Young has his God character say,

Just because you believe something firmly doesn't make it true. Be willing to re-examine what you believe. The more you live in the truth, the more your emotions will help you see clearly. But even then, you don't want to trust them more than me.

And this is exactly what happens. Assumptions are definitely challenged. The book is about a man named MacKenzie Allen Phillips who, while on vacation with his kids, leaves one child to go save another from drowning only to return to find his daughter, Missy, gone. He discovers she has been abucted and likely violently murdered in an old shack in the woods and her body is not found. As you begin reading the story, it seems to be the typical story of loss, personal pain, questioning God, and somehow, redemption (if one can experience redemption after such a horrible experience). As the story unfolds, however, it takes on a more mysterious nature in that Mac receives a note in his mail box, presumably from God inviting him back to the shack where his daughter was killed. He goes.

From there, Mac's world slams into the personification of God in the Trinity. They appear to him as God the Father (an African-American woman), God the Son (a middle-aged Jewish carpenter type) and God the Holy Spirit (a petite Asian woman). Mac's wife had always referred to God as "Papa," and because of Mac's bad experience with his own father, and his current questioning of God and all that he has assumed God to be, God the Father thinks it important to appear to him as something other than that which Mac grew up hating. From here, Mac is provided an experience beyond what he could have ever hoped and one for which he never would have asked. He enters into conversations with all three relational parts of the Trinity and has experiences that lead him ultimately to be reconciled to God, himself, his family, and especially his murdered daughter, Missy.

Mac struggles with the personifications of God he meets because he has many assumptions about how they interact and relate to one another in terms of being. The Holy Spirit, Sarayu by name in the book, explains to MacKenzie:

...we have no concept of final authority among us, only unity. We are a circle of relationship, not a chain of command or "great chain of being," as your ancestors termed it. What you are seeing here is relationship without any overlay of power. We don't need power over the other because we are always looking out for the best. Hierarchy would make no sense among us. Actually, this is your problem, not ours." (p. 122 paperback edition)

The Spirit makes it clear that everything that God does, all that God is, is wrapped up in each element of the trinitarian relationship. It's not like Jesus and the Spirit come up with an idea and pass it by God the Father and God the Father makes a decision as to whether to go with that or not. There are no power plays, no manipulation, no reward/punishment in the trinitarian relationship. There is only love. Young has his personification of God the Father, the African-American woman, say, My purposes are always and only an expression of love. (p. 190). And in this Mac struggles, because if God's "purposes are always and only an expression of love," then why did this tragedy happen to his daughter and his family. Even in the midst of Mac's anger and questioning, Young has "Papa" say what I think is one of my favorite lines in the whole book, My love is a lot bigger than your stupidity. Why is this my favorite line? Well, I think because we often think we have God all figured out. We have created our boxes of what we are willing to accept or reject about God and anyone who begins to open our box to let the real God out by asking challenging questions, having different assumptions, or sharing different experiences, we often lash out at them and try to almost demonize them for seeing God differently.

There are a variety of blogs that review this book and take on Young's theology. Some respectfully, others not. I think Christians need to be thoughtful about their faith and how they interpret things, but I also think we need to see the book for what it is - a novel with some inspiring, interesting ideas about what we might hope God to be or need God to be in our lives. The critics will say, "but this is not biblical. It's heresy. It's universalists." And in other blogs and reviews about it, you will see those charges. Well, you just have to recognize that this book should not be viewed as a theological treatise, despite fears about it.

Whether anyone thinks Young is disguising The Shack as the next great theological treatise on the Trinity or not, it's a compelling story, with compelling thoughts and reflections going through his mind based on his personal life experience. And isn't that really the place from which we all share who we are, what our struggles are, what we hope to be, and what we hope we can come to terms with in our own lives. I don't see God cringing about this novel. I'm sure just like our little boxes in which we trap God with our own beliefs and misguided understandings, Young is in the same boat. We all theologize and interpret out what we understand the Bible to be and what it has to say to us. Even those who know the Greek, Hebrew, Armaic, and understand all there is to know about why this gospel writer wrote that and to whom and why they wrote it, and those who have all the knowledge they can possibly have about the Bible, to suggest any person has God (and of all things, the Trinity) all figured out, is only fooling themselves. I think it makes more sense to have an ongoing, forming, relationship with God, like what is happening in The Shack, as opposed to a contractual obligation where believing the stuff others say about God is the only way to have that connection. Signing contracts about the rules you'll follow is about institutions. Choosing to believe and pick up our cross daily is about relationship and trust. I think The Shack gets at this division well and tries to emphasize relationship vs. rules. I don't trust rules because they change like the wind as circumstances change, but I do trust God and know that he will love me and show me grace when I get it right and when I get wrong. In the end, we work through it all, in relationship.

I would recommend reading this book. As others have written about it, it is not the greatest novel ever and there is a great deal of theological dialogue to wade through. However, it has its inspirational and challenging moments for us to consider how we see tragedy, pain, love, and how God in the trinitarian relationship might speak to our questions and needs. It is ultimately about redemption, reconciliation, trust, and acceptance. Hopefully it will cause you to consider your own life and relationships, particulary your relationship with God.

Change

2008-08-22T10:24:00.002-04:00

This Sunday, August 24, will be my last Sunday at my church. I will have the opportunity to preach and am still considering and praying over what to share that day. In September I will begin serving as an interim campus minister at Purdue University. I'm excited about the opportunity to work directly with college students and to work with them in preparing for worship each week, among other activities. However, I do feel sad about the process of saying goodbye to people who have been such a great support and encouragement to me over the last almost 14 years now.

This Sunday, I am leaning toward speaking on the sacredness and holiness of place. I'll share that on Sunday. As I leave here and get through the departing process, I hope to have even more time to spend on the blog to write and reflect. Life has been hectic with all the change taking place. And, although change can be good, it is not always easy to transition into the "new creation," I will become. We'll see what happens.

Rethinking Faith and Politics

2008-04-04T09:41:00.016-04:00

It has always disturbed and confused me how we Christians have often been seen as very narrowly focused on the political and cultural landscape - only seeming to care about two very controversial issues; abortion and gay-marriage. One might add to that how so many people of faith confuse national allegiance with following Jesus. The close ties of the Republican Party with the Religious (Christian) Right has unfornunatley become a litmus test of authentic Christianity where many Republicans of faith, particularly ones in many of our churches, will actually make statements like, "You can't be a Christian and vote for a Democrat." I have heard this comment spoken (without jest) on many ocassions. It is disturbing and completely ignores the broader issues that Christians need to be concerned with culturally, spiritually, and politically.

However, it is also true that many progressive Christians have aligned themselves with the sole agenda of the Democrat party as well. Although I have never heard a Democrat of faith say that you can't be a Christian if you vote for a Republican (though, just because I haven't heard it, it doesn't mean it hasn't been said), it is clear that conservative, progressive, liberal, fundamentalist, the Christian or religious right, etc. all have allowed political party agendas and power to define our faith as opposed to Jesus' teachings being our guide. Wallis is equally critical of the left's dismissal of important family issues and sanctity of life issues that are important to Christian community as well. Too often we have allowed political power platforms from all parties to lead us into notions of misplaced nationalistic self-preservation and led us to justify obvious inequities and injustices around the globe, even in our own nation. It is into this landscape that Jim Wallis' new book, The Great Awakening: Reviving Faith and Politics in a Post-Religious Right America, enters and suggest a more faithful and just path to addressing so many critical national and global issues of today.

Wallis' book is a celebration of how social movements with spiritual foundations can address and actively change politics and the important moral and ethical issues around the world. It particularly addresses how the U.S. can be renewed and revived to honestly and humbly face its own disintegration into being world spectators as opposed to authentic activists who seek equity and justice for the whole world, not just for our own selfish desires for resources, power, and control.

In a world of divisions, even within the Christian church, it is refreshing to read and hear from a prophetic voice that challenges Christians to be more than "two-issue" people of faith. His assesment of the Religious Right's single-minded focus on the issues of abortion and gay-marriage is that they have ignored the broader realities of biblical justice and discipleship. Wallis, as a self-titled "progressive evangelical" goes to great lengths and depth to help us move beyond right and left, liberal and conservative, and get down to the business of faithful action that will move our churches, politicians, nation, and world, to genuinely collaborate to discover equitable, workable solutions to the critical global crises of the day. Wallis writes:

As I travel the country, I can see and feel new things happening - I find a revival of faith that is directly leading to new calls and commitments for social justice. That rebirth and renewal is being directly applied to the moral and biblical scandal of poverty around the globe and here at home, to the crises of environmental degradation and climate change that pose such a threat to God's creation, and to the mulitple assaults on human life and dignity that shame our world. (p. 3)

He goes on to add:

...Many of the great social issues we face feel like huge, unmovable mountains: disease pandemics that kill millions, massive inequality that imprisons half the world's people in miserable poverty, human sexual and economic trafficking, dangerous climate changes in the earth's temperature, genocide that no one seems able to stop, so many threats to the sanctity of human life, endless violations of human dignity, and the alarming unraveling of both family and community systems. (p. 3)

Although Wallis' entire book is important for Christians of all political and theological persuasions, I personally found Chapter five, entitled, "Inclusion and Opportunity: The Welcome Table," to be a foundational one that underlies addressing all the other issues. Here, Wallis takes the terminology of the welcome table from an African-American spiritual by that same name. He suggest that this idea, based on Jesus parable of the Kingdom of God about the banquet table found in Luke 14 is, "...an excellent image and metaphor for spiritual transformation and the political strategy needed to overcome poverty." Later in the chapter, Wallis quotes Bono of the Irish rock band U2, who spoke at the 2006 National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C., as saying:

...God is with the vulnerable and the poor. God is in the slums in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house. God is in the silence of a mother who has infected her child with a virus that will end both their lives. God is in the cries heard under the rubble of war. God is in the debris of wasted opportunity and lives, and God is with us if we are with them. (p. 110)

Bono goes on in that speech to suggest that we need to move away from seeing response to these needs as an act of charity. He says, It is not about charity, it's about justice. (p. 110)

Overcoming poverty has to be about relationships. I would suggest too that this is true of all the issues raised in The Great Awakening. We must welcome people to the table, the poor with the rich, the Christians with the Jews, Muslims, and other faith traditions with the scientist, the Republicans with the Democrats. As long as we continue to use our personal theologies and political agendas to keep us separate, we will never build the important relationships needed to genuinely address the crises in our world today. I believe young people today are getting this as does Jim Wallis. So many young people today just do not understand the uncritiqued loyalty to particular parties where real solutions to real serious problems get swallowed up in political rhetoric and power plays - all the while nothing gets done not only on the world stage, but in our local communites as well. Jim Wallis holds out a great deal of hope for the future recognizing that a younger generation just may be the ones who are emerging to lead us into a more hopeful future of collaboration, of sharing power, resources, and ideas to finally make a huge impact.

Read this book. Use it for a study group in your church, book club, or just among friends.

The Heaviness of Busyness Eased by Prayer and Connection

2008-02-19T21:42:00.005-05:00

Sorry. It's been awhile since I've taken the time to write anything personally on this blog. I don't really know if its writers block or the fact that I have felt unmotivated to write anything lately. It could have a lot to do with busyness. I read an article quite a while back - sometime in the 1990's, I think. It was in The Door magazine, which was once called The Wittenburg Door back in the day. The article was entitled, "Busyness is a Sin." I'm finding this out the hard way - by continual being busy. Yes, I work, and work has its own busyness. But, within that, the urgent continually gets in the way of the important. Maybe that's where the sin comes in. We often get distracted by the urgent in other people's lives, which demands time from our own when we genuinely care and want to be connected to others and see them succeed or to try and meet their spiritual or other needs. Or, urgent things in our own lives come up that strip away our time and attention to things that are important to developing and planning for the future.

This past Sunday, as we offered an extended time of prayer in one of our worship services at church, I felt the heaviness of busyness. Worship, in some ways, has felt like just one more thing I have to do. I felt the need to offer this extended time in prayer as a call to our congregation to be a people of prayer - not just a people who do stuff. An inordinate amount of time goes into just showing up for activities and programs so we can feel like something's going on. It seems, in this culture, it takes a lot of effort for people to be quiet, listen, pray, reflect, and genuinely prepare for the future. It can be overwhelming - the amount of activity we have to keep up. So, as I am feeling my own need for extended prayer and reflection I encouraged people to come around the chancel to pray while some ambient music played softly in the background. I suggested to them that maybe someone out there needed someone to pray with them and that they could seek out our Interim Pastor or myself or a friend and just come together and pray and connect with God and one another as well as to be in prayer for certain groups in our church.

After inviting the congregation into this time of prayer, I walked off to the side and knelt behind a column at the front of the church - expecting to be out of sight. However, my attempt at invisibility was not to play out as I had hoped. After a minute or so in prayer I felt someone slip up behind me and kneel down, placing her hand on my shoulder. Then she began to pray in a whispered voice for me. For me. This is the first time I remember, in the 13 plus years I have been at the church, that anyone has just come up to me and just prayed for me in such a personal, affirming, and uplifting way. She prayed for me to have a vision for the future. She prayed that I would feel confident in God's call wherever that took me. She prayed that I would have the energy I needed to accomplish what was before me. She affirmed me for who I was and what God might be doing in and through my life. For the first time in these many months, even years, I felt the heaviness of busyness lifted off my shoulders and a renewed sense of meaning and purpose creeping its way back into my spirit. All it took was the genuine, heartfelt prayer of a former youth group member, now gone off to college who had returned for a weekend visit. The Holy Spirit must have drawn her out of her pew that morning just for me. Just a couple of minutes of prayer and connection can make all the difference.

Will busyness invade my life again? Yes, of course it will. I'm not so naive to believe it's done for in my life. I will continually need those moments of prayer and connection, both in solitude with God and in connection with others, in order to keep busyness in check and move forward into God's future. Because of this young lady's prayer for me, I feel more confident about that now - not because it's anything I can control, but because it's something for which I have hope.

Thanks ER! You have blessed me beyond what you'll ever know.

The Domestication of Jesus (a video message by Brian McLaren)

2007-11-22T14:41:00.000-05:00

I have recently finished reading Brian McLaren's new book, Everything Must Change. I am working on a review of the book that will appear on our blog site Feasting on Books soon. However, I discovered through McLaren's website, Deep Shift, and YouTube, this video vignette of Brian sharing about some of the issues he brings up in the book. It's a powerful message to all of us who claim to be followers of Jesus but who also find ourselves in a culture of Christianity where Jesus has become little more than a token symbol we wear on our shirts, bracelets, hats, or other apparel (even license plates). McLaren challenges the current status quo in how we have "domesticated Jesus."

I Remember the Man as a Boy

2007-11-07T09:39:00.000-05:00

(This title comes from a song by Michael Kelly Blanchard on his Imago Dei CD)

A few weeks ago I received word that a boy I had known from my home church in South Carolina died. Of course, I knew him when we were just boys in middle and high school primarily. But, we both had grown to become men. I went into Ministry, he a Systems Analyst. I lost touch with him and his family over the years (especially since I left South Carolina and moved to KY and now live in Indiana) and even back then we were not what you might call close friends. We did not go to the same schools, but we did go to the same church and I remember him, his brother (who was closer to my age), sister and his parents with great affection and respect.

I knew him by the name David but his family called him Davis. I remember Davis as a very funny, sharp witted boy who was quick with the humor and generally just fun to be around. You never really knew what he might say (or do). Usually, it was something fall-down, rolling over laughing kind of stuff that might cause you to snort your milk out of your nose if you had just taken a drink. I have a lot of fond memories of that because I enjoy humor and laughing. I believe God gifts people like Davis in this way, because God knows there are people like me who need people around them to help them laugh and enjoy life.

With all that said though, Davis’ death is very saddening to me on several levels. One, I wish we had never lost touch. I received an email from Davis’ sister where she made the comment, “I wish you could have known Davis as he grew into a man.” Indeed I wish I had been able to - not only to know him as he grew into a man, but also his sister and brother as they have grown into the young woman and young man that they are today as well. Another level of sadness is just that Davis was so young when he died – 40. It may not seem like a fair assessment, but it always feels so much more tragic when people die so young. Finally, I am also saddened that Davis, his brother and sister, as well as their parents have had to endure so much pain and heartache over the prejudices, hatred, violence, and discrimination imposed upon them by others, especially by people who say they believe in and follow Jesus - the church. You see, Davis was gay. Over the years, I knew this about Davis and also that his brother Paul is gay and his sister is lesbian. But, I never really knew all the things this family has had to endure. It deeply troubles me that the church, people who say they follow Jesus, would treat people who are gay and lesbian with so much hatred and discrimination that they are willing to be violent and reject them to the point that they are, in many congregations unwelcome. It is an issue that the current church is going to have to deal with in more healthy and genuinely open ways so that people who are gay and lesbian and their families don’t feel like they have to pretend and try to blend into the woodwork of their congregations as if they don’t really exist or that the issues are not real and hurtful when they feel the sting of rejection and isolation. The church needs to be available to gay and lesbian people and their families and surround them with the love of Christ. I could wax on about this, but I want you to read Davis’ mom’s story, which is about her own struggle and hope for the future. She has given me permission to post her op-ed piece which she wrote back in 2000 entitled, From My Heart:

From My Heart by Margie Candler (originally an op-piece March 2000)

On the day after Thanksgiving in 1979, I went shopping for Christmas gifts for my children. Once I arrived home I carefully locked everything up and began to look around for a place to hide the key. I finally decided a good place would be a pine cone arrangement located in our bedroom. I began to move some of the pine cones aside and saw a small piece of paper folded up many times. I pulled it out, unfolded it, and saw these words, “Dear Mom and Dad: I love you very much. I hope you will not find this note until I am at least 18 and out of the house, but I am gay. This is not your fault. I am still your son. I love you, Paul.” He was 15 years old. He later told me that he had placed that note in the arrangement when he was 11 years old. I remember feeling so stunned, actually numb, and thinking, “I can’t handle this.” I never thought of my son and what he was going through in trying to understand himself.

My husband and I both grew up in the Southern Baptist Church. Our families were very active in the church. We taught Sunday School, served on various committees, and my husband served as a Deacon for many years. All three of our children were brought up in the church. We were there almost every time the door opened. However, when our eldest son conveyed to us through that note that he was gay, I thought only of myself and what “other people” would think. Would our friends turn against us? Would the church ask us to leave? I did not think about the courage it must have taken for my son to tell us of his homosexuality. I did not think what he must be enduring in coming to terms with his sexuality.

I know now that my husband and I dealt with the issue the best we knew how considering the bad information we had at the time. But oh, how I ache in my heart for putting my son through what he had to endure. I so regret those days and weeks that he had to go through, while we tried to get him to change. How sad, that he and other gay children go through the agony of trying to learn to accept who they are only to feel the sting of rejection from their own parents. Paul has told us he knew he was different from the time he was six years old. He didn’t know what being gay was, he only knew he was not like some of the other boys in our neighborhood. He must have felt so alone, with no role model or anyone with whom he could talk or ask questions. We are so fortunate that our son has such a strong personality. We could easily have lost him to suicide. Many of our gay young people commit suicide, in the depths of despair, when their families and society reject them.

We took Paul to psychologist after psychologist, trying to find one that would tell us he could “cure him.” We were fortunate that in the years of the early ‘80s, the four psychologist that we talked with told us, “Your son cannot be changed. It is you that needs to change your attitude.” After hearing that for the fourth time, I decided that if I wanted to keep a relationship with my son, then I needed to learn something about homosexuality.
Back in 1980 there were no books in the bookstores about homosexuality. I had to go to the bookseller and ask them to order the books I needed. I remember the embarrassment I felt in having to ask for some of the titles. But I knew if I wanted to learn something I had to be strong enough to ask. Reading one book, would always lead me to another. Thank goodness they usually have a list of other titles in the back, that would lead me to other books. One of the first books I read was Now That You Know, by Betty Fairchild and Nancy Hayward. I wish I had received a copy of that book on the day I found the note. It would have explained so much for me and I may have understood a little better. But I didn’t have it and I didn’t understand. Due to that lack of understanding, Paul ran away from home on several occasions. At first he left for brief stays before returning home. Six months later, due to the pressures my husband and I put on him to change, he ran away from home for the final time, at the age of 15. He was gone for a year.

Unless you have experienced it, you can never fully understand the hurt and ache in your heart when you know your child is out there, somewhere, alone. You worry about his safety, his lack of money or food. You worry about whether he is dead or alive. You worry about who will influence him and what will happen to him.
We did not know where he was until six weeks later. He finally called and told us he was in New York City. He has said that he felt like the only way he could survive was to get away. His life was not easy on the streets of New York City. Most of his story is in the book by Chastity Bono, Family Outing, along with his brother Davis’ story. It’s not a pretty story, especially in the beginning. My husband and I both thought that after we had come to terms with Paul’s homosexuality, accepting his friends into our home, that he felt our acceptance. It wasn’t until we read his story in Chastity Bono’s book that we realized that due to our silence on the issue, and our not being willing to talk to anyone about it, both of our sons still felt the sting of our rejection.

As Southern Baptist, who were uneducated about homosexuality, we understood only that the word homosexuality meant someone who was different, who didn’t fit the norm and was rejected by society. When our child suddenly applied that word to himself, we had to come face to face with what we had been taught all our lives and the person we knew our son to be. Our thoughts were: Where did we go wrong? What did we do as parents that caused this to happen? We now know these are normal feelings for most parents. It’s easy to blame yourself, when in actuality, there is no blame on anyone’s part. Our children are just who they authentically were meant to be. I have come to believe that my children are gay, not because of my failures as a parent, but because of genetics. Although no studies are conclusive, evidence strongly indicates a genetic component. But even if it were not genetic, it no longer matters to me. I love my children. I am proud of the person they have become… good, kind, thoughtful, loving human beings.

But, in the meantime, our silence was hurting our son. We were silent about our son’s homosexuality for 12 years. We talked to each other about it, and yes, we had talked with our minister, but other than that, we were silent. It was not until Carole Lender and Leslie Johnson, two wonderful women in our community who also have gay sons, started a PFLAG group (Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) that we finally started the coming out process. PFLAG is a national organization that promotes the health and well-being of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered persons (GLBT), their families and friends. PFLAG changed our lives. We now met other parents who had gay children. Other parents who also loved their children, were willing to speak out in a positive way, and didn’t care who knew they had a gay child. PFLAG gave us a place to share our feelings and to learn about homosexuality. We learned, first hand, what gay people endure. We heard so many sad stories. Many were much worse than what our sons had faced.

One young man sat at the meeting and cried as he shared his story. His father was a minister. His father had become seriously ill and was on his death bed. The young man went to see him, and his father’s last dying words to him were, “I hate you. You are going to Hell.” The young man could not reconcile with those words. His pain was beyond belief. How sad it is that families are torn apart over homosexuality, often times beyond reconciliation.
And then, there is the story of Cliff. Cliff had finally told his parents he was gay. His sister told him that once their mother learned this information about her son, she took all of his pictures down from the walls and said she no longer had a son. When Christmas came that year, his mother sent him word that she could not stop him from coming home for Christmas, because his grandmother would wonder why he didn’t come, but if he came, he needed to find another place to stay. Needless to say, he didn’t go.

We learned that our other son is gay when he was 22 years old. He had a much easier time of being accepted by our family. By the time he told us that he is gay, I had studied and read enough about homosexuality to understand and accept it without being concerned at all. I was able to tell him what I wish I could have told my older son and that is “I love you. It does not matter. You are still my son and I’m proud of you.”
Our daughter came out to us as a lesbian in 1993. While she was fearful of the coming out process, she knew she was loved and she knew she would never be rejected by her family. What a joy to be able to share in their lives. To feel a closeness that we would never have experienced had we not been willing to understand them.

One thing Paul said that will forever let me know he has truly forgiven us our mistakes in our journey to acceptance. When he was asked if his relationship with his family had ever truly healed. He said, “I don’t harbor any resentment toward my parents. My parents are like heroes to me.” Thank God for children who will forgive and who understand we had to have time to learn, to become educated and change attitudes.

Many people try to tell us it is a choice. Well, I ask you to think about it for a minute. Can you imagine anyone who would choose to live a life in which they are hated and discriminated against? Why would someone choose to be something that horrifies their parents, which could ruin their chances of advancement in their careers or possibly even lose their jobs? Would they choose to be gay even though their religion condemns them? Would they choose to be gay even when it could cost them their lives because of homophobic people who hate gays?
The hate and discrimination that is shown by society toward our gay loved ones is wrong. Society tries to portray gay people as being deviant, child molesters, and promiscuous individuals. The media focuses on a small segment of the gay community and implies that this is how all gay people live their lives. They ignore the fact that there are many gay persons who live their lives the same way as you or I do. All people deserve to be treated fairly and loved as fellow human beings.

Our children have caused us to rethink all of our beliefs, to re-examine our own prejudices, and to have an open mind. They have made us more aware of the hurts in this world and helped us become more caring about other people who are considered “different.” We can honestly look back today, and know we have been truly blessed.
Our goal now is to try to educate others, and through that education try to eliminate hate and discrimination against GLBT people. My husband and I have been active members of PFLAG for approximately 7 years. Through the help of PFLAG, and our children, we have learned to counter-act the thoughtless words and ignorant remarks made by others. My husband and I have learned that if we want our children to have respect and equal opportunities in life, then we must work to gain that opportunity, not only for our children, but for all gay persons. We have learned that it’s not our children who need to change, it’s society that needs to change. Our children are okay the way they are.

While my husband and I have not lost our faith, we have been extremely disappointed in our denomination’s stand on homosexuality. In the beginning, my faith was a hindrance because of all the bad information about homosexuality was instilled in me from the time I was a child growing up in the Baptist Church. But later, I realized that my strong faith in God has given me the courage to speak out against bigotry and hatred against anyone who is different.
On May 8, 1993, our oldest son, Paul, told us he was HIV. I felt so helpless. I was engulfed with fear, fear about what was going to happen to him and fear about the difficulties he faced in combating HIV/AIDS. While I have always felt myself to be a strong person emotionally, I was not prepared for something of this magnitude. Educating myself on the issue of AIDS has been one of the biggest challenges of my life. Many people think that this disease can’t happen to them. Unfortunately it can and does happen to all kinds of people. We are all vulnerable to becoming involved with AIDS, either directly or indirectly.

Several months ago, Chaplain Steven Charleston, of Trinity College, wrote about the church’s silence on the issue of homosexuality. I think his words not only fit the issue of homosexuality, but also the issue of AIDS. He said:

The silence of well meaning educated people who pretend to have an enlightened view of homosexuality while quietly tolerating the abuse of gays and lesbians in their own communities. The silence of our elected officials who have the authority to make changes, but prefer to count votes. The silence of the majority of “straight” Americans who shift uncomfortably when confronted by the thought that gays and lesbians may be no different from themselves, save for the fact that they are walking targets for bigotry, disrespect, and cheap humor…. We are men and women surrounded by the silence of our own fear. Our fear of those who are different. Our fear of taking an unpopular position for the sake of those who can not stand alone. Our fear of social and religious change. Our fears come in many forms, but it always comes silently. A whispered joke. A glance to look away from the truth. These silent acts of our own fear of homosexuality are acted out everyday. Through silence, we give ourselves permission to practice what we pretend to abhor. With silence, we condemn scores of our neighbors to live in the shadows of hate. In silence, we observe the suffering of any group of people who have been declared expendable by our society. I resolve to never allow this silence to have the last word.

I, as one mother who loves her children and aches at the pain visited on all our gay and lesbian children, refuse to be silent.

Review: "Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas" by Elaine Pagels

2007-10-03T09:52:00.000-04:00

The title of this book was somewhat misleading but I can imagine that title would be more enticing than "The Development of Orthodoxy in the Early Christian Church." While there is some discussion of the Gospel of Thomas, one of the works discovered at Nag Hammadi, Pagels devotes most of the book to the exploration of the development of a homogeneous understanding of the person and work of Jesus amongst early Christian communities. The question she seems to be encouraging the reader to explore is “How do we discern spiritual truth?” Using works discovered at Nag Hammadi in 1945 such as the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Mary and the Gospel of Phillip Pagels explores the diversity of ideas that existed within the Christian Community in the first three centuries following Jesus’ death and how that diversity was systematically squelched. She spends a lot of time making the argument that Irenaeus, one of the early church fathers in Gaul, promoted the Gospel of John as presenting the ‘true’ representation of Jesus’ teachings in order to unite a community of faith that had suffered persecution and was threatened by what Irenaeus believed to be heretical interpretations of Jesus’ teachings. She traces the influence of Irenaeus through the time of Constantine when the catholic church established orthodox belief through the creation of the Nicene Creed which asserted (not without significant controversy) the equality of Jesus with God.

If you are looking for a reassuring read that will reinforce an orthodox Christian worldview then this is not the book for you. In exploring the diversity of thought that existed amongst early followers of Jesus, Pagels brings to light the parallels that exist between that time early in the church’s history and this postmodern era in which we are living. Perhaps at no time since orthodoxy was established as the norm of Christian faithfulness have there been so many people who love Jesus asking the question ‘how do we discern spiritual truth?’. Pagels asserts that Irenaeus answered that question by insisting upon his belief that Matthew, Mark, Luke and particularly John tell the ‘truth’ about Jesus and that other contemporary gospels such as the those of Thomas and Mary were distortions. The Gospel of John, which Pagels asserts may have been written specifically to counter the Gospel of Thomas, emphasizes the divinity of Jesus while Thomas and other writers of the time emphasized the humanity of Jesus. John presents Jesus as teaching that it is only through Jesus that one can have access to divine truth. Thomas presents Jesus as declaring himself in solidarity with humanity and teaching his disciples that divine truth can be discovered by looking within oneself.

Irenaeus insistence that there is only one way to think rightly, i.e., orthodoxy, lent stability to the early church and laid the groundwork for the tradition later known “sola scriptura” or the reliance upon “only scripture”(as opposed to church tradition or personal revelation) as the test of truth. Many young people raised in this postmodern era see the Bible as a book of truth not the book of truth which raises a challenge to the evangelical church which has tended to use the “Bible tells me so” argument to define truth. In the current postmodern culture, followers of Jesus will be challenged to speak authentically and with authority citing both their personal experience with the living Christ as well as the testimony of the Bible as they seek to bear witness to the transformational power of God.

Pomo’s (postmodern’s) are more comfortable with mystery, diversity, and more interested in genuine faith than ‘right’ belief. I grew up in a homogeneous culture in which we believed there was absolute truth that could be known absolutely. My children are growing up in a culture in which they are being exposed to and taught to respect people of other faiths who may believe genuinely and passionately some very different spiritual truth. They have to learn to reconcile what Jesus says in the Gospel of John about being the ‘only’ way to God with what their Muslim or Buddhist or Hindu friends believe about the path to God. Understanding more about the formation of the Bible and the diversity of thought that existed amongst believers in the early church might help them do that.

As I read this book I found myself thinking that it was too bad that so early in the church’s history there was a division which forced believers, in a sense, to choose to trust either their own experience or the witness of the scripture. In my experience, discerning spiritual truth involves listening to scripture, to tradition, to the community of faith and to the Holy Spirit who dwells inside of me.

I recommend this book to those who want to learn more about early Christian thought, the formation of the Bible and who are prepared to be challenged.

Can God Really Be Silenced?

2007-08-30T12:00:00.000-04:00

I saw a poster about an event coming up in our area called, The Silencing of God. It seems to be an event that is suggesting that old argument that the liberals are taking God out of the schools, out of politics, out of whatever. Often it is argued that the United States was founded on Christian ideals and I always wonder if that's pre or post Columbus' discovery. Is invading a land and destroying it's indigenous people a valid way to follow Jesus? I mean, were not the indigenous population of what we now call the United States a spiritual people, with spiritual values? Maybe they were not the European spiritual ideals and values, but spiritual all the same.

I thought about what is presumed by the title, The Silencing of God. There is an assumption here, I think, that human efforts can silence God. The assumption is that by our will we can hold the mouth of God shut. Huh? Does disallowing public school officials or teachers to lead prayers in public schools really have the power to silence God? Do we really take seriously the passage from Luke 19 where the Pharisees say to Jesus at his entry into Jerusalem, "Teacher, rebuke your disciples," (because everyone was shouting, "Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!") and Jesus responds to them, "If they keep quiet, the stones will cry out." To believe that political powers, public schools, or any other institutions or their leaders can "silence God," is to really not understand God's authority and power at all, I think.

Notes to self...God is God. I'm not God. Whether I can talk about God in this or that place does not mean God is silenced. To whom and when God speaks is not under my control, nor is it under the control of anyone else. To suggest that it is, is to give more power to "principalities and powers," as Paul describes them, than these things or people really have. Maybe God wants me to be more silent so that people can hear God's voice without being distracted by my own. This certainly does not mean God is not speaking nor that God is silenced, but maybe it does mean I might be drowning God out. And, is that really possible anyway? Certainly God will be heard if God wants to be heard. Of course I might not hear God even though God is speaking, but that's because of my own heart, not the power of others to quiet God.

I think sometimes we confuse God's voice for our own. We often feel that God wants what we want, thinks as we think, and that God would accept or reject according to our personal preferences and prejudices. So, when someone brings up the topic of The Silencing of God, maybe it says more about whether people want to listen to them or not than whether people want to listen to God. I have found it to be true that people often have great affection for Jesus, but not so much for Christians. We Christians certainly aren't perfect. But I do think our goal is to strive to be more "like Jesus," not more like our country's founders. Jesus was not a white American and I think it is very clear that many of these so called values of the United States, is not necessarily the values of Jesus. You might check out the book God's Politics by Jim Wallis, or the Sojourners or Call to Renewal Websites to discover more discussion and ideas related to some of the differences between what our Country wants and what Jesus might actually desire from us.

What Is An "Emergent" Church

2007-08-29T16:30:00.000-04:00

I came across this article in the Austin American Statesman that does a good job of giving an overview of what some folks who call themselves "emergent" christians are doing in regards to church. Check it out.

http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/08/12/0812emergent.html

Reflections on Mark Scandrette's book, Soul Graffiti: Making A Life in the Way of Jesus

2007-08-10T13:00:00.000-04:00

Reading Mark Scandrette’s book Soul Graffiti: Making A Life in the Way of Jesus led me to feel humbled, challenged, guilty, and anxious about how I should change, excited about possibilities, and just in general, inspired to seek to live my life in the way of Jesus the best I can. I recommend it to anyone who wants to understand and follow Jesus more closely in an action sort of way, not just a belief/dogma/doctrinal way. He provides at the end of each chapter suggestions for conversations to have and experiments to explore. It would be a great book for a group of people who are really serious about following Jesus to study together along with the Gospels. I would recommend the groups’ that do use this for a study would also actually include living out some of the experiments he suggest or come up with their own experiments in their own communities and families. An experiment my own family is taking on is fasting from TV. We write about this at our own blog at http://www.fastingandfeasting.wordpress.com/. Mark writes:

As important as conversation is, it is stillborn if it doesn’t eventually lead to common action. In our fragmented society it is too easy to have discussions about problems and how we wish things could be different without making a commitment to work together to see change occur. Through the example of Jesus and the disciples we are invited to move from passive speculation to creative action – from talking about prayer to practicing spiritual disciplines, from debating social issues to engaging affected peoples, from discussing justice and poverty to eating with the forgotten and hungry. (p. 56)

I don’t know right now that I could do something like what Mark and his family did, which is to move into the Mission District of San Francisco, CA in order to live his life in the way of Jesus, but I am inspired and greatly humbled by his example – being willing to take the obvious risks and challenges that come with living there. I strongly recommend you visit a couple of websites associated with Mark and his new monastic community called SEVEN and his personal website http://www.markscandrette.com/ and http://www.reimagine.org/.

Of course, understanding and following Jesus more closely, actually living in Jesus’ way will be a tough challenge for me (and probably to anyone, I’m sure Mark has his ups and downs in this regard) as I have developed habits and committed myself to things that really are barriers to my truly seeking to follow Jesus with my whole life, not just my intellectual beliefs and church attendance. In some ways, it could ruin my life the way I now live it and for whom I live it – e.g. my job, my family, my self. Scandrette says:

The promise of the “life you’ve always wanted” is actually the life no one is living. …I even hear ministers and leaders lamenting, “I don’t know if I can be the kind of pastor or priest I am expected to be and an authentic follower of Jesus at the same time. (p. 2)

This has been a huge question for me over the last several years. I remember when I was in seminary back in the late 1980’s applying for a position at a church-related institution. A friend of mine who worked there said he would write a letter of recommendation for me, which I greatly appreciated. After he completed his letter he came to me and said, “I finished that recommendation. I made you sound like Jesus.” I said back to him in dejection, “Great. Now, I’ll never get that job.” Even then, I felt the dissonance between the institutional church or Christian agencies, etc. and their expectations and the expectations of what I feel like Jesus would have of me or anyone who would choose to be a follower. It’s very unnerving to me to think that so many Christian institutions are more concerned about how they will or won’t let people into their communities as opposed to living their lives “for” the people of their communities and neighborhoods so that they know God’s love. Again Mark writes, “How can we love a God we cannot see? By loving people we can see” (p. 172). Now that makes a lot of sense to me.

It may sound like I’m being a little judgmental toward Christians. However, I include myself in their lot. On my own accord, I do not measure up either. Even when I think to really work at my own spiritual formation being intentionally active in living my life in the way of Jesus, I still often fail. I must depend on God. I must depend on my family. I must depend on my faith community to back me up and support my small efforts to experiment in living Jesus’ way and forgive my failures. And for me, this is one of the key things Mark’s book has taught me. Experiment with loving others. Don’t be afraid to take some risks in relating to people – to go places Christians have often feared to go because they somehow think they will be tainted by mere proximity. Don’t be afraid to involve yourself in the messiness of others’ struggles as they have need. Like Mark says, “Sometimes we learn to do things well by first having the courage to do them badly” (p. 40). And this is the kind of attitude I think I need to adopt – conversation and experimentation in living the way Jesus within my neighborhood, my family, my faith community and world.

Midwest Emergent Gathering

2007-07-23T14:31:00.000-04:00

I returned yesterday from Chicago after attending the Midwest Emergent Gathering. What a great time my wife and I had as we heard from and shared with so many people who are exploring what it genuinely means to follow in the path of Jesus. Kudos goes to Mike Clawson and his wife Julie of up/rooted (Chicago Cohort) and their team, which included the Indianapolis Emergent Cohort led by Ryan and Sarah Notton, for putting this event together.

I enjoyed meeting and hearing directly from several people whose books I've been reading lately, like Doug Pagitt, Tony Jones, and Spencer Burke. I especially enjoyed hearing about The Emmaus Community in Chicago from Pastors James King and Alise Barrymore and I learned so much from Denise VanEck, a founding partner in ILS Coaching and Consulting and currently serving as Mars Hill Bible Church's Community Life Pastor,during her keynote sharing and follow-up dialogue. I also appreciated the dialogue with Hemant Mehta who is known as the Ebay Atheist. What a valid challenge he presents to us Christians as we seek to be more engaged in the world outside of our little created boxes. It is inspirational to hear from these folks who are not only dialoguing about issues related to the emerging and missional church, but who are also taking the risk of being practitioners. I thank all who led and participated in this event for welcoming me and my small beginnings into these conversations. It is truly exciting to feel the momentum of this conversation and the change that it can encourage and produce along the way. I look forward to sharing with my friends, colleagues, and current congregation much of what I'm learning so that we can also be an incarnational presence in the Muncie community.

I want to encourage others who might visit my blog to connect with the above links to get an even deeper understanding of the emerging and missional conversations going on all around the Christian community. It is an exciting time and the more I learn and share in this conversation, the more humble I become - recognizing my own limited knowledge and ability to genuinely live in the way of Jesus in my own family, community, and congregation.

Room for Expression

2007-07-07T10:20:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago I went on a mission experience at Camp Barnabas in Purdy, MO with some young people who went there to serve. Camp Barnabas is a camp for kids with disabilities ranging from Autism and Downs Syndrome to physical disabilities or even Cancer and HIV. It is a wonderful place with staff and managers generously giving a tremendous amount of compassion, love and freedom for these kids who come there every summer to experience camp. Although the staff and the C.I.A.'s (Christians in Action) are there to serve the needs of these kids 24/7, it is quite clear that the kids and even some adults with disabilities, teach the staff and C.I.A.'s so much more. At Camp Barnabas, their a-bilities shine through.

Around the camp there are signs. One says, "Dance like nobody's watching." Another one says, Love like you've never been hurt." Another says, "Laugh as if no one hears you," and finally, one that says, "Sing like nobody's listening." I'm not sure where these sayings come from. When I googled it, it came up as a quote from Mark Twain, with an additional piece that said, "live like it's heaven on earth." However, there were others who have added variations to this quote over the years, but I think originally it may very well have come from Mark Twain.

These sayings around Camp Barnabas speak to the beauty about the openness to one another expected there in terms of allowing people to feel unembarrassed and at ease for the things they might do in celebration, worship, play, or just in conversation and relationship. The kids who come to Camp Barnabas are truly beautiful inside and out. Many of them just burst out with joy, they will sing, dance, and laugh, all without worrying about how other people perceive or judge them. Much of the staff at Camp Barnabas are this way too, as are some of the C.I.A.'s who come. However, I am not one of those people who does this very well. I think that in many ways I am trapped in self-consciousness which inhibits my ability to truly open up without fear of what others might think about what I say or do. But I applaud those who do not feel trapped in such a way and I am working this out in myself. I believe I have been taught to be this way through my own church experience.

In terms of my faith and the church and how we worship or even in just how we relate to one another, we often only make room for the most talented singers, most gifted musicians, strongest speakers, and most elaborate pray-ers (I know that's not a word, but you get it). We make little, if any, room for those who might pause too long in prayer, who might sing off key, or raise their hands or cry, or pray with passion and emotion. For some reason, at least typically in my own church tradition and experience, we feel uncomfortable with those we consider less than "perfect" or even less than "exceptional." I think the modern contemporary church has turned worship into a place for professionals. At Camp Barnabas, watching the kids stomp their feet, shake their arms, or sway back and forth - out of rhythm no less - seems like more genuine worship before the Lord than much of our highly structured and ordered way of doing things sometimes. We try to address this in the modern, contemporary church by trying to manipulate people into getting up out of their seats to "do" something in worship as opposed to being spectators of a "celebrity hour." You know, like American Idol comes to church. But, we set ourselves up for this.

I appreciate Dan Kimball's (author of The Emerging Church and Emerging Worship) idea of the band being at the back or on the side in the worship setting. This at least helps a little to get away from the "performance" aspect of worship. I guess what is really important is that in worship, in the church, and in our groups, we would all be better off if we work together to create an environment where people feel free to worship and relate to one another in a variety of ways. This does not mean we no longer have focus or themes, or even structure. However, it does mean we would create opportunities where a variety of senses and experiences are engaged and multiple intelligences are considered in creating such an environment. It's interesting that we celebrated this past week the freedom we gained from England. We talk a lot about freedom in the United States - especially in our churches. But, my experience with the church is often the opposite of freedom. We tend to judge those not like us, who don't believe like us, who don't act like us, who don't worship like us, or look like us. We often think if people aren't in with us, they aren't in with God. How arrogant is that? We like to curtail people's ability to just express their joy or pain or thoughts and feelings when they don't line up with ours.

How refreshing though it would be to just be able to "Dance like nobody's watching, love like you've never been hurt, laugh as if no one hears you, and sing like nobody's listening." Of all places we should be able to do these things, should it not be the church? May we freely give one another room for expression and living as we journey along the path of Jesus.

Embracing God's Grace for All

2007-07-02T11:26:00.000-04:00

I once heard Mike Yaconelli, co-founder of Youth Specialties, say, "Never compare yourself with what you don't know about other people." He may have been quoting someone else when he said this, but I wouldn't know who that might be. I remember that it stuck in my mind. It has certainly come to mind recently as I have heard people talk about Biblical characters like Moses, David, Solomon, Paul, even Jesus. I have often wondered why we make assumptions about Biblical characters' lives and decisions as if their whole life was determined by one or a few good choices we read about them making.

In Solomon's case, it is like we trap him into that one thing he did in asking God for wisdom when he could have asked for anything else. Then, immediately following the granting of this wisdom, he comes face to face with a decision regarding two prostitutes fighting over a baby. In the story, found in I Kings 3: 5-28, two prostitutes each have their own baby very close to the same time. One rolls over onto her baby and kills the child, then steals the other woman's baby for herself and putting her dead baby by the other woman. The other mother recognizes that the baby she finds in her bed is dead but also realizes that the dead baby is not hers. They go before Solomon to decide which one is the real mother. Solomon decides to split the baby in half so each could have half, but the real mother protested and told Solomon to let the other woman keep the child. Solomon decided that the real mother, the one who saved the child's life, was the biological mother and she should, after all, have the child back. This is a wonderful story, but Solomon was fortunate too in that he assumed the real mother would speak up to save the child's life as opposed to the selfish notions the other prostitute displayed (which was that if she could not have the live baby, no one would).

I've thought about what we don't really know about Bible characters or people we might look up to or even pass judgement on today. There's just so much we don't know about Jesus' childhood. And there's so much we don't know about his adulthood and ministry and teaching. The Gospel writers wrote what they felt needed to be said in order for others to understand who Jesus was, his purpose in being here, and his relationships with people and with God. But, in terms of a lifetime of decisions and actions, what's printed is pretty minimal. In many ways, reading the Gospels is like watching a sports highlight film. The story of their efforts are told in brief moments in time that really do not speak about the whole.

Often we recognize highlight films for what they are. However, many times, when it comes to people of the Bible we have a very strong tendency to trap those people in the moments of either their courageous and faithful decisions or in their tragic or unfortunate lives. I believe much of this is because, like I said, in many cases, we do not see the entirety of these people's lives before us on the page. We hold many biblical characters as heroes of the faith, and I believe they were, but we often overlook the realities of their lives. The moments of questioning, the moments of doubt, the moments of uncertainty and failure that make these people just ordinary humans struggling to live in relationship to their God. When we do recognize their humanity, we seem to give these characters portrayed in the Biblical text a lot of room to be human, to fail and be redeemed, to fall and be forgiven. However, it saddens me that so often in the church, we do not presently give one another that kind of room to be human. It's as though after the New Testament canon was voted upon and established, there was no more room for God's grace toward us anymore unless we believed certain beliefs, lived a certain life, said a certain kind of prayer, or joined a particular kind of church.

I long for the church to embrace God's grace for all people in all circumstances. I'm not qualified to mete out God's grace only to those I deem worthy because I'm no more worthy than anyone else to receive God's grace. May we in the church spend more time loving and serving people rather than judging and dividing people. I always find it troublesome when ministers, evangelists, politicians, celebrities, authors, activists and others are held up as "perfect" role models because of what we see presented to us through the television media or their written works. So many people compare their lives to those folks and often find their lives lacking for what they are being told they have to live up to. But the reality is, we must be careful as Mike Yaconelli said, in "comparing ourselves to what we don't know about other people." We all need God's grace and we all need to show God's grace to all people. Let's give room to one another on the journey so we can grow, learn, fail, be reconciled, be forgiven, love, and show God's grace without conditions.

Faith, Science, and Truth and Reality

2007-06-27T11:47:00.000-04:00

I would love to hear others' thoughts on this new Creation Museum built near Cincinnati. I am one of those Christians who does not see it as my goal to be in some battle about science and religion. I just want to try to live my life in a way that is reflecting the life of Jesus. Although many Christians see in the scientific world a direct challenge to their religious faith, I'm not so sure this is the case. When I was in college I remember sitting in a Sunday School Class at my home church where a Junior in college made the comment that he did not believe dinosaurs existed because the Bible does not mention them. My jaw dropped and I thought, and actually said, "are you nuts?" That line from Monty Python and the Holy Grail came to mind. It's when Arthur and his knights are surveying the cave guarded by a fierce creature that they learn is a little rabbit. Arthur and the Knights are feeling at ease thinking about why they got so worked up about a rabbit. The Wizard who brought them there, directing their attention to the ground around the cave, said, "Look at the bones?" And this is exactly what I said to that student after I said, "Are you nuts?" Now, I am a person of faith, and I believe that there is more to life than science. I don't believe science can "prove" everything. But, when science does validly prove something to be true, shouldn't we just say, WOW!, even as Christians.

I mean, how can we as Christians look reality in the face and "just say no." Look at Copernicus and Galileo (for a good discussion of these guys related to faith, read A Heretics Guide to Eternity by Spencer Burke and Barry Taylor). Copernicus and Galileo, through their study and searching and experimenting discovered things that challenged the conventional beliefs of the day which were based on the Bible. Namely, they realized that the earth was not the center of even our own solar system, they concluded that the sun was. I'm sure there are lengthy faith and scienfic discussions that can take place around these issues of creationism and science and I welcome any responses to these questions, especially from those people of faith who struggle in the seeming paradoxes between the two. I would especially like hear some other Christians' thoughts related that new Creation Museum.

I guess I see all truth and reality as God's truth and reality. To trap God's truth into the biblical text seems like human arrogance to me. Or maybe Christian institutional arrogance. I think sometimes the "institutional church" mistakes its interpretation of truth as being God's truth. Of course the scientific world can be arrogant as well in their own denials of truth and reality beyond what one can see, taste, hear, touch, or smell - or experiment upon. The Bible does not really make the claims for itself that we often place upon it, I think. But that is not to say it does not reflect God's truth. I believe it does, especially in the life of Jesus. So where are you on this? What do you think? Is this Creation Museum just a confusing, reality denying enterprise? Or does it reflect God's true reality even in the face of science? And what about truth? How do you understand truth? In terms of revelation or experimentation? Or should there even be this either/or understanding of the truth and realities of life and nature? Maybe it is both/and?

Welcome to my blog!

2007-06-25T15:05:00.000-04:00

Thanks for checking out my blog, Nexus Jesus. I call it that because it is how I am attempting to focus and live out my life - seeing Jesus as the Nexus (or core, or connection, or center) of who I am and who I can become. Of course, I am no where near being totally like Jesus, but I continue to learn and be drawn to his path as I attempt to walk with God. I have always had and always will have questions about Jesus, the Bible, God, interpreting the Bible, and interpreting the life of Jesus. As you read some of my post, and hopefully the post of others as we are in dialogue together, maybe you will be inspired to ask questions along the path as well.

I am not full of answers to all questions. Usually I have more questions when people ask me questions. But I do like to be in conversation with people about spiritual things and just daily things. I guess since I really see all life as sacred and holy, then daily things are spiritual things. As you read what I might muse about on any particular day, please feel free to comment or request to be able to post something. I would also invite you to check out some other links websites or blogs you might find interesting as well as a list of books I've been reading and have read that have been especially helpful or challenging to me in my journey to follow in the path of Jesus. Thanks for dropping by and spending some of your time in conversation with me.