111225 God Is With Us - Are We With God?

Merry Christmas!

Jesus was born into a world of extreme poverty - more extreme, in fact, than at any other time in history.  Jesus' face could have easily been on the commercial asking you to adopt a child for $30 a month.  Think bare ribs.  Imagine ragged clothes.  Envision flies.  See Jesus.  Jesus-as-poor was as important then as it is now.  People always assume that worldly success indicates God's blessing.  That's a great feeling when we're on top.  But what if we're at the low ebb of life?  What if we feel like a loser, and everything in our life seems to affirm it?  Sometimes we make decisions that land us in the dump - decisions we would love to take back.  Things said and done that wound hearts and burn bridges.  Sometimes we are the recipient of things said and done by others - we are the damaged goods.  Sometimes we discover that the systems we live in have helped create a life without hope - we don't even have a name as far as the system is concerned - it doesn't care - we don't matter.  When we read Jesus, we hear words, we see actions, we sense a heart of a man who was truly with us.  In our relational, emotional, physical and spiritual poverty.  God is with us, he said in his words and actions - don' let the circumstances fool you.  God is with us in our suffering - not adding to it, causing it, but to be a redeeming presence in it.  God is with us.  The incarnation didn't just happen.  It happens.

Jesus was a rebel.  John the Baptist, undoubtedly a Jewish cynic, was fed up with the way the world was going under the Roman Empire.  He was desperately desiring God's Kingdom to break into the world and restore Israel to global power and was certainly okay letting the political powers of the day crumble - including the religious authorities.  He spoke of Jesus as greater than himself - a more powerful Jewish cynic.   Jesus was.  Jesus called out the wrong that he saw wherever it was.  He challenged his family, his friends, religious and political authorities alike with the idea that the ways of the world were terribly wrong, and that the Kingdom of God presented a better way for everyone.  The Kingdom of God saw everyone as equals - everyone - and treated them accordingly.  No more favoritism.  The Kingdom of God announced freedom from the tyranny of guilt and shame by proclaiming that God's forgiveness is limitless and free  and complete.  It cannot be earned or bought.  It simply is.  The Kingdom of God is also present.  It is not something that is to come at some future time, but has been coming, is coming, and will continue to come.  In us.  Around us.  Through us.  As we live in the way of the Kingdom of God now, we experience God with us now.  We may have to live in the systems we are born into, but we don't have to live by them.  Jesus' provocative teaching was that we can experience an abundant, content life in spite of the fact that we live in a world of broken systems.  We are not defined by them.  Our identity ultimately does not come from the systems here that sort and distort.  Our wholeness comes from God with us, from living in the Kingdom of God now.  Jesus was a rebel, inviting you to follow him in opposition to the systems that have hurt you and millions and millions of others.  Jesus offers another way.

Jesus was more than a rabbi.  In his day, Jesus was considered a magician and wisdom teacher.  The title rabbi was no doubt a later addition to gain him greater acceptance in the world receiving the Good News proclaimed by the early Gospel writers.  This is great news, really, because it simply amplifies God's work in him all the more.  God did stuff through Jesus that shouldn't happen - miracles.  And he spoke wisdom that was more profound than the all the rabbis before him.  Pretty amazing since he wasn't formally trained.  All of it combined to point to the fact that God was doing something in and through Jesus that was incredible - in Jesus, the rebel born into extreme poverty (and never left it).  God showing up in him means God can show up in us, too.  God is with us with incredible potency to help us embrace life in a different way that changes our lives and the lives of everyone we touch.

So this is why Christmas is worth celebrating.  Jesus' coming into the world altered history, and it continues to alter history.  

Too often, however, we focus so much on God being with us that we neglect a critical question that impacts our experience of God being with us: How are we with God?  God being with us is somewhat benign unless we choose to be with God.  We can wallow in self-loathing, never experiencing hope, with God sitting right beside us.  Why?  Because God being with us doesn't do much for us or anyone else unless we choose to be with God.  We can be frustrated by the systems that have shaped us with God by our side, but the systems never change unless we choose to be with God in what God is doing to thwart those systems.  We can sit and marvel at the wonders of what God can do without experiencing much of it ourselves until we choose to be with God, allowing God's power to work, incredibly, in our lives.

God is with us, but are we with God?  The incarnation didn't just happen, it happens.  But are we a part of it happening?

If you wonder how we can be with God in order to experience God with us, read the story of Jesus.  Where did he show love and grace?  What did he say about forgiveness and reconciliation?  How did he teach about living in this world?  If we start building our life in the Way of Jesus, there's a really good chance we will find ourselves more and more with God, and God with us.

We can also find ourselves with God, and God with us, if we simply take some notes from the Christmas story and build them into our lives.  In Jesus, God lived among the extremely poor.  How are we invested in being with the extremely poor?  We can't all move to Furaha, but we can care for and support them in their life.  We aren't called to live in cardboard boxes, but we can care about those who do in Napa.  We can't spend our days at Deborah's House helping women and children heal from domestic violence and human trafficking in Tijuana, but we can care for and support them as they do.

We can be rebellious, too.  We can stand up to systems that serve to oppress people here and abroad.  There are two great forces in the world: greed and God. One will seek to help those who have the power to help themselves at the expense of those who can't or don't.  The other helps everybody.  Which one are you supporting?  We can also rebel against relational systems that are destructive.  We don't have to nurse grudges.  We can forgive.  We can move forward.  We can pursue healing and wholeness.  We can choose not to add to the relational chasm that conflict creates.  We can be peacemakers.  These are acts of rebellion.

We can be agents of God's potency.  When we are open to God being with us, and choose to be with God, God gives us wisdom beyond our education, beyond our IQ, and beyond our social status.  Our touch becomes more powerful when we embrace people with God.  Incredible, even miraculous things happen when we choose to be with God in this way.  And it is a choice.

As you celebrate Christmas this year, may you be overwhelmed by just how profound God being with us was and is.  And may we be moved, then to be with God.

111218 Jesus 101: Reject, Rebel and Rabbi

He seemed to have power over nature.  At his word he commanded the very forces of nature to do his bidding.  There was that time when Israel was in drought, and they asked him to pray for rain.  He agreed.  He drew a circle on the ground and prayed for rain.  A few drops came from the sky.  He prayed again, asking for rain enough to fill their cisterns.  The rain poured with vehemence.  He payed again for the rain to back off, lest flooding destroy their fields, homes, and belongings.  He prayed for a benevolent rain.  Of course, you know about whom I am referring.  Rabbi Honi the Circle-maker.

A Rabbi's son was very ill.  They sent word to the healer to pray for the boy.  He went to an upper room, where he prayed.  After some time, he emerged, telling the messengers that the boy's fever was gone.  They noted the exact time and returned to the Rabbi, only to discover that the boy became well at the very moment the healer announced it.  Of course, you know about whom I am referring.  Rabbi Hanina ben Dosa, the most celebrated miracle worker in rabbinic Judaism.

On another occasion, villagers informed him that a venemous lizard was biting people as they prayed.  He asked to be shown the hole where the lizard lived.  He put his heel over the hole.  The lizard came and bit his heel, and the lizard died.  From that moment on a saying emerged: Woe to the man who is bitten by a lizard.  Woe to the lizard that bites Ben Dosa!  Over the years, this story would change significantly.  Ben Dosa would be referred to as a rabbi, and the lizard would bite him as he was praying

Jesus, of course, was well known for miracle-working and his words of wisdom.  He commanded a storm to cease.  He declared people healed from a considerable distance and they were healed at the very moment Jesus spoke the healing words.  In Mel Gibson's movie, Jesus even steps on the head of a snake in the Garden of Gethsemane!  What are the odds!

What you need to know is that there were people living before and after Jesus who could perform some incredible feats or miraculous proportions, much like the ones Jesus performed.  What is also worth noting is that many of these miracle workers also spoke words of great wisdom.  About some of them it was said that Wisdom descended upon them.

All of the above were lower class.  Peasants or below on the social ladder.  All of them performed "magic" and spoke words of wisdom beyond their pay grade.

All of the above posed a challenge - simply by their existence - to organized religion, which was led by men with a significant amount of higher education and were among the upper class by virtue of their office.

Honi the Circle-maker and Hanina ben Dosa experienced a posthumous transformation witnessed in written history.  The earliest record of their works shows that they were considered magicians who also spoke wisdom.  Their teaching was right in line with Jewish teaching.  Their magic - what we would call miracles - were obviously supernatural.  At first, this was all that was said of them in their stories.

But over time, this posed a problem for organized religion.  Is it okay for such men to profess and prove God's power in and through their lives, even though they were not formally educated, and therefore lacked an authorized title from the religious leadership?  Of course not!  How could God be officially behind men who had not been endorsed by God's Temple authorities?

An old friend of mine, who went to church as a child but completely rejected church in college and beyond, let me know that he was an ordained minister.  This is not one of those I came to Jesus later and now I'm a pastor stories.  He let me know that he got ordained through an Internet site - for free - so that he could perform his friend's wedding (who returned the favor).  My agnostic friend has the same title I do: Reverend.

I have two other friends who both have a huge heart for God and people, have had their lives radically transformed by God, and are in the trenches with people, helping them encounter the life change that comes with Christ.  Both of them wanted some sort of official endorsement for what God was doing in and through them.  They each researched various organizations offering on line ordination, and they both received ordination through those sites, for a small fee.

Both of these make folks like me uncomfortable.  If you have been ordained through the historical process that most denominations adhere to, it takes a lot more than checking  box and clicking a mouse.  For many traditions, a Bachelor's degree is not enough.  You have to earn a Masters of Divinity degree, which requires around 100 credits to complete - three years, full time - plus internship requirements at a local church.  Once you've earned your Masters and had your thesis signed off, then it's off to ordination council, which is comprised of professional peers whose job it is to see if you have any major holes in your foundation: theology and life.  You have to write a separate paper for this group - usually highly academic, formal, and long.  They also pose complex ministry situations to you, to see if you can handle it.  Once you pass the committee, you then go before a large group of your peers - anyone who wants to come - and they grill you for another few hours to see if you have what it takes, after which they vote on whether or not you are worthy or ready to be ordained.  Hard work.  Vetting.  Deep meaning.  High cost.  This is why most classically trained, ordained ministers today do not treat even their well-meaning Internet-ordained brothers and sisters with equal respect.  Except for recent years when sexual misconduct has made the headlines, "clergy" have been in the top ten most respected professions in the US.  The clergy, even today, are honored (at least in theory).

The same dynamic existed in Jesus' day.  Rabbi's were highly trained, well dressed, and were part of the Upper Class.  And they wanted to keep it that way.  This is why Jesus so freely criticized the religious officials of his day - they earned it!

This created a problem in antiquity, because everybody - including the religious leaders - knew that these "wise-talking magicians" were being used by God.  So, in order to assimilate them into proper history, they were gradually promoted.  Usually long after their death.  Wherever magical acts took place, they were reframed as acts of prayer.  And magicians were given the title Rabbi.

Jesus was less than a peasant.  Yet he was referred to as Rabbi according to the stories we have from antiquity.  Could it be that, as was the case for Honi the Circle-maker and Hanina ben Rosa, that he was given the title Rabbi posthumously?  If that's true, was Jesus really a rabbi, or should we be skeptical, wondering if he got his credentials from some website?

If this was the case, it would not mean that we should then question the validity of everything the Bible says.  Actually, it would mean that the Bible is quite authentic in practicing the methods of ancient Jewish writing.  Surprisingly, this may actually serve to validate the Bible, not take away from it.

If this was the case, it would also serve to illuminate just how powerful Jesus' message and ministry was.  In light of the multitude of rebellious, cynical self-proclaimed messiah figures that lived during the period when Rome occupied Israel, the fact that Jesus made the history books is telling, to say the least.  Nobody in the first century would blink at Jesus being called Rabbi, because he was known as one in and through whom God was clearly working.

I have friends in ministry who have spent very little time acquiring a formal education yet are clear conduits of the Spirit of God.  People are moved by their message to following God in life-changing ways.  Through their prayers God has done amazing things - healings that are inexplicable apart from God.  I guess God doesn't predicate his power based on how far we've gone with our education...

It's not that we should abandon learning, of course.  Jesus spent three years investing in the disciples for their education.  Paul was one of the most highly trained men of his generation.  But at the end of the day, we believe not because of titles but because of what we recognize God doing in and through people.

So far, then, we have a Jesus who was a reject based on his occupation, a rebel based on what he said and who endorsed him, and now we see him as a rabbi who earned the title the really hard way - only by the fruit of his life, and only recognized after his death.

This Jesus was a leader who drew a crowd and asked them to follow him.  To follow him meant to trust his way over every other way.  The payoff was that in living differently, people began living regardless of the oppressive life they lived.

May you pause and consider the invitation being extended to you - an invitation to live - given by a reject, a rebel, and a rabbi.

111211 Jesus 101: Protester

Before we go deeper into our understanding of who Jesus was, let's recap a bit from last week.  In an agrarian culture like the Roman Empire, the chasm between the upper and lower classes is larger than nearly every other culture in every other time.  The system was designed so that peasants and those beneath them stayed where they were, and never had opportunity to venture into upper class living.

     As I noted last week, peasants barely survived.  When that becomes your life, and your only hope for life, however, you learn to deal with it.  We all learn to deal with the lives we have.  Powerless, they were at the mercy(?) of those above them on the social scale.  At times - fairly often, actually - the greed of those above would make life unbearable and unsustainable on those below, who funded the rich with their sacrifice.

     What do you do when you can't take it anymore?

     Some would suggest violence.  That did happen on occasion, and always and ultimately ended badly for the Jews in Roman times.

     The poor did learn that they had more power than the social charts gave them credit for.  Unofficial, of course, but power nonetheless.  What power?  How did they use it?

     The rich knew that the poor were stupid.  And lazy.  That's just how poor people are.  Or were they?

     One of the ways the poor had power was in their productivity.  Peasants were the people who worked the land to generate grain for trade and food.  What if the peasants decided to stop working?  What if they decided to stop working around harvest?  Peasants could change the pace of their work to make their lives a little more bearable.  Some might see them as being lazy.  Others shrewd.

     At other times, peasants and other lower class dwellers would engage in non-violent protest.  They must have heard about Martin Luther King, Jr's success and decided to give it a shot.  On several occasions, the lower class would show up in Jerusalem and host a sit-in which would last for days on end.  It worked.

There were always people who recognized the injustices of the world and call attention to it.  Epictetus was one such man.  He was a famous Stoic of his day.  He believed that the secret to living life was to not be affected by the world around you.  Free from the passions of the world, you can then pursue more noble, ethical and moral paths.  Stoics drew attention to social concerns by not being affected by it's corrosive influence.  Subtle, but noticeable.

     A more aggressive approach was Cynicism.  In this mode, people of means would give up their upper class lifestyle and adopt a more liberated existence.  They would wear clothes that were made for durability more than fashion.  They kept no belongings other than the clothes on their back, a wallet, and a staff.  the sleep under the stars.  They begged for food.  Diogenes was well known for this form of protest.  When a person of means embraces the lifestyle of the poor, people notice, because it is a counter-cultural move.  Not subtle, and definitely provocative.

Before Jesus' ministry takes center stage in the Gospels, the spotlight is on John the Baptist.  He was a famous, charismatic itinerant preacher proclaiming that times were going to change - God was going to be bringing his judgment.  Therefore, people had better repent lest they get swept away with all the other wicked people who deserve such punishment.  It is often noted that John wore the clothes of a prophet.  But the wardrobe also fits the cynic, and so did John's message.  John lived off the land, eating locusts and wild honey.  His very presence made a statement.

     And his location was also provocative.  He called people to become baptized - and they did, coming in droves from all over, including outside of what was traditionally considered as Israel.  He chose to baptize in the river Jordan - the same river the people of Israel crossed over when they first entered the Promised Land.  Hmmm.  A guy looks radical, preaches apocalyptic messages alluding to God taking back his land, and people are flocking from across the border to cross the river (as they once did) to be spiritually renewed before entering the land...  Nothing suspicious there...  Makes his beheading a little easier to understand, doesn't it?  He was a protester, and he was rallying people to get ready for something to happen.

Enter Jesus.  Another itinerant preacher roaming the countryside, attracting thousands to hear that they matter to God and that this age was coming to an end.  Sure, he healed people of all sorts of stuff, and gave ethical teaching, too.  But don't miss what is so obvious to the crowd: he was a highly visible peaceful protester rallying people to believe in God for life.

     Like Jesus being less than a peasant, I don't remember ever being taught much about Jesus the social activist, the peaceful, nonviolent protester.  While we celebrate our freedom of speech and our freedom to assemble, it's not particularly macho.  We like to focus on the Jesus depicted as the guy coming back to kick some serious butt.  Jesus as John Wayne would play him.

     But Jesus didn't play the role like a rough and tough cowboy.  He was a straight-talker when he needed to be, but often he used metaphor to force people to think for themselves.  He spoke like a millenarian at times, but this is not what compelled most people to follow then or now.  I believe his message of love and grace is what won the hearts and minds of thousands yesterday and still today.  Part of his message was being with the people whose cause needed the be championed - he lived his words.

As we celebrate the birth of Jesus this year, I wonder who we are in the audience.  Some of us are feeling very peasant-like - we are seeing that a system still exists that serves to keep people in their place.  We are comforted by Jesus, who is intimately familiar with our plight, our self-loathing, our hopelessness, and chooses to be there with us, conferring value on our lives and being hope.  Some of us are wealthy onlookers.  We don't want to see this side of Jesus.  We ignore this facet, and choose to focus on the kingly stuff - we identify more with royalty.  We find Jesus' message penetratingly uncomfortable.  All who claim to follow Jesus must take his approach seriously, and ask ourselves whose cause are we championing?  Because if we are not doing as Christ, can we really call ourselves little Christs?

111204 Jesus 101: Less Than Peasant

Who's birthday do we celebrate this season?

Some of you are groaning, Please don't go down the Jesus is the Reason for the Season path....

Others are recalling signs and Christmas cards calling for us to put Christ back in Christmas.

I know we know the answer to the question above is "Jesus".  But which Jesus are we celebrating?  Are we celebrating the Jesus we are simply accustomed to, without giving it any thought?  What if our picture is totally off?  I'm remembering the movie Guess Who's Coming to Dinner from 1967 where a young white woman surprises her parents when she introduces them to her African-American fiancé.  It was a brilliant movie, especially for its time.  You could feel the tension in the room as if it were your own (which, actually, it was/is).

While we are generally unaware of it, we have strong, deeply-seated notions about the Jesus we celebrate this season.  What we probably don't realize is just how much our vision of our Jesus has been shaped by church history 300 years after Jesus walked on this planet.  We know he was born into humble surroundings - we love the songs that remind us.  But just to be sure our vision resembles reality, let me share some interesting data with you.

During the Roman Empire, everything was designed to serve the Emperor.  Power flowed from his throne, money flowed to it.  Below is a quick glimpse of the make up of the Empire during the time of Jesus.  The list is in a socially ranked order, and percentage of income is also noted where known.

Ancient Upper Class

Ruler: 1 Person/Family; 25% of National Income

Governing Class: 1% of Population; 25% of National Income

Retainer Class (Bureaucrats, military): 5% of Population; 15% of National Income

Market Class: Considerable wealth

Priestly Class: Very few; 15% of Land

Ancient Lower Class: 30% of National Income?

Peasant Class: 80% of Population; 

Artisan Class: 5% of Population; 

Unclean and Degraded Class: Diseased, Disabled, Tax collectors, Lenders, Retailers

Expendable Class: 7% of Population

Do you remember what Jesus profession was before he began his ministry?  He was a carpenter, most likely, as that is what his father Joseph did for a living.  A carpenter was an artisan.  Where does artisan fall on the list?  While things may have changed favorably for artisans in the future, they ranked below an everyday peasant during that time period.  This is most likely because a high value was placed on agri-business, and those who worked for a living were just a notch above retailers, tax collectors and lenders.  Jesus was an artisan who didn't even get the social respect of a peasant.

To give you an idea of what sweet life was afforded for peasants, consider the following example from several centuries later from a 40-acre farm in Mecklenburg  northeastern Germany during 14-15 Centuries CE.  Their crops yielded a total of 10,200 pounds of grain.  Immediately, they stored 3,400 for seed, fed 2,800 to livestock, paid 2,700 for rent, and were left with 1,300 pounds for personal food.  This would provide 1,600 calories per person.  We know we need somewhere between 2,000-3,000 calories a day to live.  If you were a peasant, you didn't have enough to really live.  You were part of a machine to provide for those above you.  As one expert put it, peasants of all times and places are structured inferiors.  Recall that Jesus wasn't even a peasant.

If that's not bleak enough, let's consider mortality.  Currently in the United States, for every 1,000 babies delivered, all but 6.75 will live.  Less than 1% of babies die in childbirth.  Of those 99.325% who live, they can reasonably expect to live to celebrate their 77th birthday.

When Jesus lived, however, things were a bit different.  In Pre-Industrial societies, 33% of live births ended in death by age six.  60% of live births died by age 16.  75% of live births were dead by age 26.  90% of live births were gone by age 46.  And only 3% of live births would make it into their 60's.

When we think of Jesus, we think of strong leader.  Humble, sure, but we easily see a halo over his head in the cradle.  We  think of Jesus as a king, as part of the godhead, as eternally omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent.  In our current culture this type of person is pretty well dressed, in pretty good shape - commanding respect wherever they go.

If that's your image, it's probably wrong.

Conjure poverty in your mind.  What's do the poor wear?  How do they look?  How do they act?  Where do they stand in terms of public respect?  How are their rights compared to those literally above them who command much more resource than they can ever dare dream of grasping?  What's their life expectancy compared to those in the upper class?  How is their quality of life?  How does their life experience shape their message?  How welcome are the poor at the social gatherings of the rich?  Would we find ourselves playing the part of Spencer Tracy, struggling to welcome such an unexpected guest?

Which Jesus do you sing Happy Birthday to this Christmas?  As you answer the questions above, you are more likely to be addressing the right one, and less likely to be adoring a figment of your imagination.  

May you be deeply disturbed and eventually filled with hope as you investigate which Jesus you've invited to your home this Christmas.