Sunday, May 11, 2014

Heaven is for Real for Her

Streets of gold.  A mansion - or at least a room in a mansion.  Angels playing harps singing songs of worship to God.  These are some images we sometimes have of heaven.  What will it be like?  There is a song called "I Can Only Imagine" which speaks to the fact that it is impossible to know what the experience of being in heaven might be like.
But we do have a solid clue about some of the themes of heaven thanks to the witness of the Bible.  We have a lot of examples of God breaking into human history - the life and ministry of Jesus being one massive incarnation that has changed lives and kept millions talking up to now.  Perhaps if we consider what it meant for people when God broke into their lives on this side of heaven, we'll have an idea of what things to expect on the other side of life.

She woke up to another day of isolation surrounded by community.  She knew she was not welcome with her peers.  She knew she was lucky to have a roof over her head, though the rent was greater isolation – what kind of relationship did she have with the man-not-her-husband, anyway?  She waited until the heat of the day to fetch water – she’d be all alone at that time, but maybe that was better than feeling the cold shoulder had she gone with the other women earlier that morning.  She was surprised to find a stranger at the well.  More surprised when his accent betrayed his home – he was not a Samarian.  Soon his words indicated that he was a learned man.  Later, she would be the first to hear that he was the anointed one God was working through to redeem her people – and his people.  That day was a new beginning for her.  She was valued.  She was not rebuked.  She was encouraged.  She was welcomed.  She was empowered.  Heaven was for real that day, and it was for her.

She was awakened, once again, by her pain.  Sever cramping and ceaseless bleeding gave her another restless night.  Everybody knew her.  Everybody pitied her.  Everybody wondered what it meant that God had perhaps afflicted her with her years’ long condition.  Everybody also wondered what it meant that God had not heard her prayer for healing.  She heard he was coming into town – she could see the crowd coming her way.  Literally having nothing to lose, she put herself in his path.  As he passed, she reached out to touch the edge of his robe, remembering an old scripture that suggested there might be healing there.  She made contact, and everything stopped.  Her cramping.  Her bleeding.  Her despair.  And her healer.  He inquired about who touched him – how could he know?  How could he not know?  Fearing the worst, she identified herself and braced for a rebuke.  Instead, the one through whom God was so powerfully at work commended her for her faith and blessed her in front of everyone.  Heaven was for real that day, and it was for her.

She didn’t want to wake up that day.  She felt dirty and despised.  She was right.  She knew what she was doing was wrong, and yet she didn’t see a way out.  Not anymore.  She was beyond redemption.  Her adulterous choices were known in her community.  Publicly, everyone looked down on her.  Privately, men looked her way when they could afford their indiscretion.  And so she got up, put herself together, and made her way through the streets to a room where she would meet him – had she been with him before?  As she passionlessly went through the motions yet again, she was immediately sobered by men rushing in through the door.  Before she knew it she was being pushed through the streets in nothing but a sheet.  After a short walk, she found herself thrust to the feet of Jesus where he was teaching.  The religious leaders were using her as a pawn in a power struggle – why would they care to treat her with dignity and respect?  Jesus responded to the chess masters, “You who are sinless among you, cast the first stone.”  Slowly and surely, everyone left.  They were alone together.  But this man would not require her to perform as she had so many times before.  This man spoke forgiveness long before she could even begin to dream of asking for it.  He told her to change her life.  This was one of those near-death experiences that serves to wake a person up.  For her, it was an invitation to a new chapter.  She would have to live with her decisions and the public scorn – maybe for a very long time.  But she found out that day that God has not given up on her.  God had given her a new day through this exchange with Jesus.  Heaven was for real that day, and it was for her.


She didn’t wake up that day before dawn because she never fell asleep.  She, along with a few other women, arose with grief-stricken hearts and swollen eyes.  She made her way with the others to the tomb where her son had been laid.  With every step she retraced their life together.  From the miraculous kicks within her womb, to prophetic words at his dedication; from fear of losing him at a young age, to finding him in his Father’s house.  His miracles.  His teaching.  His lifestyle.  his ministry.  His compassion.  His boldness.  His tenderness.  His love.  His grace.  God working in him and through him from the beginning.  Where was God now?  What did her son’s death mean?  What did it mean about how God felt about him?  About her?  In a weary stupor she arrived at the tomb.  Immediately, she was awash in confusion.  Why is the stone rolled away?  Where is her son?  Angels spoke nonsensical words.  Filled with fear, she and the others headed back to the disciples, passing him along the way.  It was him!  God had not forgotten him.  Or her.  Death had lost its sting.  God gave beauty for ashes, strength for fear, gladness for mourning, peace for despair.  Heaven was for real that day, and it was for her.

May you be encouraged today as you read about what a taste of heaven on earth meant for the women described here.  And may you realize that heaven is for real for you, too.  Now, growing into eternity.

Sunday, May 4, 2014

Let's Get the Hell Out of Here!

Over the last couple of weeks, many people have become very familiar with the name Donald Sterling. The owner of the LA Clippers basketball team became even more infamous than before when his very public mistress released recordings of phone conversations that revealed strong racial prejudice on his part. Investigation into Sterling’s past indicates that this was hardly news to those who had done business with him. Some of his comments from other dealings indicate that he had such strong opinions about people of other skin tones that he refused to rent apartment space to them, for which he was sued. Sterling’s, of course, is just the latest high profile case where racial prejudice has surfaced.

Last week, I taught about the development of the idea of life after death. Remember that our Jewish ancestors in our faith didn’t start with a strong idea about heaven. The official position from the religious leadership was that when a person dies, that’s pretty much it. Only over time, due to the influence of surrounding thoughts on afterlife and their own challenges in history did “heaven” emerge. It was clear God was not going to bring justice in anybody’s present lifetime, so surely God would bring it in the next. And since it may be some time before that final reckoning takes place, the idea developed of an interim state in the afterlife where people would wait in death. Where they waited was determined by how they lived their life, and was directly related to how God would handle them on Judgment Day.

That’s when a whole new kind of fear began to develop: will I burn forever if I mess up in this life?

Fear of Eternal Torture. Some call it “turn or burn” preaching. The gist of the talk is this: repent (turn from) your sin to God (confess), ask God for forgiveness, and pledge your life to following Jesus, or when you die you will find yourself being locked out of heaven and cast down to the pit of hell, where you will spend all of eternity suffering for the sins you committed during your mortal life. Sorry!

In some circles, this is the primary message of the Christian faith communicated and heard. Get saved from hell – make it to heaven is the “Good News”. Millions of people have been so convinced that this message is accurate that they have confessed, turned, and pledged allegiance to God to ensure their everlasting destiny. But as more access to information and dialogue have become available, it is safe to say that many more millions have rejected this way of thought, and unwittingly have written Christianity off – and perhaps religion as a whole, too. Statistically, church traditions that are founded on a turn or burn platform have been declining, while the number of people who are not affiliating with any religion is on the rise. There is something about the turn or burn message that is not making sense to a lot of people. And yet the question and the issue loom – what if all the awful things heard about hell is true? If it is, it’s terrifying.

Hell is so terrifying that no other concern garners any attention when it is on the table. What other problem can possibly compare to spending the afterlife in the wrong place? This fear of eternal torture is pretty compelling, and is why it dominated and in many ways took over the Christian faith for so many for so long.
But just like racial prejudice is really an issue of fear based on ignorance that education can alleviate, so our fear of hell can be assuaged similarly. While I believe this issue is more emotional than intellectual, at least looking at hell from an academic perspective may clear the blockage so we can then deal with it emotionally. Like so many other things, knowing what you’re dealing with helps you deal with it. So, how in the hell did we get hell?

There are a few hells in the Bible, by the way. There’s the most frequently used hell stemming from the Greek root word Gehenna (Hebrew: Hinnom). Gehenna/Hinnom refers to a valley outside the walls of Jerusalem that became forever defiled during King Josiah’s reign (2 Kings 22-23), and was promptly turned into the city dump and burial place for the poorest of the poor. It was a place of weeping (mourners) and gnashing of teeth (dogs battling for food). All but a couple of the times Jesus is quoted as talking about hell used this one – a literal place all the people knew about. The other prominent word is the Hebrew Sheol (Greek: Hades). Both meant the place of the dead. We would simply call it the grave, perhaps, but the ancients viewed it as a place where a person’s “shade” went after death. In that place there is not consciousness about anything – the breath of God has been rescinded, leaving a person lifeless. During the few hundred years prior to Jesus’ birth, the concept of hell was born – nobody during the history of any of the stories in the Old Testament had a concept of hell. It developed out of need to figure out how God would mete out justice; since it wasn’t happening in the present, it must happen after death. By the time Jesus was doing his ministry, people believed that upon death, one’s soul was directed to one of four chambers. Two chambers for good and great people where you were comfortable or really comfortable, or two chambers for bad and worse people where you were hot, thirsty, and miserable or extremely miserable. Where you resided until God’s final judgment was determined by how you lived your life. There is an example of this in a parable Jesus told about a rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-25) – the impoverished Lazarus finds himself in a good place after death, while the rich jerk who wouldn’t care for him wound up in the more torturous accommodations. Centuries after Jesus’ ministry, popular ideas from Dante’s Inferno developed, and have stuck up until today. But are we to take their conjuring as insight from God or biased imagination? Are we to live in fear based on the way they saw the world in the first century?

Hermeneutics. This is a $20 word that refers to the process we undergo to understand and apply a biblical text to our contemporary context. Everybody has an approach, even if they can't describe it. I first want to understand the terms being used. Then I want to understand what the original context meant by those terms. I also want to know what biases may have existed when the scriptures were written, because I am certain that while God wants us to learn the principles that lead the whole world to shalom, I am very confident that God does not want us to adopt the biases of a world that is no longer relevant to our own. I study the Bible as a primary source for my understanding of God. But I do not believe that God dictated the words in the Bible. I believe the authors sought the help of the Spirit of God as they did their work, but I do not believe God overstepped by wiping out their worldview. This is a very good thing, by the way, because it gives us the opportunity to see over the full development of the entire Bible what ideas about God were resonating across time, and what concerns were clearly influenced by their specific historical context.

This may rub you the wrong way, especially if you’ve been accustomed to a view of the Bible as so God-breathed that every jot and tittle is from heaven above. To intentionally dismiss parts of the Bible as irrelevant may appear to be heretical. I understand that objection. But here’s the thing: what I am stating is simply the unspoken practice of the most ardent biblical literalists. Those who declare themselves purists in this regard are in denial of the countless ways they fail to take the Bible seriously, let alone literally. Let’s just be honest about this reality. I’m simply stating that I am doing it thoughtfully, prayerfully, and intentionally, so that I can glean out what appears to be the most God-breathed stuff while respectfully setting aside those parts that are, to me, clearly connected to their historical context. Yes, it appears to be a slippery slope. But we’re all on it together in various ways. The great Jewish theologians of old and Jesus and Paul were well aware of this approach and practiced it well – we are on good company, historically.

With that said, I am confident that the first century Christians had a heightened apocalyptic hope: they were sure God would redeem Israel tomorrow, if not tonight. When that happened, their enemies would experience the judgment they deserved while the faithful would enjoy God's favor, forever. I think we need to place our hope in God. But I think we need to wake up to the reality that our first century forebears were wrong. God was not going to enact final redemption in the way they thought. For me, that includes how they thought about punishment in the afterlife. I am not confident that eternal punishment for mortal sins makes sense in light of who Jesus was and how he taught and lived. I am not confident that a traditional understanding of the return or Christ, where He comes riding on the clouds to kick some butt is how it will play out. I think that's how the first century hoped it would go. But that seems incongruent with God's megatheme of redemption, especially as evidenced in the life of Jesus. I think there is something better that fits better with Jesus.

Quick aside: I know there are a great many authors who have put together deep thoughts about how this all works together theologically, where a loving God can somehow sign off on this. But I challenge the approach of those works, because they assume the reality of hell that has dominated Christian thought since Nicea, which I think is a mistake. If you want to maintain your belief in that kind of hell, that’s your choice, and I can suggest authors to help you learn the theological gymnastics required to accommodate such belief. C.S. Lewis is a good place to start.

I do not fear hell in the afterlife because I don’t think it exists the way we have popularly interpreted the depiction from the first century. I would not suggest to anyone that they approach relationship with God based on that kind of fear, either. That’s not a relationship – that’s a forced marriage. I don’t think that does God justice. There are too many other passages that speak of the overwhelming, reconciling love of God for all people and even all things for us to also maintain the notion that God will hate the majority of people enough perpetuate their suffering forever.

Which leads to another fear – not about our damnation, but about people we think should be damned. If hell doesn’t exist in the popular view, will justice ever be served?

Fear of Eternal Injustice. A number of years ago I asked the congregation to consider who they might meet in heaven. Naturally, their families topped the list, along with Mother Theresa and all the heroes of the Bible. Some even dared to suggest Gandhi. I suggested Hitler, Jeffrey Dahmer, and Osama bin Laden. People laughed. But I wasn’t kidding. And that troubled some folks. We want to know that justice will be served somehow, some way, someday, because it sure isn’t here and now. People seem to get off the hook a lot. If God is truly just, will everybody be welcomed into heaven? Is it possible to that there is a way in which God can deliver justice without our popular notion of hell, or the primitive concept from the past?
Lake of Fire. Beyond the trash dump Gehenna, other images about a place of fire and brimstone come from the Bible’s Book of Revelation. On the surface, it reads as if the author was on an acid trip that went south. Really weird images that don’t make much sense to us today. That’s because it was written at and for another time, when all of the imagery made complete sense. John’s audience (the author of Revelation) knew what he was saying, and knew that most of what he said had already taken place in their recent history. But one thing that stuck was the picture of a lake of fire where all things bad are thrown, where they remain forever. Ouch!

Of course, this recalls Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Remember? A new Terminator is sent from the future to kill off John Connor so he can’t father a revolution. The Governator saves the day by sacrificing himself as he throws the liquid metal shape-shifter into an enormous vat of molten steel. We all breathed a sigh of relief when this impossible foe finally stopped coming up for air in the vat. The enemy was destroyed, the evil gone. I think that’s the hope that is conveyed about life after death – none of the evil stuff goes forward. Hitler leaves his fascism behind, along with the gas chambers and hatred he embodied. All that was not of God in Hitler is done forever. Jeffrey Dahmer doesn’t get to take any of his murder weapons through the gate, now does he take any of the darkness that loomed within. All that was not of God is done forever. But is there anything if God in them that might remain?

Paul, the early Christian missionary, wrote a letter to a community in ancient Corinth that is in the Bible. In it he talks mentions that we will be held accountable for how we lived. What we do with our lives will be seen for what it’s worth – some of us will build with ideas and concepts straight from heaven – metaphorical gold and priceless gemstones. Others of us will build our lives on stuff that is not born of God or heaven, the stuff that hurts ourselves and others – straw and stubble. Paul says that when we die, it’s like we go through a refiner’s fire, and all that is not of God is stripped away. For some, the refining will reveal the beauty of God. For others, nothing will be left but, perhaps, the smallest fraction of their soul that was never allowed to develop. Paul says they both survive the refiner’s fire. Paul believed that what Christ did served to give us hope in the completeness of the grace and love of God. This fits. And it is good news.

If we’re honest with ourselves, we might admit that we really want retribution meted out on the people we think deserve it. But we generally view ourselves pretty favorably in comparison. If we really want equal justice across the board, it means we’ll experience the refiner’s fire like everybody else.

What do we want to happen in terms of justice, anyway? At the end of the day, I think we want the bad stuff to stop, and the victims of bad stuff to be restored. Jesus forgives the sin of an adulterous woman, a paralytic, and others before he was asked for it. And then he commended them to new life. Why should we think it would be any different when life is over? Justice prevails in the end, but a better justice than we can conjure. A true justice that restores even the most broken to new life.

Before I get to a final, perhaps most important fear related to hell, I am reminded of a conversation a pastor friend of mine told me about. A woman he had just met, who knew he was a pastor, decided to break the ice with him by asking, “So, am I going to hell?”
“Why would you ever think that?” my friend wondered.
“Well, that seems to be what I’ve been told. I don’t go to church, I do stuff I’m told ticks God off - why would God let me into heaven?”
He asked her, “Have you ever experienced a moment when you knew you were loved unconditionally?”
“Yes,” she replied.
“The Bible says that God is so full of love that God is love, and that love comes from God. The love you experienced originated from God. It is that God that you are trusting to do the right thing.”

He told me that she went silent and tears welled up in her eyes.

The One you are going to face loves you endlessly – more than you can possibly love yourself. It is this Good, Loving Creator who you will face. So, have hope!

There is still the need to talk about a final fear of hell.

Fear of Fueling Hell Here and Now. Another friend of mine visited Furaha Community Centre in the slums outside Nairobi, Kenya, where we feed orphans every school day. After walking through the slum and taking everything in – the filth, the hopelessness, the stench – he looked at another of my friends and said, “There is only one word to describe this situation: F@#%!” He is a pastor. We generally reserve such words for only the most rare, special occasions. Having been there, I think his use was appropriate! He went on to talk about how we as a human race created this, and it is up to us to do whatever we can to fix it. He is right. The quicker we catch on to the fact that we, collectively, have created the mess we find ourselves in, the quicker we just might be to repent. And the quicker we are to repent, the more open we may be to learn from Jesus how to live differently so that more of the life God has for us is experienced by more and more of God’s children.

The system that gave birth to Donald Sterling’s racism wasn’t created by him – we collectively allowed it, and in doing so have perpetuated racism’s hell.. Extreme poverty is a living hell that the human race created. Violence in all of its form – be it rape, racism, economic injustice, theft, murder, sexual exploitation, human trafficking, war – everything you can think of that does not fit into heaven – we as a human race created it. Maybe you didn’t wake up last Monday with an fiendish laugh accompanying your plans to ruin the world, but when we don’t think and act in the ways of God, the ways of Hebrew Shalom, the ways of Jesus’ Eternal Life present, the ways of Love, we perpetuate it. Knowing what exists and calling it out is good – acknowledgement always seems to be step one in the process of change. But simply calling it out won’t cut it, and may just end up turning us into a different version of the hateful sandwich board guy who lists out all the people who are going to be judged by God. If you want the hell on earth to stop, you need to do your part in not sowing into it. Watch your attitude, for starters. If you find yourself calling people out pretty easily, you are probably coming off as a judge. That’s why I asked you to pray for your daily dozen, that God would bless the people around you and that you would get an opportunity to love and serve them. Be Jesus where you are with the ones you’re with. That is a powerful step toward defeating the hell around us.

Of course, we are involved in a whole lot of stuff at CrossWalk to address some hell on earth where we can. When you support the church, you support everything we stand for. You stand for teaching people a new way to live and believe. You support the ways we reach out to the community. You support the recovery that happens in these walls for hundreds of people every day. You support providing safe shelter women and their children in Tijuana who have suffered abuse at the hands of men. You provide food for orphans in the slums of Nairobi, Kenya, and in so doing, you have giving them a literal future and the real potential for transforming their slum into a city.

In doing what you can individually, and together what we can do corporately, you are making a grand statement: “Let’s get the hell out of here!” What we sometimes use as an expression to leave an uncomfortable setting, we as Jesus followers hear it as a rally cry to take care of the business our species has created. Who better to do this than the ones who claim to follow the teachings of the one who did it more than any other before or since?

So, perhaps in addition to your morning declaration that you choose to walk with God, and in addition to praying that God blesses your daily dozen and moves you to opportunities for love and serve, maybe you should proclaim, “Let’s get the hell out of here!” Amen.

Sunday, April 27, 2014

Heaven is for Real, Part 1: Heaven Before Heaven…

Can you help me out real quick?  Could you tell me how to get to Stockton, CA?  How many of you would advise taking I-80 E to I-5 S?  How many would encourage taking I-680 S to I-580 E?  How many think the best route is I-80 E to CA 12 E to I-5 S?  There are other ways, too, but you might say these are the quickest routes, right?  But you would be wrong.

The assumption is that I am asking directions from Napa, CA to Stockton.  But what if I am traveling from Monterey Bay?  Or Lake Tahoe?  Or Yosemite?  Even then, you would want to know exactly where the journey begins before you can even think of giving a helpful answer.

Where we begin makes all the difference.  Even (or especially) when it comes to our faith.

To think that we have just come up with an idea of heaven all by ourselves is about as arrogant and uninformed as possible.  The truth is that even if we claim to have a biblical foundation for our concept of heaven, that still doesn’t do much for us, because the understanding of afterlife shifted through the centuries, based on some direct revelation from God, great dialogue around the campfire, views from the surrounding cultures, and new discoveries.  So, even as we may claim to have a biblical view of the world, we need to be aware that different phases of the Bible’s history reveal differing views of the world!  In this series, I intend to uncover what various biblical writers thought about death and what comes next, and what influenced their belief.  But before I share some of the insights from my digging, I need you to dig a bit…

What do you think heaven is like?  Who is there?  Who isn’t there?  What is there? What isn’t there?

Why does death exist?  Why do people die?  Why do people die “before their time”?  Jewish thought on death was that as mortal beings, we humans die.  When we die, the animating breath of God returns to God, and that’s it.  The goal for living is to live as long and successfully as possible, to leave behind a legacy of children, and to die with dignity (which included a proper burial.  So, for most, death is normal and natural – it just is.  But what about people whose lives have been cut sort?  Or who leave no offspring (especially male) to carry forth the family line?  Or upon death, no proper burial?  How does a person reconcile that?  In antiquity, it was believed that such things were signs of God’s judgment.  For the most part, our ancient Jewish ancestors in faith didn’t think of literal physical death as much as they did a more metaphorical death.  Being estranged from God, or from the land God has given them, or from cultic practices constituted an experiential death while remaining physically alive.

Other cultures, however, believed differently.  Recall that Judaism set themselves in part by their monotheism –they believed there to be only one God – while nearly every other culture around them were polytheistic.  Other cultures believed that the gods were responsible for the death of human beings, sometimes with little or no regard for whether or not a person’s life should end based on any action (or inaction) on the part of the human.  Humans were unimportant pawns to be tolerated and toyed with – nothing like the view from Israel which believed human beings to be God’s crowing achievement in creation because we are made in God’s likeness.

Ancient Jews believed that when a person died, they went to Sheol – the place of the dead, underneath the ground.  This dark and dusty place is where all dead people reside, with no semblance of their former lives, and no communication with God.  The inhabitants are mere shadows or shades of their former selves, and stay that way.  It was not viewed as a place of torment or judgment.  It was, as we might think, the grave.  Furthermore, there were two stories of persons who avoided death – Enoch and Elijah – both due to their righteousness.  They ascended to heaven, escaping Sheol.  Three resurrection stories also appear in the Old Testament, but they are more about healing and the power of God over death than a statement about things to come. 

Other cultures had a different view, however.  Hades – the Greek counterpart to Sheol – was an expansive underworld space where the dead were not fully dead yet, and needed to be sustained by their family lest they die completely.  When the dead were buried or entombed, provisions were made to enable family members to deliver food and drink through a shaft to keep them going.  Sometimes Jewish folks picked up on the rituals and integrated them into their way of believing.  It was common enough that it received condemnation from a prophet or two, and rules were set in place to separate men and women during times of honoring the dead as drunkenness was common, which had a way of leading to some inappropriate and unfortunate behavior…

All of this is interesting – to me, at least.  But there may be more important questions about heaven than simply what did the ancients think.

Why do we want heaven to exist?  Have you ever asked yourself that question?
My guess is your answer be be along the following lines:
  • We want to know that it’s not over when this life is over.
  • We want to be rewarded for being faithful.
  • We want other to receive their punishment: the Hitlers of the world, pedophiles, Dodger fans, etc.
  • We want peace.
  • We want to reunite with loved ones who have gone before us.
  • We want to know God fully.
  • We want to be able to express gratitude to God for everything.
Did I miss anything?

The reason I wonder why we want heaven is because our ancestors in the faith didn’t really formalize their thoughts on heaven until they had really been given a major kick in the gut.  Judaism was being Hellenized – giving the Greek treatment – which was anathema to the Jews.  They tried to revolt, and enjoyed a brief season of victory.  But then they were squashed once more.  They realized that they weren’t going to see God resurrect the nation of Israel in their lifetime, so they began hoping that God would save the faithful in the afterlife, and mete out justice toward the enemies of the Jews then and there as well.  The reality is that we don’t see much thought about heaven until approximately 150 years before Jesus was born.  Desperation gave way to heavenly hope.

So, I wonder, do we hope for heaven because of our sense of struggle, anguish and failure here and now? 
And, on the darker side of things, could our hopes – especially when it comes to our version of justice – give us motive to nurture hatred now toward perceived enemies of God?

Here’s what I mean.  If we are just sure that gay people and the people who stand up for gay rights in our nation are enemies of God, and we are waiting for them to get theirs when death comes, could it be that we might then justify ungraceful behavior toward them in the meantime?  Pick your own group here.  Maybe for you its drug dealers, or adulterers, or greedy corporate CEO’s, or politicians, or Muslims, or Dodger fans.  Some day, they’ll get theirs.  Until then, we’ll keep the fires burning.  We will justify our hatred with heaven itself, and draw strength from our future hope as well.  Coming to grips with our motive for wanting heaven is critical for our life experience now, and our hope to come.  Like knowing where you are starting from en route to Stockton is important, so is knowing your motive for wanting heaven after death.

Me and adulterers.  Time for telling an ugly story on myself.  I used to think that adulterous men should be castrated.  I know – pretty graceful.  But then I read a book on marriage that opened my eyes.  There are some men (and women) who are predators, looking to hook up to address whatever pain is going on beneath their surface.  For the most part, though, people cheat not because they are villains, but because they are hurting.  Once I realized this, my eyes changed.  Adultery is still awful stuff, causing pain that is long lasting and often devastating to a marriage.  But how do I condemn someone who is acting out of their pain?  I wonder, if we could see the pain of people that caused their weirdness, would it change everything? Would we be immediately more understanding and graceful?  I think so.


The reality, however, is that we will have as much to be forgiven as those we love to hate.  We just can’t see it.  We will all be shocked about how wrong we are, and how immense God really is.  So, until we find ourselves face to face with God, I say we are better off living justly, loving mercy, and waling humbly with God (Micah 6:8).  Looks a lot like Jesus to me, which is who I want to be.

Sunday, April 20, 2014

Resurrection. Really.

What does the resurrection of Jesus mean to you?

The resurrection of Christ doesn’t have just one thing to teach us – it is rich with many layers of meaning.  It served to validate for the earliest Jesus followers that the God who had been so clearly at work in Jesus’ life did not abandon him at the crucifixion and entombment.  This turned the ragtag Jesus followers from momentary cowardice to courage literally overnight.  And, of course, seeing a guy who was dead-now-resurrected can certainly give someone hope in the life to come, which it certainly did and still does.  There is a movie that just came out this week called Heaven is for Real – a story about a little boy who had a profound experience of life after death and lived to tell about it.  The kind of hopeful conversation it has generated tells us that people long to have confidence that there is life after life.  The resurrection certainly provides that.  Aside: I will be teaching a series beginning April 27 called Heaven is for Real?  We’ll cover all sorts of stuff, including how the concept of heaven developed, hell, metaphors of heaven, what others say, etc.

I have no doubt that the earliest followers of Jesus experienced his resurrection.  While there is mystery about exactly what happened, what did take place made such a difference that we are still talking about Jesus even though countless other “messiah” type communities from the first century died out quickly.  The biblical account of Jesus’ resurrection is robust.  Take a look for yourself at these encounters people had with Jesus after he was no longer in the tomb:
  • Jesus appears on numerous occasions to a range of people. (Mark 16:9-20)
  • Jesus’ mother, Mary, Mary Magdalene, and another woman, Salome encounter the risen Jesus. (Matthew 28:8-10; John 20:1-18)
  • Two disciples meet Jesus on their way to the village of Emmaus. (Luke 24:13-35)
  • Jesus appears to the disciples, where he ate with them. (Luke 24:36-49; John 20:19-23)
  • The disciple, Thomas, doubts the resurrection until he touches Jesus for himself (John 20:24-29)
  • The disciples see Jesus on a mountaintop in Galilee and were commissioned by him to spread the Good News. (Matthew 28-16-20)
  • The disciples, on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. (John 21:1-25)
  • 500+ people see Jesus weeks after Easter (1 Corinthians 15:1-11)
  • Jesus appears to the disciples for forty days, and then ascends into heaven. (Acts 1:1-11)
  • Jesus appears to Saul (who changed his name to Paul) as a blinding light (Acts 9:19)
  • Jesus appears to John while exiled on the island of Patmos (Revelation 1:1-20)
Having confidence that resurrection happened for Jesus is very important, even if you still have questions about what exactly it looked like (that will never be fully resolved on this side of life).  You’ve heard the expression “mind over matter”, well, it turns out that our mindset really does matter, even when it comes to milkshakes (watch Milkshake Experiment).  If our mindset impacts our body chemistry when it comes to something as trivial as a milkshake, how much more might our mindset impact our physiology on much more important things, like hearing, seeing, sensing God?

Paul’s life wasn’t radically changed because he had an intellectual appreciation for the historical reality of the resurrection of Christ.  His life was completely transformed because he experienced the resurrected Christ along with all of his education on theological stuff. 

In the book of acts, he regularly speaks about God leading him to do this or that.  A dynamic relationship of God is what made life fundamentally better and richer.  His obsession was to help people discover the same thing he had.  He couldn’t help himself.  This new way of being was a learned process that helped him be content with whatever I have.  I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything.  I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it id with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little.  For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength (Philippians 4:11-13, NLT).  Paul speaks here of an active experience – THROUGH Christ who GIVES him strength.  Resurrected Christ realized in his everyday experience.

Broaden this out a step, and what we’re really talking about is an active relationship with God.  What Christ does for us is put a face on it, a voice to it, teachings that help us get it, an example to follow. 

The way to experience the reality of the resurrection of Christ is to learn to be present to God at all times, in all circumstances.  This way of being is very natural, but doesn’t come naturally because we have been conditioned by the world we live in to adopt a different way which competes all the time for our allegiance.  This is a human condition issue that deafens our ears, blinds our eyes, hardens our hearts, clouds our minds, and incapacitates our hands and feet to be fully open to the abundant, overwhelming presence of God that we miss most of the time.

Getting back to the very natural-yet-feels-unnatural way of being that Jesus taught and embodied is not a quick process.  There are new behaviors to learn.  Old habits to break.  New muscles to train and develop.  Noise that takes time to silence.  And, while it is not easy, the beautiful truth is that we can invest our lifetime growing in it, loving it, and still have room for more discovery and depth.

For now, I have just a few simply concepts that I want to invite you to embrace.  I offer no money back guarantee, but I do believe these will help you realize the resurrection of Christ in your life instead of just holding it as an interesting intellectual pursuit.

I choose to walk with God today.  Jesus’ brother, James, told his audience, “Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world” (James 4:8, NLT).  Centuries ago, James knew that life is lived in a tension between being conformed to this world’s pattern or that of God.  Start your day by simply saying “I choose to walk with God today.”  Write it out and put it on your bathroom mirror, your car’s dashboard, your cell phone case, your popcorn popper.  The point is to keep this at the forefront of your attention, because if you don’t, you won’t.  You will begin to experience Christ resurrected more and more if you first choose to live in the reality of God’s active presence around you all the time.

Pray for your “Dozen”.  At any given time, you likely interact with somewhere between 8-15 people on a very regular basis.  For a season, those “dozen” share your breathing space.  Some are family members, some are coworkers, some are store clerks you’ve gotten to know, some are friends, some are fellow parents you know through your kids’ activities.  I am asking you to literally write down their names and pray for them every day, asking God to bless them with God’s love, and for the awareness to see an opportunity to love or serve them somehow.  That’s it.  No agenda to come to church or sign on the dotted line for Jesus for their afterlife insurance.  Just pray for them to be blessed by God, and to give you the awareness to love or serve them should the opportunity arise.  James said, “The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results” (James 5:16, NLT).  When you pray for them, it is impossible to know how the Spirit of God responds to it – but it is undoubtedly good.  And what it will do to you is incredible.  As the legendary pastor Oswald Chambers wrote, “It is not so true that "prayer changes things" as that prayer changes me and I change things. God has so constituted things that prayer on the basis of Redemption alters the way in which a man looks at things. Prayer is not a question of altering things externally, but of working wonders in a man’s disposition.”  Prayer will have an impact on your dozen, but the biggest impact will show up in you – openness to love and serve, empathy toward those around you, and an increasing capacity to hear God speak to you.  You will have an increased experience of Christ alive as you feel led to conversations, to serve, to help, to love, to forgive, to be thankful, to sow joy – the list is endless and endlessly beautiful.

Don’t be stupid.  In a recent book by Stanley Bing, the pen name of an executive with CBS on learning the essentials of an MBA without the classroom experience or tuition, he noted the importance of not being stupid.  Or at least not appearing to be stupid.  “Stupid people may in fact become successful, but people who appear stupid generally do not.”  He was then asked if he had ever done something really stupid.  He then recounted a time early in his career when his boss would occasionally have a cocktail party with his staff.  Bing learned that there was such a thing as “free scotch” at such events, and helped himself a little too much on one occasion.  Pretty well impaired, he went up to the boss, gave him a hug, and said, “This is a f#$%ing great party!”  At which his gracious boos simply said, it’s time for you to go home….  Bing spent an entire chapter just talking about not being stupid, which means we must have a tendency toward being somewhat stupid without being checked!  If you do not spend any time learning more about the way of Jesus, there is a good chance you are going to do something stupid while thinking you may be perfectly Christian about it.  There is no shortage of people who identify themselves as Christians who spend little or no time learning what that means who do lots of stupid things that don’t match up with Jesus at all.  Their language is totally unclassy.  Some are so greedy that they manage to consume almost all of their personal resources, leaving barely a scrap for the most desperate people in the world.  The danger of not continuing to learn about the depth of God – which is found in the Way of Jesus – is that we will simply become only slightly improved versions of ourselves instead of the transformed version God has in mind, where we become more and more our True Selves as Paul did, who put away childish things and opted instead for love.

All of this is related to realizing the resurrected Christ in a daily way.  Think of it like building a house with your life.  In one version, where you don’t really allow much room for God to inform you, you end up with a shack, more or less.  But in the other, you end up with a masterpiece.  Paul says is this way to the Corinthian church:  Anyone who builds on that foundation [of Christ] may use a variety of materials—gold, silver, jewels, wood, hay, or straw.  But on the judgment day, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done. The fire will show if a person’s work has any value.  If the work survives, that builder will receive a reward.  But if the work is burned up, the builder will suffer great loss. The builder will be saved, but like someone barely escaping through a wall of flames (1 Corinthians 3:12-15, NLT).  Go for the gold, silver and jewels!  Why wouldn’t you?

Sunday, April 13, 2014

Killing Jesus: Which Jesus? How Much of Jesus?

Rembrandt painted himself into his “The Raising of the Cross”.  Because Jesus’ crucifixion is so often seen as exclusively an act of substitutionary atonement, many people see themselves as responsible for killing Jesus because they are sinners, and Jesus died for them.  I wonder if there is another way to think about our role in killing Jesus, however, that might be less atonement-based and much more practical?

What does my wife’s favorite Disneyland ride, Splash Mountain, and Academy Award-winning movie Fletch Lives have in common?  They both feature a song written and performed in ignorant innocence in the late 1940’s from a Disney film that actually did win an Academy Award for best song – Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah.  But you cannot find Song of the South for sale at any Disney store or resort.  They pulled it out of the market because of it’s racist overtones.

Most likely, when people were creating the film, they had no intention of such a thing.  In their time, in their culture, they just told the story in a creative, entertaining way.  While we can applaud Disney for pulling the film from the market, it’s easy-ish to excuse an innocent foul of a previous generation.  How would we feel about Disney, however, if they were fully aware of the racist language and deliberately and strategically created the film the way they did to actually knowing they were making such racist statements?  We’d likely be less tolerant.

Disney didn’t do that with Song of the South.  But the Gospel writers may have done that with Jesus’ story.  What if their fingerprints impacted much more than their world?  What if it has significantly impacted ours?

The stories of Jesus’ life and teachings certainly were in circulation during and after his life – up until today!  But the written collection we most often use – the Bible – didn’t get compiled until at least 30 years after Jesus’ death.  There is debate regarding when, exactly, the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) were finally in print.  Probably the earliest date for Mark – the first biblical Gospel to come together – is the early 60’s CE.  Some place the date toward the end of the first century, with Matthew and Luke coming after it, and John some years later.  What we generally don’t appreciate from our vantage point is what was happening in Israel in the 60’s.  In short, the Jewish people had reached their boiling point.  As they had done in the past, they repeated – they rose up and let their voice be heard, eventually taking Jerusalem back into their control.  Rome responded.  They showed up with plenty of troops, surrounded the city, and waited.  The people inside the walls began to starve.  Some were released, only to be publicly slain while the Jews behind the city watched in terror as their loved ones were left to rot outside the walls.  Then, in 70 CE, the Roman Empire retook Jerusalem.  This time, however, they made sure the Jewish people wouldn’t recapture it – they completely destroyed the city and the people in it.  There was no Jerusalem to retake.

By the time the Gospels were written, the early church was increasingly non-Jewish.  By the end of the first century, there were hardly any Jewish Christians among their number.  Paul’s influence in beginning new faith communities was powerful among the Gentiles, while most Jewish followers were sticking with Judaism.  James, the brother of Jesus, resided in Jerusalem until he himself was killed.  He was highly respected by the Jewish authorities, as he was committed to honoring Jewish practices.  He was likely the most powerful figure in the early church until he died.  But once he was killed, and as Roman intolerance of Judaism grew, the church very naturally distanced itself from the mother ship.  Jewish authorities had thrown the Christians under the bus in myriad ways since Jesus walked the earth.  As tensions grew between Rome and Jewish people, the Christians – with little allegiance to Jerusalem – returned the favor.  As the story of Jesus’ life was put together in what we call the Gospels, a clear bias against Jews emerged.  The Christians did not want to be associated with Judaism because they were offended by the persecution they received, and because Rome identified them as an enemy to eliminate.  Want to stay alive?  Distance yourself from the enemy!

The Bible has a mystique about it.  Many Christians have become comfortable with the idea that the Bible is the inspired Word of God.  The idea is this: God may not have put pen to paper, literally, but the Spirit’s work was so strong that when the sacred text is read, it should be received as God’s direct word.  In short, then, even though we may say that human beings were the ones holding the pen on the parchment, practically speaking, God wrote the Bible.  This, however, is not how Jesus would have thought about the Hebrew scriptures.  Our insistence on a soft dictation from God is a new idea that would not be affirmed by the very founders of our faith.  The authors of the 66 books making up our Bible were more interested in theology than history.  It’s not that they cared nothing for historical accuracy – it’s just that they believed that theological clarity was primary.  They were comfortable shaping the story’s details to suit their theological goals – which was normal for that time in history, and in some instances still is today.  This is extremely difficult for modern readers to understand, appreciate, and embrace.  Yet, shockingly, this is not new information.  Even scholars from conservative traditions know that the Bible reflects the bias of the author – their worldview – and shapes the details of the story they tell accordingly.  This does not mean that the Bible is now to be rendered unreliable since the historical accuracy needs to be questioned.  Actually, the Bible gains strength, credibility, and authority when we allow it to speak from it’s own time instead of treating it with kid gloves because we might offend God. 

Note: what follows may flip you out, especially if you grew up in a church that essentially teaches the dictation idea (expressed in various ways).  As you experience cognitive dissonance, I ask you: is it because of your bias to read the Bible as God’s Word or because those who study these things way more than we do(who love and follow God via the teachings of Jesus) are wrong?

The stories about Jesus’ last day when he went through the process that led him to crucifixion is an excellent case study on this theology-trumps-history phenomenon.  Remember that Pilate – who was in charge of the region we know as Israel – was infamous for not caring about the indigenous people of the land he governed.  He crucified those he deemed guilty of insurrection without much thought at all, let alone a trial.  From a purely historical perspective, it would be extremely unlikely that Pilate gave a hoot about Jesus, or that he gave any time or consideration to Jesus at all.  It is also questionable whether or not the Jewish leadership would have been so lax in their own process – which they treated with great respect – let alone some of the words that came out of their mouths during the trial.  Read the texts for yourselves, of course, but ask yourself if some of the details are reasonable.  What is incredibly likely is that an anti-Judaism bias is appearing in the text, on purpose, because the early Christians were distancing themselves from their Jewish roots because of a lack of association with Judaism among non-Jewish Christians, Roman opposition to Jews, and no practical reason to remain connected to Judaism.

So what?  If the early authors wanted to distance themselves from the Jewish mother ship, why did it matter, and why does it matter now?  Or, if what we read is historical fact, why does it matter now?

What may have begun as common sense for a new faith movement turned into something much worse over time as people read and reread the Gospels.  Especially if they were not wondering about the historical context that shaped the authors’ perspective.  What began as anti-Judaism easily and quickly turned to anti-Semitism (a relatively new term that singles out the race from the religion).  Centuries later, Jewish people would be beaten during services that remembered Jesus’ torture and death.  In 1096, as part of what became the First Crusade, Jewish people by the thousands were killed in the Rhineland Massacre.  When the Black Plague hit the world, one popular theory held that Jewish people poisoned the wells.  In the colony called New Amsterdam, Governor Peter Stuyvesant wrote to the Amsterdam Chamber of the Dutch West India Company in 1654 that he hoped that "the deceitful race, — such hateful enemies and blasphemers of the name of Christ, — be not allowed to further infect and trouble this new colony.“  He referred to Jews as a "repugnant race" and "usurers", and was concerned that "Jewish settlers should not be granted the same liberties enjoyed by Jews in Holland, lest members of other persecuted minority groups, such as Roman Catholics, be attracted to the colony.“  He was Christian, from the Dutch Reformed tradition.  And, of course, you’ve probably heard about the holocaust.  Today, roughly 15% of “more educated” people in the United States hold Anti-Semitic views, while approximately 30% hold such views among those less educated.  Ignorance kills, and would have killed Jesus…

Sometimes what seems like a minor academic issue can lead even to genocide.

Could there be aspects of our faith that actually lead you to destructive biases?  Could we be holding onto some stuff – out of ignorance – that is not at all what Jesus would affirm?  The only way you can know is to pursue understanding with the help of others – academics as well as peers.

Wondering about the story of Jesus and all that was happening beneath the surface is more than intellectual fun.  This venture really is about coming to grips with what we believe at our core and why.  Only through asking and answering the questions posed here (and many more) can we get to a place where we can shape our faith more or less free from the biases of our past.  A faith that is truly reasonable, holds up to common sense and academic scrutiny, and yet still has plenty of room for the mystery of God.  It is a faith that affirms what James believed about his brother Jesus, as well as the out-of-the-box insights from Paul, who didn’t know Jesus – only the resurrected Christ.  It is a faith that follows the ethic of Jesus that seeks to save the whole world, respecting the theological heritage which informed him (Judaism!), yet having plenty of room for the mystery of the Spirit of God to work wonders in our midst.  This matters to the world we are trying to restore.  It matters to your very individual life.

James Brown put “funk” on the musical map.  Recently, my kids’ high school jazz band were competing in a Jazz Festival in Reno, NV.  One of the songs they played was in the “funk” genre.  When one of the professional musicians debriefed their performance with them, he asked them who they were listening to.  He pushed them to listen to artists who helped shape the genre of the music they play.  In their case, they needed to listen to James Brown in order to play funk well.  He went on to say that if we don’t understand the root, we’ll come off as fake, imposters, posers playing the notes but lacking soul.


When we simply try to put on Jesus without really giving our faith serious thought, we come off like posers.  People listening and watching hear the notes, but something is missing.  If we want to be faithful to the teachings of Jesus, we have to know Jesus, which requires time like any other relationship.  And if we should dare follow him as redemptive agents in the world, we must get out “funk” on, less we be written off as uninformed posers.  Amen.

Sunday, April 6, 2014

Killing Jesus: Whodunnit? Whoduzzit?

Every American who was old enough to be aware of the world around them can tell you where they were when the World Trade Center Towers, the Pentagon, and the White House (almost) were attacked on September 11, 2001.  The same can be said of when John F. Kennedy was assassinated.  When Pearl Harbor was attacked.  When Abraham Lincoln was assassinated.  These are huge stories that have shaped our national history and and are stuck in our collective memory.  Each of these stories have generated a ton of historical commentary.  Books and movies have been born out of our desire to understand what took place.  Conspiracy theories abound for each.

But no event has created more dialogue around the world than the death of Jesus of Nazareth.  Why did he die?  Who was responsible for his death?  Who cares?

This first part of a two part series will give us the basic, plain reading of the text to help us identify and consider who was responsible for Jesus’ death.  As you read, keep in mind where we’re headed – if this story is simply an historical account, maybe we’ve missed something.  So, let’s get started…

Pilate Killed Jesus?  If you hailed from Jesus’ home region – Judea – and had lived very long at all, you would have had a keen awareness of how the Roman authorities treat self-proclaimed messiahs.  in short, as soon as a person made such a claim, his days were numbered.  Pilate couldn’t have cared less about the people of Judea – a backwater within a backwater part of the world he loathed.  He didn’t want to rule there, and he let his genuine anti-Semitism be heard loud and clear.  When we who have grown up with the Bible generally think about the scene where Jesus died on the cross on the hill called Golgotha, we picture a hill that maybe had a rock formation that sort of looked like a skull, and the paintings give us three crosses upon it, because that’s apparently how the Gospels depict it.  When I visited Israel years ago, one of the popular tourist stops is a spot that has a tomb like the one Jesus used, and a hill that sure seems like Golgotha.  But the thing the tourists forget quickly is that the company who created the space in now way suggests that this was the actual setting.  The tomb is like the tomb of Jesus.  The hill may have been like Golgotha.  But they say out loud and in print that this was not the spot.  But tourists forget such things.  The reality?  Pilate was infamous for his use of crucifixion – he was eventually recalled from Jerusalem to answer for his brutality.  While we think of three crosses on that hill, those may have simply been the three that day - or even hour – that were put propped up.  Three crosses among hundreds that were also there, holding up people barely alive to almost completely decomposed.  The place was called Golgotha not because the rock formations resembled a skull, but because there were likely hundreds and hundreds of actual skulls laying around from the hundreds and hundreds of people died there.  All of this done at the hand of Pilate to send a clear message to a zealous people with apocalyptic fever: try to rise up against Rome, and this will be your fate.  For the vast majority of people who heard the news of Jesus’ death, their immediate guess would be that Pilate made the call without giving it a second thought.  Jesus was simply the latest zealot to come along to cause trouble.  Pilate is responsible.

The Jews Killed Jesus?  If you were Jewish and grew up anywhere in Israel (except Jerusalem) between 150 BCE and 40 CE, you would have likely had a strong opinion of the people at the top of the Jewish food chain.  And it would not be a favorable one.  The Jewish leaders who ran the work of the Temple were aristocratic Jews.  They were given power and prestige from the Roman authorities.  So long as they kept the Jewish people from getting out of control, Rome was happy.  They had audience with Roman officials, and they had the power of Rome on their side if needed to keep peace.  As often happens to this day, they got used to creature comforts, which only led to an increased appetite for luxury.  A residence for one of these priests was recently unearthed within Jerusalem’s city walls.  It was roughly 2,000 square feet – a nice sized home by contemporary measure, and a palace in the time of Jesus.  They were known for wearing Gucci robes and for driving Italian sports-coup camels.  They lived large.  How did they afford such a lavish lifestyle?  By demanding higher and higher Temple taxes from the Jews who depended on them to help them stay in the good graces of God.  The people figured out what was going on, and were hardly pleased.  It was bad enough that Rome came down hard on them.  But then to have the people abuse you who are supposed to represent you before God – as well as your oppressor – well, that was too much.  So, when people heard about some of Jesus’ antics – his blatant disregard for the Jewish authorities, disrupting the money changer tables outside the Temple, and making a mockery of them in public – it would have been reasonable for them to assume that while Pilate signed the edict condemning Jesus to death, the High Priest gave him the pen.  The Jews are responsible.

Judas Killed Jesus?  But, of course, how could the Roman or Jewish authorities find the slippery Jesus – under cover of night, no less! – without help from the inside?  Judas Iscariot – a zealot who longed to see Rome get their due along with the High Priest – disappointed in the lack of zeal (by his definition) in Jesus, decided to at least profit before he put his hope in the next messiah to emerge.  So, he met with the Temple folks and, for a handsome sum, decided to sell Jesus out.  So, even though Pilate signed the edict with the pen given him by the High Priest, if it were not for Judas, there would be no Jesus to indict.  Judas, even if indirectly, killed Jesus.

Jesus Killed Jesus?  On the other hand, it sure seemed like Jesus knew things were going to end up the way they did.  He had in mind the timing of the whole thing, it appears, and even moved in ways to insure that he did not land in court before it was time.  He knew the very real risk of publicly challenging Rome with the titles he chose, and his anger toward the Jewish leaders was as obvious as could be.  Nobody would call it suicidal, but he certainly knew what he was headed toward – the disciples tried to warn him, even.  Jesus is responsible for his own death.

God Killed Jesus?  Jesus, however, was called by others the Son of God.  Even secular historians note that Jesus was a well known miracle worker in his day – acts that displayed God’s work in and through him.  Jesus himself spoke of doing his Father’s will, even pleading for a change of heart the very night he was arrested.  The first century Christians began viewing the whole thing as God’s will from the very beginning – Jesus Christ came to die for sinners, for redemption, to do forevermore what the Temple only attempted to do – a final substitutionary sacrifice for all time.  Sure, Pilate, the High Priest, Judas, and obviously Jesus were key players, but this was all orchestrated by God from the beginning of time.  If God is in control of anything, then you can be sure God controlled this.  God sent Jesus to die.  God killed Jesus.

Is this still relevant today?  You bet it is.  The conversation still continues because the life and death of Jesus tells a story that is still unfolding.  This is a relevant story because it gives us a picture of ourselves, about human nature.  If you are human, there is good news and bad news here…

Bad News.  Jesus got killed because he challenged everyone and everything, even if gracefully.  He challenged the political system, the religious system, and the personal opinions about each to an individual.  And he still does.  Jesus was not a Republican or a Democratic or a Libertarian or Green Party or a Socialist or a Communist or whatever other system suits your fancy.  But be sure – if you listened to him long enough then, or pay attention to him long enough now, you will be offended by him.  Jesus’ message inherently challenges our way of thinking about everything.  Including, of course your political preferences.  And, of course, your theology and corresponding praxis.  As Donald Miller noted in one of his books, there’s about a million-to-one chance we’ve got things figured out right about God.  I think we have a better shot at a perfect March Madness bracket than figuring God out – maybe Buffett could create some sort of lottery for that?  All I’m saying is that holding on too tightly to our current biblical interpretation and holy cows of various kinds will likely find us frustrated by Jesus.  It’s not that we shouldn’t have political or theological ideas.  It’s just that we must be aware of our Judas tendencies.  If we hold to the traditional rendering of Judas, we discover the very bad news that we have the capacity to kill Jesus out of our lack of following him.  We do it with our lips, just like Judas.  Any Facebook posts you’d like to retract, for instance?  We do it with our wallets, just like Judas – enjoying more than we should for ourselves to the chagrin of those who need help around us.  We do it with our hands and feet, just like Judas.  His life choices led others to crucify Jesus rather than embrace him with love.  Why is it that so many people caricaturize Christians as jerks?  Could it be that we’ve collectively earned the reputation, and not because of religious persecution?  More bad news: Jesus had a tendency to go places his disciples did not want to go.  They were uncomfortable following Jesus.  Comfort didn’t seem to be a pressing need for Jesus, and that has not changed.  And, of course, the bigger bad news may be about God: God is up to something epic in the world today which is inherently very good, but will be experienced as very bad so long as we have chosen some lesser God to follow – money, comfort, popularity, prestige – the list is endless.  So long as THE God is not your God, this is all bad news.

Good News.  If, however, you choose God progressively throughout your life, there is very good news to be had.  God is bigger than our politics, and offers so much more hope than campaign promises or commentator critique.  If you are sick and tired of politics, here’s good news: so is God.  In following God you rise above party lines to a higher calling that has no need for character assassination and still values people and fairness.  If you choose God fully, you realize that God is bigger than one doctrine and cannot ever be fully figured out by humanity.  God’s ways are higher and better.  There is no room for us to judge others into religious submission because God’s love is big enough to woo people to wholeness.  If you seek God progressively you who see Judas in the mirror even have good news, for God is big enough to forgive even those who blatantly choose to bring God down.  Peter and Judas both struggled with tremendous guilt that night.  One chose to keep walking away from a God who loved him, while the other trusted in the grace he had heard and seen and was restored.  There’s good news for you who choose to follow Jesus, too.  His ways may be tough, taking you into regions you might otherwise avoid, but the result is oh so good.  Following Jesus will lead you to seeing people’s lives changed from worse to better.  You will get a front row seat to view redemption before your eyes.  Wounds healed.  Freedom from the old chains now loosened.  Eyes that see again.  Ears that are hearing the beautiful sounds of life that once were deaf.  The list is endless.  And there is good news, of course, placing our trust – progressively – in God.  The One who is the very source of our being and breath does work in mysterious ways, but they are working toward something extraordinarily wonderful and beautiful.  We can trust it.

So, who killed Jesus?  Well, maybe that’s not the most important question.  Maybe the better question is, how are we letting Jesus live today?


Next week: What do we do with serious academic challenges to the historical accuracy of the last days of Jesus’ life?  Jesus still gets crucified, but what’s happening beneath the surface that might help us see the Jesus movement with greater clarity and may even challenge us to think differently about our heritage?

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Just Beans

I need your help.  A school of orphans in the slums of Nairobi, Kenya won't eat - and won't have a future - unless somebody helps.  I've met them and their leaders.  I've been helping them for years.  I'm asking for your help now.  Below is my story and theirs, and hopefully yours, too.

In 2008, in preparation for my first trip to the slum of Huruma outside Nairobi, Kenya, I challenged myself to radically alter my diet for the period between Ash Wednesday and Easter known as Lent.  I wanted to get a literal taste of what extreme poverty was like for the kids I would soon visit at Furaha Community Center, the school for orphans that needed help funding a lunch program - the only meal most of these kids eat on school days.  So, every day, for 48 days straight, I limited myself to eating just one can of beans a day.  That's it.  Since I live near Costco, I just bought a case of Garbanzo and a case of Black beans, and I was all set.

The first few weeks went pretty smoothly.  I lost about 30 pounds.  But the last two weeks or so was shocking.  I no longer had much body fat to burn.  I was weak.  I was dizzy when I stood up very fast.  My thinking got cloudy.  I talked more slowly.  I got my taste - just a nibble, really - of what extreme poverty is like, and it was nauseating.

When I visited Furaha Community Center, a school assembly was there to welcome our team.  Roughly 500 orphans packed into a small enclosure in the middle of the slum.  They were incredibly well behaved - hardly a peep out of them.  How did the teachers foster such good manners?  They didn't.  The reason the kids were quiet was because they literally didn't have the energy to be anything else.  They were too hungry to act like kids.

Hunger made it nearly impossible to learn effectively.  Many children would leave the school at lunch break and not return.  They didn't get lunch at home, of course, and they were too tired to come back.  Their bodies and brains weren't developing at the right pace, and it showed in every way - the color of their eyes, the look and feel of their skin and hair, and their academic scores.

I returned from my trip and shared what I discovered with my congregation in Napa, CA: CrossWalk Community Church.  I am proud to tell you that they rose to the occasion.  We immediately began funding a school lunch program for those 500 kids!

In 2012 I returned to Furaha.  An assembly was held to welcome us - over 500 children in the same enclosure in the middle of the slum.  But there was an enormous difference.  Eyes were white.  Skin was soft and beautiful.  Hair was full.  And there was NOISE!  Lots of joyful sounds of kids laughing and chatting and singing and cheering - as it should be - because they had the calories to be kids.  Academic scores rose to some of the highest in all of Kenya because their brains could focus on their studies.

The beans and rice we provide are not simply a way to avoid starvation.  Beans and rice provide hope.  Hope for health.  Hope for an education that sticks.  Hope to one day work to transform the slum into a city.  It's not just about beans.  Its about hope and real transformation.

This Lent, I am asking for help.  One of my meals each day is rice and beans similar to what our orphans eat.  But if I don't raise money for that daily meal, I don't eat.  $10 a day feeds me, and literally feeds them.  If I don't eat, it means they might not, either.  All proceeds go toward feeding the kids - none of it actually goes to my food budget!

Can you spare $10?  Or $20?  Or $50?  $100?  $500?  When I visit them this June, I will tell them of your generosity!

Please contribute by clicking here, and selecting Africa/Nairobi along with your other information.  It's tax deductible since it flows through my church.  Or you can send a check to the address below with a memo to Africa/Nairobi.  100% goes to the feeding program.  #Fastforfuraha

Thank you for your support!

CrossWalk Community Church
2590 First St.
Napa, CA 94558
(707) 226-1812

Sunday, March 9, 2014

How To Be Rich: Side Effects

Rich people live in denial.  They won’t admit they’re rich.  No matter how much you have, there’s always someone who has more.  But if you earn $37,000 a year, you are in the top 4% of wage earners in the world.  If you earn $48,000, you are in the top 1% of wage earners in the world.  Most of us are rich.  And one of the dangers of being rich is discontentment.  The more you have, the more you want.  Wealth has side effects.  If you’re rich, you’re at risk.  How do we avoid the pitfalls of wealth?

Watch the video before thinking about the questions.

Stuff to think about…

  1. How do you define “rich”?  How much money does someone have to make in order to be considered wealthy?
  2. When it comes to money and finances, what are your hopes, dreams, and goals?
  3. In the video, Andy asked the question, “How much money would you need to secure you future against all imaginable eventualities?”  What went through your mind?
  4. Which if these statements creates more anxiety in you: “There is no God” or “There is no money”?  Why?
  5. Read 1 Timothy 6:17 together as a group.  How does this passage challenge your assumptions about wealth?
  6. Why do you think that Paul commands those who are rich not to be arrogant?
  7. Wealth and God will always be in competition for your heart.  How can you prevent your heart from migrating from God?

Sunday, March 2, 2014

How To Be Rich: Congratulations


Watch the full video of session one of How To be Rich here.

How To Be Rich Series Bible Verses
Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share.
 – 1 Timothy 6:17–18
Stuff to think about…

1.     When Andy Stanley says “if you make $48,000 or more a year, you are in the top 1 percent of wage earners in the world,” how does that make you feel?  Do you agree or disagree?  Why?
2.     Why do people confuse being rich with feeling rich?
3.     Describe a time when you noticed that the more that you had, the more you wanted.  When you feed and appetite, what happens to it?  Why?
4.     In the video, Andy says “wealth can become a substitute for God.”  Do you believe that your hope could migrate from dependency on God to dependency on money?  Why or why not?
5.     Read 1 Timothy 6:17-19.  Do you tend to think of Christians and the church as being generous?  Why or why not?
6.     How could being generous to others change people’s perceptions of Christians and the church?
7.     Why do we hesitate to give to others even though we have more than we need?
8.     What can you do this week to be rich toward others?

Does our generosity make a difference? Does it do any good? God didn’t pour out his love for us because it would “work.” Look at us. It still hasn’t completely worked. We’re still a mess.


We aren’t doing Be Rich because it will “work.” We aren’t doing it expecting anything in return. We’re doing it because in some small way it reflects what God did for us. So let’s Be Rich. Let’s do more and give more than ever before.

Sunday, February 23, 2014

Grace: Both End & Means

In the last video segment from the Animate: Bible series, we heard from Jay Bakker.  His experience growing up as a high profile preacher’s kid in a very conservative tradition was challenging, to say the least.  But what captured his heart and life, what was strong enough to compensate for all the baggage of his upbringing, was grace.  Grace is inherently compelling, provocative, and certainly counter-intuitive and counter-cultural.  And yet it is what captivated Jay and countless others to become fully devoted followers of Jesus in their pursuit of God.

After Jesus turned legalistic thinking on its head (Matthew 5:21-27), he then pushed his audience off a cliff with outrageous statements regarding how to deal with those who inflict harm in various ways (Matthew 5:38-48):
38 “You have heard the law that says the punishment must match the injury: ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’ 39 But I say, do not resist an evil person! If someone slaps you on the right cheek, offer the other cheek also. 40 If you are sued in court and your shirt is taken from you, give your coat, too. 41 If a soldier demands that you carry his gear for a mile, carry it two miles. 42 Give to those who ask, and don’t turn away from those who want to borrow. 
43 “You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. 44 But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! 45 In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. 46 If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. 47 If you are kind only to your friends,[e] how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that. 48 But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.
After reading what Jesus said, it is obvious that Jesus never spent recess on a playground, because his ideas certainly did not come from there.  I remember goofing off before gym class in Middle School, and a good friend and I were shadow boxing.  My shadow got a little too close, however, and I accidentally popped him square in the nose.  Apparently, my friend Stephen was unfamiliar with Jesus’ words, because he began chasing me all over the gym to pay me back.  I managed to avoid retribution for a full hour.  I began to think that the truth started to sink: it was an accident – why would I want to hit my good friend?  So, at the end of class, we were all getting ready to leave class.  He calmly walked over to me, and just as I was starting to apologize once again, he decked me.  “We’re even,” he said.  And that was that. 

My incident with Stephen happens in myriad forms all the time, everywhere.  From snarky sparring with friends to biting jabs between spouses; total strangers pushing each others’ buttons, escalating conflict to the point of homicide over movie popcorn or loud music; nations launching all out assaults on others nations – or even their own citizens – causing casualties by the thousands.  I was behind a truck the other day with this bumper sticker: 



Maybe Jesus needed to read that bumper sticker before he offered his advice.  Could it be that Jesus was wrong?  Probably not.

In truth, war didn’t end slavery, fascism, Nazism, or communism.  These centers of conflict, and the violence they perpetuated ended with treaties that were signed by leaders representing opposing sides.  Essentially, when enough blood was shed, when enough children were orphaned, when enough sons and daughters perished, when one side finally cried “Uncle”, the game was over and an agreement was reached.  To recap: there was conflict, both sides decided to continually up the ante, lots of violence ensued, and then papers were signed.  Why didn’t people just move from conflict straight to treaty?  Why not save millions of lives and the billions of dollars weaponry costs?  Because that’s not how the playground works.  The playground demands justice.  And until justice is served, those on the playground will not be satisfied.  If Stephen had hit me twice instead of just once, maybe I would have hit him back to make it even, which he may have interpreted as unjust, which of course would have led to Samurai swords and flame throwers…

Jesus was fully aware of the rules of the playground.  His instruction, however, was not for children who wanted to remain childlike.  The wisdom he shared was for people who dreamed of a world where the ways of God permeated so much that there would be peace.  Jesus wasn’t telling uninterested passersby something they had no time for.  He was offering the path to the life we all really want to those who would be able to hear it, and to the courageous few who could actually act on it.

Jesus was saying, in effect, that when evil is done to us, stop it by ending the cycle of violence by choosing not to retaliate.  When someone slaps you in the face – literally or metaphorically – turn the other cheek.  To turn the other cheek means, of course, that you are squaring yourself up to the person who just hit you, looking them in the eye as an equal, and by not swinging back, letting them know you refuse to play by the rules of the playground.  When the law calls for you to give your shirt, give your coat, too.  When you’re required to carry a load one mile, go two.  When asked for help, give it.  Each of these statements by Jesus challenged the normal way of being for people in antiquity, and now as well.

Then Jesus puts the final nail in the coffin with his remark on enemies: love them instead of hating them.  Love the terrorist, the rapist, the murderer, the pedophile, drug dealer, the addict, the pimp, the prostitute, the gang-banger, the dictator, the greedy CEO, the power-driven politician, the adulterer pastor, the jerk who cuts you off in traffic, the Dodger fan, etc.  This was way more than his audience ever expected – then and now.  Why would he say such a thing?  Because it actually works.  The childish, playground rules approach is hurtful, harmful, inefficient, and ends in the humble place Jesus is saying we should begin.  But we must have ears to hear this.  We must have open minds to accept this.  And we must have soft hearts to live this.

I guess Jesus did know a thing or two about this nonviolent approach to handling conflict.  Of course, he wasn’t alone.  In our memory, Martin Luther King, Jr., led the Civil Rights movement with the condition that his followers would be nonviolent even when treated with gross inhumanity. More recently, an Amish community chose to react with radical hospitality toward the family of a gunman who shot and killed their children who were attending school.  Any time I hear of such an act of forgiveness, I hear myself saying “WOW!”  This is simply because I find it to be a rare occurrence, and utterly Jesus and exceptionally beautiful and inherently inspiring.

Donald Hagner, in his volume on Matthew in Word Biblical Commentary notes:
… the true disciple does more than is expected. He or she is free from society’s low standards of expectation, being subject only to the will of the Father. The conduct of the disciple is filled with surprise for those who experience it. This element of surprise relates closely to and reflects the grace that is central to the gospel. It is the unworthy who have experienced the good things of the kingdom; and as they have experienced the surprise of unexpected grace, so they act in a similar manner toward the undeserving among them… Kingdom ethics demands not mechanical compliance to rules but a lifestyle governed by the free grace of God.
We are not called to be doormats.  We are called to great strength.  To rise after being beaten and look into the eyes of our assailant and say “no more” takes the indwelling power of God – at least for me.  But this way of Jesus is really the way of God that leads to the deep shalom-peace-wholeness-holiness-harmony every person longs for.  If we want to see God do that, we need to do what Jesus calls us to do, and, in fact, do what Jesus did.  Remember, Jesus follower, that Jesus was the one this passage and early hymn was written about (Philippians 2:1-11):
Is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ? Any comfort from his love? Any fellowship together in the Spirit? Are your hearts tender and compassionate? Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another, and working together with one mind and purpose. 
Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.
You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.
Though he was God,
he did not think of equality with God
as something to cling to.
Instead, he gave up his divine privileges;
he took the humble position of a slave
and was born as a human being.
When he appeared in human form,
he humbled himself in obedience to God
and died a criminal’s death on a cross.
Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor
and gave him the name above all other names,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
 Grace is what brought us into and sustains us in relationship with God.  Grace is what we will find at the end of our days.  Grace is the means to get there, well, gracefully. 


So, the net time you have to deal with an evil act, or a slap on the face, or have to give someone the shirt off your back, or carry a load, or asked for help, or address your enemies, remember the words of Jesus.  Pray for insight and strength.  And may you end the childish, playground rules of engagement as you choose the counter-intuitive, countercultural, world-transforming means and end of grace.