Archive for May, 2009

Ed Cyzewski, author of Coffeehouse Theology, wrote an excellent post on the Christian response to California Supreme Court’s upholding of Proposition 8, which defines marriage as between a man and a woman, thus, banning gay marriage. Wherever individual Christians find themselves in this debate, Ed offers good advice, which is, Christians must first and foremost be focusing their time and energy on the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven (which I’m pretty sure Jesus said first). Read his post “Mourning Proposition Eight: Dragging Jesus Through the Mud and Wasting $85 Million” here.

“I’d rather not rant about this Proposition Eight business. I think it’s more appropriate to mourn this mess spear-headed by Christians and Mormons…“

Memorial Day was this past Monday, and, like most Americans, I enjoyed my day off of work. I spent time with friends and family, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. If anyone saw me, you’ll notice I didn’t wear anything with red, white, and blue. I didn’t wear anything that said, “Support our troops” or “Pray for our troops.” I didn’t wave an American flag. It’s not that I’m not proud to be American (in the same way, that I may be proud to be English if I was born in England). I am proud of many things America does, and, on the other hand, I’m not proud of many other things. The thing is, as Christians, we are called to salute a different Commander-in-chief, that is, Jesus Christ. He is our King, and I do not and will not compromise my allegiance to this King. However, even though the premise of Memorial Day is a dark one (in that, it surrounds the death of individuals), I believe it provides us with many reminders.

1. Memorial Day is a good reminder that Death, though wounded, is alive and still strong. Christ has defeated Death, wounded it, and it will one day be eradicated. However, Memorial Day reminds us that Death still…err…kills people. American troops over many years have died because the problem of Death still exists. Any thoughts to the contrary are contested on days like Memorial Day.

2. Memorial Day is a reminder that the Christian family is trans-national. Christ, who is my brother and my God, has shown me that his family is anyone who does the will of the Father, and, so Christians, no matter our national boundaries, are brothers and sisters of one another. As Christians, it is not America versus the rest of the world. It is not “God Bless America” only, but it is, as one bumper sticker says, “God bless the whole world. No exceptions.” I do pray that God blesses America, but I do pray that God bless Iraq, England, France, and the rest of the world. Lord knows, we need his blessing. But what would it be like if the one firing the bullet thought that his or her brother may be on the other end? Wouldn’t that change his or her perspective?

3. Memorial Day is a reminder that those who live by the sword, die by the sword. It is likely no secret to many of you that I align myself with non-violence, and it sickens me (and I believe the heart of Christ) when the sword, no matter who is wielding it, kills someone. The Roman Empire was a clear-cut example of living and dying by the sword. They took over “the world” through massacring and waging war against other nations, spreading their ideals throughout “the world.” Their fall was also by the end of the sword. Barbarians took over parts of Rome (which was already weak from violence and betrayal in other areas) by wiping out its rulers.

4. Memorial Day is a reminder to love those even those who disagree with you. One could easily withdraw from society on Memorial Day. One could easily say, “No, thanks,” to the multitude of barbeques. However, Christ calls us to love the people of the world even if we don’t agree with what they celebrate. [To other Christian, non-violent “ordinary radicals” (Shane Claiborne reference), Memorial Day is a good reminder to love people where they are, not what they have been. It would be un-Christlike to treat soldiers in any other way than with the love of Christ.]

5. Memorial Day is also a good reminder to follow the Church calendar, which is not focused around things like consumerism and Empire, but a reminder to shape our lives around the story of Christ and his Church. Reminder: Pentecost (in the West) is on May 31st and is the single, most important day for the celebration of the Holy Spirit. Sadly, many focus their churches and lives around the American calendar and won’t even acknowledge these things.

We all remember the Billy Madison line when he is hanging out with some kids at the animal farm, and a kid pees his pants. All the kids poke fun at the young, slightly nerdy boy, and then to their surprise, Billy [played by Adam Sandler] turns around and lo and behold his pants are wet, too [with water, though]. Billy turns to the kids and says, “Peeing your pants is the coolest!” And so, all the kids proceed to pee their own pants. Well, in that situation, the act of “peeing” (of which half of you are already tired of hearing about) was funny. However, Pastor Steven L. Anderson’s talk about peeing [or pissing] is not so funny. I’m not sure if you saw this–

This was sent to me by an annoyed pastor and asked me what my thoughts were. Here’s what I said:

My first reaction is: “What the [blank]?!”

I went to Germany, and I never once urinated sitting down so that makes me wonder where he got that (unless I was breaking German law), but interesting story: I was walking down a sidewalk in Germany with a bunch of my classmates from PBU and on our right hand side were a bunch of bushes and a nature trail behind that, and on the left was the street. As we looked over to the right at the bushes, we saw a guy urinating (standing up, mind you) who decided to face away from the nature trail which faced him towards the sidewalk we were walking on! So, needless to say, it was an unpleasant sight. He was definitely peeing standing up.

My second reaction is: another KJV-bumping guy. I don’t know why the removal of that phrase makes the translators of the NKJV and the NIV bad people (or why that would mean they sit down when they pee). Someone should tell him that “Jehovah” is a mistranslation by the KJV of God’s name (but why would he care?). Someone should tell him we are still recovering from KJV mistranslations today. I don’t need to preach to you about this.

Third: He’s incredibly insensitive. I know the Gospel doesn’t always have to be gentle (because it isn’t), but we aren’t talking about the Gospel here. We are talking about interpretive decisions while editing Old Testament manuscripts. Why take shots at America or the President for something he is speculating about?

Last: Fundamentally, I think this comes down to the poor assumption of Protestants that everyone and anyone can (and should) read and preach Scripture. Too many people abuse it because they think they have the “right” to preach it. I, personally, think this guy should not be allowed to preach Scripture because he obviously is abusing it.

Not to mention, that many people will look upon this pastor and see many Christians in the same light. I would be interested to see if different manuscripts say different things about this passage, but my guess, he’s right about the interpretive decisions by the translators. But it seems to me that we have culturally constructed an idea of what it means to be a “man,” of which this pastor believes standing when you urinate is a part. With that being said, it kinda reminds me of this–

“I’m a man! I’m 40! I stand when I pee!”

What are your reactions?

Recent Highlights:

1. Giselle is now walking! One day, she decided it was about time she started and became a pro overnight. With this being said, she’s much more fun than she was. We can go outside, and she’ll explore. It’s really cute.
2. I went to two Phillies games last week. One was with Amanda and Giselle for Mother’s Day. The Phillies lost, but it was still nice to go. The other was with my friend Thomas, who is a Dodgers fan, so naturally we went to a Dodgers game, and naturally the Phillies lost. We had fun though.
3. Giselle can say “baseball,” which is awesome itself, but the fact that she can recognize it while at a field or on TV is even cooler.
4. Amanda and I went to my seminary retreat. It was a much-needed break from everything. We actually had some time to talk and be with each other, which doesn’t happen much (I’m discovering) when you have small child. Meredith Wheeler was the speaker, and he spoke about the pain that ministers experience from the people they are ministering to. What? The church isn’t perfect? That’s right world. We aren’t. But there’s hope—and that’s Jesus Christ.

Job update: I had/have two “second interviews” for ministry jobs so we’ll see.

Seminary update: Began a new class called Organizational Assessment and Change. I’m not a huge fan of leadership classes, but this seems to be the most applicable in many ministry situations. Also, I will begin my independent study called “The Theology of Karl Barth” soon. I’m excited about this one since it will be with a few of us and John Franke (our professor), and we will be meeting at a pub or someplace instead of in a class room.

Disappointed by:

1. I don’t know if one would consider this a disappointment, but I have to read seven books by June 9. I read one already, but it will be a lot of work.
2. The Cavs. How could you lose game 1 to the Magic??? Lebron, let me speak to you for a moment – Hog…the…ball. Score 70 points if you have to. Just don’t give it up.

Books I’m reading:

1. N.T. Wright’s Justification: God’s Plan & Paul’s Vision. I read about the first chapter, and I loved it. However, I have way too much to read for seminary so I’m putting this on hold.
2. Seminary reading

• “Organizational Assessment and Change” -  Leading Congregational Change: A Practical Guide for the Transformational Journey. I accidentally bought the workbook (which I’m sending back) so I purchased the book for a friend and paid about $1.50 for the upgrade so I can read it online. Suckers.
• Independent study “The Theology of Karl Barth” (1) The Great Passion: An Introduction to Karl Barth’s Theology by Eberhard Busch. (2) Barth for the Armchair Theologians by John Franke, who is my independent study advisor. I know it’s much more novice than the above book, but I really liked this one (yes, I finished this one already).

Looking forward to:

1. The school year is ending on June 9 for Amanda so she’ll be around more.
2. Getting a full-time job. It’s gonna happen soon. I feel it.

I had a conversation with a gentleman recently, who is a self-proclaimed “Wesleyan.” I told him that I really appreciate the Wesleyan tradition for a number of reasons, but I specifically think they have a good grasp on pursuing “holiness.” Now, I’m not here to dispute this, that is, whether you can obtain holiness on earth (even though, I hate how that sounds), but we can’t deny the Bible’s teaching on holiness, such as, “But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: ‘Be holy, because I am holy’” (1 Pt. 1:15-16 TNIV). Let’s move on from this point.

Many evangelicals (perhaps, Protestants, in general) struggle with this since they believe that this preaches works-based salvation. I have a few problems with this struggle:

1. “Holiness” is generally a term used for those after they have begun to follow Christ
2. It seems to me that holiness (and even salvation for that matter) has much to do with the community of believers. We often make things like this too individualistic.
3. Many do not preach holiness since they believe it to be the same thing as sinless perfection (which there is much discussion about, and I, in no way, tend to settle it here), but I’m not sure that’s the case.

Along these lines, it is true that Wesleyans often do preach that one can lose his or her salvation. Many evangelicals jump up in anger against this – “Why would God treat such a thing as one’s eternal destiny so trivially?” or something along those lines. But here’s my thing:

Why are you so worried about it?

Let’s say for argument’s sake that you can lose your salvation. Aren’t you likely to keep on top of holiness? At least, you’re likely to attempt to run from sin. On the other hand, let’s say you can’t lose your salvation. Even so, shouldn’t you be just as worried about staying on top of holiness as one who believe he or she can lose his or her salvation?

My fear is that we often say (what was once intended for good reasons), “You can’t lose your salvation” because we are truly afraid (in some way) we will. Yes, it may be biblical. Yes, you may be right. But are we working towards holiness? Or do we throw around those lines just so we can be lazy?

As for me, no, I don’t think you can lose your salvation, but why are you so worried about it?