Author: Robert

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Faithful vs Religious

Sunday morning at Tapestry I spoke out of Luke 22:47-53. In that passage three people/groups performed actions that looked one way but actually lived out the opposite.

  • Judas looked like he honored Jesus with a kiss, but he actually betrayed Jesus
  • Peter thought he was defending Jesus, but he actually did the opposite of what the Prince of Peace wanted.
  • The leaders thought they were protecting Israel from a rebellion, but they were actually delivering Israel into the moment into darkness.

Looking or sounding pious is much easier than actually being pious. Faithfulness is the result of lots of small choices that point toward the One you have faith in. It is always easier to make grand proclamations than to actually live out the commitments that those proclamations concern.

I recently heard a on a podcast or read in an article (I can’t remember which) that every choice has pain and reward within it, and whichever comes later (the pain or reward) is usually the greater. So If I chose to abstain from donuts in the morning I face the pain of not enjoying the deliciousness that is a cream dunker, but I receive the reward of better health. That reward lasts longer than the brief pain of not tasting that little piece of deep fried heaven. Or if I chose to not cleanup after myself I receive the reward of a little rest, but the pain of a bigger mess to clean up later on. It is the old delayed gratification thing, one of the most valuable lessons any of us can learn.

I believe this fits into faithfulness:

It is easy to say something is most important to you, it is different to actually live like it is important to you. For example:

  • Many people say family is most important to them …. few make the daily decisions to put their family ahead of themselves.
  • Many people say they have found the love of their life … few make choices that actually put that love first.
  • Many people dive into hobbies … few people put in the years necessary to actually become good at the hobby.
  • Many post memes and images reflecting that they care deeply for a cause … few actually make choices that reflect that care.
  • Many say they faith in Jesus shapes them … few actually let that faith shape their daily lives.
  • Etc., etc., etc.

None of this means that the proclamations aren’t good, just that they aren’t really the goal. The goal should be faithfulness. Proclamations, bold gestures, symbolic activity, and specifically religious actions are good when they help us to be or become faithful. The good ones do this, when they are used properly.

Our cats are pretty good when they hang out with Clive. It is when they are on their own that they revert to their natural evil selves. 🙂

I think faithfulness is partially why I like dogs better than cats. You know that cats would be all about bold proclamations that only lasted as long as the proclamation was helpful for the cat. ‘I love you when you scratch my chin. NOW STOP!!!!!!” Whereas a dog is going to be faithful. “You’re going to walk over there? Oh okay I’ll wake up and walk over there too.” Don’t get me wrong, I like our cats. I probably just don’t like your cats. Whereas I probably love your dog.

Anyhow I hope I make choices that lead to faithfulness. I know I usually want to do so.

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Podcasts I am Listening to Right Now

Those who know me know that I listen to a fair amount of podcasts when I drive, run, or doing other activities.  Between driving for chaplaining, walking Clive, and running I listen to a fair number of podcasts during the week.

Mockingcast – Started listening to this one because of Conor H. Great discussions of faith and everyday life. 

White Lies – Great one off podcast series concerning investigating the 1965 murder of Rev. James Reeb in Selma, Alabama.  The format is very similar to Serial and S-Town.

Code Switch – podcast on race and identity issues.

The Uncertain Hour – Their tagline is “Because the things we fight the most about are the things we know the least about.” So each season they take a subject that is often argued about and explore it. 

Make Me Smart – Podcast by Marketplace concerning the economy, technology, and culture. Best interview question around, “What is something you thought you knew but later found out you were wrong about?”

Stacking Benjamins – Personal finance podcast, my second favorite one after the Clark Howard Podcast.

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A Good Morning

It is a pretty good morning. Thanks to Fawnda I scored a free chocolate, caramel, pecan scone at Ruby Coffee and thanks to a conversation with Noah last night I am listening to the Talking Heads at the moment (BTW it is a parenting victory when your 22 year old son knows who the Talking Heads are and knows specific songs to recommend – in this case Psycho Killer) while trying to deal with my vision insurance to get reimbursed for my eyeglasses, answer some chaplain questions, and consider Luke 22:47-53 for Sunday’s message at Tapestry.

Also it isn’t raining, which is a pretty big thing in Wisconsin recently.

I hope your morning, dear reader (or more accurately Mom), is as good.

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God is the Subject

I’m going to paraphrase Jesus a little here.

But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

In reply Jesus said: “There was a refugee with his family running away from a dangerous situation in a neighboring country. He ran with his family to the country that proudly displayed a great monument of liberty with the following cast within it:”

“Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

“So he ran to this country of liberty in hopes of saving his family and was detained at the border.”

“While he was detained there a pastor walked by the detention center, but closed his eyes and hummed out loud so as not to see or hear anything from the center. The pastor blamed the other side of the political landscape and walked by, and the man and his family were left in the detention center.”

“Then a once great Evangelical leader toured the facility were he was detained. The Evangelical leader thought to himself and sent to his newsletter subscribers “These people are different from us and will destroy our culture. They probably have lots of criminals. They will take us down so we can’t help them.” Then the once great Evangelical leader walked by and the man and his family were left in the detention center. “

“Then a person with no power and no prestige saw the man and his family in the detention center. She went up to him and said “I’ll get beds for you and your family. I’ll help you make a new life that is safe from the danger that you have faced. I know you want to be able to work and fend for yourself so I will help you do that. You might not be able to stay here because our immigration system has been messed up for awhile now, but I will make sure that the enforcement of our law doesn’t put you in jail or use your children as leverage against you merely for you trying to apply for refugee status.” Then she contacted her representatives, and gave to charities that would help, took action herself, and remembered the man and his family”

And Jesus said to the man “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man detained at the border?”

The man seeking to justify himself replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”

Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

Obviously Jesus didn’t tell the parable of the Good Samaritan this way – If He had told this parable about immigration the “Samaritan”, or in my case the woman with no power or prestige, would have been someone that Americans seemto despise, rather than just someone without power or prestige. For example, in some circles, someone from Iran. Also Jesus would have told the story with much braver actions by our heroine. I can be whimpy in my writing. Jesus isn’t.

Anyhow the reason I paraphrased the story above is because I hear and read many people who profess Christ as Lord responding to immigrants and refugees seeking asylum by worrying about their own status. What will the immigrants and refugees do to “our” country and “our” culture? What will immigrants and refugees do to “our” resources? What will they do to our crime rate, etc. etc? After all we think we are the subjects of our own story and therefore why wouldn’t we be concerned about how immigration affects us.

But if you profess Jesus as Lord then you are saying that ultimately we are not the subjects of our own lives. If we profess that Jesus is Lord then we are saying that the story of our lives is actually all about God. HE IS THE SUBJECT, we are merely objects that point to His greatness, mercy, and love within our stories. Therefore, the way we respond to events HAS TO BE about what best tells the story of God as the Hero of the story. The way we treat refugees and immigrants (two very different groups) speaks of the God we proclaim to be King. We can disagree (and probably should) on how to handle things politically and how to change the system (just talk to an immigration attorney and you will hear that the system has needed to be changed for a long time, regardless of what party is in control, if you need one follow my friend and college roommate Scott Hicks, he’s wonderful), but we can’t allow those political disagreements to lead us to treat the individuals who are refugees and immigrants in a manner that doesn’t glorify God because the story of our lives is about Him, not us, not our country. If you don’t profess Jesus as your Lord this doesn’t apply to you, but for those of us who do we gave up the right to focus on how something affects us.

He is the Subject of the story. Our part is to be examples of how wonderful and gracious He is. That’s why we have to be good neighbors, our actions reflects upon the Subject of the story. So go and do likewise.

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Remembering an Upside-Down Example

Yesterday at Tapestry I spoke about the upside-down values of the Kingdom of God. When I got home Pam told me she was surprised that I had talked about the example of Stephen Scott, a Senior Vanderbilt baseball player. I didn’t mention the story because I had not heard it. As usual Pam was better informed that I was. Here’s a photo of why Stephen Scott would have been a good example for the upside-down values we talked about yesterday.

That’s a different set of values in action. You won the NCAA National Championship an hour ago and then you clean the dugout. Those are bizarro values in action.

The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those who exercise authority over them call themselves Benefactors. But you are not to be like that. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves. Luke 22:25b-26

The reason I titled this post “Remembering an Upside-Down Example” is because of a friend of mine for whom English is her second language. When talking with this friend if you say something that she wants to agree with with she will say “I remember” instead of saying “yes”. I LOVE WHEN SHE SAYS “I REMEMBER”.

The reason is that I know tons of people that will verbally ascent to something. Saying “yes” is just affirmation, but remembering implies action. When we remember the milk it means we purchased the milk that we were supposed to, not that we just thought of milk. When we remember our friends we bring them into whatever present moment we are experiencing. When we remember the bizzaro values of Jesus it means that we serve, we forgive, we love our enemy, etc. , etc. We don’t just ascent to the fact that Jesus’s kingdom has different values, we live out those values. We remember and remembering involves action.

Stephen Scott just lived out a good example of upside-down values. Now I need to remember that Christ’s kingdom involves such values. I must remember.

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Selling Sasha

Noah has a new-to-him car and thus it is now time to let Sasha, the venerable 2001 Saturn L200, roam to other parts of the world and bring joy and frustration to others. So I posted her on Facebook Marketplace last night and Craigsllist late this morning.

Scam Numbers thus far.

Within 10 minutes I started getting text messages from scammers on Craigslist. Thus far I been contacted by 5 scammers (4 “I’ll text you and then you email me at this non-craigslist email”, and 1 “hey buy this VIN check from a fake company and I might buy your car”). If the deal is too good to be true it probably is. If they will pay you a good bit extra for the trouble of shipping it to them, it is probably a scam. If they want you to send them a VIN check through a company you’ve never heard of, it is probably a scam. If they text you but then want to continue the conversation via an email address not associated with a Craigslist account, it is probably a scam. Basically be careful out their folks.

I remember a good friend of mine being scammed by the shipping/courier scam after asking me if I thought it was legit. I had not heard of the shipping scam at that time and therefore couldn’t warn them to avoid it. So they cashed the check and sent the “shipping” money to the supposed courier only to discover 6 weeks later that the check buying the puppy and paying for the expense of shipping was a fake. This was two decades ago and I still feel guilt over not knowing to warn them. Be careful out their folks.

Anyhow here’s the add. If you know someone who is interested let me know. I’ll work favorably with friends of friends.

Sasha (the car’s name) is an old cruddy, yet wonderful Saturn L200. She was a great car for both my boys but it is time for her to go to someone else.

The Good:
*She is open to a name change
*The speakers on the passenger side work
*Her insurance will be cheap
*She runs and just seems to keep running
*Her tires are in good shape
*She doesn’t burn oil, which is amazing for a Saturn 4 cylinder
*She has two sets of keys
*She has a spiffy UW-Eau Claire Blugold sticker on her bumper
*She has a crack in her back light trim that looks like South America is South America had been stretched a little width-wise.

The Bad:
*She has the typical early 2000s Saturn gas pump leak – it affects the mileage and you can smell it outside.
*Her rear suspension is noisy. Rides fine but it is noisy when you push on the rear.
*The air bag light has been on since I got her 9 years ago. Supposedly it is just the light but I don’t know that for sure because I never had it checked out. 
*Someone in a parking lot at UW-Eau Claire decided to customize her by keying the Driver’s Side of the car.
*The carpets are in bad shape from salt and a heater core leak that was fixed last year.
*The Cruise Control shorts out and blows the fuse if you push the “Resume” key. It works fine if you don’t press “Resume”.

$900 OBO.

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Idolatry in the Modern Church

I don’t feel like the modern church does well with its own idolatry. The church points out the false gods of those outside of the bride of Christ but I don’t think we do a good job of pointing out our own false gods. This is partially because we have mistaken the role of the prophet. We tend to think that the prophet goes to those who are not followers of God and shouts “you are sinning and not following God.” That does happen. It is what Jonah reluctantly does. The beginning of the book of Amos is another example of a prophet doing just this. Amos looks to the nations surrounded Israel and says:

3 This is what the Lord says:

“For three sins of Damascus,
even for four, I will not relent.
Because she threshed Gilead
with sledges having iron teeth,
4 I will send fire on the house of Hazael
that will consume the fortresses of Ben-Hadad.
5 I will break down the gate of Damascus;
I will destroy the king who is in the Valley of Aven
and the one who holds the scepter in Beth Eden.
The people of Aram will go into exile to Kir,”
says the Lord. (Amos 1:3-5)

HOWEVER preaching about the sins of those who aren’t followers of YHWH isn’t the primary role that the prophet fills. Typically the prophet goes to the people of God and says “Hey you’re supposed to be acting like the people of God and you’re not.” The prophet primarily confronts those who claim to be the faithful.

Which is why I think the church struggles with its own idolatry. The church doesn’t confront its own false gods. We would rather preach against other people’s false gods. Here are some of the idols that I believe are inside the church being worshiped instead of God.

Celebrity – Celebrity is the cultural currency of the world outside the church, and unfortunately it is also the cultural currency of the church. The celebrity pastor is a pretty big thing and it isn’t even really a new thing. Of course, pastors aren’t the only ones being turned into celebrities. Bloggers, bible study leaders, and others are turned into idols that Christians flock too. We have established a culture within the Bride of Christ that lifts up celebrity status as the goal, we just say we’re going to use our celebrity status to tell people about Jesus. Therefore Pastors aim to be writers and speakers rather than pastors.

Power /Success – Just like the world around us we love success and power. Our love of success and power often leads to us idolizing them. Somehow a successful person must be holier than an unsuccessful person. If they are powerful God must have honored them with the power and if they are weak it is probably because of immoral choices. So we treat weakness as those it is the result of sin and power as if it is the result of holiness. You doubt this? When is the last time you heard someone demand drug testing of corporate executives before their companies could receive government subsidies (corporate welfare) versus when you heard the same request concerning the weak and the poor? We proclaim the weak messiah to be Lord but we lift up power in our churches.

Relevance – This one might be a stretch but I feel like many in the church feel the need to make sure that the gospel relates and connects with “real” life. So we lead parenting classes, financial courses, etc. etc. These are good things but they aren’t the main thing. Still we put our trust for church growth in our ability to show that the message of Jesus relates to better lives. Christianity isn’t about people living their best lives. It is about Jesus making the way inviting us to be a part of His kingdom of grace. We don’t shape the gospel to fit “real” life, we allow the gospel to shape our lives around it. I doubt the apostles lived “their best lives”, but they did live faithful, kingdom lives, which cost them everything.

Size – Bigger is better. We all know that. So many things in the world around us point to this. So we live it out in our churches too. If you aren’t growing then you aren’t being faithful. After all, healthy things grow. At least that’s the analogy we often use in the church, never stopping to think that it is actually healthy things mature, not necessarily grow. How many 10′ tall people do you know? If you met one do you think they would be very healthy or riddled with health issues because humans weren’t meant to grow to such height? Jesus’s ministry shrank from possibly 25,000 followers to around 300 at the point of his death and resurrection. Was His ministry healthy? I think so! 

There are so many other things I could mention. Money. Beauty (look at the beautiful people we put on our stages). Etc. Etc. We sing and talk a lot about being so different from the world but most of the time our churches live out the same values as the world. We trust in strength and power. We shout down and hate our enemies. We show favoritism to the rich and powerful. And so on and so on.

Our Lord won His victory on the cross through weakness, suffering, and apparent defeat. Maybe our churches should be more like that. Are you looking for a church right now, maybe consider finding a weak one.

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Star Trek Symbol on Mars

I’m fairly sure marking a planet is against the Prime Directive. Based on this article (NASA orbiter spots “Star Trek” symbol on Mars) someone needs to be reported to Starfleet. 🙂

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Tapestry Fathers (and Mothers)

The image above is the verse of the day in the Bible app I use. Seemed appropriate since Father’s Day is Sunday. It also reminded me how thankful I am for the many parents we have in Tapestry. I say parents because while this Sunday the focus will be on Fathers the reality is that we have excellent Fathers and Mothers in Tapestry and I want to brag on all of y’all for a second.

Unfortunately I have known and know of some not so good Fathers and Mothers during my years of ministry. Sometimes it has been from first hand experience and other times it has been hearing of the pain inflict by such parents on their kids who were and are people who I love. The good parents do the things that are in the best interests of their kids becoming mature adults who can trust and are healthy enough to add to their communities and relationships, and show their kids the grace and love that are found in Jesus. The other parents are typically focused on themselves – even when they may say they are all about their kids and family, their actions say otherwise (often they seem to be the ones to say the loudest that they “would do anything for their kids”, that is, anything but whatever they don’t want to or isn’t focused on themselves). Grace and discipline are NOT separate for the parents that I admire. The parents I admire seem to recognize that when scripture tells us “Whoever spares the rod hates their children” (Proverbs 13:24a) the “rod” is meant for direction of the child, to point them in the right direction, and, therefore, don’t use such verses as an excuse to shout at or even physically harm their child and somehow think that causing such fear is good parenting.

I could go on but I won’t. What I want to say is that as of last week Tapestry has three new dad’s who this Sunday will experience their first Father’s Day holding their kids. I have no doubt that Elizabeth & Nathan, Bethany & Conor, and Ellyn & David are going to be incredible parents who will raise their children in the love and peace of Jesus. Part of my faith here comes from the fact that they are surrounded by such a “great cloud of witnesses” in Tapestry concerning what it means to be a good mom and dad. From couples together, to single parents, to foster parents, to blended families I am so thankful for the sacrificial way you love and the example your set for our young parents.

I am so very thankful for all of you.

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Please Don’t Put Ranch on the Jambalaya!

Today was Tapestry’s annual jambalaya meal for the Teachers and Staff of Washington Elementary School. We do this each year to say “thanks” for putting up with us throughout the year and also for teaching the kids in our community. This year it almost didn’t happen because of the construction at the school. I wasn’t sure it was going to happen until this past Friday. This is why the meal was basically thrown together at the last minute and not as many “threads” as usual were involved in it.

Anyhow my heart was hurt today when one of the teachers grabbed a big ole’ plate of jambalaya and then began to cover the whole thing in Ranch salad dressing. It still hurts to even think about it. Almost makes me feel like I can never cook jambalaya again. Naw. I’ll cook it again. I just want bring Ranch next time. 😉

By the way, starting next week Tapestry will meet at the IDEA Center. We will meet here through the Summer due to the construction at Washington. We saw what they had started today and I understand completely why we can’t meet there during the construction. It is a big deal.