During Advent at Tapestry we participate in Advent Conspiracy with lots of other churches around the nation. I’ve written about this before on my blog (here’s one such entry). The basic goal of Advent Conspiracy is to encourage Christians to celebrate the remembrance of the birth of the Messiah in a manner that will actually please Jesus. So we focus on four things:
Worshiping Fully
Spending Less
Giving More
Loving All
As a part of this year’s Advent Conspiracy we are going to focus the messages around a Jesse Tree celebration with the kids, and anyone else who wants to, making the ornaments for each week. Here’s this week’s ornament suggestion and instructions.
SIDE NOTE – If you aren’t doing so already I would highly encourage you to begin some Advent traditions with your kids. Last year I wrote about some that have been helpful for Pam and me. Here’s the post.
I know I write and talk about this every so often (for example here) but I seriously think that evangelism should be an enjoyable conversation about the One Who is most important to us. We have conversations about other things all the time and find it enjoyable. There is a whole category of people who do this for a living, they are called “influencers“. I’m not trying to encourage anyone to treat sharing what Jesus has done in your life as a marketing campaign, it just seems that conversations that would be normal with any other topic (because we generally like to share with those around us the things that really work in our lives) tend to get scary for some when the subject is faith.
So I want to encourage us all to think about it differently. You aren’t “sharing your faith” or practicing “evangelism”. You are having an enjoyable conversation about the One Who gives you meaning, purpose, and rescue. You are merely talking about the One Who is most important to you. You are having an enjoyable conversation. “Hey, can I tell you something that has really helped me?” That is an enjoyable conversation.
I bring this up today because once again I have bought The Main Grain out of their Firecracker Rolls. Why? Well because I am convince that these rolls are yet more proof that God loves us and therefore I want to share them with everyone. I’ve already passed out several to people I know and I don’t know at Emy J’s. There hasn’t been any fear or anxiety associated with these conversations, because all I am doing is having an enjoyable conversation concerning something I enjoy.
So go have an enjoyable conversation and if you are in my small group there is a small chance that a few firecrackers will be left for tonight. 🙂
Sunday as a part of the message I gave out $2 bills and asked people to grab a few and find a use for them that will somehow reflect the kingdom of God. It is easy to think that the big actions, the ones that are so often beyond the abilities of so many of us, are the only actions that matter. The reality is that such big actions are almost always the result of lots and lots of little actions and are usually done by people who have been trained by lots of small actions. So I asked people to grab a few $2 bills and do a kingdom act, after all those of us who are followers of Jesus are a part of a kingdom from which evil flees when that kingdom is really lived out.
So my question is simply this – what have you done with your $2 bills? If you haven’t done something yet, why not think about, or better yet pray about, what you can do.
I have a suggestion, if you don’t figure out something on your own. I know a person who is a part of Place of Peace (remember Tapestry does the meal this week and for the first time in a long time we aren’t doing jambalaya) who is having to drive to Marshfield each week for chemo and could use some help with gas. That might be a good use. No matter what doing some small kingdom act this week.
The small group to which I and Pam belong is presently reading Richard Stearns’ modern classic “The Hole in Our Gospel“. I read this book years ago and it is wonderful how pertinent it still is. Here’s a part of the book that hit me today.
Finally, many Christians believe poverty to be the result of sinfulness and therefore see evangelism as the best, and sometimes only, medicine. They reason that if only the poor were reconciled to God through Jesus Christ and their spiritual darkness lifted, then their lives would begin to change. Poverty indeed can have profound spiritual dimensions, and reconciliation through Christ is a powerful salve in the lives of the rich or poor. But salvation of the soul, as crucial as it may be for fullness of life both in the here and now and in eternity, does not by itself put food on the table, bring water out of the ground, or save a child from malaria. Many of the world’s poorest people are Christians, and their unwavering faith in the midst of suffering has taught me much.
Perhaps the greatest mistake commonly made by those who strive to help the poor is the failure to see the assets and strengths that are always present in people and their communities no matter how poor they are. Seeing their glasses as half-full rather than half-empty can completely change our approach to helping.
SIDE NOTE – If you aren’t reading my wife’s blog you should – she doesn’t blog often but when she does it is consistently wonderful and challenging.
I posted Friday that I was struggling with responding to Attorney General Jeff Sessions and White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders using the Bible to justify taking kids away from parents and to try and get their “church friends” to stop complaining about the separation of children from their parents who are seeking asylum. My struggle has been two fold:
the action itself
the attempt to use the Bible to justify the choice of taking the action
I believe many other people have done an excellent job of explaining why the action is wrong (basically just ask yourself “What Would Jesus Do” and I am fairly sure that you will have a hard time coming up with the answer “He would take those frightened kids away from their parents and just tell their parents that they are taking them away to be bathed, and do all of this in such a manner that it will be seen and understood as a threat to anyone else who might seek asylum or try to immigrate to the US from our Southern border.”) Therefore, trusting that subject has been covered I am going to talk about the poor (at best, and evil at worst) use of scripture.
You see just because scripture always requires interpretation doesn’t mean that all interpretation of it is good. When we read the bible we are reading inspired writing from millennia ago. It is a different time, a different place, and a different culture, so therefore, you are always interpreting it when you try to understand what it means in a modern context. Actually we are always interpreting everything we hear and experience. Sometimes our interpretations are good and we understand what someone is saying or writing, and sometimes we misinterpret and completely miss the mark (if we are doing it accidentally) or twist someone’s words to mean something it didn’t actually mean (if we are doing it intentionally). Jess sessions interpreted Romans 13:1-7 when he paraphrased it. Here is what Sessions said.
“Persons who violate the law of our nation are subject to prosecution, I would cite to you the Apostle Paul and his clear and wise command in Romans 13 to obey the laws of the government because God has ordained them for the purpose of order. Orderly and lawful processes are good in themselves and protect the weak and lawful.”
By saying this our Attorney General indicated that in his opinion it is proper to use this passage of scripture to address not only the separating of kids from their families but also that those Christians who are criticizing his actions should stop.1 Therefore, we need to consider if he interpreted the scripture properly.
Let’s look at the passage
Romans 13:1-7 Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.2 Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.3 For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and you will be commended.4 For the one in authority is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God’s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. 5 Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also as a matter of conscience.
6 This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to governing.7 Give to everyone what you owe them: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.
Let’s consider who this passage written too? There are three parties in this passage: 1) God, 2) the ruled, and 3) the rulers. So who is being told to be subject to the law? I know this sounds simple, but if you are going to say you are simply following scripture then you should make sure that the scripture you quote was written to you. In this case the group being encouraged to be subject are those that are ruled. Attorney General Jeff Sessions and White House Communications director Sarah Huckabee Sanders can say they are merely being obedient to scripture and following the law but they are acting as the rulers in their roles and not as the ruled. Scripture had different words for the rulers. It is the responsibility of the rulers to act justly. But Sessions does not seem to be concerned with whether or not these actions are just. He’s just concerned with the ruled obeying. This is a government official basically saying, “Scripture says you have to obey the law, therefore you don’t get to ask if the law is just or not.” That is why some have pointed out that slave masters used this same bad interpretation of this passage to try and control slaves. It was wrong then and it is still wrong now.
Kierkegaard also wrote “The matter is quite simple. The bible is very easy to understand. But we Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand, we are obliged to act accordingly.”
Sessions and Sanders made the interpretive mistake of picking a scripture that pertains to someone else2 and trying to use it as a weapon to force someone else’s behavior. In Sessions case it was Christians who have supported Trump who were now saying “No!” to these actions. Sessions wanted those Christians to hush up and stop saying the actions were unjust. But when we read scripture it is our own sins that we should be concerned about and that’s not what Sessions was doing. As the Danish philosopher and believer Søren Kierkegaard wonderfully wrote, “When you read God’s Word, you must constantly be saying to yourself, it is talking to me, and about me.” Sessions and Sanders are acting out the opposite. “When I read God’s word, it is talking about you and what you must do.” That’s not how this works.
So here are a few other passages that talk to rulers concerning God’s expectations of them that Sessions and Sanders might want to consider.
Proverbs 29:12-14 – 12 If a ruler pays attention to falsehood, All his ministers become wicked. 13 The poor man and the oppressor have this in common: The Lord gives light to the eyes of both. 14 If a king judges the poor with truth, His throne will be established forever. ((Good interpretation requires that I acknowledge that this speaks of the poor, but since the “poor” are linked with the oppressed in verse 13 it is applicable to the oppressed too. ))
Proverbs 16:12 – It is an abomination for kings to commit wicked acts, For a throne is established on righteousness.
Micah 3:9-10, & 12 – 9 Hear this, you leaders of Jacob, you rulers of Israel, who despise justice and distort all that is right; 10 who build Zion with bloodshed, and Jerusalem with wickedness. … 12 Therefore because of you, Zion will be plowed like a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble, the temple hill a mound overgrown with thickets.
I haven’t yet even broached the subject of whether Paul meant in this passage that we should always follow the law or not. After all, Paul spent more than two years in jail for his actions of preaching the good news of a kingdom of a Messiah who was crucified because he was viewed as a threat to the stability of the Rome empire. I won’t do that in this post because it is already long enough. Yes, I know this is a long post and it is also a dollar short and a day late for most of this discussion. Therefore, I will just end with a reminder that if you are going to use scripture you need to interpret it well.
Let me just add that nothing pleases one’s “church friends” as much as having a person misinterpret their scripture in an attempt to get those “church friends” to stop complain about evil actions. [↩]
Yes. I know we live in a Democratic Republic so technically they are the ruled and the rulers at the same time, as are we all, but they were operating as rulers in their roles. [↩]
I have written before concerning not being the biggest fan of Beth Moore’s groupies. While I may not be real happy with the manner in which some people aggrandize her I have nothing but respect for Moore herself. I may not connect with her studies but I admire the way she seems to live out her faith in purity in spite of being a big deal. Many people who reach her status don’t seem able to do this. Beth Moore does and I greatly respect that.
Yesterday Moore posted this open letter on her blog concerning the misogyny that she has faced as a female leader in a conservative, evangelical denomination and community of speakers.
First, it saddens me, but unfortunately doesn’t surprise me, that she has faced such behavior. She shouldn’t have to face this anywhere, let alone in the company of people who profess to follow the One Whose first witnesses (and thereby evangelists) of His resurrection were women.
Secondly, I appreciate her adding this paragraph to her open letter:
The irony is that many of the men who will give consideration to my concerns do not possess a whit of the misogyny coming under the spotlight. For all the times you’ve spoken up on our behalf and for the compassion you’ve shown in response to “Me too,” please know you have won our love and gratitude and respect.
I hope that I have acted in such a manner that the women whose lives I am a part of could and would say the same concerning my behavior. I hope I have acted in a manner that my wife, mom, sister-in-laws, female friends, and the women for whom I have been their minister and chaplain would describe me as being someone who has stood up with them and for them.
Which brings me to the point of my post.
In the small group of people that Pam and I meet with each week to discuss life and faith we are presently reading through Richard Stearns’ modern classic “The Hole in Our Gospel“. During our Wednesday gathering we discussed what we had read in chapters 4 and 5 of this great book. In chapter four Stearns created his own paraphrase of the King’s words in the parable of the Sheep & the goats in the 25th chapter of Matthew. Stearns paraphrased as follows:
For I was hungry, while you had all you needed. I was thirsty, but you drank bottled water. I was a stranger, and you wanted me deported. I needed clothes, but you needed more clothes. I was sick, and you pointed out the behaviors that led to my sickness. I was in prison, and you said I was getting what I deserved. (RESV—Richard E. Stearns Version)
I love this paraphrase. In light of the awareness of what has been brought to the nation’s and church’s attention through the MeToo movement I would like to add a small addition to Stearns’s paraphrased. Here’s my addendum.
I was harassed and abused because of my gender and not only did you not stand up for me and fight against such behavior with me, but you had the audacity to choose to believe and protect my abuser instead.
Some of us may have acted like sheep in regard to those who are hungry, thirsty, nude, sick and/or in prison (and some haven’t) but may have been real goats when it comes to sexual harassment. Those of us who claim to follow Christ proclaim as Lord the One Who began His public ministry in Nazareth by quoting a passage concerning the year of Jubilee. He quoted Isaiah 61.
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
When the King separates the sheep and the goats I fear that some of us are going to regret siding so often with the oppressors, rather than the oppressed. Sheep set the oppressed free because they follow a Shepherd who does so. Goats side with the oppressors. Be a sheep.1
On an entirely different note this parable is why it bothers me so much when I sometimes hear Christians describe those with whom they disagree as being “sheeple” and mindlessly following their opponents ideology. Being compared to sheep should never be an insult for Christians. [↩]
Today is the National Day of Prayer in the U.S. Which means all around the U.S. of A. there are groups gathered together talking about prayer … and maybe praying a little too. 😉
In hopes of encouraging myself and everyone else to spend more time praying today I thought I would post my two favorite prayers, one from the Bible and the other from church tradition. I feel like I mentioned both of these prayers very often at church and in chaplaincy and I know both of these prayers are on my lips and in my heart much of the time.
The first prayer is a powerful little prayer from Mark 9:24:
“I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”
The second prayer is consider in tradition to be the prayer that by which Patrick, bishop of Ireland, opened each day. It is typically known as Patrick’s Breastplate.
I arise today through
God’s strength to pilot me, God’s might to uphold me,
God’s wisdom to guide me, God’s eye to see before me,
God’s ear to hear me, God’s word to speak for me,
God’s hand to guard me, God’s way to lie before me,
God’s shield to protect me, God’s host to secure me –
against snares of devils,
against temptations and vices,
against inclinations of nature,
against everyone who shall wish me
ill, afar and anear,
alone and in a crowd…
Christ, be with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ on my right, Christ on my left, Christ where I lie, Christ where I sit,
Christ where I arise, Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of every man who speaks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me, Christ in every ear that hears me.
Salvation is of the Lord.
Salvation is of the Lord.
Salvation is of the Christ.
May your salvation, O Lord, be ever with us.
Today may we trust in the One to Who we are praying and therefore turn to Him frequently.
SIDE NOTE – It is also apparently World Password Day, a day meant to remind us to change our password to something better than “1234” and “password”. I am not sure if this is connected to the National Day of Prayer or not. 😉
Monday I replaced the alternator in Fred the Minivan. I’m not really good enough to be a shade tree mechanic. I am more of a small to medium size shrub mechanic. This means that I don’t have any great knowledge or skill in working on my vehicles but I desire to be able to fix them. That’s why changing the alternator in Fred the Minivan this past week was a scary thing to me that I avoided for a week.
I’ve changed alternator in cars several times before and they aren’t really that difficult. They are usually pretty “plug and play” in their design. Typically it involves: removing the belt from the alternator, unplugging the alternator from the wiring assembly, removing three supporting bolts, and then reversing the process to install the new alternator. The problem is that everything in the engine of a minivan is tight. I was pretty worried that due to the tight shape of Fred’s engine compartment I was going to really mess something up. SO how did I handle this fear of not being able to complete the process of changing the alternator? Well, as I wrote earlier, I avoided doing it for a week. Thankfully I had some very good resources and a very trustworthy backup, so I finally jumped into replacing the alternator.
I usually buy a Haynes and/or Chilton manual for the vehicles we own (I usually just use the library online version for our newer vehicles). These manuals do a great job of walking a person through how to do most repairs on the vehicle. Youtube now does an even better job. When I searched for changing the alternator in a 2005 Dodge Grand Caravan I found many videos of people walking through the changing of an alternator step by step. I might not always be able to read a description of a task and understand it, but I can definitely watch a video of someone doing the task and then figure out how to follow their directions. Even better I have a friend who is a mechanic and I am comfortable that if I really lose it all Conor will walk me through things. The fact that I have these two wonderful resources and a friend who is an excellent backup enables me to take chances.
Conor is my backup for Buddy.
The best part is that with this type of backup I’m not as scared to actually taking chances when working on my cars. I’m still scared, just not so scared that I don’t try anything that is beyond my meager abilities. Thanks to Conor, last year Buddy the Mustang went from having an automatic transmission to a sporty manual transmission. If things work out this year Buddy will have her engine upgraded from a 2.3l “all show and no go” to a spunky 2.3l turbo. There is no way I would try this if it weren’t for the backup of Conor and the beauty of YouTube, Chilton, and Haynes. That backup gives me the courage to take chances.
As a minister (pastor and chaplain) I frequently have conversations with fellow followers of Christ in which they worry that they will mess something up in another person’s faith exploration because they do something wrong. They worry that they will say or do the wrong thing when they are trying to portray Jesus in the best light possible. “What if I say something wrong?” “What if I give the wrong answer?” “What if I do the wrong thing?”
The truth, however, is that God wants to use you and me. When we don’t know what to say or do we have backup. First, from the Holy Spirit. “… do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say,for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.” (Matthew 10:19-20) Second, from our fellow believers, church, and ministers. When you don’t know what to do or say there are other believers (myself among them) that want to help you. We don’t have to know all the answers. We don’t have to know the exact right thing. This isn’t an excuse not to prepare and study, but it does mean that we aren’t dependent upon our own abilities. We have serious backup.
The Main Grain’s Firecracker Rolls are proof that God loves us. 🙂
I am not real good as a pastor at reminding people to invite others to church. I should be better about it because studies have shown that if you invite someone to church there is a really good chance they will say “yes”. I think my problem is that I believe that if something is helping you then you just naturally want to share it with others. A lot of my friends now wear Darn Tough Vermont socks because I love them and recommend them to everyone. Many of my friends now use Ting Mobile because they were the first cellphone company I ever actually liked and therefore I encourage others to try them out. Several of my friends now use Robinhood because I found trading stocks for free on it enjoyable. If I see you at Emy J’s on a Wednesday there is a pretty good chance that I will give you a Firecracker roll from The Main Grain because I love them and want everyone else to love them too. Like I said, I believe people naturally invite others to be a part of things that are good for them, and I know people are finding that God does things in their lives through Tapestry because people tell me this.
That’s why today I have already invited 3 people to come to church tomorrow and I’ve only been to The Companion Shop to pick up treats for Clive and to Kwik Trip to buy some peanut butter cookies that were on sale (both of these are places that I love and would recommend). I’ve also invited people via Facebook. I remember to do this personally but I forget to encourage others to do this. I’m really not that great of a pastor.
Anyhow I would like to encourage you to go to whatever church that you connect with tomorrow and to invite someone else to go with you. People are looking for meaning and purpose, in my opinion because we were created with a purpose – to be in relationship with God. So often people look for meaning and purpose in things that can’t actually provide said things. I end up hearing lots of conversations about people looking for ultimate meanging in something that can’t possibly provide such meaning. The church can be messed up sometimes, I don’t deny that. Yet at its core it is about connecting with Jesus and that is an awesome thing. In my opinion that is our ultimate meaning.
We were meant to be connected with Jesus. There are so many things around us and in us that keep that from happening. From our sins, to the evil around us, to the seemingly small distractions, there are so many things that keep us from enjoying communion with God, and with each other. Resurrection Sunday is about Jesus defeating all those things.
Death – defeated.
Sin – defeated.
Evil – defeated.
Things that can’t provide meaning – defeated.
Etc. Etc. Etc.
That’s why I want to encourage everyone to go to church tomorrow (even if you haven’t been in years or ever), and to invite others. You were meant to be loved by God and to love Him back. Resurrection Sunday (i.e. Easter) is God proving that He wasn’t going to allow anything to get in the way of that love.
