At the moment I am fighting very hard not to display my EOG (Early Onset Grumpiness – You can watch the video above for a description from Portlandia – please forgiving the cursing at the end).
At the moment I am sitting 20′ away from a youngish man who is listening to his music with what appear to be sealed earbuds (i.e. they should seal in the ear canal and keep him from hearing external noise and thereby also hopefully keep others from hearing his music). His music is so loud that I can hear his music from all the way across Emy J’s, with the Emy J’s background music going on. In fact, when I put my earphones in my ears in order to hear the video above I could still hear parts of the guys music. Seriously!
ARGH!!!!! EOG rant developing. I want to avoid this so I will leave Emy J’s and work on the next thing on my agenda for the day. Next thing on the agenda? Going to the DMV to register Buddy the Mustang. That should help, right?
Maybe I should view it as a hint I’m saying this too much when a member of the Tapestry Leadership Team sends me a link to a comic strip decrying left lane drivers. You see, pretty much any time I search for examples of pure evil for a message I come back to one of two things: 1) Left lane drivers, or 2) Brett Favre in a Vikings jersey.
The historical movement known as the first quest for the historical Jesus was destroyed by Albert Schweitzer when he pointed out the obvious fact that the “historical Jesus” that these “questers” was describing looked almost exactly like the “questers” themselves. That seemed very convenient. Schweitzer illustrated this with a story that may have been first used by George Tyrell and was surely influenced by the poet Robert Frost. Anyhow Schweitzer said that these “questers” had looked down at the dark, cloudy water at the bottom of a well, saw their own ambiguous reflection, and declared it to be Christ. It is always nice to convince yourself that the Messiah you claim to serve looks exactly like you. That means other people need to change rather you needing to change. That’s nice and comfortable.
Of course, it is also idolatry.
The quote “God created man in his own image. And man, being a gentleman, returned the favor” is often attributed to Mark Twain, George Bernard Shaw, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. While I don’t know who really made the statement I see proof of its truth all around me and unfortunately also sometimes within my own life. Far too often I have shaped Jesus to look a great deal like my own image rather than being transformed into His image. The latter should be the goal of all who claim to be disciples of Christ. We should be striving, begging, yearning to be shaped each day a little more into His image. While Jesus became one of us through the Incarnation He is still wholly other (a term Karl Barth liked for describing God’s transcendent nature) and thereby different from us. We must become like Him because He is the end/goal of life. Reducing Him to being in our image won’t work because we are broken and He is life. Making Him a Republican, Democratic, Independent or any other political system Messiah produces a false god that can’t bring us life. That false image, our dark reflection at the bottom of the well, simply isn’t adequate to bring true hope.
That’s why the above video (that I saw from two friends at the same time – ht Joy & Scott) makes me laugh and cry at the same time. Hearing those words come out of the mouth of an actor portraying Jesus stands in strong contrast to the words of Jesus I see in scripture. I laugh because I catch the incongruity between the image and the words. I cry because I see the truth of this incongruity actually happening in my culture and faith. If I can’t imagine my words being said by the Jesus conveyed in scripture and I claim to be His follower, then I need to change my words (and actions) quick, or just admit that my faith is not what really defines me.
I’ll use another video to further explain.
I have been a fan of Duck Commander, and thereby Duck Dynasty somewhat too, since I started duck hunting five years ago. I was introduced to them by Andy Lickel and soon learned to like their duck calls. I’ve enjoyed the show because while it is incredibly cheesy I believe that a real family love is still strongly conveyed through the show. So I’ve been with them through their various controversies. Sometimes this was because I agreed with them (though maybe not with the manner in which they said it) or sometimes because my affection for them was enough to just blow off what they said. Then this past week Phil Robertson made the following quote in endorsing Ted Cruz. Robertson said:
“I’ve never run upon a true conservative who was not a godly man or at least a God-conscious man, And by the same token, I’ve never run up on a godly man who wasn’t a true conservative.”
This is so disturbing to me. Not the endorsement of Ted Cruz but the implication of the use of the word “godly”. The term “godly” (the highest compliment I believe a follower of Christ can receive) has been connected by Robertson with certain political ideology and Jesus is thought to look like a conservative. Why? Well because we have looked down in into the bottom of a well, seen our own dark and muddy reflection, and declared it to be Christ. When this happens we no longer need to repent and allow God to shape us, to remove some aspects and add others, so that we look a little more like His son. There is no need for change because “Jesus” looks exactly like us because we have made god in our image instead of being made in His. I know godly people of many different political persuasions. They are focused on the kingdom of God and that kingdom shapes what they do and how they respond to the politics of their country. I would never associate being conservative with being godly anymore than I would associate being progressive with being godly. After all Jesus came to declare that the kingdom of God was at hand, not that the world was about to receive democratic capitalism.
Don’t get me wrong this isn’t just a a conservative problem. It happens just as much on the progressive side. In fact, Schweitzer’s original use of the well reflection analogy was in response to liberal protestant theologians. Finding “Christ” in our own reflection is an equal opportunity form of idolatry. It is equally destructive to all who will give into it.
I hope the image that shapes me comes from looking toward the real Christ, rather than my own dark and muddy reflection seen from a far.
As far as I am concerned it is not the Christmas season yet. That starts this Sunday with the beginning of Advent. Right now I am more focused on making sure that we smoke enough turkey for me to devour several smoked turkey sandwiches while I watch the Iron Bowl this Saturday (yep I have great priorities). Still there has been a thought that has been bouncing around my head for a few years that comes up around this time period each year. It happens when I begin to see articles and hear people comment on the “War on Christmas.”
The main point of this supposed “War on Christmas” is that some anti-God groups have made it their mission to wipe out all mention of Christmas from the public square. Be it government and community buildings or public and private businesses. It is all a conspiracy to have people say “Happy Holidays” rather than “Merry Christmas,” and thereby take us all one step closer to the end of Christianity. It all sounds terrible.
Someone deserves credit for this. I just don know who.
It also sounds ripe for mockery. Take the photo to the right for an example. A Facebook friend of mine posted the image to the right. I can’t remember or find which friend, I just remember seeing it on a friend’s feed. If you are the friend that posted this image please let me know so I can give you a hat tip.
Anyhow, the worry about this so called “War on Christmas” is that suddenly people can feel like they are being persecuted by an action that isn’t really persecution. “After all,” they think, “this is war we are talking about. If all those ‘happy holidays’ are a part of a war then they are about attacking an enemy, and we’re the enemy.” Thus many well meaning Christians fear that they are in the cross hairs of an enemy’s ideological weapon. This sort of behavior isn’t a war on Christmas and it definitely isn’t persecution against Christians. There is real persecution of believers in the world, but this is not such real persecution.
But what if there really is a war on Christmas and it is different from this so-called “War on Christmas”? When Paul talks about the Lord’s Supper he states the following concerning the manner in which the Corinthians were celebrating the Eucharist.
So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup. For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves. That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. But if we were more discerning with regard to ourselves, we would not come under such judgment. Nevertheless, when we are judged in this way by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be finally condemned with the world.
(1 Corinthians 11:27-32 NIV)
Paul simply states that there is a manner in which we can “proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes” (What 1 Corinthians 11:26 says we are doing when we participate in communion) that is unworthy of the celebration itself. That unworthy manner actually denigrates the actual celebration. It turns it from one thing, that remembers the Lord and unites His people, into something entirely different, that rejects the God of love and separates His people. How we celebrate something matters.
What if this is also true of how we celebrate Christmas? What if the way we celebrate the birth of the Savior, the coming of God to His creation, the Incarnation of God, shows whether we really trust in Him or not. Shouldn’t the manner in which a follower of Christ celebrates and remembers the birth of Jesus bring “good news that will cause great joy for all the people” (Luke 2:10)? When a follower of Christ celebrates the coming of the Lord to His creation shouldn’t it involve “proclaim[ing] 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” (Luke 4:18-19)? Basically, shouldn’t those of us who are disciples of Jesus be more concerned with whether we are celebrating His birth in a manner that He would be pleased with, instead of griping about whether are not a minimum wage cashier says “Merry Christmas” or not?
I fear that the real war on Christmas is more about getting Jesus’s disciples to go into debt to buy lots of junk that nobody needs, while turning the celebration of His birth into a time of stress and worry, rather than joy. The psuedo-war on Christmas is just a ploy, a diversion, to make us forget about the real war. The real war on Christmas is a war that is trying to get Christians to treat Christmas as something it is not. Christmas is not about us giving lots of crap to people. Christmas is not about being busier than we can handle. Christmas is not about going into debt. Christmas is not about Black Friday. Christmas is about Jesus entering the world. To use the words of the 1st chapter of the Gospel According to John, Christmas is about us celebrating when “the Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son, Generous inside and out, true from start to finish” (John 1:14 MSG). That’s what the true war on Christmas is fighting against. It is a war to keep us from remembering to celebrate in incarnational methods the time God became incarnate and showed up to free His people.
If we just focus on whether a company has Christmas decorations or not, then we’ll never stop to think “How does Jesus really want me to celebrate His birth?” Then we might celebrate the birth of our Savior in an unworthy manner and miss the point of Christmas completely. I pray that all of us who are followers of Jesus fight against that. There’s a war out there folks. Fight the good fight.
I have a love/hate relationship with conspiracy theories. The love part is that I am fascinated by the ability that some have to turn almost anything into a conspiracy. There is always some dark agenda just right behind any random bit of news. There are strings that are being pulled behind all world events and only a select few are smart enough to see these strings. The rest of us are just dupes. In my opinion, there is a lot egoism behind conspiracy and fear thinking – I’m smart enough to figure this out, while you are just like all the other sheep (BTW you are more than welcome to call me a sheep – sheep have a very favorable connotation in scripture). I also think conspiracy thinking has a fascinating interplay of all-powerful forces and complete ineptitude. “These people really know all about this event and they are just trying to keep you in the dark” and yet they are so inept that a guy living in his mom’s basement is able to figure out their secret. Like I said I find it intriguing.
The fear part? Well this conspiratorial thinking often becomes the excuse for people to act in the most inhumane manners. This type of thinking works off people’s fears and fear is a powerful motivator to do things that normally nice people would never think of doing. Fear let hateful actions masquerade as loving actions. “I’m only acting like this to protect my family.” For example, apparently some of the Sandy Hook conspiracy people have harassed the parents of some of the kids who were killed in the shooting. What type of heartless nut would pester these heartbroken parents? “Well,” the claim goes, “it isn’t really heartless because the whole event was staged and the parents are just actors.” This would make such harassment as cruel as me telling Clint Eastwood that I know he didn’t really shoot people in “The Outlaw Josey Wales” (my favorite movie and one that you should go watch right now). In fact, the people spreading the conspiracies and fear would probably say that confronting lies, and the actions those lies are used to encourage or discourage, is actually a good and loving thing to do. Fear is such a powerful motivator that it takes hate and makes it look like love.
Why am I posting this? Well because I am tired of seeing conspiratorially/fear based thinking on my social media feeds. My feeds aren’t full of such thinking because the majority of my friends don’t go in for that type of stuff. However, I do have a few such “friends” and unfortunately their posts that are based on fear get a lot of attention and therefore end up showing up on my feeds. The good news is that using the Old Testament I believe I have come up with a method that will make the sightings of fear based thinking and action even more infrequent within my news feeds.
Deuteronomy 18:20-22 states:
20 But the prophet who dares to speak a message in My name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods—that prophet must die.’ 21 You may say to yourself, ‘How can we recognize a message the Lord has not spoken?’ 22 When a prophet speaks in the Lord’s name, and the message does not come true or is not fulfilled, that is a message the Lord has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously. Do not be afraid of him.
When you think about it this was really a pretty good system for preventing false prophecy. You want to say something about the future and think it might draw a little attention? Well you better make sure it is accurate because there is a pretty steep cost to pay if you are wrong. But there isn’t really a cost to pay now for making outlandish predictions or claims. You can say that Oreos have been created to be addicting through a mass North Korean plot to take over Instagram for use as a weapon of mass annoyance, and six months down the road when this is proven wrong nothing will happen to you. Since there are no social ramifications to encouraging mass hysteria there is no real incentive to make sure that what you post is true. Nope, there’s no need to even check snopes.com for a quick debunking, since it costs you and I nothing to be wrong. This wasn`t true for the prophet who had to be worried about being stoned if he/she was wrong.
Maybe I’ll use this as my “You’ve Been Stoned” image.
So stoning is my philosophy now. If you decide to speak prophetic warnings (i.e. “this is what is coming down the pipe, folks”)1 and what you say doesn’t happen then I am going to FIGURATIVELY stone you, i.e. nix you from my social media feeds. So if you say there is a vast right wing conspiracy out there or that the lefties are actively trying to destroy America or that some agency/organization is secretly hiding information from the American public that will harm us all or if you post pretty much anything that Jennie McCarthy has said or linked to THEN you better have some VERY GOOD supporting evidence and it best come true quite soon or I will be nixing you from my feeds. I might even create a nice little graphic to post and let you know that you have been nixed. Maybe something fun that says “You’ve Been Stoned” or something similar. Yeah, that would be fun.
Now this goes just for those that are on the fringe of my relational world. It isn’t for my family and friends that I see/interact with a lot. Y’all may still be nuts but you are either family, and therefore you are my crazies, or you are people that I have actively chosen too associate with, and therefore at the very least I find your craziness fun. Also I’m okay calling out my true friends and family when the craziness gets a little to close to promoting hate and they do the same for me. Of course, I will still probably excuse myself to go to the restroom or get a fresh cup of coffee if you start talking about this junk. If you aren’t in either of the previous two groups (i.e. we don’t have a genetic/familia connection or I haven’t personally spoken or corresponded with you in a long time) then you are fair game. Post your craziness at your own peril … well at least peril from my news feed, because there will be no actual peril for you in your real life. In your real life you can spew all the craziness you want too, because I won’t have to listen to it.
Now I understand that there have at times been actual conspiracies, of which I am very thankful for their discovery. I remember the Watergate Scandal and the Tuskegee Syphilis Study. I am thankful that these conspiracies were discovered and called out. I just don’t think the type of people pointing out these conspiracies were/are the same as those that are claiming a lot of the fear based things now. If the website you are linking to believes every conspiracy on the face of the earth, then I think it is safe to assume that their journalism isn’t of the highest quality (yeah I’m talking about you Infowars). If you find and post a genuine conspiracy or fear then I will be on your side. If you post something that ends up not coming true, or usually even close to being true, then you should be prepare to be nixed from my social feed.
I know this will crush you because it is so important that I read your posts. Just get back at me by “stoning” me too. I’m sure I will miss being able to see all you erudite links and posts. It will be tough but I’ll try to manage without them.
So unverified email forwarders and link posters beware. The stonings commence now.
SIDE NOTE – If you found this post via my Facebook feed, congrats you haven’t been stoned … Yet. If you didn’t see this post on my Facebook feed … Well … Uhm … This is awkward … Hey look at that very pretty stone right there.
SIDE SIDE NOTE – You should hold me to this same standard. If I make conspiratorial, fear based, false predictions/statements you should “stone” me too. I will also expect a cute little graphic telling me I have been stoned.
“future telling” is only one part, and not even the biggest part, of Old Testament prophecy. The MUCH larger part is “forth telling” or in other words, “this is what God has told you in the past that you seems to have forgotten about.” For purposes of this post I am just using the much smaller future aspect of prophecy. [↩]
I posted the above cartoon on my Facebook profile earlier today and it has lead to some interesting discussion. I actually posted the comic because I was considering this post and looking through some various images on Google that I was considering linking to from within the post. You see, I have been struggling with how I feel much of the Western church has been responding to the Ebola epidemic. This is just my opinion and I have no data to support it, but my online twitter and Facebook feeds (I can’t say this is true of my Google+ feed) seem to be full of people responding in fear to the crisis rather than in the hope that comes from the good news of Jesus.
I understand this fear. People want to keep their loved ones safe. If keeping those loved ones safe means not responding to someone else in need by either going to them with help or responding to them in hospitality (by which many have entertained angels without knowing it) within our own country, well that stinks, but you do what you have to do to keep your loved ones safe. I understand this type of fear. After all, I believe part of my duty as a spouse and parent is to keep my family safe.
Unfortunately that type of fear isn’t very Christian. Jesus didn’t come that we might receive a spirit of fear, which keeps us from responding to crisis, but a spirit of power, love, and disciple, which causes us to respond to crisis. In the 25th chapter of the Gospel According to Matthew the King (i.e. God) separates the faithful from the unfaithful based on whether or not they have responded to Him in certain circumstances.
The King says:
34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in,36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
“I was sick and you looked after me.” Whoa now! That could be risky. Of course, if you and I really believe that Jesus defeated death and therefore death no longer has anything for you and I to fear, then a little old disease shouldn’t stop us from taking care of our Lord in any of His most distressing disguises. There’s no need to fear something that no longer has a stinger. A stingerless disease can’t really have a major affect on us.
Christians are usually at our best when responding to the most need. Such as the Antonine plague of the Roman Empire.
This is why the Christian church has a history of running into disease devastated cities to be with and take care of the sick. There are records of Christians responding to plagues as early as the Antonine Plague of 165–180 AD. Christians ran into towns that everyone else was fleeing because they believed they had nothing to fear from the death the plague might cause, but tons to fear from not ministering to Jesus when He was sick. The church that follows the Christ Who defeated death has nothing to fear from death and we ought to act like it.
So what does this mean for those of us who are followers of Christ? Well it means we need to respond to our fears of the present disease (and future ones too) as we would to Jesus. Most of the Christians I know wouldn’t hesitate to do something if they knew it involved Jesus. If they saw Jesus sick they would stop and help. The problem is we often simply don’t see Jesus where we should. For example, in West Africa right now. If we Christians saw Jesus right now in West Africa we would do everything we could to make sure He was ok.
Well Jesus is in West Africa RIGHT NOW and we need to realize it and get to work taking care of Him. We need to do everything we can to send over all the aide and help we can manage (and maybe even more than we can manage) and we need to respond in hospitality to those that need to come over to the States. Will this open us up to risks? Yep, it sure will. It might not make for good foreign policy but it does make for true Christianity.
For a few years now I have been using this image of Brett Favre whenever I spoke about examples of evil during a message at a Tapestry worship gathering. I am beginning to think it is time to give #4 a break and beginning to acknowledge that there is another great example of evil that I could use during sermons. This new example of evil is the oblivious left lane occupant. ARGH! You left laners drive me nuts.
I am the husband of a fashion concious woman. I say fashion concious because I consider the word “fashionista” derogatory in the sense that I picture someone who is always buying and consuming clothes rather than someone who is developing a style. Anyhow this post isn’t about the wonders my wife does with her fashion style. Instead, I bring her up because she is a person who cares about the style of shoes she wears and whether or not they work with the outfit that she is wearing (I, on the other hand, have a couple of pairs of boots, black dress shoes, brown dress shoes, Chuck Taylor’s, and a closet full of old running shoes). It is because of her that I just noticed the shoes of the woman who just walked into Emy J’s. What did I notice about them? Not what brand (like I would even know), not what color, or what style. Nope what I noticed is that they were rather tall high heels with a decent amount of skin exposed, and it is icy and -9 degrees outside.
Woman you are crazy and in my opinion simply trying to hard. I understand, thanks to Pam, tht you want your shoes to look good with your outfit, but please go put some snow boots on and just carry your high heels until you get to where you are going. I promise there will be a place where ever you go for storing your snow boots. Pam can even point out some cute snow boots for you. That way your feet will be warm and I won’t have to worry about running into the parking lot because you just busted it and split your head open.
Recently I have run into several situation of plagiarism. Not in an educational or professional sense. Nope these situations have been plagiarism on things like online interactions and sermons. Its just odd to me. People copying things pretty much word for word for no other reason than the pride of having someone think the words were your own. No money, no grade, just pride.
Yeah plagiarism is stealing from some one else but you aren’t really hurting anyone if you use their sermon or sermon illustration without giving them credit (especially since many are put on the internet to be used), or you take an statement from somewhere on the internet to bolster your opinion and pretend like it is yours. Typically in such cases you aren’t taking money from the author’s families’ mouths. Yet you are making yourself look like some brilliant idea was your own. As if you created the content. It seems to smack of pride to me and the thing is that I not only really like people who create content but also those who just point to the created content. We usually call the pointers “resource people.” Resource people have a high value. I really appreciate knowing people who can point me to good content. I contacted two such people today for some recommendations. In fact, as I mentioned before, I heard a podcast describe how pointing is of extremely high value in our society now (consider Pinterest, an entire website dedicated to pointing). So why lie and claim something is yours when pointing to it is just as valuable.
The reason I post this quote tonight is because I just read a blog post that made me think of it. You should go to “Reason for Change” (a blog I haven’t read before but will start reading, if for no other reason than its wonderful tag line, “theology isn’t science; it’s art”) and read Jayson Bradley’s wonderful post “4 Reasons Christians Need to Quit Sharing Hoaxes.” Bradley does a great job of pointing out some reasons that many Evangelical Christians need to stop acting like idiots and posting ludicrous hoax posts on the web and especially their social media sites. For example, the Pastor Jeremiah Steepek hoax that is going around right now. It didn’t happen. It would have been great if it had been presented as a parable. Instead it was presented as a fact and that makes it a lie since it didn’t really happen. Really all you have to do is do a quick search on Google and you can quickly determine what posts are hoaxes. In my example a quick Google reveals that Pastor Jeremiah Steepek doesn’t exist anywhere else on the web except for pages telling this same story. That’s a pretty good sign it is fake but snopes it honest enough to call it undetermined as of right now. If it is undetermined then perhaps you shouldn’t post it until you can figure out if it is real or not. It doesn’t take a research specialist to figure this stuff out. Snopes people. Just go to snopes. If it isn’t important enough for you to do some research on the subject then it isn’t important enough for you to post about it.
Anyhow, Bradley’s second reason Christians shouldn’t post about hoxes is that “they spread fear.” He has this wonderful paragraph explaining what he means.
The Christian message to the world isn’t, “Hey, look how bad things are!” It’s “take heart, He has overcome the world!” We don’t have to share every sensational and scary story—especially when their truth is suspect.
That paragraph was what pointed me back to the Moltmann quote. The good news of Jesus Christ is centered on hope not fear. Hope is the tool of God. Fear is the tool of those who cling to this present age. Hope transforms and resurrects. Fear destroys and inhibits. Hope creates. Fear terminates. Jesus calls His followers to operate out of His hope not out of fear. So why are many Evangelicals spreading hoaxes of fear? Doesn’t seems like a good way to live out our faith in the One Who brings hope to the hopeless.
So come on people. Don’t be stupid. Google these things before you post them.
