Instead of a Show . . .

Instead of a Show - Jon Foreman

I hate all your show and pretense
the hypocrisy of your praise
the hypocrisy of your festivals
I hate all your show

Away with your noisy worship
Away with your noisy hymns
I stop up my ears when your 
singing ‘em
I hate all your show

Instead let there be a flood
of justice
An endless procession of righteous
living, living
Instead let there be a flood 
of justice
Instead of a show

your eyes are closed when you’re praying
you sing right along with the band
you shine up your shoes for services
but there’s blood on your hands

you turned your back on the homeless
and the ones that don’t fit in your plans
quit playing religion games
there’s blood on your hands

Ah! let’s argue this out
if your sins are blood red
let’s argue this out
you’ll be white as the clouds
let’s argue this out
quit fooling around

give love to the ones who can’t love at all
give hope to the ones who got no hope at all
stand up for the ones who can’t stand up at all
instead of a show
I hate all your show

Lost: A Dispatch From Brokenness

Lost: A Dispatch From Brokenness 

Location: Placentia, CA

Time: 10:27 P.M.

 

As I sit here in my new friend Merrick’s room I am lost within my thoughts, hopes, and prayers of the past two months. The pain of a failed relationship and the brokenness which still accompanies, the loneliness of youth, and the sickness of a parent whose situation still seems beyond my comprehension or reason. I have given up the search for reason and logic behind all of this pain. The reasons make little difference to the present impact and feeling of the moment. Yet as I sit here seemingly lost amidst, I am struck by how real this all is and how the reality of God is made known through the pain. I have indeed become lost in a sort of obsession.

This obsession of late is with the reality of brokenness and pain that exists in every facet of life. Make no mistake; this is not a sort of pathetic depression induced pity party (although the origins may or may not be of that kind) but rather a simple acknowledgement and peace with the reality that in all humanity is and does, we are broken and filled with pain. I do legitimately mean I find peace in the midst of pain, brokenness, and war. It is in the context of my pain that I discover power of true shalom. Even as I write this the incessant and annoying feeling of loss plagues me, but then a moment passes and grace falls with peace onto my heart and spirit. Amongst this, I am also more aware, in a powerful way, of the connections between brokenness and love. This should not be a surprise I suppose to many older and wiser Christians or even people for that matter, but to me this is a new realization in that this obscure theological talk is being brought down into the dirtiness of life. The paradox of the light manifesting itself with and in darkness has now been imprinted upon my heart as I see Christ and both Lord and suffering servant who endured all brokenness and death to give life. Only the words of peace and love can be placed with such power.

 I would not even post such a thing on a public blog except that I feel that this reality of God and situation is universal and therefore not solely mine. This I realize is an out of character post but I suppose I am changing out of “character” and into something more full and real . . 

 

 

 

Sincerely with love,

 

Luke 

Disciples of Love -> Disciples of Christ

I recently looked at a myspace profile of an old high school acquaintance and saw something that caught my eye. This particular person, in place of the usual religion labels, opted for the simple line "love is my religion". Disregarding the song it was pulled from, it seemed to me that this little line on a myspace page said a lot about how we "the church" are perceived and have damaged much of true Christianity in the west. Don't get me wrong, this is not yet another tiresome smear on the church but merely an acknowledgment of my own failings which I think others may share. Following this myspace encounter I was reading a book titled The Great Omission: Reclaiming Jesus's Essential Teachings On Discipleship authored by Dallas Willard, and this little story jumped out at me.

"Some time ago I came to realize that I did not love the people next door. They were, by any standards, dangerous and unpleasant people-ex bikers who made their living selling drugs.

They had never tried to harm my family, but the constant traffic of people buying drugs, a number of whom sat in the yard while shooting up, began to wear down my patience. As I brooded over them one day, indulging my irritation, the Lord helped me see that I really had no love for them at all, that after "suffering" from them for several years I would secretly be happy if they died and we could just be rid of them. I realized how little I truly cared for nearly all the people I dealt with throughout the day, even when on "religious business". I had to admit that I never earnestly sought to be possessed by God's kind of love, to become more like Jesus. Now it was time to seek". 

This may seem like a load of liberal pacifist hippie nonsense but the more I meditate on what it means to truly follow Christ the more this story resonates within me, and convicts. 

"For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect". (Matt. 5:46-48 ESV). 

After reading this scripture I saw just how limited I am when it comes to loving people, whether in a romantic relationship or with friends and family. The human capacity for love extends only just past our sense of self-worth and pride. I know this because I have been both the perpetrator and victim of this limited love just as everyone else on earth has been too. This is where my friend's myspace page comes into play. While she herself is not a Christian, she has this idea, albeit an incomplete idea, that there is something special about love. She longs for it. She seeks it. She knows that it is essential not just to live, but to even exist. She knows all of this to such an extent that despite her bad run ins with the organized church and its followers, she has listed love as her religion; as what she chooses to believe in and base her life on. This I think is what we all long for. Love. Forever lasting, passionate, vibrant, powerful, and beautiful love. But we miss the point so often it seems.

We seem to talk a lot in our evangelical churches about how we "have Christ" or how we have "accepted Jesus". There is nothing wrong with this but as I keep studying what biblical discipleship should look like I am becoming very worried. I am worried that we have blown it. Yes, we have Jesus the risen savior, but we ignore so much of what he has commanded especially in regard to love. In fact, I would wager that for someone to really follow his commands in our current church culture, they would be labeled one of two or possibly both of the following: Radical/liberal. Its interesting how we are so quick to label someone a Jesus freak for handing out tracts yet when we see someone in the church engaging social problems or talking to our society's criminals (sinners) we write them off as out of the ordinary and almost in opposition to our "Christianity".  

Maybe this just sounds like an arrogant rant, and if it does please let me know and we can discuss it, but the last few months has really been a time in which God has convicted and stretched me in regards to what it means to be a disciple. I want my friend, whose myspace I was on, to be able to look at me and know that I love her and that the love I have is a love that will never be destroyed because it is not of me. I want her to be able to look at Christians and feel love that will direct her to Jesus. There is nothing more freeing that abandoning all hope and sense of self-worth to Christ, and loving others. Please let me know what you think. I pray that God will guide and direct us to become true followers so that the "radicals" will be those not engaged in love rather than those who are. 

Love Perfected: Spiritual Insights From an Irish Poet

A few nights ago I was reading poetry with a very special lady friend of mine when she showed me a short story written by the 19th century Irish poet Oscar Wilde entitled The Nightingale and The Rose. There are many themes the reader can identify within this beautifully crafted narrative, but as I read it there was a very specific part that really tugged on my spirit. 

 As the reader nears the middle of the story, there is a line of dialogue where the tree that is talking to the nightingale explains that in order for the best rose to grow it requires the nightingale's lifeblood. True love is made perfect by death.

 This last part really hit me hard. I thought of how beautiful and sad this is, that true love means not just having the willingness to possibly sacrifice passionately and selflessly, but true love cannot even be true without the constant spirit of selfless, and at many times painful, sacrifice. 

I don't know why but I guess I feel that maybe this is something you might want to look at too.

 "Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends" - Jesus (John 15:13 esv).

Click here to view Oscar Wilde's The Nightingale and the Rose

A thought from the Beatitudes

"But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. To one who strikes you on the cheek offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back. And as you wish that others would do to you, so do to them" - Jesus, The Beatitudes (Luke 6:22-23).

Lately I have been reading through the Gospel of Luke, and as you can probably guess I have come to the Beatitudes. As I began reading through I was struck by how much I usually gloss over them. I mean, here are the actual words of God incarnate, and I skip over them as just something Jesus said on his way to the cross to give ME salvation. I am not trying to devalue the cross in any way, but I did realize that I do not take Jesus' actual words seriously enough in the here and now of life. This problem, I think, extends into the evangelical church at large.

A good example of this is, I think, would be the general attitude many (including myself) have had towards giving to the homeless. A common excuse for not giving money to the homeless goes something along the lines of "he'll just use it for alcohol", or "how do I know she won't just buy drugs?". But I think our attitude is all wrong. Christ says, "Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back". As I read this I am struck by how this runs contrary to the many of us in the west think and act. Jesus is showing us a way to live in which selflessness and humble giving are to be ruling principles, yet many of us in the church would balk at such a statement were it made today, and rule it out as "liberal tripe" or "the shallow Social Gospel of the left". We might say, "I have to work and I don't beg so its not fair or right for others to do so!" or "Why would I give up MY cash to a lazy beggar?!".  It seems to me, and maybe I'm wrong, that we listen more to the underlying philosophies of the enlightenment which stress our INDIVIDUAL rights, and we skip over these parts of the Gospel we claim to believe, which blatantly clash with our self -centered worldview. 

When I look at what Jesus said, did, and who he was I see someone who would be very unhappy with the western world and how we live our lives. I see him not just promoting or advocating, but commanding with heavenly authority to practice compassion, grace, and humility with totally lack of regard for the self and full regard for others. And when I see this I realize that I am guilty of not just disobeying, but flat out ignoring these commands. And I figure that just maybe many others in the western church may want to think about this too. . .

Everything Must Change: Jesus of My Suburbia

As I write this I am in beautiful Bakersfield, CA inside a brand new Starbucks coffee shop. For those who have been to Bakersfield you will get the sarcasm hahaha. This summer has presented me with a lot of opportunities to form out my thoughts with hands on experience. As a result, some things have come to light that I felt like throwing out on this blog, which sadly sits forgotten by its author for months at a time. So here it is!I am currently reading a book called Everything Must Change: Jesus, Global Crises, and a Revolution of Hope by

author Brian D. McLaren. This reading is on the tail of my finishing Tony Jones' The New Christians: Dispatches From the Emergent Frontier and Timothy Keller's The Reason For God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism. This reading list, set to the tune of Green Day's American Idiot album, has inspired quite the activist/revolutionary mood. I do not write out this list to bore, but to give some reference point to my current frame of mind and thinking. Ok. Back to McLaren. 

Let me say, I LOVE this book. It has already begun to stretch my mental framework, and I know it will continue to do so.  What I want to delve into is a specific part of Brian's book, namely the section dealing with the alternative emerging view of Jesus. When I first began this section I expected it to be a complete deconstructionist method with no real regard for scriptural integrity. Its not that I was accusing him of this, just that I could not see HOW he could back it up with any type of Biblical reference. As usual, the much more intelligent author proved me wrong. 

The section begins with Brian talking about the world's most pressing problems and how our modern western take on Jesus and his message has not only become domesticated, but domesticated into such a place that it actually gives credence and contributes to many of the global crisis we know face. This, I think, is an essential and vitally important realization that all Christians must at least examine with open hearts and minds. McLaren cites the typical end times eschatology of modern Christianity as a major cause of this domestication and deviation from the original Gospel message of the Kingdom of God. If we follow this line of reasoning, McLaren argues, the Gospel simply becomes about getting individual souls into a postmortem heaven, and encourages believers into complacency in the here and now, or into a sick kind of happiness when the world progresses towards destruction because who cares right? God is coming to destroy the earth anyways so if anything this human progress towards self destruction means that God can come back faster. Ok.

I will concede that this is a slight exaggeration onto what SOME Christians believe, but the sad truth is that this actually does represent the kind of subtle reasoning behind what drives much of the evangelical Gospel, at least in the more fundamentalist or even my own Southern Baptist roots. Here is the main thing I want to highlight. If we take the conventional view of Jesus and make the Gospel into ONLY about heaven, hell, and Jesus as a transcendent justifying sacrifice for our eternal destination, we are losing a great deal of what Jesus actually SAID. I am in no way saying that Jesus is not the savior of the World, or that we cannot be "saved" through justification by faith, only that the Gospel entails so much more. My friend Jim Grey, who pastors the church RegenerationLA explains how the central message of the Gospel, the Kingdom of God, cannot be divided and compartmentalized. He says that to Jesus, there was no separation between this life and the next. There is only the Kingdom of God. But this it seems, runs contrary to the way most modern Christians think of the Gospel. In fact, I am tempted to say that we, the average evangelical Christian, ignore or downplay a significant portion of the Gospel message and elevate other parts. It is common, in many evangelistic outreaches, to find people who think of Jesus as only a good teacher. We Christians would say that it is impossible, based on Jesus' own teachings to see him as ONLY a good moral teacher. I agree with this, yet it seems that at times we evangelicals are guilty of the opposite extreme as we relegate Jesus' "worldly wisdom" as somehow less important in the scheme of the Gospel message. It seems to me that when we make the Gospel solely about human salvation we are really just getting what benefits us without any real commitment to anything useful RIGHT NOW. McLaren would say that this leaves us with a Gospel more about Jesus rather than a Gospel message of Jesus. I think a both/and mentality needs to be applied in which we can have the Kingdom of God encompassing eternal salvation and the Kingdom now simultaneously. This rethinking may be uncomfortable, but we must realize that this rethinking is not new to the Church's history and should be welcomed with prayer and with the glory of God and his kingdom at the center. 

Don't Waste Your Pulpit: A Radical Call For Pastors and Lay-Christians alike to Live on The Scripture They Say They Hold As True

They Like Jesus But Not The Church: Thoughts regarding Faith, Emerging Generations, and Post-Christianity

Dan Kimball's latest book They Like Jesus But Not The Church is a book, which I feel every Christian should be reading or listening to. Although the title has gained some criticism, a friend of mine thought Kimball was implying that Christians could love Christ but not his bride (the church), I have found in it's pages words of truth regarding the spiritual state of my generation, and how the American church has responded. Maybe this all is starting to sound presumptuous, but let me say that Kimball is very sensitive to the church and does not criticize just to criticize. I will also say that in the conversations I have every week with people who are not Christians the words in this book are proven true again and again, and I have become increasingly aware of the post-Christian world in which we are all now engaged. While this may seem horrible to say, I think the fact that the world has rejected the traditional American/Christian ideals is a very good thing, and in fact more helpful to young evangelicals such as myself who see ourselves not in the midst of a culture war, but in the midst of life with friends and relatives who are seeking something real, authentic, and overtly spiritual to believe in. 

I think the part that really sticks out to me is how many of the people who are not Christians, in the book, view the Church as being just flat out ignorant and very uninformed regarding other religions and faiths. I have to confess, until this point I had a very basic knowledge of other faiths, but I had never taken the time to really study, and put myself into the human aspect of another religion's practice. I had never really read the Qur’an (I am at this moment) and tried to picture myself in a Muslim's shoes, searching for the answer to the great emptiness that is separation from God, and finding this different explanation. I think that the man in Kimball's book is right to a certain extent. We speak of other faiths as almost petty, low, and in some cases just stupid, when in fact we should be engaging them, viewing them not with contempt or condescending tones, but as another people's best explanation of life, answers to life's biggest questions, and an attempted fulfillment of the infinite longing for God. It is only when we come down and meet people with respect, that we as followers of the triune God can begin sharing the story of The father, the Son, and the holy Spirit, which holds all truth and mystery and life for all people. 

Getting High On Jesus

In this clip Pastor Mark Driscoll, of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, hangs out at Hemp Fest and asks how the BIble is confusing and if smoking a little weed can help us understand it better ; )

Moving Past The Instruction Manual

A Continuation Of A Changed Biblical Perspective: It seems that the more I learn the more I see how language is the key to any discussion. What I have always thought scripture to be, for example, was anchored in large part on how I was defining the various words and phrases such as, inerrant and God's word. Also from these definitions came my various doubts, disagreements, and (more often than the previous) a weird almost spiritual kind of discomfort whenever I would refer to the Bible as "the word of God".  

Inerrant word of God always seems to mean, when used by the average Evangelical, the clear spoken law and picture of God that is all truth, authoritative, and in some cases literally the word of God. There is no room for error or uncertainty and to question this means you are on a slippery path towards liberalism, and/or falling from faith (It makes me smile that those two should be associated with each other). It seems to me that this view of scripture is fine as long the overarching perspective from which it comes is addressed with a little more detail. Taken by one individual, this definition could mean that the Bible was literally spoken by God to an individual human being who then transcribed it onto paper (or papyrus... what have you). 

The problem I have had, until recently, was identifying that perspective. Where was I coming from, and what did I mean when I defined the Bible as God's inerrant word? A common view regarding what the Bible is would be the answer book/roadmap model which I mentioned in a previous post. It is the approach to scripture that is the foundation of this model that I, and I believe all Christians must move past.

The Transition: Although I knew that the Bible was not an instruction manual for life, I was defining my terms as if it were. I could not reconcile how the Bible could be 100% inerrant and authoritative. How could the "inspired" letters of Paul be taken just as authoritative as those words of Jesus Christ himself? And it seemed to me that our methods of viewing the Bible stripped it of its mystery since what we did not understand we would almost discard. The problem for me, and I think for a lot of young Christians, had been that I was approaching the Bible with mixed assumptions (Postmodern vs. modern?). I knew I could not say the Bible was literally the word of God in the way a lot of Evangelicals would, yet I had no way of verbalizing

my frustration that I knew the Bible was the word of God but not in the way it had been presented to me. The problem was in how I was approaching the Bible. My approach had been tainted by a definitional allegiance to the answer book model. I did not hold that model but since it was the only solid picture I had ever been presented with it was hard to disassociate from certain terms in that tradition. I was so rigid and rooted in my own modern method of reading and understanding books that although I knew when and where the Bible came from, my process of seeking answers was from a completely different method of understanding. My mental picture (if one was even possible) needed to change, and as it changed I began to see my perspective shift from the Instruction book model into something much more useful, mysterious, and in a way more certain (paradox?).  It is this new perspective on scripture (which I know is not really new at all) that will be addressed in my next post. Until then!

-Luke

Ray Comfort Analyzes A Very Powerful Clip From ER

Please watch this clip. As the video rolls see how reflective it is of our current culture and how it views the principles of truth and reality.

A cry against the False American Gospel from John Piper

Sola Scriptura!: Changing Biblical Perspectives

I must begin this post by saying that my own views regarding how the Bible should be viewed have been moving back and forth for some time now. Coming from a more conservative Southern Baptist upbringing I had always been, and still am, told that the Bible is the inherent word of God. Beyond this there was never any real explanation as to how or why it is the word of God, and as I grew older and progressed in my public education the idea of a book written by many different authors, including books whose authors are unknown, being the ultimate written expression of God, seemed both highly improbable and illogical. Add onto this the fact that it was put together some 300 years after Jesus Christ was crucified and it posed quite the intellectual problem for my faith. As I moved past the basic historical issues and discovered that realm of Christian Apologia, I was then forced to ask myself a question that to this day I have only begun to answer: Is the Bible inherent, and where does it fit into my faith? To most traditional Christians this would seem a question not worth asking because it is just simple fact that the Bible is breathed of God quite literally and is God's instruction manual, answer book, and road map to life. . . I think however that those Christians who would offer such a response have neither proper understanding of what scripture is, or what they are even saying when they use the terms inherent and God's word. 

I do not know if what I will offer will be of any value, but I sincerely hope that you will read, critique, and contribute to this important conversation, as it is an issue which I am positive we can always learn more. Until tomorrow!

- Luke

Cigarettes and Coffee: Emerge

Background: 
As I slid into a table seat at the Starbucks cafe' a block from my school, and opened my book I had no idea that my spiritual journey was about to take a very unexpected turn. This journey really began a few months earlier when I had attended the annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society (ETS) in San Diego, CA. This meeting was full of presentations from some of the most well known theologians and scholars of the western world. As I ventured from lecture to lecture I was both amazed at the intelligence of those who were presenting, and at the same time, dismayed. I could not help but feel, as I listened to each lecture, there was something missing from this conference. I mean, here we were in one of the most vibrant and exciting cities in the United States, coming together as fellow believers in Christ, and what should have felt like an exciting gathering of spiritual leaders and family felt more like a business seminar with the wonders of God and the scriptures being spoken of as mere figures and facts. I am no way attempting to judge or else cut down anybody at ETS, and the whole experience was not all dry, especially when John Piper took the main stage and delivered an amazing message about Justification, but coming away from ETS I was left with a sort of depressing feeling. Where was excitement and where was the passion?

Spiritual Awakening - Emergent Exploration: So here I sit after days of reading, meditating, praying, and yes... consuming unhealthy amounts of coffee and smoking my clove cigarettes. I had decided to begin a deeper exploration into the Emergent Village specifically because it has been the subject of such great debate and I have heard so much talk of people crying heretic and others calling it God's saving power for the church. Please note that I do not agree with everything in the books I will mention, but I am a firm believer in affirming truth, no matter the amount, wherever it may lie. All truth is God's truth. 

The book of the week has been the Emergent Village's publication An Emergent Manifesto of Hope, and what I have learned has begun to shape and transform me into a believer in a holistic faith which is vibrant and spiritual in nature. The first article written is authored by Mark Scandrette, a writer and spiritual teacher from San Francisco. In his introductory paragraphs Scandrette speaks of the loss of meaning that was once attached to the terms Emergent and the Emerging Church. He writes, "The increasing visibility, perceived credibility, and for some, scandal of the emerging church are threats to the spirit of what we mean by emerge - the primal humanity, vulnerability, and passion of a search for a way with God together in the world we live in". This quote, specifically the last two lines, really says a lot about the Emergent Village and the general theme among most of its members. It is inspiring and exciting to think of the Christian faith as an exploratory journey, forging a path to find how God wants us to live as believers with him on his Earth. This notion stuck with me right away and upon further reflection I affirm the explanation to it I just gave, but it must come (as with most spiritual  conversations) with a warning. We are on an exciting journey into what is, at times, the unknown, but this is not and cannot be, if we are truly Christ followers, the means and the end. A journey must have a destination. I will not pass judgement of any individual member of the Emergent Village, for I am very much in over my head and I have the highest respect for what they are trying to accomplish, but I will some up the warning with a quote from the upcoming book Why We're Not Emergent, by Kevin Deyoung and Ted Kluck. "In the music scene it's really cool to search for God. It's not very cool to find him". With so much going for them, I pray that the Emergent Village and those who follow them, myself included, will heed this statement and realize that vagueness and generality are not forms of humility. I fully endorse a holistic view of the Gospel message and I am inspired by the passion of the Emergent village and will continue to explore the Emergent holistic perspective. More to follow in part 2. . .

- Luke 

Walking Out the Front Door: An Introduction

Throughout the postmodern landscape, into which our western world is currently transitioning, truth has begun to transform. It has become a concept which revels in vague generality, and is communicated in much the same fashion. Terms such as "relative" and "subjective" truth are common in most academic settings, and popular theology and philosophy are no exception. This proliferation of the postmodern definition of truth has led to many good and useful changes within the Evangelical body, but has also been the source of much discontent and conflict. It is this transition that this blog will primarily focus on. What is this transitional period, what does it mean from a secular viewpoint, and what does it mean for Christians? These questions will be the driving force behind a large portion of the content presented. 

A Warning: I realize that this topic has been written about by many authors over the last few years, and cannot be summarized in one brief blog post. For that reason, this blog will be split into several posts, each dealing with a different subtopic. I also realize that I am woefully under-qualified for this task, being a second semester freshman. That being said, this subject has been at the heart of every crisis of faith I have undergone, every book I have read, and every discussion I have had at school and abroad within the past year. To sit back and write a blog without acknowledging this would not only be denying myself an outlet, but deceiving the one or two readers who will accidently stumble across my meager contribution, into thinking I am wholeheartedly and passionately presenting something of value when in reality I would be writing without purpose. Also, this is a "working" blog. By that I mean to say that as I continue to research and discover new truths and expose false ones, the direction of the posts may change slightly within the overall scheme of investigating what truth means within this departure from modernity. This is where my heart is, and it is my aim to present my ideas in a way which will, at the very least encourage the reader to engage in open dialogue, and at the most bring them closer to truth.

- Luke Wright