Holiness at the Job

I was reading Luke today, and I came across John the Baptist's message. After he delivers a message of the Kingdom the exchange with the crowd goes something like this:

"What should we do then? the crowd asked.
John answered, "Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and
anyone who has food should do the same."
Even tax collectors came to be baptized. "Teacher" they asked, "what should we do?"
Don't collect any more than you are required to" he told them.
Then some soldiers asked him, "And what should we do?"
He replied, "Don't extort money and don't accuse people falsely - be content with your
pay."

With each person that asks the question, "What should we do?" John answers back with something that has to do with the faults of their practice. The rich want to acquire more. Those with food are ignorant of those without. Soldiers extorted money because of poor pay. There are ethical implications of how we live our life based on the message of the gospel.

Two thoughts. First, what is your occupation, and what is said of the people in your occupation? In what ways can you counteract this to be faithful to the message of the Kingdom. For example (sorry car dealers), but a used car salesman is thought of to be slick and dishonest. How would they work differently based upon Kingdom ethics and the character of God, which we are to all reflect.

Second thought...what are the ways you need to be more Kingdom of God oriented in your vocation? Where are the areas you've bought into the system of how your company does things that is anti-character of God? How do you treat employees? How are people paid? How are profits made (at the expense of others)? How do you get ahead? How do you keep bosses thinking you're productive? Etc...

I'm thinking about this in my own vocation? What is the great accusation against pastors? And then second, in what ways do I have to change in my work to better reflect the character of God? Yes, pastors have to do this too!

Holiness, pt. 1

I'm not talking about piety. I'm not talking about works in a way that leads us to be justified before God either...although working is a part. What I'm talking about is holiness as a reflection of who God is.

I'm currently reading Called to Be Holy by John Oswalt. It's for our denominations credentialing process, but I'm finding it very helpful. Not quite through, but what struck me as I was reading so far was how our call to be holy is not necessarily a sense of being set apart. This is what I had interpreted to be before. We are God's and therefore we are set apart. However, it has to do with much more than just a state of being set apart. It has to do with how our character reflects that of God.

Leviticus 19 is an entire chapter devoted to holiness and what it means. You know what some of the things that describe holiness are? What do you think...prayer? Meditation? Reading the Torah (still being written at that time)? No. It's honor your parents. It's not taking advantage of people. It's giving your workers the wages they are due. It has to do with character.

So when God initiates the effort to bring himself to us...to bring us salvation...it is more than just salvation as we think. He wants us to represent. He wants us to reflect His character and the things He's about. We change. We become more like Him. That's why it's so important to me as I read the pages of Scripture to look for the character of God. What's He like? That question then defines my pursuits of what I need to be like. God must work through me...refine me...to be more like him.

Take a read of Leviticus 19 and think of how you think of holiness. It'll challenge your character.

A Prayer

"God of justice, God of mercy, bless all those who are surprised with pain this day from suffering caused by their own weakness or that of others. Let what we suffer teach us to be merciful; let our sins teach us to forgive. This we ask through the intercession of Jesus. Amen.

Baptisms...

Yesterday was fantastic at New Hope as we were able to baptize 8 individuals. There was one of those baptized who gave a remarkable testimony. It was one of those time/days/services where you just sensed the presence of God in everything.

On a comical note, our dear pastor missed the last step in the baptistry and took a little tumble into the water. I've threatened to put it on YouTube, although it's not there yet!!!

Today the entire family is recovering from the flu we got mid-day yesterday...the reason why I'm a little inactive at writing right now.

Lightening, Thunder, and War

I was putting my youngest son, Christian, to bed tonight in the midst of a major thunderstorm. I'm talking about the type of thunderstorm where the lightning strikes and mili-seconds later there a a crash that shakes the house. I was sitting there trying to comfort him and put him to bed, and I got to thinking about those in war torn countries.

For me the explosion sounds around me were just from lightening and thunder, but there are many places throughout the world where the sound of explosions are a daily and sometimes even more frequent occurance as a result of war and sectarian violence. People live in fear for their lives, not knowing if the next explosion might be a little closer to home. Much like the inability to control where lightening crashes, they have no ability to control the chaotic state of affairs around them.

There is no resolve here, just in a very small sense a small insight into the fear so many in our world live in. I cannot imagine living in such a war torn state, but yet many of our brothers and sisters live it daily.

"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God."
Jesus in the gospel of Matthew

Justice in the Burbs

"In most human languages the New Testament word dikaios is always translated 'justice,' but in English, translators often choose to translate dikaios as the word 'righteousness.'"

Problem? Perhaps. When we read the word righteousness in the Bible we immediately think of something that has to do with us...some sort of spiritual state or worth that comes from what we do. A good word to sum it up is perhaps the word piety. However, when you think of the word justice, you think of something entirely different. You think of justice having to do with others. It's a mother being able to have enough food for a newborn child. It's people having homes rather than living in the streets. It doesn't only have to do with people getting what they deserve from the justice system (although that is a part), but it is basic human rights being met. It is us being unsatisfied with the lack of people being human, being treated as human, and being able to live as God created them to live as a human being.

As you read the Bible and see the word "righteousness" I encourage you to look at how it infers justice. Listen to the following excerpt from The Justice Creed:
...God blesses those who hunger and thirst for justice...
...And God's kingdom belongs to those willing to be persecuted for the sake of justice...
...The justice God desires, which he taught, must surpass that of the hypocrites...
...We believe the Holy Spirit is here now, convicting the world of sin and injustice...
- From Brian Mclaren
Justice in the Burbs p. 30

Our Newest Addition

Little Jacob has joined our family!!! Never would have I imagined us with four kids, but we have em'! Well, I have to be honest, he's not completely ours. He's our nephew. Ruby's sister just moved next door (which Rube's totally stoked about). We're taking care of Jacob while she works, so we have him 40 or so hours a week. I love the little guy! He has a great personality and eats a ton. He's a year and a half old, so that gives us a 4, 2, 1.5, and .5 year old kids running around the house. The first day was today and it went well. It puts a totally new definition to teamwork in marriage. I'm proud of Rube. She did excellent today with all the kids by herself and we did well working together tonight. Just thought I'd bring you everyone up to speed!!!

Airplane Conversations, pt 4

So at what point should I have beat my newfound friend over the head with the Bible telling her that she has to make a decision for Jesus right then, or else?...

I was very comfortable not doing so. My views on evangelism are changing a bit. The good ol' traditional evangelical evangelism would have been confronting her with her future and the possibility of our plane going down. Where would she be going? Heaven? Hell?

I see it differently. I didn't share before, but Ruby and I had changed seating assignments right before entering the plane. We got placed beside Caroline. My view on the whole thing, and what makes it much MORE comfortable for me to begin a coversation in the first place is the chance that I may have an opportunity to be someone in Caroline's journey. I may not force her to ask the question outright by my asking the 'saved' question, but I think what I did is far more significant. It's a conversation that enlightened her to the fact that all Christians weren't biggots or regimented in their beliefs. I know the conversation I had impacted me as it made me to think more deeply about my faith, and I believe it made her do the same.

I think often we (Christians) try to play God. We save the person. It's what we say that makes or breaks whether a person accepts Christ into their lives. Did we use the right language? Did we phrase the question the right way? How many of you have ever heard someone say, "Wow, after he asked me the question that way...that's what convinced me?" Who made us God? If we are so fortunate, God gives us the ability (like with Caroline) to speak into the lives of people and help them in their journey, but at no time are we the ones that save. That's God's job.

So for all you who are PETRIFIED of talking to people about Jesus...don't be. Don't think of it in terms of decision, think of it in terms of journey. For a moment in time you are able to share the relevency of Christ to the person. From that point on, it's the Spirit's job. Feel relieved? I know I do. Some may think I don't care about the eternity of the person by not posing the salvation question. I beg to differ. It's precisely because I do care about the eternity of a person that I do not feel forced to do so. I would much rather present the beauty of Jesus and the relevency He gives for this life rather than begin an uncomfortable conversation trying to convince someone of something they're not convinced they need. If they're not ready they get defensive and it turns into a debate.

People aren't projects...they're creation...God's creation. Treat them as such. Don't treat them as someone to win, but treat them as someone God loves. Show them God's love. Show them you care about their viewpoint, even if you don't agree. Jesus becomes much more convincing when He's represented in a way that isn't damning...when he's represented in a way that just wants to enter a plane, sit next to someone, and have a conversation about life.

Airplane Conversations, pt 3

Caroline had an interesting view of Jesus as well. He was a good man with an houra around him, but was there a necessity for Him to be God? Couldn't he just have been influential then? I shared with her why I believed there was a necessity for Him to be God, from a very redemptive standpoint. She then shared her belief there was no hell...therefore no need for redemption. She shared the Mormons believed hell was just living eternally in the absence of God. I couldn't agree more.


In the here and now, in this world, we live in a great tension. This place is run by Satan (as many New Testament writers and Jesus himself describes) yet there are so many elements of God's hand all around us. Some describe this place as hell, others as a fallen heaven. Both are correct. It is hell in that it is the absence of the full presence of God. It is a fallen version of heaven because heaven will be a redemption of earth...a new heavens and a new earth. So currently we have previews, although very limited, of both.

What Caroline describes as an eternity absent from the presence of God is for me the definition of hell. Hell is the result of the rejection of Jesus and His mission and its consequence is living in the absence of the presence of God. Where there is no presence of God there is hell. I'm not sure if we (or I for that matter) understand the significance of God's presence here and now. It is what is sustaining things and holding everything together (I don't have my Bible on me, otherwise I would reference that one :-). Without the presence of God, this place would be mass chaos.

We live in a time where miraculously there are glimpses of God everywhere. Why? In order to redeem. God is present here and now in order to redeem. When final redemption takes place we will live in the presence of God forever. Redemption will be final. The place described as hell will be void of God's presence and redeeming work, for redemption will be done. All that to say I believe the easiest definition of hell is what my seat-mate said: living in the absence of the presence of God.

Airplane Conversations, pt 2

One of the main reasons Caroline was so disgusted by religion in general was because of the use of power, force, and violence in the name of religion. I agree with her. Who can get away from the Crusades, the murdering and deception of Native Americans, the African Slave Trade? You can't. Even the current conflict in Iraq has religious undertones on both sides with the religious right sanctifying this as a holy war, hunting down the terrorists until we kill them all (kind of sounds like the mantra of the Taliban and Muslim fighters too, doesn't it...the only difference is we think ours is the RIGHT side).

Therein lies my conflict, and increasingly so as I continue reading Greg Boyd's book, The Myth of a Christian Nation. Both sides in the current conflict claim their own sense of righteousness, but I don't believe either side is correct. Neither have to do with the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom is NOT, let me repeat, NOT perpetuated by violence and the use of force (I'm very much identifying myself with my Anabaptist roots here). It is to be perpetuated by SERVICE and LOVE. Any other way of thinking you're spreading the Kingdom of God is contrary to the example of Jesus.

I resonate with Caroline at the disgusting use of force and violence throughout Christian history, even into the present. What would happen if we as the church would be leaders by example, serving and loving those opposed to us: the pro-choicers, the gay rights leaders, or anyone else who holds a less than conservative political view? In my opinion I don't think viloent opposition works. I don't think slander works. I think Jesus works. I think love works. I think treating people as though they were made by God, just like us...I think that works.

But we want results, and results most of the time come from forcing an opinion or way of thinking or way of doing things upon others. We live in that type of imperialistic culture, and it's not only our government...it's the corporations, and it's even the church. Believe now or go to hell! Kind of sounds like the cry of the Crusaders who gave their opponent a moment to choose God or else they would be killed.

See, Jesus, in every sense of the way we understand victory these days...he lost. He was killed. His followers were on the run. But it was through death and sacrifice people witnessed love. There is a story of the Black Plague where it was the Christians who went back into evacuated villages to care for those with the plague. They all died, but they died with those in need. In part, how did the Roman empire fall? A fire caused by Nero was blamed on the Christians. The Christians were therefore persecuted to great lengths...too much so. Nero's persecution of the Christians was what led to his downfall, because it was so extreme. Kind of poetic though, isn't it? The Pharisees wanted the fall of the Roman empire, and it came at the hands of Christians dying.

All this to say I believe the way we 'win the world', or perhaps in better terms...the way the Kingdom comes...is not by us forcing ourselves on others, but by us loving and serving (and sometimes dying) for them. It's subversive. It's Christlike.

Airplane Conversations, pt 1

Fascinating, absolutely fascinating conversation with a lady on our plane ride from Atlanta to San Diego. My attention was caught when I saw her reading a copy of the Dead Sea Scrolls...not the whole thing, but a rather thick informational piece that you would pick up from a museum or something. Out of curiosity I asked her what she was reading and why. I was suprised at her answer. She was reading just for history's sake, to learn about the Scrolls as she has been to Israel a few times. She was planning on going to see the display of the Scrolls which is now in her hometown of San Diego. This woman worked in Foreign Service and with the US government, sitting with top senators such as John McCain. We had a fascinating discussion about God and politics. Funny enough I'm sitting there reading Gregory Boyd's book, The Myth of a Christian Nation: Why the Quest for Political Power is Destroying the Church. She herself was raised a Mormon but was adamate about her newfound freedom away from religion. So here begins a series of posts regarding our conversation.

From the beginning she was very upfront that the freedom came from not being a part of a judgmental, constricted religion. Being raised Mormon she was very exposed to the rigidness of what much of religion is. Of course she found freedom in it. I actually find freedom in it as well, but in the context of being a part of the Christian faith without buying into, and being vocal and active against, any sort of religion that dictates peoples lives. A word on this...

My faith guides every part of my life, but it is God who guides me. He does it out of love, and many times He lets me fall on my face to expose the destructive nature of the way I'm choosing to go. He doesn't domineer me, but He loves me through (after all, it's the kindness of God that leads us to repentance). Reading Boyd has helped greatly in this insight of religions (including our own) that attempt to exert power over others. Perhaps because of lack of faith in the guidance of God and the conviction and guidance of the Spirit we who are a part of religion feel it's necessary to shape people into our mold. They must look and act like us. They must believe the same doctrine. Religion then becomes about conformity and less about service.

I realize some may then say there is a slippery slope you go down if you don't have the mold to live by. Perhaps. But are we taking too much responsibility trying to shape people into it rather than teaching them how to be shaped by God's Spirit? I think we place so much emphasis on our exertion of what we think is right that we don't allow people the freedom to explore faith the way the disciples did...over a period of years walking with God in the flesh.

So as I sit there listening to Caroline I'm thinking, "We're not really that far apart." Both of us see the constriction religion places upon its followers. As I shared with her, I've found freedom in following the Jesus of the gospels, who was very anti-establishment and very organic in loving people. If we did more of the loving and left the timing and formation up more up to the work of the Holy Spirit I believe there would be fresh hope for our faith and a newfound appreciation of the teachings of Jesus.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BUDDY!!!

This is our oldest, Conner. He turns 4 today, Tuesday, August 7th. He's one of the sweetest kids I've ever met, and while I'm a little biased it's the truth. He's our big man around the house, always looking out for his little sister and brother. This little guy can pitch a 26 mph fastball right into the catchers mit (it's been clocked already!) and has a swing that will someday hopefully rival Barry Bonds. I love my kids. each one has a special place in my heart...Conner because he was our first but also because of who he is. Love ya buggie!

Finishing the Trifecta!

It's done. My first official 'sermon series' of my ministry career (notice the sarcasm)! All in all, it went very well. God was good, and He taught me a good bit. I think about the call of ministry and I see how HUGE it is. I have the responsibility of teaching 300+ people the words of God. How I interpret things is what they'll hear. It's an amazing responsibility, but it's so exciting. I'm part of an incredible church that is eager to get to work. To help teach them and mobilize them is a great privilege. Not too much to say, just that I'm glad for the opportunity, for the call, for the faithfulness of God, and for an amazing faith community to be a part of. Love ya New Hope!

Bearers of the Message

"Bearers - not exclusive beneficiaries. There lay the constant temptation. Again and again it had to be said that election is for responsibility, not for privilege." L. Newbigin

I don't want to get off on the track of election and predestination, but rather responsibility. A guy said to me on Sunday after service something to the effect "I leave feeling bad (not his exact words)"...but then he corrected himself and he said "maybe not bad, responsible." I believe that's the bottom line for us as followers of Jesus: responsibility.

The gospel has been narrowly defined through a salvation that addresses on eternity, but not the present. As I grew up I understood salvation to mean heaven and hell, but as I go on reading the Bible and reading what fellow contemporaries are saying I believe salvation is much more than escapism, but it's new responsibility. It's a responsibility for us to be a part of the Kingdom here and now. It involves bearing God's image to those who have not seen it or believed it yet. There's a great responsibility.

Responsibility is different from beneficiary, which I believe is largely where the emphasis has been placed. Beneficiary looks at what is in it for me. It looks at how it effects me. In a way it's selfish, because it is so self-focused. Responsibility automatically implies action. I must do something now that I have experienced salvation. I must share this redemption with others and I must be a part of God's redeeming plan for the world that was initiated upon the fall, has gone on till present day, and will consummate when Jesus returns again.

Responsibility implies action. Salvation implies action. Jesus exemplifies action.

Therein lies my continued burden for the church - to be a people of action. To build bridges into our communities and to bear the light and life of Christ. It's bigger than going to church, it's about joining in the mission of Jesus. It is this mission I believe people want to be a part of. The mission of the redemption and reconciliation of all things. The more and more the church becomes about this the more I believe people will want to be a part of the church.

Thoughts?