The England Journal: Sermon

This is the sermon that I was planning on teaching the Sunday we were in Loughborough, but ended up using it as the basis of the discussion on Wednesday night. It's pretty long, but I would be interested in the thoughts of the blogworld on it.

We’re going to look at three different Scriptures today, from all over the Bible, but you’ll be able to see some relation between them as we go through them.

The first one is in 2 Kings 7, and to give you some context here. Samaria is in a famine and on top of that a city in Samaria is being besieged by the Arameans. Prices have risen so high that the Samaritans are paying the equivalent of five pounds of silver for a donkey’s head to eat, and let’s remember here that donkeys were unclean. So here we have a famine and they’re under siege by Arameans. And into this story, we come to verse 3 of chapter 7.

^{2Ki 7:3} Now there were four men with leprosy at the entrance of the city gate. They said to each other, “Why stay here until we die?

^{2Ki 7:4} If we say, ‘We’ll go into the city’—the famine is there, and we will die. And if we stay here, we will die. So let’s go over to the camp of the Arameans and surrender. If they spare us, we live; if they kill us, then we die.”

^{2Ki 7:5} At dusk they got up and went to the camp of the Arameans. When they reached the edge of the camp, not a man was there,

^{2Ki 7:6} for the Lord had caused the Arameans to hear the sound of chariots and horses and a great army, so that they said to one another, “Look, the king of Israel has hired the Hittite and Egyptian kings to attack us!”

^{2Ki 7:7} So they got up and fled in the dusk and abandoned their tents and their horses and donkeys. They left the camp as it was and ran for their lives.

^{2Ki 7:8} The men who had leprosy reached the edge of the camp and entered one of the tents. They ate and drank, and carried away silver, gold and clothes, and went off and hid them. They returned and entered another tent and took some things from it and hid them also.

^{2Ki 7:9} Then they said to each other, “We’re not doing right. This is a day of good news and we are keeping it to ourselves. If we wait until daylight, punishment will overtake us. Let’s go at once and report this to the royal palace.”

To give more context to this we have to understand the condition of lepers. They were the outcasts of society. Worse than dogs. Worse than Madonna. So bad that they had to live outside the city gates. They were untouchable. They had to yell “Unclean!” anytime anyone came near them. And things were so desperate for them that they were willing to go to the enemy that was putting them under siege them to beg for food.

However, the most important thing to notice is their reaction when they discover the Arameans are gone. At first they are selfish and greedy. They eat and drink and hide things. But then, it’s as if their eyes are opened and they realize the problem with what they’re doing. They’re not sharing good news with everyone who can benefit from it. So they go back to the city.

Now, the obvious lesson we can take from this is that we should not be greedy with our faith. That we should share with everyone we come in contact with. As Francis of Assisi said, “Preach the Gospel at all times and if necessary, use words.” However, I’d like to look at this from a slightly different perspective. I want us to look at the focus. The lepers, the outcasts. These are the ones bringing the good news back. And with that we have to note the prominent position that the poor, the downtrodden, and the marginalized play in the Kingdom of God.

One of the primary components of the Kingdom is that it works completely differently from the power structures of this world. In this world, the rich, the strong, the mighty are the ones that have the power. In the Kingdom, it is the ones who are weak, the ones who are dependant, the ones who are the least of these. This is a critical component of the Kingdom because it causes us to realize that all the ways that we try to create power for ourselves, whether in business or relationship, have no bearing in the Kingdom and have no eternal significance.

Philip Yancey, in The Jesus I Never Knew, says that God seems to have a special preference for the poor and the downtrodden. In fact if we look at the people that God has chosen to bring His message through it seems to be a who’s who of people that you wouldn’t expect.

Here we have the lepers and I think we’ve covered them. Both Saul and David were not the ones expected to be the King of Israel. As we get into the New Testament, the list gets even more unlikely. The book of Philemon shows that slaves like Onesimus prominently figure into Paul’s picture. The book of Philemon leaves no doubt in this. Tax Collectors who were considered collaborators with the Roman empire join with Jesus in spreading the good news. Look at Zaccheus and Matthew. Women are used in the spreading of the kingdom from Mary Magdalene telling the disciples about the empty tomb and the risen Jesus, to the woman at the well running back to tell the village about this man that knew more about her than he could have possibly known, even to Jesus’ mother Mary. I mean think of it, one of the first people in the world to know and to understand what the coming Kingdom of God would mean was a teenage Jewish girl in a backwater of the Roman Empire.

And let’s ponder that fact for a second. Jesus is the only person in human history that could choose his parents. And whom did he choose? Did he choose to be the son of Augustus Caesar the Roman Emperor of the time? Did he choose to be the son of the High Priest of Israel? Or even the son of Herod? No. He chose two Jewish people, not even from Jerusalem, who were obviously poor, as we see from the sacrifice they make at the temple in Luke 2:24. Had they had the money, Mary and Joseph would have sacrificed a lamb instead of two doves.

This is even further reflected in Jesus’ first public teaching in Luke 4:14-29.

^{Lk 4:14} Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside.

^{Lk 4:15} He taught in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.

^{Lk 4:16} He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read.

^{Lk 4:17} The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:

^{Lk 4:18} “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,

because he has anointed me

to preach good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners

and recovery of sight for the blind,

to release the oppressed,

^{Lk 4:19} to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

^{Lk 4:20} Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him,

^{Lk 4:21} and he began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

We see here the statement that God has come to bring good news to the poor and the downtrodden and oppressed. And it’s obvious that the people of Nazareth had no issues with what Jesus says here, because verse 22 says that the people spoke “gracious words” about him. They were oppressed by the Romans and here was Jesus saying that this Scripture (quoted from Isaiah 61) was coming to pass with him. And to them this meant that the Romans were going to be overthrown and the Kingdom of David would be restored; in other words, a physical Kingdom.

But then look at verses 28 and 29:

^{Lk 4:28} All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this.

^{Lk 4:29} They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him down the cliff.

Huh? What happened in the intervening verses to make the people of his hometown so angry that they would want to kill him?

Verses 24 through 27 give us the answer.

^{Lk 4:24} “I tell you the truth,” he continued, “no prophet is accepted in his hometown.

^{Lk 4:25} I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land.

^{Lk 4:26} Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon.

^{Lk 4:27} And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.”

What does Jesus say that makes them so angry? He includes Gentiles in salvation! He includes people who were not of Abraham’s covenant in the prophecy from Isaiah! If his coming was heralding the overthrow of the Gentiles how could Gentiles participate in the Kingdom?

This is another one of the misunderstandings about the Kingdom that people had during Jesus’ life and continue to have today. In Mark 10, when James and John ask for them to be at Jesus’ side in the Kingdom, they’re not asking about spiritual positions; they’re asking about places of physical power. Even after the Resurrection, the disciples still don’t understand. Acts 1:6 shows that the disciples are still thinking that the Kingdom is going to come physically. Only after receiving the Spirit in Acts 2 do they understand the truth: the Kingdom of God is a spiritual reality that has physical manifestations.

The good news of the Kingdom of God is about surprise. It’s about unexpectedness. It’s about God being available to everyone and it’s our responsibility to be aware of that and be a part of that mission. We have to be about preaching the good news to the poor, we have to be about all of these people Jesus mentions here, because that is a part of our mission.

We have to be willing to die to ourselves and go places that we might not be comfortable and befriend people we might not normally befriend. There is such a tendency for Christians to insulate ourselves against the world to avoid being “contaminated” that we forget the primary mission Jesus gave the disciples before he ascended in Matthew 28:19. “Go and make disciples of all nations….”

Notice that he says “Go!” Not bring them somewhere. Go to them.

Because honestly, that’s what he did for us. He came down from where he was. He came down from his place in glory. The beautiful passage in Philippians 2 tells this story:

^{Phil 2:5} Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:

^{Phil 2:6} Who, being in very nature God,

did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,

^{Phil 2:7} but made himself nothing,

taking the very nature of a servant,

being made in human likeness.

^{Phil 2:8} And being found in appearance as a man,

he humbled himself

and became obedient to death—

even death on a cross!

^{Phil 2:9} Therefore God exalted him to the highest place

and gave him the name that is above every name,

^{Phil 2:10} that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,

in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

^{Phil 2:11} and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,

to the glory of God the Father.

If this was the attitude of our Lord to us, how can it not be ours to others less fortunate than us, especially if we are supposed to be Jesus to the world? May God give us the strength and the courage and the dependence on Him to do His work in this world. May He give us the dependence on Him and the dependence on each other for this work.

For those that have ears, let them hear.

Final Thoughts

The England Journal: Pictures

The Loughborough Church of Christ

Looking Down through the
Market to Loughborough Town
Hall

The jetlagged team

Angie in a rare happy mood

Hopscotch on Sunday Afternoon

Rehearsing for the Skits

Cups!!

The
Monday Afternoon Tea Trivia
Champions

At
Mt. Saint Benard's Abbey (My
Fave Pic)

Bradgate Park

Paul Hill, in Matrix Mode

A couple of cutups

Banana Piranha!!!!

Kinsey and her Dan (Oh,
yeah, and Kasey)

Let's all go Bananas!!!

Is that a face in your pie, sir?

She's 4. Hopefully she'll
grow out of it.

Kinsey and her new friend, Loren

Kinsey at Chatsworth

The girls in the maze

The Americans descrating
the grounds of Chatsworth

Kinsey and Daddy in Chatsworth

Off to Hogwarts

Is that the Queen?

The Family at Trafalgar
Square

On the London Eye

Tubing after the Lion King

At the Covent Garden Market

The London Eye

Piccadilly Circus

Up the front of Westminster
Abbey

Westminster at night

The back of Westminster

Blurry Ben

The Sermon

The England Journal: Sunday, October 23

Home. At last.

I’m very glad to be here. As much as we loved England and the time that we spent there, there’s no place like home.

We caught our taxis at about 9 this morning, with very little room to spare inside the vehicles for us, our bags, and Michelle’s cement samples. Then we flew through the city to get to Heathrow. It was my first time going to the airport by not using the Heathrow Express so that was kind of fun. Heathrow was fine and we got on our plane.

The neverending flight. Seriously, I thought that this flight was never going to end. Not because Kinsey was bad or there was a lot of turbulence, it was just a long flight. And unlike the flight to London, there were no good movies. Sure there was Bewitched, but after a promising first half, the last half was absolutely horrible. I watched a couple of episodes of CSI and tried to read. However, we got to Chicago finally.

And Chicago was no fun. We had to get all of our luggage (including Michelle’s) and go through Customs and then recheck all of our luggage. I understand that that is how it has to work, but man, it was a serious hassle.

We hung out for our flight to Nashville, and then learned that our flight was over its weight limit and they needed some people to volunteer to take a later flight (incentives offered of course), so Bart offered to stay behind, with the joke becoming that Michelle’s luggage bumped Bart off.

We finally got back to Nashville at about 7:30 and some of the people from church were waiting for us along with my mom and dad. Kinsey had to introduce everyone to her Gee (my mom). We hugged everyone and being kind of tired of being with them, left and got home at a decent time.

I’m glad to be sleeping in my own bed tonight.

Non Journal Note:
Well, that's the end of the journal. I think that over the next couple of days I'll post some pictures of the trip and then on Friday I'll post some of my post trip thoughts.

Pictures

The England Journal: Saturday 22 October

Well, this was an interestingly great day. We got out on the Tube at 10:30 to go to the London Eye, that Sheryl and I had done before in 2000, but we wanted Kinsey to go on it. We met up with 6 other team members and the 9 of us did it together. It was great and Kinsey had a blast. We got some really great pictures up there.

From the eye, the three of us went with Lesley Cromer and Chris Adcock over to Westminster where we got the obligatory pictures of Big Ben and Parliament (“Look kids! Big Ben! Parliament!”) and then over to Westminster Abbey, my favorite place in all of London.

Unfortunately, it’s not very kid/stroller-friendly. We got to see quite a few things that were great: the Tombs of Elizabeth I, Henry V, and Richard the II. I went over to Poets’ Corner again and saw all of the memorials to the British writers: Wordsworth, C.S. Lewis, Shakespeare, Austen, and the tomb of Geoffrey Chaucer. I even got the experience of doing some quiet time in a little chapel, called St. Faith’s Chapel. It’s a small chapel built around 1250, and it was a great place to calm down and meditate on God and just kind of take a break from all the tourist stuff.

After that, Kinsey started getting cranky/tired, so we headed out, just as she fell asleep. On the way up Whitehall Street, we met up with Tracy Dean, another team member, who’d been out alone. We all went to an Italian restaurant for a late lunch, then to somewhere else Sheryl and I hadn’t been before, the Covent Garden Market.

It, too, was amazing. It’s basically an outdoor mall, but it was so packed with people that I sometimes felt like I was using Kinsey and her stroller as a battering ram. We finally got down to a less crowded place call the Jubilee Market Place, where we picked up a few souvenirs.

At this point, it was time for Tracy and Lesley to get to their show for Saturday night, Guys and Dolls with Ewan McGregor. Chris stayed with me, Sheryl, and Kinsey and we went back to Leicester Square and just saw tons and tons of people. We decided to take Chris over to Piccadilly Circus since it was dark and all the lights would be on. We did and it was very cool.

We decided to head back over to Westminster and get some night shots of the landmarks. We did get some great ones and then headed back to the hotel.

Which is when things got interesting.

I waited in the lobby for Bart to come back from Guys and Dolls. While I waited one of the girls on the team came back and said that her purse had been stolen when she was out. She wasn’t as upset about the purse or the cash as she was about her camera and her pictures, including some of me, Sheryl, and Kinsey. I completely understood how she felt. It made the night a bit more traumatic.

Bart and I ended up going out anyway and talked about a lot of things. It was a great time and I was glad we had the chance to do that. We went back to the hotel and I had another conversation with another member of the team for a while. I don’t know how much it helped, but I tried to be a listening ear.

We have taxis for tomorrow to take us to Heathrow, so since it’s 1:45, I’m going to try and get just enough sleep to be ready for tomorrow.

Sunday 23 October

The England Journal: Friday 21 October

This ended up as a pretty good day. We got to the Loughborough train station at about 7:20 with Norman (forgot to get a picture with him and Brenda though; I’m really disappointed with that). Kinsey did pretty well on the train by falling asleep. It was really crowded for one stop up to Leicester, but then a bunch of people got off and all of us could sit down and put our luggage up.

We got into London about 9:45. At that point, four of the team got taxis to get all the luggage to the hotel, including the luggage from Michelle Irwin, the missionary who lived in Loughborough before returning the States. Michelle also apparently collected bricks and cement samples from how heavy the bags were. Kinsey and Sheryl were two of those on the taxis. The rest of us got on the Tube at King’s Cross (passing Platform 9 ¾) and got off at Bayswater. We took a slightly circuitous route to our hotel, Princes Square Kyriad. But once we got there, we saw that our luggage and our team were waiting for us.

We took a slight breather, then headed our again. Another member, Lara Beth, and I had to run back to the hotel and grab a couple of things and we ended up meeting the team at Buckingham Palace. We walked back up toward Trafalgar Square where the English government was preparing for the 200th anniversary of Lord Nelson’s death and they were doing some very cool stuff with the decorations around the square.

We went on up to Leicester Square, which is a place Sheryl and I didn’t get to see when we were here in 2000. We had lunch at Pizza Hut with Kinsey while the rest of the team went to a noodle bar. After that, we all Tubed over to the Tower of London, where Kinsey fell asleep, which was good since we had a late night planned. We all went ahead in anyway, since we were paying for it, but most of us didn’t stay long. Sheryl and I didn’t go to much of the things that we saw before, mainly due to Kinsey being in her stroller, but we did get to see the Crown Jewels again.

Sheryl, Kinsey, and I separated from the group at this point, since we were going to a different show than them (us to the Lion King; them to Les Miz). We took the Tube back to Trafalgar Square where we went to the Texas Embassy restaurant for supper (good old Tex-Mex). From there, we went up to the Lyceum theater to see the show.

It was spectacular. The way they did the animals was incredible with puppets and stilts and costumes. And best of all, Kinsey loved it. She watched every second and clapped at the end of every song and gave a standing ovation at the end. She was quiet while it was going one and just absolutely loved it.

After the show, we Tubed back to the Hotel and Sheryl and Kinsey went to sleep, while I went out to the lobby to wait on the rest of the group that went to see Les Miz. It’s 1:30am now and I’m giving up and going to be.

Saturday 22 October

The England Journal: Thursday 20 October

A gorgeous day today. The sun was shining, the sky was mainly blue, and the countryside was amazingly beautiful. Today we drove about 90 miles northwest of Loughborough to Chatsworth, the home of the Duke and Duchess of Derbyshire.

The house itself was amazing with its paintings and sculptures. Kinsey was not on her best behavior though and like any four year old, wanted to touch a lot of things that she wasn’t supposed to. Thankfully, the house part didn’t take very long, and we got out to the grounds.

The grounds were absolutely stunning. The gardens were blooming with flowers and there were a myriad of paths to go down. We went through a coal tunnel where the servants had extracted coal from and we did a maze on the grounds that took me about 15 long minutes to get through. We imitated statues, took amazing pictures, and generally just had a lot of fun.

We’d also planned on taking Kinsey to a farmyard, but it was an extra cost, so we decided to forgo that.

When we got back to Loughborough, we prepared for another night with some of the youth. We had the huge fish and chips again, woke Kinsey up from her late nap (again), then met with everyone.

We had another blast, playing the biggest game of NERTs I’ve ever played (people running to where they could put their cards), played Mafia, then had a short devo. We said goodbye to everyone and again just were amazed at the closeness of all of us.

We got back to the Hills pretty late and had to pack for an early train tomorrow, which meant none of Norman’s stories. Kinsey fell asleep about midnight, so we’ll see how all the travel to London goes. I’m looking forward to it, but I know that I’m going to miss this town a whole bunch.

Friday 21 October

The England Journal: Wednesday 19 October

Well, first off, Kinsey’s fever was gone this morning which was fantastic. The night’s sleep did her a lot of good.

This was the last day of the HBC and it went great of course. A couple of the kids didn’t come back because they went away on holiday, but we had a great group still. We did all the fun songs and played a few more games and just had a whole bunch of fun.

After the HBC, many of us worked around the church for a while helping organize a lot of the cabinets and supplies in the back of it. I actually ended up at Marks’ place for a while to download some pictures to a disc so that I had plenty of room on the memory cards were Chatsworth and London.

Others went to a senior center and entertained them and got entertained. They all said that they had a blast.

After we got done, we ate and then got ready for the church meeting that night. There were about 40 people at the service, including us, and I did my talk that I had planned for Sunday and just adjusted it for a discussion time. I thought it went really well and got several compliments from people, which was nice.

At the end of the service, Mark gave all of us historical picture books about Loughborough and thanked us for the work that we’d done this week, and we ended the night with some really good fellowship and amazement at how close we’d grown with this congregation in just 4 days.

However, Kinsey fell asleep at 6pm again and woke up at 8, which meant that she didn’t fall back asleep until 1am again. She still seems to be on Nashville time somewhat and I’m really scared she’s only going to be on England time when we get back home.

Thursday 20 October

The England Journal: Tuesday 18 October

Today was another tough/good day. Kinsey woke up with a fever again and a very wet (or chesty, as the English say) cough. We gave her some Tylenol and then Sudafed and she fell asleep very quickly and slept for almost two hours. We think it was the medicine cocktail.

At HBC today, I played Gideon in a skit with Dan Norton and Amanda Vick, the Banana Kids (Rotten and Ripe, respectively). It was a lot of fun and we’ve heard some great stories about how much fun the kids are having, as well as seeing it first hand from the. I’m kind of sorry that tomorrow is the last day.

After HBC, Mark took us to see some sites around Loughborough. We went to Mount Saint Bernard Abbey, just outside of Loughborough. We got some really great shots of the church and the area around it, including a really nice walk called the Calvary walk. Although Mark apologized for the lack of sun and blue sky, Sheryl and I found it a quintessentially English day.

From there, we went to Bradgate Park, where the ruins of the house that Lady Jane Grey lived in. It’s another beautiful countryside area and we got another slew of great pictures (I’ll have to buy another memory card tomorrow).

We ate supper back at the church and then did the young adult meeting. We did some icebreaker games and then Dan gave us some spiritual chewing gum about life and the lack of promise for ease in life. It led to some great discussion and thoughts from both the Brits and Americans. Then we hung out some more with the gang and I got brought back to Norman and Brenda’s.

Kinsey still has a fever, but we’re not giving here anything tonight in the hopes that it breaks finally. Tomorrow, the last day of the HBC and the Wednesday night meeting.

Wednesday 19 October

The England Journal: Monday 17 October

Last night didn’t end up very easy. After Kinsey went down, she didn’t fall asleep until 1:30am, probably because she fell asleep at 6pm at church and woke up at 8. I’m afraid her body is still adapting to England time. She also woke up with a slight fever, but we gave her some Tylenol and she was fine of the rest of the day.

This was also the first day of the HBC, and it went very well. We had 18 kids and they all had a blast. I noticed one girl that hadn’t been at church, so that was nice. The kids did really well and we really liked talking to them, singing songs like C-O-C-O-N-U-T (just don’t reverse the song…) and the Hippo song and telling the story of Noah.

After the HBC, we had lunch until 1:30, then had afternoon tea with some of the older members of the congregation (and with all the eating today, I understood what the Hobbits were talking about with “Elevensies” and “Second Breakfast”). We also did a trivia game with them and it was a lot of fun. From 4 to 5:30, I wandered around Loughborough for a bit looking for an electrical travel adapter and a couple of other things. I came back for dinner and then went to Mark Hill’s house for some guys’ time together with a few of the young adults. We laughed a lot and told some jokes.

I came back to Norman and Brenda’s house where Sheryl put Kinsey down and then we listened to Norman tell more stories. He quite literally has a million of them, and they’re all hysterical.

Tomorrow for more HBC.

Tuesday 18 October

The England Journal: Sunday 16 October

Another very full day. We got off the church at about 9:45, which is late for my family’s usual leaving-for-church time of 7:10. We went to the Bible class taught by Paul Hill, Mark’s cousin. He was very entertaining and he had some interesting thoughts. Tony Saunders spoke at the worship service and I liked what he had to say about Priorities and was sorry to hear about the death of his 20-year-old grandson who died on Thursday of cancer.

We had a meal in the building behind the church for lunch and after that sat down to plan the HBC. Several of us then made a run to Sainsbury’s (a supermarket) for supplies and then to Woolworth’s, which I didn’t know still existed. We came back and did some painting for the HBC backdrop. We came back out to the auditorium for the evening service, then had snacks, and finally, Chinese for dinner. My family went back to Mr. and Mrs. Hill’s house where he and I forced Sheryl and Mrs. Hill to watch football highlights. Norman told some great stories and now we’re off to bed.

Monday 17 October

The England Journal: Saturday 15 October

Well, the trip was a really good one. First off, it was the first mission trip for my entire family: me, Sheryl, and Kinsey. Secondly, it was to England. More on that on another day perhaps...

Anyway, here's the journal starting from the Saturday...

Saturday 15 October

This was a pretty difficult day travelwise. We left Nashville at 2:30 pm on Friday and got to Chicago at about 4. After our layover, we took off at 6:30. I had a great flight myself. Apparently slept for 5 hours and halfway through Batman Begins. Kinsey slept for about 4 and Sheryl for almost 1. She did not have a good flight at all. But we landed at 8 am at Heathrow.

Travelling through Heathrow wasn’t very fun either, trying to drag our stroller and bags and the rest of our stuff, plus simply traveling with 11 people at varying speeds. We got through customs and onto the Heathrow Express pretty well. From there, it was a quick walk over to St. Pancras station, then a fast run to the 10:30 train for Loughborough, which we got to just in time. We had to spread out over a lot of the train and find little holes to put our luggage. Both Kinsey and Sheryl fell asleep and I worked on my sermon.

It took us about 90 minutes to get to Loughborough and get picked up by Mark Hill, the paid minister at the Loughborough church. He took us to the building itself (built in 1889 for 500 pounds). We dropped some of our stuff off and went out on the town for a bit. There was a fair going on so we wandered around that and ate lunch at a little Italian place.

After lunch, we wandered around the town some more: walking through Queen’s Park, seeing the parish church of Loughborough and I even got a Chelsea Football Club jersey for 25 pounds. We went back to the church to pick up our stuff, and then went to Mark’s place to plan for the week.

It was there that I learned that I wasn’t actually preaching on Sunday, something I’d been really looking forward to. There had been some miscommunication and there was another preacher scheduled to come in. I was obviously disappointed, but it seems like a good opportunity to learn some well-deserved humility.

We talked about the rest of the week and then went out and got some fish and chips for supper. Holy cow, their fish are huge. You have to hold the whole thing in both hands and they don’t skimp on the chips either. As a result I think the six of us left at Mark’s house went through a couple of bottles of ketchup.

After supper, Mark took me, Sheryl, and Kinsey to his parents’ house where we’re staying (although they don’t get here until tomorrow). I ended up watching some football highlights while Sheryl got ready for bed. And now to bed, where we’ll quickly collapse.

Sunday 16 October

Home

Thanks for all the words of prayer and support. It was a great trip and I can't wait to type up my journal for all of you.

Getting Better

Thanks for all the prayers, gang.

She went "home" early last night and ended up sleeping for about 11 hours. She had a fever when she went down and a smidge of one this morning. We didn't give her anything and by the time HBC was over, she was all better.

This afternoon, she's back to being her normal bossy self. So thanks again for the thoughts and prayers.

I am keeping a journal of the days and I'll post that when I get back.

Thanks again.

Kinsey's sick

Hey y'all.

Kinsey's come down with a fever each of the last two nights and today's lasted longer than Monday's. Please pray that she gets over it quickly. She's tough enough now just going to the church. I can't imagine trying to get around London with her in this condition.

Thanks.

From Loughborough

Hi all. Greetings from here in England.

Had the first day of the HBC today and it went very well. Had a lot of fun with the kids. Didn't do my sermon yesterday, but that's a story for when I get back.

Thanks for the prayers and I look forward to sharing the stories when I get back.

Off Across the Pond

Well, here we go again. For the second time in my life, I'm headed to England with my wife and now with my 4 year old daughter as well. Twelve hours from now, we'll be at the airport getting ready for our 2 hour wait until we get on the plane. We're looking forward to spending some time there with the people of Loughborough and ministering to them and getting ministered to by them.

I probably won't blog while I'm there, but when I get back, I'll post the journal that I'll keep while we're there. Pray for us while we're there to maintain our energy. Pray that Kinsey is well behaved. Pray for me that I'll get my sermon for Sunday written before jetlag sets in.

Thanks to all of you and we'll talk when we get back.

Vespers Service

I spoke last night at Otter Creek's Wednesday Night Vespers service. The Scriptures referenced are Amos 5:6-7, 10-15; Hebrews 3:1-6; and Mark 10:17-31. Here's what I said:

The Scriptures tonight are not my favorite in the Bible. In fact, they are some of my least favorite, because they speak so strongly to my spiritual condition that I find them hard to deal with in a way that allows me to be comfortable.

The Amos one contains some of the harshest language in Scripture towards those in a place of power. Maybe the only harsher words are to religious people later in this chapter in verses 18 through 27 or Luke 6:24-26. And these words are not toward the "sinful" or "immoral" as we might think of them. It's against the rich, the strong, the powerful.

To tell the truth, as hard as the Amos passage is to read, the Mark passage is even harder. Here you have a young man who was a good and righteous man. He had kept the commandments. He had sought out Jesus, which means he thought Jesus was someone worth seeking out for knowledge. And the man wanted to know how to get eternal life. Jesus says that the one thing that is keeping the young man (that Jesus loves) from the Kingdom of God was his possessions. And when Jesus said this, "the disciples were astounded." Why? Because the man had kept all the commandments? Or because he was rich? The disciples' response indicates that they associated wealth with being in the Kingdom and when Jesus subverts that, they were astounded.

Keep those thoughts in the back of your mind for a moment.

This last weekend, I and 1200 others gathered at the Zoe Conference at Woodmont Hills and talked about being the incarnation of Christ to the world, being Jesus. We even talked about mission and mission statements. Leonard Sweet even said, "Did we write New mission Statements because we didn't like Jesus' for us?" In short, we talked about being missional Christians. Christians that have a mission.

Missional Christians. It strikes me that this phrase is a complete redundancy. To say "Missional Christian" should be restating the obvious. Christians should be completely about mission, the mission of taking the good news of the Kingdom to the world. But the sad thing is that "missional" has become the new buzzword in evangelical churches. And it's sad because apparently we had to be reminded that we have a mission, that we were saved to do something more than sit on our pews and sing pretty songs to each other about how much we love God and He loves us.

On Friday I and 12 others will be flying to England to do some work for the Kingdom. Also on Friday, a team will be leaving here to go down to Mississippi and help with hurricane relief. All of these are good works and Godly pursuits. But I sometimes wonder if we get ourselves into a mindset that we do this work when we go away from home. That I can do work with a church if it's in a different country or that we can help the poor or disadvantaged if they've been affected by a hurricane.

There are those in this city today mere miles from this building that are in need of the good news of the Kingdom of God, that need some of the care that we're giving to those in Mississippi. To be a missionary, or rather to be on God's mission, is not only about leaving home; it's also about affecting our home for God. It's about seeing those oppressed by those in power and validating them and lifting them up. And it could be about selling our possessions, giving to the poor, and following Jesus. And to be a servant like Moses was, someone who gave up being a Prince of Egypt for his people.

We don't have to go away to be on God's Mission. There are opportunities all around us if we only have the eyes to see. And while we may not have to go away to be on the mission, we do have to leave everything behind. All those things that we hold onto more dearly than we do to God, we have to let them go.

I pray that as I, my family, and our friends come back home, we can be as committed to be on God's here in Nashville, as we are to be on His mission in England. And I pray that those who go to help in Mississippi (and even those who can't) will be as devoted to helping the disadvantaged here in Nashville as well.

God calls us to be on a mission. Will we answer that call? Will we be like Isaiah and say, "Here am I! Send me!" Or will we go away sadly because we have too many possessions?

Zoe Conference Notes

For the last two days, I've been at the Zoe Conference here in Nashville. It's been a great couple of days so far and I've got a lot going through my mind. I thought I'd share some of the notes that I've taken so far from the four classes I've gone to as a part of the Leadership section. I'd like to hear your thoughts as well.

Kingdom
Wade Hodges/John York

Jesus' teaching on the kingdom was mainly about Surprise.

Our primary identity in CofCs has been through differentiation from everyone else.

Kingdom is a difficult concept in a democracy.

Jesus' kingdom language walked the line between Caesar's Kingdom and the expectations of the Jewish people of what the kingdom should be.

Is Kingdom language today called to walk between the Kingdom of America and the traditions of Christendom?

"Anyone who accepted anyone at their table with Jesus was accepted by Jesus, but those who rejected those that Jesus had accepted are rejected by Jesus." Hodges

"In the first Century, who you eat with is who you are, but it was Mainly used for exclusion. Jesus used the table for inclsion." York

"Religious leaders believed that repentance preceded acceptance, but Jesus believed that acceptance led to repentance." York (Zaccheus)

Then - Pax Romana vs. The Shalom of God
Now - Pax Americana vs. The Shalom ot God

Incarnation
Randy Harris/Mike Cope

"We prefer the Christmas Card version of Christmas rather than the way it really happened." Harris

"Jesus was born into scandal and poverty and blood." Harris

Attractional Model - Trying to get people into church
Incarnational Model - Jesus came here to us
"The best hermeneutic of the Gospel is people living it out." ???

Incarnational Ministry doesn't have nice neat little rules.

• Incarnation teaches us who God is.
• Incarnation teaches us what it means to be human. Living like Jesus is not what we do to get salvation; it is Salvation.
• Incarnation means that we know the world is loved by God.
• Incarnation means our bodies are not evil.

Incarnational Ministry means laying our lives down over and over, believing that God will lift us up.

Mission
Leonard Sweet/Larry James

Amos 5:18-24
Amos 6:4-6

We are really good at responding to crisis especially when it's natural disaster because those people are ''worthy" James

"It's theologically incorrect to talk abort the mission of the church; It's God's mission. The question is whether or not the church will join God's mission." Sweet

330,000 churches in the US
75% are dying or declining
24% of the 330,000 are growing from the other 75%
Only 1% are growing from reaching nonChristians

"God's mission is not for 'successful Churches" Sweet

MRI
Missional, Relational, Incarnational

Missional vs. Attractional
Did we write New mission Statements because we didn't like Jesus' for us?

Jesus told us to "Go;" we want people to come to us.

Christianity was one of the few if not only non Temple based religions

If we don't think we've become Temple based again, we should look at our budgets.

Relational vs. Propositional

Incarnational vs. Imperialistic

The medical definition of death is a body that does not change.

We don't need mission statement

Three Steps of Change

• Reframe - Give a new metaphor (mission)
• Give people a big dream (Relational)
• Has to be an emotional engagement (Incarnational)

Reason leads to ; emotions lead to

It's not the quality of the performance; It's the quality ot the participation (Sweet)

Jesus' death was largely a socio- theological-political death (James)

To carry out the mission to the poor, we have to relax and trust them. (James)

We can't take Jesus to the inner City; he never left. (James)

We look at the poor in terms of need, because we are materialistic. We don't look at the assets and dreams. (James) This one brought tears to my eyes because I realize that it's exactly how I've always thought.

Healing
Becca Stevens/LaJuana Gill
Magdalene Ministries

Difference between healing and fixing

• Fixing is goal oriented
• Healing is process oriented

Don't say you love someone unless you're willing to feed them/wash their feet.

Another off schedule post

I know I'm posting off schedule, but you should really read this blogpost from WaiterRant.net

It contains adult language and situations, so if that bothers you, don't read it. However, if you want a great explanation of the story of Jesus, Legion, and the herd of pigs, and then an amazing followup to that story, read it. It'll give you insight into the story and insight into the writer himself.

Christian Idolatry

It was great having Adam Ellis spend last week with us as he was taking his grad class at Lipscomb. Not only did I get to talk theology and play Halo2 with him, I got to get his class notes and he gave me a slew of CDs with talks, lectures, and sermons on them. Rob Bell, NT Wright, Stanley Grenz, Mike Cope, and Randy Harris. One in particular from Randy Harris hit me like a sledgehammer to my forehead.

Harris is speaking to a unity meeting between Churches of Christ and Independent Christian Churches. To give some context, in 1906 the U.S. Census Bureau officially recognized a split in the Christian Church along denominational lines, based particularly on the use of instrumental music but there were others, with the Churches of Christ going non-instrumental and Christian Churches going instrumental, and I’ve really simplified that. With the 100 year anniversary of this event coming up, there have been unity meetings concerning trying to get back together in some areas and the event Harris is speaking at is one of those.

The talk was called “Focusing Your Vision.” He was assigned to talk about Exodus 32:1-6 and he digs deeply into idolatry. The point he makes from this passage and it’s very clear in verse 5 is that the people of Israel did not abandon the worship of God/YHWH; they added the worship of idols to their worship of God. And this becomes a pattern for the people of Israel, with Solomon and Ahab being primary examples.

Of course, Harris doesn’t let us in the church go scot-free. He gives a three part quiz to tell if we are idolaters or not.

• If we pay more attention to the seen and the present than to what lies behind it even if what is seen and present is good.


• If we give part of our lives wholly and completely to God and have other parts where God barely touches it.


• If we talk more than we listen.

Now, I could talk a lot about those three things, but it’s in the first one that Harris really hit me. He said there are three examples of this in how the Churches of Christ and Christian churches are totally united.

• Nationalism
  We have married the destiny of the church and of the Kingdom of God with America's destiny to such an extent that we are far less willing to take the hand of our brothers and sisters in other countries than we are to grab our flag or a gun to kill them. The Kingdom of God existed long before America did and will exist long after she is gone. The prayer should not be “God Bless America” or even “God Bless the World through America.” In my opinion, it should simply be, “May Your Kingdom Come.”


• Ecclesiolatry
  We have made the church into an idol. We have made doing church in a certain way so important that we lose the reason for doing church, i.e. the gathering of the community of faith, whether on Sunday morning with 800 people or Friday at lunch with two. This is one of the reasons I love the discussion Tim Woodroof (my preacher) has of this in A Church that Flies. We have forgotten that form should come out of function, not the other way around.


• Bibliolatry
  We have made the Bible into an idol. I have definitely seen this one in the Churches of Christ. We have made the Bible God, not the Word of God. We have put the Bible in such a place that we forget that the Bible points to and reveals God; it is not God. We have made the interpretation of certain passages litmus tests for faithfulness and forgotten that Scripture was not written in a vacuum. It was written by men (and women) who existed in a certain culture, just as we exist in a certain culture that we read it through. It is simply impossible to read the Bible totally objectively. Just the fact that we’re reading it in English means it was interpreted in a certain way.

There’s a lot more in this talk, particularly about the ways that Harris gives to avoid these idolatries. I wish all of you could hear it, but as I’ve listened to it three times in the last week, it’s had a strong affect on me. If you know me or are coming to the Zoe Conference next week, we might be able to work something out so that you could hear it.

I pray that God gives us the strength to stop worshipping our idols and devote ourselves totally to Him.

New Template

I got kind of tired of the old one and really wanted a good three column layout, so here it is.

If you want it, I got it from this site: http://thrbrtemplates.blogspot.com/

The specific one I'm using (with tweaking) is this one.

I'll have a regular post tomorrow.

Race

Jumping in the deep end.

Ever since the devastation of Katrina, I’ve been curious about the social implications of what happened. One thing that I heard a lot from commentators and opinion people was that this was a tragedy of epic proportions and that this exposed the deep-seeded nature of racism in America. Even someone like Kanye West made perhaps the boldest statement of all in declaring that “George Bush doesn't care about black people.” (See here for the video clip of it. You need QuickTime for it.)

What all of that has done is get me thinking about race and the Christian disciple, particularly my relationship with people of different colors. One of my greatest fears is for someone to call me a racist, because I feel like I try very hard to not show preference to one race over another, but also, because in some ways I worry if I really am a racist or not.

To be completely honest, I am extremely judgmental about things. I look at a person and form an opinion about him or her almost immediately. And that is completely based on physical attributes, while my judgments on those are completely formed by society. For instance, attractive, thin blond female wearing a shirt and pants that show her stomach and I will have a positive opinion of her, but for an African-American male wearing baggy clothes and I will probably be pretty wary of him. A Hispanic male looking grungy and dirty and my first thought is whether or not he is an illegal alien.

Now please understand. I realize the mistakes in this and in my life I try to rectify them. I almost feel like this is a genetic sin because of where I’ve grown up (the American South) and the deeply inherent feelings about race. But you know the funny thing is that I rarely think about the fact that I am a white male. And I think that’s because neither my race nor my sex is a barrier to me in anything I want to do. I don’t have cops following me around a mall just watching me. I can get any job that I want to have, from preacher to salesperson without limit. So I wonder what it’s like to go through life with the color of my skin being one of the defining characteristics to my self identity and how others perceive me.

I feel like I’ve rambled through a lot of this and I didn’t even really hit on what I think is a bigger barrier in America than race and that’s socio-economic status (for instance, how do you evacuate from a hurricane area when you don’t have a car or money for a hotel?). What I do want is to pray that God will give me eyes that respect and see the value of each person that I encounter. That I will see Jesus in them and love them for who they are as someone created in God’s image. I don’t want color blind eyes. I want to see in full color as Ralph Ellison described in The Invisible Man. I want to be able to judge people by the content of their character, not the color of their skin, as Martin Luther King, Jr. said.

This is imperative for me as a follower of Christ. It’s imperative for all of us.

Responding to a tag

OK. Tiffany tagged me. So I'm going to answer off schedule...

7 things I plan to do before I die

- Visit Rome, Athens, and Israel
- Publish a book too
- See the Boston Red Sox play in Fenway Park
- Do graduate courses in theology
- See my grandchildren
- Run a marathon
- Become an authentic follower of Christ

7 things I can do:
- Ride a horse
- Do a literary analysis of a play while high school students are reading it aloud
- Write a short story
- Speak publicly
- Run sound and powerpoint simultaneously
- Teach in Tennessee
- Get involved in an argument over theological minutiae

7 things I cannot do:
- Keep from getting annoyed with people not on my timetable
- Keep from reading and commenting on blogs
- Go into outer space
- Give birth
- Fly without assistance
- Remember many dreams
- Be uncritical of myself or others

7 things that attract me to another person:
- Honesty
- Beauty of mind, soul, and body
- Eyes
- Smile
- Laughter
- A gentle touch
- Sarcasm

7 Celebrity Crushes
- Lindsay Lohan (yes, she's 19)
- Carla Guigino
- Tina Fey
- Faith Hill
- Erin Gray (Wilma Deering from Buck Rogers)
- Catherine Zeta-Jones
- George Clooney (nonsexual man crush)

7 things I say the most
- Crap
- Whatever
- Indeed
- Geez
- Trust me
- I love you, Sheryl
- I love you, Kinsey

7 People I'm going to tag
- I'd
- tell
- you
- but
- then
- I'd
- have

A Curious Thought

A curious thought struck me yesterday.

One of the things that has warmed my heart about the response to the hurricane in the last three weeks is the one that people of faith have taken towards it. It seems that people from every tribe of Christianity (and other faiths) have taken it upon themselves to take in and care for the evacuees, to go down to Louisiana and Mississippi and Alabama to clean up and start rebuilding. This is a good thing.

The curious thought came out of the context of these actions. Most of you know that I’ve done a lot of reading over the last 2 years or so. Brian McLaren, N.T. Wright, copious blogs, etc. The trap of this kind of reading is that it becomes very easy to take pride in my knowledge, my enlightened understanding of Jesus, God, and the duty of Christians as the body of Christ in this world. Those are not bad things in and of themselves, but the spiritual arrogance or the spiritual superiority complex that I blogged about a while ago is so subtle. I can listen to someone talk, blog, or even preach, and think, “Wow, they just don’t have the understanding I do. How sad for them. How great for me.” Stupid? Yes. A part of my flesh that I have yet to completely put aside? Absolutely.

And then I hear about all the great works being done in the area of the hurricane. And I hear about some of the churches that are doing that work and the truth is that I probably wouldn’t feel very comfortable in most of those churches. I’d either find the theology too lacking for me, or the worship style not exuberant enough, or I’d find some other way to judge the whole thing. And that’s stupid. Because I truly believe that God sees the comfort these churches are giving to the least of these and smiles. I believe that He walks with us through His Spirit as we try to do these things, beside brothers and sisters that we wouldn’t normally associate with to do good work for the Kingdom. And He is well pleased with His sons and daughters.

The Joy of Community; the Peace of Solitude

Well, first off, thanks to everyone for responding in the way they did to last week’s blog. Do I feel better? Yes, I do, thanks to the responses that people made as well as this article by Tony Campolo. Am I still grieved by the incalculable loss of life? Very much so, but what I realize is that I can do nothing about that and could have done nothing about that. I can help alleviate the suffering in the small ways that I can.

btw, everyone should check out Theomoments. It's a blog by a guy comparing theology with jazz and doing some really different and interesting thinking. It's well worth the time to peruse it.

Well, I’m going to cop out a bit today and post the bulletin article that I wrote for this Sunday. You Otter Creekers are getting a sneak preview. It’s about the trip to the monastery that my wife and I took at the end of August.

Three weeks ago, 14 Otter Creek pilgrims journeyed down to Cullman, Alabama. We went to experience a time of peace with the sisters of the Sacred Heart Monastery, a Benedictine Spirituality Center. While there, we got to experience community with the Sisters. Saturday morning, all of us got up early enough to participate in the morning Lauds, a time of worship where we spoke psalms and hymns to each other. Just this simple act gave us a sense of the Spirit active within us. We also worked with Sister Adrian in learning a new form of prayer by making clay pears to hold clay seeds that represented our prayers.

Amid the heat and humidity, the 14 of us brainstormed ideas about the Wednesday Night Vespers service: began planning for stations and themes and thinking about direction and motivation. It was a great time of faith building and getting to know the people that work together every week on the Vespers service. Their hearts for leading people to a closer walk with Christ are apparent in the way they converse and talk about their struggles.

All of these times were wonderful and hold a special place as I got to share them with my brothers and sisters. But as wonderful as they were, the times of solitude were just as dear to me. On the grounds of the monastery, we were able to meditate on the Crucifixion of Jesus through the Stations of the Cross, to sit by a placid pond while reading or praying, and to walk a prayer labyrinth that symbolized life’s journey into faith and then sharing it with others. These were all great experiences that deeply affected me and Sheryl. And in doing them, a truth of the Christian walk became very apparent to me. Christianity is an intensely personal experience that is only properly done in community. A community where people can feel comfortable sharing their victories and failures, where the open hand of forgiveness is offered and the closed fist of judgment is withheld. That’s the kind of environment where transformation can take place.

That’s what we try to offer on Wednesday nights. We hope you can join us and contemplate your place in Christ with brothers and sisters.

Oh My God!

I had this great post about joyful discontent that I might post later.

I'm overwhelmed by all the images from the hurricane this week and the stories that are coming out of New Orleans and the rest of the ravaged areas. I look at all of this and think:

Where are You? What are You thinking here? There are children, babies, dying that would not have died had this storm not come along! Is my idea of You so screwed up that I think You can or would flick Your mighty finger and push the storm off course? Where are You? What are You doing?

Are we to be You? Are we to be Your hands and feet in this? How do so many of us who don't have resources be this? Railing against an act of God feels useless and futile because many times I wonder if You respond! I feel guilty about worrying about $4 a gallon gas, but I do worry about it.

But I so much want to wake up from this nightmare. And I want to do something. And I want You to do something. I want You to act miraculously! I want You to wake up and smell the suffering, smell the stench, smell the death.

WHERE ARE YOU?

Call Me Christian?

It’s been a tough week for Christians. Pat Robertson has basically either gone head first into senility or confused national interests with spiritual ones. Or both. When it comes to assassinations of the sort Robertson suggested (and he did suggest it, no matter his belief that he was misinterpreted), I try to imagine Jesus pulling the trigger. Whom would Jesus snipe?

At any rate, one thing I have been gratified for is the almost universal condemnation of Robertson’s statement from the spiritual community. Christians in the blogosphere and in the press have condemned it, but I feel like it’s just been more damage to the cause of Christ and the furthering of the Kingdom. Some days it’s enough to make me want to shed the name Christian completely.

Now understand what I’m saying. I’m not saying that I want to give up my identity in Christ, but the word Christian has gotten so twisted in people’s minds that I sometimes feel to even wear that name becomes a hindrance. If I call myself a Christian among nonChristians, that name immediately has connotations to it, and unfortunate ones at that: judgmental, condemning, holier-than-thou (or holier-than-you, for you NIV folks), self-righteous, etc. etc. It’s almost like any good that we can do as Christians gets wiped out by people like Pat Robertson, the God Hates Fags guy, and Eric Rudolph. The message of Jesus gets lost.

Some days it seems really attractive to drop the name Christian with all its baggage and take on something else, like follower of Christ or disciple of Jesus or something like that. Some name that seems to describe where I want to be in my life, because if people think of Pat Robertson and not Jesus when they hear the word Christian, I’m not sure I want to be associated with that.

One final note: you should go read John Alan Turner’s blogpost from Wednesday, entitled Stop Praying for Vision.

Affirmation or Transformation

The dodgeball tournament went very well. A lot of fun for everyone, even teams like mine that got put out in 90 seconds. This weekend is the monastery and then Donald Miller on Monday night.

As I mentioned last week, I heard a story on NPR, specifically about homosexuals within the Lutheran church. One of the supporters of homosexuality said that the two sides have different perspectives on the Gospel. One side views the Gospels as one of affirmation and the other side views it as one of transformation. This obviously becomes a very touchy subject, not just from the aspect of homosexuality, but overall from the aspect of sin. It begs the question of what sin actually is.

Traditionally, we’ve defined sin as anything that does not follow a certain specified group of commands or directives. Not lying, not killing, not committing adultery, that kind of thing. But I think those specifics were put in place as a representative of a breaking of covenant with God. God calls His people to be holy as He is holy.

The message of the Gospel seems to be a reconciling of that covenant. Jesus talks about how actions are good, but that it’s the heart that he is truly after. What does that mean about our actions? I think that there are actions that break covenant with God, that break the shalom that Jesus came to restore, both through his life and his sacrifice. And a change in our hearts will lead us to do those actions less and less.

So let’s go back to the original question of whether the Gospel is one of affirmation or transformation. I’m going to say that it is both. God accepts us where we are, but loves us too much to leave us there. I’m a better person than I was last year and I hope to be a better person next year than I am now.

Who are these people?

First off, a correction: I'm not going to St. Bernard's monastery next week, as I indicated. We're actually going to the Sacred Heart Monastery, also in Cullman, Alabama (how did Cullman become some hotbed for Benedictine Brothers and Sisters?). Really looking forward to it.

I heard something on NPR yesterday that I'll probably blog about next week: whether the Gospel is one of acceptance or one of transformation. I'll give you a hint on my direction for it... I think it's both. But what I decided I'd do today is talk about my friends, specifically my friends whose blogs I link to on the left. It may give you some context about why I've linked specifically to them.

• Mere Discipleship Discussion - This is a discussion blog of Lee Camp's book. The book is one of the best works of practical theology that I've read and it asks some hard questions and really points to Jesus and the Kingdom of God for some answers. The discussion is really good as well with many people asking how to live as a disciple today.
• Adam Ellis - Adam is one of the stranger additions to my list. He and I met online at the Grace Centered message boards. Both of us had mentioned Brian McLaren in posts and we sent private messages, emails, then instant messages. I consider him a close friend, even though we've only met in person once. His blog reflects his marriage of practical faith and deep thinking in his life and youth ministry.
• Brandon Scott Thomas - What to say about BST? He's a great insane guy who also works as the worship leader at Otter Creek, my home church. He and Mike Cope are a couple of pioneers in Church of Christ ministry blogging and his reflects a transparency about his life as a father, husband, and minister. He and I have grown close over the last 3 years, due to a combination of me being AV guy at church and the fact that our spiritual journeys have been mirroring each other too.
• Judy Thomas - Brandon's mom and my adopted blogmom. A beautiful woman who walks a simple, deep faith and is an example of a life lived in the service of Jesus and others, not always great in the world's terms, but of present and eternal significance.
• Preston Shipp - Another great friend. The thing I admire about Preston is his commitment to walking in the steps of Jesus with regard to a life of serving others but also asking really hard questions and coming up with answers that I may not always like or agree with, but always make me think. It took him a while to blog, but he's making up for lost time.
• Clarissa Cox - I've known Clarissa since the 8th grade at Caldwell Middle Magnet. She is another great example of someone struggling to live out the ways of Jesus in really hard ways. She's also really funny and really, really honest.
• Rob Cox - Rob is Clarissa's husband and has just started in the blogworld. He's getting gastric banding surgery in a bit and has been blogging about that experience.
• Tony Arnold - Tony's another fellow pilgrim and one of the originators of the Mere Discipleship blog. His recent posts have been about his faith walk and the places that God has brought him in the last year or so.
• David Carden - Another good friend and fellow struggler with faith. Another one who's asking hard questions and coming up with hard answers.
• Fajita - Chris Gonzales is BST's brother in law. You may be sensing a theme in the links here, but he's also someone else who really makes me think when I read his blog. He has a talent for narrative and punching you in the gut with a thought.
• Tiffany Fox - Tiff is one of the organizers of the trip to Loughborough, England. She's also an incredibly funny woman.. girl... lady...um, whatever the respectful term is. Today's post in particular is pretty dadgum funny.
• Jana Young - Jana is another person I go to church with. She has blogged about her political views, religious ideas, and being a young mother struggling with Post-Partum Depression. It's been eye opening to me to see that side of things and I can always count on great thinking.

So that's it, that's the list. I could probably push you to several others that I read when I'm trying to avoid work, like Joe Hays' or Clark Christian's or the Nashville Cohort or Sacred Nashville, but this post would be even longer than normal. So have fun and be safe out there. It's a big world with a lot of dangerous people, but I think I've warned you about who most of them are with this post.

Random thinkings and the next two weeks...

Random comments before I have to get to work, and I don’t really want to think deeply today…

• To raise funds for our England trip in October, Sheryl and I sent out 80 letters asking for donations to help us. To date, the response has been insanely wonderful. People have blessed us with their money in a way that is really humbling. We’re not quite there yet, but it doesn’t look like that side of finances will be an issue. We definitely are thankful for that and for those people opening their wallets and hearts.
• I think I’m starting to believe in original sin again. Why else would a four-year-old out and out lie about something she did? I mean I know it’s to not get in trouble, but something would have to be inherent for her to do that, right?

The next two weeks are going to be crazy, but crazy in a good way.

• Next Saturday, the England team is having a dodgeball tournament to raise money for the trip. It’s going to be fun, but it’s a lot of work and I still have things I need to get done. However, if you want to play, leave me a comment before Sunday and I'll get with you.
  
• The next weekend, Sheryl and I are going on a retreat. Some of the people who plan the Wednesday night contemplative service at Otter Creek Church of Christ are going down to St. Bernard’s, a Benedictine monastery, in Cullman, Alabama. We’re going to commune together and think about direction for the service this year. Most people are coming up Friday, staying the night and leaving Saturday. Sheryl and I have arranged for Kinsey to be with her parents that weekend and we’re going to stay Saturday night and into Sunday as well. We’re really looking forward to it and relaxing on a weekend when we don’t have to worry about the sound and PowerPoint on Sunday.
• On that Monday, August 22, Donald Miller author of Blue Like Jazz will be speaking at Otter Creek. I’m really looking forward to it and I hope that some of his ideas about mission can seep into the fabric of our congregation. If any of my four readers are interested, call the church at 373-1782. Admission is free, but you have to have a ticket to get in and they’re going fast.
• Two days after that, on Wednesday the 24th, Phil Keaggy is doing his annual concert at Otter Creek. I always look forward to them, even though I’ve seen Keaggy more times than I can remember and he’ll probably do many of the same songs that he’s been doing at Otter Creek for the last five or six years. Something about watching him do his loops and harmonizing into the mouth of his guitar always blows me away. As a buddy of mine said one year, “Most guitar players make we want to go home and try what they do. Keaggy makes me want to go home and smash my guitar." It’ll be good.
  

Well, that’s what’s going on right now. I’d ask your prayers about the fundraising and if I’ve never said it before, thanks for reading. It’s an honor knowing that people out there are considering the things that I write about.

Why Do I Believe?

In his sermon last week, Scott Owings challenged us to be able to articulate why we believe in/follow Jesus. I thought I’d use this space this week to work on that.

If I’m being totally, brutally honest, I’d have to say that I probably believe in Jesus because I was brought up in the church. Not believing simply wasn’t an option. I did Sunday school, Sunday night church, Wednesday nights.

Even through high school and college, my primary associations and social circle were with Christians. In fact, going to church became a form of rebellion for me from my parents, particularly the church I went to.

But now. I’m 33 years old and I have to have my own reasons. My faith has to stand on its own, not propped up by my social circle.

So why do I follow Jesus? Because in what I read of him, I can see no better way. The Jesus of Scripture calls for me to lay down my life and all of its burdens and live in him. He says that if I follow him, I’ll have life and life more abundantly or to its fullest. Now I know that doesn’t mean life will be easy. That doesn’t mean that I’ll have riches and wealth. It means that in very brief moments I’ll understand the joy that comes from being a follower of Jesus and a servant of others.

I follow Jesus because I believe in his atoning power. I believe that Jesus ransomed the world and conquered death in the cross and the resurrection. I believe that in doing that, Jesus gave a promise for eternity, that those who follow him will be with him for eternity. And I believe that that means now (here on earth) and in eternity.

I also follow Jesus because of the community around me. I’m surrounded by people that I know believe in and love Jesus. Their faith encourages me. Their lives give me example of how to live as Christ in a fallen world. They push me to explore greater depths of this life that I have, to swim deeper in the ocean of faith.

So that’s it, I guess. That’s what I have. Anyone else?

Oh, btw, if anyone is interested, there’s a discussion of Lee Camp’s book Mere Discipleship, going on at http://discipleshipdiscussion.blogspot.com Mere Discipleship has been a book that has greatly encouraged and challenged me on this journey over the last 18 months. I highly recommend it and invite any of you to participate as well.

Saved by Grace. Judged by Works?

OK. This may be a long post, because I’m thinking out loud on this. This is a topic that requires some explanation of my history to understand where I’m going with this. Also, I’m really hoping for dialogue with all of my 4 readers on this, so if you see holes in my thinking or think I’m on the right track, let me know.

For most of my adult life, I have fought against a works-based salvation. Growing up in the Church of Christ and becoming very angry at that due to a couple of reasons, I decided the Church of Christ was dead wrong about having to do something to earn salvation, whether baptism or going to church or whatever. Kind of an “if saved, barely saved” ideology. I started attending a charismatic church in high school and through my first two years of college, but went to a Church of Christ college (Lipscomb) with the intent of showing all the Pharasiacal hypocrites how to be a real Christian. Ah, the folly and arrogance of youth.

Well, long story short, I learned that being Church of Christ and being spiritually minded were not mutually exclusive (Thanks Doug Varnado) and even ended up back at the church I grew up at (Otter Creek). However, my views on grace and works didn’t change and I even found people who agreed with me. We all viewed the works that we did as a response to the grace we had received, but not an obligation at any time that would earn us salvation (defined as our ticket to spend an eternity with God).

And then I start reading Brian McLaren. And rereading the Gospels and the OT prophets. And I start reading this stuff in those about what we do mattering, about what we do having eternal consequence. And my brain starts to feel twisted up. Let me explain.

Matthew 25:31 - 46 is one of Jesus’ clearest statements on judgment. He’s talking about the end of the age from chapter 24 and in this section he talks about when he (the Son of Man) comes in his glory. In this section, Jesus talks about how he’ll separate the sheep from the goats. And the basis for his judgment is NOT what these people believed, what statements of faith they ascribed to, what church they attended, what acts of worship the did or didn’t do or mixed together. The standard for his judgment is how they cared for the needy among them, the sick, the imprisoned.

And as I look through the gospels, Jesus talks very little about what people believe. He is much more concerned with what they do. Now, do I think faith is unimportant? No. I think it is, but it seems that it is less important than what I do with that faith. James said this. “Faith without works is dead.” Works are important.

As I wrote about two weeks ago, being saved by grace is great. It is a wonderful gift given by God. BUT if we don’t do something about that, we will be judged. We will be held accountable for that. When we are saved by that grace, we are all given a joyful responsibility: to bring about the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in Heaven. That’s the message that Jesus preaches throughout his ministry. When the gospels talk about the good news of the Kingdom, this is it.

This also begs the question of what does judgment mean. Traditionally, I’ve thought that when I die (or if Jesus comes back before that), I’ll wake up in a big room with everyone that ever lived and because I’ve got grace, I’ll be a sheep. I’m not so sure about that anymore. I do think judgment is an important part of eternity, but (and now I’m really thinking out loud, so take this or leave it) what if judgment is eternally occurring? What if my daily walk is being judged in how I help bring about the Kingdom? That can sound scary on one hand, but on another, it’s extremely hopeful. Because what if judgment and mercy are two sides of the same coin? What if the mercy that God offers is a part of his judgment? I don’t know how all of that plays out. I don’t know what all of this means, honestly.

Here’s what I think. My job as a follower of Christ, as a disciple of Jesus, is to help bring about the Kingdom of God. I’m going to try my hardest to do that every minute of every day. I’m going to find a community that will try and do that with me. And I’m going to genuinely love (no matter how hard it is) the people I come in contact with.

I think that’s the Law and the Prophets. I think that’s the message Jesus came to bring. And the grace that we receive through his death and resurrection both empowers us and makes us responsible for that mission.

So, how off base am I? What holes do you see? What resonates with you? Looking forward to the dialogue.

Two Funerals

In the past couple of weeks, two funerals have caught my attention. The first one was one Monday and was the funeral of a dear departed saint at Otter Creek. Jayne Harley was one of those ladies that had this quiet sense about her. She and her husband have been servant hearted their entire lives, working overseas and in prison ministry and I’m sure many other things that no one will know about.

To hear her eulogized on Monday after her battle with cancer was one of the most beautiful things to be a part of. She was described as a servant of Christ, one who put the Kingdom ahead of personal gain and material things, one who loved and was loved. As she approached death, she didn’t think of herself, but she asked her children not to lose their faith because God didn’t choose to heal her. It was a beautiful testimony to a life of faith.

It was also a quiet funeral (definitely reflecting Jayne). We sang some of her favorite hymns, her sons talked, and other friends said a couple of words.

The other funeral that caught my attention was Luther Vandross’. I didn’t attend this one, but caught snippets of it in the news. It was loud and raucous. It was full of spirit (Spirit?) and it was also a celebration. One of the things that caused my throat to catch was that when the pallbearers lifted up his coffin, the entire congregation cheered like they were at a sporting event or a party. And it was beautiful. It didn’t even seem like a goodbye. It seemed like “Thank you! We love you!”

Two funerals for two different people. One public, one private. One with television cameras, one with just a hundred people or so. One loud, one quiet. Both reflections of the people and both beautiful, hopeful reminders that this life is only temporary. What is left is how we touch other people. Do we touch them for the Kingdom or for selfish gain?

David Franzoni (through Maximus) is right. What we do in life echoes throughout eternity.

Saved?

Yesterday, I had the privilege to meet with a group of Christians here in Nashville called the Nashville Cohort. It was a group of eight white guys sitting on couches in a restaurant talking theology. Now, while I look very much forward to a time when the group would include women and members of other ethnicities, it was a great time for me to get together with people outside of my denominational scope (although there was another Church of Christer there, or as we like to call ourselves "True Christians").

It's very much based in Emergent theology, which isn't bad in and of itself or good in and of itself. I sometimes grow a little weary of the hipper-than-thou attitude I perceive, although I feely admit that that might be my perceptions, which is also not a reflection on anyone I met yesterday. Well, besides the Tony Hawk-lovin' Dixon. Anyway, we discussed issues of salvation and that's something that I've been pondering recently, especially terminology.

The term Saved itself has certain implications. There is a "to/from" inherent in it. I think of it in terms of being in the ocean (since I watched the Bourne Identity the other night). If I say that I was saved from the ocean, then there's the implication that I'm saved to something, generally a boat or land or something.

As a Christian, I think I taked the word "Saved" for granted and to use that terminology makes assumptions all over the place. However, I'm trying to change. I'm trying to see that salvation is NOT solely about punching my ticket to the afterlife. It's not about making sure that I'm in and everyone with whom I disagree is out.

When Jesus selected his 72 disciples in Luke, he didn't do that to make sure those got into Heaven. He selected them to go out and do HIS work. He empowered them to go to places that he wouldn't be able to go. When we become Jesus' disciples (a better term than "Saved," in my opinion), we gain a huge responsibility. We become partners with Christ in bringing about the Kingdom of God. To claim to be saved without embracing that responsibility, without spreading the good news that Jesus talks about in Luke 4, then what's the point? What's the point of claiming to be a follower?

Weight Loss and the Kingdom of God

I struggle with equating weight loss and spirituality because of a certain group that will not be named. However, something occurred to me the other day.

Sheryl and I are doing Weight Watchers together. And we're doing this flex points things where each amount of food is worth a certain amount of points and you get a certain amount of points each day. Well, some days it's harder to stick to the plan than others, with dinners and family reunions and what not.

But as we've been doing this, one of the things that I'm starting to see is that the whole point of this is not necessarily losing a certain amount of pounds, although that is a big part of it. The point of this is to become a more healthy person and eater. And the habits that I develop as a result of this are a positive that I can take with me throughout my life.

So, if I don't do so well with the points on a certain day, I don't beat myself up about it for the rest of the week. I say, "OK. I'm going to do it today. The point is to be healthy."

It's the same with the Kingdom. The point of being Christian is not to simply to be a good person who doesn't sin (break Shalom with God). It's to be a partner with God in the Kingdom. Not sinning will hopefully follow as a result of that.

So if I struggle with something one day, whether lust or pride or jealousy, I don't beat myself up. I say, "Ok. The point is not to not sin. It's to work with God in the Kingdom." Not sinning should follow.

Buddy

Three years ago, a great man died. His name was Henry “Buddy” Arnold.

Buddy was the song leader at Otter Creek for 35 years and especially for me, the formative years of my faith. He was a veteran of World War II, one who parachuted into the Philippines and was married to Bernie Wyckoff. He had 4 children, 3 sons and a daughter. He taught at Lipscomb University in the theater department as well.

What strikes me about that listing of his life is that even though it reveals a great deal about him, it doesn’t tell you much about the man. Buddy loved life. He was a man with a generous heart and a kind spirit. He was a touchstone for my life at Otter Creek and one of the big reasons that I came back to that church. He always had time to hug me (even at 22) and always asked about my family who didn’t go there anymore.

When I was baptized at 13, it was touch and go as to whether my dad would be there to do it. So I asked Buddy to step in if Dad couldn’t be there. Dad made it, but I would have been honored to have him do it.

And 9 years ago, when Sheryl and I got married, there was only ever one person I wanted to officiate. And he did. And now I can look back on those pictures and remember the dinners we had at his house with Bernie to talk through the ceremony.

There are so many other stories about him. Him teaching Otter Creek the “Hallelujah Chorus.” One time when he was asked how he felt about new worship styles, he said, “My time is over. It’s time for a new generation to step up.” The grace with which he handled tough situations (as worship items usually are in Churches of Christ).

Buddy was a servant of Jesus. He was a man that exuded grace and love and a sincere heart to worship God.

I was so happy that Buddy got to see Kinsey and know her before his death. I’m sorry that she’s not going to be able to know him, although I know that there will be someone in her life that plays the same role.

I hope it’s me.

Well, not much to blog about right now. Things at work are pretty crazy and I haven't had time to do much thinking or pondering so today will be a mish mash of things I think are interesting.

I watched Hit Me Baby One More Time on NBC last night and enjoyed it way more that I should have. I even liked hearing Vanilla Ice do Ice Ice Baby again. The best version of that song I've ever heard was a mix of it and Under Pressure by David Bowie and Queen (from which VI stole the beat). However, last night, the Knack's cover of the Jet tune was really good and I kind of think they were robbed.

You should really read Mike Cope's Blog from yesterday. Well worth the time and the thinking that it provokes.

You should also read Preston's Blog from yesterday. It puts Jesus into a great context and how we would think of him today.

Finally, I'm going to admit my vice to all of you. Well, okay, one of them. I like to listen to conservative Church of Christ lectureships. Yes, it's a personality flaw. But the truth is that at the church I grew up in (Otter Creek, where I currently attend) I was never exposed to this kind of teaching, so this is really a window into my religious heritage.

I say that to say this. A certain lectureship starts on Sunday that I almost wish I was attending. It is the Bellview Church of Christ Lectureship in Pensacola, Florida and the title of the lectureship is "The Blight of Liberalism." Not liberalism like Democrats or something. No, liberalism like the church I attend, or Highland in Abilene.

I know I shouldn't listen, but this is going to be such a train wreck I don't think I can turn away, particularly with lecture titles like: Stemming the Tide of Liberalism, “Moderates” Pave the Way for Liberalism, and The State of the Church Today.

Have a good one.

Something Bigger Than Ourselves

I don't know what got me thinking about this. It could have been this interview with Jim Wallis, author of God's Politics. In it, Wallis talked about some of the work he did in the 1970's during the Civil Rights movement. I started thinking about why white people joined the struggle at that time (and, btw, race is an issue I want to get into at some point). Was it to fight an injustice? Was it to help a friend? Something else? And obviously, this isn't an either/or question. There could have been many reasons.

However, one reason that hit me was the idea of being a part of something bigger than themselves. They didn't see themselves as one person or one small group fighting. They saw themselves as a part of a whole, a whole that they knew had the same goals they did. A whole they knew would support them in their defeats and would celebrate the victories. It was a sense of a larger community.

This is one of the big reasons that the Kingdom of God/Heaven concept has really started to appeal to me in ways that it never has before in my life. When Jesus talks about the Kingdom, he's not talking in a limited sense. He's talking big picture; he's talking about God's plan for this world. And as a follower of his, Jesus is saying, "Come on. There's something bigger going on here; there's more to what you're saying than what you think. You can be a part of that. You can help bring God's justice and mercy and grace and love into this world. You can be a part of a group of millions that are trying to do this." Or as a buddy of mine put it, we're trying to turn the world right side up.

It's one of those things of wonder I talked about last week. That as his follower, I'm partnering with Jesus and millions of others, past, present, and future, in bringing about the Kingdom. I'm a part of that.

Today, I'm participating in Impact Day with my employer. I'm working with an AIDS victim support services group called Nashville CARES. I did something similar last year with this same group and was exposed to people I wouldn't normally be around or associate with. Last year, I packed food. This year, I think we're going to AIDS victims' houses to do work around them.

I don't say this to say, "Hey look how spiritual and loving I am." I say it to ask for prayers. I firmly believe that God loves people with AIDS, no matter how they got it. I firmly believe that helping these people is a means of increasing the Kingdom and of exposing them to the love of God.

Pray for my attitude. Pray for my heart to not prejudge people. God is there among them. Pray for them.

One final thing: Check out Preston's Blog, also linked on the right. He's been a good friend over the last few years and has been a companion on this spiritual journey. He has some good things to say.