Just for info: I got an article published at Allelon. It’s an old blogpost from here, but it’s kind of cool to be published on the same site as Brian McLaren, Dallas Willard, and Adam Ellis. Well, maybe not that last guy.

So.

About two weeks ago, I finished reading Brian McLaren’s conclusion to the New Kind of Christian trilogy, The Last Word and the Word After That (I’d post links, but you can get them from the post previous to this one). It is a book that deconstructs the idea of Heaven and Hell in ways that I’m not entirely comfortable with, yet, and really causes me to question some of the basic fundamentals of the way I approach faith. For instance, if Christianity is NOT all about getting to Heaven at the end of life (whatever Heaven means), but it’s about recruiting participants in the Kingdom of God, have we gone about the whole evangelism thing wrong?

Also, have we made a mistake in overfocusing on Hell? In other words, if we focus on Hell, we’re going to scare people away from it, for certain, but in my experience, people are only going to adhere to Christianity as long as there is a fear of Hell. Once that fear is gone, so is the reason to stick with Christianity.

And what about salvation? Have I misdefined that? And what does Judgement mean? One idea I ran across in the book is that we are saved by grace through faith, but we’ll still be judged by what we do. Honestly, this was a spiritual earthquake to me. My whole adult spiritual life has been struggling against the idea of a works-based theology, but you know, as I read the Gospels, Jesus talks a heck of a lot more about what we do than what we believe. I know I’m saved by the grace of God, but that grace calls me to do something. If I don’t, do I really have faith?

I don’t know quite yet what all of this means theologically. I really don’t, but I do know what it is. I know it’s a call to action. It’s a call to get out of my comfort zone and share the Good News of the Kingdom of God. Without that, I’m a white-washed tomb. Without taking action, what’s the point of having a belief?

England Scotland Travelogue - 2005 Thoughts

So, it's been five years now since the trip to England. Honestly at this point in my life, I can say that it's my third best memory behind my wedding and the birth of Kinsey.

It truly is incredible to think that Sheryl and I walked in places that have been trod for at least 2000 years. The streets of London and seeing the Roman wall. The structures of Dunnottar Castle. Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh. We were really honored to be there and it's something that we will never ever forget.

I am really looking forward to going back there with Sheryl and Kinsey in October. One of the regrets of our trip is that we didn't have a chance to really interact with people. We were seeing the sites and visiting places and driving and all of that. We didn't get to talk to people and we're going to get to do that in October. We'll be in someone's house and we'll be talking and working beside people. That's what I'm really looking forward to.

Well, next week, I'm going back to my regular Friday schedule. I've just finished reading Brian McLaren's new book, The Last Word and the Word After That, which is the last book in the New Kind of Christian trilogy. The other book is The Story We Find Ourselves In. Anyway, The Last Word... has been giving me a lot of thoughts on Heaven and Hell and judgement and salvation that I'm going to try to work through here.

Thanks for indulging me on this travelogue. If you're here in Nashville and want to see pictures, we've got plenty of those to show as well.

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England Scotland Travelogue - Post Trip Thoughts

2005 Note: Sheryl and I were so tired when we got back home to Nashville on June 3rd that I didn't write an entry in the travelogue. However, when I initially typed in this journal about 18 months later, I wrote this postlogue. I'll probably post one more time tomorrow on this trip and then get back to my regular Friday schedule.

Well, I intended to write a post-trip reaction about six months after we got back, but life managed to intervene as it always does and I’m only getting to it now. Things have changed for Sheryl and me. I’m no longer teaching, but working as a tech writer, and we now have a beautiful, six-month-old little girl, Kinsey Morgan. But this isn’t about her; it’s about extended reactions to our trip.

Well, I can honestly say that the part we cherish most is the part in Scotland. I think some of that has to do with our fascination with the land. Sheryl and I have joked that if our families didn’t live so close to us, we’d like to live there. What we’ve now decided is that when we get rich, we’ll have a home here in Nashville and one in Edinburgh.

We talk about driving a lot, mainly because it’s so different from here in America. The other joke we make is that if an American marriage can survive driving in Great Britain, it can survive anything. Probably vice versa on the nationalities.

This trip really was a life changer for Sheryl and me. Not in dramatic ways, but in the sense that it gave us a chance to view how others. That was also affected by the September 11 attacks. In watching some of the international coverage, when I saw the Guard at Buckingham played our National Anthem and saw that same song sung in St. Paul’s Cathedral, I felt an even stronger connection with that land.

That’s another one of the aftereffects of this trip. I love seeing places on TV that I’ve been. Seeing Buckingham, St. Paul’s, Parliament, Westminster, Edinburgh Castle, and all of the other places we saw, it just is a cool feeling to look over at Sheryl and say, "We were there." To look on a map and be able to say, "We were there. Our feet walked those streets" is an extraordinary feeling. 2005 Note: As happened in the Amazing Race on May 3rd, when the remaining four contestants took the Heathrow Express to Paddington and Sheryl and I saw the restaurant we ate at before seeing Les Miz.

We definitely want to go back and see some things we didn’t get to see, like Iona, York, and Glastonbury. We also want to spend more time in Scotland, because it was so beautiful there. Sheryl and I have talked about maybe doing a motorcycle tour, not that either of us knows how to ride. Or course with Kinsey now, we really want her to see all of the things that we saw. She will, too, one of these days.

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England Scotland Travelogue - Day Thirteen

Friday, 2 June 2000 London

Not a bad day at all. We went to the Globe Theater and got our tickets for the 2 pm Hamlet. We then wandered around and had some lunch. We got back there about 1:15 to stand in line. We talked to a couple of people and then got our "seats" as Groundlings. I say that because as Groundlings, we were on the floor in front of the stage. In fact, it was front row for Hamlet at the Globe theatre in London.

It was great. The acting was strong and you felt like you were there 400 years ago. We stood the whole time except intermission and then we couldn’t stretch out. They obviously cut some scenes out and one that I didn’t understand, like between Hamlet and the Norweigan Captain (Act IV, Scene 4) when Hamlet says that all his thoughts would be bloody. I’ve always considered that the turning point of the play. Anyway, we really enjoyed all three hours.

We then went back to Harrods and got Sheryl a bag and me an England Football cap. Then to Hyde Park to see Speaker’s Corner and then to the Barry. We had dinner at a nice little Italian place up the road from Paddington Station. Finally, home to pack and ready to go to our real home, Nashville.

Before the Globe, we went to Westminster Abbey again to get some shirts for family and on our way back, Westminster Station closed down because of a bomb threat. We didn’t know it at the time, so we weren’t scared, just curious. It turned out to be a false alarm, which was good, but I understand the precautions after the Hammersmith Bridge bomb yesterday.

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England Scotland Travelogue - Day Twelve

Thursday, 1 June 2000 London

Well, we’re back here at Barry House. It’s a different room, bigger which is good, but it’s not great and for what we’re paying, I guess it’s for the location. Neither Sheryl nor I like it much.

Today, we got to Euston Square 45 minutes late and then rolled our luggage from the Square to Euston Station to avoid jumping Tubes. We rode to Paddington and had to go the long way to get here to Barry. Once we got settled, we went to the London Eye Ferris wheel to get tickets for tonight at 9:30, the last time round. We figured it would be dark then and we’d get good pics.

We then went to St. Paul’s Cathedral to tour and we really enjoyed the architecture. Sheryl and I climbed to the 2nd level and then I went on alone to the next 2 outer levels. Not bad, but the Eye ended up being better.

We went back to the Texas Embassy to eat, then journeyed back down to the Imperial War Museum. I wish we’d had more time there, because their WWII section was incredible and amazing. Uniforms, flags, pictures, memorabilia, all sorts of things were in this. Probably the highlights were seeing the actual maps that the Nazis were using to plan their invasion of Britain and this interactive experience that showed what the London Blitz was like. We spent two hours almost there, but then went to Harrods again, got a bear, saw the Diana-Dodi Memorial, big deal.

We came back to Barry and then to the Eye. We saw some great sights from above, hopefully got some great pictures and generally had a good time. We came back to Barry, which made us long for home. Tomorrow the Globe and Hamlet, then Saturday, Home!

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England Scotland Travelogue - Day Eleven

Wednesday, 31 May 2000 Sleeper train from Inverness to London-Euston Station

You know, I don’t see how anyone who sees the Highlands couldn’t simply fall in love with them.

This morning, we left Bimini about 9:30 after having a great conversation with Collin, the host, and made our way across the country to Inverness. It is really difficult to put into words exactly how beautiful they were. We saw snowcapped mountains, rivers that created valleys, country roads, manor houses, and sometimes all together. It is always gratifying when a trip or better an area exceeds what you expect and Scotland has done that.

We stopped at the site of the Culloden battle field that Sheryl’s read about in the Outlander series. It was interesting to see the clan markers and the main monument, but it started pouring rain after a bit, so we ran back to the car.

We got to Inverness and shopped a bit. Sheryl drove for the first time in town and got to experience the nerve-wracking joy that is. We got turned around a couple of times and finally dropped the car off and walked to the Rail Station.

We stayed in a room for sleeper passengers for a couple of hours reading, met a 4 1/2 year old adorable boy named Oliver from "Hartfordshire in town called Trent" and boarded the train. We also met a family from Wisconsin who were on holiday and had been to Iona, a place we wished we’d been able to go. Oh, well, maybe next time.

Our accommodation makes Barry House look like the Ritz. Barely any room and even less with our luggage. It’s not the Orient Express. That’s for certain. But tomorrow, back to London for three more days.

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England Scotland Travelogue - Day Ten

Tuesday, 30 May 2000 Aberdeen

Never thought driving could be so stressful. We taxied out to the Edinburgh Airport, a 21-pound job, to ride for more time to get our rental car. It’s an Accord and very nice.

Driving in Britain is very tiring. Obviously you have the left side stuff, but that doesn’t feel too bad, because the driver side on the right. It’s little stuff, like I curbed the left side several times, mainly because I couldn’t see it well. Roundabouts are hard too. You have to look right first, always. You take whatever your first chance is. Also, the rearview mirror is on the left too, which is not instinctual. We only had one really close call, but that was mainly because it is apparently all right to park anywhere on the road in Britain.

At any rate, we left Edinburgh and went to Dundee, where I got an English National Football Team jersey for the best price I’ve seen. I wonder if that’s because it was in Scotland. Heh.

We left Dundee and headed south to St. Andrews, where we picked up some golfing things for family, and a gold Celtic pendant for me, and we had lunch. We then headed north toward Aberdeen and Dunnottar. We hit a couple of rain showers and saw a rainbow over the North Sea. It was brilliant, so we decided to stop and take a picture. We pulled into a parking lot and realized that we were looking at the ruins of Dunnottar and past that the rainbow.

It was amazing. We shot 1 1/2 rolls of film there, the 36 exposure kind. Sheryl was like a kid in a candy shop and I was too. We were running at many places, seeing new things everywhere. It was incredible. Then we got caught in the rain and another rainbow showed up. Amazing.

2005 Note: In reading this again, I realized there's no real context for why we visited Dunnottar. My grandmother on my mom's side is from the Keith Clan, which owned this castle for a long time and so there was a family tie there. Also, Sheryl and I are deeply interested in Scottish history and castles as well, so Dunnottar wrapped all of this up together. Easily one of our favorite things in the whole trip.

We finally headed out and after driving all the way through Aberdeen, because our directions were screwed. We finally got to Bimini House and after eating dinner, crashed here in the room.

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England Scotland Travelogue - Day Nine

Monday, 29 May Edinburgh

What a great day. The best of the trip. We bussed down to the Edinburgh City Centre. Then we walked to the Royal Mile and up to Edinburgh Castle. Amazing. We did the tour and saw some really great stuff, like the room where James VI and I was born. We also saw the Honours of Scotland, the Crown Jewels, and the Stone of Destiny, which was just returned in 1996 after 700 years.

We then headed down the Royal Mile and pretty much went into every tartan shop, looking at a lot of different things. It was really nice and comfortable. Sheryl and I headed down to Holyrood House, Queen Elizabeth’s residence when she’s in Edinburgh. We snapped a couple of shots, then headed up to Arthur’s Seat. It’s a crag about 850 ft. above Edinburgh. We climbed up and got some great views. The wind was blowing and although the climb was difficult, it was more than worth it.

We walked backed down and hit some more stores. We dined of course at a fine restaurant, Pizza Hut. We finally headed back, taking the bus, which didn’t go all the way. So we walked the rest of the way and with our feet expanding from hitting the pavement multitudinous times, we ripped our shoes off in our room and hit the bed.

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England Scotland Travelogue - Day Eight

Sunday, 28 May 2000 Edinburgh

Not much today. We mainly traveled here to Edinburgh. We went through Manchester, and stopped there for a while. The whole trip took about six hours or so. The train was nice. We had a bit of a conflict between the train door and Sheryl’s suitcase and lost the pull handle to it. The ride was beautiful, though. This north country is extraordinarily gorgeous. The hills became much larger and more rolling. There were sheep and cows and streams and it really was everything I’d imagined.

Edinburgh seems nice. Our B&B, the Ardgarth House, is like being in someone’s home. We walked along the beach of the Firth of Forth. I still don’t know what a Firth is, but I don’t guess it really matters. I’m really looking forward to seeing the city for real.


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England Scotland Travelogue - Day Seven

Saturday, 27 May 2000 Oxford

Forgot to write yesterday because of total exhaustion, so I’ll recap two days.

Friday. Let’s just say it rained. A lot. It basically rained all day. We caught the bus to head downtown and meet the guy who was going to be our guide to Blenheim Palace. Unfortunately he had to have four people to go to make any money and Sheryl and I were the only ones. He did give us solid directions to get there and we followed them, again by bus. We did have to walk the long driveway to the Palace. In the rain.

The Palace was beautiful and huge. It was where Winston Churchill was born unintentionally. There were many huge rooms and tapestries that covered two walls and a library that seemed to stretch on forever. We ended up having lunch there and headed back. In the rain.

We napped at the Dial and then headed out to find the Kilns, C. S. Lewis’ home and Holy Trinity Church where he worshipped. In the rain. We found Kiln Lane and walked up a drive but aren’t sure if we actually saw it, getting soaked the whole time. We did find Holy Trinity and his grave. The church was closed, so we didn’t get to see the Narnia Window, where there are paintings of characters and events from the Chronicles. We saw the back of it, but not the front, but oh well. We would have actually worshipped there Sunday, but our schedule wouldn’t permit it.

2005 note: We did not actually find Lewis' home. His house is on Lewis Close, which we passed, but did not walk up. We ended up walking all the way up Kiln Lane wondering where it was. Oh well, maybe next time.

We headed back in the rain and finally got back to the Dial and collapsed and bathed and warmed up and slept.

Saturday. No rain. We taxied to the rail station and went to Salisbury. We’d decided we really couldn’t get to Avesbury and Glastonbury, so although that was disappointed, we really wanted to see Stonehenge. In Salisbury we hooked up with a Californian named Keith. We ended up staying together most of the day.

We got tangled up some on how to get to Stonehenge and ended up spending a couple of unintentional hours in Salisbury. We finally got out to Stonehenge and it was a neat site. To think of four thousand years of history, even to the fact that we really don’t know exactly what it was built for and the preciseness of it was amazing.

Well, tomorrow we head to Edinburgh by train. I’m not looking forward to the trip as much as I am to being there in Scotland.


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England Scotland Travelogue - Day Five

Thursday, 25 May 2000 Oxford

A pretty good day today. We left London about 9:30 and reached Oxford about 10:30. We took a taxi to the Dial House and basically collapsed on our bed. We slept for an hour and a half which we really needed.

We headed into the town by bus and basically wandered the rest of the day. We ended up seeing a couple of nice places. Christ Church College was the first. It was huge and very formal. It had a walk thru tour and the whole deal. We then moved down to Magdalen College, pronounced "maudlin." It was where C. S. Lewis taught. It was much less formal and immensely more enjoyable. Sheryl and I would walk down the halls and the Quad and through the paths, as though we were students. It just felt right.

We also saw Blackwell’s Bookstore, which was huge. Four floors, the basement one stretching beneath Trinity College which was next door on the street. Kind of like a super Barnes and Noble. I got a book on Shakespeare and the movies, which I read bits of already. Seems good.

We got back to our room, which is much bigger and nicer than our Barry House room. We had Pizza Hut for dinner and stayed in. We’re shooting for Blenheim Palace tomorrow, then Glastonbury, Stonehenge and Avesbury on Saturday, possibly by car.

Uh-oh.


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England Scotland Travelogue - Day Four

Wednesday, 24 May 2000 London

Today Sheryl and I discovered the joys of train travel. We woke up early to catch a 7:55 from Charing Cross and when the train left at 7:48, we knew we were in trouble. Thankfully, we switched to the right train and were on our way.

Trains are a lot more… jouncy than I’d have thought. It was neat to see the English countryside, which actually reminded me a bunch of home, except for the sheep.

Dover was very nice. We walked a lot. We walked up to Dover Castle and got a great view of the town. Then we got a nice surprise, as they had opened up some tunnels which had been used as a hospital and Naval Base of Operations during WWII. Very neat. We got up to Henry II’s Keep and saw some great sights. I wish we’d have been able to stay longer up there; I’d have liked to have done more, but like Sheryl said then, we’re going to see several more castles.

We walked back down and got some nice pictures of the Dover Cliffs, which weren’t as white as some pictures I’ve seen, and headed back to the station. We rode to Canterbury and got to see the Cathedral which in many ways was as amazing as Westminster, although the latter was still more… deep? I don’t know, the sheer amount of history at the Abbey was astounding.

Canterbury was stellar and huge and beautiful. I had to pay two pounds to get to take pictures, but it was worth every pence. I shot a lot of stained glass windows and Henry IV’s grave, as well as Edward the Black Prince’s grave.

Sheryl and I then headed back on the hour and a half journey back, which seemed to take longer. We then vegged for the night, meaning Sheryl slept and wrote postcards, while I watched the UEFA Championship, where Real Madrid beat Valencia 3-0. I wish Manchester United had been in it, but they lost in the Semis. Oh, well.

Tomorrow we move our base to Oxford, Inkling’s country, C. S. Lewis, Tolkein, Charles Williams. I’m looking very much forward to it.

Oh, two surprises I forgot to mention. 1) We saw a Hovercraft land at Dover and 2) we saw an exploded church, almost destroyed, in the Nazi attacks, at Dover. Old St. James. Very sobering.


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England Scotland Travelogue - Day Three

Tuesday, May 23, 2000 London

Today was another tiring one. We started off toward Hyde’s Park looking for a breakfast place, but never found one and ended up at Burger King, which made us wish we’d picked McDonald’s.

From there, we hit Paddington, then Charing Cross Station to get our tickets for the trips to Dover and Canterbury tomorrow, then Oxford on Thursday. It took awhile, but we finally got it all straight. Then back to Piccadilly for a gift, then to the British Museum.

We got badly turned around and were headed completely the wrong way on Oxford Circus, finally turned back, and eventually ended up at the Museum. It was neat, but there was a lot of construction going on so it wasn’t very nice looking. We saw Greek, Roman, Egyptian, and Celtic treasures. Probably the best for me and Sheryl were the Parthenon pieces, an almost completely restored Naiad temple, part of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the Rosetta Stone. There was more, but it got tiring after a while.

We made our way to Harrod’s. Tottenham Court Road Station was closed for some reason, so we walked to Leicester Square, then tubed to Harrod’s. This was amazing; a full London city block devoted to a store! 5 Stories! Unbelievable. I got some cigars and Sheryl wandered. We didn’t get to see the Diana memorial, but that wasn’t too disappointing.

We headed back to Barry, rested, then ate dinner at Aberdeen Steak House. It was good, and then we saw Les Miserables. Beautiful. Outstanding. The first half didn’t do much for me, and I almost fell asleep several times. It wasn’t that it was boring; it had merely been a long day. I got a drink and was much better. Then the relationship between Marius and Eponine came up and her unrequited love, then death to be with him nailed me. I was hooked from then on to the end. We came home, called some family, and retired.

Tomorrow to the White Cliffs of Dover and Canterbury. Should be fun.

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England Scotland Travelogue - Day Two

Monday, May 22, 2000 London

Another full day today. We got up just in time for our breakfast today and got out on the town. We tubed to St. James Park and walked to Buckingham Palace, which was neat and all, but not too wonderful. We then walked down toward Westminster. On our way, Sheryl had to use a phone and as we looked up, we caught our first glimpse of Big Ben. It was very cool. We then walked to Westminster Abbey, which was amazing.

Westminster has this overwhelming sense of history that covers you. You see the graves of kings and queens and poets and politicians. It is a nearly thousand year old church built be Edward the Confessor. Even words don’t really contain it. Again for history buffs like me and Sheryl, every corner held another amazement.

Once we left, we crossed the Thames and walked down toward Big Ben and Parliament. We got some good video and hopefully some good pics as well. Those places are so big that pictures don’t really give a good sense of their size and stature.

We headed to Trafalgar Square and got some nice shots, then ate at a great restaurant called the Texas Embassy, which sells Tex Mex and was a nice taste of home.

We hit the National Gallery of Art and saw some wonderful paintings: DaVinci, Michaelangelo, Gainesborough, Turner, Van Gogh, Degas, Sweurat, and Manet. However, our favorite was a picture of Westminster Bridge, Big Ben, and Parliament, by Monet, a favorite painter of Sheryl. Neither of us had known he’d painted London so it really pleasantly surprised us. We ended up buying a print for home to go above our bed.

We headed back to Barry and Sheryl slept, while I read the Evening Standard. We then went to Piccadilly Circus to see American Beauty. I really enjoyed it, although Sheryl didn’t seem to like it as much. We hung around Piccadilly for another little bit before heading back.

Tomorrow we have Hyde’s Park, Harrod’s, and the Brit Museum again. We’ll see what we get to.


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England Scotland Travelogue - Day One

Sunday, May 21, 2000 London

This was a long day. It really started yesterday in Nashville on our flight to Toronto which was ok. Our layover in Toronto had good and bad points. Good: It was short. Bad: Pearson is a lousy airport. No gate notices, poorly designed. Lousy. The trip here wasn’t too bad. The flight was full and I honestly slept through most of it. Sheryl wasn’t able to, mainly because she’s such a light sleeper. This of course affected her throughout today.

We arrived in London about 6:30 AM GMT. Customs was no problem and we caught the Heathrow Express to Paddington Station, which was great, since our B & B is only three blocks away, within sight of Paddington. No bears around though. We dropped our bags off at Barry House and headed out. We took the Tube out to Piccadilly Circus in search of the Tourist Info Center, but since it was only 8AM, it wasn’t open yet. So we ended up having breakfast at a traditional British restaurant, McDonald’s I think it’s called, and then decided to head to the Tower of London.

The Tower was pretty good. We did an audio tour, which was interesting to both me and Sheryl, but that was mainly because we both like history. It was mainly about prisoners and such. A minor problem perked up when rain started. I was ok, but Sheryl’s anorak wasn’t heavy duty enough for English rain and she got pretty wet.

We toured through the White Tower, seeing a lot of weaponry and an original copy of the Domesday Book. To see a 1000-year-old book was… amazing, even though that word hardly describes it. We saw the Crown Jewels as well, which made me wonder if such opulence is only for us, the paeans, since I would imagine that if someone were around it all the time, it would be old hat (no pun intended).

We left the Tower about 12:30 and had lunch, fish and chips. We decided to forgo the British Museum today, since we were exhausted, go get Sheryl a new jacket and head back to the B&B. We tubed to Piccadilly and wandered around for a bit. We found the TI and got some good info. The woman from Scotland was talky, but helpful. We found a sporting goods place, Lillywhites, and I found a great Manchester United jersey, but didn’t get it, yet. We found Sheryl a new jacket and finally Tubed back to Barry about 4.

Our room is small with a double only and a shower and toilet and desk. It’s functional and faces the street. We can hear a lot.

We slept from 5p to about 10p. We got up and put our stuff away and got organized for tomorrow, which should contain St. James Park, Buckingham Palace, and Westminster Abbey. Of course, today was supposed to contain the British Museum and we didn’t manage to get there, so we’ll see what happens.



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England Travelogue Intro

First things first. Please pray for Ira Hays, newborn son of Joe and Laura Hays in NYC.

I’m going to do something a little different with the blog for the next two weeks.

Five years ago, Sheryl and I took a two week trip to England and Scotland, May 20 through June 3, 2000. This was before Kinsey was born and I had decided to quit teaching (Did you know I taught high school English for six years?). One of our dreams before we started our family was to go to England and Scotland without the encumbrance of children, so we saved up for the entire year, asking only for money as gifts for birthdays and Christmases. We had a great time. Honestly, it’s one of my top three memories behind getting married and Kinsey’s birth. It was a trip that lived up to every expectation I had and exceeded them.

The reason this is in the forefront of my mind is that Sheryl and I have agreed to participate in a trip to Loughborough, England in October with some singles from Otter Creek. I hesitate to call it a mission trip, since I’m starting to believe that my entire life is a mission to expand the Kingdom of God. We’re going to work with the local Church of Christ there and help with their Holiday Bible Class (HBC), roughly analogous to our Vacation Bible School here in the states. We’re really looking forward to it and even embarking on the adventure of taking Kinsey with us. Here's another explanation for the trip.

So, starting tomorrow, I’m going to post a travelogue that I kept on our trip back in 2000. I'll post everyday for the next two weeks, except for one day that you'll understand on the next day.

I hope you enjoy experiencing a little of what we did and post your comments.


2005 Thoughts
Post Trip Thoughts
Day Thirteen
Day Twelve
Day Eleven
Day Ten
Day Nine
Day Eight
Day Seven
Day Five
Day Four
Day Three
Day Two
Day One of the trip
Intro

Faith Isn't an Intellectual Exercise

I listened yesterday to a sermon by Tony Campolo called "Would Jesus Drive a BMW?" and I’m also reading his latest book called Speaking My Mind. I really love the sermon itself and agree with a lot of what Campolo says in the book. Not all, but that’s a different subject.

At any rate, one of the things that hit me about Campolo’s talk was the passion he had about mission and about a life divorced from the conspicuous consumption of American life. This is something I’ve been thinking about some and still trying to figure out where I am on that and how far I want to go.

The other thing that really hit me was him talking about assenting to theological ideas about Jesus. That just believing things about Jesus isn’t what the Christian life is about. Now, many of you may be saying, "Well… duh." But for some reason this just hit me.

A lot of my faith over the last year or so and has been about trying to decide what I believe about Jesus and Christianity. What I don’t feel like is that I’ve done a great job of putting feet on my faith. I feel like I decided to believe certain things, but that’s the extent of it. I don’t feel like I have made any big changes in myself or how I act or even how I treat others. I still struggle with some of the same sins I’ve had my entire life.

Faith isn’t an intellectual exercise. It’s a life. As it’s called in Acts, The Way. It means a shift away from a world that values money over character, flash over substance. It’s a call to love the unlovable, to be more concerned for others than myself. These are things I agree with. What am I willing to do to make them happen in my life?

I listened to another talk the other day from the Mars Hill Bible Church (Easter Stories) in Grand Rapids. One lady was testifying about her struggles with eating disorders. She said that she finally truly felt freedom when she realized that the solution wasn’t turning her problems over to Jesus; it was turning herself over to Jesus. Only giving our problems says that the rest of our lives are ok. They’re not; they need resurrection, almost on a daily basis.

I want to be there, but I’m not sure I’m there yet. I want to live that way, but I think I’m scared of what that could mean.

The Challenge of Jesus

I finished reading NT Wright’s The Challenge of Jesus the other night. From a theological point of view, I really like what Wright does with Jesus as the Christ and especially placing him in the context of the Jewish religion and the absolute scandal of him proposing that he would be the one to replace the Temple.

However, my favorite part of the whole thing was in the next to last chapter. Wright does an amazing synthesis of Psalms 42 and 43, Matthew Arnold’s Dover Beach, and the Emmaus Road story, which Wright retells. The context for all of this was a discussion of Christianity’s response to postmodernism, a study that I’ve been interested in for the past year or so. Note that this chapter was originally a lecture given in 1998 (which you can read here), so Wright was well ahead of the Emerging Church trend.

At any rate, the crux of the whole thing is that Jesus appears to two postmoderns and begins discussing religion with them and basically reshapes the gospel story for these two. Note that the story doesn’t change, the gospel doesn’t change, the telling of it changes.

Wright says:

“We have a chance, as this century draws to a close, to announce this message to the world that so badly needs it. I believe we have this as our vocation: to tell the story, to live by the symbols, to act out the praxis, and to answer the questions in such a way as to become, in ourselves and our mission in God’s world, the answer to the prayer that now rises, not just from one puzzled psalmist, but from the whole human race and indeed the whole of God’s creation: O send out your light and your truth; let them lead me; let them bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling. And when we ourselves are grasped by that light and that truth by the strange glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, we, from within the crisis of truth in the contemporary world, can say to those parts of our world that are still dismayed: Why are you cast down? Why so disquieted? Was it not necessary that these things should happen? Hope in God; for we shall again praise him, our help and our God.”

This is an issue that churches have to deal with. Are we going to keep doing the same things in the same ways, or are we going to get creative? Are we going to write the poems, make the movies, talk to our neighbors or are we going to wait for people to walk into the church doors before we say anything to them about the hope in Christ?

Now, I’m not advocating rushing out on door knocking campaigns (who wants their door knocked on?) or writing tripe (Roses are red/Violets are blue/Jesus loves me/And He loves you too!) or making schlocky movies (Left Behind [I apologize if any of my readers liked that movie]).

It’s about letting our faith seep through the pores of our being. It’s about being friends of our neighbors, or having our faith come out through writing or painting or whatever. People don’t want a 2x4 over the head. They want a friend, a shoulder to cry on. They want a good story, a story of redemption, a story of hope.

We have that! We’ve got it! But we’ve become so freaking insular that we forget that Jesus didn’t tell us to navel gaze while we sing nice songs. He said go, make disciples. Two commands there, not one. “Go.” “Make disciples.”

So go. Be a friend. Write a poem. Paint a picture. Make a movie or TV show. Tell the story. Live the story. Be Jesus.

Pondering the Imponderable

A few weeks ago, the National Association of Evangelicals met and issued the following document, "For the Health of the Nation: An Evangelical Call to Civic Responsibility" http://nae.net/images/civic_responsibility2.pdf (New York Times report on it - http://pewforum.org/news/display.php?NewsID=4522) Ron Sider, author of Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger is a part of this group for some theological context.

Thankfully, it's not a down the line following of Republican principles, as it has statements like:

The peaceful settling of disputes is a gift of common grace. We urge governments to pursue thoroughly nonviolent paths to peace before resorting to military force. We believe that if governments are going to use military force, they must use it in the service of peace and not merely in their national interest. Military force must be guided by the classical just-war principles, which are designed to restrain violence by establishing the right conditions for and right conduct in fighting a war. In an age of nuclear and biological terrorism, such principles are more important than ever.

And

We further believe that care for the vulnerable should extend beyond our national borders. American foreign policy and trade policies often have an impact on the poor. We should try to persuade our leaders to change patterns of trade that harm the poor and to make the reduction of global poverty a central concern of American foreign policy. We must support policies that encourage honesty in government, correct unfair socioeconomic structures, generously support effective programs that empower the poor, and foster economic development and prosperity. Christians should also encourage continued government support of international aid agencies, including those that are faith based.

In the reading that I've been doing both in Scripture and out of it (NT Wright, Tony Campolo, some guy named Lee Camp, etc.) it's striking me that the Gospel is truly a political statement. Not political only certainly, and probably not political in the way we think about it, but that when Jesus talks about the "Kingdom of God," he's making an overt political statement about the condition of Palestine at that point that is completely counterposed to the Roman Empire of the time, particularly in the fact that it is a Kingdom of the heart that would have social and political ramifications. When Paul says that there's neither male nor female, Greek nor Jew, etc. that is a huge statement in a culture where your external identity dominated how others treated you.

I think the Gospel is political and I think it call for orthopraxy (practice) as well as orthodoxy (belief), but the question I want to pose is this: What are the political responsibilities of Christians? Do we affect change for the Kingdom through actions? Do we take to the streets to fight injustice? Do we run for political office?

What do you think?

Between Crucifixion and Resurrection...

I realize that I'm posting off schedule, but I got a little inspired today. I hope you like it.


He was the one. He was the Messiah. He was the one that was going to lead Israel back to prominence, back to God.

And now he’s gone.

I just can’t believe it. I saw him do things that I could believe. Even seeing them with my own eyes, I had to convince myself that I wasn’t dreaming. I saw him raise the dead, cast out demons, make bread out of nothing. I watched in amazement as he took the fever away from my wife’s mother, calmed storms, and walked on waves.

I heard him teach about getting back to God. He talked about loving our neighbor. He talked just a couple of days ago about making the Temple into a house of prayer again. He was the one who was going to lead the way to God. He was going to remove the Romans and their lapdogs and set up God’s Kingdom.

And now he’s gone. I watched yesterday as he died on a cross. A cross! He was killed like a criminal, in between two thieves! He was the Messiah; he was the chosen one, and he was killed like all the others. Even John the Baptist was beheaded.

And I tried, I tried to get him to do it right. When he started talking about dying, I told him he had it wrong. And when he talked about that he came to bring a sword, I made sure I brought mine to the Garden two nights ago. I was ready. I knew that he’d set it up there and he was about to start the revolution. I didn’t know if he’d strike dead the Temple guards or convert them to our side.

But then he just went with them and that bastard traitor, Judas. I wasn’t going to let that happen. If he wasn’t going to start it, I was going to. I took it out and I slashed that servant of the High Priest. But Jesus even stopped that.

So I followed and when I got to the courtyard, I… I…



And now he’s gone. He like all those other Messiahs, dead by a foreign hand. I guess I could keep talking about the stuff he talked about. That was good, loving your neighbor, taking care of the poor, visiting the sick. That was good stuff.

I’ll probably go home now. I was making a good living as a fisherman. I was supporting my family.

I just know that I’m going to miss him, the twinkle in his eye as he got ready to heal someone. That look of righteous anger as he was going to confront those self righteous Pharisees. That smile of love when he got around children.

I’m really going to miss him…

I Get So Emotional…

I come from a tradition that tends to eschew emotional outbursts within the context of community (Churches of Christ). The worship tends to be fairly staid and lethargic, singing songs like “Amazing Grace” with a sense that it is neither amazing nor graceful.

As a result of this, as a junior in high school I started attending a charismatic church (that used to be a Church of Christ) where the worship was much more exuberant and you tended to leave the worship service on an emotional high, rather than feeling like you’d just buried your dog. This was a great experience for me, because I got to experience the joy and tears that I truly believe are a part of life as a human in a context of worship to God.

There was a negative side to this as well. If the songs didn’t strike me just so, or the leader didn’t do something I liked or approved of, or I didn’t get that emotional high that I’d come to expect, I felt like the worship wasn’t… really worship, I guess. If it didn’t satisfy me, it didn’t really make it to God.

I’ve been in this last place for a little while now. We are blessed at Otter Creek to have a worship ministry that is second to none. Brandon does a great job in trying to balance traditional and contemporary and trying to appeal to all sides. But for some reason, in the last three months or so, I’m just not feeling it.

I try not to be cynical about church and how we do it, but it’s hard. I hear things in the context of classes or sermons that I like, but there’s still this big question mark about the whole thing. I sometimes feel like I’m giving lip service to something. Like my heart really believes it, but it’s still trying to convince my head. And sometimes my body.

I believe God is there and I believe God deserves my worship and praise, simply for being who He is. I have experienced the grace of God in my life and I know that even though I feel somewhat distant and like I’m starting to intellectualize the experience of walking with Him, there is a mystical quality to it. (Does it sound like I’m trying to convince myself? I am, kind of.)

Worship is important and I look forward to those times when worship affects me emotionally again. But I’m also starting to realize that if I put too much importance on that 90 minutes on a Sunday morning and how that affects me, I’m creating a new law. I’m saying that if I don’t get emotionally moved by worship, then that worship wasn’t effective. That’s wrong. Worship is a part of all Christians, and not just on Sunday morning or when we’re in the church building. It’s how I treat my wife and daughter and how I tip my waitress or treat my neighbor or judge him.

This Sunday, this Easter, God will get my worship. And God willing, that Monday after Easter, He’ll get my worship. And the day after that and the day after that. I won’t always get emotional about it, but I will worship the Lord of Heaven and King of Creation with my life.

And maybe, just maybe, I’ll start to sense once again that supernatural acceptance of who I am in Him.

Sorry for the ramble. It's just where I am on this Good Friday.

Get Off Your Ass and Do Something

I’ve always loved the story of the Good Samaritan. I’ve always loved the idea of someone showing kindness to someone else, but only recently have I begun to realize the serious call this puts on our lives as Christians.

As I’ve read the Gospels, I’ve noticed that Jesus reserves his harshest criticism for those who think they’ve got their beliefs right, but do nothing to act on them. This parable is no different as there are two members of the Jewish clergy who pass by the beaten man. Jesus always had strong words to speak against the religious authorities whether in Temple, or calling them a brood of vipers, or here in this story.

And to make it even more remarkable is that a Samaritan is the one who is the hero. He’s the one who gets off of his donkey and cares for the man. An outcast; a heretic. And when Jesus says, “Go and do likewise,” he’s telling a Jew to go and act like this Samaritan. To show mercy and kindness and compassion.

This is the call of the Gospel. This is the call of Christ. Jesus says here that our neighbor is anyone in need. Faith is good. Believing certain things seems important to Jesus. But if we do not act on those beliefs with compassion and love for each other, that faith is dead. If we don’t bother to get off our donkeys to care for people, we are not truly followers of the Christ whose name we purport to wear.

So I pose the question to the readers: What is our obligation to the poor? How involved to we get? Is donating funds enough? Should we get involved with the lives of the poor rather than kowtowing to the rich?

Why Church Sucks and Is Completely Necessary

Note: These thoughts were sparked by an article by Eugene Peterson called Spirituality for All the Wrong Reasons. Well worth the read, particularly for the following quote:

But many Christians would look at this church and say it's dead, merely an institutional expression of the faith.

What other church is there besides institutional? There's nobody who doesn't have problems with the church, because there's sin in the church. But there's no other place to be a Christian except the church. There's sin in the local bank. There's sin in the grocery stores. I really don't understand this naïve criticism of the institution. I really don't get it.

Frederick von Hugel said the institution of the church is like the bark on the tree. There's no life in the bark. It's dead wood. But it protects the life of the tree within. And the tree grows and grows and grows and grows. If you take the bark off, it's prone to disease, dehydration, death.

So, yes, the church is dead but it protects something alive. And when you try to have a church without bark, it doesn't last long. It disappears, gets sick, and it's prone to all kinds of disease, heresy, and narcissism.

Over the last year or so, I’ve started to believe that as Christians, we’ve really failed at what church is supposed to be. As I look at the early church, it was a community of people. They gathered together, not because they felt some obligation to do so, or because if they didn’t they would be “disfellowshipped,” or because they felt like it would get them into heaven.

They did it because they were a community. They did because they wanted to be around each other. They ate together, they met in homes, and they got deeply involved in each others lives.

The way we do church now in the formal setting does very, very little to encourage this kind of closeness and intimacy. In our formal worship, we sit in pews and stare at the back of people’s heads and sing songs to the front and listen to the preacher and pass communion plates silently. Very little community happens in how our worship times are structured now.

But I believe that, even though we could do some significant things to reform how we do formal worship, community happens almost in spite of these issues. Church gives the opportunity for many different ages and types of people to come together (in theory). I’ve walked down the hallways of my church and seen older women giving parental advice to younger ones and setting up appointments for lunch. I’ve seen people arranging to meet at someone’s house for fellowship and study. Bonds form through this really screwed up entity that God still uses to accomplish His will. It’s an institution that has taken care of my family and that I strive to love, in spite of its considerable failings.

One of the great ironies of the Christian life that have become really apparent to me is that Christianity is an intensely personal journey that is only done really effectively in community. I find myself amazed that God designed things in such a way, but there you have it.

Next week’s blog: Get Off Your Ass and Do Something (based on the Parable of the Good Samaritan)

Wow, so many visitors today! Well, I'm glad you all dropped by, people I've known as long as I can remember (Clark [yes, I am quite pathetic]) and those I don't know at all (Kim).

Anyway, welcome to my little world. If you get a chance, look back at some of my old stuff too. I always like to hear what people are thinking about the things I'm thinking.

And just to let you know, I post on Friday's. I'm not a posting machine, like some people.

The Other 99

Last night, Sheryl, Kinsey, and I attended a deal from Magdalene Ministries, which I would take the time to explain, but Clarissa Cox did a much better job. Long story short, it’s ministry to women who have been drug abusers and prostitutes, helping them get off the streets.

Anyway, I was thinking about stories and the power of God’s grace told through the stories that the three Magdalen ladies told us last night.

This may not describe anyone else, but having been a Christian basically my entire life, sometimes I don’t feel like I have a story. I’ve never done drugs, I don’t smoke (well, a cigar a couple of times a year), I don’t drink (well, a glass of wine a couple of times a year), I wasn’t abused as a child. I have my little quirks like everyone else (mom disfellowshipped from the church I attend now; going to a charismatic church for a while), but I don’t feel like I have that big dramatic story of God’s grace acting in my life or a Damascus road experience that I can use as a springboard in the sharing of the Good News.

I think a lot of that is driven by desire for drama. You know, we watch our big dramatic shows and love the stories told on them. And we love the stories that people tell. But I think that the stories of faithful people are just as uplifting, if not as “exciting” as the others. That the 99 sheep have stories to tell that are just as important as the one. God’s faithfulness to us is something that we should talk about, and we can talk about those. Not to brag because (insert self-righteous voice here) “I’ve never fallen away, like that rotten tax collector,” but to show that life with God is possible without the awful horrible things that can happen in life.

OK, am I way off base on this or just slightly out in left field? Thanks for reading this, whoever’s out there.

The World Is Broken

Yesterday morning, I browsed over to CNN.com and was… I really don’t have words to describe it. I read a story about a father of five children who used a knife on all of them, killing two and seriously wounding the other three, then slitting his own throat. I read a story about a man shooting his ex-wife with an AK-47 because he didn’t want to pay back child support.

I read about a 7 month old, a 7 month old being sexually assaulted.

The world is broken. This is not how God intended it. The extreme capacity that people have to cruel, malicious, and violent toward each other is staggering. And it seems to be for personal pleasure, personal gain, personal desires.

On days like yesterday, I cannot believe how a holy God could look down on this miserable mess that we’ve made with anything approximating love. On a people that are so screwed up that we’ll shoot our ex-wives so that we don’t have to pay them child support, or we’ll kill someone who is from a different tribe, or we’ll drown our children and blame someone else for it.

I despair. I doubt. I can’t see hope.

But here’s where I am. I believe God’s business is reconciliation and restoration. I believe that Jesus walked this earth to help us return to God. To break out pieces of the Kingdom of God. That’s why the angels rejoice so hard when someone is saved. Not just because of the soul, but because it’s another little piece of the Kingdom that has entered this world. Slowly, bit by bit, the Kingdom is becoming real; people are seeing the reality that things are broken and we cannot fix them by ourselves. It takes the power of God and the power of God’s people to achieve this.

Jesus didn’t save us to sit on our… pews and talk or listen about God. Jesus lived, died, and rose so that we could be reconciled to God and help the world be reconciled to God. Get out there and do it. And encourage me to get out there and do it.

Love God. Love People. Serve God. Serve People.

Homosexuality

Last week on Brandon Thomas’ blog, a discussion erupted about homosexuality. Brandon decried the appearance of a conservative Christian woman on a reality show blasting a lesbian couple. He mourned for the appearance of followers of Christ who would be so hateful to another person.

Well, rightfully so, the idea then came up about where the rubber meets the road. And ultimately the question is this: Can an actively gay person be considered a Christian?

Honestly, it’s been much easier for me to think about being homosexual and being Christian as mutually exclusive. In fact, most homosexuals I know (admittedly, a small number) want nothing to do with religion or church, for a variety of reasons, and it’s only been recently that I’ve been exposed to the idea that a homosexual would even want to be a Christian.

All my life, I’ve believed that homosexuality is a sin. That engaging in such an act would lead to damnation. Now, I’m very grateful that GayChristian and others on Brandon’s blog have gone to the Scriptures and pointed out their interpretations of the Scriptures that deal with homosexuality, and I can say that I’m not sure I buy all of that.

What I can say is that it’s opened me up to a new way of thinking. A new perspective. Do I believe homosexuality is a sin? Yes, I do, but no more damning of a sin than lying or being greedy or gossiping. But I can see things from that side of things.

Something I’m learning. The world’s not black and white. And what I’m learning even more is that in between the black and white is not gray, but a kaleidoscope of colors. God is not in the blacks and whites only, but He operates in those colorful places. How? I don’t know, but I trust that He is.

Spiritual Superiority Complex

I’d like to identify psychological issue today. It’s not a new one. In fact, it’s as old as humanity. I won’t deal with humanity, but I will deal with me and my circle of experience.

I left the Church of Christ when I was 14 after my mom was disfellowshipped for getting a divorce without sexual infidelity by my dad. As the result of a lot of things, I ended up at Belmont Church, best described as a charismatic church that used to be a CofC. They have instruments and they believe that the gifts of the Spirit are still active today.

To me, this was a natural step in my faith. It just made sense. It also made sense when I went to Lipscomb University. I had once been shackled by CofC theology and God was sending me to Lipscomb to enlighten these poor Pharisaical hypocrites. Of course, I was humbled to learn that being a Christian and a member of the Church of Christ were not mutually exclusive, and I even went so far to rejoin a Church of Christ, in fact the one from which my mom had been disfellowshipped.

But what happened at Otter Creek has been an interesting phenomenon. OC has always been on the left edge of Churches of Christ, particularly the ones here in Nashville. And as that reputation gained, we started adding more and more people, mainly people from other Churches of Christ. These people had left their churches in search of a place with more freedom in worship or was more grace-centered or had elders that acted like shepherds and not a board of directors, and they found OC. Basically spiritual refugees.

Now, the natural thing for someone to do is to compare where they are now to where they were. What happens in a religious sense is that a spiritual superiority can creep in. “Can you believe that I ever used to believe that instrumental music is wrong?” “Wow, I feel sorry for those women back at ____________ who can’t even make announcements.” I firmly believe that it is totally unintentional, but it is equally true. I’m completely guilty of it myself. It really seems to be the result of a culture, both church and the wider culture, that puts focus on being right and not being Jesus. It’s almost competitive theology.

And now that people are starting to feel even more enlightened by reading Brian McLaren, Dan Kimball, Sally Morgenstern, and on and on, this same disease is creeping in. Under the guise of sympathy, we feel sorry for those who aren’t as enlightened as ourselves. We wish they could enjoy the same freedom that we have now. That sense of mission throughout the week and not just punching the church clock on Sundays. But that is equally superior as anything else. We think we’re being humble, but we’re really looking down on people.

May God forgive us the superiority that we develop both intentionally and not. And may He give us the strength to be humble and graceful with all of those we interact with.

Bad Week, Good Day

This has been a long week. And Wednesday was one of THOSE days. On my way to my spiritual formation group, I got pulled over by a cop. My tags expired on January 31 and Wednesday was February 2. On my way back from the spiritual formation group, I think I hit every single stoplight it was possible to hit, making me late back from lunch.

In addition to that I’m working on a project at work that’s driving me nuts right now. A lot of conference calls and not a lot of productive response. It’s stressing me out and making me irritable. Or rather I should say, I’m responding in an irritating way.

Having said that, the church service on Wednesday night was just what I needed to refocus. It was a time of calming and really thinking about others.

I run sound for most things that happen at Otter Creek and Wednesday’s are no exception. Well, this time was a fairly simple one: just a keyboard, vocal mic, and monitor. However, during the whole service, there was a girl sitting in the balcony, where the sound board is (and musicians, too). She was wiping her eyes and wiping her nose through the whole thing.

At the end of his sermonette, Scott Owings asked us to take the bread of the Lord’s Supper and keep one for ourselves and give one to someone else, telling them that they are beloved by God. Well, I don’t know if it was from the Lord or what’s going on, but I felt really convicted to take a piece of bread to this crying girl. So, I took one to her and told her that, with tears in her eyes and mine filling with them, too.

After the service was over (at which I could barely sing Watermark’s “Amazing Grace”), I looked over there and she was gone, which I expected. I wasn’t intending to talk to her, but just to give a smile or something. So, just offer up a prayer of peace for her. I don’t know if it was a boyfriend deal, something wrong with a family member, or if she just had a bad day like I did. But it reminds me that life as a member of the body of Christ is not about me. It’s for me to take care of others. To offer comfort.

To die to myself so that Christ might live through me.

Forgiveness and Healing

Mark 2:1-18 is one of my favorite stories in all of Scripture, because there is so much packed into it. We can gloss this one over as one of the healing miracles that Jesus did, but there seems to be a lot going on here. Who was this guy, the paralytic? Who were the four friends and what had the paralytic done to earn such loyalty, friendship, and love from them? What about the owner of the house? What did he think when four guys tore a hole in his roof?

And what did all of them think when the first thing out of Jesus' mouth was "Son, your sins are forgiven"? The passage here says that the teachers of the law were thinking that Jesus was blaspheming, but I imagine that the others were saying, "Huh? We didn't lower him down to get his sins forgiven! We lowered him down to get him healed! If we wanted his sins forgiven, we would have just waited until the Day of Atonement!" At least, that would have been my reaction.

You see, I wonder sometimes if those of us who have grown up Christian have undervalued the forgiveness of our sins. We've treated it almost as an eternal slot machine. We sin, we get forgiven and try to do better. We sin, we get forgiven and try to do better. The bitter irony of all of this is that so often, it's the same sins that we return to over and over: lust or greed or pride.

But here's the good news. There is another time when Jesus tells some one that her sins are forgiven. In John 8, he tells the woman caught in sin, "Go and leave your life of sin." Now, I don't know how you've pictured Jesus saying that, but many people for many years have pictured him saying it with a wagging finger or a stern look of warning that if she does, she forfeits her soul to hell. Which may be true.

But as I discover the Jesus of the gospels and not the Jesus of tradition, I don't see that one. I don't see the Angry God, waiting to drop us from the thread. I see the Good Shepherd leaving the 99 to find the one. I see the father of the prodigal son, welcoming him back. I see the Jesus on the cross who could have gotten down at any time, but chose to stay up there and act as the atonement for my sins.

You see, Jesus doesn't forgive sins and then give us a warning about not sinning again. He forgives us and welcomes us into new life with him. When he says, "leave your life of sin," he's saying there's a new way to live. A new way without the empty promises of money, the temporary pleasures of lust, the vain soullessness of pride. A fulfillment of what God has wanted for us from the beginning. A breaking out of a corner of the Kingdom of God.

This is his promise to us: the promise made in Isaiah, fulfilled in Jesus, and reminded to us by Paul. We are forgiven and we are made whole again. Just like the paralytic. Now, as forgiven members of God's Kingdom, God's Resistance Movement against Evil, against the powers and principalities, what do we do? Do we sit here in our nice buildings, large homes, well-manicured campuses and wait for the world to come to us? Did Jesus die for us, bringing us the forgiveness and healing, so that we can sing nice songs to each other and tell each other how great God is and how much He loves us?

No, he did not. He forgave us and made us whole, so that we can take the good news out of here and into a dying world. A world that needs him and world that is groaning for God, groaning for healing, groaning to be made whole. That’s the good news. Not that you’ll go to Hell if you screw up. But that Jesus offers forgiveness and healing. To all of us. To all the world.

Let us not forget the forgiveness and healing that we have been given, but also let us not be stingy or miserly with it.

For those that have ears, let them hear.

Consumers of Church

It seems that as we form our societal bonds; they are based on consumer needs. That seems particularly appropriate for churches and especially churches in a city like Nashville. We get together in groups where we agree on what we're going to consume: a worship style, a type of preaching, a youth leader, one cup, etc. But, when something comes up that we disagree with, as consumers we feel it's our right to find another church.

I wonder sometimes if the amount of choices for churches in a city like Nashville makes us awful, terrible at resolving conflicts. I wonder if we've stopped thinking of church as a family and more of a social group. If we disagree with a social group, we find another one. If we disagree with our family, we try to find a way to solve the problems.