Living in Romans 7 | Longing for Romans 8

I was a jerk the other day. I sinned against God and my neighbor. And I am under a lot of stress with ministry, seminary, family, lack of sleep, and a half dozen other things. So, when I was talking to a friend today, he said it sounded like I was not taking responsibility for what I did. Instead, I was blaming what I did on the stuff going on around me. And he was right. I was focusing way too much on what was going on around me, and not what was going on in me.

We all do stupid things when we get stressed to medicate ourselves so we don't have to think about the things that worry us. The Bible calls these stupid things sin. Recovery groups call it addiction. Family therapists call it dysfunction. And the doctor calls it sickness. I am not sure that any of these terms fully capture the reality of what is wrong with us, deep down inside, that causes us to make dumb decisions that hurt others and ourselves and our God.

Jesus Camp: The Most Un-Funny Christians Ever

I just saw the "Jesus Camp" movie with my kids from youth group. It is a stunning, breathtaking, evenly-balanced movie. It will also make you sick. I got nauseous watching it. The whole movie was a continual mix of truth and error, Gospel and Law, God and the devil. It was like riding in the car with a narcoleptic. For a long time you would be driving along just fine, agreeing with what was being presented, and then all of the sudden the driver would fall asleep at the wheel and the car would veer off of the road and crash in flames. And this happened at least a half-dozen times in the movie.

It wasn't like the "religious" people were presented as all evil all the time. They weren't. For the most part they were presented as kind, loving, caring people, who were a little odd. They were the kind of folk that live next door. And then all of the sudden they would drive off of the side of the road into this scary ravine of hate and exclusion and power-politics. And this happened over and over in the movie.

I think the words that best describe the movie are idolatry, warfare, and humorless.

Theomedy: The jokes on you...

What could be more comedic than a smelly biped with a three pound brain trying to comprehend the purposes of God? Yet, that's what delights our Maker! So much that He became a smelly biped too. This blog explores this ironic fact with amusement, wit, and just a little bit of sarcasm.

Just War or Pacifism? Rodrigo versus Gabriel

This is a speech given in a "Just War versus Pacifism" debate at Perkins School of Theology in September of 2006. The starting point of this debate was the 1986 film "The Mission" in which Jeremy Irons plays "Gabriel", a Jesuit missionary evangelizing South America in the 1700's. It also stars Robert DeNiro, who plays "Rodrigo", a mercenary and slave trader who converts to Christ and becomes a Jesuit as well. The climax of the film happens when the Portuguese government closes all of the Jesuit missions so they can sell all of their inhabitants into slavery. As the army invades to rape, pillage, burn, and destroy the mission, Gabriel and Rodrigo choose to stay with their flock, but they do so in two totally different ways. Gabriel, being a man of peace his entire life and untrained in military tactics, chooses pacifism, and is martyred with the women and children by Portuguese muskets. Rodrigo chooses to wage war as a last ditch effort to protect the people of the mission. Though he kills many of the soldiers, he and the able-bodied men of the mission are martyred as well. This sets the stage for the debate…

Aphorisms, Bumperstrips, and T-Shirts

Just some sayings I have come to love at this point in my life and ministry...

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Love 'em all, let God sort 'em out!

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God loves you more than that...

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Christmas is nice, but

Let's put CHRIST

back in christians!

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whatever you do, do NOT think about jesus christ.

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jesus is for loosers...

we're all loosers...

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to hell with your fascist barbie doll beauty standards!

jesus makes you beautiful.

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you are what you worship.

what do you worship?

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imperfect. flawed. needy. hurting. sinner.

loved. redeemed. treasured. cherished. child of god.

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jesus is a just crutch for weak people...

...and he is waiting for us all to realize we are weak people.

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christians are all hypocrites

and we have room for one more... so join us.

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the bible is irrational, confusing, and contradictory...

that makes it the perfect guide to help us through an irrational, confusing, contradictory world.

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an apathetic christian

is a pathetic Christian.

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porn is slavery...

if you don't believe it, just try to stop watching it for a month.

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mass marketing is making you a slave...

if you don't believe it, just try to stop watching t.v. for a month.

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be a true rebel... throw away your television set.

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be a real non-conformist... say no to mass marketing

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i am a person

not just a body

so look me in the eyes.

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American Religion:

- my family doesn't have time for god... we worship our child's extra-curricular activities!

- i don't have time for god... i worship at the altar of success!

- don't ask what you can do for jesus... ask what jesus can do for you!

- i am the god of my own universe. really.

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jesus is ironic.

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when god made man and woman he did not consult mtv, maxim, cosmo, playboy, or victoria's secret

jesus makes you beautiful

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I'm an aatheist

do you know who you are?

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ask me about jesus.

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The difference between what you think you believe

And what you really believe

Is shown in how you live

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JESUS LOVES

men - women - children - teenagers - the unborn - the elderly - gays - straights - christians - nonchristians - atheists - hindus - buddhists - muslims - black - brown - red - yellow - white - pink - the poor - the rich - the stupid - the smart - pretty folks - ugly folks - skinny - fat - liberals - conservatives - fundamentalists - random acts of mercy and love - probably some politicians and lawyers - the person in this shirt - and...

EVEN YOU!!!

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Yes! I am the most smartest person alive!

Finally someone said it…

Finally someone said it. It is something we all need to hear.

http://www.internetisshit.org

They are right. Internet information is worth precisely what we pay for it. Nothing. Perhaps I may give up blogging. I waste too much time on it anyway.

Maybe I will just go "old school" and start up conversations with real people at coffee shops and bookstores again.

The Gospel of the Kingdom versus The Gospel of Me.

The cover of the current Time Magazine asks the always poignant question: "Does God want you to be rich? The debate over the new gospel of wealth". The "gospel of wealth" is not necessarily a new gospel. It arguably began when Simon Magus offered to by the gift of the Holy Spirit from Peter (Acts 8). Paul speaks of those who preach Christ "out of envy and rivalry" as well as "selfish ambition" (Philippians 1:15-17). But perhaps the greatest evidence of the perennial heresy of "health and wealth" is found in Paul's advice to Timothy:

"[There are those] who think that godliness is a means to financial gain. But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs." (1 Timothy 6:5-10)

Dear Porn Student…

WARNING: This blog is fairly explicit about the Christian faith, sexuality, and my own experiences. It deserves an "R" rating. Please do not read it if you are under 16 or 17. And if you do read it, please do not complain about the adult content.

This week a person calling themselves "pornstudent" commented on a twocitiesblog which was dealing with child pornography and sexual consumerism. Pornstudent has made it the point of his blog to defend adult use of pornography as "good" and "beneficial". I felt called to reply on his blog. Here it is:

Jesus Camp Cometh

Have you seen movie posters yet for the movie "Jesus Camp"? Are you wondering if perhaps it is some teenage-angst-and-hormone filled cross between "Saved" and "American Pie"? Well, you would be wrong. It is a documentary about a Pentecostal children's ministry camp that is aimed at making elementary-aged children "soldiers for Christ" who will take back this country for Jesus.

It looks like it will: (a) Be fairly biased against conservative Christian believers, and try to paint them/us in a negative light; (b) Make us take a long hard look at the Jesus we are portraying; and (c) Open a great opportunity for dialogue with Christians and Non-Christians about what Jesus is really all about.

Rather than summarize what I have read, let me give you what Wikipedia says (which is pretty good):

God-Wrestling: Struggling with God through Scriptural Ambiguity

[After wrestling with Ya-qov from dusk till dawn, the God-man] said, "Your name shall no longer be called Ya-qov [the Swindler], but Yisra-El [the God-Wrestler], for you have wrestled with God and humanity, and have endured." Then Ya-qov asked him, "Now, tell me your name!" But he said, "What is this that you ask my Name?" And right there [the God-man] blessed him. So Ya-qov named that place "Face-of-God", saying, "I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered." (Genesis 32:28-30, Authors translation)

All who call the God of Ya-qov their God are called to walk in the footsteps of his faith, and wrestle with God in the same way Ya-qov did. After Ya-qov wrestled with God (dare I say fought with God?), he was injured. He limped. But he was blessed by God in a way that he would not have been if he had not fought with him. When I read this passage I think of Lieutenant Dan screaming at God in the hurricane in the movie "Forrest Gump". At the end of the movie, Lieutenant Dan came back from his life-long fight with God physically limping, but blessed and made whole in ways that far exceeded his physical circumstances.

Should the name Evangelical be "left behind"?

2020 UPDATE: I still agree with most of the values and ideals which underlie this 2005 "essay" (which is more of a rant). But I think the way I presented these values here is very ineffective. It is a great example of how irony and sarcasm can work very poorly in print. I leave it up as a reminder of where I was at in 2005 and how I can write better.

I write to you as a bonafide, card-carrying evangelical. I was "born again" in 1992 by receiving a "personal relationship" with Jesus Christ, after which my lifestyle and worldview was radically changed. I was discipled through a minister getting his degree at Dallas Theological Seminary, as well as through Campus Crusade. My evangelical credentials are all in good order.

On occasion, one of evangelicalism's guiding lights will say or do something that makes me cringe to associate myself with the "E" word. Whether it is Pat Robertson's crazy pronouncements, Falwell's animated antics, a half-baked Baptist boycott, or our general drift toward political supremacy and cultural triumphalism... there is always something out there I feel I have to apologize to both God and man for by taking up the name evangelical.

But what do you do when one of the media stars of evangelicalism does something so patently against the gospel that to be associated in the same camp is to be associated with something demonstrably less-than-Christian, or even anti-Christian?

Urban Myths, Educated Gullibility, and the Danger of Christianity

Do you like Urban myths? I do! Snopes.com, the premier urban myth debunking site on the internet, is a source of endless enjoyment for me. Have you heard the one about how internet users can receive a cash reward for forwarding messages to test a Microsoft/AOL e-mail tracking system? Myth. Or about how chewing gum takes seven years to pass through the human digestive system? Myth again. Or how about the fact that Finland once banned Donald Duck because he wears no pants? Myth. And then there is my favorite genre of myth: Christian scare tactic myths. Everything from "If you don't forward this email you are denying Christ!" to "Did you know that Atheist Madalyn Murray O'Hair is circulating a petition to have religious broadcasting banned from American airwaves?" All myths.

Big Bang or Big Bounce?

DISCLAIMER: This essay was written in 2006, prior to my graduate school, and prior to a career working in Episcopal Schools. Although I think much of the content here holds up as a theological meditation on cosmology, I am sure that the scientific nomenclature used, and perhaps even the underlying science presupposed, has changed since then. So, please consider both the time it was written and the purposes it was written for.

One of the major headaches (and blessings) of having really smart kids in your youth group is that they ask really tough questions. Today, I got one from Marcus. Really, it wasn't so much of a question as "Whaddaya think about this? Huh?" You see, Marcus, just for fun, was looking at articles on quantum physics and the origins of the Universe (yeah, that's what kids in my youth group do). And he came across an article about a new hypothesis put forth by Penn State quantum physicist Abhay Ashtekar, in which Ashtekar says that as the universe eventually implodes on itself into an infinitely small "ball" of matter-energy-space-time, certain "tears" occur in the multi-dimensional fabric of space time, which actually reverse the force of gravity, and turn it into an explosive force. This results in what is termed the "big bounce", in which the universe bounces out from the "ball" and creates a new universe. What this theory implies is that the universe and space time are infinite, and every time the universe "dies" in the "big crunch", it is "re-born" in the "big bang".

A Raging Moderate Searches for Truth, part 1: On the limitations of scientific knowledge

Over the centuries, many great Christian thinkers have either taught that theology is a "science", or that "scientific methods" can be used to established the truths of theology. While theology can be construed as a sort of science (i.e. following the lead of Aquinas who defined it as a "sub-altern" science), I think that to hold theology in bondage to the "scientific method" is to deeply damage both theology and science. They are simply different kinds of knowledge and different kinds of knowing, and to conflate the two, or to use one to back up the other is simply wrong headed. One look at the creation-evolution debate is a good example of how neither science nor theology come out winners when used to "validate" one another.

On Tolerance, Scripture, Historicity, and Truth

A friend wrote this to me tonight:

Great program on Terry Gross’s Fresh Air segment on NPR today.  The guest was Bart Urman (sp?), author of Peter, Paul, and Mary Magdalene, the early followers of Jesus and New Testament and Gnostic Gospels historian and authority at University of North Carolina.  He spoke a lot about The Da Vince Code as well as the Gospel of Judas and other relatively recently discovered Christian writings... At the very end of the program he had a great couple of statements about the importance of today’s Christian realizing the diversity that even the early Christian church exemplified.  He sounded mightily Episcopalian, though I’m wary of religious academics tenured at state universities.  

Thanks!  Actually, I heard 5 minutes of it while going to Sr Hi Bible Study tonight, and one of the students also heard it.  He brought it up at Bible Study.  So, we talked about aspects of it tonight.  Must've been something God wanted me to be aware of and talk about!  I also heard the tolerance message at the end of it as well... And it brings me to a subject I have been wanting to write about for a while, so I am going to write about it if you don’t mind ;-)

My feelings about the tolerance part is paradoxical. I have just enough conservative Evangelical in me (as well as open-minded liberal), that I am both wary of, and sympathetic to, such calls for tolerance. Going to a liberal mainline seminary has taught me that for many future pastors and academics the core of Christianity is not Christ and his work, but a politically correct tolerance of anyone, as long as they have no firm opinions on anything. As soon as someone has firm opinions and is willing to identify something as "right" and something as "wrong", they are labeled as a "fundy" and excluded from "polite" conversation.  In such a climate a theological conservative has to know the presuppositions and arguments better than anyone else to even get a hearing.

Can we pray for the past?

I got a great question from one of my students. I thought I would throw it out for consideration and debate:

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If God is part of a separate time where he is both the past present and future all at the same time, why is it that we only pray for two of those time frames the present and the future? Is it possible to alter the past by praying for a past occurrence? I'm not talking about praying to learn from one's mistakes so as to not continue to do it in the future but actually praying for something to change in the past and actually receiving your prayer?
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Actually, this is fairly easy to answer, while also being very speculative:

Students Standing Strong for Plastic Trendy Jesus?

This is one of those posts where I know people are going to hate me, but if I am going to be true to the Church I minister in, the students I serve, and the Bible-belt culture I live in, I have to write it.

I was watching the news tonight and they were talking about a Christian student group at Colleyville-Heritage High School "fighting for their right" to worship after school at Colleyville High School. This group "Students Standing Strong" apparently brought in the strong arm of the lawyers to get the school to allow them to worship in the gymnasium.

The way it is being reported on Fox 4 news, I get real mixed feelings about it... but they could be presenting it in a bad light (news often does). But, since I am a youth minister about 15 miles away from this school, I thought I might ask one of my students in that school district what they knew of the group.

I asked this person: What do you know about this group?  Is it a good thing?  What are your feelings about it all?  Honesty is appreciated...

Here is what they wrote back (their words, not mine, but names and genders are deleted):

WWJD: What would Judas do?

Well, it is apparently time for us all to answer the question: What would Judas do?  A couple of my students and families at Church have asked me about the newly translated "Gospel of Judas" that has inspired much media hype, and yet another run-of-the-mill "groundbreaking" historical documentary on the National Geographic Channel this Easter Sunday. If you don’t know what I am talking about look at these online resources: either go to Wikipedia and type in "Gospel of Judas", or check out this collection (which includes a complete translation) at tertullian.org, or if you can read ancient Coptic, check out the text and translation here.

The questions I am getting are all versions of this well-thought out question by Matt:

Ask Nate: On Faith, Prayer, Mountains, and Seas

This week on "Ask Nate", Jake asks:

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Hey Nate,

This is one of my Biblical questions.

Mark 11:20-25  
In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots. Peter remembered and said to Jesus, "Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered!"  "Have faith in God," Jesus answered.  "I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him.  Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.  And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins."

If our faith will let us move a mountain, why can't we do that?  Why can't I pray to God to fold my laundry?  Is it using God as a tool?  

Or are there doubts that I am just unaware of?  If I was to repeatedly say "God will allow someone to find a cure for cancer" does that mean that eventually I will believe it so whole-heartedly that eventually I will have no doubts of it?

I was just curious as to why we can't move mountains.  Do we have doubts that we'll never overcome or are we testing Him? Take your time in getting back to me.
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My first response is "Why didn't you ask about the fig tree?" I have never figured out to my satisfaction why Jesus had to curse a poor innocent fig tree to get his point across!  Some things I will just have to wait for heaven to find the exact answer to.

Revolt!

Time to come clean. I am obsessed with consumerism, because I think that consumerism will be the spiritual force to recon with in this century (maybe longer). I believe it will be the "delivery vehicle" through which the enemy will try to accomplish what CS Lewis calls "the abolition of man". The enemy used nationalism, fascism, and communism as his primary delivery vehicles in the 19th and 20th centuries. But, now consumerism is trying to consume all human society and make humans into the perfect renewable resource. It has a vested interest in destroying families, churches, and every other "support structure" in our lives so that we have to rely on purchasing products to be "whole" people (wholly addicted, that is). I really think that consumerism is one of the powers that makes Christianity so powerless in our society.