This is a weird time to be writing. Friday night, 9 pm? But this has been in my head for a few weeks now and it wants to come out. I've been trying to figure out a way to sum it up but I can't. There is no good way to start so I'll just start.

Jesus didn't live in a vacuum. Just like we don't live in a vacuum. We have Republicans, Democrats, Baptists, Catholics, Christians, Muslims, Atheists, you get the idea. We have frameworks that we use to make decisions. We also have influences around us that affect our way of life. We are in a war, so we have to think about our stance on war. Women want to get abortions so we are forced to think about abortion. You get the idea. We don't live in a vacuum. Neither did Jesus.

The Romans had taken over Judea. They brought their gods and their way life with them. The Jews were forced to deal with this reality. There were four primary groups that dealt with this juxtaposition of cultures. Pharisees, Saducees, Zealots, and Essenes.

Pharisees said we are surrounded by evil so the answer is to be as holy as we can be and to make sure we follow every rule to the extreme. They thought this strictness would purify their culture. The problem was the focus on the outside. They followed all the rules but they didn't think about their soul or their heart. Jesus came and said they were whitewashed tombs. Clean on the outside, DEAD on the inside. He said we have to be better than the Pharisees! Can he be crazy? You can't be better than those guys. I guess this is where we read between the lines. Have ears to hear. "Better" means we focus on cleaning up our hearts and souls. So Jesus didn't fall in line with the legalists. He taught that rules don't trump love.

The Saducees said its all about compromise. The Romans are here so we might as well make the best of it. We throw them a bone so they let us do our thing. What that turned into was the Saducees fighting for power in thier own little miniature version of the Romans. It was a popularity and power contest. Jesus said give up your life. Jesus said take up your cross. Jesus led a counter culture revolution. He wasn't concerned with fitting in. He even turned some people off (check out John 6)

The Zealots cried "Fight". They were the soldiers. They wanted to overthrow the Romans by force. (If I was alive then I probably would have joined this group) Jesus came and said love your enemies. Jesus told his disciples to put down their swords.

The Essenes said we have to escape. We have to rid ourselves of this evil. They went out to the desert to isolate themselves in thier bubble. Jesus ate supper with the tax collectors. Jesus was friends with former prositutes. Jesus said "no perfect people allowed".

Jesus always seemed to go his own way. He found a way to turn the prevaling "ways" on their heads. I don't have a conclusion. I hope I can learn from how revolutionary Jesus is. I don't live in a vacuum. I have to find a way in my generation and in my culture to live the kingdom. I don't want to look back and realize I based it on some fleeting groupthink.

Are there different levels of prayer? Or is all prayer equal? Does prayer change God? Or like C.S. Lewis said, does it change us? We are encouraged to pray "in the power of the Spirit" in Eph. 6. At other times we encouraged to approach God with boldness (because unlike the OT, God won't strike us with lightning if we appear too cavalier) I've thought for the last several years that prayer should be like a conversation. How should we do prayer? How can we pray in the Spirit's power? What does that even mean? Praying in the power of the Spirit sounds way to charismatic for me. It scares me. It also excites me. I will admit that my prayers seem useless at times. I feel like they don't change anything. I want my prayers to be more, well, powerful. Not like I'm using prayer to manipulate. Not in that way but in the sense that my prayer is on a higher level. Perhaps its like my guitar playing. I like to play the guitar but I would like to get better. But can you practice prayer like you can an instrument? One idea is that we latch onto the power of the Spirit and our prayers come from that. I like that. The power doesn't come from us or our abilities to get better at prayer. We aren't the source of powerful prayer in this scenario. In other words, God's Spirit tells us what to pray for and how to pray and so the obvious product is this kind of higher level prayer. This kind of praying is power that isn't based on us but in a sense it is through us. God can't pray for us. The cool thing is that God wants us to participate in this creative process of bringing His way of life. Part of that is this kind of prayer. Power prayer is essential to what I will call Church. Church isn't a place. Church is a group of Christians involved in a creative process that can happen anywhere at any time. This creative process isn't based on the Christians, its based on what God has given us. This power or this set of gifts that He hands out is where it starts. To get on with our mission we need this start up power and these start up gifts. Once we get those going in the creative process it ain't all gravy. We encounter laziness, insecurity, doubts, and a myriad other roadblocks. This is where you need to create an environment for listening to God. Listening doesn't happen instantly. If you want to talk with your wife and truly listen to her you first have to create an environment for that. You have to turn off the tv and put down the computer. If not, its not really listening. The same goes for prayer. You have to make a time for listening and a time for quiet. Prayer is hard work and its intentional. It reminds me of a Derek Webb song - "Bring it down from the mountain to me, I don't want to know, if the answers aren't easy". Well, the answers aren't easy. You don't get the beautiful views without the long, hard hike.

From The Wilderness

I was reading in Luke today about John the Baptist. The section starts off by naming all the big wigs of the day. The Roman Emperor, the Governor, and all the way down to the high priest. Then it breaks in, "Out in the wilderness..." These other guys have nothing to do with the wilderness. They are all about man's world. They are the high rollers in the systems of power and oppression. The are the religious establishment. They are the corrupt government of their day. Then we are taken straight to John in the wilderness. What is he doing out there? Why is he so removed? It says he is baptizing people to show that they have turned away from their sins and turned back to God. What I think of is, "Why aren't they going to government or to the high priest for this baptism? When you read more you find out that Isaiah prophesied that John would come. John would make the introductions for Jesus. Isn't it odd and revolutionary that God decided to pick this outsider to pave the way? John was an outsider. He was from the wilderness. This is just one of the many times that God goes outside of the world's box to work his plan. God's kingdom is like a hidden treasure according to Jesus. John was a hidden treasure. He was kept away from the voices and pressures that could sway him away from really doing God's will. It seems to me that when God is working, most of the time it will be on the fringes of man's gameplan. I was watching this award show on tv last night. Everybody is famous and rich and well-to-do. We all aspire to get there, to be them. That would be living the dream. Or at least that's what we're sold. Then this one guys gets up and accepts an award. He looks haggard. His hair is all down in his face. He is mumbling. He is cussing. I was making fun of him at first but as I'm writing this I'm thinking about that guy for some reason. He didn't look like your typical star. He reminds me of John the Baptist. John was probably haggard. He probably wouldn't be the first choice to pastor your church. He wasn't cool. I mean John lived in the wilderness. Don't down play it. Don't clean it up. That's the inclination. To clean up stories like this. To make it fit to us instead of the other way around. God's Kingdom is being revealed everyday but it doesn't come through the stars of this world, it comes from the outsiders.

Relevance at what cost?

I'm one for being relevant. Let's do things as The Church that are meaningful to people in their time and in their context. I have talked about this and argued for it. Relevance is a good thing, not a bad word. Relevance does not have to mean selling out or watering down. Being relevant does not have to mean trying to be cool or hip.

I read a quote yesterday that gave me pause. Its from Ragamuffin Gospel. Manning writes, "Many lay people have remarked to me that from priests and ministers today they hear just about everything but proclamation of the Good News of the Kingdom. They hear about race, pollution, war, abortion, ecology, and a myriad other moral problems. None of them prevents proclamation but not a single one of them is an adequate substitute for issuing invitations to the banquet. Are we hesitant to commit ourselves to the role of an eschatological herald because we're no longer sure that we believe that role - another way of saying we never really did believe it? Maybe we think such a role isn't relevant, that people won't take an eschatological herald seriously. To be really a disciple of Jesus one must be committed to the message of the Kingdom as He was, and to preach it whether or not the audience finds it relevant."


Its ok to sing new songs, with new musical styles in church. Its ok to not wear a suit and tie on Sundays. Its ok to have church in a house instead of a "church" building. Its ok to do alot of things for the sake of acutally meaning something to people. But its never ok to stop preaching the truth about Jesus for the sake of relevance. Some things have to be said whether people find it relevant or not. That is a cost to great.

ragamuffins

I'm reading The Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning. The book is all about God's free love. We are all just ragamuffins, beggars at God's feet. It's so easy to get wrapped up in the game of making God happy so that He will love you. I'm guilty. I've tried for a long time to see what I can do, how good I can be. When I fall flat on my face I feel like God doesn't love me anymore, He isn't happy with my performance. I have let God down. That's an extremely low place to be. But the thing is, we can't let God down. It's impossible. Jesus lived this out as well. He hung out with the prostitutes and tax collectors. His love didn't come with preconditions. It was an "indiscriminate" love. Its a liberating love. It liberates me from trying to save myself. It allows God to do the saving. Manning makes a comment about this liberating power, "When we accept ourselves for what we are, we decrease our hunger for power or the acceptance of others because our self intimacy reinforces our inner sense of security. We are no longer preoccupied with being powerful or popular. We no longer fear criticism because we accept the reality of our human limitations."

ways - moses

What does the way of Moses have to do with the Jesus Way?



The life of Moses isn't what you would expect. We lift up Moses because he is a famous bible character. The truth is, Moses was a murderer. He murdered an Egyptian guard for beating a Hebrew slave. Then he was a fugitive. He lived in the desert for 40 years. 40 years is a long time to wander the desert as a shepherd. 40 years is a long time to think that you have no purpose or meaning. Did Moses think his life was meaningless? Did he think he was a failure? Moses was a shepherd. He went from living in the palace and being a prince to living in a tent and hanging out with sheep all day. Why did God talk to Moses at the burning bush? Why this fugitive shepherd? God's people looked like they were on the brink of extinction in Egypt. So he picks a nobody shepherd to turn it around? Huh? This is the kind of stuff we have to think about when we read the Bible. We can't just say, "Well Moses obeyed God so we have to obey God too, even when it seems like an impossible situation." That's a great principle to take from the story but it makes the story all about Moses. We have to start finding the principles from these stories where we ask, "What is God's role in all of this?" "How is God interacting with people in this story?" "How do we get in on what God is doing?" God tells Moses to take of his sandals because he is on holy ground. The burning bush story is about God's holiness. Moses was in the presence of God. Moses, the average no-name guy, is on holy ground. God has allowed him to enter His presence. God doesn't just bless the perfect, famous people with his holy presence. God said, "Take off your shoes." I think this was God's cleansing of Moses in a way. God takes our screw ups and our long-way-rounds and makes them right. Murderer, fugitive, 40 year-wanderer, and now, shoeless in God's presence. What does it mean to be on holy ground? Where is God's holy ground now? Is it that the Holy Spirit lives in us or is that too simple?

Fast forward - Jesus picks his disciples. Some no-name fisherman, a corrupt tax collector, and some other guys. The way of Jesus is rooted in the life of Moses. How does Jesus interact with people? Its important to think about the way Jesus interacted with the average, everyday people that were around him. The way of Jesus was to eat supper with the notorious sinners. How shocking! We're not supposed to hang out with gay people! We're not supposed to eat supper with those goth kids! God let Moses (of all people) enter His most holy presence. Jesus ate supper with the vile tax collecters and prostitutes.


Who are we interacting with on the Way of Jesus?

ways - abraham

i just read a book entitled The Jesus Way, by eugene peterson. basically, it takes the stories of some key people in the Bible and show how living like Jesus is rooted in their stories. the first is abraham.


its always been a mystery to me how God called abraham. he lived in this city that worshipped all kinds of gods. some scholars even think that abraham himself joined in. maybe he even had some little carved idols in a shrine in his bedroom. the Bible doesn't say, but i like to think he did. here's why - i picture him worshipping the moon god, which was the main god of his city. even now in the middle east the crescent moon is still significant. i think he tried to understand the moon and stars and tried to understand the idea of god. i think abraham was truly seeking god. God chose to speak to him. i wonder if God spoke to him in an audible voice as he was lighting incense to the moon god one night. God told him to move. of all wonders, abraham did it. he believed in this God. and God made some big promises.

now, peterson doesn't talk about any of that at all. that's just something that i've always wondered about because when you read Genesis 11 its talking about all these different people and then all of the sudden, God told abraham to move. who is abraham? seemingly random dude.

what peterson talks about is the sacrifice of his only son isaac. famous story. lot's of background that you already know. won't go into it.

the thing that grabbed me is that abraham wasn't surprised by this move. we are surprised and shocked and appalled when we read it but abraham wasn't shocked. abraham didn't run and hide. abraham wasn't done with God. abraham had been tested by God before. God told him to move. God didn't lay out a five year plan for abe, he just told him to move. God told abraham he was going to have a son with his wife who was unable to get pregnant. God tested abraham over and over. sometimes abraham doubted. abraham wasn't perfect. abraham didn't pass every test. he was human. he was real. when isaac was to be killed, abraham believed. abraham wasn't surprised because he had history with God.

the point is that living the Jesus way is not for perfect people who have come out of perfect births or families or cultures or democratic governments or important places. the way of Jesus is for people who believe God but don't pass every test. the way of Jesus involves growth as we are tested along the way.

what i ask myself is this - in what ways have i distorted the Jesus way?