The Way I See It

A Biblical View of God

2011-09-08T12:59:00.000-07:00

In June 2000 at my 20-year high school reunion I asked my good friend, Steve Moroney, who was instrumental in my baptism into Christ in 1983 and who went on to become a professor of theology, if he was working on any books. I knew that professors are expected to write books as part of their work and I knew he was due for one. He told me that he was interested in the subject of God’s judgment. As part of his research he was reading through the Bible and carefully making notes on every scripture that mentioned God’s judgment. He felt, and still does as do I, that contemporary American Christians pay far more attention to God’s grace, mercy and love than to his righteousness and holiness, from which judgment issues.

Nine years later the book came out but it was titled “God of Love and God of Judgment” (Wipf & Stock, 2009). I quickly purchased it, read it thoroughly, and even got Steve to sign it for me at our 30-year reunion! In the preface to the book he explained how he had finished the original manuscript years earlier but had two main reservations. First, it was depressing! Even as he understood that the truth about God’s judgment can be deflating but ultimately is good for us to realize, he still wasn’t inspired to publish it. Second, it was unbalanced. He realized that “A book about God’s judgment that does not include God’s love is just as lacking as a book about God’s love that does not include God’s judgment.”

So he started a new phase of research, this time reading through the entire Bible and noting every scripture that mentioned love. Here is what he found in his Bible reading through The One Year Bible, which arranges Scripture into 365 daily readings:
352 out of the 365 daily readings (95%) dealt with some aspect of judgment.
336 out of the 365 daily readings (92%) dealt with some aspect of love.

63 out of the 66 books of the Bible (95%) reference judgment in some way.
63 out of the 66 books of the Bible (95%) reference love in some way.

Moroney notes that, “Many people have a one-sided view of God as only judgment or only love. In response to these recurring problems, I propose a solution that sounds simple but is challenging to achieve – developing a theology that joins love and judgment together.” And that is what he does in his book, which I highly recommend.

Reading Moroney’s book, and later following the controversy emanating from Rob Bell’s provocative book “Love Wins” in which he takes issue with historical Christian understandings of judgment, and after reading several books written in response to Bell, I became inspired to tackle this from the pulpit. Today and for the next five weeks we will focus on what is a healthy, biblical view of God which includes both his love and his judgment. How are we to understand such disparate scriptures as Hebrews 10:32 (“It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God”) and I John 4:16 (“God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God”). Each is part of God’s self-revelation through the scriptures!

God is neither a police officer with a radar gun nor an indulgent grandparent. He is righteous and loving, holy and merciful, demanding and forgiving. We will start the series today by looking at God’s character as he declares himself to Moses in Exodus 34:5-8. Get ready for a great journey in the Scriptures together.

Two Lifestyles

2011-08-10T09:09:00.000-07:00

I like to keep a supply of meal-replacement bars in the pantry so I can grab one on the way out in the morning as my breakfast. As I sat in the drive-thru at the bank this morning waiting for the teller to process my transaction, I decided to read the promotional blurb on the wrapper of the bar. Here it is:

PROMAX. LIFE IS GO.
The alarm clock is our starter’s pistol. The new day our stadium. We have no time-outs and we don’t want any. Running, biking, lifting, working, dating, mom-ing, dad-ing, studying, shopping, blogging, 24 hours buzzer to buzzer. Which is why Promax packs its energy bars with 20g of replenishing protein, 18 vitamins & minerals, all natural ingredients and great tasting flavors. No artificial sweeteners, preservatives, high fructose corn syrup, maltitol or gelatin. Gluten-free and vegetarian. Since 1996 Promax is the fuel for doing.

Pretty inspiring, huh? Here’s the line that caught my attention: “We have no time-outs and we don’t want any.”

Really? Uh, I’d sure like a few time-outs!

One foot away from the Promax bar on my car seat was a book on tape that I purchased recently to listen to (but have not yet begun). It is called “Sabbath: Restoring the Sacred Rhythm of Rest and Delight” by Wayne Muller. Here is the promotional blurb on the back cover:

Thomas Merton, toward the end of his life, warned of a “pervasive form of contemporary violence” that is unique to our times: overwork and overactivity. In his work as a minister and caregiver, Wayne Muller has observed the effects of this violence on our communities, our families, and our people. On Sabbath, he responds to this escalating “war on our spirits,” and guides us to a sanctuary open to everyone.
Muller immerses us in the sacred tradition of the Shabbat – the day of rest – a tradition, Muller says, that is all but forgotten in an age where consumption, speed, and productivity have become the most valued human commodities. Inviting us to drink from this “fountain of rest and delight,” he offers practices and exercises that reflect the Sabbath as recognized in Christianity, Judaism and Buddhism. Through this way of nourishment and repose, Muller teaches, we welcome insights and blessings that arise only with stillness and time.

One message is: “We have no time-outs and we don’t want any!” The other message is, in essence, “It is only through time-outs that you find the replenishing rest and peace that feed your soul and allow you to be fully human.”

I know which message our culture tells us to listen to. But I’m pretty sure the message Jesus points us to is the other one.

“So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his work as God did from his.” (Hebrews 4:9-10)

A Failed Formula

2011-07-21T14:01:00.000-07:00

“Less than ten years ago a large Church of Christ with a great preacher and a great youth minister called our campus minister and told him we would have twenty-two of their high school graduates join our campus ministry that fall. Our campus minister worked hard to contact them. He held summer events to introduce them to the ministry. But out of twenty-two students who enrolled at Alabama, not one was active in our church. Not one. And none was active in any student ministry of any church of any denomination. They had a great youth program, loved their youth minister, had Christian parents – and not a one attended a church of any kind while in college. And this is no isolated example.”

So begins Jay Guinn, an elder at the University Church of Christ in Tuscaloosa, AL in a recent blog (www.oneinjesus.info; 7/20/11). He goes on to describe radical changes his congregation is making in how they do children’s and youth ministry so as to help prepare teenagers for discipleship as adults (I highly recommend the article).

This squares with what we learned two months ago when we hosted a seminar at West Houston sponsored by Lipscomb University called, “Faith Search: Gospeling the Next Generation.” We learned about the Millennial generation (born between 1980-2000) and how they see God, faith, discipleship and church. Part of the welcome news was that this generation loves and respects their parents, and is tremendously committed to family. Moreover, they respect older adults. Indeed, in surveys they list the two most important influences in their lives as, 1) parents, and 2) other influential adults. Therein lies the crux University’s strategy, which is to lessen the age-segregation that pervades most midsize to large churches and to structure more (not all) classes, ministries and events so that children and teenagers work alongside and develop relationships with adults.

This will take some doing. For years I have joined with youth ministers, parents, preachers, and elders in lamenting the “Mickey-Ear” reality of the Youth Ministry as a sort of attached-but-separate appendage of the larger congregation. We know it’s not best for the students or the church but we devolve to it easily. Systems are hard to change! And yet we owe it to the next generation to help them form their faith so that they have a compelling vision for adult Christian life.

At our seminar, Dave Clayton, the lead preacher for Ethos Church (www.ethoslove.com) in Nashville, a congregation of mostly Millennials, recommended four things mainstream churches can do to help connect this generation:

1. Raise the bar of expectations. Stop babying them. Stop setting the bar an inch above the ground and applauding them for stepping over it. That bores them. Challenge them in a positive and winsome way. They have enormous capabilities.

2. Drop your assumptions. Don’t assume just because they have attended church for years that they know what the gospel is, know the Bible well, or have a formed Christian worldview. Heck, most adult Christians don’t. Engage them where they are.

3. See yourselves as ministers of this generation. Just like a missionary does with his/her population, learn about their hopes, dreams, and passions.

4. Give them permission. Especially permission to dream, to own their dreams, and then to fail and pick themselves up and try again in pursuit of their dreams.

These are exciting times in the church, just not for the status quo.

Wise and Intelligent

2011-06-15T13:19:00.000-07:00

Years ago I was working with a woman on a church project. She was intelligent, attractive and charming. She and her husband were good friends with Angela and me. One Sunday afternoon I was talking to her on the phone about our project and Angela was in the room with me. She caught an extra little note of excitement in my voice, a tiny little bit of flirtatiousness, an added trace of affection. After I hung up Angela said, “You need to watch yourself. You two are getting too close.”

Angela was right. I had developed a crush on this woman, and possibly that was reciprocated. I backed off, things cooled off, we completed our project and the four of us remained friends. Now you might be thinking to yourself, “C’mon, Matt, a crush? At your age?” The answer is yes, and it happens all the time between men and women, married or not. Don’t be naïve. The question is, what to do about it?

Last week I talked about the litany of recent revelations of adultery and/or sexual immorality among powerful and visible men (Schwarznegger, Edwards, Weiner, et al.). I promised this week to write about how to guard against adultery and infidelity. Following are the plainest, clearest, strongest suggestions I can make.

1. Examine yourself. Regularly. All marriages go through dry periods characterized by monotony and predictability. An attractive and charming co-worker, neighbor, or fellow church member can easily begin to intrigue you so that you want to spend more time with them. Be very, very careful. This is the point where it is prudent to back off, long before anything “happens.” Heck, long before anything even gets close to happening. To use a fishing analogy, this is where the hook sets. That’s why you have to examine yourself and be honest about your feelings. If you are naïve (or in denial) you will keep nibbling on this bait while convincing yourself you won’t get hooked. The Bible calls this being a fool. (see Proverbs 5-6)

2. Related to this, and many people will disagree with me on the following but I stand by it, if you are married you should not have any close friendships with a person of the opposite sex. Period. It’s just too laden with possible temptations. If your spouse has a close friend then of course you will be friends with that person. But this should be a derivative friendship. As for meeting alone with another man (wives) or woman (husbands) for anything other than a brief, task-oriented reason, avoid it. This goes back to being self-aware and wise. The Bible tells us to flee temptation and resist the devil (I Corinthian 10:13; James 4:7). There’s a reason it’s not the opposite. If you stand in the presence of temptation too long you will fall. Don’t be so prideful and stupid. Why would you knowingly flirt with disaster? Do you need some thrills? Buy a dirt-bike or go bungee jumping or come mow my yard.

3. If you find yourself talking with a woman (men) or man (women) about your unhappy marriage, and he/she gets all sympathetic and supportive about your terrible predicament, RUN. This is the oldest story in the book. Empathy turns into support turns into intimacy turns into heartache and pain.

If all of this sounds harsh or draconian, well, it’s a question of guarding what’s important and protecting those close to you from betrayal and pain. Jesus tells us to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Protecting yourself against infidelity involves both of these. Unless you just want to play with fire.

An Opportunity for Men

2011-06-09T08:00:00.000-07:00

The tawdry news that we have been subjected to this week of U.S. Representative Anthony Weiner’s twittered explicit photographs seems to be just the latest in a steady stream of high-profile men being exposed as philanderers and cheats. From Arnold Schwarzenegger’s and John Kerry’s mistresses and illegitimate children to IMF Chief Dominique Strauss-Khan’s alleged sexual assault of a hotel maid, it has not been a good couple of weeks for men in the news. Time Magazine’s May 30 cover story was titled, “Sex, Lies, Arrogance: What Makes Powerful Men Act Like Pigs?” I was glad they added the modifying adjective “powerful.”

Following are some thoughts I have about all this:
1. Many, many married men practice monogamy and place a high value on marital faithfulness. It is easy to lose sight of that because it doesn’t make news or water-cooler conversations. As the old journalistic maxim goes, “Dog bites man” isn’t news. “Man bites dog” is news. The exceptions capture our attention, not the norms.

2. Power and fame almost inevitably cultivate in people a sense of entitlement. Tiger Woods acknowledged after his indiscretions, “I thought the rules didn’t apply to me.” The aforementioned Time magazine article cites a soon-to-be-published study in Psychological Science which found that the higher men – or women – rose in a business hierarchy, the more likely they were to consider or commit adultery. “With power comes both opportunity and confidence,” the authors argue, “and with confidence comes a sense of entitlement.” Be very careful about getting full of yourself. As the apostle Paul puts it, “Don't be so naive and self-confident. You're not exempt. You could fall flat on your face as easily as anyone else. Forget about self-confidence; it's useless. Cultivate God-confidence.” (I Cor. 10:12, The Message)

3. Few males are raised to be gentlemen. By “gentlemen” I mean men who respect women and consider a disciplined and moral life to be a worthy goal. This must start in the home, from fathers. A good question for every father to ask himself is, “How do I speak about women and how do I treat women in my son’s presence?” Obviously, this should begin with how he treats and speaks about his son’s mother.

4. Christian men have a powerful opportunity to witness to our faith in Christ by our marital faithfulness and by how we speak about and treat women. In a culture that is increasingly crude and suggestive regarding women (and sadly many women accept this), a Christian gentleman will be the proverbial and scriptural “shining light.” He will be a lion among hyenas, a thoroughbred among donkeys.

Next week I will talk about ways to guard against adultery and infidelity. Alas, the news in my little circle lately has been full of ministers failing morally. At a recent conference, one noted church consultant said he is seeing it more than ever. Interestingly, he said he is seeing it in the churches of Christ among elders too, who in the last decade have begun spending more time counseling and visiting with church members. He said there is a fine line between confidentiality and intimacy, and many ministers and church leaders have not been coached on how to navigate it.

Adultery and moral failings leave a trail of pain, confusion and anger that spreads outward like a boat’s wake. The consequences are enormous. If there is one thing that we remember from these news stories, let that be it.

The Good Fight

2011-05-04T14:37:00.000-07:00

The U.S. Navy recruiting offices will be full this week as young men try to enlist to become a Navy Seal following the daring and successful raid which killed most-wanted terrorist Osama bin Laden in Pakistan on Sunday evening. The news media has been overflowing with background information about the storied history, arduous training, and quiet elitism of this almost mythological Special Operations Force (S.O.F.), whose secrecy is as legendary as its success. I tried to sign up yesterday as a special Commando-Chaplain. They told me not to wait by my phone.

Most Americans admire the tough, disciplined, supremely self-confident, trained-for-success aura of the Seals, which has earned them the nickname “The Quiet Operators.” It is an all-absorbing job calling for great personal sacrifices. What strikes me as unique about the Seals and the other S.O.F.’s is that there is absolutely no financial reward for their elitism. The most uniquely qualified and gifted surgeons, professors, authors, professional athletes, and business executives almost all receive higher compensation for being above the norm. But staff sergeants in a S.O.F. unit make the same as staff sergeants in Motor Transport or Supply. They do it out of patriotism, to be sure, but they also do it because they revel in being the best. Their pride drives them to use every bit of their capability.

The early Christians drew some parallels between military service and the life of following Jesus. The apostle Paul tells Timothy to “share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus” (2 Tim 3:4). He refers to Epaphroditus as “my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier” (Phil 2:25) and Archippus as “our fellow soldier” (Philemon 2). He tells Timothy to “wage the good warfare” (I Tim 1:18) and “fight the good fight of the faith” (I Tim 6:12), which involves “pursuing righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, and gentleness,” and “taking hold of the eternal life to which you were called.”

The Christian life is rigorous in many ways if pursued seriously. No, it is not as intense as Navy Seal training, but it calls for discipline, seriousness, and sacrifice. We are called to study the sacred scriptures, turn from evil, abstain from immorality, discipline our bodies, serve and sacrifice for others, give generously to God’s work, speak and share the gospel of Christ, and pick up our cross. Paul tells Timothy to “train yourself in godliness, for while physical training has some value, godliness is valuable in every way, both for this life and the life to come” (I Tim 4:7-8).

We are not commandos, but we are not couch potatoes either. How is your training going? Will you fight the good fight?

2031

2011-04-07T09:01:00.000-07:00

In some vision conversations we are having on the oversight team we have been challenged to look ahead twenty years and try to envision what the demographics of northwest Houston, technology, and Christian spirituality and practices will look like. This is a challenging exercise! To understand how much things can change in two decades we need only look back twenty years. When I think of huge developments relating to Christian practices I think of two in particular: technology and community. In 1991 Angela and I welcomed our first child, Morgan, into the world. I was a student in seminary and we had been married two years. I had used a word processor/typewriter since college and made the BIG decision to invest in a laptop computer (Compaq; 32 MB hard drive; $999 at Sears). Back then we sang in worship from hymnals. Intra-congregational communication was by phone tree or letters. People doodled or passed notes when the preacher bored them instead of playing games on their smart phones. In the early 1990’s we began using email. Then power point became a part of our singing and teaching in worship and classes. In the 2000’s social networking began to radically transform the way many of us interact and maintain friendships, associations, and even do business. Who could have foreseen all this? The second huge development, regarding community, is less tangible and describable. But I’ll start with coffee. In my first full-time ministry position in New Milford, CT in 1992, when I wanted to visit with a church member outside of breakfast or lunch we would go to a diner and have “pie and coffee.” How Norman Rockwell is that?! The proliferation of Starbucks and other boutique coffee shops had not yet occurred. There were restaurants, diners, or park benches. Or at least that’s all I remember. Then the coffee revolution hit, and with it a different way to socialize -- “Let’s meet for coffee.” When I went to Los Angeles in 1994 the difference was significant: “Let’s meet for coffee” became a great way to spend time with people. This both stimulated and satisfied a great hunger for what sociologists call “the third place,” that site or activity other than work or home where we enjoy spending time. These days when I preach or teach and ask people to open their Bibles, more than half do so on an electronic device. We can Skype, which is much more engaging and intimate than simply conversing on the phone. We can meet with anyone in the world, and have a multi-party conversation, by video conferencing. More and more pioneering churches are planting satellite campuses that are semi-independent but inter-connected, with the preaching and teaching simulcast from a central site. The possibilities are amazing! In 2031 I will be 68 years old and Angela will be [deleted by censor]. We know we want to be devout Christians but we can’t foresee many of the details. Hebrews 13:8 declares that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” Some things will never change. Like the Great Commission and the Great Commandment. Like our need for a Savior, for meaning and purpose beyond ourselves that is found in the Kingdom of God, for authentic community. What could West Houston and our mission look like in 2031? What will YOU look like? What trajectory are you on spiritually? The apostle Paul says in Philippians 4:13-14, “One thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Amen and amen.

Three Evangelists

2011-03-09T15:06:00.000-08:00

I participated in two seminars at Princeton Theological Seminary (PTS) last week, one on Evangelism and one on Apologetics. I met three individuals who made a strong impression on me. I’d like to tell you about them.

Richard Armstrong was a 31-year old baseball executive in 1955 with the Baltimore Orioles and a nominal churchgoer when he heard the distinct voice of God telling him to go into full-time ministry. He obeyed, and five months later began seminary at PTS. His first church was a declining congregation in a changing neighborhood of Philadelphia. He pioneered a method of “faith sharing,” which in his words is a three-way conversation in which people relate to each other their experiences of God (the third person is the Holy Spirit). He trained and led his members in a ministry of knocking on peoples’ doors and asking how the church could serve the community better. This often led to non-pressure, friendly faith-sharing conversations which bore great fruit. The congregation experienced renewal and growth and individual members’ faith came alive as they experienced the joy of being ambassadors and witnesses for Jesus.

In 1980 Armstrong came back to PTS as a professor of ministry and evangelism. He retired in 1990, three months before I arrived, so I never got to take one of his classes. But I read several of his books and developed a deep admiration and appreciation for him. He led our 2 ½ day seminar at age 86, still going strong, full of love for Jesus, the church, and lost people, still preaching regularly and speaking to churches about how to reach out to their community. What an inspiration!

Gerald (Jerry) Mills is also a retired minister and PTS alum, widowed and about 80. He is a Jew who began attending church with a neighborhood friend when he was six years old and later came to embrace Jesus as the Messiah. Jerry is passionate about outreach and in memory of his late wife he endowed the evangelism seminar I attended. You see, PTS never filled Armstrong’s position of evangelism professor after he retired, and Jerry feels that is a huge hole in what a seminary should train ministers to do. He sat through all the sessions and kept us in stitches with his Jerry Stiller-like humor.

Paul (from Rwanda, whose last name was about 17 syllables) is a PTS second-year student. When I walked into the cafeteria on Thursday morning for breakfast Jerry excitedly waved me over. “Matt, I want you to meet Paul!” Paul came to southern California from Rwanda at age 7, a committed Christian whose father told him they were to see themselves as missionaries in America. Paul came to PTS because he has a passion for reaching college students and Princeton University is right across the street from the seminary. He began a Bible study in a P.U. dormitory and actively evangelizes among the Princeton undergrads. The harvest has been plentiful, as they scriptures say, and when I talked to him he was arranging to baptize a student later that day. The passion and love and energy in Paul were amazing to behold. Jerry invited Paul to our seminar and beamed as Paul told his story to a bunch of wrinkled and tired pastors looking for inspiration. “Paul’s pickin’ off the pagans one-by-one!” Jerry exclaimed.

Richard, Jerry and Paul are three evangelists and brothers in Christ whose faith, endurance, sweetness and passion were a wonderful part of an excellent week. Friends, the gospel of Jesus Christ is life-changing. When we share it with others their lives often change and our lives always do.

Finding and Keeping

2011-02-09T12:29:00.000-08:00

Luke 15 is one of the most important chapters in the Bible. It begins with Jesus’ teaching that salt is good only if it retains its taste, its saltiness. Then Luke records in quick succession three parables Jesus told: the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin, and the Prodigal Son. After each of the first two, Jesus emphasizes how much joy there is in heaven when one lost person is found or reclaimed. Jesus puts it with stunning clarity: “Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance” (15:7).

One of the most significant and healthy tensions every church has to manage is the tension between finding and keeping. What is an appropriate balance? How should the church apportion its resources, attention, and passion? When Jesus talks about the shepherd leaving the ninety-nine to search for the one, it sounds so simple and obvious. But who stays with the ninety-nine? Who cares for and feeds them? What if they get confused and scatter? What if a predator threatens them? What if they fight among themselves? What if they can’t find food and begin to starve? How long should the shepherd be away from them looking for the lost sheep, anyway?

I’m not being facetious or sarcastic. This is a serious balancing act. There are numerous scriptures which detail the importance of joining Jesus in seeking out the lost and spreading the Good News among those who have not yet heard or responded. And there are numerous scriptures which detail the importance of loving, caring for, encouraging, prodding, and being in relationship with fellow believers for the purpose of strengthening one another. This is not an either-or but a both-and.

And yet, and yet… Jesus just won’t let us get comfortable. Over and over and over again he reveals his heart for the lost, for those who are far from God. In Luke 19, after he invites himself into the tax-collector Zaccheus’ house (to the great consternation of the religious onlookers), Jesus declares, “Today salvation has come to this house… for the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10). Among the last words Matthew and Mark record Jesus speaking in their gospels is the “great commission” to GO, to leave the ninety-nine and be finders of people.

I think Jesus in his wisdom knows that our natural orientation will be to focus on the ninety-nine, to love and care for and seek to strengthen and sharpen and, frankly, sometimes to coddle and spoil the already convinced. Far more people will have the gift of and predilection for Keeping rather than for Finding. And so the constant reminder, the constant drumbeat, the constant admonition and command from Jesus and the apostles is to GO, to get out of our comfortable routines and traditions and programs and habits and embrace the commission to FIND.

In two decades of preaching and church work I have found a fascinating dynamic to be at work: When we embrace finding, the keeping also happens. But when we embrace keeping, the finding does not.

I spoke last week about the stunning analogy the apostle Paul appropriates when he declares that through his people God is “spreading the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere” (II Corinthians 2:14). When we emphasize going to find rather than staying to keep, we allow the beautiful fragrance of God’s grace and mercy to work its way into malodorous places. “For we are aroma of Christ” (2:15).

A Note from Matt

2010-01-14T11:23:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends and Subscribers,

I have been writing a weekly bulletin essay since I began preaching full-time in 1992. That’s seventeen years and three different congregations. About six years ago I began calling this “The Way I See It” and sending it out via email to subscribers, while archiving the essays at mattsoper.blogspot.com.

My deepest thanks to those of you who have subscribed and to the numerous people who have replied with comments, feedback and affirmation.

I am going to step back for a while from writing the weekly essay in order to focus more intently on other ministry areas. On the occasions when I write an essay, and if I resume writing them regularly, I will send them out to you and post them to the blog archive.

This decision is not related to the economy, healthcare, terrorism, war, the national debt, or my heartbreak that the Texans missed the playoffs. I simply want to let the weekly writing ground lie fallow for a while so the soil can replenish.

Thank you again for your interest in my writing over the years!

Warm regards,
Matt Soper

More Truthfulness

2009-12-30T13:37:00.000-08:00

Angela and I saw a funny little movie a few months ago called “The Invention of Lying,” which depicted a modern world where people were only capable of telling the truth. It was quite imaginative, and it got me thinking of some truth-telling I’d love to hear in 2010.

· “Your call is not very important to us, otherwise we wouldn’t keep you waiting for twenty minutes.
-- the recording you hear while on hold with XYZ Company

· “It is about the money. I want to be paid as much as I can get because I don’t know how long I will be able to play in this league.”
-- professional team athlete

· “I have the time. We all have 168 hours per week. But you haven’t convinced me this is important enough to make the time.”
-- church member responding to a request to volunteer, instead of saying “I don’t have the time”

· “This has only happened to me once but I think it is indicative of a larger point which I want to share with you.”
-- preachers who tend to say “I can’t tell you how many times such-and-such has happened to me” in order to dramatize our next point

· “We do have the money, but we’re not willing to change our priorities to spend it on the thing you are suggesting.”
-- church leaders, parents, or anyone who says “I/we don’t have the money” as a reflexive response

· “You look wonderful.”
-- husband responding to wife’s question, “How do I look in this new outfit?” (There is no other response. Period)

· “I’m really struggling.”
-- anyone who is struggling and is asked “How are you?” and feels they ought to say “Fine”

· “I don’t want to put in the hard work to do it.”
-- instead of saying “I can’t do it.” (It is amazing what we can do when we put our mind and heart to it)

· “I had an early deadline and I was drawing a blank on something deeply spiritual or timely or noteworthy to write about so I decided to express myself on this peculiar little topic which, I believe, does in fact have a spiritual dimension.”
-- preacher who writes a weekly essay

May we speak and live as truthfully as possible in 2010!

Not Only for the Desperate

2009-12-17T09:30:00.000-08:00

When family members ask me what I want for Christmas I don’t know how to answer. I enjoy clothes, books, and golf gear, but I have plenty of each, even a surplus. I enjoy eating out but I actually have several gift cards to restaurants I haven’t used yet! The fact is, I’m one of those people for whom it is hard to find a gift. What do you get for the person who has everything (materially)?

I recall a book by William Willimon called “The Gospel for the Person Who Has Everything” that challenged me greatly. Willimon, a preacher and scholar, reflects on what has become the standard Christian testimony, which goes something like this. “I was miserable, then I found Jesus.” This pattern hearkens back to influential church leaders in history like Augustine and Martin Luther, who indeed had dramatic conversion experiences arising out of personal crises. But Willimon asserts that we short-change the power of the gospel when we insist, in effect, that people can only come to saving faith in Jesus from personal despair.

“Look at the many ways people are called by God in the Bible. Abraham, a rich and contented desert sheikh, was out gazing at the stars one night. Moses was a murderer hiding in the wilderness. Isaiah was at prayer in the temple. Peter was fishing. The little man in the tree (Zaccheus) was curious. Matthew was at the office counting money. Paul was on a pious errand.”

When we narrow the gospel’s ability to transform peoples’ lives by framing it as medicine for only troubled souls, we inadvertently convince people who don’t feel an overt need that the Christian faith has nothing to say to them (until they are in crisis).

Willimon notes how much greater credit it is to the power of the Christian gospel for a person to be able to testify:
“I was happy and fulfilled. Each day was a joy to me, and life was a shower of blessings. Then Jesus showed me how much more joy I could experience when I rose above the selfish pursuit of my own happiness and a preoccupation with my own problems. In losing my life for others and for him and his work, in using my blessings for something greater than myself, I found my true life.”

In many ways this describes the journey to my baptism into Christ in 1983 at age 20. I didn’t feel any overt personal need for God; my life was indeed looking very promising. But what grabbed me about the gospel was Jesus’ call to give myself to something bigger than myself, to be (re)claimed by God for his purposes. Scripture says that in Christ “we are what God has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life” (Ephesians 2:10). Did I need to be forgiven of my sins and saved “through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5)? Of course. But the gospel spoke even more powerfully to my need and desire to live for something bigger than myself through a relationship with Jesus.

I’m going to be thankful for any gift I receive if only for the thought behind it. And I’m thankful to God for the gift of his Son, who came not just for the desperate but for everyone. Merry Christmas.

The Silent Struggle

2009-12-03T09:01:00.000-08:00

A superstar athlete has been in the news all week due to an eruption of salacious information about his personal life, but it was a story about another elite athlete that caught my eye and tugged at my heart. Robert Enke was a German football (soccer) goalkeeper at the top of his game and widely considered to be a leading contender for the German number one spot at the 2010 World Cup. He committed suicide by leaping in front of a train on November 10th. He was 32 years old and left behind his wife and an 8-month old adopted daughter.

Enke and his wife had lost their 2-year old daughter in 2006 due to a heart birth defect. His wife told reporters that he had been dealing with severe depression and seeing a psychiatrist for some time, but kept it secret from teammates and coaches because he was afraid their adopted daughter would be taken away if his condition became public.

The public response to Enke’s death has been overwhelmingly warm and supportive. Fans immediately flocked to his team’s headquarters to lay flowers, light candles, and sign a book of condolences. The teams for whom he had played held moments of silence before each game, and his current team, Hannover 96, will wear a patch on their jerseys all season commemorating him. Five days after his death over 45,000 attendees filled his team’s stadium for a memorial service. Forty-five thousand.

In light of this it is especially sad that Enke was afraid of disclosing his painful struggle. People would have bent over backwards to help him.

I have some experience with suicide, both as an individual and a preacher. I have preached two funerals for people who ended their lives. There may be no more painful experience for survivors than to go through the hurt, regret, confusion, and yes, the anger of losing a loved one to deliberate death. A good friend of mine walked this road a few years ago, and asked me to write down some thoughts to help him and his family understand it. Here is some of what I wrote:

Suicide is a selfish act, but it is one usually borne of desperation. God imbeds in us a very, very strong will to live. It is part of our human condition. People endure unimaginable suffering and depraved conditions almost solely by their will to live. …This gives an idea of what powerful forces of depression and/or despair are at work when someone takes his own life. He has to “break through” his own human will to live… One of the hardest things for survivors is that people who commit suicide do not always manifest outward signs of despair. This makes it all the more difficult to reconcile how they were acting versus what they did. But people often compartmentalize quite effectively, and not necessarily insincerely. On the surface they are coping but deep down there is a reservoir of pain and despair. In a vulnerable moment, this reservoir can well up and overcome the coping mechanisms.

There is a great deal of mystery in people. No one is completely known by others. They are only known by what they choose to reveal. Many people leave a lot unrevealed.

Here is my plea to anyone in the midst of the silent struggle. Reach out for help. God loves you and your life is precious. Allow people to love you. You are worth it.

What's Next?

2009-12-01T07:16:00.000-08:00

Recently I was talking with a man preparing to be baptized. He asked me, “What happens after my baptism? What’s next? I don’t want to stumble out of the gate” (my paraphrase). That’s a good question! Too often in the church we baptize someone and say, in effect, “We wish you well; keep warm and well fed” (James 2:16). We tell them to get involved in the life of the church and we assume that will provide the care and sustenance they need. Sometimes it does; often it does not.

I found myself answering this man’s question off-the-cuff. It’s not like I had a now-that-you’re-a-Christian training program to give him (though that intrigues me greatly!). Here is what I told the man:

“Jesus does not leave us on our own (John 14:18). God’s Spirit comes into our hearts as a pledge of our inheritance towards redemption (Ephesians 1:14; Acts 2:38) and as an active presence (advocate, counselor, comforter, helper, friend) in our life. God’s Spirit will urge you to be God’s man and to fulfill the purpose for which God created you (Ephesians 2:10). Your Christian life will not be only a matter of self-discipline; you will have a Helper.

Having said that, the Christian life is one that takes discipline. After all, we are ‘disciples’ of Jesus. You should plan on developing certain practices and habits. The first of these is to actively worship God in the weekly assembly of the saints. Make Sunday mornings a priority. This is when you will praise God in song, participate in the prayers of the church, come to the Lord’s Table to celebrate and remember, hear the Word preached, and encourage and be encouraged by others. There is no substitute for this. You can’t live the Christian life well apart from a community of faith.

Develop the discipline of reading and studying God’s Word. Commit to an adult Bible class. Some of it will be over your head in the beginning but you will absorb and learn more than you realize. I have several personal Bible-reading plans I can recommend.

Develop Christian friendships. Tell people at work you were recently baptized. You might be surprised to find there are Christians in your workplace who have been quiet about it but who will encourage and support you. We’ll help you find a Life Group to be a part of. This will become an important part of your Christian journey. Fellowship, encouragement, and accountability within a small circle of Christian friends will be invaluable for you.

Paul says in I Timothy 4:8, “Train yourself in godliness, for physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for both the present life and the life to come.” Just as an athlete trains for her sport, a Christian trains for the often rigorous life of service and sacrifice that characterizes following Jesus. Godliness is both personal and social. Do your best to put away selfishness and put on generosity and self-giving. Consider yourself part of the people-of-God deployed into the world to help redeem and reconcile it. You are not your own. You are a redeemed child of God and follower of Jesus.”

That’s what I told him, with great excitement! New beginnings are exciting, and God’s mercies are new every morning.

How about you? Are you willing to train for godliness? What’s next for you?

Fascinating Witness

2009-12-01T07:10:00.000-08:00

Several years ago I read a preacher’s observation that college students were eagerly devouring a book by Shane Claiborne called, “The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical.” Claiborne’s book has been described as mixing “evangelical zeal” with “grassroots activism,” and indeed his philosophy is compelling. In short, he calls American Christians to a faith in Christ that moves beyond “private piety with affluent conformity,” beyond our “safe Jesus” into the world alongside the least and the lost.

I found the book quite inspiring, and was particularly intrigued by how it resonated with teenagers and young adults who are hungry for more than just “go to church” Christianity. I got that message loud and clear.

Recently Esquire magazine asked Claiborne to write a short article addressing those who don’t believe. Following are some excerpts:

* The more I have read the Bible and studied the life of Jesus, the more I have become convinced that Christianity spreads best not through force but through fascination. But over the past few decades our Christianity, here in the United States, has become less and less fascinating. We have given the atheists less and less to believe.

* I am convinced that the Christian Gospel has as much to do with this life as the next, and that the message of the Gospel is not just about going up when we die but about bringing God’s Kingdom down. It was Jesus who taught us to pray that God’s will be done “on earth as it is in heaven.” On earth.

* I have a friend in the UK who talks about “dirty theology”—that we have a God who is always using dirt to bring life and healing and redemption, a God who shows up in the most unlikely and scandalous ways. After all, the whole story begins with God reaching down from heaven, picking up some dirt, and breathing life into it. At one point, Jesus takes some mud, spits on it, and wipes it on a blind man’s eyes to heal him (the priests and producers of anointing oil were not happy that day). In fact, the entire story of Jesus is about a God who did not just want to stay “out there” but who moves into the neighborhood, a neighborhood where folks said, “Nothing good could come.”… This is why the triumph of the cross was a triumph over everything ugly we do to ourselves and to others. It is the final promise that love wins.

* It is this Jesus who was born in a stank manger in the middle of a genocide. That is the God that we are just as likely to find in the streets as in the sanctuary, who can redeem revolutionaries and tax collectors, the oppressed and the oppressors… a God who is saving some of us from the ghettos of poverty, and some of us from the ghettos of wealth.

I need to hear words like this. They remind me that I follow Jesus as I roll up my sleeves and enter into the hurt and pain and messiness of peoples’ lives.
They remind me that as much and as often as I want to choose the “safe” path, that is not usually where Jesus goes.
They remind me that discipleship with Christ takes me into the world, not out of it, and that this is part of the fascinating witness of the Jesus who redeems the dirty.

The Journeymen

2009-11-05T08:56:00.000-08:00

I was pleased to get my hands on a three-week old copy of Sports Illustrated this week, courtesy of my staff colleague, Cory Jones, who subscribes and is nice enough to pass on most issues to me when he finishes with them. Hey, the Canaanite woman told Jesus that even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table (Matthew 15:21-28). I’m not too proud to wait for the table scraps from our staff Sports-Master.

The October 19 issue featured a full-length article about Houston Texans interior defensive lineman, Jeff Zgonina, who has played on eight teams over a 17-year career, most of the time as a back-up or special teams player. He has been cut numerous times only to be picked up by another team, and has never made more than the NFL minimum salary. Sports Illustrated writer Tim Layden notes:

“The NFL is larger than life, an unscripted weekly drama with celebrity superhero stars. You know their names. But if they are the face of the sport, Zgonina is the soul… He has never been a star, but he has left deep footprints in the locker room of every team for which he has played, providing a heavy dose of daily professionalism and demanding the same from his peers.”

When Zgonina retires this year or next, he will leave behind a legacy of steady, quiet contribution. One man who has coached him on three different teams says, “You’d like for everybody to be All-Pro and tear it up out there, but there aren’t many of those. Jeff is a true pro. He studies hard, works hard, plays hard. And on Sundays he’s still hard to move off the ball.”

As a Christ-follower for twenty-seven years and a preacher for seventeen, I have seen hundreds of Jeff Zgoninas in the local church. They aren’t the five-star talents, the ones whose name everyone knows. They are men and women who quietly and faithfully serve Christ in His church. When a ministry needs volunteers, they are there. When the church holds a special event, they show up to help. When there is a hole to fill, they don’t ask, “Does this fit with my spiritual gift inventory?” They just fill it. Some of them have moved from city to city for family or vocational reasons, and each time they move they find a local church, commit to its mission and ministry, and resume their quiet service. These kinds of folks keep the church going. They are marvelous.

I know many preachers like this too. They don’t get invited to be the keynote speaker at lectureships. They may or may not write books or blog. But they tend to stay at a congregation for fifteen, twenty, twenty-five years, quietly and effectively preaching and teaching the Word, ministering to the flock, and serving in the community.

Listen, we need our Barnabases and Sauls. They inspire us and often lead the way. But for every one of them there are twenty journeymen Christians, quietly helping the local church live out God’s mission.

As the Sports Illustrated article notes, the oldest field player in the NFL is Brett Favre. He is a bonafide superstar, a first-ballot Hall of Famer. The second oldest is Jeff Zgonina. He arrives at the Texans practice facility soon after 5 a.m. each workday, usually the first player there.

Thank you, Lord, for your journeymen.

The Materialist Bet

2009-10-29T09:58:00.000-07:00

I have been re-reading Armond Nicholi’s outstanding book, The Question of God: C.S. Lewis and Sigmund Freud Debate God, Love, Sex and the Meaning of Life. Next to C.S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity, this is the best work of Christian apologetics I have read (to date). When Lewis was an atheistic but searching student at Oxford, he felt himself torn between the “material” and “spiritual” worldviews. The “materialists” believe that physical matter is all that exists – there is no spiritual or supernatural reality. When we talk about “materialism” these days we usually refer to an excessive interest in clothes, cars, flat-screen TV’s and the like, but underneath this lies the deeper material worldview.

I have found it helpful to reflect on this as I spend time in Matthew 6:24-34, from which I am preaching this week. Jesus teaches his followers not to be anxious about what we are to eat, drink or wear. He tells us that our heavenly Father knows that we need these things (6:32) so we should trust in His provision while giving our best attention to God and His work and His ways. In short, “seek first His kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (6:33).

Back to the material worldview. It makes sense that if the world of matter is all there is, then we ought to “make the most of the time” and try to experience the best of it and as much of it as we can in our short life – clothes, cars, boats, TV’s, jewelry, beaches, mountains, casinos, golf, food, drink. But if we believe that there is a deeper spiritual reality in this life, and furthermore that this life is both preparation for and prelude to the full experience of this spiritual reality, then we ought to be careful not to put all our chips on the materialist bet.

I am often wary of zero-sum arguments, but it seems to me that Jesus teaches us here and elsewhere that we can’t have it all – if we try to load up on all the material things and experiences and squeeze them for all the pleasure we can get from them, we will miss out on the spiritual riches available to us. There simply will not be room in our heart and soul for them. This is why Jesus says “You cannot serve both God and Mammon” (6:24). Mammon does not refer to money, per se, but to possessions and stuff, the things which money purchases and which demands our attention.

Jesus says something striking: “The pagans run after all these things” (6:32). Well of course they do! They are materialists! If I were a pagan I would run after them too because that is all I could count on for fulfillment and happiness in this life! Jesus’ point is that those who believe in Him, His resurrection, the Kingdom, the Spirit, the spiritual reality of God at work in the world and in the lives of His people, ought to know better than to run down this road, which is a dead-end as the Bible reminds us so often (see Ecc. 3:10-11, Luke 12:13-21; I Tim. 6:6-10, et al.).

Listen, God’s creation is good and there is much to enjoy. The opposite of materialism is an unhealthy asceticism which eschews all pleasures-of-this-world in order to focus only on the “spiritual.” But for most of us that is not where our challenge lies.

I believe Jesus calls us to a simplicity that makes room for God’s will and his work in our lives. It is not simplicity as an end in itself, but to let God in. He will not force himself in. He wants to know that we believe He is there and He loves us, unlike the extra TV or outfit.

The Fairness Doctrine?

2009-10-21T16:45:00.000-07:00

The summer after I graduated from high school in New Orleans in 1980, I worked for a temp company called Manpower. One of my assignments was to work with Colonial Molasses at the plant where they shipped low-grade molasses to be used for cattle feed (as I recall). I was one of the workers who, after a million-gallon tank of molasses was drained onto a railroad car, would go into the tank with rubber boots on and squeegee the last two inches of thick, syrupy stuff into the drains. It was about 130 degrees in those tanks, so we had to do it in 5-minute shifts, after which we would stumble out of the hatch into the comparably cool 110 degree New Orleans summer weather. I developed a strong motivation to go to college while doing this job.

Another temp job that Manpower sent me to was with AMF Tuboscope, which tested oil drilling pipe for structural soundness. We would spend most of the day rolling pipe into and out of the testing area. Luckily, this was mostly under a large awning in the shade.

The hours at AMF Tuboscope were 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. I remember distinctly one day being let off work at about 10 a.m. I brought my Manpower time-card into the supervisor’s office; he smiled slightly and wrote “8 hours.” I took his smile to mean, “It’s not your fault we don’t have a full day’s work for you today. You’re a temp worker trying to earn a living. Receive this as a gift.” That’s the way I took it, but he didn’t say anything and I didn’t ask. I was just happy for his generosity.

I wonder how the full-time AMF Tuboscope workers would have felt had they found out. They had to stay the full 8 hours to get their day’s wage. Would they have been happy with his generosity to me?

Jesus’ Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard (Matthew 20:1-16), about which I am preaching this week, tells of a generous landowner who does for the workers hired later in the day what the AMF supervisor did for me. But the full-time workers hired early in the morning don’t see it as a generous gesture for someone else. They see it as unfair treatment of them.

This initiates a dialogue which is at the heart of the parable and which gives us a glimpse into the radical grace of the Kingdom. The landowner pays the first-hired workers the agreed upon wage, and the last-hired workers with largesse. Does that make his treatment of the first workers unfair? In the parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32) the elder son has been treated fairly but not generously. He only begins to resent this when he sees how generously the Father treats his younger brother.

It seems to me that Jesus is pointing us to a heart and a mindset that can “rejoice with those who rejoice” (Romans 12:15) without comparing our fortune to theirs and without being insecure about the Master’s care for us. This is difficult because in our small-heartedness (the New Testament calls this “flesh”) we base so much of our inner self-worth and outer satisfaction on how we compare with others.

In the Kingdom of God “the last,” those who typically don’t get many breaks in life, are treated especially generously. Will God’s “firsts” resent this? That’s the drama of the parable, and part of the Kingdom drama in our lives. Stop comparing. Be grateful.

Inside and Outside the Walls

2009-10-08T09:06:00.000-07:00

This Sunday West Houston is participating in a national initiative called Be-the-Church Day,” in which congregations assemble in their regular meeting place for worship (or not), then disburse around their community to serve others in the love of Christ. The point is to express the reality that God’s intention for his church is both to assemble for worship and to be the hands and feet of Christ in our communities.

Some congregations are not meeting for worship at all, just to make the point that church should happen “outside the walls,” but I think that is misguided. The fact is that the Body of Christ is called both to assemble in worship and to serve in the world. Acts 2:42 notes that after Pentecost the followers of Jesus “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and prayer.” They did these things by gathering together. Indeed, the early Christians chose a term to describe themselves, ekklesia, which in secular usage referred to a public assembly. There is a sense in which the church becomes the church by assembling. Jesus says, “Where two or three come together in my name, I am there with them” (Matthew 18:20). We gather at the Table, hear the scriptures taught and preached, sing praises to God, pray, and encourage one another as we assemble.

On the other hand, the Bible records a number of instances in which God expresses his disgust for his peoples’ elaborate worship assemblies which have no connection to their daily lives, particularly inasmuch as they exploit the poor and are indifferent to the needy (see Isaiah 1:10-20, Amos 5:18-27, Micah 6:6-8). This is an important reminder to American Christians, who typically associate church with a building and often confuse “going to church” with “being the church.” I have the following conversation about once a week, it seems, with someone who finds out that I am a preacher:
Stranger: “Where is your church?”
Me: “All over northwest Houston.”
Stranger: “I mean, where IS it.”
Me: “We meet on West Rd. and Queenston, but since the church is the people of Christ, not the building, I like to say we are located all over northwest Houston.”

Yes, I am always this charming.

But I feel it is an important reminder. American Christianity is too building-centered. We tend to say “I go to such-and-such a church” not too differently than we say “I go to L.A. Fitness” or “I go to Starbucks.”

The church is a movement; it is a cause. It is Christ’s people gathering together in His name and then going out “into the mission field of our lives,” as I say each week in the benediction. We express in our daily lives “outside the walls” what we proclaim and affirm when we assemble “inside the walls.” Be-the-Church days are a good reminder of this.

So, this Sunday after our worship assembly we will spread out all over northwest Houston doing service projects for people in need, expressing the love of Christ in tangible ways.

It is part of being the church instead of just going to church. Which one best describes you?

Charitable Judgments

2009-09-30T13:19:00.000-07:00

A short news item caught my eye this week. The article noted that Michael Vick addressed a group of people at a Washington, D.C. church in one of the poorest neighborhoods in the city on Tuesday, accompanied by the president and CEO of the Humane Society. Vick told the sparse crowd that dogfighting is pointless and he doesn’t know why he risked his career for it. “I got caught up in the culture. I never thought I would get caught. I used poor judgment. I had people around me who didn’t have my best interests at heart.” While playing quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons, Vick would go home to Virginia every week to fight dogs. “For what reason, I don’t know to this day. Something so pointless.”

Vick was a college football phenom at Virginia Tech who went on to star at quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons. In 2007 he was implicated in an extensive interstate dog-fighting ring that had operated for five years. Vick pled guilty to federal felony charges and was sentenced to twenty-three months in prison, during which time he declared bankruptcy. It was a stunning public fall from grace. Moreover, because of the details which emerged of the brutal practices he employed as the owner of Bad Newz Kennels, he became the object of intense public debate about whether he should be allowed to re-enter the NFL after his release from prison. Vick subsequently has been reinstated and currently plays for the Philadelphia Eagles. He also spends time speaking at inner-city schools and in other public venues warning children not to repeat his mistakes.

Critics have noted that Vick’s public talks lack some of the key words and tone associated with remorse. For instance, saying the whole thing was “pointless” does not have the same ring it would if he said how “horrible” and “inexcusable” his treatment of dogs was.

But I’d like to suggest we give the man the benefit of the doubt. Let’s make a charitable judgment. What if he knows he committed a federal crime, outraged the public, and did wrong, but does not feel his actions were as despicable as many others do? The man is still “bearing fruit in keeping with repentance” (Matthew 3:8). He has paid his debt to society by serving his prison term and is now trying to use his stunningly self-destructive downfall as a teaching example for children growing up in poor and crime-riddled neighborhoods who may be susceptible to similar unsavory influences. Will we now parse his every word and voice inflection for signs of sincerity and thereby judge his inner motives? Don’t each of us often have motives that are laced with self-interest?

This, I think, is one of the things Jesus is saying in Luke 6:27-38, from which I am preaching this week. He’s saying make charitable judgments about people (6:37). He’s saying measure others with the measure you want to be used on you (6:38). He’s saying treat others the way you want others to treat you (6:31). Evaluate people by their actions. If they are bad actions, criticize them. But if they are good actions, don’t assign or assume impure motives behind them unless you have a concrete basis for doing so or would want others to do the same to you.

Jesus says, “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful” (6:36). It is often difficult.

For Sure

2009-09-22T13:34:00.000-07:00

As I sat in the medical waiting area with my daughter Alex earlier this week and flipped through a copy of Oprah Winfrey’s magazine, I came upon a delightful interview with 30-Rock star and former Saturday Night Live fixture Tina Fey. The last question Oprah asked Ms. Fey was, “What do you know for sure?”

That’s a good question! Here are a few things I know for sure:

* I know for sure that Houston Texans coach Gary Kubiak is the real deal; his players respect, like and want to win for him. In a recent Wall Street Journal interview, former Indianapolis coach Tony Dungy said (I paraphrase), “The Texans are a team people should be talking about. They are doing things right. Every time we played them, they were better than the last time.”

* I know for sure that I would like for people to say about me, “Every time I encountered him he was a better man than the last time.”

* I know for sure that a good spouse is one of life’s greatest blessings.

* I know for sure that after months of drought, a steady and gentle rain is almost magical.

* I know for sure that there is a huge difference between coming home to an empty house and coming home to a house with a dog.

* I know for sure that when dozens of ladies every Thursday morning walk purposefully into our building for Ladies Bible study, and leave ninety minutes later smiling and chatting with one another, that is a good indicator of the church’s health, and it makes me smile every week.

* I know for sure that the more we ask the government to do for us the less we will take responsibility for doing for ourselves; it is just human nature.

* I know for sure that this is one of life’s ironies: friends of mine who are between jobs are desperately restless and want to be busy; friends of mine who have jobs are desperately busy and want to rest; and it is very hard in life ever to achieve balance between these two poles.

* I know for sure that when I am sitting in a medical waiting room and flipping through a magazine, and a man sits down across from me and starts to witness to me about Jesus, that conversation will be a lot more interesting than anything I am reading in the magazine.

* I know for sure that Jesus Christ reclaims lives and transforms people. I know this for sure because the man who witnessed to me in the hospital waiting area was a former Aryan Brotherhood leader who spent a quarter-century in a federal penitentiary for heinous crimes he declined to detail out of respect for my daughter, and who was supposed to serve his remaining years in a Texas prison except for a legal glitch that allowed him to go free, and having become a Christ-follower, now runs a Christian camp for troubled adolescents who need the kind of tough-but-gentle love and masculine guidance he never got as a kid, and who is so filled with gratitude to Jesus that when he comes to the hospital every two weeks for his hepatitis treatments, he engages whomever he is sitting near in a spiritual conversation that gives him an opportunity to tell others about what God has done for him.

* I know for sure that I want to be more like that man.

No Better News

2009-09-17T09:38:00.000-07:00

I begin a series this week called “The Ten Most Important Teachings of Jesus.” It is an audacious title; after all, what constitutes “most important”? Does it mean the teachings that have had the most historical impact? Or the teachings that Jesus would consider most important? Here is what I mean by “most important:” These are Jesus’ teachings which I believe Christ-followers at West Houston should give special attention to given where we are spiritually in the fall of 2009. How’s that for a caveat? Oh, and I am preaching them in no particular order of importance.

I am beginning with Jesus’ core proclamation and teaching, found in Mark 1:15 (and Matthew 4:17): “The time is fulfilled. The kingdom of God has drawn near. Repent and believe the gospel!” This both undergirds and summarizes Jesus’ entire ministry. His healings and works of mercy are manifestations of God’s in-breaking kingdom. His teachings are explications of God’s in-breaking kingdom. His atoning death for our sins and his bodily resurrection in victory over sin, death and the Devil are confirmation of and catalyst for God’s in-breaking kingdom.

The kingdom of God is very personal. In Jesus’ conversation with a curious Nicodemus in John 3, Jesus says, “No one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.” And “No one can enter into the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.” (3:3, 5). Participation in this kingdom is predicated on personal faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God and the One in whom the kingdom holds together (Colossians 1:17). You don’t enter into and participate in the kingdom by virtue of your mother’s faith or because your great-grandfather was a preacher. It is your decision. It is personal.

The kingdom of God is also social and political. It engages economic, political and social structures, seeking to bring about justice and well-being. You cannot be part of God’s kingdom and only care about your personal spiritual condition. There are other kingdoms which vie for supremacy in the world (Matthew 4:8, et al.), and God calls for our participation in his redemptive work to overthrow those kingdoms as part of the extension of His will in all spheres. Wherever there is oppression, cruelty, or indifference to suffering, God’s kingdom reign has not taken hold and is trying to break in. Indeed, there are kingdoms which vie for the loyalty of our own hearts. That is why Jesus teaches, “Seek first God’s kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things (food, clothing, shelter) will be given to you as well.” (Matthew 6:33)

One of the most challenging things about understanding the kingdom of God is that Jesus never really gives us a definition! He gives analogies and stories and descriptions. Our faith is tested, stretched and strengthened by trying to more deeply understand and participate in God’s kingdom.

I would paraphrase Jesus’ announcement in Mark 1:15 this way, “God’s rule over peoples’ hearts and lives is now being established. He is bringing people into relationship and partnership with Himself in a new way through Me. You must change your direction and outlook on life in order to welcome and take hold of this. Take heed!”

There is no better news.

Out to Sea

2009-09-10T09:13:00.000-07:00

I am preaching this week on “The Risk of Faith” and I have had a nautical image in mind all week. Since it is Kick-Off Sunday and we are focusing on all-things-football, I am going to go in a different direction during my message and would like to develop that nautical image here.

When I was preaching in Los Angeles, one of my elders lived in Marina del Rey and owned a sailboat. He and his wife actually lived on the boat for a few years until they bought a house nearby, and they loved to sail (still do; they retired to Tennessee but keep their boat in the Bahamas). Several times they invited my family to join them for a sailing excursion on a Saturday afternoon, which was always delightful both for the sailing and because they are such good folks.

One of the things that my daughters especially liked, and which Angela and I always found interesting, was slowly cruising through the marina on the way out to the ocean and hearing from our friends which big boats belonged to which celebrities. There were some nice boats, let me tell you! The King of the Marina was probably the late Johnny Carson’s yacht, Serengeti. What a beautiful craft – 100+ feet long, bristling with the latest technology and oozing luxury furnishings. It was too big to fit in any of the available slips! Serengeti is the kind of yacht you can host a lavish party on one evening and then head down to South America in the next morning. (You can see a short video of it on YouTube posted by a passerby.)

While I was living in Los Angeles Mr. Carson was still alive (he died in 2005), but he was an extremely private person and few people in the marina ever saw him. Occasionally Serengeti would head out to sea, and the internet would circulate a few story threads of people spotting it in San Diego or Santa Barbara. But this was very seldom. Most of the time it stayed in the dock.

Here’s the image that I find so challenging: a powerful, fully-equipped boat with a full-time crew that actually spends most of its time in the quiet harbor and seldom heads out to sea; a magnificent ship whose primary function ends up being to offer a safe and comfortable place to host parties or enjoy private relaxation rather than to head out to the open seas for which it was built. Heck, if you want to stay in the marina, there are houseboats for that. A yacht is made for he sea.

The modern suburban church faces the continual choice between being a harbor-hugging houseboat or an open-water ship. This is not a one-time decision but a constant challenge that we address in small and large ways. Will we concern ourselves primarily with our own comfort and convenience, or will we hoist the anchor and head out to the often-choppy ocean waters to rescue the shipwrecked and reach the aimless?

One of the arresting things about the aforementioned YouTube video is that in the middle of the short clip, a man passes by the Serengeti in a kayak. Is he coming in from the ocean or heading out? Or is he just doing laps around the marina? There’s no way to know from watching the video.

But here’s the image as I see it: The man in the kayak is Jesus, heading in from and out to sea whether we join Him or not. But He wants us to join Him.

The Size of a Briefcase

2009-08-19T13:15:00.000-07:00

Sometimes a news item hits especially close to home and provides food for thought worth sharing. Following is one of those stories for me:

“A Sprint executive died Friday night when a boulder fell off a Colorado mountain and landed on his car. Thomas Murphy, 45, and his family had just finished their vacation and were on their way back to their Kansas City area home. The Colorado State Patrol said they were driving on Colorado Route 82 in Pitkin County, which is where Aspen is located. A boulder that was the size of a briefcase fell off a mountain and hit the family’s Chevrolet Tahoe. It hit Murphy and knocked him unconscious. His wife, Jennifer, put the SUV in neutral, hoping it would stop. After traveling a little more than one mile, Jennifer Murphy, working from the front passenger seat, finally managed to get the vehicle stopped. Thomas Murphy was transported to Valley View Hospital in Glenwood Springs, where he was pronounced dead. The Murphys were traveling with their three boys, ages 6, 8 and 11. The 11-year old boy was injured. The other two were not. Murphy had worked for Sprint since September 1996, most recently as a vice-president in the Corporate Brand Marketing Division.” (KBMC.com, 8/15/09)

At one point in his ministry, some people tell Jesus about a group from Galilee whom Pontius Pilate killed while they offered sacrifices in the temple. Their apparent implication is that these people were being punished for sin in their life. Jesus refutes this, and cites eighteen people who had died when a tower fell on them. “Do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.” (Luke 13:1-5)

This is about as close as Jesus comes to saying “Stuff happens.” Contrary to the prevailing view in the ancient world, Jesus states that tragedy and suffering are not necessarily the result of wrongdoing; they are simply part of our broken and sinful world.

Mr. Murphy seemed to be doing everything right. Hard worker. Devoted family man. Probably even driving the speed limit. But a boulder the size of a briefcase fell out of the sky and killed him in front of his wife and three children. My heart aches for his family.

There is no lesson here other than the following: Be ready to die. I wish I could make it prettier than that, but there you have it. You never know when your time will come. Here are four particularly important questions to ask yourself:

1) Am I right with God? Am I confident through the grace of Jesus Christ and my faith in Him that when I face God in the Judgment I will enter into eternal life?

2) Have I left anything unsaid or incomplete with the key people in my life? Are there any relationships I need to repair? Do my beloved ones know with confidence and clarity how much I love them?

3) Are my affairs in order? Do I have a will? Life insurance? Do my children have assigned guardians? Will I leave my loved ones with just the grief of my loss or also with the mess of my life?

4) Am I presently living in such a way that if I died I would be remembered with love and respect, and face God with a good conscience?

It’s not fun to think about and plan for death. But it’s one of the most important parts of life.

Walk the Path

2009-08-13T13:05:00.000-07:00

A young preacher whom I do not know personally but whose blog I occasionally read recently posted some thoughts which challenged and intrigued me greatly. He narrates how he was “burned out, depressed, and stuck in a coffin-sized rut” in 2008. His doctor prescribed some medication, which helped, and he began doing an intense work-out routine called Crossfit while adopting CF’s recommended nutrition plan, The Zone. A year later he is off his medication, is planting a church in Austin, and feels fantastic. He notes:

Walk into a Crossfit gym and visit with a trainer and he or she will say something like this: Learn the fundamental movements, do the program, clean up your diet, and stick with it and you’ll get in the best shape of your life. You’ll be stronger, faster, leaner, and feel better. Follow this path and it will change your life.

Why does Crossfit have a cult-like following? Why won’t Crossfitters shut up about Crossfit? Why are we always inviting our friends to give it a try? Because it delivers on its promises in a way that few programs do. Crossfit works. Guaranteed.

When was the last time you said something like this to someone who was checking out your church: Walk this path with us as we follow Jesus, learn the basics of the gospel, listen to the collective wisdom gathered here, stick with it, and you will be transformed. You’ll find spiritual freedom, emotional peace, deep relationships, and the ultimate purpose for your life. Being part of our community will get you ready for anything life throws at you. We’re walking an ancient path that has been validated by the countless experiences of those who have gone before us. The gospel works. Give it a try. You won’t be disappointed. (see www. WadeHodges.com; July 20)

Hodges ends with this challenging assertion: “I’ve experienced more positive life change in myself and in others in the one year I’ve been doing Crossfit than I’ve seen in twelve years of church work.”

The Christian apologist G.K Chesterton famously noted that “Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried.” Hodges is not implying that Christianity is a spiritual self-improvement program, because it is not. It is a religion, a worldview, and a way of life. Having said that, Jesus tells us that he came that we might have abundant life (John 10:10). Implicit in the gospel message is that we will experience transformation if we follow Christ in a significant way.

Following in a casual way won’t do. Again, Hodges: “One of the biggest differences between my experience with churches and with Crossfit is that in most churches there is very little expectation that what they are doing will actually change someone’s life.”

What expectations, indeed what desires, do you have for being changed by your relationship with Jesus? If you worship deeply, pray regularly, study the Scriptures, love and serve others, and give Christ the throne-chair of your life, you will experience change over time.

But you have to walk the path.

Trek

2009-08-04T12:59:00.000-07:00

We drove four days and 1500 miles to Twin Lakes, Colorado and back. We spent another five days rappelling, camping, and backpacking. We started at 9,400 feet, made high camp at 12,000, and ‘summited’ Mt. Oxford at 14,153 after leaving camp at 2:50 a.m. to arrive at the peak by 8 a.m. and be back down before the storms hit at midday. We enjoyed no (zip, nada, nyet) showers, indoor plumbing, or cooked food (other than instant) for five days. We experienced a blown rear van tire and ruptured fuel pump that put us six hours behind schedule. We consumed 837 lbs. of snacks and fast food in the van. We killed 28 hours waiting in line at convenience store restrooms. We listened to Michael Jackson’s greatest hits on CD 37 times. We watched all three Bourne movies on the van’s overhead player. We didn’t sleep enough hours any of the nine nights.

We had a blast!

Last week I was privileged to go along with our Senior High group on its annual summer “Trek” expedition. I thoroughly enjoyed being with these delightful kids, who have consistently distinguished themselves wherever they go on trips. The staff of T.E.A.M. Ascend made a point of telling Cory Jones, Joey Ellmore, Neely McCoy and me that our students were “the best group we’ve had all summer.”

We were led up the mountain and in all respects by the legendary Bob Wood, a 70-year old combination of mountain goat, grizzly bear and teddy bear, who, if he were president of the United States would balance the budget, de-nuclearize Iran, blockade North Korea, and make all U.S. government employees begin their day with pushups, sit-ups, and squat thrusts. This guy makes John Wayne look like a J.C. Penney model. The T.E.A.M. Ascend staff of confident, friendly college students and young adults was an inspiration to be around and learn from.

At the end of the week we gave the following awards: The “Manna” award to Davis John, for spiritually feeding the other students; the “Barnabas” award to Jakob Culver, for being such a strong encourager; the “T.E.A.M.” (trust, encouragement, attitude, motivation) award to Miranda Wilcox, for being the kind of student T.E.A.M. Ascend could envision inviting to be on staff some day; the “Proof Positive” award to Whitney Oliver for her consistently positive and cheerful disposition; the “Heart of David” award to Ian Wulf, for his example of earnestly seeking God; the “Rock” award to Luke Pyeatt for his quiet, dependable and selfless service; and the “True Grit” award to Damaris Wilcox, for persevering through pain and discomfort with determination and a complete absence of self-pity. We also honored our three crew leaders: Jakob Culver, Katie Barnett, and Davis John.

I hung with the students pretty well going up and down the mountains, but spent a lot more time recovering with naps in my tent. This is a blatant and unfair advantage teenagers have over middle-aged adults and I resent it mightily.

The point of Trek is to give people an opportunity to experience the beauty of nature and the challenges of camping and hiking to a 14,000 foot-plus summit such that they push through self-imposed limitations and develop more confidence in what they are capable of doing, all while seeking God and deepening their faith amidst a close-knit group of Christ-followers.

I’ll miss some sleep for that any time.

The Lord's Day Observance Society

2009-08-04T12:42:00.000-07:00

Christians on the Isle of Lewis (Scotland) face a dilemma that captures my imagination and reminds me of some of the challenges we face in America. The majority of the 18,000 islanders practice a form of Presbyterian Christianity that observes a strict Sabbath – no television, no housework, no shopping, etc. For decades (centuries?) this has been the accepted culture.

But the Scottish government recently received legal advice that it would be unlawful (discriminatory) to withhold ferry service to the island on Sundays because of the religious views of only one part of a community. Consequently, the Caledonian-MacBrayne ferry company (CalMac), which is owned by the Scottish government, says it has no choice but to run the ferry service on Sunday, lest it be in breach of European laws on equality.

You got all that?

The Christians are up in arms. John Roberts, spokesman for the Lord’s Day Observance Society, declares:

“The Sunday ferry service is a direct threat to this way of life, which stands for Christian beliefs, the Bible and the word of God. We’ll end up with Sundays like they are in the rest of the U.K. or the U.S. where it is just, go to church on Sunday morning and the rest of the day is yours.” (Scottish island’s sacred Sunday under threat,” Ben McConville, Associated Press, July 19, 2009).

Where do your sympathies lie in this situation? Well, let’s consider a few things. First, the Isle of Lewis has a rich history and part of that history is its distinctness from the rest of Scotland, most particularly in its Sabbath observance and its predominant use of the Gaelic language. So this is a spiritual and religious issue but also one of communal identity: Will they remain distinct from the “mainlanders?”

Second, how does ferry service, per se, impede the islanders’ observance of Sabbath? After all, if most of the Islanders refrain from travel, work or play, who will be arriving or leaving on the ferry or working at the terminal? And will non-Christians’ arrival or departure threaten anyone’s Sabbath observance?

Most significantly to me, how faithfully are people practicing their religion if they have no option to do otherwise? For the first half of the 20th century in the United States, most communities had “blue laws,” which functioned to enforce religious standards and most notably prevented retail businesses from opening on Sundays, i.e., they enforced Sabbath observance. Eventually most of these laws were repealed, declared unconstitutional, or simply left unenforced.

What happened in the United States is the very thing the people on the Isle of Lewis are worried will happen to them – they fear that Sunday will become just another day of commerce and pleasure-seeking with (perhaps) church squeezed in. And you know what, they’re probably right. Once the camel’s nose is under the tent, it’s hard to back the camel out.

But if the church has no competition is it really the church? What if the good Christians on the Isle of Lewis said, “Bring on the ferry if you insist. We welcome the opportunity to choose our sacred faith observances over modern practices.”

Now that would impress me.

God's Discipline

2009-07-16T14:11:00.000-07:00

I am preaching this week on “How to be Wise With God’s Discipline.” Proverbs 3:11-12 teaches us not to “despise the Lord’s discipline or resent his rebuke, because the Lord disciplines those whom he loves, as a father the child in whom he delights.” Any parent can relate to the importance of disciplining their child. Some of the angriest children I have met are children whose parents do not discipline them. They are too young to be “in charge,” but their parents let them be in charge and consequently the children are overwhelmed and angry. God disciplines us because he loves us.

One of the challenges of being wise with God’s discipline is knowing when discipline or correction is from God. If I lose my job, is God trying to tell me something, am I just experiencing the consequences of poor work performance, or am I simply the victim of a depressed economy? It is hard to say. One thing we can do in the face of this uncertainty is to submit our circumstance to God and pray to him, “Lord, if this is your discipline then help me learn from it and be more faithful and obedient to you because of it. And if this is not something you orchestrated, then help me learn from it and grow stronger in my faith through it.” The fact is that we can consecrate all of our life to God and seek his teaching and wisdom even as we are uncertain of God’s direct role in the cause of our predicament.

I knew a man who, in the midst of an intense battle in Vietnam, made a vow to serve God wholeheartedly if God would spare his life. He survived the battle and promptly forgot the vow. Over twenty years later, as he drove along a road near his home, he heard an audible voice say to him, “I am not going to call you again.” He drove home trembling and called me at the church where he had visited on a few occasions. He said he was ready to give his life to Christ and indeed I baptized him a few days later.

I often yearn for this kind of direct, unequivocal discipline or counsel from God. I love the clarity of it, however painful it may be. My experience has been, though, that far more often God’s discipline comes in more subtle forms, sometimes in the counsel and correction of others, and especially in the painful lessons I learn through life’s hardships.

The writer of Hebrews tells Christ-followers to “endure hardship as discipline (12:7)” The word here for discipline (paideia) means “instruction or training.” Through eyes of faith, hardship becomes like a special tutor who guides us in growth and learning.

This relates to Romans 8:28 and Paul’s declaration that “in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” And with Romans 5:3-5, which tells us to “boast” in our afflictions because they produce endurance, character, and hope.

I find all this tremendously inspiring because I want to always keep growing. We tend to yearn for easy times but easy times don’t teach us much or grow us much. It is a fact that we learn and grow most through tough times, some of which God brings on us directly to discipline us and all of which he can use to teach us and grow our faith.

I’m not signing up for hardship’s tutoring, but when he knocks at my door I want to open it with faith.

The Stoning of Soraya M.

2009-07-09T07:31:00.000-07:00

It has only been released in twenty-seven theatres (the artsy, independent kind) and so far has made less box office money than “Transformers” did in its first hour of release, but “The Stoning of Soraya M.” reminds us of the kind of moral good the movie industry can do. Angela and I saw it last weekend and it is the type of film from which you exit the theatre and drive away in silence. It is good, but hard.

Based on the book by French-Iranian journalist Freidoune Sahebjam, the film tells the true story of a young wife and mother of four who is stoned to death by villagers after her husband concocts a flimsy and false charge of adultery against her so he can marry a younger woman. Islamic Sharia law either calls for or permits (the movie was not clear) this cruel and drawn-out form of execution which is still practiced in Iran, the movie’s setting, as well as in countries throughout the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa that follow Sharia law.

There was a certain irony to watching this movie in the immediate aftermath of the rigged Iranian elections, which kept the present tyrannical government in power only after it brutally suppressed the protests of modernists and reformers who yearn for more freedom in their country. To be fair, though, there are concerted efforts to stop the practice of stoning in Iran. The Head of the Iranian Judiciary announced a moratorium on stoning in 2002 and reiterated it in 2008. Many Iranians are eagerly working with human rights organizations like Amnesty nternational to completely eradicate the practice.

The Old Testament recounts several instances in which Israelites stoned transgressors, and apparently stoning was not uncommon in the first century: Stephen was stoned to death (Acts 7:58) and Paul was stoned and left for dead in Lystra (Acts 14:19). Both the Jewish historian Josephus and Eusebius the Church historian record that shortly before the fall of Jerusalem in 70 A.D., Jewish leaders hurled James the Lord’s brother from a pinnacle of the Temple and dropped heavy stones on him. The fact is that throughout history man has fashioned a shockingly brutal array of execution methods. In a stoning, usually the victim is buried up to his waist or neck and pelted with rocks large enough to harm but not so large that they make the death too quick. The community often participates en masse. It is a horrible and humiliating way to die.

I was left with two strong impressions from the movie. The first was how primitive the treatment of women still is in many areas of the world. Under Sharia law, a man accused of adultery must be proven guilty, but a woman has to prove her innocence. I am always stunned by the overt misogyny which pervades in so many fundamentalist religious cultures. From where does this fear and loathing come?

The second strong impression was how important even one person can be in raising a voice of protest. In the story there is a key figure in the village, a (relatively) good man, whose authorization is needed for the stoning but who has a gut feeling the charges are false. He earnestly prays for a sign from God, but upon receiving two signs, does not have the courage to reverse his decision. I was reminded of the old saying, “The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing.” Feelings and values may be noble, but they do nothing against evil unless they are acted upon.

Let Us Sing

2009-07-01T13:25:00.000-07:00

"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God." (Colossians 3:16, NIV)

Those of us in the Churches of Christ have heard this scripture so often in reference to (i.e. in defense of) our practice of acappella worship that often we have missed the simple admonition to sing as a way to let the word of Christ dwell in us richly. In other words, there is something spiritually formative about singing.

In a recent Breakpoint essay (“How Good It is to Thank the Lord,” 7/1/09) Chuck Colson references an article by theologian T.M. Moore entitled “Whatever Happened to Singing?” Moore considers the increasing tendency of worshipers to simply listen to the praise band (or praise team, or other singing worshipers) rather than join in the singing, and concludes that they are missing out not just artistically but spiritually. He notes that “Scripture gives us no specific guidance in how to listen to music. Music, according to the Bible, is not the spectator sport we have made it out to be.” Instead, he says, we find many commands to sing, and indeed, earlier generations of Christians sang on all sorts of occasions. Early Christians sang as they went about their chores. Celtic Christians considered singing an important spiritual discipline for progressing in the life of faith. Christians in the 16th to 19th centuries wrote songs for the various daily tasks they undertook, not just to relieve boredom but to consecrate their work to God and exercise their spiritual “muscles.”

In Acts 16 Paul and Silas have been arrested in Philippi for hindering the spiritual-commercial enterprise of the owners of a slave girl who predicts the future. They have been stripped and beaten and tossed in jail. Around midnight, Luke tells us, they “were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them” (v. 25). An earthquake happens and the jailer guarding them prepares to kill himself. But Paul remonstrates with him, whereupon he asks, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” His subsequent baptism seems sudden, but consider this: He has been listening to Paul and Silas sing hymns to God, possibly for hours! Singing hymns forms us spiritually; it also witnesses to others.

I shared a few weeks ago in our assembly that after 27 years as a Christ-follower, worshiping in the churches of Christ, I still don’t know how to read music and I don’t sing well in four-part harmony -- I tend to sing the part of whoever is standing next to me. I don’t know an alto from an Altoid, and when you say “soprano” I think HBO drama series. My kids tell me that I clap out of rhythm (confirmed by our Worship Minister) and I sway out of rhythm too. But I love to sing. And I am always a little saddened to observe the surprising number of people in any given worship assembly who stay quiet. As one good man put it dryly, “The congregation sounds better when I don’t sing.” I’ve heard him sing and he’s got a point! But he is missing out on a spiritually formative exercise, and God is missing out on hearing his voice.

As Moore puts it, “Singing hymns deepens us theologically and puts us in the company of the great unseen host who have gone before us and surround us as faithful witnesses to the Lord.” Aaaaaamen. Sung in my best tenor voice.

"I Don't Feel Like I Gave Up a Lot"

2009-06-25T11:12:00.000-07:00

Lidia Schaefer was born in a large village in northern Ethiopia and moved to the United States in the mid-1970’s when civil war broke out at home. She settled into American life, became a manicurist, and labored with the challenges of raising her two children while working 12-hour days, six days a week.

But a return trip to her native village in the 1990’s troubled her. She saw children walking three hours each way to attend classes held under a tree because there was no school building. In 1998 she learned that one of the girls she had met – Medhine – had been attacked and killed by a hyena after falling behind during the long trek home from school.

Schaefer decided she had to do something. She began setting aside a third of her salary and all of her tips while lobbying the Ethiopian government to donate land for a school. She enlisted help from clients and co-workers, who held raffles and made contributions. But after four years without reaching nearly the sum needed, Schaefer decided it was time to do something drastic. She gave up her symbols of the American dream, selling her house and car. It was a sacrifice that still stuns her colleagues and friends. “I couldn’t believe it,” remembers her salon manager. “I don’t feel like I gave up a lot,” Schaefer responds. “I want the children to learn, to get something out of their life.”

She ultimately raised more than $250,000 for the school, which was completed in 2006. Today, nearly 1,500 students are educated there; the campus boasts eight buildings with 16 classrooms, a science lab and a library. Schaefer is still setting aside much of her own money and raising funds (lidiaschool.org). “They need computers so they can talk to the whole world,” she says. When she went back home for the school dedication, she was honored with an elaborate procession through the village. “I was so happy, I can’t even describe it.” Initially she wanted to name the school after the little girl killed by the hyena, but the government insisted on naming it after her so that “more people will be like you.” Ethiopian communities around the United States, hearing about Schaefer’s efforts, launched plans and raised money to build twelve more schools in that region, which are due to be completed next month.

I don’t know about you, but when I hear stories like this I often feel simultaneously inspired by the sheer goodness and sacrifice of some people and its multiplying effects on others, and deflated by my own comparative selfishness. Schaefer’s efforts bring to mind what the apostle Paul says about the Macedonians and his collection for the struggling Judean churches, “… their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability.” (II Corinthians 9:2-3, NIV)

With about one-millionth of the sacrifice of Lidia Schaefer, I am dedicating the profits from the sale at West Houston of my first book to the Mission Lazarus medical fund as a way to help continue the initial free-will contribution West Houston members made in 2006. These funds provide for little Nancy Osorto’s growth hormone shots and the myriad of medical treatments needed by children in this area of Honduras. I invite you to participate as the Lord leads you. After all, hyenas come in many forms.

Across Broken Glass

2009-06-17T10:06:00.000-07:00

I love being a Dad. I’ll just say that right at the start. When I think of the roles in my life, being a father and a husband are the top two. Often those two roles are so intertwined that I see them as two sides of the same coin. When my first child was born in 1991 I grew up about a decade in one hour. It was time to put away my youth and be a man. (Some people had been telling me that for years.)

When I was doing a phone interview in 1994 with the Culver Palms congregation in Los Angeles, for whom I eventually preached, a search team member asked me, “What has being a father taught you about God?” Don’t you hate interview questions like that?! I don’t remember what I said in response, but with fifteen more years of fatherhood under my belt I would say that the opposite has been the case: the more I learn about God the more I want to conform my fathering to that image.

This week on Father’s Day I am finishing a series on the Parable of the Prodigal Son by talking about “The Risk-Taking Father.” The father in the parable is passionate and, some would say, reckless. Why does he give the inheritance to the younger son upon request? Doesn’t this adversely affect the family’s reputation, material well-being, and future provision? Why does he welcome back the younger son whole-heartedly and without reservation, indeed with complete self-giving? These are not “prudent” actions.

I was having lunch with my daughter after I preached on the Elder Son and she asked, “Dad, doesn’t the Elder Son have a point? Shouldn’t the Father have given him back his privileges and his standing in stages, as he proved his change of heart?” Good point! This is where we should all wrestle with the parable. If we don’t engage with this, if we aren’t at least somewhat disturbed by this, then we aren’t comprehending the scandal, the offense, of God’s grace.

I’m pretty sure Jesus isn’t trying to give a seminar on parenting. He’s trying to get through to his oh-so-religious listeners about the height, width, and depth of God’s grace and mercy. And withal, God’s passion for his children. That’s the lesson I take from God about being a father: having a passion for my children and their well-being, and seeing it as part of my service to God to love, cherish, nurture, discipline, guide, teach, and sacrifice for them.

Remember when the little Cuban boy Elian Gonzalez left Cuba with his mother to flee to Florida? Their boat floundered in a storm and his mother and ten other people died. Elian and two others were picked up by the Coast Guard and brought to Florida, where he was taken in by distant relatives. A battle ensued about whether Elian should be returned to his father in Cuba (who had not known the mother was fleeing with him) or given asylum in America. Two of Elian’s grandmothers from Cuba came on a much-publicized visit to lobby for his return. But his father never came. He never came! One radio talk show host marveled at this, saying, “If I were the father, I would personally swim to Florida to rescue my son. I would crawl across broken glass to be re-united with him.”

I want to be the kind of father who crawls across broken glass for my children. And that is the Father in the parable. That is the God we serve. Prudence is fine. Passion changes lives.

Winners?

2009-06-11T06:26:00.000-07:00

I do not like the Lottery, do not play it, and would joyfully vote to discontinue it, but if someone is going to win it I am glad when it is a person like Neal Wanless, the 23-year old down-on-his-luck cowboy living with his parents in a trailer (the house is in foreclosure) on their 320-acre South Dakota ranch in the seventh poorest area of the country. Wanless bought his $15 worth of tickets in the nearby town of Winner (oh, irony!) during a trip to buy livestock feed. He will take home $88.5 million in a lump sum payment after taxes are deducted.

“Just a very humble, kind and considerate kid,” remembers his high school math teacher. “Neal never gave up trying. That’s what I liked about him” says his cross-country coach. Warner’s father had been eking out a living buying and selling scrap metal, but even that was drying up. A neighbor expressed what seems to be a common sentiment: “They’ve been real short on finances for a long time. They are from real meager means. I am happy the family won’t have to worry about money anymore.”

Well, not so fast. The fact is that lottery winners develop a bunch of worries very quickly. Consider: One in two Winners winds up in financial calamity. Indeed, an entire industry has sprung up to buy future payouts at a discount from Winners so they can pay off the debts they have rolled up. But why do so many get underwater so quickly? There are a number of reasons:

1) Many have lived paycheck to paycheck for so long that they cannot handle having money in hand; their only experience has been spending all they have until the next paycheck. After they hit the lottery jackpot, they do that with their annual payout, and borrow against it too.

2) They are besieged by people asking for help. As one winner recalled about all the relatives who contacted him, “They seemed to come back from the dead. All of them said that the Lord had told them I was their last hope. They just had a way of finding me. I got mail from all over the world, hundreds of letters every day. I had to pay somebody to just read it. At work they had to put in another telephone operator just to handle the calls coming in for me.”

3) They are preyed on by unscrupulous “financial advisors.”

And this is all in addition to the social cost. Lottery winners are always… “Lottery Winners”. People think they are rich and expect them to pay for things that used to be shared expenses. Many family members, friends, and co-workers burn with envy and resentment. At a party once with his wife, a Winner heard someone say in an ugly tone, “There go those lottery people.” In short, because Winners did not “earn” their money, people resent them for having it and expect to be given a share of it. One Winner’s vehicle, business and home were broken into repeatedly. Someone even drugged his drink and stole his briefcase!

All this is simply to say, when you think of the ideal scenario of good fortune smiling upon you, don’t think of winning the lottery. Jesus warns his followers about the power of money because it often brings unforeseen difficulties and temptations into our life. There is a spiritual quality to money for good or ill. Surely we can do better than “winning the lottery” when we envision the ultimate blessing from God.

In closing, say a little prayer for the good-kid cowboy and his parents. They will need it.

Hold That Thought

2009-06-04T07:19:00.000-07:00

I recently bought a new carrying “holster” for my Blackberry which makes it difficult to answer the phone or read emails while I am driving. The roads are no doubt a bit safer in northwest Houston these days, but I am definitely frustrated. It is amazing how hard it is to resist the little buzz sound that signals a new message of some sort. I feel like Pavlov’s dog being tempted by he laboratory bell. [Hold that thought while I check this…]

Apparently more and more people, especially teenagers, have thoroughly succumbed to the Pavlovian conditioning. A recent Houston Chronicle article piqued my curiosity and made me swallow hard (“Texting may be taking toll on teens” Katie Hafner, 5/31/09). Let me say first that I am not a big fan of these “Warning: Danger” type news items. I think they are often overblown. Still, this one struck a chord.

[Hold on, let me just tell this person I’ll text him back in a minute.] According to the Nielsen Co., American teenagers in 2008 received an average of 80 text messages a day, more than double the average of a year earlier. Parents of teens who are used to seeing their beloved child with his nose in the phone 24/7 may think this number is on the low side. But it equates to 5 received texts per waking hour, and of course that doesn’t include responding to the messages. And wait! Why limit it to waking hours? Many teenagers leave their phone on at night and eagerly jolt awake to the sound of an incoming text. Hafner notes, “The phenomenon is beginning to worry physicians and psychologists, who say it is leading to anxiety, distraction in school (Gee, ya think?), falling grades, repetitive stress injury and sleep deprivation.” [Excuse me just a second. I apologize but I have to take this call.] At any rate, apparently one of the things driving this behavior among teenagers, according to psychotherapist Michael Hausauer of Oakland, CA., is that “they have a terrific interest in knowing what’s going on in the lives of their peers, coupled with a terrific anxiety about being out of the loop.” One teenage girl whose parents finally reacted when she racked up 14,528 received texts in a month (30 per waking hour!) felt there was an element of hypocrisy in her parents’ punishment, declaring defiantly with hurt puzzlement in the way only a teenage girl can do, “My mother is always on her iPhone.”

I must say I see plenty of adult men and women at the gym carrying around their cell phones; they do a short exercise, check their phone, do another exercise, check their phone, etc. I wonder sometimes how they even manage to take a shower. [Let me just respond to this email quickly.] Okay, where was I? Oh yeah, so this isn’t as much a teenage issue as it is a people issue. What does this kind of all all-the-time, all encompassing technology do to the way we relate, converse, think, ponder, reflect, pray, relax, rest? What happens to the quality of our lives when we devolve to the attention span of a gerbil?

[Excuse me while I get this.] I for one decry this bondage to technological innovation and pledge that I will not succumb to this sad and silly status quo [bing, bing]. And I am worried [buzz, buzz] about our teenage children’s future [Hey honey, can I hit you back?] But I am glad I have prophetically sounded the alarm to you. And even a little proud that I managed to write this while driving. [Hello, Officer.]

Plant Your Tree!

2009-05-28T08:54:00.000-07:00

Plant Your Tree!

“The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago. The second best time is now.”

When I took a 3-month sabbatical in 2002, I told myself that I would compile into book form the weekly essays I had written in the 1990’s for my congregation and get them published. I never did.

Each year since, publishing the book has been a vague, I-really-ought-to-do-that kind of goal. You know the type, I’m sure. This year I finally put the goal in writing and vowed that if I didn’t get it published I would shave my head, sell all my possessions, and go to work on a chain gang. I chose the lowest cost, do-it-yourself package from a Christian publishing company and finally got it done. I Like Me!: Essays on Culture, Current Events and the Christian Faith is now in print.

What trees should you have planted years ago? Most of us could make a long list of the things we wish we had done. Here’s the point: for many of these things it’s not too late. You can plant the tree now! Don’t be paralyzed by what you should have done; think instead of what you still can do.

I read occasionally about people who have never saved for retirement. They are in their early 50’s. They are paralyzed by regret. But what every financial advisor tells them is, “Start now! Better late than never!” This is true of almost everything in life.

In my sophomore year at Rhodes College I took Spanish II. It really clicked; I loved it and vowed to minor in it. Then when I got to the University of St. Andrews in Scotland for my junior year in 1982, the professor assigned us a paper in Spanish the first day. I panicked and dropped the class. I found out later that he just wanted to see how proficient the students were and I would have been on a par with the rest. That was my chance to plant the tree and I didn’t. Later when I was preaching in L.A., I took some Spanish classes at U.C.L.A. but never reached conversational proficiency. Another missed opportunity. Que lastima! This year I have purchased a Spanish learning program on CD’s and vowed to reach my goal in 2009. It is twenty-seven years late, but it is better than never.

What do you wish you had done years ago? You can still redeem that desire by doing something now.

When I was a junior in high school my favorite class was English with Ms. Fleur Simmons. One of our assignments was to read Thomas Wolfe’s classic first book, Look Homeward Angel. I didn’t read it, didn’t write the paper. What a knucklehead I was. Ms. Simmons chose not to flunk me but rather to make me promise to read the book “sometime.” That is called mercy. At my ten-year reunion in 1990 she even asked me about it! I still had not read it but promised I would. It became one of those “someday” goals. You know the type, I’m sure.

Ms. Simmons, I don’t know if you are still alive, but I just ordered the book and will read it this summer. That’s a shave-my-head-and- join-the-chain-gang vow.

What trees do you need to plant in your life? The best time may have been years ago, but the second best time is now.

The Third Way

2009-05-21T13:35:00.000-07:00

I was in Austin earlier this week participating in Austin Graduate School of Theology’s Minister Sermon Seminar. My alma mater always does a great job bringing in scholars to speak to preachers on selected books of the Bible. And of course, Austin’s not a bad little place to hang out for a few days.

I served on a panel which discussed a powerful book by Jim Reynolds, preacher of the Lake Highlands Church in Dallas, called The Lepers Among Us: Homosexuality and the Life of the Church. My perception is that presently there are two primary ways of “ministering” to homosexuals in the local church: 1) Affirm their attractions and desires, tell them they are not expected to change, and welcome them. 2) Tell them they are sinners and urge them to get help elsewhere and come back when they are “fixed.” The first way ignores biblical norms, and the second way sub-contracts out the ministry to psychotherapists and para-church efforts like Exodus International. Neither takes much courage, in my opinion. Reynolds challenges the local church to choose a third way, and that is to walk with same-sex strugglers in their journey towards redemption and sexual wholeness. Following is an excerpt from the book’s foreward:

For fifteen years I have been privileged to walk with men struggling with same sex sins. My relationship with these men has been in the common life of the Church, not in a para-church setting designed just for the same-sex strugglers. Much of the time has been spent in a house church setting involving anywhere from six to fifteen people. Homosexual sin has been one among many sins diagnosed, confessed and forgiven.

The dynamics of God’s Rule – shame-lifting grace, idol-smashing authority, life-giving Spirit and the re-socializing by new Fathers, Mothers, Sisters and Brothers – has dramatically changed all our lives. All of this happens in the common, ordinary life of real Church.

I have seen and continue to see substantial redemption within these men’s lives, men who have moved from living in a gay world, full of gay relationships, to living in a new family. On four occasions I have preached the weddings of these men to women. I don not claim they live in a struggle-free or sin-free existence, but then neither do I make that claim for myself. Nor do I consider marriage to the opposite sex to be the benchmark of successful reorientation from homosexuality. What is of fundamental concern is … powerful covenant connection with the Body of Christ. The kingdom dynamics within a real community of disciples obliterates the dynamics of shame, detachment, disempowerment and hopelessness on these I have called “the lepers among us.” … There is an abundance of well-written theology concerning homosexuality, but where is the embodying obedience? I am not beginning with another Bible study because, to a great extent, we already know what the Bible says. The Lord is asking, “What are you going to DO about it?”

As same-sex marriage becomes an ever-more polarizing social, political and religious issue, Reynolds challenges the local conservative church to do more than protest. He urges us to embody the redemptive, healing, transforming presence of Christ that is God’s intention for the Body of Christ. And not just for same-sex strugglers but for ALL of us in our brokenness and sin.

Cutting the Gordian Knot

2009-05-14T13:28:00.000-07:00

Gordian Knot : a metaphor for an intractable problem, solved by a bold stroke.

Angela and I spent this past week at the Pepperdine Bible Lectures, where we delivered a talk on “How to Have a Really Bad Marriage” and spent the rest of the week trying to contradict our presentation. The Bible Lectures in Malibu are an awesome experience, consisting of three primary elements: Malibu weather and scenery, stimulating lectures and keynote messages, and time with friends. It is the last element that I reflect on especially fondly this year. We shared breakfasts, lunches and dinners with old friends from southern California and newer friends from Houston. I can mark each day in my memory by who we spent time with much more easily than I can by what lectures we attended.

And that’s really the way it works, isn’t it? What makes life most worthwhile is the meaningful relationships we enjoy, invest in, and benefit from. The Christian faith and life are fueled by relationships. The proliferation of “One Another” passages in the New Testament attest to the relational nature of life in Christ. When I think of the seasons I have flourished spiritually, they are usually related to the quality of Christian relationships in my life at the time.

We are making an exciting and profound move at West Houston which I will be describing in the message today. We are committing to increase the shepherding presence in our congregation in order to more effectively provide the shepherd–member relationships that are such a key part of the growth and maturation of the local church. The key element of this move is to designate two specific roles within one eldership: oversight elders and shepherding elders. Shepherding elders will be commissioned (indeed, released!) to focus solely on caring for, encouraging, listening to, coming alongside, and nurturing members. The full eldership will entrust the oversight and management functions (e.g., staff, building and grounds, finances, programming, etc.) to an oversight team of five elders. These five elders will also shepherd but to a lesser extent. Their primary role is to take the oversight burden from the rest of the elders so they can shepherd.

I have worked with two elderships in my seventeen years of full-time preaching. All of the elders have longed to spend more time shepherding members and less time with administration and decision-making. But each eldership had to contend with the Gordian Knot: if they added more elders to increase their ability to shepherd the flock, then they created a more unwieldy and cumbersome oversight and management apparatus which took more time away from shepherding! The beauty of this new model is that with a consistent five-elder oversight team (and having elders rotate in and out to keep it from becoming a fixed body), there is virtually no limit to the number of shepherding elders we can add. We are freed from the Gordian Knot of either-or.

This may sound strange to hear me say, but I am as excited about the possibilities inherent in this transition as I have been about any transition in our church in years. There is simply no substitute for strong and active shepherding of the flock. Our desire to provide this kind of shepherding and the great need we feel West Houston has for this kind of shepherding is the reason for this transition.

From the Dead

2009-04-30T12:52:00.000-07:00

We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death (2 Cor. 1:8-9).

I am finishing a 3-message series this week on “Surviving the Economic Meltdown… and Being Stronger For It,” so I am coming at the above passage from the context of our present economic pressures. I think particularly of the suicides I have read about in the news of (usually) men who felt that ending their life was their best option in the face of huge debts and/or business pressures. Perhaps the most prominent of the ones who chose this last desperate measure was the 41-year old who served as the Chief Financial Officer for Freddie Mac, the (now) government controlled US mortgage lender and guarantor. The job was a pressure-cooker, with mounting public criticism of the company’s bad loans and retention bonuses, and investigations into its practices by two government agencies. One analyst called top jobs at Freddie Mac “a political land mine.” This good man, remembered by co-workers for his “extraordinary work ethic, integrity, and quick wit,” left behind a wife and six-year old daughter.

I do not know what it is like to “despair even of life.” I am thankful for that even as I feel great empathy for people who do know this painful lack of hope. Hope is our life blood. It gives us the will to live, to strive, to endure and overcome. That is why a dear scripture to me, one tucked close to my heart, is the benediction in Romans 15:13, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

I am struck by the vividness of the apostle Paul’s language when his hope was running low. He says, “We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure.” Literally, “surpassingly beyond power we were burdened.” He then says, “But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead” (v. 9).

It seems to me that this kind of comforting and hope-affirming realization doesn’t always come in the midst of the trial but only later, as we look back on the experience and say “Oh, now I see God’s hand in leading me through that.” The trial may still be difficult and draining, but hope gives us the small, life-giving pulse of anticipation that there will be a time when we can look back with our confidence restored. “He who has rescued us from so deadly a peril will continue to rescue us; on him we have set our hope that he will rescue us again” (v. 10).

Friends, there is nothing that God cannot help you get through. Nothing. He is the One who raises from the dead, including the deadness of hope.

If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,” even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is as bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you. For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well (Psalm 139:11-14).

Friends, may we abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Rich Young Me

2009-04-23T13:33:00.000-07:00

I am preaching on a passage (Matthew 19:16-22) this week that gives me the willies. The story of the “rich young man” is one of those unnerving encounters between Jesus and someone that leaves ripples and repercussions whenever it is told and wherever it is taken seriously.

It is a challenging passage because all three synoptic gospels include it but with slight variations (see Mark 10:17-22 and Luke 18:18-23). Matthew and Mark call him a “young man” whereas Luke refers to him as “a certain ruler.” In Matthew’s portrayal the man asks, “What do I still lack?” in response to Jesus’ instruction for him to keep the commands. This gives us the impression that he is truly searching to fill an emptiness inside. Mark and Luke don’t mention this. Mark tells us that Jesus “looked at him and loved him.” Matthew and Luke don’t.

In general we have conflated these three accounts and taken away the following basic lesson: The rich young man asks Jesus how to have eternal life and is told to obey God’s commands. When he indicates he already does that and he’s still “lacking,” Jesus tells him to divest himself of his material possessions and follow him. This is too much for the man and he sadly declines Jesus’ call to discipleship, thus indicating that for Christians whose possessions stand in the way of salvation, divestment is necessary. For the rest of us, no such problem.

Well, that’s convenient. Luke gives us an out (sort of) by saying the man has “great wealth.” Compared to Bill Gates, we do not. Case closed. But Matthew and Mark simply point out that the man has “many possessions.” (The NIV doesn’t help us by rendering it “great wealth” to harmonize with Luke). Hmmm. The man has “many possessions” and wonders why he is tired and searching. He tries to obey the commandments but knows something is missing. He wants to follow Jesus (perhaps) but can’t bear to change his lifestyle in order to do so. Hmmm. This may indeed be a story for our time.

One of the phenomena this economic meltdown has revealed is the stuff-itis prevalent among Americans. We knew this before, of course, but now it has really risen up and bitten us. We got caught with our hand in the financial cookie jar. We worked hard to enjoy a certain lifestyle and then advanced that lifestyle just enough that we had to work harder to maintain it, then advanced it, etc. Now we’re tired and frustrated. And through all this we say with a straight face, “Possessions don’t get in the way of me and God.” Really? Would we be willing to work less and cut our lifestyle expenditures significantly in order to experience less stress? It’s a challenging question because our lifestyle grows on us and elicits strong attachments from us, e.g., I want to give up my Blackberry monthly fee… just not my Blackberry! We usually assume the solution is to earn more money, but spiritually (and economically) the best solution is more often to downsize.

As Dale Bruner puts it in his commentary on Matthew, “The final tragedy of this young man who wants to have everything, even religion, is that he is not a free man. He does not have money; it has him. He is, as we say, ‘had.’”

We have been “had” whenever we think we can have the best of both worlds.

Taking Up the Cross, Literally

2009-04-15T12:42:00.000-07:00

A much-heralded but little seen movie has been languishing in theatres across the nation and will soon disappear into DVD-land. The movie moved and inspired me so much that I called people on my way home and told them about it, raved about it at dinner to Angela and the girls, made everyone within three family tree branches of me promise to see it, and arranged to watch it again with Angela two days later.

The movie is called “The Cross.” It is a true story presented in documentary form. The main person is Arthur Blessitt, but if he won an Academy Award it would be for best supporting actor. The main character is the twelve-foot wooden cross he carries with him… across the entire planet… over a forty-year span. I’ll let that settle in for a moment.

Blessitt’s journey began with a simple act of obedience. He was ministering to the hippies in Hollywood in the 1960’s and opened a coffee shop called “His Place.” He felt God calling him to put a large wooden cross on the wall inside, which he did (the details are very funny). Shortly thereafter he felt God calling him to take short trips with the cross along Sunset Strip, giving out food and telling people about Jesus. Soon, he felt God calling him to carry the cross across America. Blessitt explains that growing up as a Christian, he never had any particular attachment to the cross, per se. He didn’t have one in his room, didn’t wear one around his neck. He was as baffled as anyone when a 12-foot wooden cross became the centerpiece of his life and ministry.

He left Hollywood on Christmas Day in 1969 and walked across the country. (He was arrested in Mississippi for holding hands with a black man while praying with him). Everywhere he went he told people about Jesus and God’s love for them. The physical cross became like a beacon of hope to people as he gently, peaceably, lovingly offered his simple message in town after town. Crowds gathered. People wept. The actual film footage of this happening is simply breathtaking to behold.

In 1970 Arthur felt called to carry the cross in war torn Northern Ireland. He then began intermittent trips to specific countries to do his ministry while marrying and raising a family. In 1988 he felt Jesus tell him to carry the cross in every nation, which he completed ten years later. Then he launched out to carry the cross in every island group throughout the world as well. In 2008 at age 68, he felt that he had completed what God had called him to do; hence the documentary.

The parts of Arthur’s story that moved me most were the instances in which he faced danger and was told by everyone not to go, but resolutely decided that God’s call was stronger than harrowing circumstances. You will not believe the footage of him in northern Ireland, Beirut, and Nicaragua during actual street battles walking with his cross. Or the time during Spain’s fascist era when the authorities brutally club him, arrest him and confiscate his cross, all on videotape (!), while onlookers rush to keep the cross raised high during the melee.

The document’s narrator observes that “We started out thinking we would make a movie about what Arthur did with the cross, but we ended up making a movie about what the cross did to Arthur.” And to you and me, Lord willing.

Counter Movement

2009-04-08T12:13:00.000-07:00

This week’s cover story of Newsweek has captured many peoples’ attention with its dramatic title (“The End of Christian America”). I found Jon Meacham’s article, however, to be thoughtful and fair. His basis for the story is the recent release of the 2009 American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS). Among its findings: From 1990 to today,

* The percentage of Americans who claim to have no religious affiliation has increased from 8.2% to 15%.

* The percentage of self-identified Christians has fallen from 86%to 76%.

* The number of people willing to describe themselves as atheist or agnostic has risen from 1 million to 3.6 million.

Another piece of data intrigued me: Fully one-third of Americans identify themselves as born-again Christians.

And my favorite factoid: A fifth of “atheists” in a recent Pew Survey said they believed in God!

The source of this last revelation is a rebuttal opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal (4/6/09) by John Micklethwait and AdrianWooldridge titled, “God Still Isn’t Dead.” They make the correspondingly thoughtful case that “Betting against American religion has always been a fool’s game,” and part of what we are seeing is evidence of peoples’ growing distaste for “the fusion of religion and political power.”

I don’t want to downplay the ARIS’s findings, lest I manifest the same complacency and denial General Motors executives did in the 1960’s and 1970’s when they took the view that, “Yes, our market share has fallen, but we still dominate.”

Here is how I see it. American culture is definitely moving away from its de facto partnership with the Christian church and “Christian values,” but this is not necessarily a bad thing. The simple historical fact is that the Christian movement has floundered when it has the patronage of society’s power centers and flourished when it had to rigorously assert itself in the midst of cultural and governmental antagonism. Whenever Christianity has been the preferred or even mandated religion of a government and culture, Christians have become lazy and the “movement” has faltered. As Micklethwait and Woolridge put it, “Religion, no less than software and politics, is a competitive business, where organization and entrepreneurship count.”

Isn’t it significant that, again quoting the WSJ article, “in Latin America, Pentecostalism has disrupted the Catholic Church’s majority, five of the world’s ten biggest churches are in South Korea, and in China more people (about 100 million) now identify as Christians than as Communists.” This is Christianity at work as a counter movement!

We celebrate today the heart of the Christian faith, that the Christ who died for our sins to reconcile us to God has risen. He has risen indeed! And he sends us into the world as his followers to winsomely live under his Lordship and enthusiastically tell others about Him. When we do these things, no one will wonder if it’s “the end of Christianity” any where near us.

"What They Need is a God"

2009-04-02T11:57:00.000-07:00

A recent Time magazine article spotlighted “Ten Ideas Changing the World Right Now. One of them was “The New Calvinism.” The article noted that “Calvinism is back… complete with an utterly sovereign and micromanaging deity, sinful and puny humanity, and the combination’s logical consequence, predestination.” The author suggests that this renewed view of God is partly a reaction to American conservative evangelicalism’s fuzzy Jesus-is-my-friend theology. As the influential Calvinist Albert Mohler notes, “[Young people] have plenty of friends: what they need is a God.”

This doctrinal shift certainly has an inherent appeal during difficult times. It is much more comforting to believe that the economic meltdown, shrinkage of one’s retirement savings, loss of a job, foreclosure on a house, etc. is just part of God’s predestined plan and we must accept his will and be at peace with it rather than taking any responsibility for it.

You can probably tell where I stand with this. I have noted with increasing exasperation in the last decade the prevalence of “Everything happens for a reason” and “This is all just part of God’s plan” explanations from both sincere Christians and otherwise unreligious theists. The fact is that there has always been a tension between our belief in both God’s sovereignty and human free will. Christians have wrestled with this in every age. How much does God involve himself in daily affairs? How do we know when something is his plan and when it is not? Can we resist God’s will? How much responsibility do we bear for the circumstances in our life? Calvinism to the extreme (an important caveat) says, in essence, “If it happens, it is God’s will.” I am preparing a Wednesday night series on this subject because it is such a fascinating, challenging, and relevant subject for Christians.

Interestingly, during Lent this year I have been meditating on Psalm 139, which includes the following: “You saw my unformed substance. In your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there were none of them” (v. 16, ESV). It would be difficult indeed not to read some degree of divine determinism into scriptures like that!

Here is where I struggle. I love the idea of a Big God. I believe that God is sovereign, omnipotent and omniscient. I resonate with commands in scripture to fear (reverence) God and submit to Him. I think that many Christians, including myself many times, are far too casual and cavalier about our worship of and service to God. At the same time, I believe strongly in human free will and responsibility. I believe I CAN resist God’s will, and often do! I believe I can create messes in my life that God did not plan and with which he is not pleased. I believe, as I take Romans 8:28 to say, that “[God can cause] all things [to] work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose” (NRSV), meaning that when bad things happen, whether they were God’s plan or not, he can help me find redemptive good in them, be a better Christ-follower for it, and glorify God through it (see also Romans 5:1-5 and James 1:2-4). I believe Jesus is both my Lord and my Friend.

So I am intrigued by this new trend among Christians in America. I welcome a renewed emphasis on a mighty God, AND I am not ready to let myself off the hook about my own responsibility.

A Structured Path

2009-03-26T15:05:00.000-07:00

For many years I have tried to do something (or as the case may be, refrain from doing something) for Lent. In the church tradition in which I grew up, it was common to “give up something for Lent.” For kids, that meant things like chocolate, swearing, hitting your brother, or in my case, hitting my brother with chocolate while swearing. I didn’t think much about the deeper meaning behind it all.

In my adult years I have developed a renewed appreciation for this annual rhythm of consecrating a specific period of time to God marked by simplification and sacrifice. In our non-liturgical tradition we don’t formally mark this period between Ash Wednesday and Easter, but individual Christians often undertake rituals and practices on their own.

Lent is technically forty-six days, but the six Sundays are not counted because they are seen as “mini-Easters.” The number forty is significant because Jesus retreated into the desert, fasted forty days, and was tempted by the devil in preparation for his public ministry. It has also been a traditional belief that Jesus lay forty hours in the tomb before being raised from the dead.

Within a few centuries the early church, especially in Jerusalem, guided prospective converts to Christianity through a strict period of instruction and discipline prior to their baptism on Easter Eve (thus, their first participation in the Lord’s Supper was on Easter). Sometimes Easter Sunday was preceded by forty hours of fasting. Since Jesus quoted scripture to Satan in the wilderness, memorizing scripture and focused scripture reading have also been important components of Lenten observance.

This season of Lent has been a special one for me because I was more ambitious than in previous years. I was reflecting on this recently as I listened to a group of Christians express their desire to read the Bible more, pray more regularly, and develop a closer walk with Christ. It occurred to me that what many Christians are looking for is a structured path. I yearn for that too, and will miss it when I finish the forty days of Lent. There is something empowering and, yes, liberating about having a curriculum, if you will, of disciplines and practices to follow. Can its overzealous use become a legalistic straitjacket? Of course, but any good thing can be abused.

I think, for instance, of the phenomenal success of the ministry of Bible Study Fellowship International. BSF sponsors a curriculum in which participants read prescribed scriptures and study notes daily, answer reflection questions, and then meet for a group lecture and discussion. It is very structured and the accountability is high.

In a perfect world, perhaps, all Christians would be motivated and self-disciplined enough to read, study the Bible, and draw closer to God on their own. But the reality is that we often need structured practices which provide a path for us, people with whom to walk the path, and liturgical traditions which give us a historical connection to those who walked with the path before us.

I sense a hunger among more and more Christians for rigorous practices which call us beyond the world’s superficiality into the great riches of life with God through Jesus Christ. I am eager to embrace this.

"Taken"

2009-03-11T07:05:00.000-07:00

This past Sunday afternoon, while Angela and Alex were at the Rodeo and Morgan was tied down with homework I slipped out to the cineplex to see a matinee showing of “Taken.” I figured that with only two movie times per day it was about to leave the theater. But I was surprised to see a robust crowd standing in line to buy tickets for it. I was even more surprised to see how many teenage-girls-in-pairs (this is a social category in itself) were there. This is, after all, a fairly violent “action” movie.

But of course it all made sense. The movie is about a 17-year old girl who is kidnapped while in Paris for the summer. Her father, played by Liam Neeson with steely intensity, missed much of his only child’s upbringing and lost his marriage while serving overseas in the CIA. Now he is retired and living near his daughter to make up for lost time. She is the primary focus of his life. She is the apple of his eye. She is his sweetheart. She is everything else to him that these vicious kidnappers should have realized before they snatched her God-help-‘em. And they are not even demanding a ransom, which her rich stepfather could easily have paid. They have more sordid plans in mind. This makes Neeson unhappy, v-e-r-y unhappy. As he tells them on the phone, “I have spent my career developing a very particular set of skills. I will hunt you down and I will find you.” When he said this I was so scared I shut off my Blackberry like the pre-movie announcement had told me to. But alas, the kidnappers don’t quite get who they’re dealing with, and Neeson must spend the rest of the movie putting these skills to ruthless use. [Rumors that the French government tried to surrender to Neeson during the film’s shooting are unfounded.]

John Eldredge declares in his book, Wild at Heart, that what every boy needs to hear from his father is, “You have what it takes,” and what every daughter needs to hear from her father is, “You are worth fighting for.” Every teenage girl in that theater saw a depiction on film of a father fighting, in this case literally, for his daughter’s life. Few or none of them will ever need their dad to go to the lengths Neeson’s character did to rescue his daughter, but they probably all fantasize about their dad rescuing them from distress in some way because he loves them so dearly. One of my daughter’s friends has seen this movie FIVE times.

As Dr. Meg Meeker notes in her outstanding book, Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters: Ten Secrets Every Father Should Know, fathers more than anyone else set the course for a daughter’s life. “If you fully understood just how profoundly you can influence your daughter’s life, you would be terrified, overwhelmed, or both,” Meeker says.

Men like this movie because many fathers likewise fantasize about rescuing our families in some way, and of course because we envy Neeson’s, ahem, Jason-Bourne-like hand-to-hand skills, which he uses only for righteous purposes, of course.

So I was happy for these teenage girls as they left the theater smiling and talking excitedly about what they had seen. And I was a little worried for them as well. I hoped that they couldn’t wait to tell their dads about the movie. And I hoped they had dads whom they knew would fight for them.

No Substitute

2009-03-05T11:36:00.000-08:00

The Christian Chronicle has run a series of articles in recent months addressing the relative decline in the Churches of Christ in the last three decades. The series has been thoughtful and thought-provoking. This month the editorial in particular captured my attention, titled “Decline demands biblical preaching.” An excerpt:

“The profound power of effective biblical preaching on hearts and minds must not be overlooked (in reversing the decline). We speak not just of skillful public speaking and dynamic presentations, though these factors are not to be disparaged. We speak of sermons that are deeply rooted in the Word of God and are carefully unfolded to reveal the essence of God’s Word. We are talking about sermons that arise from hours of careful study and a deep understanding of God’s will. Plenty of visitor parking, strategically placed greeters and good signage are all part of getting people from the car to the pew, but it takes the Word of God to move people from doubt to faith, from outside the kingdom to inside the kingdom.”

As a preacher I accept this challenge and heartily affirm its importance. I am grateful that our elders have given me a job description which allows me to devote the hours of study and preparation necessary to dig deeply into God’s Word to bring weekly messages. If I am not doing that, I have no excuses.

The Chronicle essay coincided with a recent article in Slate by Andrew Santella (“The Church Search: Why American churchgoers like to shop around”), which suggested that people are looking for substance more than for style. To wit,

“When the Barna Group studied what believers look for in a new church, doctrine and belief ranked at the top of the list of the most important factors, while more mundane or aesthetic concerns (music, parking, comfortable seating) were less important.”

When I had a 3-month sabbatical while preaching in Los Angeles in 2002, my family and I visited eleven churches in thirteen weeks. This was our singular impression: The preaching was usually topical and often superficial. It was style over substance, sizzle over steak. There was usually wonderful music and/or singing, warm hospitality, great parking and greeter efforts, but little of God’s Word. It was like sitting down to a steak dinner and everything was great but the steak.

II Timothy 3:16 declares that “All scripture is inspired by God and useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone belonging to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.” There is simply no substitute for the Scriptures for feeding our souls, sharpening our minds, filling our hearts, and strengthening our wills. As the great evangelical scholar John Stott puts it, “The Word of God grows people.” It is as simple as that.

Recently a woman shared with me that she had bought a new Bible and had committed to immerse herself regularly in God’s Word. We prayed about this and literally prayed over her Bible that God would bless this effort. What an adventure lies ahead for her! What growth she will experience! There is no substitute in the Christian life for regular feeding from God’s Word. How is your spiritual diet?

Vulnerable and Protected

2009-02-25T14:13:00.000-08:00

I was not able to watch President Obama’s speech earlier this week but I eagerly checked the news the next morning to read about it. One headline in particular caught my attention, “President Strikes Optimistic Tone as Public Mood Sours.” People seem to feel increasingly shocked and surly about the worsening economic conditions. Some are directly affected – they have lost jobs, taken pay cuts, had their house foreclosed on, put off retirement. Others who are only indirectly affected still wonder where all this will lead.

I received an investment summary today for January 2009 from the company which holds my retirement savings and it reads like a news story the day after Pearl Harbor. “The optimism often associated with the dawn of a new year was thrashed by the realities of weakening global and domestic economies.” And “Housing, the epicenter of the financial crisis, had a few bright spots but overall continued its drumbeat of bad news.”

Sour mood indeed.

Since I am someone who is only (to date) indirectly affected by the economic conditions, I want to take extra care, out of respect for those experiencing real financial hardship, not to offer sunny or glib prescriptions for getting through this mess. Nevertheless, I would like to offer three suggestions which I believe we can all follow to our benefit.

First, view this as a refining time. Testing and hardship can refine our character, our habits, and ultimately our lives if we focus on what we can learn and how we can grow through them. This is the time to correct bad financial habits, if any, and develop good ones. Make the tough decisions and changes that will help you emerge from this stronger.

Second, keep things in perspective. As I write this, one child from West Houston is undergoing surgery to remove a brain tumor and another is preparing for open-heart surgery. I can assure you these two sets of parents and their families are not worrying too much about the economy. People and relationships are the most important parts of our life.

Third, consider eternity. As Rick Warren says in his best-selling book, “The Purpose-Driven Life,” this life is preparation for eternity. Financial stability and having enough resources for the future are satisfying, but as the saying goes, “we can’t take it with us.” Ironically, financial security in this life can even hinder our preparation for eternity by making us spiritually complacent and too attached to this world.

In I Peter 1:3-5, the apostle Peter gives thanks for the reality of our “new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for us, who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (NRSV). I like the way The Message renders the next verse,

“I know how great this makes you feel, even though you have to put up with every kind of aggravation in the meantime. Pure gold put in the fire comes out of it proved true; genuine faith put through this suffering comes out proved genuine. When Jesus wraps all this up, it’s your faith, not your gold, that God will have on display as evidence of his victory.”

That’s a good reminder during tough economic times. God won’t ask about my investment statements.

Movement

2009-02-19T10:50:00.000-08:00

Several weeks ago I wrote about the “first threshold” that non-Christians must cross in order to come to faith, 1) from distrust to trust. They must be able to trust a Christian in order to be open to the message. I said I would return to this subject and I want to do that this week. My Series on the Great Commission is finished but the adventure of the Great Commission continues!

In their book, “I Once Was Lost: What Postmodern Skeptics Taught Us About Their Path to Jesus,” Don Everts and Doug Schaupp identify four additional key thresholds. They are:

2) From complacent to curious. The Scriptures tell us in I Peter 3:15 to “always be prepared to give a defense for the hope that is within you.” As we develop relationships with non-Christians and they learn to trust us, they often will become curious about why we behave and believe the way we do. This may not happen quickly, but over a length of time it often happens. Of course, they must see a difference in the way we behave and believe compared to the crowd. “Why do you pray before meals?” “How long have you been so committed to your church?” “I notice you never use profanity, why is that?” These are the kinds of questions that can present opportunities to speak about our faith.

3) From being closed to change to being open to change in their life. The authors note that this is often the most difficult threshold to overcome. Becoming open to change in one’s life is a “heroic, mysterious, deep thing.” We grow comfortable with who we are and fearful of what change may bring. Non-believers at this point may understand how following Jesus will affect every area of their life, which is good, but they may not be ready to accept that yet. They will cross this threshold when they ask themselves, “What am I missing?” and their desire to fill the emptiness outweighs the safety of staying the way they are.

4) From meandering to seeking. This is the point where they “lean into the journey” they are on and decide to purposefully seek definitive answers. They develop an urgency and a purpose about their spirituality. This is often when they start visiting a church regularly. The term “seekers” became popular and almost trite in the 1990’s. Nevertheless, it’s a beautiful thing when people genuinely seek to develop or deepen their relationship with God. In John 12:20-21, some Greeks who come to the Temple to worship during the Passover Festival say to Philip, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” What a privilege for Christians to be able to respond, in effect, “You have come to the right place. We will take you to him through our hospitality, our Christian love, our worship of God, the Table, and the Word.”

5) From the world to the Kingdom.
This is where the seeker takes action in faith and trust. He turns from his old way of life (repentance), joins with Jesus in his death and resurrection (baptism), and begins participating in God’s kingdom mission to the world as he lives with confident expectation of the eternal life God has given him.

I get excited just writing about this! May we never shrink back from joining with God’s Spirit to help people move through the faith thresholds that lead to new life in Christ.

Door A and Door B

2009-02-12T08:34:00.000-08:00

Angela and I attended a Relational Living Skills workshop last week presented by a man named Terry Real, whose work we admire and trust. One of the things he teaches that I think is especially powerful is learning to differentiate between your “1st and 2nd consciousness.” Your 1st consciousness is your “Adaptive Child,” the part that you go to easily and by default, the part of you that has set up coping mechanisms and protective behaviors that keep you from getting hurt or harmed but which hinder relational intimacy. This Adaptive Child chooses protection over connection; it is your knee-jerk response. Your 2nd consciousness is your “Functional Adult,” the part that you have to choose to go to, the part that enables you to act maturely and responsibly with love. Your Functional Adult opens you up to vulnerability but enables you to connect more fully with others; it is your learned response. As Real puts it, “You can choose Door A or Door B. Your first reaction is usually to choose Door A. Learn to choose Door B.”

One of the more interesting and penetrating exercises each participant did was to write a letter to our Adaptive Child, thanking him for protecting us all these years, acknowledging what he has given us, specifying what he has cost us, and then telling him that the Functional Adult is now taking over and he can come along but not in the driver’s seat. As you can imagine, this was an intensely personal and even searing exercise. Each of us had to specify in writing the very concrete ways our Adaptive Child has negatively affected the person we have become. We then were empowered to put our Functioning Adult in charge.

If all this sounds sort of airy-fairy to you, I understand. I find it to be very true to my experience, though, and convincing in its reasoning. I also was struck by the parallels between this philosophy and what we read in Romans 8 about the contrast between flesh and spirit. Listen:

"For God has done what the Law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and to deal with sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit…" (Romans 8:3-6, NRSV).

The Message refers to “the flesh” in v. 4 as “the disordered mess of struggling humanity.” I love that rendering. As any Christian knows, and as Paul freely acknowledges in Romans 7:14-25, we still experience the struggle between flesh and Spirit. We are challenged to live out of the Spirit instead of the flesh. We react in the flesh; we respond in the Spirit. We protect ourselves in the flesh; we connect with others in the Spirit. We sabotage ourselves and our relationships in the flesh; we grow ourselves and deepen our relationships in the Spirit.

It might be a good exercise for Christians to write a letter to their fleshly self and say, “Here is what you cost me. Here are the ways you keep me from flourishing in my relationship with God and others. I am giving control to the Holy Spirit now in every way I can. I am committing to choose Door B every chance I can so I will live in the Spirit."

It’s never a bad time to tell your flesh who’s in charge.

The Dramatic Gesture

2009-02-04T10:57:00.000-08:00

Dean Karnazes shares my birthday: August 23, 1962. The similarities pretty much end there. Karnazes grew up in Los Angeles and began running home from kindergarten so he wouldn’t have to burden his mother with rides every day. By third grade he was organizing running events with other kids. By age eleven he had hiked rim-to-rim across the Grand Canyon and had climbed Mount Whitney, the highest mountain in the contiguous United States. For his 12th birthday, he cycled the 40 miles to his grandparents’ home for fun, without first telling his parents. He became a dedicated and accomplished high school runner. In his mid-40’s now, he is the most well-known ultra-marathoner in the world. He has won the world’s toughest footrace, the Badwater Ultramarathon, running 135 miles across Death Valley in 124 degree temperatures. On seven different occasions he has run a 200-mile relay race… solo. He completed a marathon in Antarctica. He has written a book, Ultramarathon Man, which will be the subject of an upcoming movie, and last year completed fifty marathons in fifty consecutive days. I’ll let that sink in for a moment. Oh, he finished with the New York marathon, which he ran in 3 hours, then jogged … to St. Louis.

Could someone pass me a chocolate cake donut, please? I like the ones with the little peanut sprinkles.

The part of Karnazes’ story that has always intrigued me is what happened when he was thirty years old. You see, he had had a falling out with his high school coach and quit running entirely for fifteen years. He found himself on his thirtieth birthday frustrated, stagnated, out-of-shape, and miserable. His inner spirit was dying like a flower without sun. In the middle of the night he threw on an old pair of lawn-mowing shoes and boxer shorts, rushed out the front door and started running. He stopped thirty miles later. It was an impromptu all-night, soul-searching, purging, clarifying, life-changing outing. He returned home to his family, quit his job, and launched the rest of his life as a health food store owner and adventure athlete.

There is something powerful to me about The Dramatic Gesture. How many people are miserable in their jobs, stuck in their ruts, paralyzed by their patterns? We yearn to break free but fear the risks. We want our spirit to soar instead of sag but we don’t know how to set it free.

Whenever I read the first few chapters of Acts, which I am preaching on this week (4:13-23), I am filled with a sense of abandon and spiritual imagination. What if we lived as boldly as these first followers of Jesus? What if we lived even one-tenth as boldly? What if we just “went out the front door,” as it were, and started running until God told us to stop? Is there a dramatic spiritual gesture that might pull you out of your life of lethargy and shackles of stupor? Perhaps an extended fast, or a trip to a conference, or an ambitious goal to read the Bible, or … something. I’m talking about something so big it scares you to think about trying it but the very fact that it scares you throws you into a reliance upon God and a necessary faith that is in itself exhilarating.

Sometimes it’s either that or have another donut and die a little more inside.

"It's Not Bataan"

2009-01-29T08:34:00.000-08:00

Whenever circumstances get hard for me I try to keep things in perspective by saying, “C’mon, it’s not the Bataan Death March.” I also tell this to my teenage daughters when they complain about some of life’s great hardships like having to walk sixty steps from the car to the mall entrance in the heat of summer.

After the Battle of Bataan in the Philippines in World War II, 76,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war captured by the Japanese were marched 60 miles by foot to prison camps. The cruelty was horrific, as wounded prisoners limped for days through hot sun with no water. Falling down and being unable to continue was tantamount to a death sentence. Merciful death was by knife or gun; unmerciful death was by torture far too graphic to be detailed here. Prisoners who tried to help others were brutally beaten. A friend gave me a book written and personally signed by a Bataan Death March survivor; it is a gripping account of courageous perseverance. Bataan is my hedge against self-pity.

I thought of this as I dug into I Peter 3:13-18 this week to prepare a message about “always being prepared to give a defense for the hope that is within us” (v. 15) as part of my series on the Great Commission. The Christ-followers to whom the apostle Peter writes apparently experienced harassment and (moderate) persecution on a regular basis. The letter is suffused with references like “suffering for doing good” (2:20) and “those who speak maliciously against you” (3:16) and “all kinds of trials” (1:6). Peter, though, says that Christians who are insulted because of the name of Christ are blessed (4:14)! This mirrors Jesus’ own assurances (Matthew 5:10-12).

When I compare the tenor of discipleship in I Peter with our modern, often petty fears about “offending” someone or getting “criticized” if we live out our faith too overtly, the comparison is painful. In short, just as the Bataan Death March serves as a hedge against self-pity for me, the lives of early followers of Jesus serve as a hedge against self-timidity. “C’mon,” I say to myself, “this isn’t Rome under Nero.”

Peter writes something particularly intriguing when he says that “the one who has suffered in his body is done with sin” (4:1). When we are willing to experience hardship and even suffering for our faith, it helps us be more serious about living Christ-like lives. This is a supernatural dynamic at work through the Holy Spirit. To use a modern term, hardship for our faith and growth in our faith are “synergistic.”

It is a good thing to remember as we live out our calling to be witnesses of the Good News who are “always prepared” to respond when asked about our faith. If we live devout Christian lives, people will ask us about them. If people ask us, we then give the reason for our hope and purpose. As we give this reason, people may criticize or mock us. We respond with “meekness and gentleness” (3:16). And we keep walking the walk and talking the talk. This is the way of discipleship. Will you walk in it?

The First Threshold

2009-01-22T13:27:00.000-08:00

I have been preaching on the Great Commission this month and a book I am reading has given me a lot of food for thought. Don Everts and Doug Schaupp are both staff members with Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship working as “missionaries to the college campus.” Their book, “I Once Was Lost: What Postmodern Skeptics Taught Us About Their Path to Jesus,” describes what they have experienced about how people born after (about) 1975 journey towards faith in Christ.

The authors describe ‘postmoderns’ as “more experiential than propositional in their connection to truth, more communal than individualistic, valuing authenticity over theory, and understanding struggle more than naïve certainty.” In the course of their work with college students and their interview of hundreds of 20-something Christians, the authors discovered that while each individual’s path to faith was a unique mystery, their collective paths had surprising similarities. Indeed, Everts and Schaupp identify five “thresholds” which people have to cross in their journey. I am going to write about these five thresholds over the coming weeks because I think they describe MANY peoples’ journey to faith, not just young peoples.’

Threshold #1: From distrust to trust. Somewhere along the line, the person has to learn to trust a Christian. This happens when the Christian does not push an aggressive evangelistic agenda but simply offers his or her friendship unconditionally. To many young people especially, say the authors, “religion is suspect, church is weird, and Christians are hypocrites. Relationships, genuine friendships, are our currency.” The authors note that this is the way of Jesus. “Jesus leaned in toward people, asked them to ‘come and see’ his life, went to their wedding parties. He took on flesh and pitched a tent among people. He incarnated.”

Last summer I approached a guy I had occasional contact with and invited him to have a cup of coffee so I could talk to him about “spiritual things.” He knew I was a preacher and he was clearly wary, but he agreed. We met a few days later and I told him that God had put a burden on my heart for him and I wanted to share my Christian faith with him. He was very perplexed by this (“Why me?”) but agreed that at our next meeting I could walk him through a short Bible study. We spent the rest of that first get-together just talking and getting to know one another.

I took him through that short Bible study and he had lots of questions. He confided that he has always been skeptical about the miracle stories in the Bible. He clearly wasn’t even close to being able to give his life to Christ. I told him that I would not pressure him, would do my best to answer his questions, and was going to be his friend whether he became a Christian or not. He is a fine person and I meant it. I hope I would have meant it even if he were not a fine person.

We have met a couple of times since and we continue to talk through some of his doubts and questions. We also chat about what is going on in our lives (it helps that we are about the same age). When I asked him recently if we could get together again, he said, “I don’t have anything new to share with you.” I told him that’s okay; let’s just get together and catch up. I am learning that the Great Commission is not about making people a “project.” It often starts simply by offering a hand of friendship in Christian love.

Beauty

2009-01-15T12:47:00.000-08:00

Beauty

I have enjoyed teaching the special class on Wednesday nights this month called “Understanding Male Sexuality: A Class for Men and Women.” This past week in the second session, I mentioned a certain conundrum which I will express in three parts: 1) Men are visually oriented and are stimulated and even aroused by provocative images. 2) Many women dress provocatively to be noticed by men. 3) Women want men to respect them as people and not see them as sex objects.

I’m treading on sensitive ground here, so let me say first that men are responsible for our thoughts, actions and words. Period. If a Christian man takes seriously Christ’s call to holiness, he will take the necessary steps to discipline himself. Part of this is to refrain from putting himself in surroundings that tempt him strongly to lower his standards. As Job famously said, “I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a girl” (31:1). Christian men likewise must show this purposefulness.

So I want to look at this from the female perspective, setting aside any obligation women might or might not have to make life less fraught with temptation for men. What leads some women to dress provocatively? (I realize provocative is a relative term depending on culture, customs and tastes). I asked the women in the class this question and I received thoughtful and varied responses. To wit:

* “We don’t do it to help or hinder men – except for a few women with an agenda. Most women want a little attention – just to be noticed enough to be called beautiful, but it seems like it only happens (i.e., compliments) when we “provoke” it with our clothes. I also know that some women just don’t understand how powerful their clothing choice can be!”

* “I think women dress the way they do because they like men to look at them because it makes them feel pretty. They want their man to see other men looking at them.”

* “My personal opinion is there is no explanation that fits just one person. There are some women out there who “dress to kill” and hate men, but they know they can “control” them. There are some women who have no clue. There are some women who try very hard to be ‘proper,’ but media plays an important role in their demise.”

* “Every woman that I know wants to be beautiful. Not trashy, or sexy, or hot, but beautiful. … But look at where the bar has been set (e.g., magazine covers with air-brushed women). What makes it even more disappointing is that when men talk about the physical beauty of a woman, you very rarely hear the praise of a woman who is modestly dressed. We need men who will not only turn away from pornography and verbal praise of the air-brushed & photo-shopped women but also who will speak of realistic beauty, who will stand up and call their wives (real women) beautiful.”

At the risk of making a complex phenomenon too simple, it seems clear to me that men hold the keys to the “solution” (in a micro sense). As fathers, we can love and guide our young daughters so that they are confident in their outer attractiveness as well as their inner beauty and intrinsic worth. As husbands we can express our appreciation for our wives’ beauty and specialness.

Sounds like a no-brainer to me

The Rebirth is Real

2009-01-08T07:49:00.000-08:00

Non sequitur: (literally, “it does not follow”). An inference that does not follow from the premises. For example, “As a Houston Texans fan, I want the Dallas Cowboys to win the Super Bowl” is a non sequitur. So is, “As an atheist, I truly believe Africa needs God.”

But the latter is the title of an editorial in the New York Times by Matthew Parris (12/27/07), who grew up in Africa and recently came to a surprising conclusion about what that continent needs. After traveling there recently as part of a charitable relief program supported by the Times, he confides:

"[This trip] inspired me, renewing my flagging faith in development charities. But traveling in Malawi (where he grew up) refreshed another belief, too, one I’ve been trying to banish all my life, but an observation I’ve been unable to avoid since my African childhood. It confounds my ideological beliefs, stubbornly refuses to fit my world view, and has embarrassed my growing belief that there is no God. Now a confirmed atheist, I’ve become convinced of the enormous contribution that Christian evangelism makes in Africa: sharply distinct from the work of secular NGOs, government projects and international aid efforts. These alone will not do. Education and training alone will not do. In Africa, Christianity changes peoples’ hearts. It brings a spiritual transformation. The rebirth is real. The change is good."

Parris describes how he used to applaud the practical work of mission churches in Africa while pitying that salvation was “part of the package.” He would allow that “if faith was needed to motivate missionaries to help, then, fine: but what counted was the help, not the faith.”

But in his subsequent travels to Africa, Parris has not been able to escape the conclusion that Christian faith does something inside people. Of particular importance in Africa, it liberates people from the “crushing tribal groupthink” and the “whole structure of rural African thought” that “grinds down the individual spirit, stunting curiosity” and results in a kind of defeatist passivity.

"We had friends who were missionaries, and as a child I stayed often with them; I also stayed in a traditional rural African village. In the city we had Africans working for us who had converted and were strong believers. The Christians were always different. Far from having cowed or confined its converts, their faith appeared to have liberated and relaxed them. There was a liveliness, a curiosity, an engagement with the world – a directness in their dealings with others – that seemed to be missing in traditional African life. They stood tall."

Christians sometimes lose confidence that the gospel really is “the power of salvation for everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16); we can even be ashamed of the enormity of its promises. We are tempted to concentrate on more “tangible” kinds of outreach and help. But there is no substitute for the inner transformation that rebirth in Christ brings.

Invigorating

2009-01-01T12:25:00.000-08:00

It is a new year and I must begin by reflecting on the last week of 2008, during which Angela and the girls and I drove to Charlottesville, Virginia for a Soper family reunion that originally had been scheduled for Thanksgiving 2005 in New Orleans but was postponed due to Hurricane Katrina’s bleak aftermath. It takes a lot of planning to get twenty-two people from seven states together over the Christmas holidays, let me tell you. Most people flew in but Angela and I thought it would be a nice family bonding experience to drive twenty-six hundred miles in five days. This was a lovely thought that lasted all the way through Beaumont (outbound).

The highlight of my trip, aside from seeing all the folks, of course, was the afternoon we spent touring Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s beautiful mountain-top estate/plantation. I didn’t know much about Jefferson other than that he was the principle author of the Declaration of Independence, was our third president, during which he masterminded the Louisiana Purchase and financed the Lewis and Clark Expedition, and that he founded the University of Virginia. I will tell you that those accomplishments only begin to testify to his impressive character and giftedness. As President John F. Kennedy put it when he welcomed forty-nine Nobel Prize winners to the White House in 1962, “I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent and of human knowledge that has ever been gathered together at the White House -- with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.”

Jefferson achieved distinction as a political philosopher, statesman, horticulturist, archeologist, and inventor. He began studying Latin, Greek and French at age nine and eventually mastered seven languages. Did I mention he played the violin? He was an inventor of some renown. His house is filled with little contraptions and devices he conjured up and assembled to expedite household routines. His design of both the campus layout and architecture of the University of Virginia continues to draw accolades.

I remember a particular moment of personal inspiration during the tour. We were in Jefferson’s bedroom/study, and on his desk was one of his inventions, a manual copy machine on which, as one writes on a pad of paper, a dual pen in a parallel holder writes the same thing on a different pad. The tour guide was telling us of Jefferson’s legendary work habits; his motto was, “Never let the sun catch you in bed.” The first thing he did every morning was to step outside and check the temperature, which he recorded in a meteorological diary. Then he sat on his bed and placed his feet in a bucket of cold water on the floor for a minute or two. This (evidently) helped him wake up and focus his mind.

Well, that sent me over the edge. I went from dutiful admirer to awe-struck pupil. A bucket of cold water first thing in the morning! I love it! I can’t wait for Angela to try this and tell me how it works.

But seriously, Thomas Jefferson loved life and wanted to absorb and experience every possible molecule of it he could, to the point of wanting to be fully awake as soon as possible every day. And it seems to me that this might be a good thought to carry into a new year: What do I need to do to be more fully awake to God, my life, and people each and every day?

Get a Life

2008-12-18T13:13:00.000-08:00

One of the more popular and (sometimes) funny expressions in our culture in the last twenty years is the dismissive admonition, “Get a life.” This is something you say to someone when they are getting too absorbed in a small thing. As in “Stop reading this essay and get a life.”

In John 1 the scriptures make an audacious declaration: “In him (Jesus) was life, and that life was the light of all people.” (1:4) Jesus goes on in John’s gospel to speak often of this “life” he brings. “I am the bread of life,” he says. “Whoever comes to me will never be hungry.” (6:35) “I came that people may have life, and have it abundantly.” (10:10). “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (14:6). John says near the end of his gospel that, “These things are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, and that through believing you may have life in his name” (20:31). In a certain sense, you could say that Jesus is telling us (not dismissively but powerfully), “Get a life… through Me!”

But what is this life? In the children’s animated movie, Wall-e, the main character is a little robot who is assigned to clean up planet earth while the rest of Earth’s inhabitants have embarked on a 700-year cruise-like vacation aboard a space station. As he interacts with certain features of human civilization (a Rubik’s Cube, an old VHS tape of Hello Dolly, etc.), Wall-e begins to learn about the human way of thinking and, significantly, about love. Meanwhile, as he is trying to learn about what it is to be human, people adrift in the cosmic station have become more like robots, dependent on machines and disconnected from one another and many of their human impulses.

The filmmaker, Andrew Stanton, who also wrote and directed “Finding Nemo,” is a committed Christian. What interested him in the story line was “the idea of the most human thing in the universe being a machine, because it has more interest in finding out what the point of living is than actual people. The greatest commandment Christ gives us is to love, but that’s not always our priority. So I came up with this premise that…irrational love defeats the world’s programming.”

And so Wall-e and another robot, EVE (no subtly there!), work against their own robotic programming to learn how to love. (see “Wall-e: What it Means to be Human”, Chuck Colson, Breakpoint.org, 12/18/08)

I like Stanton’s thinking. In John 1 Jesus is described as “the Word,” which has strong connotations of “reason” and “rationality;” e.g., the One who embodies God’s reason. But verse 14 declares that “the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us.” This indeed is God’s expression of “irrational love to defeat the world’s programming.” Jesus invites us out of our sin-programmed, relationally disconnected, self-absorbed bondage into “abundant life” rooted in the forgiveness of our sins, reconciliation with God, and love for others. It is a life grounded in relationship, the core of what it means to be really human.

I’m not saying we will think about all this while we are opening our gifts, drinking cider, listening to Christmas music, and watching NFL football, as sacred as the latter may be. But it’s one more way of thinking about what Christmas points the world to. So, in the spirit of the season I will say to you, with all good tidings and joy, get a life.

Life's Long and Winding Road

2008-12-11T09:00:00.000-08:00

I talked recently to a man who is in the middle of a painful divorce in which he sees his young son much less frequently than he would like. Moreover, it is clear that his soon-to-be ex-wife does not believe their son needs his father much and bad-mouths dad to the boy. I will tell you as a preacher that one of the most painful aspects of observing divorce is seeing parents (both fathers and mothers) hurt their kids in order to hurt one another. Their frequent selfishness and immaturity is heartbreaking.

One of the things I will tell this man is that life is a long and winding road. Even if he can’t be the daily, physical presence in his son’s life that he wants to be now, he should give his best effort. Redemption sometimes comes far down the road. All we can do is try to live with integrity, make restitution for our wrongs and seek to improve, and then let the various verdicts of peoples’ opinions and judgments run their course. If this man loves his son and is devoted to him, his son will realize that. And if he treats his ex-wife in a godly way, and conducts himself righteously, God will bless that effort.

I thought of this recently upon learning that Chuck Colson, a Christian whose life journey I find very inspiring, was presented with the Presidential Citizens Medal by President Bush. Consider the irony: President Nixon established this medal in 1969, when Colson was his Special Counsel and a widely acknowledged and often despised hatchet man for the administration. Colson eventually went to prison for Watergate-related crimes, but prior to his arrest a friend influenced him to give his life to Christ. His short prison-term impressed on him the shortcomings in prisoner rehabilitation and prompted him to discern God’s call to devote his life to this. He launched Prison Fellowship ministries, which has sought to bring faith-based rehabilitation to prisoners world and effect long-lasting change in how our society “does” imprisonment. Prison Fellowship’s ministries have expanded into numerous other areas of Christian training and witness around the world. The scope of Colson’s life work since his imprisonment is breathtaking.

But he was a hated man before Watergate and a derided one afterwards. His conversion was seen by many as a fraud, a ploy to reduce his court sentence. One writer compared Colson embracing Christianity to W.C. Fields embracing the Temperance Union (i.e., unlikely). Later he was accused of using his ministries to build wealth, even though he has donated all royalties from dozens of books and other efforts, including the $1 million Templeton Prize, to Prison Fellowship.

But recently he stood in the very White House where he was an ethically and spiritually lost soul forty years before and was honored for his noble contributions to this country. At age seventy-seven, he knows what a long and winding road life is.

The apostle Paul writes, “One thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and pressing forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:12-14). We cannot change the past; we can only learn from it, make amends to people when possible, and press on. Some of our biggest failures will present opportunities for powerful redemptive successes. Past enemies can become friends. What seemed hopeless can become a source of great joy. Jesus walks with us on the road.

Conversations

2008-12-04T13:21:00.000-08:00

I am a fretful and flailing pray-er. If there is a method to praying regularly, consistently, fluidly and rewardingly, I have not mastered it. I know that may come as a shock to folks who think a preacher would have earned his “Expert” rating for praying before being turned loose on the church, but there you have it. There’s no class on it in Bible school. I pray as one with a deep and distant hunger to commune with God and draw closer to Him but often without the discipline to follow through. A deep and distant hunger, you see, is not nearly as urgent as a superficial and shallow craving. And so I battle, as we all do, the tension between living “in the thick of thin things” (Stephen Covey) and wanting to be one in whose life “deep calls to deep” (Psalm 42:7).

Last week I compared praying for the Christian with putting for the golfer. Good putting is instrumental for a good golf score, and good praying is instrumental for a deep spiritual core. Neither is glamorous, and since each is difficult each is often left relatively unpracticed. But just as a golfer must eventually learn how to putt well, a Christian who wants to grow spiritually and be more fruitful in the Kingdom should learn how to pray well. Here is what I have learned in my twenty-five year journey.

“Prayer is talking to God about what we are doing together,” as Dallas Willard puts it. Praying is easier for me when I think of it as a conversation God wants to have rather than a monologue I need to give. This doesn’t mean I hear God’s voice audibly, or even inaudibly, when I pray; it means I speak to God in a personal way. Our prayers to God don’t need to be formal, though they certainly may be. We pray to God as our sovereign Lord who is also our loving Father. “Lord, you know how distracted I’m feeling now but I want to talk to you about things that are going on…” This is not a bad way to start a prayer!

I find it helpful to pray through a template, in my case the acronym A.C.T.S. I begin by Acknowleding God as sovereign Lord and spend some time praising him. Then I Confess my sins. Then I give Thanks for the many blessings in my life. And finally I make Supplication (requests) to God. This may not be helpful to everyone, which is fine, but it helps me progress through a prayer. It’s like walking along a path instead of making my own trail. I spend as much time in each of the four areas as I need. This also helps me avoid spending all my prayer time in supplication.

Given my affinity for structure and schedules, I always thought I would forge a habit of praying early in the morning each day. I have not. Sometimes I do, but most of the time I don’t. Rather, I find twenty or thirty minutes during the day when I can retreat to a quiet place and pray. Sometimes I drive to or from the office in silence and pray during this time. I find it helpful to pray aloud softly; this keeps my mind from drifting. I recommend softly speaking your prayers for this reason.

The key, I have found, is to find a method with which you feel comfortable and just pray. Pray, pray, pray. Think of your day as a continual series of opportunities for short or longer conversations with God. Don’t feel constrained to wait for that “one big chunk of time” when you can pray until your bucket is full (or empty, depending on how you look at it). Just talk to God. He wants to be in conversation with you. He cares deeply for you (I Peter 5:6-7).

Lord Teach Me to Putt

2008-11-26T12:09:00.000-08:00

In golf the old saying is, “You drive for show, you putt for dough.” The drive is the glamour shot. You stand on the tee box with your longest and biggest club and you smash it down the fairway. It is the farthest you hit the golf ball with any club. It is glorious (when it goes well). There is a lot of prestige to hitting it far, particularly among men. “Grip it and rip it,” men say. Most of the time we rip it into the trees, but nevertheless…

The fact is, though, that only fifteen of your seventy to one hundred shots in a golf round are with the driver. The club you use most on a golf course is the putter, the smallest, most delicate and unusual club in your bag. Even the best golfers putt over twenty times per round, and most amateurs putt over thirty times. So it stands to reason that the quickest way to improve your game is to work on your putting.

But watch the activity at any driving range and most golfers will spend far more time on the tee smashing drives and working with their other clubs than on the green practicing their putting. Part of the reason for this is the glamour of the drive, and part is the difficulty of the putt. Putting is frustrating. It is very hard to ever feel like you have mastered it. Putting humbles and frightens you. Professional golfers develop the “yips,” in which their hands tremble and twitch when they try to putt, so scared are they of missing makeable putts. Some players dread walking onto the green and having to putt. Amateurs routinely three-putt and sometimes four-putt on a given hole. It’s ugly. And that’s just my game.

A recent article in the Houston Chronicle (“Taking Dread Out of Putting”, Richard Dean, 11/22/08), tells about Rick Wright, a putting instructor who helps people develop their putting skills, which improves both their joy and their score at playing golf. He uses a laser device and other technical aids. He demonstrates how strong putting begins with proper set-up and alignment and includes putter length and ball position. He teaches drills that help practice mechanics and tempo. “If you can do these drills for two or three weeks, the brain starts giving you this feel and this will become second nature,” Wright confidently declares.

When I think of golf as a metaphor of the Christian life, which I do unapologetically, it seems to me that prayer most closely approximates putting. Prayer is not a glamorous activity. Schedule a prayer night at the church and most of the pews will be empty. Many Christians get the “yips” when they try to pray: they can’t bring themselves to start, or focus, or maintain any consistency. It never becomes second nature. Prayer is so mysterious and sacred and intimate that we would rather practice our other spiritual shots. Most Christians I know, including myself many times, will tell you that if they could change one thing about their spiritual life it would be that they prayed better and more often.

“Lord, teach us to pray,” the disciples implore Jesus (Luke 11:1), and he teaches them the Lord’s Prayer. Just as golfers putt for dough, Christians pray for grow. It is the single most important and catalytic spiritual activity we can do to grow closer to God and open ourselves to His transforming work within us and through us. I’ll write about this more next week. In the meantime, let’s commit to practicing our praying. And maybe I’ll see you on the golf course. I’ll be the one praying over my putts.

Shakedown

2008-11-21T07:16:00.000-08:00

I was saddened and a bit disgusted to read this week that eHarmony.com, the phenomenally successful online relationship service, settled a lawsuit brought by a gay man who accused the company of discriminating because its vaunted software only measured heterosexual compatibility. eHarmony agreed to set up an additional service, Compatible Partners, that will be visibly associated with eHarmony and will provide compatibility matching for gays and lesbians.

I was saddened by this news because in the game of chicken that is litigation, by settling before trial the company blinked first and now set a precedent which will be used as a wedge by gay activists to pry open new “rights” (though eHarmony did not admit “fault”). I was disgusted because there is a shakedown going on and I do not like bullying.

Earlier this year I wrote three essays on the import of the California Supreme Court decision to strike down a voter-approved ban on same-sex marriages. I expressed my deep misgivings about this decision and suggested that it would have far-reaching negative social implications. I said that gay activists began by asking society for tolerance, then for acceptance, and now are demanding normalization. I expressed this opinion in the context of my empathy and compassion for gay individuals and the predicament in which they find themselves.

The “shakedown” is in the use of civil-rights language to advance this demand for normalization. When people in California, in response to the Supreme Court’s decision, put together Proposition 8 to permanently amend the state’s constitution to define marriage as man-woman, opponents likened Prop 8 to “hate” and vilified its supporters. If you treat gay people with kindness and dignity and support laws allowing civil unions and its associated protections, but support Prop 8, then you are full of hate, just like whites in the Jim Crow era. See how it works?

Interestingly, black people do not seem to buy into this idea that “gay is the new black.” Seventy-three percent voted in favor of Prop 8, which passed 52-48%. Perhaps blacks are offended by the comparison, which they should be, since no gay people are being forced to sit in the backs of buses or eat at separate restaurants.

But in the aftermath of Prop 8’s passing in California, gay activists in California published on the internet an “Anti-Gay Blacklist” of Prop 8 donors and began recriminations. The artistic director of the California Musical Theatre in Sacramento was forced to resign for his $1000 donation to Prop 8. A Los Angeles restaurant whose manager made a small donation was harassed nightly by groups of protesters. Anti-Prop 8 organizers targeted Mormon, Catholic and evangelical churches for demonstrations and name-calling. All in the name of tolerance, of course.

As the noted columnist Thomas Sowell, a black man, observes, “When the majority of the people become like sheep who will tolerate intolerance rather than make a fuss, then there is no limit to how far any group will go.”

I do not want any of this to sound hateful, but I do not mind if it sounds angry. The Christian faith is personal but not private. We are not politically oriented but we must be socially engaged, “wise as serpents and innocent as doves” (Matthew 10:16). I am not hateful, and I do not like shakedowns.

Two Men

2008-11-15T09:19:00.000-08:00

I was contacted separately in the last two weeks by two men whom I baptized in Los Angeles in the 1990’s. Each is doing very well, which was a joy to hear. They are as different as night and day.

Jeff came to the Culver Palms congregation in his mid-40’s with a history of drug and alcohol addiction, estranged from his highly successful father and family, newly sober and barely hanging on. He managed to stick to the worshiping life of the church long enough to be discipled and was eagerly baptized in 1998. He remained sober and stayed connected to the church, working odd jobs and scraping together a living, but left after a few years to move north in search of better work. I was sad to see him go.

Bob came to church in his early 30’s with a lady he was dating who was a member. I was struck by how accomplished, confident and friendly he was. At a Singles group barbecue at my house, when everybody else brought a hamburger patty for the grill, he brought a steak. (Can you believe I still remember that?) But that’s Bob; he has a little Pierce Brosnan in him. He immediately showed a strong hunger for the Christian faith and life and in the Bible studies we had together was very receptive. Within weeks of his baptism I was calling on him to lead prayers or read scripture in the worship assembly. But he was commuting a long way, and when the dating relationship ended he decided to find a church closer to home. I was sad to see him go.

Jeff called me two weeks ago and left a voice mail message out of the blue. He just wanted me to know he was doing great, the best he’d ever felt, and was reflecting on his ten years as a Christ-follower. I was deeply touched. When we finally talked on the phone I found out that he has been working as a self-employed contractor in the central coast area, is still clean and sober, and has grown deeply in his faith. He will always be an independent, non-conformist, free spirited guy not fully at home in a mainstream church. He is happy and hopeful in his life and committed to his walk with Christ.

Bob is one of those guys who radiates confidence and competence. He left his large company a decade ago to launch a new venture with two partners. Recently he left that company to strike out on his own. He has kept me on his email list so I hear about his moves that way; when I respond electronically we share a little family news and wish each other well. He is at the top of his game, running his own firm, happily married, and very involved in his church.

Jeff and Bob are each faithful followers of Jesus. This is one of the great things about being a preacher, seeing all types of people respond to the love of Christ. Bob is part of a megachurch in his upscale area. Jeff worships in a more charismatic church with a strong recovery emphasis. Two very different churches. Two very different men. Same Lord.

“All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God’s grace in all its truth. (Ephesians 1:6)

It is a beautiful thing.

My Good Will

2008-11-12T05:55:00.000-08:00

It is hard to write about anything this week other than the elections, so I hope you will excuse me for mixing politics-and-religion.

The candidate I supported for president did not win, but I found myself genuinely moved the next morning by the jubilation among black Americans in response to Barack Obama’s victory. This is a legitimate historical milestone in that regard for our country and a welcome one of which I am proud.

I like the way one conservative radio talk-show host put it on Wednesday (I’m paraphrasing): “My candidate did not win but I am not despondent. The American people have voted and I accept it. I love this country and I now have a new president. I will support him when I can and oppose him honorably when I must. But he is my president and he deserves my respect and good will.”

Of course, if your candidate did win and you feel elated, you have my congratulations and my good will as well.

The apostle Paul instructs Christians in I Timothy 2:1-3: “I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone – for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.” Christians count our citizenship to be in heaven (Philippians 3:20), but that does not relieve us of the responsibility and the privilege of serving and striving to help our country thrive. In Jeremiah 29, God tells the Israelites in exile in Babylon to “Seek the peace and prosperity of the city into which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, for if it prospers, you too will prosper” (29:7). We are aliens and exiles away from our heavenly home (I Peter 2:11), AND we seek the peace and prosperity of our country. Patriotism (love for and devotion to one’s country) is a good and godly thing as long as it does not devolve into jingoism (extreme nationalism) or xenophobia (fear or hatred of foreigners).

I was thinking about President Bush and wondering why two-term American presidents of the last 65 years have had such tough second terms: Truman had the frustrating stalemate of the Korean War, Nixon the Watergate debacle, Reagan the Iran/Contra controversy, Clinton the Whitewater/Lewinsky embarrassment, and now Bush the protracted wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as the economic implosion in his 11th hour. It is a classic Catch-22: you can make a much more significant historical impact if you serve two terms, but you run the increased risk of a scandal or impasse that overshadows the impact you make.

This is why it takes some historical distance to fairly assess a presidency. Harry Truman left office with a low approval rating, but is now regarded with respect and affection. Indeed, he attained the third highest approval rating (since such ratings began in 1937) -- 65% after WWII -- in office and the second lowest -- 22% during the Korean War. George W. Bush has earned both the highest approval rating -- 92% after the terrorist attacks on 9/11/01-- and the lowest-- 19% both during the Iraqi insurgency in early 2008 and after a bad economic week last month.

The U.S. Presidency is a tremendously demanding job. For this and many other reasons, American presidents deserve our respect, good will, accountability, fair-minded support or opposition, and prayers. Barack Obama will get all these from me.
(11/9/08).

The Twin Challenges

2008-11-12T05:52:00.000-08:00

James Michener’s book, The Source, is a historical novel surveying the history of the Jewish people and the land of Israel. Chapter 7 is particularly gripping. It chronicles five years in the second century B.C., when Palestine is ruled by the Syrian emperor Antiochus IV.

In 171 B.C. Antiochus decrees that all citizens must acknowledge that the god Zeus has come to earth in the person of … Antiochus! (He thereby is referred to as Antiochus Epiphanes, “God-made-manifest”). The government assures Jewish residents that those who prefer to worship in their synagogue are not affected by this law, “for our great emperor has no wish to offend any man so long as his deity is acknowledged.”

In 170 the government announces a law requiring all citizens to present themselves four times a year to pay formal homage to Antiochus Epiphanes. The four days happen to fall on the Jewish Sabbath. When Jews protest, the government decides that Greeks will pay homage during the daylight hours and Jews in the evening after their Sabbath has ended.

In 169 the government announces that “in order to halt the perpetuation of differences among the peoples of this great empire, Antiochus Epiphanes has decided that Jews shall no longer circumcise their male children.” Many Jews protest vigorously, but some say that the Greek view of the human body as a temple that is not to be desecrated should be respected. Thus the Jews cannot unite in protest. Many devout Jews continue circumcising their sons on the eighth day as their religion commands, but many others acquiesce to the new law.

In 168 the government announces that the worship of Antiochus Epiphanes henceforth should be the one and official religion of all the people. “But after a man has paid proper homage to Antiochus he shall be free to worship his old gods as his second and private religion.” The quarterly offering at the temple, however, must now be a pig.

In 167 the government announces that thereafter any Jew who refuses to accept Antiochus Epiphanes as the sole god, supplanting all others, including the god Yahweh, and any Jew who persists in following the law of Moses, and/or circumcises his son, or refuses to offer a swine as sacrifice, shall be scourged, have his skin torn off while still alive, be chopped to pieces and his body fed to the dogs. This is the final straw that leads to a bloody Jewish rebellion (known as the Maccabean Revolt) which drives the Syrians out of the land over the next twenty-five years.

Religious people throughout history have been challenged in two particular directions: to resist assimilating further into the competing values of the surrounding culture, and to resist governmental restrictions on their religious practices. The temptation to avoid resisting is so strong because seldom do these challenges come in strong doses; assimilation and acquiescence occur inch by inch, small compromise by small compromise. American Christians face these twin challenges continually. Michener’s fictionalized but historically based depiction of the Jews’ predicament in second century Palestine under Syrian rule and amidst Greek culture is particularly instructive both for individual Christians in our repeated temptations to compromise our faith convictions, and for the church in the face of an ever-growing and increasingly intrusive government.
(11/2/08).

Security

2008-11-12T05:49:00.000-08:00

Last week on my vacation Angela and I spent a few days in New Orleans where she attended a conference and we visited with my father and stepmother. With plenty of time on my hands during the day, I walked the short distance to the Garden District Book Store and enjoyed browsing the many selections. I never know what will grab my attention when I step into a bookstore; this time I found myself purchasing a book on meditation (Finding the Still Point by John Loori). Over the past week I have spent about fifteen minutes each morning practicing meditative stillness consisting of patterned breathing and attentive posture. The purpose of meditation is to empty and still yourself for the purpose of being fully aware of the present and, for Christians, to listen for the Spirit of God.

To this end, each morning I have chosen one word to meditate on and help to open my heart and mind, words like hope, love, and confidence (This doesn’t follow the book’s recommendations, which are strictly for Zen meditation, but I’m improvising). And so I have repeated to myself phrases like “I have hope in God. I have hope for my wife and children. I am filled with hope for the future. I live with hope through Jesus.” And so on with whatever word I have chosen for that day.

I don’t plan which word I am going to meditate on. When I sit down and start breathing I just use the first non-sports or food related word that comes to mind (which, ahem, can take a few minutes). This morning the word was “security.” I meditated on security and repeated phrases like “I am secure in God.” I am secure in my family’s love.” I have security in Christ.” “I am secure through life’s turmoil,” etc.

I don’t think it was random that the idea of security was on the forefront of my mind. In Houston last month we experienced the insecurity brought on by Hurricane Ike. This month we are all experiencing the insecurity brought on by the financial crisis. Early next month we face a presidential election which by its sheer magnitude and importance probably arouses some feelings of insecurity. All of this forces Christians to consider in what and whom we will find our security. Listen, none of the above is insignificant or trivial; the hurricane, financial collapse, and election SHOULD be taking up much of our attention! But attention is not the same as anxiety. And therein lies our challenge.

To decide “I will do my best to deal with such and such while resting secure in the hope I have through Jesus Christ” is a biblical and faithful sentiment. The Bible doesn’t tell us to stick our heads in the sand or be blasé about circumstances and conditions. Rather, the scriptures instruct us to remember who is ultimately in control and what is of ultimate importance.

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6-7). This is a tremendously powerful and liberating truth!

It’s worth meditating on. With or without the patterned breathing.
(10/26/08).

The Warm Air Felt Stuffy

2008-11-12T05:48:00.000-08:00

I recently began reading Gary Haugen’s book, “Just Courage: God’s Great Expedition for the Restless Christian.” Haugen is president and C.E.O. of International Justice Mission, a human rights agency that secures justice for victims of slavery, sexual exploitation, and other forms of violent oppression (see ijm.org). It is a tremendously impressive and inspiring organization whose mission is founded on the Christian call to justice articulated in the Bible (Isaiah 1:17): Seek justice, protect the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.

In his book, Haugen relates that IJM’s mission is so overwhelming, and the forces arrayed against it so powerful and prevalent, that he and his co-workers are continually reminded of the improbability of their success without God. “God has called us into a battle with violence and aggressive evil that, every day, my colleagues and I know we cannot win without the specific intervention of God. … And we have found him to be real -- and his hand to be true and strong -- in a way we would never have experienced strapped into our own safety harness.”

Ah, the safety harness. Haugen urges Christians to find a passionate pursuit in service to God that takes us out of our safety and comfort. He tells the story of the time he, his father and his two older brothers were preparing to hike partway up Mount Rainier outside Seattle. Haugen balked. The strenuousness of the impending climb scared and unnerved him. He persuaded his father to let him spend the afternoon in the visitor center.

“The visitor’s center was warm and comfortable, with lots of interesting things to watch and read. I devoured the information and explored every corner, and judging by the crowd, it was clearly the place to be. As the afternoon stretched on, however, the massive visitor’s center started to feel awfully small. The warm air felt stuffy, and the stuffed wild animals started to seem just – dead. The inspiring loop videos about extraordinary people who climbed the mountain weren’t as interesting the sixth and seventh times, and they made me wish I could be one of those actually climbing the mountain instead of reading about it. I felt bored, sleepy and small – and I missed my dad. I was totally stuck. Totally safe -- but totally stuck.

“After the longest afternoon of my ten-year old life, Dad and my brothers returned flushed with their triumph. Their faces were red from the cold and their eyes clear with delight. They were wet from the snow, famished, dehydrated and nursing scrapes from the rocks and ice, but on the long drive home they had something else. My brothers had stories and an unforgettable day with their dad on a great mountain.”

Many Christians are in the visitor’s center. We watch the video loops of the heroic exploits of the people of old. We feel a vague, or maybe even a profound, sense of restlessness. The air inside is stuffy and still. But the mountains are steep and the air cold. What to do?

Friends, step out the door and start walking in the direction your heart points. Don’t worry about how far you will climb. Just start climbing. Aren’t you tired of looking at stuffed animals? How much hot chocolate do you need? The mountains beckon.

This is what WHCC’s Faith Challenge 2013 is about. (10/5/08)

The Glasses

2008-11-12T05:44:00.000-08:00

This morning for our devotional, the staff and I watched a You Tube video called “Get Service,” a four-minute clip produced by Fellowship Bible Church in Little Rock, Arkansas for one of their worship services, I would imagine. We all felt it was a moving and thoughtful reminder of the way in which our attitude determines how we see people, and I want to expound on its message further.

But first, you know it is the 21st century when a ministry staff watches a You Tube video for their devotional together. It would be scary if it weren’t so much fun.

The clip depicts a thirty-something man leaving for work one morning in his car. He has to stop suddenly to avoid a bike-riding boy in his neighborhood. Traffic is backed up at a big intersection and his commute is delayed. A lady scoots her car in front of his to take the last parking spot in front of the coffee shop. The coffee shop line of customers is long. The service is excruciatingly slow, meaning it takes him a whole four minutes to reach the counter. He gets increasingly exasperated at each of these occurrences and mutters angrily under his breath at all these inconsiderate people who deter the smooth progress of his day.

At this point a mystery man appears in front of him and gives him a pair of special glasses. These glasses allow him to see the inner predicament of each person he looks at. The boy on the bike is lonely and needs someone to care. The lady next to him at the coffee shop avoids relationships for fear of pain. The coffee barista is fighting an addiction. The mother with small children works two jobs to provide for them alone. The teenager leaning against an awning ran away from home three days before. The woman talking on her cell phone is grieving the loss of her best friend. The businessman with his small son just lost his job. The lady who took his parking spot, well, she’s just obnoxious.

The man is sobered and humbled by how self-absorbed and oblivious he has been, viewing people as objects instead of fellow pilgrims on the often-difficult and painful journey of life. The name of Jesus is never mentioned but the mystery man who gives him the glasses is the Christ-figure who says, in effect, “Spend a little time seeing people the way I do.”

Henry Thoreau famously said that, “Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.” In my better moments as a friend of Jesus, I try to remember that most people have a bit of quiet desperation in their lives and could use a helping of kindness. Can anyone get too much kindness? Jesus tells us that the way we treat the least of people is a measure of our faith and devotion to him. But wait! He goes even further, saying that the way we treat “the least of these brothers of mine” (the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the sick) is in some way the way we have treated him (Matthew 25:31-46). To put this positively, the way we treat people can be an offering of worship, a consecration of faith, a service to Christ, while at the same time manifesting the love of Christ from us to others. Friends, this stuff is powerful.

People look beautiful wearing these glasses.

Wake Up

2008-09-11T09:00:00.000-07:00

This week I am starting a message series called “The Jesus I Want to Know,” focusing on the person of Jesus and drawing from passages in Luke’s gospel. For this reason our WHCC daily Bible readings come from Luke/Acts for the next five weeks. Recently as I did my devotional reading I prayed that God would raise a scripture out of the text on which to focus. I follow a method of devotional reading that uses the acronym S.O.A.P. (Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer) which lends itself to honing in on one passage or verse. The reading for the day was Luke 8-9, and this is the scripture that captured my attention: “Peter and his companions were very sleepy, but when they became fully awake, they saw his glory…” (9:32, TNIV).

In this passage Jesus has taken James, John and Peter up onto a mountain to pray. While Jesus is praying he is transfigured. Luke tells us that “the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning” (v. 29). Then Moses and Elijah appear, also in glorious splendor, and talk to Jesus about his impending Passion. This other-worldly spectacle evidently snaps the three disciples to attention. Peter makes an excited suggestion that they all stay up on the mountain permanently! Luke, like an exasperated big brother, tells us “Peter did not know what he was saying” (v. 33).

I find Luke’s description poignant (Matthew and Mark’s accounts do not mention sleepiness). A spiritual director with whom I spoke last year told me that for most of his adult life he had been spiritually “sleepwalking” (his words). Finally, through a fortuitous set of life events, he “woke up” to God. It seems to me that one of the things God wants to help us do through Jesus is to wake up. Wake up to his love for us. Wake up to his presence in our lives. Wake up to his purpose for us.

God wants us to experience the security of living in his love and consequently the adventure of living, even amidst life’s pain and pathos. Indeed, it is often in the crucible of pain that we experience the “wake up” call to God and the wonders of life. With luck, it doesn’t come too late in life.

“You fool!” God says to the man in Luke 12:18-21, who has run out of space to store his good crops, and having so little imagination, considers only how he can build bigger barns in order to relax and take life easy. “This very day your life will be demanded of you.” The man is on remote control. He is anesthetized. His senses are dead. He is shuffling through his life with no greater aim than to be able to sit on his behind and take it easy.

The early church father and apologist, Irenaeus, memorably declared that “The glory of God is man fully alive.” Alive and awake to joy and despair, gain and loss, reward and penalty, pleasure and pain, loyalty and betrayal, love and hate, satisfaction and regret. It’s all part of the tapestry of the fully awake life that God wants to walk with us through (Psalm 23).

That’s not what most biblical commentators will tell you Luke 9:23 is about, and they are right. But that’s what the scripture put on my heart for that day, and by God’s grace, for every day.

How about you, are you awake? … Hello?

Hand to the Plow

2008-09-04T09:01:00.000-07:00

This week at West Houston we are unveiling a five-year strategic vision called Faith Challenge 2013 that will call us to new levels of commitment, service, and faith imagination. Our elders are united in their strong conviction that WHCC is ready for a fresh call to God’s kingdom work, for new challenges and a renewed focus. We are a fine church and we are making a reasonable impact in our area. But we serve a great God, follow a mighty Lord, and walk in the conviction of a Holy Spirit who “by the power at work within us is able to do abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine” (Ephesians 3:20). “Fine” and “reasonable” are not satisfactory.

Why a “strategic” vision? Because this is a strategy for living out our identity as the Body of Christ at West Houston, striving to join God in his kingdom work in a powerful way by “preaching good news to the poor, proclaiming freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, releasing the oppressed, and proclaiming the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:18-19).

Why a “vision”? Because we do not have every detail mapped out. This is a vision, not a plan. We are going to consecrate ourselves for the next thirty days in prayer, fasting and spiritual reflection to seek God’s leading in how to develop specific plans to fulfill this vision.

Why five years? Because the vision is too large and bold to view it in a one or two-year time frame. At the same time, it is too URGENT to cast it beyond five years. This is not a “someday, Lord willing” vision. This is about what we can do, become and experience in the next five years as we step out in faith to attempt great things with and for God. The clock starts ticking this week.

Over the course of five years, God will certainly lead us to refine some points of the vision, redirect others, perhaps even jettison one (or perhaps not!), and possibly adopt additional plans or initiatives. The strategic vision is not in charge, God is. We serve a living Lord, not a vision. But as we have labored, prayed, reflected, discussed, and dreamed to develop this vision, the elders, vision task force and I are completely confident that the Holy Spirit has led us to this point. This strategic vision is very different (but much better) than what I had in mind when we began! I am filled with a sense of wonder at what it means to submit to God’s leading in partnership with a group of dedicated servants who all want the best for the church. It has been a wonderful experience to be a part of formulating this strategic vision, but I am confident that it pales in comparison to what the experience will be like to live it out with the Christ-followers at West Houston!

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let’s be done with low living, sight walking, small planning, smooth knees, colorless dreams, tamed visions, mundane talking, cheap living, and dwarfed goals. Are you ready to put your hand to the plow and not look back (Luke 9:62)? The fields are ripe for the harvest and the Lord calls his people into the fields with plows in hand. There is a place for everyone in our field, working side by side, sweating together and singing together and helping God bring in his harvest.

"Old Man Can't" Just Died

2008-08-28T11:53:00.000-07:00

I have been reading a book which I gave to my father for his 80th birthday, Clarence Thomas’ “My Grandfather’s Son.” My father liked it so much that he mailed it back to me to read so we could talk about it. Thomas was nominated and confirmed as an associate justice to the Supreme Court in 1991, the culmination of an extraordinary journey from hard-scrabble roots in rural Georgia. His father left the family when he was two, and his mother gave him and his brother to her father to raise when he was seven. Thomas’ grandfather, Myers Anderson, whom Thomas lovingly and respectfully refers to as “Daddy,” was a tough, proud, self-reliant, no-nonsense, hard-working black man with a 3rd grade education who ran his own fuel oil business and did other work on the side to provide for his family and live as independently as possible during the racist Jim Crow era of the Deep South.

Thomas tells how, upon moving in with Daddy, he and his brother were told “the party is over.” Thomas couldn’t figure out which party Daddy was referring to, since he had been living in poverty and virtual squalor with his mother. But Daddy was referring to the kind of aimless living that included skipping school, wandering the neighborhood, and playing in the dirt streets. The new routine would include rising before dawn, helping deliver fuel oil, doing chores, going to school, doing more chores after school, playing a little outside, and then working on homework until bedtime. “Never let the sun catch you in bed,” Daddy said. And never give excuses. “ ‘Old Man Can’t’ just died, and I killed him,” Daddy would say. Don’t tell me why you can’t do something; figure out a way to do it. This is a great country. Never think of yourself as a victim. Stand up for your values. Daddy sent Thomas to private religious schools to give him the best education possible in that area. Later, when Thomas helped his grandparents with some tax accounting, he couldn’t believe they never made more than $7,000 a year and still managed to fund his private education.

As you might imagine, Thomas eventually rebelled against this kind of upbringing. He went off to college, “broadened his mind” and determined that Daddy was hopelessly naïve about the state of the world. They butted heads continuously. When he had moved in, Daddy told him, “The door swings both ways.” Eventually the door swung outwards when Daddy kicked him out. But over the course of the next twenty years Thomas came to a renewed appreciation and respect for his grandfather’s character and convictions, and the Supreme Court justice whose circles include the Best, Brightest and Most Accomplished People in the world will tell you that Daddy was the greatest man he has ever known.

Labor Day was created as a tribute to the contributions workers have made to the prosperity and well-being of our country. Thomas’ tribute to his grandfather is, among other things, a grateful tribute to the work ethic Daddy modeled and instilled in him and to the salutary effects of good, honest hard work. Work is biblical: God created us to “till and keep” the garden and to have dominion over the earth (Genesis 2:15).

As we rest from our labor this weekend may we appreciate anew the blessing of work. Sun up or sun down.

Magnetic Moments

2008-08-13T06:22:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday was a bonanza day for me as a sports fan. On Sunday afternoon I watched the final round of the PGA, one of the four “Majors” in professional golf. Padraig Harrington (Ireland), Sergio Garcia (Spain) and Ben Curtis (United States) battled through the final nine holes in the equivalent of a three-horse stretch run. It was captivating to watch hole after hole and wonder who would falter and who would reach deep down and find that extra bit of brilliance to make the great shot and surge ahead. Garcia faltered, Curtis stayed steady but couldn’t surge, and Harrington, the unassuming but steely-eyed Irishman with the blue-collar work ethic, made one clutch shot after another to win by a length. It was inspiring on a number of levels, not least of which was because he won the last major, the British Open, and one couldn’t help but wonder if here is finally the man to step up and challenge Tiger Woods. Every great player needs a rival to bring out his true best: Nicklaus had Palmer, Borg had McEnroe, Affirmed had Alydar, the city of Houston has Dallas. Tiger needs someone to stay with him down the stretch.

One particularly intriguing thing about the competition was not knowing who would find that extra something that sets apart the great from the good. On Sunday evening that person was Jason Lezak, the 32-year old, third-time-Olympian anchor of the U.S. Men’s 4 x 100m freestyle relay team. The French team was favored and had talked of how they would “smash” the Americans. Oh, please. But even Rowdy Gaines, the American swimming commentator and former Olympian, said before the race, “I’ve put this down on paper a million times and I just can’t see how the Americans win it.”

The race proceeded according to predictions until the final leg, when the French world record holder for the distance, Alain Bernard, hit the pool almost a body length ahead and held the lead through the first turn. Even with only 25 meters to go he had a relatively significant edge of several feet. But somehow, showing incredible grit and tenacity, Lezak caught him and won by an inch (8/100 of a second). Afterward, Lezak recalled thinking when he dove in, “This guy is pretty far ahead, almost a body length. I’m not going to give up. This is doable.” The swimming venue exploded at the race’s finish; no one could believe what had just happened. It was truly one of the most dramatic sporting events anyone had seen. Lezak had swum the fastest relay leg in history, and the American team had, ahem, smashed the world record as well as the French team’s psyche, who to their credit, once the shock wore off, were gracious in defeat.

I had to cheer quietly because my lovely bride was asleep beside me; we watched the tape the next morning. Later that day West Houston’s staff watched it on You Tube. It was simply one of those magnetic moments that makes you feel the exhilaration of witnessing surpassing excellence, courage and commitment.

“I’m not going to give up. This is doable.” Do you have a dream that requires that kind of determination and grit? We all need challenges to bring out our best.

Knowing Papa

2008-08-06T14:30:00.000-07:00

A few months ago, after I finished teaching a Wednesday night class at West Houston and turned to chat with some folks, someone slipped a copy of William P. Young’s surprising best-seller novel, “The Shack,” on my lectern and walked away unrecognized. This was a sweet and thoughtful gesture and I want to thank whoever did it!

Young wrote “The Shack” for his six children as a Christmas present. No publisher was interested, so two friends helped him self-publish it and established a promotional budget of $300. The rest is history: “The Shack” recently sold its millionth copy, has been on numerous best-seller lists, and is the basis for a planned movie.

The story is indeed captivating. A man named Mackenzie (“Mack”) Phillips experiences a terrible tragedy in his family and begins a period of his life in which “the great sadness” envelops him. Married and with children, he yet lives in a blanket of spiritual and emotional numbnesss. One day he receives a note from God (“Papa”) inviting him to return to the remote shack in eastern Oregon where the tragedy took place. He spends a weekend there in conversation with God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit, each manifested in surprisingly human ways.

Young refers to his story as a “parable,” and has said that the book’s title is a metaphor for “the house you build out of your own pain.” His character, Mack, is “basically autobiographical.” Indeed, he wrote the book at his wife’s prodding to explain to their six children his decade long journey of healing with God. Young spent the first six years of his life in New Guinea among the Dani, a technologically stone-age people to whom his parents were missionaries. By the time he was sent off to boarding school at age six, he was in most respects a white Dani. His parents returned to the West a few years later and he spent his childhood moving around Canada as his father ministered in small churches. Young never identifies (in his interviews, to my knowledge) the source of his own wounds but clearly the church played a significant negative role.

I was not mesmerized by “The Shack” as many others have been, but I found it to be a tender and thoughtful story of visiting and talking with a God (in three persons -- Father, Son, Spirit) who loves his children, feels their pain, and walks with them through their tragedies even as he (often) allows these tragedies to happen. This novel reminded me in a refreshing, inspiring and powerful way that the Christian faith is based in a RELATIONSHIP, and if we lose our experience of that relationship, the Christian life can be dry and routine. And while it certainly is not a theological treatise, the Shack gives some pretty good “answers” from “Papa” to Mack about why he allows the world to stumble along as it does, so filled with pain and pathos.

I am reminded of an old story in which an old and a young minister preach sermons on the Shepherd’s Psalm (Psalm 23) on successive Sundays at the same congregation. Afterwards, a wise older member sums up the difference: the young preacher knows the psalm, the old preacher knows the Shepherd. Reading the Shack will make you want to better know the Shepherd, the one whom Jesus calls “Abba,” or “Papa.” And that’s always a good thing.

Happy Cortex

2008-07-31T08:37:00.000-07:00

When Keith Taylor was in graduate school, he held down teaching jobs at two different colleges and worked at a movie theater. When the timing belt broke on his Ford Escort, he was forced to skip his rent for a month. His boss heard he was on the verge of eviction and handed him a $525 check made out to the landlord. “Over a car repair I was almost homeless,” Taylor recalls. “The point is that a small amount of money can make a big difference in people’s lives.” (“Saving Lives, One Rent Check at a Time,” Forbes, August 11, 2008).

Taylor remembered that lesson. He launched a small website offering to help people out with a portion of his $33,000 salary. He waded through his e-mail inbox and sent checks to people with one-time needs. He helped a man who needed $65 to cover his monthly auto insurance, and a woman who needed help paying for her son’s glasses.

Taylor eventually opened up his website to anyone wanting to help strangers with short-term money problems, and the web not-for-profit ModestNeeds.org was born. Here is how it works: People needing assistance send applications to the website (Taylor has a small staff, funded by a philanthropic organization). About 20% win final approval and are posted. Visitors to the site scroll through the requests and either fund one completely, contribute to it, or apply their donation toward the general grant fund. Modest Needs funded 1,582 people in 2007 and gave away $884,990 in grants. The average grant was only $560 – to help someone with a month’s rent or a doctor’s bill or a car repair or job-hunting expenses. Only a small percentage of Modest Needs donors pick specific recipients; most opt to let the organization pick for them. But almost all donors select preferred categories of recipients such as single parents, military families and victims of domestic violence. For instance, you can help a specific single mother buy new tires for her used car or you can donate to the general fund for all requests by single mothers.

When I read articles like this I want to stand up and cheer. I love the spirit of charitable entrepreneurialism. As the Nobel Laureate economist Milton Friedman once noted, in responding to the criticism that capitalism influences people to act in their own best interests (which indeed it does – it is based on that!); “Yes, and Americans found it to be in their own best interests to donate over $10 billion in private relief funds to Hurricane Katrina victims.” Most people want to act nobly and give and serve. It is how God wired us. One professor who studies philanthropy refers to “the happy part” of the brain’s cerebral cortex, which is activated when we give to people in need and to good causes, whether financially or with our time and labor. Isn’t it significant that seven out of every ten recipients of Modest Needs grants log back into the site as donors.

Modest Needs is one of a new crop of web not-for-profits that puts a face on charity and gives donors the satisfaction of knowing they are fixing problems and helping people directly. It is a powerful social phenomenon. This is the way the church needs to think – creatively and dynamically and entrepreneurially. We are a sleeping giant in many respects. Christians have enormous good will, ample resources, and our Lord’s commission. Each of us has it within himself to impact specific peoples’ lives and thereby (often) animate them to do the same. This is Kingdom living!

Shocked to Realize

2008-07-24T07:11:00.000-07:00

Donna Freitas is a religion professor at Boston University whose latest book, “Sex and the Soul,” reveals what she found when she studied sexuality among college students. The book idea emerged from a class she taught on “Dating and Friendships” at St. Michael’s College. She was surprised how many students wanted to get into the class. Freitas recalls,

“They were dying to have a conversation about spirituality and religion in relation to their dating lives. I saw in them a yearning to critique hookup culture (casual sexual encounters unencumbered by the burden of love and commitment) with spirituality and religion, even if they were unsure of what that meant. There was also a turning point during my class when my students came back from spring break. One student admitted out loud that she was participating in it but that it didn’t make her happy. Suddenly the whole class shifted: they were all shocked to realize that they were all unhappy; they were acting a certain way because they felt like that’s what they were supposed to do. I was interested in that dissonance between what they thought everyone wanted to do versus what they really wanted for themselves” (“Zipping It”; Christianity Today; August 2008).

There are so many things to write about regarding this fascinating interview that I will simply encourage you to read it at ChristianityToday.com (even better, subscribe). Freitas, a self-described “feminist and liberal,” is no mouthpiece for conservative Christians, which makes her findings more credible in my opinion.

Here is what I want to touch on this week, embodied in her comment that students “were acting a certain way because they felt like that’s what they were supposed to do.” Friends, there is a reason the Bible describes people as sheep; we tend to be followers and follow convention. I was struck by this realization as a young Christian at age twenty-two at a fraternity brother’s bachelor party. The groom and four other groomsmen retired to one of our hotel rooms to watch X-rated movies. I declined and went to my room to watch NCAA football. They all trudged off to have their manly time looking decidedly unenthusiastic. Two of them told me the next day they really would have preferred to watch football but were nervous about saying so!

When I was a college student before my baptism at age twenty in 1983, the campus hook-up culture hadn’t really begun but the campus drinking culture was in full swing. I was no tee-totaler, but I soon found the partying rather uninspiring. However, I didn’t know of other choices (and admittedly didn’t search very hard for them). I thought this was what I was “supposed” to do, ironically enough.

How many non-religious people do you think there are who appear to be fixed in their secular outlook and lifestyle but really are unhappy and bored within? Do they know that Jesus invites them into a life of purpose and service, of nobility and character, into a life beyond sitting glazed in front of the tube and drinking with friends and accumulating more stuff and wearing the right clothing labels and recreating themselves into exhaustion? Heck, do most church folks know that Jesus invites us beyond this?

The Prize

2008-07-17T09:58:00.000-07:00

In 2007 Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change won the Nobel Peace Prize. The runner-up was a lady named Irena Sendler, who died on May 10, 2008. I want to tell you her story.

Sendler was a social worker in Warsaw, Poland when the Germans occupied it in 1939 and herded Jewish citizens into the infamous Warsaw Ghetto (they were later transported to concentration camps). She went in and out of the Ghetto several times a day under the guise of providing humanitarian aid, persuading Jewish parents to entrust their children to her. After smuggling the children out, she found Polish families to “adopt” them until the end of the war, or entrusted them to the protection of Catholic convents. She and her underground movement provided new names and identities to the Jewish children and only she knew their whereabouts. She was ingenious in finding ways to smuggle the children out of the Ghetto, using city sewers, underground tunnels and other routes, hiding them in boxes and suitcases. She even trained a dog to bark in the back of the car so it would stifle the cries of a scared child when they passed through a German checkpoint. Ever wary of German spies and surveillance, she wrote the names of the children, their aliases, and their adopting family on cigarette papers, and buried the papers in jars in her garden.

Eventually the German Gestapo caught her, severely tortured her, and sentenced her to death. Her humanitarian organization saved her by bribing the guards transporting her to her execution. The guards left her in the woods, unconscious and with broken arms and legs, telling superiors they had shot her. She was listed on public bulletin boards as among those who had been executed, so for the remainder of the war she lived in hiding, daring not even to attend her mother’s funeral. She continued her work for the Jewish children, able to walk only with crutches. After the war, she dug up the jars and attempted to find the children and return them to their parents; most of the parents had died at the Treblinka extermination camp. She was, however, able to return almost all of the children to extended family members.

Sendler’s story circulated after the war. In 1965 she was recognized by Israel’s Yad Vashem as a Righteous Among the Nations (Oskar Schindler was also recognized thus). In 2003 she received the Order of the White Eagle, Poland’s highest civilian decoration. In 1999 a high school teacher in Kansas encouraged four of his students to investigate her life; they created a play, Life in a Jar, that has had over 240 performances in the United States, Canada and Europe. There are plans for a movie.

In my admittedly less-than-thorough investigation, I have found no indication that Irena Sendler was a religious person. Neither was Oskar Schindler. I am reminded of what the apostle Paul writes in Romans 2:14-15, that when non-believers act righteously they are in a sense confirming the image of God in which they have been created and God’s creational predisposition towards justice.

I’m wondering how much people will remember global warming fifty years from now (do we remember the “ice age” scares of the 1970’s?). But lives of courage, nobility, love, charity, and sacrifice leave timeless imprints in the world.

Your Faith is Important

2008-07-10T13:48:00.000-07:00

Several months ago I read a column by a Houston Chronicle writer who referred to his “partner.” I happened to know that his “partner” was his wife. I wondered if this reference reflected a new Chronicle policy to cease using the term “spouse” so as to leave it ambiguous for the reader whether the relationship was same-sex or heterosexual. This would be in keeping with the politically correct trend to prevent “discrimination” by making language neutral and “non-judgmental.” I have not seen this happen again in the Chronicle apart from this columnist, but let’s hold the thought and move on to new and interesting developments.

A recent high profile fashion show in Paris featured a designer’s new line of unisex clothing. This in and of itself is not revolutionary. Unisex clothing is proliferating. One New York magazine noted a popular trend in which men buy women’s jeans in order to wear them as tight and skinny as possible. But what intrigued me about this fashion show was the designer’s rationale for his new unisex line. He proclaimed that originally human beings had been unisex, but later “devolved” (my word) to different sexes. Thus, his line of clothing was celebrating the original uniformity of human beings.

Let’s consider one more recent incident, a forum in Colorado in which a woman continually referred to her “significant other” only to reveal after several minutes that she was referring to her dog.

What is the common thread in these three? It is the moral confusion that pervades our age, particularly what happens when the Judeo-Christian worldview which formed western civilization loses influence. As the British Christian apologist G.K. Chesterton famously said, “When people stop believing in God, they don’t believe in nothing. They believe in anything.” I wonder upon what basis the fashion designer makes his claim that human beings were originally unisex. I certainly understand, though, that apart from believing the Bible’s claim that human beings alone are created in God’s image, animals would seem to be equally precious to people. I think of the numerous times Dear Abby has mentioned the singular and unique pain of experiencing the death of a child, only to have a reader respond that she has no children but that her dog(s) were like her children and her pain at their loss is of the same degree. The Bible calls this kind of thinking “foolishness,” and it has nothing to do with intelligence. Many very intelligent people are fools. Wisdom, the Bible’s opposite of foolishness, emanates from a moral foundation based on something more than whims and feelings.

I am not a sky-is-falling kind of person; I’m not asking you to adopt an anxious and combative demeanor. But here is my point: What you are doing in church on Sunday is more than being encouraged and built up for personal faithful living; you are being equipped and fortified to live in the world as salt and light, witnessing to the revelation of God and upholding truth claims which often are disparaged but which mitigate against society sliding deeper into perversity and foolishness. Your faith is important. Not just for getting to heaven. Not just for being happy and fulfilled. But for taking a stand.

A Defining Issue

2008-06-19T08:15:00.000-07:00

I wrote on June 1st and 8th about the recent decision of the California Supreme Court to strike down a voter-approved ban on same-sex marriages. I expressed my deep misgivings about this decision and suggested it would have far-reaching negative social implications (see mattsoper.blogspot.com). I want to finish addressing this topic today by talking about what I see as root causes and related issues.

I see three primary causes of this escalation of pressure in Western democracies to redefine the institution of marriage. The first is the cultural battle, if you will, between those who would like society to reflect less of its Judeo-Christian heritage and those who would like it to reflect more. The former believe that religion is a corrosive and sometimes oppressive public influence and should be practiced as a private and personal lifestyle. The latter believe that religion is meant to be a public influence, even within a society committed to the separation of church and state, and that the premises upon which the constitution and the laws of society are constructed, especially those of the United States, draw heavily on its religious heritage. The former aspire to a more secular society, the latter to a more religious one.

The second primary cause is inextricably linked to the first, and it is the belief that gender differences are primarily socially constructed, are often harmful, and should be minimized. This viewpoint asserts that a child benefits as much from having two mothers or two fathers as he does from having a mother and a father, that there is little difference between the genders, that there is nothing especially significant about a mother’s presence or a father’s presence, and that they are not complementary. We see this battle being played out in the business world, the military, and throughout society.

The third primary cause is our confusion about compassion. We are becoming ever more hyper-sensitive about excluding anyone or hurting anyone’s feelings. Consider: a recent law proposed in Colorado opens all public accommodations, including restrooms, to anyone who wants to use them, male or female. The rationale is that transgendered people should be able to use the restroom they feel most comfortable using. Thus, a group of people comprising, let’s say, one half of one-percent of the population has its feelings protected despite the possible and obvious discomfort of much of the rest of the population! Consider: a Christian couple in Albuquerque who operate a photography studio politely declined, on religious grounds, to photograph a lesbian “commitment ceremony.” This is their first amendment right. They run a private business. There are other photography studios. But they were forced to appear before a New Mexico human rights commission and fined more than $6,600! The push for tolerance has become the push for acceptance has become the push for normalization.

Some protest, why single out gays and lesbians from getting married? But that’s the point; no one is being singled out! Refusing to redefine marriage simply declares that marriage will remain between one man and one woman. Many are excluded, including adult/minor couples, brother/sister couples, and polygamous unions. The same argument for allowing gay couples to marry can be used for any of these other arrangements. That’s why this is a defining issue.

Seize the Significance

2008-06-11T12:09:00.000-07:00

I have many roles in my life (preacher, friend, son, brother, nemesis) but the ones I treasure most are my roles as husband and father. I am not exaggerating or being melodramatic when I say that I delight in being a dad to my two daughters. They, and Angela’s and my love, care, guidance and protection of them, are one of the great joys of my life.

It definitely helps that I have had a positive and strong relationship with my own father, and I realize this is a blessing not everyone has enjoyed. I am often pained by the lack of fulfillment people express in this regard. Maybe their dad wasn’t there for them, or didn’t seem to love them, or hurt them, or was indifferent towards them (and indifference is often more painful than hostility). Both men and women often carry wounds caused by painful relationships with their dads. I was inspired and touched by a recent essay by Rick Reilly, a sportswriter whose own Irish father was alcoholic and abusive (“Life of Reilly,” http://www.espn.com/, 6/5/08).

Reilly’s father was an avid golfer, a mean drunk, and an absentee dad. “More than once, he asked me, ‘What grade are you in again?’, Reilly recalls. Because of the frequent beatings and tirades when his dad got home, Reilly acknowledges that to this day, “the sound of (golf) spikes on cement sends a shot of ice through me. That was him coming up the sidewalk.” The son eventually took up golf “at least partly to understand what was so wonderful about a game that would keep a man from coming to his (four) kids’ games and piano recitals and birthday parties.”

Then one day when Reilly was in his 20’s, his father went to an AA meeting and quit drinking. Completely. Five years later, the son invited his dad to attend the Masters golf tournament with him, and they had a heart-to-heart on the road. “He told me his life story, how he drank and fought to get the attention of his own distant father, how he’d kept from us that he’d been married before, and how sorry he was to have let his family grow up while he was holding down the 19th hole with his elbows. He apologized and cried. I forgave him and cried. I never dreamed I-20 could be that emotional.”

Reilly’s father then went home and apologized to his wife and his other three children. He let them express how much he had hurt them. He wrote the family a poem about his love for them and his shame at how he had lived. All this happened late in the dad’s life, after most of the damage had been done. But he admitted his failures and found a semblance of reconciliation, blessing his wife and children by the effort of doing so.

Friends, it’s never too late to ask forgiveness or to forgive, to admit mistakes, to make the phone call, to write the note, to offer the explanation, to express the pain. There are wonderful dads and rotten dads, good kids and rotten kids. But there are few father-child relationships that are insignificant. Seize the significance.

Reilly concludes, “As I looked at him (on his deathbed) I realized that for better or worse, he’d shaped me. I think I’m a good father borne of his rotten example. I’m a storyteller out of surviving him. I’m a man with more flaws than a 1986 Yugo, but I try to own up to them, because a very good Irish tenor showed me how. And that’s what I call a very good save.”

Fatherhood is powerful. Handle it with care.

Normalization

2008-06-04T06:20:00.000-07:00

Last week I lamented the recent decision of the California Supreme Court to strike down a voter-approved ban on same-sex marriages. The decision declared that sexual orientation, like race or gender, “does not constitute a legitimate basis upon which to deny or withhold legal rights.” I suggested that this will have significant and far-reaching negative social implications. I will expound on that today.

First, it is disingenuous to equate sexual orientation with race or gender. Gender is fixed (gender-change operations notwithstanding), and race is fixed for most people, though to be sure there are many people of blended races, which leaves them some latitude for self-determination in this respect. But sexual orientation is a continuum that ranges from exclusively heterosexual to exclusively homosexual, with many places (e.g., bisexuality) in between. Societies, by their mores and laws, have channeled this polymorphous human sexuality towards heterosexuality primarily through the institution of marriage (see Dennis Prager, “California Decision Will Radically Change Society,” Townhall.com, 5/20/08). By limiting marriage to one man and one woman, societies have explicitly declared that this was the most desirable and effective mechanism for social cohesion and for the bearing and nurture of children. This, of course, has excluded from participation in the institution of marriage some people with different and less common sexual orientations, including man-man, woman-woman, polygamous, and incestuous relationships (In most western societies, homosexual and lesbian couples may still enter into civil unions). This indeed reflects a preference for heterosexual behavior in these societies.

At this point we need to distinguish between “tolerance,” “acceptance,” and “normalization.” A few decades ago, gay advocates urged society to tolerate homosexual behavior. This primarily meant not to attack it or be hateful towards homosexuals. Then society was urged to accept homosexual behavior. This meant primarily not to discriminate on the basis of it. Now society is being urged to normalize it. This means to consider it equal to and equally desirable to heterosexual behavior.

This third step is huge. One can easily envision the following if same-sex marriage is normalized: “Schoolbooks will not be allowed to describe marriage in male-female ways alone. Companies that advertise engagement rings will have to show a man putting a ring on a man’s finger – if they show only women fingers, they will be boycotted just as a company having racist ads would be now. Films that show only man-woman married couples will be regarded as ‘heterosexist’”(Prager, 5/20/08).

People who express these kinds of reservations often are labeled “homophobic,” which is an intellectually lazy charge. I have tremendous empathy for people dealing with same-sex attraction on any part of the sexual continuum. I treat gay people with dignity and kindness. To disagree is not to be phobic. I am particularly dismayed by the conservative church’s general lack of ministry to such people. But I cannot and will not consider this latest development “harmless” or “inevitable.” I will write again on this and talk about what I see as root causes and related issues.

Ancient Wisdom

2008-05-29T11:48:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago in a 4-3 vote, California’s Supreme Court struck down a voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage, saying that sexual orientation, like race or gender, “does not constitute a legitimate basis upon which to deny or withhold legal rights.” Two of the dissenting judges called this ruling an “an exercise in legal jujitsu” that will “create a constitutional right from whole cloth, defeat the people’s will and invalidate a statute otherwise immune from legislative interference.” The third dissenting justice said that while she personally supported the right to same-sex marriage, the majority should have deferred to the Legislature.

The key here is “new understanding of the meaning of marriage.” This ruling indeed declares a redefinition of marriage, which for millennia in all societies and cultures has been defined as the union of one man and one woman. Now, in their infinite “wisdom,” four judges have decided they have a better way to define it.

Dennis Prager, a Jewish commentator and author, suggests that this is a natural result of the “modern supplanting of wisdom with compassion as the supreme guide in forming society’s values and laws.” After all, why not exercise compassion and let people marry whomever they want?

Some have argued that this ruling represents nothing more than what courts did to end legal bans on interracial marriage in the mid-20th century. In that case the courts corrected a moral injustice perpetuated by the will of the majority. Isn’t this the same principle? But Prager notes a key difference in the two scenarios:

"No major religion – not Judaism, not Christianity, not Islam, not Buddhism – ever banned interracial marriage… American bans on interracial marriages were not supported by any major religious or moral system; those bans were immoral aberrations, no matter how many religious individuals may have supported them. Justices who overthrew bans on interracial marriages, therefore, had virtually every moral and religious value system since ancient times on their side. But justices who overthrow the ban on same-sex marriage have nothing other than their hubris and their notions of compassion on their side…Not a single religion or moral philosophical system – East or West – since antiquity ever defined marriage as between members of the same sex. (“California Decision Will Radically Change Society,” 5/20/08, Townhall.com)

The fact is that laws are designed to channel peoples’ behavior. Murder is against the law so that people will be channeled away from murder. These behavioral rules emanate from a value system. And the value system emanates from… what? The answer is, “ancient wisdom.” And the ancient wisdom from which our laws emanate comes primarily, though not wholly, from the Judeo-Christian religious heritage.

This ruling and others like it declares that in our modern “wisdom” we have seen a moral light that no theologians, philosophers, religions or moral systems saw before. That is why this is about far more than “extending a right” to homosexuals, who indeed should be protected from unfair discrimination. This is about a significant social change the implications of which will be massive. I will talk about those next week.

Going Back

2008-05-21T14:32:00.001-07:00

I was in Austin most of this week attending the Austin Graduate School of Theology’s Sermon Seminar. This seminar is special in that scholars lecture on preaching from different books of the Bible (this year: Amos, Hebrews, Genesis, and Galatians) and share as many resources and suggestions as they can to help preachers. I have been surprised by the nostalgia I feel this week and have identified some of the reasons for this (the nostalgia, not my surprise).

Austin Graduate School of Theology (when I attended it was called the Institute for Christian Studies) was the school I left the Houston business world for in 1987. I came with no more specific purpose than to learn more about the Christian faith and the scriptures and to satisfy a nagging curiosity about vocational ministry that I could not seem to shake. This school, in essence, gave me both a solid foundation of Christian understanding and a concrete sense of God’s call to full-time ministry. I have stayed in touch with Austin Grad as an enthusiastic alumnus, and it is gratifying to see the school’s new spacious campus on Guadalupe near Hwy 183, far from the parking nightmares of the U.T. campus to which it so long was subject for so long.

This is also the place where I met my sweetheart, the lovely and spirited former Angela Dulaney. A friend of mine arranged for us to run into each other at a Westover Hills congregation Singles ministry gathering, and I was immediately smitten; here was this petite brunette dynamo driving an aged Camaro with a 350 V-8 engine and a 357 Magnum revolver in her closet for protection. I should have realized how symbolic that was. Suffice it to say, I never knew what hit me. We courted while both working part-time at Houston’s restaurant as I finished my Bible degree and she began work on a Master’s, and got married in the summer of 1989.

1989 was an eventful year for my family, full of pain and promise. My brother graduated from Navy flight school, my younger sister graduated from college, I graduated from I.C.S., Angela and I got married, my older sister died, my grandfather died, my brother got married, and my father got remarried. Three graduations, three weddings, and two funerals. Memories of all this washed over me as I drove from my hotel to the campus and intentionally detoured through some of the old neighborhoods.

I think it’s good to go back. Memory and nostalgia are satisfying unless they preoccupy you unhealthily. When Alex and I went to New Orleans for my father’s 80th birthday a few weekends ago, I took her on a drive around Algiers and showed her places of fondness and significance for me from my childhood. We even stopped by the house of a childhood friend and visited his 86-year old mother, reminiscing and marveling at how fast life goes by. It was wonderful.

The Bible talks a lot about the power of remembering. Life without memory is neutered. As we remember both painful and happy times, we give them layers of depth and meaning. Many years ago I became intrigued by a quotation from T.S. Elliott: “We must not cease from exploration. And the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we began and to know the place for the first time.” Sometimes, backwards is forwards.

"Bring Your Bibles"

2008-05-15T07:34:00.000-07:00

Someone asked me recently why I so often remind and encourage people to bring their Bibles on Sunday. It’s a good question, especially since we have pew Bibles available. I’ll start with some small reasons and then move to what I see as deeper ones.

1. We have pew Bibles available in worship, but not always in our classrooms. We want people to participate in Bible classes. It’s easier to actually participate in a Bible class with a Bible than without one.

2. When you bring your personal Bible you can take notes in it, or use the message outline and then put it in your Bible for future reference. Also, you can refer to the Bible version you prefer and are used to, which may or may not be the one in our pews (TNIV or NIV).

But these are just practical reasons. There are deeper issues that resonate with me.

1. American Christian worship services increasingly ask people to be passive, to sit and receive. The unfortunate reasons for this is a subject for another essay, but the fact is that there is little opportunity for most people to do anything other than sit, sing, listen to/pray with the pray-ers, and listen to the preacher. I try to preach expositionally (as opposed to topically) about 75% of the time, which means preaching straight from a selected passage of the Bible. I like the idea of people following along in their Bibles, underlining certain words, making notes, i.e., actively engaging.

2. I wholeheartedly agree with noted British evangelical scholar John Stott, who said, “The Word of God grows people.” Christians grow spiritually when they are engaged with the Scriptures. A large and well-known community church in Chicago just completed a three-year study of their 20,000 members as well as other selected churches to find out what helps Christians grow towards maturity and what doesn’t. They found out what doesn’t: simply participating in church programs. And the most important thing that does? Daily Bible reading and reflection.

I want to promote daily Bible reading and reflection. Engagement with the scriptures is the meat of the Christian diet, if you will. There is certainly much more to the Christian life than the scriptures, but without them it is hard to be nourished fully. More and more Christians struggle spiritually because they have little regular engagement with the Bible. That is why I compose and make available West Houston’s daily Bible reading schedule, to help people make scripture reading and reflection a part of the rhythm of their life.

Presently there are dozens and dozens of Bibles, without names, in our Welcome Center that people have left inadvertently. This may be symbolic of our times. I recall an old saying, “A Bible that is falling apart usually belongs to someone who is not.”

Last but not least: I like the image of hundreds of people walking into the building on Sunday carrying their Bibles. It bespeaks a certain intentionality and seriousness about being the church (assuming it’s not just for show!).

I am going to be more purposeful in helping people engage with the scriptures while I preach. As I say each week, let’s open God’s Word together, open our hearts and minds, and listen to what God wants to teach us!

Capable of So Much More

2008-05-08T08:03:00.000-07:00

“This. Book. Changed. My. Life. I am so encouraged by the humility of the authors and the straight-forward way they approach their subject. They have written on a very important subject that needs addressing and did an amazing job. Please read it!”

-- Cait Elizabeth, Rebelutionary, let us rise up, 4/15/08

Alex and Brett Harris are 19-year old twin brothers who are doing their best to foment a rebellion. Or rather, a “rebelution.” They are urging teenagers to join in an uprising against social norms created by “a media-saturated youth culture that constantly reinforces lower and lower expectations.” They began a website at rebelution.com and have authored a book called “Do Hard Things: A Teenage Rebellion Against Low Expectations.” (The website is hugely popular and the book is selling like hot cakes). They take issue with the modern concept of adolescence, which holds that teenagers experience a period of “storm and stress” that can only be accommodated by lowering expectations for them until they come out of it. This theory sparked a cultural redefinition of the teen years in the first half of the 1900’s that persists today. The Harrises beg to differ.

“Like so many of the culture-shaping psychological studies of the 20^th century, the theory of teenage storm and stress was inherently flawed, based primarily on observation of teen psychological patients – hardly a representative sample. No wonder we are taught that the teen years are inevitably filled with emotional turmoil, rebellion and angst….Of course, this new way of looking at the teen years didn’t create teenage rebellion, but it did normalize it.”

The Rebelution blog has been flooded with teenagers who say, in effect, “My parents (or other significant adults) have just assumed that I am going to be shallow and do stupid things as a teenager and have never challenged me to be different. So I meet their low standards. But I know I am capable of so much more. Thank you for challenging me.”

Think of the societal norms that are perpetuated in this way: “Teens will party and get drunk.” “Teens will experiment with sex.” “Teens and parents will continually bicker and argue.” We hear these so often that they become the equivalent of “the sun will rise in the east.”

Of course, the concept of doing hard things in order to form character and competence applies to adults as well. What are the societal norms that adults allow ourselves to view as inevitable patterns? Let me suggest a few: “We will carry large credit card balances that compromise our financial integrity in order to experience instant gratification.” “Marriage inevitably settles into a kind of negotiated mediocrity.” “There’s really no way to follow Jesus passionately unless you live in an inner-city or on a foreign mission field.”

The Harrises challenge teens in five ways: Do things 1) outside your comfort zone 2) beyond what is expected or required 3) too big to accomplish alone (thus requiring collaboration) 4) that don’t earn an immediate payoff 5) that challenge the cultural norm.

As serious Christians, they cite I Timothy 4:12 as an overarching principle, “Let no one despise your youth.”

It’s powerful stuff, and not just for teens. Feeling rebelutionary?

How to Have a Terrible Marriage

2008-04-23T07:47:00.000-07:00

The Barna Research Group recently released new marriage and divorce statistics. I was particularly intrigued by one of George Barna’s summary observations: “There no longer seems to be much of a stigma attached to divorce; it is now seen as an unavoidable rite of passage. Interviews with young adults suggest that they want their initial marriage to last, but are not particularly optimistic about that possibility” (3/31/08).

I have written essays and preached sermons on how to have a good marriage that lasts. Herewith, my top recommendations for having a bad marriage that fails. Keep in mind that the apostle Paul, too, used sarcasm on a few occasions for effect (see I Corinthians 4:8-10).

1. Be sure to keep score. Don’t ever get more than a few favors or expressions of appreciation ahead of your spouse. They MUST reciprocate! Otherwise they could get …the upper hand. Of course, there’s a chance they could respond in kind and you would end up serving each other in love, but you can’t know that for sure, and why take the risk?! Better to keep things on a transactional level. Put the transactions on a spreadsheet and wave it wildly during arguments to show how much your account is in the red. That’s not only effective, it’s charming.

2. Keep secrets and lie. Start with little white lies just to warm up. Their content isn’t significant at this point; the point is to get used to doing it. Then when you no longer feel a pang of conscience, graduate to bigger deceits. Hide certain spending habits. Develop good alibis. Always remember this: your spouse wants to hold you back, keep you chained down, and limit your freedom and fun. That’s why she married you! Who could blame you for evading direct and truthful answers? You’re an adult, not a child! Trust is such an important factor in a good marriage that this alone could torpedo the whole thing. Way to go!

3. Talk about your marriage frustrations with someone of the opposite sex. Preferably someone younger and attractive. This one’s effectiveness has a way of creeping up on you. It meanders along harmfully, not affecting your marriage negatively until… whoosh -- you’ve got a crush on them! At this point be careful not to end the relationship – that would be prudent! Now that your spouse is looking even less desirable in comparison, you must push ahead and get more intimate with this new confidant. Pretty soon your mate will have grounds for divorce and you’ll be free. Custody battles and piles of legal fees are quite the adventure too.

4. Think of marriage as relational leisure, not work. You work hard at your profession, why should you have to work at your marriage? Marital happiness is over-rated. Watching lots of TV and not talking, now that’s fulfilling! Listen, if you really wanted to be a soul mate and not a roommate, you would have meant those vows when you recited them.

5. Believe that the problem is your spouse. You’ve got some annoying habits, but he’s got character issues. You mean well, but he doesn’t. He needs to make changes, but you don’t. Stick to this one and don’t budge. The important thing is to avoid personal responsibility.

There are many more ways to have a terrible marriage, of course, but these five will get the job done pretty well. And if all else fails, try lots of sarcasm. It’s ugly and off-putting, which is the point.

My Weekend in Augusta

2008-04-16T08:07:00.000-07:00

I spent last weekend in Augusta, Georgia at the Master’s golf tournament, the grateful beneficiary of a good friend’s generosity. We both checked this off our “Bucket List.” Unfortunately, now we’re hooked. Following are a few of my observations.

* The columnist George Will once said that professional sports serve the common good by showing us excellence. I have watched professional golfers on television, but seeing them play in person, displaying their skill and capability against a very challenging course, is awesome. The winner, Trevor Immelman, was a scratch golfer in

South Africa

by age twelve and has spent the subsequent sixteen years dedicating himself to being a world class player. It shows, and that is inspiring. I may not ever be world-class at anything, but watching these men play made me want to pursue excellence in other areas of my life. That’s a great feeling.

* When I used to watch the Masters on television, I would roll my eyes at the almost religious vocabulary the commentators used to describe Augusta National Country Club: “sacred,” “hallowed,” etc. I can understand it a little better now. The grounds are spectacularly well kept, beautiful, majestic, and laden with history. Moreover, the tournament is run with extraordinary precision, with an army of workers taking care of every last detail to ensure that “spectator guests” and “player guests” have a superb experience. I was expecting to be gouged at the concession stands, just like at other professional sporting events. But Augusta National sold all food and drink items for $2.50 or less each. The message I inferred was, “We know you paid an arm and a leg for your tickets; we’re not going to take advantage of you.” It was a nice touch of southern hospitality.

* People crowded into the merchandise stores and bought large numbers of trademarked Masters golf shirts, balls, hats, umbrellas, etc. The man in line in front of me paid for his purchase by counting out twenty $100 bills. I guess he got his economic stimulus check before I did.

* Just outside the main gates, a church occupied a former shopping center. These folks decided the best ministry they could offer to Masters patrons was to station two people with billboards on the corner with the message, “The Bible says you will go to hell unless you repent” and condemning “homosexuals,” “porn freaks” and “Mormons,” among others. The two men preached with similar charm to the crowds streaming by. It was like something out of a television sitcom, the worst kind of caricature. I walked up to one of the men and said, “I’m a Christian minister, and what you’re doing isn’t working.” He proceeded to bellow to the crowd, “Here’s a Christian minister who says God’s word isn’t true, who has a religion but has not been cleansed by the blood of Jesus, who is errant and vile,” etc. I was so intrigued by this that I made a point of looking up the word “vile,” which means “morally despicable or abhorrent, contemptible.” Yep, that’s the word that comes to mind.

Imagine the difference if this church had situated a group of folks outside each entrance handing out chapstick and saying, “It’s a beautiful day. Have a great experience. We know you’re away from home. Let us know if we can help you in any way. Jesus loves you and so do we.”

Clearly, I’ve got work to do in Augusta and will need to make this an annual mission trip. With plenty of chapstick.

Hedgehogs and Heroism

2008-04-10T05:55:00.000-07:00

I like to check CNN.com at the beginning and end of the day to see if anything dramatic or important has happened in the world. The site has a feature called “Latest News” which spotlights featured items and provides a sort of “first look” before one searches for specific areas of news. Following are some of the items featured over a two-day period this week:

* “Hedgehog used in non-lethal assault.”
* “ ‘Crazy,’ diaper-clad monkey chases man” [video]
* “Trooper tapes wild-turkey brawl” [video]
* “Navy Seal paid ultimate price for buddies”
* “Newlyweds Tasered, jailed on wedding night” [video]
* “Police chase ends, goat in custody” [video]

I’m hoping that one of these items caught your eye.

Navy Petty Officer 2^nd Class Michael Monsoor joined the Navy and several years later completed his Seal training in March 2005. In April 2006 his unit was deployed to Iraq’s troubled and violent western provincial capital of Ramadi. His Delta Platoon was involved in attacks on 75 percent of its missions in a highly contested part of Ramadi called the Ma’laab district. During one firefight, Monsoor ran into the street with another Seal, shot covering fire and dragged a wounded comrade to safety while enemy bullets kicked up concrete at their feet. In September, the unit was part of a major clearing and isolating operation to root out enemy fighters holding parts of Ramadi, the Sunni insurgent stronghold west of Baghdad. Monsoor was in a sniper position on a rooftop with two other Seals when the enemy lobbed a grenade into his location, hitting him in the chest. Monsoor was in a position to escape, but instead yelled ‘grenade” and smothered it with his body, absorbing the explosive impact. This probably saved the lives of his two Seal buddies as well as three Iraqi soldiers who were there. President Bush presented Monsoor’s parents with a posthumous Medal of Honor for their son this week, only the fourth awarded since 2001.

Back to the juxtaposition of these news items. In the midst of numerous admittedly titillating and often funny “news” items, which call out to us like cotton candy at a carnival and which, when consumed in great quantities, ironically leave us emptier, there is a magnificent and beautiful story which invites us to pause, wonder, admire, and be filled. The question is, what do you do with this fact of life?

What is the percentage of your time that you spend marveling at the magnificent and heroic versus snickering at the silly and titillating? How would you break down your television watching, your web surfing, your magazine reading, along these two poles? Listen, we all need some diversion and entertainment. Enjoy it. But my question is, what are you feeding yourself on a daily and weekly basis? Will your viewing and reading diet help you build strong spiritual and moral character, or make you flabby and weak?

Jesus taught his followers not to give dogs what is sacred or throw pearls before swine, lest they “trample them under foot and turn and maul you” (Matthew 7:6). What gets the “pearl” of your time and attention? May we focus more on heroism and less on hedgehogs.

Secrets

2008-04-02T07:41:00.000-07:00

* “I told my parents I was becoming a vegan because I couldn’t bear animals’ suffering. But actually it was just to hide my eating disorder from them.”

* “The stoplight is there because someone ran the stop sign, killing my dad’s best friend on my dad’s 18^th birthday while my dad was driving. He never talks about it but I know he doesn’t forgive himself, and I just want to tell him, ‘It’s NOT your fault, you were just a teenager, younger than I am now, and no matter what, I will always love you, Dad!’”

* “Your parents wanted to take you off life support. I wouldn’t let them. You got better… then you divorced me.”

Four years ago a man named Frank Warren started a community art project called Post-Secret – people anonymously sent in postcards bearing secrets. The rules were simple: The secrets had to be true and never before shared with anyone. Tens of thousands of people worldwide responded, and Warren has used many of them in four books and on his website. He has used some of the proceeds to support a national suicide-prevention hotline. (Sue Nowicki, Houston Chronicle, 3/22/08).

The Rev. Debra Brady of First United Methodist Church decided to address the issue of secrets after reading a book and visiting Warren’s website. “I could see how so many people are longing for a community in which they can feel safe being their authentic selves.” She used the theme of secrets during the season of Lent, and invited the congregation to write cards with secrets “or other things they would like to offer God this season.” More than forty cards went up on the walls of the sanctuary. On Palm Sunday they were taken down and put at the foot of the cross until Easter, where they were transformed in the theme of Christ’s death and resurrection – putting aside old thoughts and habits and putting on the new, forgiven life.

“Secrets are the things we think we have to hide, when it’s the opposite – if we can get it out, God can deal with it,” Brady observes. “People feel very isolated in their sufferings – ‘I’m the only one who has doubts; I’m the only one feeling suicidal; I’m the only one stuck in a bad marriage; I’m the only one who feels lonely.’ But the Christian community has practices and theology which addresses peoples’ yearning to be authentic, to be who they are and to work with others. It’s really easy in church to play holier than thou or to put on a façade. The path of discipleship is coming as we are to God, not having to pretend. If things need to change, it’s God who does that; it’s God who does the transformation.”

* “I have always felt inferior to almost everyone in almost all things.”

* “I will be so humiliated if anyone finds out I’m going bankrupt. I act like I have it all together, but I’m so over my head. I feel like an irresponsible cheat and a loser. I hate it. What would people say or think about me if they found out? I don’t want to know.”

We are living in authentic Christian community when we do not look down on people for their failings and shortcomings, but come alongside them with support and encouragement, trusting and rejoicing in the God who leads us on a journey of transformation.

God's Surprises

2008-03-27T12:23:00.000-07:00

J.I. Packer, a well-known evangelical theologian and the author of the classic, Knowing God, remembers learning a children’s song in church growing up. “God is a surprise, right before your eyes, God is a surprise.” He had occasion to reflect recently on God’s surprises in his life: the way Jesus Christ “broke into my life, claimed me as his own, and made me a different person” when he was an adolescent; the way God called him into ministry even though he was “poor” at human relationships; the way he met his wife at a retreat neither had planned to attend; the way he was asked to write a devotional pamphlet, which became a 60,000 word book, the first of many he authored; the way he was “headhunted” away from England to teach in Canada, which led to, “beyond question, the best 28 years of my life so far.” Packer can look back and see many ways in which God surprisingly redirected him in a way that blessed him (see “Count Your Surprises,” Christianity Today, March 2008).

This Sunday I am beginning a series on “Living Your Bucket List.” It will include much exhortation to be intentional about focusing on the main things and living life to the full. However, one dimension of this must be to keep ourselves open to God’s surprises. As the old proverb states, “If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.” We should live purposefully, so as to “make the most of the time” (Ephesians 5:16), while also being open to God’s providential re-direction. I think of a golf analogy (of course): you want to grip your club firmly, but not too tightly, lest it be hindered from doing its work. Likewise, grip your life firmly, but not too tightly. God may be trying to give you another club. Isn’t it significant that 99% of golfers hold the club too tightly?

When I graduated from college with a business degree I thought I would go into banking in New Orleans. During a chance conversation with an old girlfriend in Houston, whose father was a corporate recruiter, I found myself interviewing for a job with an oil & gas company. Four weeks later I was living in Houston. Three years after that I was at a Bible college! This would not have been even on my top ten list of possible turns in my life five years earlier.

When Angela and I were beginning to consider moving back to Texas from Connecticut, but before taking any action, we found ourselves talking with some folks at the 1994 Pepperdine Lectureships about a ministry in Los Angeles. Six months later we moved there. Neither of us had ever considered living in southern California, but we ended up spending nine wonderful years there.

Not every surprising thing that happens is God-ordained, but many are. Sometimes it’s a mystery which are and which aren’t. One promise we hold to is that “in all things God works for the good of those who love him” (Romans 8:28). That is, he can help us make the most of the incidental surprises, and he wants us to make the most of his surprises!

Henri Nouwen, the late priest and author, articulated a wonderful prayer that has served as a kind of guiding principle in my life: “Lord, I abandon myself into your hands. Do with me whatever you will. Whatever you may do, I thank you.”

Our God is a God of surprises. Keep a firm grip on your life, loosely.

The Story is Jesus

2008-03-20T12:15:00.000-07:00

Recently my friend Edward Fudge responded to the question, “What is the core of the gospel?” in his thrice-weekly email essay, gracEmail (see EdwardFudge.com). I want to share (and paraphrase in parts) a portion of his response and add my comments.

“They had little money and minimal education. There was no business plan, no human sponsorship, no institutional presence. Mass media was unheard of and mass transportation did not yet exist. Yet within one generation, thirteen plain men and their unremarkable helpers spread the Jesus message throughout the Roman Empire in every direction people could go. Most of these messengers lost their lives in the process—but gladly, because of the value they placed on the message they bore.

“It starts in Jerusalem with Peter addressing a pilgrimage of thousands, including many who recently had engineered Jesus’ crucifixion. You killed Jesus the Son of God, Peter declared, but God raised him from the dead and titled him “Lord” and “Christ.” Now Jesus has sent his Spirit to fulfill the ancient prophecies, so turn your hearts to repent and be baptized (Acts 2:22-38).

“The message was always simple. Jesus was killed on the cross but God raised him from the grave and exalted him beside himself in heaven. Now God offers repentance and the forgiveness of sins to everyone.

“It is interesting what we don’t find in the story of the early Christians in the book of Acts. We don’t find moralisms or religious duties, or instruction on joining a particular church, or talk of self-esteem or keys to worldly success. The story is Jesus, killed by men but raised by God, who gives authority to Jesus and repentance to humankind, a new start in a new world. With this story God turned the world upside-down (actually right-side-up) and history and civilization has never been the same. The same God is still in charge, the same Spirit still at work, the same story still true and – when the story goes out straight and unvarnished – the same results will follow. A world is waiting” (3/18/08).

Have you noticed how many books by atheists are on the bestseller lists this year? Two prominent ones are The God Delusion, and God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything. Then there is the book that a LOT of pastors are reading, UnChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks about Christianity… and why it Matters. This is all perhaps a helpful reminder to focus, or refocus, on the main thing, which is the person of Jesus Christ and the Good News about him. When I had a life-changing series of conversations at age twenty which led to my baptism into Christ, people didn’t tell me about the benefits of religion, or even the truths of Christianity. They told me about Jesus Christ. How he fulfills the promises of Scripture. How he died on the cross for my sins. How he was raised from the dead and reigns in heaven. How he came to both model and offer me a life with God that is contrary to many of the world’s values. How he wants to be both my Lord and my friend (John 15). How he knocks at my door waiting for me to answer (Revelation 3).

Yes, friends, the story is Jesus. He is risen and he lives through the Holy Spirit in his followers throughout the world. What a story!

Steamrolled

2008-03-13T11:00:00.000-07:00

I went to Ben Franklin High School in New Orleans (Go Falcons!). The tradition was for each senior to submit a quotation for the yearbook which embodied something about which they felt strongly, which described them in some way, or which they simply wanted associated with them for posterity. Some seniors chose pithy and humorous but superficial quotations (“If you worry about missing the boat, remember the Titanic!”) but most took it seriously. I had a hard time coming up with something, not being a terribly thoughtful teenager. But I finally decided that I really liked the Indian proverb on a plaque in my friend Jeff Gum’s dining room. It read “Grant that I may not criticize my neighbor until I have walked a mile in his moccasins.”

My good friend Steve Moroney, who was instrumental in my baptism into Christ at age 20, chose Matthew 5:7, “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.” I remember wondering why he found that so meaningful. Steve was, and is, a deep guy. It just seemed to me that he would have submitted something, well, more profound.

The older I get the more I appreciate the depth, challenge, spiritual power, and richness of Jesus’ teaching about mercy. There is an admonition I think of a lot, and do my best to live out: “Make charitable judgments.” Give people the benefit of the doubt. Be merciful in your assumptions. The famous playwright and novelist, Oscar Wilde, who was known for his barbed wit, once said, “When I was young I admired clever people; now that I am older I admire kind people.” Kindness and mercy are much harder than cleverness.

Earlier this decade, the executive editor of the New York Times, Howell Raines, was forced out by the Times’ publisher amidst the Jayson Blair journalism scandal. Raines had made his mark as a “hard charging” newspaperman. Unfortunately, this described his way with people. Few if any of his staff supported him during the turmoil preceding his firing; most even undermined him. As one of them put it later, “He treated people on the way up as if he never expected to encounter them on the way down.”

And now Elliott Spitzer, governor of New York, has discovered the painful corollary of Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:7, “Cursed are the unmerciful, for they will not receive mercy.” While serving as New York’s attorney general, Spitzer built a reputation as a ruthless ethical crusader (consider the irony of that description). Many who were the subjects of his investigations felt he went too far. He was particularly unaffected by what his indictments did to peoples’ reputations, regardless of whether they were found guilty or innocent. He was criticized, for instance, for “pressuring ethically wayward but not necessarily criminal companies into agreeing to unfairly large settlements by threatening CEO’s with prolonged legal battles” (Time, 3/13/08, John Cloud, “Was Spitzer Destined to Fall?”) In short, the man showed no mercy. As he said to the Republican leader in the state assembly after becoming governor, “I’m a steamroller, and I’ll roll over you.”

Consequently, when federal wiretaps uncovered his visits to a prostitute, and it was subsequently revealed that this has been a regular practice of his for a decade, even as he passed tougher laws against other men doing the same, he was forced to resign within 48 hours. No one stood up for him. No one defended him. The steamroller got steamrolled.

Mercy is blessed. Both ways.

Holy Discontent

2008-03-06T11:24:00.000-08:00

I heard a talk a while ago by a very fruitful and accomplished pastor urging Christians to listen to and act on our “holy discontent.” This is an intriguing concept to me and I’d like to explore it this week.

On the one hand, the scriptures exhort us to cultivate contentment. Paul’s famous declaration that “I know what it is to have little and I know what it is to have plenty… I have learned to be content with whatever I have” (Philippians 4:11-12) is a powerful exhortation not to let our outward circumstances dictate our inner peace. American Christians particularly, trained in the habits of consumption-towards-fulfillment, do well to heed this admonition. On the other hand, the scriptures exhort us to beware a distorted “contentment” which is really only sanctified apathy. Jesus criticizes the Laodicean church in Revelation 3 for being “neither hot nor cold… but lukewarm.”

The fact is that holy discontent is the Spirit-inspired fuel that runs the engine of spiritual action against the unacceptable status quo. Martin Luther experienced a holy discontent against the abuses of the Church in the 16^th century which led to the Reformation. William Wilberforce experienced a holy discontent against the slave trade in 18^th and 19^th century Britain which led to its eventual abolition. Martin Luther King experienced a holy discontent against the unfair plight of Black people in America in the 20^th century which led to the Civil Rights movement. These are grand historical examples, but holy discontent is simply God’s way to move ordinary people to strive for deeper spiritual significance and engagement with his Kingdom work. “Strive first for the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things (food, clothing, shelter) will be given to you as well” (Matthew 6:33). In this sense, discontent is a positive impulse. One of the dictionary’s definitions of discontent is “aspiration for improvement.”

One challenge is identifying the “holy” in “holy discontent.” Plenty of Christians are unhappy! But holy discontent expresses the conviction that there is more work to do, more kingdom living to experience, more relationship to be had, and I want to pursue it. Its aim is to bring one’s life, one’s family, one’s church, or one’s community into greater alignment and participation with the Kingdom of God.

During our recent Week of Prayer and Fasting for Breakthrough and our Servin’ the Burbs day, one of my take-aways was the clarification of a holy discontent I have been experiencing. It was a positive clarification in that I experienced a definite inner conviction to break out of this status quo. There is a great sense of freedom, and of fear, in acting on this. And that is always the way it is when you step out on faith.

Let me ask you a question. Do you have any holy discontent? If not, and you’re certain it’s not just apathy, count your blessings. You’re in a good place. For now. Keep striving first for the Kingdom. If you do have holy discontent, listen to it. Give it a chance to talk. Just as the body gives us symptoms of deeper changes, so the Spirit gives us indications of deeper stirrings. What kind of man or woman of God do you want to be? How would you like to join God’s Kingdom work more fully? What is your present spiritual trajectory? If you died next week, what would your spiritual legacy be? The most important part of holy discontent is not the discontent but the holiness.

Spiritual Confidence

2008-02-26T08:09:00.000-08:00

I’ll share a few more of peoples’ reflections on their participation in West Houston’s week of prayer and fasting, then offer some comments.

* My fasting diet consisted of vegetables, fruit, and water only…My second fasting was from television. I thought that this would be really, really easy for me. I used to watch maybe one TV show a week if I got around to it. Now I realize that I turn on the TV in the morning to listen to what I call "happy" talk shows. I use that to try to pep myself up for the day ahead. I used to find happiness within myself very easily, and now I don't. Being happy within myself requires work.

* This week has been great as a collective way to help hold me accountable for something … I am grateful to know I am a part of something much larger. This has also given my husband and me a great springboard to conversations about God that usually get lost in the hustle of day-to-day living.

* This fasting has been a blessing. I can't believe I just said that. I have never fasted before. Surprisingly, I am not hungry at night. I can't explain that…Many people think fasting is ridiculous. I would have never said that – I have just never tried it.

* I know for my husband and me, not watching TV and skipping one meal a day has left a lot of time for other, better things. We have spent more quality time with the kids at night, read and spent more time talking to each other! It has also been neat to encourage and help our Life Group and check on each other during the week.

* It has been incredibly encouraging to think about my WHCC family joining in this spiritual endeavor. I think that the spirit of fellowship and service in our church body are fantastic. I do not take this for granted….I hope that this becomes a WHCC tradition. Prayer, fasting, community, and encouragement are GREAT exercises for our church.

* Fasting from TV actually scared me at first because I thought that I would feel 'lonely' or something. I realize that I tend to use TV as a comforting mechanism more often than not. It's scary that TV has become that to me. I'm happy to report, though, that I have not missed TV much at all this week…This is my first fasting. Fasting is also something that I was never taught or encouraged to do when I attended other churches. I hope that this will not be my last fasting.

* Every morning I have stopped at the Church Garden to pray at about 5:15 a.m. And every morning I leave with closeness to God I don’t think I have ever felt as I started my day. It has governed my emotions through the day, which is a good thing, because every one of those people who irritates me or makes me mad has called this week…

As I read through dozens of testimonies and heard many people’s comments, several themes kept coming up:

1) Folks are more dependent on television for “filler” in their life than they would like to be. This is robbing them of meaningful time and conversation with their spouse and/or children. Less TV can be a powerful new subtraction from peoples’ family lives.

2) Most folks, even life-long church members, have not had much experience with fasting. This can be a powerful new addition to peoples’ spiritual lives.

3) Many people gained spiritual inspiration and confidence from fasting. They are wondering what else they can do with God if they try. That is powerful, period.

-- Matt Soper (3/2/08)

Our Week of Prayer and Fasting

2008-02-21T12:40:00.000-08:00

This week many West Houston folks participated in some way in our five days of “Prayer and Fasting for Breakthrough.” I have been so inspired and touched to hear people comment on what this has meant to them spiritually. My hope and prayer is that each of us can take a stronger spiritual confidence and passion out of this week together, as well as new habits and an appreciation of how powerful it is to create space for God in our lives.

Following are a few of the many testimonies I have received:

* I am one of the ones fasting between sunup and sundown - and I am truly amazed that I have been able to do it...it is not like me at all to skip a meal, much less food all day - but the Lord has truly brought me strength and kept me busy all day long so that I don't have to even think about it. This is the first time I have ever fasted, and I really believe it has strengthened my faith.

* No food since Sunday. Only water, orange juice, Gatorade and my morning sugar-free Red Bull. I have been traveling. I have been content to sit in restaurants with employees and clients and drink juice. I hope the discussion will turn to "why are you doing this?" I am not any more hungry than I was on the first day. I have asked God to take the pains away. I have told him that I am doing this for him and I have faith that he will provide and "fill me" with so much more than food.

* My focus toward God, and more importantly my seeking of his direction this week has been in the forefront of my mind. The absence of food and the pains associated with it have allowed me time to reflect on the blessings in my life, and the call that I have received to be a true disciple and follower of Christ as opposed to just calling myself Christian.

* Being bitter and angry has come out this week for me during my fast and I tried to blame it on my hunger, until my husband pointed it out to me, that my attitude has been bitter and angry long before my fasting. It was like a punch in the gut, but it was the truth.

* I decided no meat and no sweets, no coffee past daylight, only water the rest of the time, and only raw fruits and vegetables during daylight. No television. And pray at least 3 times a day… Every morning I have stopped at the Church Garden to pray at about 5:15 a.m. I leave with a closeness to God I don’t think I have ever felt before as I started my day.

* Suffice it to say, this fast has definitely not been the easiest thing to do, but every hour I continue in it, it seems God reveals something else to me. As a family we have given up TV in the evenings and replaced it with reading and studying the Word. We've given up listening to radio in the car and replaced it with silence, prayer, or conversation when together. I feel more at peace.

* This week has shown me more about my 4-year old daughter than anything else. I told her on Monday that we would not be watching TV this week in order to give us more time to focus on God. Yesterday she told me we were not turning on the TV today. I told her that was right. She told me we were not watching TV because the man who stands up on top of the church told us not to watch TV and to just worry about God.

Chocolate Cake and Steroids

2008-02-14T13:17:00.000-08:00

How ironic that on the night I was teaching the 9^th commandment (“Do not give false testimony against your neighbor”) in a Wednesday night class, Roger Clemens and Brian McNamee were wrapping up a day of false testimony before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in Washington, D.C. We don’t know for sure whose testimony was false, but everyone agrees that their stories are so contradictory and mutually incriminating, at least one of them is lying.

It is a sad spectacle, and a huge fall from grace for Clemens, one of Houston’s long-time sports heroes and favored sons. McNamee, Clemens’ longtime personal trainer, claims he injected Clemens with steroids and human growth hormone (HGH) between 16 and 21 times from 1998-2001. If McNamee is telling the truth, it is hard to regard Clemens’ athletic brilliance with anywhere near the same admiration. After all, for the last ten years part, of Clemens’ great appeal has been how he has seemingly defied the effects of aging through rigorous fitness and training. He has pitched superbly into his mid-40’s! If you believe McNamee is telling the truth, (and Clemens’ friend Andy Pettit’s testimony against Clemens is particularly incriminating because Pettit admits his own guilt in taking HGH a few times), it is increasingly painful and aggravating to hear Clemens’ strident denials.

When I was 19 years old, I walked into a dorm mate’s room, saw he wasn’t there, spied a delicious looking chocolate cake (already eaten from) on his desk, and took a slice back to my room. When he later asked me about it, I denied taking the slice of cake. Never mind that he would have been happy to share it with me! Never mind that there were chocolate crumbs leading from his room to mine! Never mind that our two suitemates joined him in saying, “C’mon, just admit it and we’ll forget about it!” Once I began denying it, my increasingly passionate defense actually precluded me (in my mind) from changing my story and admitting guilt. The Chocolate Cake Chronicle makes me cringe with embarrassment even a quarter century later. But I learned a good lesson: The longer you deny something, and the more people you deny it to, the harder it is to admit your guilt.

I am sure you can tell by now that I am suspicious of Clemens’ claims of innocence. But that is impossible to prove presently. We may never know the whole truth, and that is not my point for writing this anyway. My point is that if you are following the Clemens/McNamee story at all, I hope the singular lesson you take away is how much more honorable (not to mention simpler) life is when you conduct yourself honestly and tell the truth.

Some of the most powerful things in life are very simple like that.

Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing. Truthful lips endure forever, but a lying tongue lasts only a moment (Proverbs 12:18-19).

P.S. David, I took the slice of cake. But then, you already knew that.

Breakthrough

2008-02-07T06:54:00.000-08:00

From Monday through Friday February 18-22, West Houston will undertake a “Week of Prayer and Fasting for Breakthrough.” The purpose for this communal effort will be to call each of us to an individual time of consecration and prayerful reflection on our life with God, and to call our congregation to a mutual time of seeking God’s anointing and direction.

Prayer and fasting have a long history together in the Bible and in the lives of God’s people. People have prayed and fasted in a time of crisis (2 Chronicles 20:3), in confession and repentance (Daniel 9:3), while seeking direction from God (Acts 13:2), in anticipation of a new initiative for God’s work (Acts 13:3), and as part of the regular rhythm of the spiritual life (Matthew 6:16). There is something powerful that happens when we not only pray in a concerted way, but accompany that with the self-denial that is at the heart of fasting.

You might ask, what does “breakthrough” mean? What it means is a change for the better in an area of your life that is hindering you from experiencing spiritual vitality and impeding your relationship with God. For one person, it might be a marital difficulty, for another an ongoing temptation, an addiction, an estranged relationship, a besetting sin, a sense of despair and loss of hope, professional frustration, or a feeling of spiritual stagnation.

For our congregation, this may mean a greater willingness to venture out of our comfort zones to pursue God’s mission in the world, a greater engagement with the lost and hurting in our community, a deeper awareness of and partnership with the Holy Spirit, or a greater hunger to know and feed on God’s Word in the Scriptures. Or all of the above.

On Sunday February 17 each member and guest will receive a card with various options of ways to fast, from a “strict” fast of water and juice only to a fast that abstains from certain activities. We will each commit to participating in some way by turning in our cards and agreeing that the Fasting Police may check on us any time to make sure we are not violating our religious observance. That last part was a joke, friends.

Our chapel will be open from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. each night for people to come in and pray alone or in groups. A few shepherds and staff will be there each evening to pray with people who feel a special burden.

On Saturday morning, our week will culminate with a breakfast in the gym at 7:30, then a day of “Servin’ the Burbs.” We have partnered with Cypress Assistance Ministries to line up multiple work projects to help people in our community. In addition, we will do some independent projects we have identified ourselves. Imagine hundreds of West Houston folks exercising our faith and serving our community in Christ’s name on this special day! It is going to be a powerful week.

I am spending three of the four weeks in February preaching from Amos, who calls God’s people out of their “gated communities” (figuratively) to engage with the world. It is a great challenge and also a great joy. Think about how you will participate.

Letter from a Birmingham Jail

2008-01-30T10:44:00.000-08:00

I am beginning a series this week from Amos called “Strong Words for Serious Faith.” One of the commentaries I am using referenced Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.” King wrote this letter in 1963 after his arrest for leading a non-violent, “direct action” civil rights demonstration in Birmingham, Alabama, which he referred to as “probably the most thoroughly segregated city in the United States.” King wrote his open letter in response to a document circulated by eight white clergymen titled “An Appeal for Law and Order and Common Sense,” in which they expressed support for the cause of civil rights but urged it to be pursued in the courts, not in the streets.

The clergymen lamented that “outsiders” (including King) were leading the demonstrations, and that they were “extremists.” King noted that the eighth-century prophets (including Amos) “left their villages and carried their ‘thus saith the Lord’ far beyond the boundaries of their home towns.” He also noted that Amos was an “extremist” for justice. Hence my commentary’s reference.

King’s letter is a breathtaking, extraordinary expression of biblical ethics and a vision for God’s kingdom reign in the world. I printed it out to quickly glance through it and discovered that first, at ten typed pages there is nothing quick about it and second, it deserves deep reflection.

King is particularly eloquent, though it is painful to read, about his deep disappointment in the southern clergy and white churches. He notes with grateful appreciation the white Christians who “have written about our struggle in eloquent and prophetic terms, have marched with us down nameless streets in the South, have languished in filthy, roach infested jails, suffering the abuse and brutality of policemen who view them as ‘dirty n___r-lovers.’” But he expresses his dismay that far more have been “more cautious than courageous and have remained silent behind the anesthetizing security of stained glass windows,” or have “stood on the sideline and mouthed pious irrelevancies and sanctimonious trivialities.”

“In deep disappointment I have wept over the laxity of the church. But be assured that my tears have been tears of love. There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love. Yes, I love the church… Yes, I see the church as the body of Christ. But, oh! How we have blemished and scarred that body through social neglect and through fear of being nonconformists… There was a time when the church was very powerful – in the time when the early Christians rejoiced at being deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed. In those days, the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society. [Christians were] small in number but big in commitment. … By their effort and example they brought an end to such ancient evils as infanticide and gladiatorial contests. Things are different now. So often the contemporary church is a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. So often it is an archdefender of the status quo.”

This letter stands in the tradition of prophets like Amos who called God’s people out of their complacency, saying “Woe to you who are at ease in Zion.” When I read these prophetic declarations I am filled both with hope for God’s kingdom and trepidation for my personal status quos. Which may be the start of having ears to hear.

Doing Good

2008-01-23T13:09:00.000-08:00

A recent Houston Chronicle article spotlighted the second annual Souper Bowl of Caring Greater Houston Food Drive. Leading up to Super Bowl Sunday on February 3, churches, organizations and individuals will collect food to be distributed to more than 400 social service agencies around the city. The Chronicle story noted that an estimated 80,000 people each week eat meals provided by shelters, soup kitchens, food pantries, and other agencies that rely on food donations. That’s 4,000,000 meals per year in Houston alone! Some of the people who need these meals are jobless and homeless, but many are the working poor, who manage to make meager livings but can’t afford enough food for their families. I am very happy that West Houston will be participating in this wonderful effort.

The Bible talks a lot about the responsibility of God’s people to care for the poor and vulnerable in society. Moses preaches that “The Lord defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing” (Deut 10:18). Jesus teaches about living as part of God’s Kingdom, saying, “When you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous" (Luke 14:13-14). When the apostles James, Peter and John agree that Paul should be a missionary to the Gentiles while they focus on the Jews, they admonish him simply to “remember the poor” (Galatians 2:9-10). And Jesus tells a parable in Matthew 25:31-46 in which God’s people say to him at the Judgment, “'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'” And the Lord replies, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'

In Acts 9:36 we are told about a disciple named Tabitha (or Dorcas) who is “always doing good and helping the poor.” She becomes sick and dies; her body is washed and prepared for burial. But Peter arrives and prays over her and she is brought back to life. I feel this is somewhat parabolic in that I believe God is calling suburban churches like ours to be prayed over and brought back to life, as it were, in the matter of doing good and helping the poor. We have tended to identify and support inner city missions, which is wonderful, while turning a (relatively) blind eye and deaf ear to the poor in our area. In the summer of 2006 I interviewed the directors of Bear Creek Assistance Ministries and Cypress Assistance Ministries. Each of these agencies is very well run and organized, and each is swamped with people using its food assistance, job training, and clothing and furniture thrift offerings. There is a great harvest of good to be done in our area in the name of Jesus, whom we are told was anointed by God and “went around doing good” (Acts 10:38).

I am excited that our elders have begun working on a five year strategic plan for West Houston that will help us maximize our impact in northwest Houston. Greater efforts devoted to community outreach and service will be a part of that plan. Let’s fill the auditorium with food donations on Souper Sunday and do some great good.

We Firmly Believe

2008-01-17T07:53:00.000-08:00

As I finish the “Faith & Finances” message series, I want to share the following testimony by Kris and Christy Bailey, a 30’s-something couple at West Houston. Enjoy. – Matt Soper (1/20/08).

About six years ago we were in a class taught by Steve Morris about finances from a biblical standpoint. As he talked one week about tithing, something he said rang home: the idea that we can do more with 90% of our money and God’s help than with 100% of our money on our own. We were really struggling with our finances and wrestling with how much we should be giving to the Church and other things.

We both had good paying jobs, but we had a bad habit of putting stuff on a credit card. Our mounting debt was drowning us financially. Before being in Steve’s class we had been convicted that we should really be giving more to the church, and we had set an eventual goal of 10%. While in Steve’s class we asked him if he could take some time to sit down with us and help us work out a budget and get the debt snowball moving in the other direction.

After this, we decided to put into effect the other part of the equation and begin giving 10% of our gross income to the church. This was a big faith leap because it didn’t work out on paper. Yet, almost from the get-go we began to see God blessing us in ways we hadn’t imagined. I got better than average raises at work and had the opportunity to work more overtime. When our son was born, Christy was presented with the opportunity to work contract from home, then was offered an even better paying job with another company with full benefits but still working from home. I eventually got six raises in five years at my last company, then was offered a job with a substantial raise at a company that I had wanted to go to work with for several years but had given up on.

I could tell you a great number of little stories along the way about how God has provided for us. And I can’t proclaim that we were miraculously delivered from our debt because although we have made great strides, it has been a long process and we are not free of it yet. But we have received many financial blessings along the way from God. Some of them have seemed truly miraculous and without explanation, others have been more concrete. But they have all come from God, and we firmly believe they are a product of our being faithful with our money and putting our financial life in God’s hands. Truly, we have been able to do FAR more with 90% (and even less sometimes) of our money with God’s help than we would have been able to do with 100% of it by ourselves.

-- Kris and Christy Bailey

Questions About Giving

2008-01-10T15:09:00.000-08:00

This week my essay serves as an addendum to the message I am preaching on “The Grace of Giving” from II Corinthians 9:6-8, the second in a three-week series called “Faith and Finances: A Winning Combination!” I want to address nuts-and-bolts questions that many Christians have about financial giving. Let’s dive right in.

Given that the Bible teaches us to give God our first fruits (Proverbs 3:9-10), how much should I give?

The basic benchmark for financial giving to the Lord and his work is the tithe (10%). This was a requirement of God’s people in the Old Testament (Lev. 27:30-33, Deut. 14:22-29, Mal. 3:8-12, et al.). Indeed, is some evidence indicates there were two tithes and an offering to the poor (totaling about 23%) asked of Jewish people. Be that as it may, the New Testament does not specifically continue this commandment. This places tithing under the realm of Christian freedom. In most ways, Jesus calls his followers to consider the Old Testament Law a starting point rather than an ending one (see Matthew 5:21-48). For this reason, Christians should aspire to tithe, seeing our giving as a means of spiritual growth. Once we tithe, we should not consider ourselves to have “arrived” but rather to have reached a foundation upon which we can then give tithes and offerings, trusting in God’s promise that he blesses our efforts to give.

What portion of my giving should go to my local church?

This is an issue very much between the giver and God. I have chosen to always give my tithe to the local church and to give offerings to other ministries. I view the local church as God’s primary work in the world and certainly as the foundation of my own worship and service of God. Yet, there are many good ministries and causes for Christ worth giving to. Seek God’s leading on this. I would urge you, though, to make the local church the foundation (largest %) of your total giving, for the following reasons: 1) It is (or should be) your spiritual home and spiritual family, where you worship, serve, hear and learn the Word, commune at the Table, fellowship with and minister to others, and 2) It is (or should be) giving to some of the same causes you want to, such as missionaries, children’s homes, and ministries to the poor. In other words, your contribution isn’t used just for building and grounds, staff salaries, supplies, and events. Not that you don’t appreciate those too, I’m sure.

What if my church isn’t doing much to help the poor or do evangelism, and my contribution only helps maintain the status quo?

Talk to or write a note to the leaders and express your concerns. Most leaders are eager to know the hearts of their people. If you don’t see any change after repeated efforts, find another church. I don’t mean to be flip, but to just reduce or redirect one’s contribution while continuing to worship and fellowship with the very church with whose mission and values one so strongly disagrees seems to lack integrity. Let me say that most churches need to direct more of their resources and ministries to the poor and to evangelism. West Houston is making strides in this area.

The apostle Paul tells the Corinthians that just as they excel in other spiritual gifts, so should they seek to excel in “this grace of giving” (II Cor. 8:7). Financial giving is a beautiful grace that God promises will enrich us and increase “the harvest of our righteousness” (II Cor. 9:10). Amen, Lord. Let it be so.

Raising up a Testimony

2008-01-03T11:59:00.000-08:00

Angela and the girls and I spent five days between Christmas and New Years being tourists in New York City. We stayed in a loaned apartment in midtown Manhattan, walked the streets and rode the subways and hailed the cabs, saw many of the sights, attended a play, ate bagels in the morning and ethnic dishes during the day and delicious meals at night, and generally just took in the Big Apple. It was an awesome family experience.

One of the highlights for me was attending the Sunday morning worship service at the Times Square Church (tscnyc.org).We had come out of the Gershwin theatre on Saturday afternoon after seeing “Wicked” and there the church building was, right across the street on Broadway and 51^st, in a renovated theatre with a huge sign that stood out in a wonderful way. The church was planted in 1987 when David Wilkerson, who had spent the 1950’s and 1960’s ministering to young drug addicts and gang members, and whose book, The Cross and the Switchblade, has sold over 50 million copies, heard a call from God. He describes it thus:

“In 1986, while walking down 42nd Street at midnight, my heart broke over what I saw. Times Square was populated mainly by prostitutes and pimps, runaways, drug addicts and hustlers, along with live peep shows and X-rated movie houses. I cried out for God to do something—anything—to help these physically destitute and spiritually dead people. I saw 9-, 10- and 11-year-old kids bombed on crack cocaine. I walked down 42nd Street and they were selling crack. Len Bias, the famous basketball player, had just died of a crack overdose, and the pusher was yelling, ‘Hey, I’ve got the stuff that killed Len.’ I wept and prayed, ‘God, you’ve got to raise up a testimony in this hellish place…’ The answer was not what I wanted to hear: ‘Well, you know the city. You’ve been here. You do it.’”

Today over 8,000 people worship weekly at Times Square Church, representing over 100 nationalities, with outreach ministries to
“the fatherless, the widows, the oppressed, the destitute, the addicted and the poor,” and annual mission trips to dozens of countries. I arrived at 9:55 for the 10:00 worship service; the auditorium was already packed and overflowing. Three annex rooms with digital screens to simulcast the service were also packed with at least a thousand more people. There was singing and praise for about fifty minutes, a time to give offerings, then announcements. The preacher was only beginning his sermon at 11:10 when I had to leave to make our afternoon flight. I found it tremendously inspiring to worship side-by-side with people of so many enthnicities, socio-economic levels, ages, and dialects. I marveled at the power of the Holy Spirit to touch so many lives in the heart of Manhattan and gather such a diverse group of people into the Body of Christ.

Friends, the church is called to be a mission center to a lost and hurting world, and we are partners with the Holy Spirit in the adventure. That’s true in northwest Houston every bit as much as it is in New York City. In the words of one African evangelist, let’s “be done with low living, sight walking, small planning, smooth knees, colorless dreams, tamed visions, mundane talking, cheap living, and dwarfed goals.” Let’s raise up a testimony together!

For the Person Who Has Everything

2007-12-20T08:24:00.001-08:00

Each of us has people in our life for whom it is difficult to find a suitable Christmas present. For me it’s my parents. They pretty much have everything they need and want. My mother has asked for “anything perishable.” She wants to be able to eat it or use it and not have anything left over! My father and stepmother don’t want any more “stuff” either, and specifically asked not to receive anything edible. They are on a rigorous fitness plan and don’t want any sweets or baked goods to derail them. What in the world do you give folks who have everything?!

This challenge prompted me to recall a book by William Willimon called “The Gospel for the Person Who Has Everything.” Willimon, a preacher and scholar, reflects on what has become the standard Christian testimony, which goes something like this. “I was miserable, then I found Jesus.” This pattern hearkens back to influential church leaders in history like Augustine and Martin Luther, who indeed had dramatic conversion experiences arising out of personal crises. But Willimon asserts that we short-change the power of the gospel when we insist, in effect, that people can only come to saving faith in Jesus from personal despair.

“Look at the many ways people are called by God in the Bible. Abraham, a rich and contented desert sheikh, was out gazing at the stars one night. Moses was a murderer hiding in the wilderness. Isaiah was at prayer in the temple. Peter was fishing. The little man in the tree (Zaccheus) was curious. Matthew was at the office counting money. Paul was on a pious errand.”

When we narrow the gospel’s ability to transform peoples’ lives by framing it as medicine for only troubled souls, we inadvertently convince people who don’t feel an overt need that the Christian faith has nothing to say to them (until they are in crisis).

Willimon notes how much greater credit to the power of the Christian gospel it is for a person to be able to testify:

“I was happy and fulfilled. Each day was sheer joy to me, and life was a shower of blessings. Then Jesus showed me how much greater joy life could be when I rose above the selfish pursuit of my own happiness and the preoccupation with my own problems. In losing my life for others and for him and his work, in using my blessings for something greater than myself, I found my true life.”

In many ways this describes the journey to my baptism into Christ in 1983 at age 20. I didn’t feel any overt personal need for God; my life was indeed looking very promising. But what grabbed me about the gospel was Jesus’ call to give myself to something bigger than myself, to be (re)claimed by God for his purposes. Scripture says that in Christ “we are what God has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life” (Ephesians 2:10). Did I need to be forgiven of my sins and saved “through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5)? Of course. But the gospel spoke even more powerfully to my need and desire to live for something bigger than myself through a relationship with Jesus.

I’m still pondering what I will give my parents for Christmas. And I’m thanking God for the gift of his Son, who came not just for the desperate but for everyone. Merry Christmas.

The Tail and the Dog

2007-12-12T07:32:00.000-08:00

This week I sat down with some financial software and did a sort of year-end review of Soper spending in 2007. One of my purposes was to make sure we had given what we had intended to give to West Houston and the other ministries we support. Each year Angela and I decide the percentage of our gross income we are going to give away, and then we decide the recipients (most recipients continue year to year). The local church always gets the first ten percent (our “tithe”) and then other ministries/organizations get the remainder (our “offerings”). I remember hearing a sermon in the 1980’s about how in the Old West a man always took care of his horse first, and the local church is a Christian’s “horse.” That made a big impression on me and it has been my paradigm since.

Well, sure enough, when I ran the report our offerings didn’t equal what we purposed to give at the beginning of the year. I talked to Angela and we decided to take it out of our savings to meet our “obligations” (self-described) for the year. I feel good about that decision, but here is the main thing I want to focus on. Isn’t it significant that our offerings fell behind what we intended for the year, instead of ahead? I suppose it’s possible that some people discover at the end of the year they gave more than they planned (I admire that!), especially if they experienced an unexpected financial inflow of some kind. But my bet would be that most of us give less than we intend. We mean well, but then life circumstances interfere: we incur unexpected expenses, or we pursue opportunities to do or buy special things.

Here is where the real spiritual challenge takes place. Will we let the tail wag the dog or will we insist that the dog wag the tail? In other words, will we let our lifestyle choices determine our giving to God, or will we insist that our giving to God determine our lifestyle choices? In many ways, our finances are a spiritual battleground. Will we serve God or money/lifestyle? This is why Jesus mentions money so often in his teachings and why he uses so many examples that involve money and stewardship: he knows that this will be a continuing spiritual challenge for us and that how we address it will determine in many respects what kind of disciples we become.

Let me challenge you in this regard: Ask yourself what your financial giving this year to the Lord’s church says about your discipleship. Does it reflect favorably? If not, will you make the changes necessary to “give” the way you want to “walk” with Jesus? If you ran a personal financial report for 2007, would you be ashamed or satisfied with the percentage of your income you gave to God? What would you say to God if he asked you, “What kind of steward have you been of the resources I blessed you with in 2007?”

Some people complain that preachers talk too much about money, and maybe this has been uncomfortable for you to read. But Jesus said, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21). God wants our hearts, and he knows that our hearts can’t be separated from our checkbooks. This is true for everyone.

Have you given God room to bless your financial faith choices? If you can make sure the dog (giving to God) wags the tail (lifestyle choices) instead of vice-versa, you are on the right path.