Creatio Ex Nihilo

Re-Imagining You: Why Can't You Be Like Jesus?

When you were growing up did your parents ever compare you to other kids?  Parents try to avoid comparing their children to others, and certainly ever doing so  verbally, to their child.  Sometimes it just can’t be avoided.  Especially when there is another kid in the neighborhood who just excels at everything.  You know the type I mean, honor roll student, Eagle Scout, talented, a great athlete, always polite, always outside doing their chores.  It’s too good to pass up.  So when one’s own kid gets in trouble or neglects doing something. A parent is often tempted to point at the kid next door and say in frustration, “Why can’t you be like them?”

 That’s a lot to dump on a kid.  I feel for bad for anyone who grows up that way; always being made to feel inferior, like you don’t quite measure up.  If that’s how you grew up you can take consolation in this little fact.  At least you didn’t grow up next door to Jesus.  Can you imagine?

“Schlomo!  I sent you to the market an hour ago to buy wine.  The kid next store just made six jars of it in five minutes!  Why can’t you be like Jesus?”

That would be cruel comparison to place on anyone, yet in his letter to the Corinthian church, Paul does just that.  As often is the case, Paul uses the “why can’t you be like them” in the midst of conflict.  Sometimes we forget that Paul was a controversial figure in his lifetime, not just among those who were opposed to the new Jesus movement, but even among those within it.  Throughout his preaching career, Paul was engaged in a heated debate with the leaders of this new movement.  Specifically, his argument was with the Jerusalem faction and people like Peter and James.  The Jerusalem church viewed the Jesus movement as essentially Jewish.  Therefore, if a Gentile wanted to follow Jesus, he would first need to convert to Judaism,be circumcised and follow its purity laws.  In contrast, Paul believed that Gentile followers of Jesus, such as the Corinthians to whom he was writing, did not need follow all the prescriptions of the Torah.

Eventually, Paul and the Jerusalem church came to a compromise.  As a show of good faith, Paul agreed to receive a collection from his churches in places like Greece, to be given to the poor in Jerusalem.  Evidently, among their many other problems, the Christians in Corinth had fallen behind in their giving to this cause.  Like a parent comparing their kid to the honor student next door, Paul brings up another one of his churches to the Corinthians.  He holds up the church in Macedonia as an example to them.  Even though they were facing tough economic times, Paul says, on their own accord the Macedonians gave not just within their means, but beyond their means.  He reminds the Corinthians of all of which with they have been blessed, understanding, eloquence and love and exhorts them to excel in generosity.

As we read Paul’s words, our more cynical side may recoil just a bit.  (As Conan says, “Don’t be cynical.” I’m with Coco.) We are tempted to dismiss Paul’s words as manipulative and maybe even self-serving.  In our jaded context, his words may bring to mind a televangelist pushing the guilt buttons of his audience.  With all the hypocrisy and scandals we have seen in churches over the past couple of decades, our skepticism is understandable.  However, if we truly want to re-imagine ourselves in the image of Christ, we will need to move past our unease with preachers talking about topics such as giving and money.  Generosity and stewardship are not merely subjects to tack onto discipleship.  They are integral to it.

Re-Imagining You: Bad Influence

My job as a preacher would be so much easier if the Bible asked us to do easy things.  It would be easier if it asked us to do things with which contemporary culture more or less agreed.  Better still, my preaching would be greatly simplified if the Bible always agreed with itself, if every verse seamlessly blended every other verse and wasn’t ever in tension with the others. 

Thankfully, the Bible is not easy.   It often goes against the grain of our contemporary values.  Sometimes, it even goes against the grain of itself, a particular passage stands out as difficult to reconcile with others.  Even more difficult, a text may be in great tension with the overarching biblical themes of love and grace, of the ever-expanding story of God including more people into God’s story.

 2 Corinthians 6 is a case in point.  If you have ever sang in a band or choir with other people, you know there’s always that one person whose voice just doesn’t fit in.  The rest of the group will blend together creating this thing of beauty, this unified voice, and one person just sticks out.  Whether it’s their pitch, tone or timing, they sound like they simply don’t belong in the choir. 

To me, the words of 2 Corinthians 6 are that oddball voice that I wish would just go away.  In the gospel’s beautiful voice of inclusiveness, it stands out like the geeky kid in the glee club.  In the midst of Paul’s uplifting choruses of reconciliation and expanding the Jesus movement beyond just one ethnic group, we hear this dissonant passage of separatism.  Older translations say, “Don’t be unequally yoked with unbelievers.”

To our multicultural ears that sounds arrogant and judgmental.  It implies that those who hold different beliefs than ours are somehow inferior and perhaps even evil.  Few of us would want to think of ourselves that way as we are re-imaging ourselves in Christ this month.  I would suggest that grating passages such as this one, offer us the opportunity to grow deeper in our life with Jesus, move past tired clichés about inclusiveness, and empower us to be truly re-imagined in the image of Christ. 

Helping Haiti

On a more proactive note, there are many ways we can help the people of Haiti.  Right now we can give to relief efforts such as UMCOR.  If you know of additional ways to help, please share them in the comments section.  At Vision we will be looking into more ways we can bring relief in the future.

Pat Robertson and Haiti - Where Do I Even Begin...

In the above clip Pat Robertson once again claims that the suffering of a people is a direct result of their sin.  In this case, he says the earthquake in Haiti, as well as its extreme poverty are the result of a "deal they made with the Devil" to be free of French rule. 

Where do I even begin with this one?

It would be easy to mock Pat or be snarky, but I'll try to resist that temptation.  Increasingly, I have come to believe there is little chance that those who hold to Robertson's cosmology and theology will ever come around.   They simply have too much invested in this "cause and effect" theodicy to ever give it up.  Additionally, such theology has a built in Catch-22 that ensures its perpetuation.  Merely questioning it causes its adherents to fear they will be next on God's hit list of earthquakes, hurricanes or terrorist attacks.

Likewise, there is little point in preaching to the choir on this one.  I like to think that across the board, most Evangelicals, Mainliners, Progressives, and Emergents all find Robertson's statement distasteful on some level.  So there's little point in mockery or satire.

Robertson's statement is more than just fodder for Jon Stewart.  Likewise, it cannot be excused by saying "Oh, theology is just too complicated for me.  Leave that to the intellectuals and let's just all love the Lord."  

The ugliness of Robertson's statement is that it is no different than saying that rape victim was asking for it.  Blaming the victim, in the case of natural disasters or poverty is simply ignorant.  It gives the accuser the false comfort of thinking such tragedies will never befall them.  While there is little we can do to prevent natural disasters, there is much we can do about poverty.  Unbridled greed and consumerism, along with apathy, cause poverty - not pacts with demonic beings.

To his credit, I am sure Robertson's ministries will do much to alleviate the suffering in Haiti.  But what he is giving with one hand he is tearing down with the other.  Like his previous statements, Robertson's statement does nothing to further the cause of the gospel in the world.  I believe that through Christ, God is reconciling the whole world to God's self, not inflicting natural disasters upon other cultures.

So Pat - pray for Haiti, send them aid, but for Christ's sake (and I mean that literally) please shut up.

Re-Imagining You: Cosmic Reconciliation

Whether you consider yourself a Christian or not, or whether you’re heavily involved in church or not, you’ve probably heard of Rick Warren’s book, “The Purpose Driven Life.”  It sold over 20 million copies.  Before Warren wrote that book, he wrote another one, known mostly to clergy and other church leaders called “The Purpose Driven Church.”  In it, he outlined five purposes which within the church, always need to be in  balance.  Those purposes are worship, fellowship, discipleship, ministry and evangelism.

While I think those are all great purposes for a church to have, I like to probe deeper.  When you think about it, those purposes make sense if you’re already in church and bought into the whole God and Jesus thing.  What if you haven’t?  Or what if, like some of us at Vision, you’re a work in process and just exploring Christianity?  In other words, to ask a deeper question, what is the purpose of the five purposes?

 What is the purpose of getting together a worshipping, or assigning worth to God?  And fellowship - it’s such a churchy word.  Why do it?  Isn’t it just a fancy word for socializing?  Discipleship - we’re big on that here in Vision.  We say our mission is form disciples or followers of Jesus? But why?  Why not make followers of some other wise good teacher?  Ministry - is it just to give people in the church something to do?  Is it merely to make us feel like we’re doing something worthwhile?  Can’t we do good things in the world without bringing God into it?  

And evangelism?  Why is it so important to let invite other people onto our journey?  As Larry David puts it in “Curb Your Enthusiasm”, “Why do you Christians take everything so personally with Christ?  Not only do you have to worship him, you want everybody to.  It’s like I like lobster. Do I go around pushing lobster on people… It’s not only where you live you travel all over the world.  You go to Africa,’Eat lobster!  It’s good!’”

Actually, Larry David asks a very good question.  Some of the deepest theological questions are in fact, being asked outside the church in movies and TV shows.  That may make us squirm a bit.  Possibly because we secretly fear we have no real answer to those sorts of questions.  So what is the purpose behind the purposes we give for being the church?

Re-Imagining You: The Unseen You

As 2009 drew to a close, it was a time of celebration for many people.  Their glee was not so much about joyfully ringing in 2010 as it was about leaving 2009 behind.  Over this past week, I couldn’t help but notice all the news stories, tweets and status updates from those who had a bad year being positively giddy about kissing 2009 goodbye.  A friend with whom I used to work and lost her job last year wrote, “Good riddance 2009.  You stunk!”

 Regardless of how 2009 went for you, we are all familiar with the feeling of gladness that can accompany bidding good riddance to the past.  Sometimes when leaving behind a town, a relationship, or a job, it gives us a sense of hope for the future.  Sometimes it’s as simple as cleaning out a room or throwing things away, which gives us a sense of optimism.  We long for fresh starts, unencumbered from that which weighed us down in the past.  They make us feel that anything is possible for us.

Fortunately, for those of us in the church business, Christianity specializes in this area.  Following Jesus is all about leaving the past behind and being given a fresh start.  In our various Christian traditions we call that experience by different names - conversion, being born again, being saved, or as we say here at Vision, transformed into disciples.  Unfortunately, for some of us, we locate that experience only in our past.  It was a one-time event that happened years ago.  We made a fresh start with God in our past and now we find ourselves out of steam or off track. So we wonder, how do we get a second, third or fourth fresh start in life.  Some of us need one.

Equally unfortunate, is that others locate their fresh start off in the future.  Their fresh start is something God has in store for us when we die and go to heaven.

At first glance, it may seem that that is what the apostle Paul has in view in the fifth chapter of Second Corinthians.  We spent some time this past summer exploring what this letter of Paul’s had to teach us about being a healthy church.  This month we’ll explore it further, and what it has to teach us about re-imagining ourselves as human beings and as God’s people.