Wednesday, March 19, 2008

God of Relevance...

"What if we took Jesus to culture?" -Me

"No, Jesus goes where He wants." -Waylon
This state of mind that we seem to pursue as a church that we must chase after culture with the official stamp of Jesus totally is irrelevant. Simply because Jesus is alive, and he walks where he wants to. We cannot actually take Jesus anywhere because Jesus is the one leading.

Ironic that we so consistently want to be Jesus' missionaries and bring Jesus to people. In reality we are just following Christ to where he already has made his stamp. We are not his messengers we are His witnesses. We witness and proclaim what He has done, what He is doing, and what He will do.

When we start getting startled and focused on what other churches are doing we become complacent to being witnesses to what Christ is doing. This is a very dangerous line to walk and could potentially be a catalyst for communal idol worship. When Christ becomes the God of relevance instead of the God of all then we have stumbled into a very dark place.

We start trying to proclaim the Gospel from darkness instead of from light. We start trying to proclaim the Gospel from a cultural impact instead of from a Jesus impact. This cultural relevance that seeps into our Gospel creates the fundamentalism and liberalism that we all despise from one point or from another. We get lost in the Black, White, or the Gray.

So are we going to worship the God of relevance or are we going to worship the God of all?

Easter Reflection.

We are in Holy Week.

This and the fact that I have been locked away in a library in Minnesota studying the aspects of faith have brought me to a reflection of the Easter story.

This is my Easter reflection: Christ defeats death by submitting to it and then overcoming it by the authority of life.

Now this seems to be the obvious realization when one comes into church on that annual Sunday morning.

However, I have not ever grappled with the reality that Christ submitted to death. He, giving up Heaven, put flesh on and adopted the human nature. This reality of human nature is not the same as the sinful nature. For Christ did not sin which displays that the human nature is not a sinful nature. If the human nature was the sinful nature Christ would not have been able to put flesh on. If the sacrifice of the pure lamb that morning was impure than the sacrifice would have been pointless. Christ submitted to death and in turn had the ability to defeat it through the authority of true life.

This reality of what true life is can be flushed out in the church by the renewal and the restoration of the dying souls, through the life of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. We are called to realize that when we die to ourselves every day we should walk joyfully into death because the authority of life that we will receive in turn has the ability to defeat death in everything that has fallen and is dying, by default not by choice. Because when you die by choice you are losing everything but in the process of losing everything you are gaining faith in which life is possible.

So would I give up Heaven for you? Yes because Christ gave up Heaven for me, but in doing so he unlatched the door that allows for every single person to live.

For Christ defeated death by submitting to it and then overcame it with the authority of Life.

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Would I give up Heaven for you?

The reality of reaching into the depth of the deep darkness in someone else's soul by the light hand of the own tension in our soul truly determines the reality of our own capacity to love.

This reality of being in love, not romantically, but in life. We have masqueraded the light that we have been given through grace, by the sacrifice and life of Christ, through cultural relevance and our perception of seeing the world in the "gray area." So many times we view theology in concrete colors. Which seems appropriate because theology is the study of God but knowing God is not concrete, at least not in the way that we have propagated it.

God does not play by the rules of black and white. He, being the creator, determines the life that is being given. God determines whether rules even exist or not. With this in mind our black and white concrete realities cannot truly exist in the realm of our Creator because when we see the Good News as a big picture we realize that Christ put on flesh and submitted himself to this world and to a human nature. This reality is a paradox because Christ gave up Heaven for each of us to make sure that we would experience the ecstasy of God.

So, why should we be so concerned if we are commanded to love one another recklessly? What IF we were called to give up Heaven for our brother or sister?

This idea reminds me of the movie What Dreams May Come. Robin Williams is the main character and in the beginning of the movie he has a beautiful family. Two wonderful children and an amazing wife. Unfortunately his children get killed in a car accident and his beautiful life starts to fall apart. He and his wife go through a traumatic period and Williams is the sustaining foundation for their marriage. Then a sudden twist and Williams ends up getting killed in a freak car accident as well. He ends up going to Heaven and enjoys the wonder and awe of what Heaven could possibly be. Then one day he receives news that his wife has died and he gets excited because he figures he will see her, but he is told that since she ended her own life that her soul is sent where the most despairing souls are sent. Williams can't handle the reality of not spending eternity with his soul mate and goes on a quest to save her. He is meant with the darkest challenges of the soul, and finally ends up outside their house. He is told that if he goes in he may never come out, because when you are surrounded by darkness you start to forget what hope is like.

He goes in to save her and ends up losing everything.


But he wakes to find himself in Heaven. He wonders how he got there and he sees his wife. She told him that when he lost it all is when she gained it.

The simple sacrifice of losing Heaven for someone else. The simple quest of loving the other person in a way that represents the cross.

The question still lingers...would I give up Heaven for you? As I reflect on Easter in my next post I think the answer will be found.

Monday, March 03, 2008

Decisions.

I read this on www.postsecret.com this morning. The funny thins is that I totally registered with it. I do the exact same thing when I enter a room. That is actually one reason why I refuse to have my back towards the door when I am in a room or in a restaurant. I actually started thinking about this idea. This reality that haunts my thoughts when I go somewhere, anywhere, really. Some may call me paranoid or even erratic but I wonder how many other people my age actually think this when they enter a mall, a school, or even their own homes?
Which leads me to the reality that I don't know what my writing does for many of my peers. I come to my blog partly for my own reflection but also partly to try and spread the Good news to anyone who reads it. The question is if we are in such a state of despair in this world what's the point of one blog writer? Why does it matter?
So I once again am departing from the Internet. It seems that I have not much to say any longer in this world of despair other than Christ is the only peace that seems conceivable.
If you haven't understood that from my writing then I have failed to communicate it clearly.