Category Archives: christian

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Christians, Stop Shoving!

Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.

“Wild Geese” by Mary Oliver

A number of years ago, before Chris Tomlin was a praise band must-know, Cathy and I went to a Steven Curtis Chapman concert which featured Tomlin and Jeremy Camp as openers.  Tomlin absolutely “stole the show” creating a worship space out of a concert center and leaving the audience so tired after standing and singing with him that when Chapman came out, we mostly just sat and listened politely.  We were apparently all thinking the same thing, “when Chapman finally stops singing, I am going to find that tiny Chris Tomlin booth in the lobby and buy his CD.”  And so, after the last prayer (for a safe ride home) we stormed the lobby where a crush of people were all trying to get to the swamped table at the same time.  As Cathy and I were being pushed, gouged and jerked around there was one of those odd unplanned moments of quiet, and then we heard a voice thick with 100% pure, honest, adolescent sarcasm say, “Christians, stop shoving!”

Of course, I know Christian people are still people and act accordingly but the memory of that night brings about a question I have been asking myself, God and others since I walked into Highland Park Baptist Church at the age of 17 and heard the gospel for the first time.

Why aren’t Christians more peaceful?

In Christianity we seem to have a long-distance relationship with peace.  We treat it like a spouse who happens to be in Antarctica doing research. We show peace’s picture around, telling people all about it and how much we love it and miss it, but we don’t have any real plans to make the journey to get it or unite with it full time.

Oh, good! Satellite radio! Now peace and I can Skype, or play a game of checkers together.

The key to the question seems to be that Christians don’t really have a place for “peace practices” as part of their expectation, liturgy or understanding.  Churches are full of programming – book groups, Sunday School, Youth group, Divorce Recovery groups,  Chronic Illness Support Groups, Mommy Groups, and Christian men’s breakfasts. We have plenty of space and  time devoted to Upward Sports and downward spirals.  But not peace.

Let’s face it – church worship is anything but peaceful.  We have so much stuff crammed into that hour (50 minutes if you go to the early service) – music, pastoral prayer, announcements of more activity, sermon, communion, children’s sermon, offering, special music – that churches who do “passing of the peace” often give the practice a very generous 2 minutes where people turn to the person next to them, shake hands and tersely mumble, “peace by unto you” before sitting down and waiting for the worship train to leave the station once more.  In church peace is simply a rest stop.

Every once in a while, a “peace trend” will hit the church. A few years ago it was Labyrinth walks – encouraging church members to come and walk the maze of contemplation gathering peace.  Some churches even committed all the way into digging up the grounds and building replicas of the Chartres labyrinth into their property. Others used the easier and more fleeting “Labyrinth In A Can”.

Just make sure to pack the peace up and put it away before the Swinging Seventies group comes in for tea and bible study.

But the labyrinths grew over or got put away because the Lenten family fair needed the fellowship hall floor.  Taize is another peace practice churches flirt with – holding it once a year as a special service and making sure to warn people there won’t be any talking.   We adore Buddhist monks and invite them to speak whenever possible, because we secretly envy their seemingly solid, enlightened peace.  We love peace – but our love for it and our church’s ability to encourage it don’t often work together.

Churches are made of people. And so, if we want a church and a faith more centered in peace – then we as the building blocks must have peace in ourselves first.  Jesus seemed to know we as a faith community would have problems with peace.  I think that’s why he said, “MY peace I give you.”  Because he knew we weren’t very likely to get some of our own. Listen to his words:

 “All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.  Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”  John 14:25-27

So what can we do to become a peace-filled people?

1.  Take responsibility for your peace.  Don’t expect the church to hand it to you or create a program for you to accumulate peace like so many glass beaded crosses we get from the Women’s Mission Project.  Don’t expect a TV guru or  a book with a lotus on the cover to overwhelm your heart with calm.  Jesus tells us the Holy Spirit will “teach you all things” — that means YOU have to learn.  Set aside space, time, attention for peace practices in your life.

Oh Geez – I can already hear you shouting, “Are you crazy? You must live in a fantasy world. I have KIDS, WORK, DOGS, CHORES, CHURCH, CHURCH CHORES, LIFE. I don’t have time for peace!!!”  Stop yelling, it’s not very peaceful. And stop making excuses while you’re at it.  People with children can still find peace.  Work with it.  Work with your kids – maybe teaching them to meditate (if only for 5 minutes) or sit a listen to a nice peaceful song with you would start them on a better road.  Ultimately – how are you gonna do it?  I don’t know.  But ask the Holy Spirit to teach you how — don’t just leave the spirit standing at the door while you say, “I’m too busy to learn peace today.”

2. Don’t be ashamed of your peace.  In America we value stress and productivity. The more stressful and harried you are – the more important you must be.  We have lifted Steve Jobs up as the pinnacle of American success and then mumble quietly, “he was a work addict, mean-spirited, and isolated.”   All this push for activity makes it seem as if you are some kind of freak or socialist-communist-hippie-loser if you manage to get to work on time, walk in calmly, and smile because you feel at peace.  It’s not popular to live at a sane pace – and sometimes it even takes sacrifices (sorry, I can’t be in another book club, take on another bible class, start another jogging group).  But the solid joy and peace it provides makes it worth it.

“I do not give as the world gives,” says Jesus.  The world gives with strings. The world gives with false promises.  The world gives with “karma” (what you do comes back to you). The world gives with stress.  Jesus gives unconditionality, truth,  grace, and peace.  Don’t be ashamed to have those gifts.

3.  Lose your peace when it matters.  Jesus wasn’t some prozac driven happy guy who never lost his cool. He was angry (we love that temple story, don’t we?), he was sad, he was annoyed, he was argumentative.  But, all of those times we see his less-than-overtly peaceful side — were for good reason.  Jesus got angry over corruption, sad over loss, annoyed with stupid entrapping Pharisee questions, and argumentative with anyone who tried to say the Kingdom of God should leave someone out.

Don’t lose your peace over political differences with your neighbor, whether the youth group spilled juice on the new carpet, or who at work doesn’t have to use a copier code like you do.  Don’t give up your peace fighting over whether God helps football players, or which translation is the ONE TRUE TRANSLATION of the Bible.   Lose your peace over the millions of hungry people in the world, the physical violence toward women and children that happens in countries large and small, the spiritual violence of intolerance aimed at so many vulnerable people.  You want to be upset? Be upset where it matters.  Leave the guy who cut you off on the freeway to God (and accept that he may get grace instead of karma).

I heard a young man say not long ago, “As far as I’m concerned Christianity is just another hate group.”  I grieved his opinion, but also saw the logic by which he had achieved it.  We have been so busy allowing the loud, angry voices of faith dominate the media, the church, and the grocery store that we are playing catch-up in trying to show the world that we really are a love group – that has somehow lost its peace.   Let’s make an effort as individuals who make up the body of Christ to get it back, and this time – stay with it.

Christians, stop shoving.

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Will the Real Superman Please Stand Up?

“What is REAL?” asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. “Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?”

“Real isn’t how you are made,” said the Skin Horse. “It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.”

The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams

We like to look back in time and marvel at the things folks used to believe and act upon. The people of  Salem believed in witches and executed people. The people in the Dark Ages believed water spirits lived inside stone wells, and they took the Roman aqueducts apart.  People in the 1500′s believed touching a piece of wood that might have been Jesus’ cross could heal them from sickness and they gave everything they had to touch it.  Witches, fairies, relics — they all have gone out of favor now.  Yet, in our marvelous technologically blessed world with virtual pets, friends, and connections it is getting harder and harder for us to distinguish what is real.

  • Is a facebook friend a real friend?
  • Is an ad you see online an opportunity or a scam?
  • Is a movie “based on a true story” really true?

No matter how superior we think we are, we – like our ancestors centuries ago – struggle to know what’s real.  That struggle came to light for me this week on facebook when a gentleman trying to convince a group of comic book fans that demons don’t exist accidentally stumbled into quicksand when he blurted out that Superman was not real.

What do you mean I'm not real? I'm on a US Postage Stamp! Can YOU say that?

It started innocently enough. A comic book store owner posted an article by a Catholic priest who is an “expert on exorcisms” about the idea that maybe Heath Ledger had somehow been possessed by a demon during his performance in the Batman movie.  It wasn’t an idea I put much stock into, but it spawned an interesting conversation.  A self-proclaimed atheist was the first person to post.  He started us off by saying, “How does one get to be an “expert” in something that isn’t real? I swear, we get stupider and stupider.”

The argument went on from there.  He stated that anything real had to be tested for, proven, and verified – or it was not real.   I offered the idea that not everything could be proven by a test or confirmed by a physical reaction.  For example, there were diseases that did not have tests which confirm their presence but were diagnosed by exclusion – by ruling out other things.  MS is one such disease.  That prompted this exchange (his identity concealed):

The rest of thread went on quite as you might imagine. People on the spiritual side claiming the devil is real and possibly possessing people and people who were more skeptical claiming the whole thing was a bunch of hocus-pocus-mumbo-jumbo.  I got busy doing something else and left the conversation.  However, if I had stayed I wouldn’t spend time arguing over the devil (doesn’t Satan already get enough press?), but assuring the post writer that Superman was indeed real.

As a child reading comic books to escape the chaos of the dysfunctional family and world around me – Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman all stood up for things I desperately needed to know were true. They proved to me that there were beings who would stand up for people who couldn’t defend themselves. They gave me the understanding that sometimes personal sacrifice is required to make a difference in the world. Their 16 page adventures gave me the solace to know that even in a big, frightening world like the one I lived in – it would all be okay in the end.  Those characters were more real to me that people I saw on a daily basis because I needed them to be, and I needed to believe.

The New Testament writer to the Hebrews was writing to a group of people who also needed to believe. Having left Judaism to forge ahead in this new relationship with God called “Christianity” – the people Hebrews was written for were struggling with that question about what was real.  Judaism was very real to them. They had temples and traditions, they heard the stories of the patriarchs and even clothing and customs all designed to solidify their faith experience.  But this new way – following Jesus and proclaiming salvation through him – didn’t have the hand-holds they wanted.

There wasn’t an established Christian culture, there weren’t special clothes or long standing stories. The stories of Jesus were told from person to person – not written like Torah – and instead of the “Law” there was this idea about love.   They also weren’t seeing much payoff for their new faith. Christians were being persecuted by Rome, by Pharisaic courts and Jewish councils, by outsiders who did not want/understand a new religion growing in the  midst of an already full religious landscape. Disciples of Christ were killed, tortured or cast out.  For many of the early converts even family members called them “race traitors” and reacted with rejection to the acceptance of this new faith.  Watching so much struggle — these Hebrew people began to ask, “Is this Christianity stuff REAL? Where’s the power? Where’s the promise? Where’s the Lord?”

The letter to the Hebrews answers that – the first 10 chapters go back through the gospel – who Jesus was and is now, why he should be followed, and what Christianity is all about.  Then comes the famous chapter – Chapter 11 – the faith chapter.  Most people with even the slightest experience with church know Hebrews 11:1 – “Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.”   But there is a more intriguing passage than that.  After listing the great faithful people of the Old Testament – the writer says:

13 All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. 14 People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. 15 If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.”

Hebrews 11:13-16

So – after all these acts of great faith – these people died before the promise (of the messiah, most likely) came true. So — they didn’t get what they wanted. They didn’t see in person what they expected. And yet — God is their God and is making their city.  They didn’t have empirical evidence, a balance sheet or even a research study. They had faith, and it was real. Because it was real – they went on in the relationship and life God made with them.

Today we live in a world where people who go to church and people who don’t are asking that same question. Is any of this real?  That’s what the Jesus Seminar – the group of professors and scholars looking for the “historical” Jesus were asking. How much of what we believe was “real” and how much was narrative?  That’s what post-modern teachers and learners are asking. What do I believe and how can I know it is real?  And at then end of a long hard day or a spiritual let-down we ALL – saints and sinners alike – wonder “what real difference does it make?”

The answer to this great philosophical and personal queries according to the Bible is, “Yes.”

  • Jesus is real.
  • Narrative is real.
  • Facts are real.
  • Stories are real.
  • The meaning is real.
  • The difference it makes in our lives is real
  • The difference it makes in our world is real.
  • We are real.
  • God is real.
  • Love is real.

Faith isn’t about knowing God loves us because we are blessed with a nice home, good job, and perfect teeth.  Faith isn’t about thinking God made you win a football game because you prayed, or thinking God made you lose a football game because you had a lusty thought the night before.  Faith isn’t about the payoff, the payroll, or the pay forward.  Faith is about knowing what is real.

As a child, I knew there wasn’t a physical being named Superman (or Batman) who was ever going to walk into my world. But those things Superman embodied – strength, morality, truth, justice, sacrifice, and helping one another – even if the “other” is a stranger – were very real to me and still are.  And so, I encourage you – even in the darkest or most questionable times to remember  you don’t need a sworn statement or a sudden blessing to know the Velveteen Rabbit became real, Superman is real, and the God who made you, knows you, and loves you is real.  That’s faith.

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Who We Are

One of my favorite songs by sung by “Sweet Honey in the Rock” is entitled, “Who We Are”. The opening lyric is:

“For each child who’s born a morning star rises and sings to the universe who we are.”

How wonderful to think of that song going out to the entire world – if only we could hear it! It would certainly make those years of adolescence a little easier if we already knew who we are. However, we would certainly miss a lot of the fun of learning.

Christians, as individuals and as a community, also struggle for identity. Several opinion columns and news articles this week pointed out concerns about conservative pastors actually praying for the President of the US to be harmed. Not only were Christian people not getting up and walking away from such a suggestion, they were actually praying along with it. Is that who we are? Have we gone from prayer warriors to prayer terrorists? No – that can’t be the same faith founded on a Christ who says ‘BLESS those who curse you” and “the greatest commandment is to love God and LOVE your neighbor as yourself.”

In fact, David Kinnamon’s research oriented book “UnChristian” found that negative views of Christianity and Christian people were pervasive. He described this most common comment about faith communities to be this:

“Christianity doesn’t look like Jesus anymore, its “UnChristian”. The vast majority said adjectives that described Christians were ones like: judgmental, hypocritical, too political, scientifically ignorant, homophobic, and sheltered.”

Certainly as children of God that is not who we are! But who are we? The Bible has a good answer for us.

9But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. 1 Peter 2:9-10

A Chosen People

We are not a people so good, so spiritual, so holy or so powerful that we have a relationship with God because of our own awesomeness. We are chosen! That means we are part of the Christian faith not because we chose God, but because God chose us! We rely on God’s outstretched loving arms embracing us to in the relationship called Christianity. That should change our witness of Christ in this world 100 percent! Instead of carrying on about how good we are – we have every reason to talk about how good God is to choose us to love.

This acknowledgement should help reduce the “superiority factor” significantly. When we realize we are only able to have this life giving relationship because of God it helps us look at other people through eyes of equality, faith and hope.

I saw a “Christian” bumper sticker on a car not long ago – it said, “Get right, or Get Left!” – I remember wondering at the time just who would want to hear the message of a Christ who had that as a motto. Being a chosen person helps us realize that we are all just like 6th graders on the sideline hoping someone will pick us – then experiencing the joy of acceptance when for some unknown reason God calls our name. We are no one to threaten or cajole others into faith – we’re really just blessed to be here ourselves.

A People Belonging to God

At the time this epistle was written – belonging to someone wasn’t just a sweet metaphor about love and commitment. It existed in the real world of slave ownership – where people actually belonged to other people. When this letter was read aloud in their faith circles, the knowledge of everything it means to belong to another person was very fresh and real. Belonging to someone meant you did what they said, when they said, without question or hesitation. You lived for their wishes – they did not live for yours. However, it also meant the owner was the responsible party. If you belonged to someone they had to feed you, house you, and ensure your safety, life and direction.

We belong to God. It is not our job to run the world; it is our job to carry out God’s wishes for the world as best as we can understand them. God will care for us – but we need to be about God’s business. How much of our time and resources does Christianity waste being about our business – doing what we want, when we want with little or no input from the God who loves and know us? How much of our faith to we spend talking about beliefs instead of living our instructions?

We are not our own, and we would do well to remember it.

A People Who Have Received Mercy

Finally, we are a people whose debt has been forgiven. We have been on the receiving end of mercy and that should make us merciful. Instead of pointing out the sin and failure of others, how much more beautiful would it be if we offered mercy to others. Instead of putting up a stumbling block for others, how many people could know Christ if we opened the door to others? Imagine a faith that had the following identity:

Humble not Haughty
Merciful not Judgmental
Loving what we don’t understand not shutting it out
Grateful not Entitled
Inviting not Threatening
Hopeful not scornful

Wow – those words in that first column sound a lot like Jesus, huh? As Christians – that is who we are – “Christ-ian” – little Christs – Jesus’ disciples – who act like him, not just talk about him.

Christianity is failing to change our world, our nation and sometimes our very hearts. But Christ is not failing – we are. We fail when we get so caught up in our labels (missional, evangelical, Baptist, Presbyterian, Conservative, Liberal,…) that we forget to live the message. We fail when we struggle to keep people out of faith than work to let people in. We fail when we forget who we are.

For each child who’s born a morning star rises and sings to the universe who we are.