Let's Make 2017 a Better Year!

“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.”

Matthew 5:5

I have never been one for New Year’s resolutions. They don’t work for me, never have

This year I have resolved to lose some weight but I began the process the day after Christmas. No pressure. No New Year’s resolution, just a determined effort to shed a few pounds.

Losing some weight will make me healthier. I will feel immeasurably better. My golf game may even improve.

Okay, now that I’ve gotten that off my chest and announced my intentions publicly (a way of holding myself accountable) I wish to address another issue that has been eating at me of late.

This past year will not go down as one of my favorite years. You with me on this? I can honestly say that I am looking forward to wishing 2016 a hearty farewell.

Now quite frankly it isn’t the year itself that is at fault, but rather the way we have treated one another over the past year.

We have turned our Social Media outlets into verbal battlegrounds, casting insults at one another, calling one another names, as if we were school children, casting venomous insults at one another, and disparaging one another’s opinions. Unfortunately we think because we don’t know a person personally on our Social Media outlet we can rip them apart with our hateful words and hurtful insults. 

Now the sad thing about all this is that we Christians have not exempted ourselves from the name calling, insulting rhetoric, and downright mean-spiritedness that is painted all over our Social Media networks, especially on Facebook.

Granted, not everyone falls into this category, but enough so to be noticeable.

So I have decided to make the third Beatitude, cited above, my theme for 2017. . . my Scriptural anchor as it were. 

It’s not a New Year’s resolution per se, but rather my attempt to display a kinder, gentler, and less combative self over the course of the coming year.

To be meek is to demonstrate outward gentleness and kindness towards others while maintaining a strong spiritual center. Being meek is not being a wimp as it is often thought to be. Being meek actually reflects a strong self-confidence; it demonstrates that one is actually comfortable in one's skin; it shows a deep spiritual strength.

You see, meekness is the opposite of power grabbing. It is adverse to one’s need to be in control. To live meekly is to show kindness and compassion to the undeserving of the world. To practice meekness is to forfeit the need to be right about everything. Meekness is not favorable towards quid pro quo. 

To practice meekness is to refuse to gloat over one’s victories, to rub it in the faces of those who lost (this applies to sports, politics, and other competitive activities in which we humans participate with one another). 

Truth is there are sore winners just like there are sore losers and meekness is good medicine for both. 

Personally, I believe 2017 can be a better year but I also believe that meekness is an essential part of the formula that is going to make us all more generous, compassionate, and kinder to one another.

And in the end we will feel better about ourselves and one another, even those faceless trollers of the Social Media who forever agitate us. 

Have a kinder and gentler New Year!

The word "Liberal" is not a dirty word!

I was once a proud Conservative, both in my theology and in my politics. The word “Liberal” was not a very nice word for me and if I were to say it my lips would be dripping with vitriol.

What it represented to me stood in opposition to my strongly held Conservatism.

It was the liberals behind the Civil Rights movement. 

It was the liberals who protested the war in Vietnam. 

It was the liberals who attended such mega events as Woodstock. 

It was liberals who smoked pot and used other recreational drugs. 

It was liberals who populated places like Haight-Asbury and Greenwich Village.

It was liberals who wore their hair long or went braless.

It was the liberals who dared to vote for a African-American president.

Okay, I’m getting a little ahead of myself here.

Did you know that our nation’s foundational documents, such as our Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, were inspired by the liberal ideas of that day, ideas spawned by the European Enlightenment of the late 17th and 18th centuries?

But I wonder if the America we know today would have ever been formed were it not for the liberal spirit of our Founding Fathers that energized their passions to create a new nation and a new government in a new land? 

The conservative status quo within the original colonies remained deeply loyal to England and her Monarchal form of government. Can you imagine America being ruled by a King or a Queen? That was the plan!

Now granted, at the time America was founded there were no conservatives and liberals as we know them today. There was no Conservatism or Liberalism. 

Yet in the words of Thomas DeMichele: 

“The founders’ wide range of beliefs eventually led to both party politics and famous compromises, but despite their differences, they had one thing in common: They were not loyalists (and thus not true conservatives for the time).”

But the question that continues to nag me is what would America look like today had it not been for those liberal ideas that inspired its birth? Perhaps author and blogger Anthony M. Joseph says it most succinctly:

"Across vast stretches of human inquiry, liberals believe truth changes over time as circumstances change and new evidence comes to light. Above all, perhaps, liberals embrace generosity, especially government generosity, as a value."

Perhaps our Founding Fathers intuited that the Middle Ages and Monarchal governments were coming to an end. Perhaps their penchant for an open mind and a more progressive bent towards the future led them to create one of the most liberal projects in history: The founding of American Democracy.

With that said I would also suggest that the same liberal spirit that permeated the founding of America also led to a more enlightened Christianity that is based on an informed faith rather than mere superstition that so characterized the Middle Ages.

We may also assert that it was the same liberal ideas of the European Enlightenment that spawned the Protestant Reformation. So we ask our Evangelical brothers and sisters: "Would you even exist today were it not for the liberal ideas of the Reformers?"

So my point is this: The word “Liberal” is not inherently a bad word nor an evil idea. I still retain some of my old conservative values that I inherited from my youth, but being liberal in the classical sense is no longer anathema (a curse) to me. 

I close with the words of Anthony M. Joseph:

“A liberal person . . . is broad-minded, open to reasoned argument and to new evidence. A liberal person views truth as growing, developing, and inclusive, not changeless and exclusive. A liberal person can think and plan on a large-scale–can apply big solutions to big problems. He or she does not shrink from such a task but relishes it.”

This is classical Liberalism at its very best. This is how liberals in 1776 thought. 

And this is why I am a liberal today!

Our Friends Aren't a Dime a Dozen!

I am really  feeling my age these days.

Not so much because of the stiffness I feel in my joints or the loss of dexterity or because I lose my balance more frequently or because I forget things more easily now or because I can no longer drive a golf ball well over two hundred yards anymore.

The other day I attempted to dribble a basketball in order to impress my grandson that I still had it.

Big mistake. He laughed. I groaned.

And I won’t mention the amount of medications I now have to take both in the morning and in the evening.

Big Pharm loves me. 

Unfortunately these are all signs of my body breaking down neurologically and physically; I know this is normal for someone approaching seventy years of age,  I don't like it at all. But who does?

As a friend of mine once quipped:

“If I knew I was going to live this long I would have taken better care of myself.” But of course we never think about getting old when we are young, do we?

Yet I knew I was in trouble with this aging thing when my doctor politely warned me recently against the dangers of falling. He told me:

“Falling can lead to unpleasant consequences.”

He was quick to point out however that his warning had nothing to do with me being old. He was just being tactful of course but he was also lying through his teeth.

Okay everybody grows old and aging is far better than the alternative, right? But there is something about aging that is is really painful, even more than the aches and pains that come along with growing old:

The longer we live the more of our friends we will lose to the inevitable.

Just the other day a Facebook friend of mine lamented over the sudden death of his college friend. I realized something foreboding in his post:

As we grow older we will lose more and more of our friends and the pain of those losses will compound over time.

Somewhere in the Bible we are told that God promises us at least three score and ten years of life. That’s 70 years old. I’m almost there. But some of my friends and old school mates were not so fortunate. In fact in my high school class of 41 six have already expired.

I miss them. I knew them. I shared life with them, We had the same teachers. We had things in common. But I am now living with the knowledge of knowing that I will never see them in this life again. This is a painful thought.

So what is my point?

My point is that our friends are way too valuable to discard as if they are disposable diapers or razors. 

We may lose our friends to death but we should never lose a friend over the issue of being right, no matter how righteous we think our position is.

Our friends are not always going to be with us. I know, we don't think about these kinds of things when we are young, but just wait my friend.

2016 has been a tough year on everyone’s friendships. No need to elaborate because we all know why this past year has been tough.

Perhaps we might reevaluate our own personal positions in order to protect our friendships. Friends are way more important than one’s politics, or ideology, or who's right or who's wrong.

Life is not forever. 

Being right should never take priority over being gracious. The loss of a friend  is both tragic and sad. Mend fences. Reach out. Be gracious and learn to forgive.

 Being right isn't that big of a deal; being gracious is.

Friends are worth having and keeping. Our relationships with all our friends are worth preserving no matter the personal  cost to us. 

Jesus Didn't Come to Save America!

Jesus did not come to save America!

Sorry Franklin Graham and Jerry Falwell, Jr., Jesus didn’t die to preserve American Democracy. He did not die in order to prop up either one of the two political parties in America. God is not interested in partisan politics or political agendas. 

Why should he be, he has his own Kingdom to run. 

America is not God’s chosen nation anymore than any other nation in the world is. Now this doesn’t mean that Americans can’t live as God’s people. They can, just as the Israelites in the Old Testament were chosen to live as God’s people, even though they often failed to honor this God given privilege.

It does imply, however, that God is not in the business of party politics. He’s not in the business of propping up nations or Empires over other Empires or nations. 

It would do us all some good to recognize that America is not God’s favored nation; at least it would help us be more humble. Nor is the Christian Church an arm or a servant of our government. In fact, the Church doesn’t need any government to legitimize or approve of its existence.

Jesus didn’t come to save America!

Yet to listen to some one would think that America is God’s favorite child, much like Isaac who favored Jacob over Esau or Jacob who favored Joseph over his other sons. Parents may play the favorite game but God does not.

In fact the Gospel of John is quite clear about this when it declares: 

“For God so loved the world . . .” 

When God looks at us he doesn’t see Americans but rather wonderfully made human beings created in his image.

This is true of all people from all nations.

In the book of Acts we read Peter proclaiming: 

“I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.”

The Gospel is for everyone: every nation, every tribe, and every person. 

Quite frankly whenever Christianity and the Empire (nation) get too cozy with one another it is always Christianity that comes out on the short in of the stick. Whenever the Empire is successful with enticing the Church to endorse its political agenda Christianity slides down the integrity pole. 

It happened when Christianity was given political legitimacy by the Roman  Emperor Constantine and the cross of Jesus was then emblazoned on the shields of Roman soldiers (“Onward Christian soldiers, marching off to war.”).

It happened when the German Church was co-opted by the Nazi regime and became the religious arm of Hitler’s world conquering agenda. Thank God there was a remnant in Germany that became known as the “Confessing Church.” 

We need a Confessing Church in America more now than ever. A Confessing Church not beholding to any one political system or agenda. We need a Confessing Church beholding to God's Kingdom agenda only.

Whenever the Empire co-ops Christianity in its politics and wars the empire is always going to come out on top.

This is why unfettered patriotism (a.k.a., Jingoism) is a form of idolatry. idolatry being the most recognized sin in the Bible.

Christianity is a movement whose default setting is suffering love. 

The Empires or nations of this world will do what Empires and nations do best: resort to sacred violence (violence dressed up in sacred clothing) as a means to achieve their agenda and their goals. Just listen to the political rhetoric laced with violence today, it is frightening but true to form. 

We witness this whenever a nation tells its citizens that God is on their side in any given conflict or war and when Christians buy into this agenda it somehow diminishes the radical nature of faith.

Christians are called, says Jesus, to become leaven in whatever context they find themselves. Leaven does its best work hidden deep within the loaf of bread, quietly permeating the whole loaf with is marinating influence.

We would do well to remember that our true allegiance is to Christ the King and not to some political ideal or system or party or person. 

Remember, there are many Caesars but only one Christ!

We should pray for our nation instead of blindly worshiping her as if she was God’s favorite child.

For What It's Worth : The Most Powerful Story in the World!

For What It's Worth : The Most Powerful Story in the World!: The most powerful form of communication is story.  The Christmas story is no exception.  Unfortunately we have tamed the Christm...

The Most Powerful Story in the World!

The most powerful form of communication is story. 

The Christmas story is no exception. 

Unfortunately we have tamed the Christmas story with overly literal and mushy sentimental interpretations that have stripped it of its powerful meaning. Remember, God’s ways are always revolutionary in character.

The Christmas story is meant to open our eyes to how God operates in the world and the extent to which he will go to bring love and joy into the world. But in order to fully appreciate this we must cut away all the sentimentalism that has come to define the Christmas story.

The Christmas story is rich in symbols that first century recipients of the story understood much better than we do. 

The manger for example is often depicted as a cleaned up sterilized stable with the  Westernized looking parents of Jesus looking no worse for the wear. But the manger was a feeding trough out of which livestock ate. It’s where the animals lived, manure odor and all (see picture above).

Truth is Jesus was born not among the well scrubbed elite, the affluent, the acceptable citizens of polite society, but rather among common animals. 

And if Jesus was “God with us” as the Gospels suggest he is, then God himself came to earth by way of a stable or feeding trough. This is certainly not the image of God many Americans envision today—a God who would enter into the human experience by touching the unclean foul smelling straw of a common feeding trough. "Manger" does sound a bit more acceptable doesn't it?

But this is how God decided to reveal himself in Jesus.

Then shepherds came to visit Jesus. Not the city fathers, or the ruling elites, or the intelligentsia, or even the religious authorities, but those who were thought of as the lowest of the lowest.

The common unclean and smelly shepherds welcomed Jesus (God) into his new abode: Life among us.

I have always loved Richard Rohr. He has been a wonderful teacher of mine and has opened my eyes to see beyond the literalism of the Americanized version of the Christmas story. The sanitized version that looks so much more Western and American than it does a story right out of the rugged and violent first century Middle East.

Father Rohr has helped me see that God cannot be all powerful if he isn't also all vulnerable. Right out of the box we discover the true meaning of the Christmas story: Love revealed is always vulnerable and subject to the dangers we humans impose upon it. 

What this Christmas story reveals to us is that Jesus came to offer real life (salvation) to all people, starting first with he disenfranchised, the outliers in society, the down and outs, the homeless, those on welfare, those struggling with their sexual identities, those looking for a home to accept them, the strangers among us, those struggling with alcoholism and drugs and other life debilitating addictions, and the list goes on.

In Jesus God sent a message to the power brokers of this world: Love that flows downward is the solution to all that is wrong with humanity to date. God took a huge risk in making himself this vulnerable to human rejection and resistance, but it is the way he operates. 

If we don't get this then we have misunderstood the Christmas Story all together. 

Politicians, Presidents, Prime Minsters, kings, and world leaders beware: 

Christ the King is born on this day and the love of God has been revealed as the change-agent to right the world and bring salvation to humankind.

When Jesus was born God began his project to renew and redeem our world. This is why I have little confidence in politicians and their flawed strategies to make the world great (even "again"). 

Christ’s kingdom is not policed nor sustained by huge armies, weapons of mass destruction, or powerful leaders but rather by the self-emptying power of God’s love.

May we teach our children this powerfully subversive version of the Christmas story for the sake of their own future and the future of our world. May we strip the current version of the Christmas Story of all the syrupy sentimentalism that we have layered on top of it.

Merry Christmas to all and may you discover the true meaning of the child born in a manger.

The Devil Made Me Do it!

Stan Mitchell, a Facebook friend of mine, recently made the following observation:

“It is a cruel religious system that attributes the changing of a person's mind to either them being deceived by the Devil or their loss of sincerity. This kind of system of thought is at least as damaging to the people who believe in and perpetuate it as it is to the people who are the objects of its ignorance.”

For anyone who grew up in a Fundamentalist or extremely conservative Christian faith it would not be be easy to miss the irony of Stan’s observation: 

That one’s changing beliefs that result from personal growth may be attributed to either the work of the devil or a loss of sincerity. 

In other words, as one grows in the faith it is highly likely that a shifting of one’ s beliefs may actually occur. It is indeed ironic that these same Fundamentalist churches encourage growth but vilify those whose growth  contributes to changing beliefs. 

There may even be a complete reversal of what one believes concerning a particular doctrine, and let’s remember that our doctrinal beliefs all began as inherited beliefs; in other words: we were told what to believe.  

For example one’s personal growth may lead to a changing view on the relationship between the Christian and war, or the Christian's take on violence, or the relationship between faith and politics, or on one's views on homosexuality, or what it actually means to be saved. 

There may even be a shifting in what one believes about the very nature of heaven and hell. In fact, these two beliefs are fiercely protected against any Satanic intrusion by those who hold very literal views of of the Bible. 

And those whose views on such topics change are often vilified and thought to be weak in the faith. Perhaps this is part of the reason so many are either giving up on their faith altogether or they are moving into more Progressive ways of understanding the Christian faith.

Is growth the work of demonic forces that distorts our view of truth?

I would respond with an unequivocal ‘No!” 

If anything preventing someone from growing in their faith is more demonic in nature since it is a controlling mechanism that often drives good people away from their faith; or in some unfortunate cases it hardens one’s inherited views and they then become guardians of the faith. 

Christian growth is of the Spirit and often leads to a deeper and richer understanding of Christianity, not to mention a broader understanding of one’s beliefs. 

Is the Christian faith static or dynamic?

As our knowledge grows our beliefs take on broader shapes. We do not necessarily throw out the baby with the bathwater as it were, but we change our views in light of new information. Both baby and the bathwater just look different.

Historically speaking, the Fundamentalist movement arose out of the early Science-Faith controversy over Darwin’s Theory of Evolution. For so many years Christians believed Scientific knowledge was the enemy of the Christian faith.

Thank God we are slowly moving beyond that narrow understanding of the relationship between Science and faith. Many today are now accepting that the two compliment one another rather than Science diminishing or threatening our faith.

In fact, many articulate the difference between the two as follows: 

Science explains reality as it is and faith adds meaning to that reality. 

Do not fear Christian growth my friend. Celebrate your growth as fruit of the Holy Spirit. 

Remember, God is not opposed to us changing our minds over what we once believed. He is not threatened by a more broadened or even enlightened view of the Christian faith. 

Here is a rule of thumb I might suggest you follow: 

If your personal growth does nothing more than confirm your existing beliefs then you have not experienced real growth. Real growth always stretches us in new directions. 

The Hope of Christmas!

This morning when I opened my email I was shocked by the contents of one particular email. It was a review of the tragic events of 2016. Some of the headlines read:

Orlando Nightclub Shooting Worse in U.S. History

Dallas Sniper Kills 5 Officers

The Tragedy in Aleppo

Chicago Tops 700 Homicides

84 killed by Trucker in France on Bastille Day Tragedy

These are just a few of the many headlines recapping a tumultuous year.  Space will not allow me to post more tragic stories but as you know there are many more I could have cited.

Christmas is right around the corner.

In fact, churches all across America have been celebrating the Advent Season in preparation for the birth of Jesus. Each Sunday an Advent candle is lit as Christians around the world cast their eyes upon what God is about to do in the birth of his only Son.

Christmas is the season of hope.

It is the season in which Christians resist the temptation to cave in to hopeless resignation.

In truth, 2016 is not the worse year the world has ever experienced; it just feels like it because of the access to media coverage that we are exposed to each and every day. 

But it is bad enough and if we allow ourselves to be overwhelmed by the many tragic stories of this past year then we will have given up on the hope of Christmas. And resigned ourselves to living in fear.

While the world spends itself foolish this Christmas season in its annual consumer binge the message of the Savior’s birth gets tragically lost. In other words, the true meaning of Christmas gets covered over in layers of secular sediment and shallow customs that totally miss the point of Christmas altogether:  

Christmas is when God came into this world to reside with us!

The early Christians, especially those who wrote about it in what has come to be known as the Gospels believed that God took up residence on earth in the person of that baby boy named Jesus. 

Theologians refer to this event as the “Incarnation” or the “embodiment” of  God in Jesus.

John wrote about this in his Gospel: 

The Word became flesh and blood,

and moved into the neighborhood.

We saw the glory with our own eyes,

the one-of-a-kind glory,

like Father, like Son,

Generous inside and out,

true from start to finish (The Message).

God is now onboard, declares John. He has not created the world and abandoned it to fate or to senseless tragedies. He is right here with us.

When Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus they are not just celebrating the birth of a cute little baby coming into this dangerous world, they are celebrating the birth of God in the flesh! If I may be so crass to say that in the birth of Jesus God took the bull by the horns.

God is not some detached “Sky God” that we hope is consciously aware of the tragedies we experience in life. 

Many years after Jesus’s birth a man named Paul reflected on the significance of this birth and shared his thoughts with several secular philosophers in Athens. Here is how he put it:

“For in him we live and move and have our being.”

Yes the mystics believed that God is closer to us than we are to ourselves. 

He is actively present in our lives. Now this doesn’t mean that we don’t feel the pain of tragedy when it comes into our lives. We are human. Tragedy is disruptive and painful for sure.

But we live with real hope, born on that first Christmas Day, that God is in our midst even today as he loves us towards eternity. He has provided us the Comforter (Holy Spirit) to sooth our anxieties and fears.

We are not alone no matter how lonely we may feel at any given time!

Now here’s the point I wish to make:

God has joined us in this life in order that we might join him in bringing his ultimate purpose for creation to fruition. We are God’s agents in a world that has seemingly gone mad. But we do not despair because we know God is the true author of the story that has yet to be completed.

This Christmas, as in every Christmas, I discover something quite special: The birth of a child some 2016 years ago offers me incredible hope for the future. 

However you choose to celebrate Christmas this year do so knowing that hope is alive and well.  The birth of Jesus is the beginning of the world’s only true hope.

The War on Christmas!

“The War on Christmas!”

This seems to be the usual battle cry around this time each year from television news pundits, preachers, and politicians.

“The War on Christmas!”

What does that mean?

What started this annual war?

Why is it a war?

And why is the war on Christmas?

Who started this war?

And what I want to know is who is prosecuting this so-called war on one of our nation’s most cherished holidays?

Is it a war because Starbucks changed the color of its coffee cups?

Wrote one Arizona pastor: “Starbucks REMOVED CHRISTMAS from their cups because they hate Jesus.” 

Another pastor vowed to boycott Starbucks for life over the Christmas cup issue.

Really, this is war? 

Over a paper coffee up? Please!

Or could the war have begun when the Walmart greeter first greeted customers with  “Happy Holidays” rather than “Merry Christmas.”

Seriously, this is war? The world is going to hell in a hand basket basket!

Look, I understand the “War on drugs” as it applies to our country’s efforts to minimize the flow of dangerous illegal drugs from entering the United States. That makes some sense to us I suppose even though we aren’t winning that war.

But a “War on Christmas?” Please!

The Christmas story, as told in Matthew’s Gospel, reveals that Jesus was born to parents whose relationship was clouded in suspicious scandal given that Mary was thought to have become pregnant while still engaged to Joseph. Joseph even considered dismissing her “quietly” in order to protect her from scandal and shame. But an angel of the Lord intervened and plans were adjusted.

Jesus was then born on the fringe of society; some say in a cave on the outskirts of Bethlehem, while others say in the feeding trough of one of Joseph’s relative’s homes in Bethlehem. The actual location of Jesus’ birth is not important however.

What is important is that he was not born into mainstream society.

We would say that Jesus was born on the wrong side of the tracks in the grip of a horrible social scandal. Every teenage girl who ever got pregnant in high school will relate to Mary’s situation.

The puppet king Herod was maniacal and paranoid and when he was told that the “king of the Jews” had been born he ordered all the Jewish children two years and under born around Bethlehem killed. This compelled Jesus’s parents to flee their homeland and become refugees in a foreign land (Egypt).

Refugees mind you and you can bet they were not legal. One wonders what would have happened had they been refused entry into Egypt. 

Now I would suggest that the original Christmas story rises to the level of being considered a “War on Christmas.” Right out of the box Jesus was born in a climate of social mores thought to have been violated and political paranoia based on unfounded fear.

He was not born into nor was he received into the mainstream society of his day. He was born into anything other than a “privileged” society.

I wonder how many folks learning of Jesus’s birth right away began greeting one another with the usual “Merry Christmas” when in fact there was not much to be merry about from Mary and Joseph’s perspective. Or how many folk were sipping coffee from an appropriately decorated Starbucks cup. Silly, right? Well it is silly.

Okay my point is this: The current “War on Christmas” is a joke. It is a joke because if there is a real “War on Christmas” it is the way we celebrate it with our consumer lusts. We have turned Christmas into a commercialized paradise. We have converted Christmas into a national consumer binge that begins earlier and earlier each year. Strangely we hear no complaints about this, do we?

This I would suggest is the real “War on Christmas” and yet folks are upset over the color of coffee cups and hearing “Happy Holidays” at Walmart. Please, can we get spun up over something a bit more important?

Jesus’s birth reminds us of more important things than holiday customs we somehow believe originated in the Bible. Where is the Biblical reference that directs us to drink out of appropriately decorated coffee cups at Starbuck’s and where does it instruct us to say “Merry Christmas”?

Perhaps a good place to begin for those who have jumped on the “War on Christmas” bandwagon is to read the Gospels beyond the birth narratives in Matthew and Luke.

Jesus’s birth, as it turns out, culminated in his death and resurrection and the promise of his return, without which the Christmas story makes absolutely no sense.

In between his birth and resurrection is a much larger story that reveals God’s will for both the world and us. But no one seems to be paying too much attention to this part of the Christmas story. I wonder why?

“War on Christmas?”

 Please! We can do better than this folks.

A Christmas Reflection

A few years ago a pastor challenged his congregation to rethink the meaning of Christmas by boldly announcing in worship: 

“Christmas is not your birthday.”

He then qualified what he meant by declaring that Christmas was Jesus’s birthday so we should be buying gifts for him rather than spending all our money on one another. 

He then asked his congregation to reconsider how they spent their money on Christmas gifts that year. He recommended that they jump off the excessive consumer bandwagon and spend their Christmas money on helping dig wells in the water-deprived area of Darfur, located in Western Sudan. 

Though risky his strategy worked since a large portion of his congregation accepted the challenge and gave an enormous amount of money to help provide easily accessible water to the people of Darfur who faced life-threatening dangers each time they searched for water miles from their villages.

“Christmas isn’t your birthday.”

Look, much of our world is not a friendly, hospitable, and generative place. Google the word "poverty" and look at some of the sights on worldwide poverty. It truly is a humbling experience. 

Can you imagine if American Christians would accept the idea that Christmas is not our birthday? Can you envision how such an acknowledgment might reorient our whole approach for celebrating the most consumer-driven holiday of the year? 

Can you imagine how transformative it would be for congregations across America to route their financial resources in helping poor people just survive the grueling day-to-day grind of life, such as the people living in Darfur?

Yet poverty and a lack of water resources has become a global issue, even in some areas within the United States of America (think Flint. Michigan).. 

But let’s extend this challenge of giving beyond the Christian communities (churches) in America. Let’s suggest the unthinkable as an alternative to how we as a global community might spend our money helping alleviate poverty in the world as opposed to spending billions on violence and war. What a novel idea that would be. 

Now when we think about global poverty we are talking about more than just the absence of money to spend; rather we are talking about all attending consequences of poverty, such as widespread disease (HIV/AIDS in underdeveloped nations), crime and the escalation of violence (Darfur is a good example; Syria comes to mind), the escalation of crime in the inner cities and even in the suburbs, an increase in infant mortality rates, life-threatening birth defects, and the list goes on and on.

This year Christians all across America will gather on Christmas Eve and on Christmas Day (since Christmas falls on Sunday this year) to celebrate the birth of Jesus. We will sit in our comfortable sanctuaries singing beloved Christmas hymns, listening to well prepared choirs singing musical arrangements written for the occasion, admiring our children dressed in bathrobes pretending to be shepherds, and hearing familiar sounding sermons while thinking to ourselves: “Haven’t I heard that before?” 

When we get home we will exchange gifts among friends and family just as we do every Christmas. 

But Christmas is not our birthday.

Christmas is the day we are supposed to celebrate the birth of God’s only Son. How many birthday parties have you ever attended in your life in which you received gifts as if it was your birthday? 

Yet Christmas is Jesus’s birthday.

I wish you all a Merry Christmas this year but perhaps not for the reasons we all have become accustomed: 

Celebrating Christmas as if it were our birthday.

My prayer is that this Christmas we might actually receive the joy of our Savior by giving to those whose lives are torn apart by backbreaking, life-threatening and oppressive poverty. 

Certainly there is no need for any of us to feel guilty over the way we celebrate Christmas by the giving and receiving of gifts. Giving often brings considerable joy into our lives. 

But we should feel a bit awkward when a major portion of our gift giving excludes those who need it the most in our world. 

Each Christmas the words of Jesus come to mind in such a haunting way for me:

“Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.”

Happy birthday Jesus!

Indeed, Christmas is your birthday!

Receiving Jesus on the Group Plan!

As my wife and I were walking our dogs through our neighborhood we met a neighbor for the first time. I greeted him with a friendly “Good morning.”  He smiled and I knew that our walk was about to be interrupted by what I now refer to as “friendly chatter.”

We often meet new people on our walks and it is not unusual for us to spend several minuets engaging them in friendly conversation.  

Quite honestly spending time talking with folks helps make our walks less routine and relieves some of the boredom of walking everyday. It is one of the benefits of aging, that is learning how to live life at a slower pace, even when one is exercising. Our dogs appreciate the breaks as well.

Well, our new acquaintance asked us where we were from and when he discovered that my wife was French Canadian I knew then that this stop was going to take few extra minutes. Fortunately he didn’t speak French so the downtime was not going to be too long.

But he was a very nice man and I was enjoying our conversation. We both served in the United States Air Force and I told him I also served as a Navy Chaplain. Both of us retired after twenty years of military service.

He asked me what seminary I attended and when I told him he asked if I was a “Baptist preacher” (a common assumption given where I attended seminary). I told him that I was a Presbyterian. He then wanted to know what tribe of Presbyterian so I told him. Then came the shocker:

“Oh, do you know Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior?” 

I told him that I did and he said: 

“Well I had to challenge you since not all preachers are saved.”

Eventually we said out goodbyes and we promised to talk again should the occasion present itself.

As I walked away I couldn’t help but think: 

“Why would anyone ask a Presbyterian minister if he was a Christian?” 

Then it occurred to me: It just so happens that my particular tribe of Presbyterians is homosexual friendly, we ordain women, many of whom serve as pastors. 

We also do not use the modifier “Evangelical” as a way to identify who we are theologically. I suppose one could say that my tribe is normally perceived as being more  “Liberal” or “Progressive” which often sheds some doubt on the legitimacy of our salvation.

I must admit that I have been asked this question before by well meaning folks. In the past I haven’t always been so gracious with my response as I was with this gentleman but I suppose that’s another benefit of aging: 

Learning how to be more tolerant with people’s unwarranted assumptions.

I am sure my neighbor believed it was critical that he know the exact status of my salvation. Did his query imply that he was certain of his own heavenly destination or was his certainty a way to mask his own insecurities about his ultimate destination?

At this point I am reminded of the words of author Jan Long: 

"Certitude is the inappropriate human response to the insecurities of life, and can become a form of idolatry." 

But having had time to reflect on his question regarding my personal salvation I wish I had responded by saying: 

“Well I received Jesus on the group plan.” 

Being a Christian means that we are members of a much larger group of dissimilar Christians. This doesn’t make any of us unchristian, does it?

We all belong to a much larger group of Christians. This is the group plan I referred to earlier. 

The Apostle Paul called this group the “Body of Christ.”

Once we learn to accept that not everyone shares the same Christian experience (or values) we just might become more gracious to those from other tribes of Christians. Once we are able to see those of other tribes as our brothers and sisters in Christ then we have less angst over where they may be headed once they leave this world. 

Once we understand that we all receive salvation on a group plan rather than on a personal plan our understanding of what it means to be a Christian takes on a whole new perspective. 

Finally, why do folks insist (as my neighbor did) on bashing denominations as if they are of no value. Well, my denomination (tribe) is of great value to me, as well as to the thousands of other members of my Presbyterian tribe. It may be different from yours but please don’t dismiss us as being of no value.

What did I learn the most from this recent encounter? 

I learned that we Christians have a lot of work to do as we grow and mature into more accepting and tolerant individuals—just as Jesus was.

Living in a Post-Truth America

“You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”

                    --Jesus 

Does truth matter anymore? 

I wonder.

Are we now living in a post-truth America in which truth and factual reality are no longer necessary compatible realities? 

As the 2016 Presidential campaign unfolded it became increasingly clear to me that truth no longer mattered to a lot of people, sadly including professing Christians. 

Now political differences aside, it is quite remarkable to me that so many professing Christians kicked truth under the bus during this election cycle.

Most of these same Christians would acknowledge that Jesus said something about truth, but my guess is that what he actually said is unclear to many of them. Well , allow me to offer a very brief refresher course on Jesus and truth:

“You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”

Truth mattered to Jesus, it really did.

Most Biblical scholars believe that what Jesus meant by truth in this text is anything that conforms to the entire “body of his work” which include both his teachings and manner of living. 

Speaking the truth in fact was considered liberating to the individual. In fact, even those who opposed him acknowledged that he was a man who honored truth and faithfully lived by it precepts. Check out Matthew 22:15-16 for an example of how truth mattered to Jesus (and apparently to those who opposed him).

It is also helpful to know that Jesus self-identified as the embodiment of truth (John 14:6). 

So yes truth mattered to Jesus, in a big way. 

Quite frankly it is difficult for me to get my mind wrapped around how so many Christians seemed to disregard truth during this election cycle, as if it was no longer important.

This disregard for truth signals to me a dangerous trend towards a post-truth society. 

It is acknowledgment that pragmatic results are more important than the preservation of truth itself. 

Now that the election is over we might ask: How do we teach our children and grandchildren about the value of truth to the health of any given society? How do we shape the little minds and hearts that look to us for guidance when they see us demonstrating such disregard for truth in our support of the right candidate.

More importantly, as we sit in our pews on Sunday listening to the Gospel being proclaimed as the “truth” how do we explain the glaring disconnect between what we profess as truth and the way we abandoned it just a few weeks ago?

America now has a full-blown truth crisis on her hands. 

More tragically, so does much of American Christianity, especially the Evangelical variety.

Have we forfeited our integrity and love of truth for the sake of political pragmatism? Have we shoved truth to the side in order to elect the candidate of our choice no matter how many lies that candidate has told during the course of the campaign?

Christianity will not last much longer as a positive cultural shaping force so long as we treat truth like a redheaded stepchild. 

Yet what is done is done. 

The least we can do is stop pretending that our willingness to cast aside truth was a necessary evil and now we can all return to our places of worship each Sunday and pretend to embrace the truth of the Gospel—as if truth really does matter to us after all.

Perhaps the Apostle Paul has some good advice for us: 

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

Until such a transformation (repentance) occurs among American Christians ,I am afraid that we will continue to slide down that slippery slope into the dark abyss of a post-truth America.

God help us all!

The Best Christmas Word Ever!

Our times are not the worst of times for Americans.

Indeed there have been more challenging days but for some reason the times in which we now live seem challenging enough for me. I'm looking for some light in the midst of the darkness that I perceive is enveloping our nation and our world. 

Well I do believe I have found some light.

Christmas is just around the corner and you know what? It is just what the doctor ordered for anyone who is swimming in a sea of uncertainty and disappointment. I need a word of hope.

Well Christmas has such a word and it is a powerful word loaded with reasons for hope no matter how bleak our days seem to be. It is a word that offers incredible comfort to those of us who are struggling to make sense of current events, both globally and here at home.

What is that word?

 It is “Incarnation!”

What is “Incarnation” you ask?

In the Gospel of Matthew Joseph had a dream and in this dream an angel of the Lord appeared to him telling him that Mary’s pregnancy was of God and that the baby’s name would be Emmanuel, which means, “God with us.”

“God with us” is a fitting description of the meaning of Incarnation. In other words, God’s presence showed up in the person of Jesus. Jesus becomes the new temple, housing the Divine presence of God the Father.

This is Incarnation and we need this word today more than ever.

Why?

Because we need someone we can trust, someone whose promises will never be broken.

In other words, Jesus embodied the Divine presence including all of God’s promises.

This is Incarnation.

Why is this important?

It is important because Christmas is really about the faithfulness and trustworthiness of God and as you already know we live in a time in which there is a considerable shortage of both in the world today.

Who can we trust? Who really does have our best interests in mind? Who can we rely on to follow through with promises made in order to procure our votes. Who really is telling us the truth? Who can we rely on not to flip flop on promises made? Whose word is most reliable to be true? Who stands on the the rock of truthfulness in today's world? 

These are questions many of us are asking today--I know I am asking such questions.

Yet the central message of Christmas is that God is indeed faithful and trustworthy and whose promises will never fail, never waiver, never disappoint.

God does not flip flop—ever!

I need Christmas for this reason and this reason alone.

Christmas reminds me that God is with us, alongside of us no matter how frightenly unpredictable  our world becomes; no matter how far off the rails it seems to go.

Christmas means God is with us. Christmas images a God who is 100% trustworthy. Jesus revealed God as One who will never fall back on his promises to us; he will never break his word no matter what.

We can trust God even in these challenging and unpredictable times. God has a plan and a purpose for us all that was inaugurated in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. His promise to fulfill that plan and purpose was validated when he showed up in the life of his only son, Jesus.

This is Incarnation!

Christmas is validation of God’s good will and purpose for us all. Christmas means that God can be trusted; that we can depend on him to follow through with every promise he ever made to us.

Perhaps the Apostle Paul captured this truth about God in the following way:

For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,  nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:38-39).

Incarnation!

What a word—a Christmas word that embodies an incredible message of joy and hope:

God can be trusted!

One Helluva Story

“There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day.  At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores” (Luke 16: 19-21).

Preachers and evangelists have used this parable of Lazarus and Dives (rich man) as a story about heaven and hell. Allusions to the story are often intended to frighten people into avoiding hell at all costs and preferring heaven instead. 

But is this really what Jesus meant by telling this story? Is it a story warning us against hell and encouraging us to seek heaven? Actually I don’t think it is so allow me to explain.

It’s a parable. Jesus used parables as a means to convey deeper truths in less than obvious ways. In other words, one is wise not to read parables in a strict literal way. As a Rabbi Jesus often used hyperbole (an exaggeration not meant to be taken literally) as a means to convey how serious he was about any given issue or topic.

For Jesus it appears economic justice was a serious issue for him. Now please notice that I did not say economic equality. I think it would be rather naive to think that economic equality (everyone has the same income or accumulated wealth) is attainable in this life. I don’t believe it is. Remember Jesus once told us that we would always have poor people with us in this life.

So the story begins with Jesus describing the Rich Man, traditionally named Dives, who lived in the lap of luxury. His affluent lifestyle is contrasted with Lazarus, a beggar lying at his doorstep. 

Dives lived as if Lazarus did not exist (hint).

The economic disparity is pronounced as a means to point out how dead serious Jesus was concerning economic injustice. The gap between Dives and Lazarus is incredibly wide, just as the gap will be in the next life between the two men. This is the point of the parable and if we miss this we miss the real meaning of the story.

As a Jew Jesus believed that life was divided into two realms, one present (“this Age’) and the other future (“the Age to Come”).  

In other words, Jesus did not think of the afterlife in the same way that modern folks think about it: Heaven is up above and hell is down below. Such a view was foreign to Jesus and the rest of the New Testament authors, especially Paul (Check out Ephesians 1:9-10).

As I have pointed out in previous posts, the idea of heaven existing for departed disembodied spirits originates more with the Greek philosopher Plato than it does Jesus.

Also, Jesus tells us that Dives went to Hades not hell. Hades in the New Testament and Sheol in the Old Testament represented very similar concepts: A shadowy existence, the grave or where the dead exist prior to resurrection. 

So the featured point of this parable is not about folks dying and going to either heaven or hell (especially hell). This is not what the story teaches. In fact it teaches that when economic justice is not practiced in this Age there will be consequences in the Age to come, such as a radical role reversal described in the parable between Dives and Lazarus.

This parable is not intended to warn folks of an eternal hell in which one would be in eternal torment. This is the way it is often read and taught but quite frankly it is reading too much into the story.

Yes Jesus indeed warned of retribution in the Age to Come. All things will be “put right” as New Testament scholar Tom Wright reminds us. God is going to renew the creation and resurrection life will be the mode of existence in this New Age, this New Order as it were. Life itself will be reordered to favor all of creation (Isaiah 11).

In the meantime, the parable was intended to warn against stark economic injustice in the present Age in which we live. 

But we can strive towards economic justice for everyone to have enough to live on and be sustained in life. For there to be such a wide gap in wealth between the haves and the have nots is not the way God intended life to be ordered in this Age. 

Some years ago I was travelling on a bus from Santiago to the coastal town of Vina del Mar, Chile. For miles outside of Santiago I witnessed people, entire families living in houses made of cardboard  lined along the roadside and cooking on open fires. They were the poorest of the poor. This was not a parable but real people in real time. It was shocking to see.

As I looked out that bus window and saw cardboard box after cardboard box lined along the road I could not help but wonder if anyone of means in this country even cared about these people or that they even existed? I will never forget those heart-breaking images of what real poverty looked like up close. This was the parable of Dives and Lazarus in real life.

I thought to myself: “What in the world can be done?” 

I still struggle with this question when I witness the widening gap between the rich and the poor in our own country. What can we do? What should we do?

I believe the real point of Jesus’ parable is this: 

For those of real means who ignore the plight of the poor, as if they don’t exist, there will be an accounting, a reckoning, in the Age to Come. 

It's a harsh warning, but a warning nonetheless. 

To read this parable as if it was al about eternal hell in the afterlife relieves us of the responsibility to deal with the economic injustice in this life.

When Silence is Not Golden!

“Let us all hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away and the deep fog of misunderstanding will be lifted from our fear-drenched communities, and in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty.”

Those were the  concluding words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in his now famous Letter from Birmingham Jail (1963). Dr. King’s letter was in response to eight white clergymen who denounced his nonviolent demonstrations against racial segregation in the South, encouraging him to allow the courts to settle the segregation issue in America.

I remember those days of racial unrest like it was yesterday. I remember as a teenager believing (mainly because that is what the adults in my town told me) that Martin Luther King, Jr. was a rabble-rouser who needed to be silenced.

I remember seeing the riots and the demonstrations by angry black protestors on television, as the Civil Rights Movement ripped our nation apart during the 1960s. I remember those televised images of fire hoses being turned on protesters and police dogs unmercifully biting them, and also seeing police brutally beating the protestors with nightsticks (It’s all part of a video history available for those who care to see for themselves).

I remember the infamous “white” and “colored” signs located in front of our town’s municipal building. I remember witnessing a black family being told to leave a restaurant on a Sunday afternoon and feeling a twinge of guilt but accepted it as “just the way things are.” 

I also remember the day Dr. King was assassinated and witnessing many of my fellow whites appearing gleeful over his death. I didn’t realize it back then what a huge turn my nation was about to make towards justice for all people, regardless of race, gender, or orientation. I also didn’t realize the huge turn that was taking place within my own heart at the time (that’s a story for another time).

The struggle for equal rights continued long past the death of Dr. King in 1968 and only recently have LGBT people been give the Constitutional right to marry one another. Racial, gender, and sexual orientation equality has been a long and bitter struggle for those who fall into those social categories. 

This past weekend I read Dr. King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail and was shocked by its contemporary relevancy for our own time. In fact I would suggest that every school child in America be required to read this compelling letter by a man who believed in and practiced non-violent resistance. His letter has become an important piece of the American Civil Rights history.

I suppose the most shocking thing about the Letter from Birmingham Jail was Dr. King’s disappointment over the silence of so many of the White churches and their pastors and elders during their struggle for racial justice. Writes Dr. king:

In the midst of blatant injustices inflicted upon the Negro, I have watched white churchmen stand on the sideline and mouth pious irrelevancies and sanctimonious trivialities. In the midst of a mighty struggle to rid our nation of racial and economic injustice, I have heard many ministers say: "Those are social issues, with which the gospel has no real concern." And I have watched many churches commit themselves to a completely otherworldly religion, which makes a strange, un-Biblical distinction between body and soul, between the sacred and the secular.

Let’s be clear, there are troubling signs today indicating that the waters of injustice are being stirred once again, thus putting certain Americans at risk. 

The most powerful voice that would stand against this trending reversal towards injustice is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Church possesses the most liberating message afforded to any other social institution of our time. At the heart of the Gospel itself is liberation (freedom). In other words the Gospel and social action work quite well together.

Clergy in particular, especially white clergy, have a God given platform to speak out against any and all government policies that infringe upon the rights of all Americans, regardless of race, gender, or sexual orientation.

Now would not be the time for silence. It would not be the time for white Christians to hide behind the stained glass windows of their sanctuaries as they wait for their eventual trip to heaven. The signs of what might be coming are clear enough for those who claim to stand for justice for all. Silence for fear of repercussions may be a good survival technique but it is not in accordance with the Gospel. 

In the words of Dr. King: 

“We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people.”

I am convinced that our white churches are filled today with good people, good-hearted and well- meaning folks; folks who would never imagine we could turn the clock back to a more unjust time. My words are not meant to be a judgment upon them but are meant to be a challenge to consider the role we all could play in the future.

Jesus came to liberate us all from the things that imprison us and make us slaves. The theme of liberation is central to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is central to who we are as his followers to be sure.

Silence is not golden. 

In the words of Dr. King himself:

 “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”

Justice for everyone matters. It really matters!