Is the Resurrection Real?

For the first time in a very long time I was able to worship with other worshipers in the pew. No frenzied planning for the most well attended worship service of the year. No time spent crafting a fresh Easter sermon. No worship planning meetings to oversee. This has been a stress free Easter for me—at last!

Today I worshiped like an ordinary worshiper unfettered by leadership responsibilities. It’s different I admit, but I kind of like being on this side of the ropes. It was refreshing.

But the preacher in me will not die. He’s hanging on for dear life. After many years of leading worship and preaching Easter sermons it is strange not be in that role any longer. 

I’ve always believed that the first minute of any sermon is incredibly important. For in that one minute a preacher will either capture the congregation’s interest for the duration of the message or loose them for the rest of the worship hour. 

I will confess that I have spent more time over the years crafting an opening statement than I did for any other part of the sermon. That initial statement out of the box is crucial.

So as I sat there listening to the announcements this morning I began crafting what my first sentence would be if I were preaching today. It would be this: 

“I am not here to prove that the resurrection really happened, but rather to demonstrate that it is real.”

I think we spend way too much time attempting to prove our beliefs rather than living them out. The pastor this morning alluded to this in fact. 

You see the subject of Jesus’ resurrection raises some really hard questions. Such as:

Did Jesus resurrect physically?

Did he resurrect as a 30 something? 

Will his wounds ever heal?

If he resurrected physically how could he walk through doors and walls?

How could he appear and disappear almost magically? 

Such questions may be interesting but they are not very helpful. Actually they distract. 

In trying to describe what the resurrection was like the Apostle Paul wrote:

“So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a physical body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual body”

(1 Corinthians 15:42-44).

Regardless of the nature of resurrection, whether it is physical or spiritual, or cosmic, or otherwise, it is for me a game/life changer in the way I live. The pastor mentioned this in his sermon. 

It was a game changer for the disciples of Jesus. Jesus’ resurrection energized those early followers and transformed them from weak fearful humans to outrageously bold followers of Christ. 

Because of Jesus’ resurrection and the promise of our own resurrection we Christians have little to fear in this life. No wonder “fear not” is used in the Scriptures as the single most repeated admonition.

What did the resurrection mean to the Apostle Paul? Well he personally encountered the resurrected Christ on the Damascus road and it became a game/life changer for him as well. 

“No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 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 8:37-39)

The bottom line for both Paul and me regarding the resurrection of Jesus is this: 

I find it much more joyful and meaningful to spend my energy and my time demonstrating how the resurrection has transformed my life rather than proving that it really happened in the first place.

The proof, as they say, is in the pudding: In the way I live a courageously fearless life of faith even in the face of incredible dangers and threats. 

You want to prove the resurrection is real?   

Then live like it is!

Easter provides me the fuel to be brave and to trust that God has arranged an outcome for both the world and us that is unmatched and unrivaled by anyone or anything.

He is risen! Yes, he is risen indeed!

Stephen Hulsey: Was the Old Church Lady Right?

Stephen Hulsey: Was the Old Church Lady Right?: It’s hard being a Christian these days. It’s not as easy as it once seemed to be. Being a young Christian was really quite simple for m...

Was the Old Church Lady Right?

It’s hard being a Christian these days. It’s not as easy as it once seemed to be.

Being a young Christian was really quite simple for me: Believe all the right things, abstain from tobacco and alcohol (busted), don’t dance too close to my girlfriend (busted), don’t gamble (busted again), and of course attend church as much as possible (got an A).

My early Christian life seemed so easy, so well defined, so clearly understood. Such as only the saved go to heaven; everyone else goes to hell forever. That’s pretty straightforward, wouldn’t you say? Who could argue with something this clear, this is back and white? Not me.

I lived in a binary world consisting of clearly defined opposites. Heaven and hell, Christians (good guys) and non-Christians (bad guys), righteous and unrighteous, male and female, blacks and whites, straight people and those other folks no one really wanted to talk about.

Living the Christian life was a matter of adapting my lifestyle to the Bible, literally understood of course as God’s perfect word . Who in their right mind would ever question the authority of the Bible? God forbid. I didn’t. Besides, wasn’t it perfect?

But then that little old church lady showed up and she seemed to know something I didn’t: My going to college was a serious threat to my faith. She knew this. She told me so herself: “Don’t go to college, they’ll ruin you.” She knew! She may have been ignorant but she had sense enough to know that  college would change me forever. How did she know this? I wondered!

Well I did go to college. I lost my innocence virginity (please, it’s a metaphor). I learned some pretty cool things though. My world got bigger and so did God and so did my faith!

Like Abraham I answered the call to wander beyond the borders of my native land (for me a small island) and beyond the significant influences on my early life (some of those early influences I still treasure, just not all of them).

I’m still wandering. Still learning. Still forming. Still growing. Still developing. Still becoming.

Yes I have learned some really magnificent things about life, faith, and God. I also learned a lot about myself. Many of those who knew me back in the day, in what the late Marcus Borg described as the “pre-critical” stage of my faith, believe that the prophetic words of the old church lady had indeed come true: College ruined me!

Well, enough rambling. I’ll get to the point.

Christianity is much more difficult for me these days because it’s not as black and white as it once was; it has evolved into something colored in shades of gray.

Certainty has evolved into reasonable doubt. Okay i admit it.

My binary world has evolved into a more complex tapestry of blended opposites. That’s a fancy way of saying that you can't put God in a box. He’s too big and too mysterious to fit inside of our own humanly constructed booths. Peter tried that once, remember?

The old binary realities once colored in black and white no longer hold absolute meaning for me. Quite frankly I am not so comfortable with absolutes these days—but isn’t that where faith comes into the picture? Isn’t faith a gray sort of thing?

Is the Bible the absolute authority for all Christians? Many believe it is even though they have never read it from cover to cover. I believe it is much more nuanced than this. Do I read the Bible seriously as my sacred text? I do! Yet I struggle with it sometimes and if you are an honest person you will admit this too.

Jesus once said that new wine could never be placed in old wineskins. What a great metaphor. The new wine ferments and the old dry skins burst open and spill all the wine.

My new “post-critical” (again Marcus Borg) faith cannot be squeezed back into the shape of my “pre-critical” faith. It’s impossible. I can only move forward and so should you. In the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson:

“The mind, once stretched by a new idea, never returns to its original dimensions.”

Don’t allow the old church lady to intimidate and frighten you of growth, of larger horizons, of an expanded worldview, of learning new and higher things about life, faith, and even God—and yourself.

I promise, you will be amazed at what God will allow you to learn with some effort and a lot of faith. Trust God for the growth. Remember the words of Jesus:

“You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free!” 

Real freedom comes when one steps out into this big wide world and trusts God for the knowledge of knowing and experiencing Him in new ways!

Well the old church lady was right after all . . . and I’m so glad she was.

Stephen Hulsey: The Final Scapegoat!

Stephen Hulsey: The Final Scapegoat!: The terrorists’ attack in Brussels ignites yet another round of scapegoating and blame casting for the murderous acts of radical Islamis...

The Final Scapegoat!

The terrorists’ attack in Brussels ignites yet another round of scapegoating and blame casting for the murderous acts of radical Islamists. Shortly after the deadly attack presidential candidates began scapegoating all Muslims for these senseless attacks, calling for a halt on all refugees entering the United States. 

One candidate called for a policing and monitoring of Muslim neighborhoods within the United States. If we listen to these fear mongering voices we will round up all American Muslims (about 1% of our total population, over six thousand of which serve in the U.S. military today) and place them in detention camps similar to what we did to American Japanese following the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

Scapegoating is a by-product of fear and misunderstanding (and ignorance). It is also a political tool to unify and gather support, to rally the troops. Hitler scapegoated the Jews and Gypsies for Germany’s national woes during the 1930s. American politicians have in the past scapegoated the poor when the economy is weak, calling for a reduction of social assistance programs (as if welfare alone can actually be the reason for a bad economy and high national debt).

Scapegoating, according to the late French scholar René Girard, has been around a very long time indeed. As ancient societies grew and conflicts between them intensified societies needed to relieve the tensions caused by these conflicts; thus, according to Girard the scapegoating mechanism was created. 

A victim (scapegoat) must be blamed and punished.

This form of scapegoating was very primitive and one of the earliest scapegoating mechanisms created. Over time the scapegoat moved from sacrificing humans to animals (thank God). For some reason once the victim was sacrificed, for the good of the community, some normalcy was restored. Tensions were relieved. Communities could get on with their lives until another sacrifice was needed.

Then in the New Testament we are introduced to the ultimate Scapegoat: Jesus of Nazareth.

Jesus became the sacrifice to end all sacrifices. He became the innocent victim that bore the sins of the world. Today is that day in which Jesus hung from that rugged old cross as he bore the sins of humanity for humanity. 

God in the flesh, whose flesh was torn and ripped apart and nailed to a cross by a religious institution hell bent to protect itself from a prophetic intruder and a powerful government determined to rule by power and violence. 

Let it be said that religion and politics make for a lethal combination when they climb into bed with one another. Perhaps Nietzsche was right, we have killed God. We have indeed nailed the last Scapegoat to a tree. God forgive us. God forgive us for confusing the two as being complimentary partners in world affairs.

Ever since Christianity ceased being a subversively illegal movement in the 4th century her marriage to the Empire has caused untold suffering to the very ones Jesus came to liberate (Luke 4).

Yet today we continue the age-old practice of scapegoating and thus blaming the ones on the bottom or on the fringe of society for our troubles. We fail to see that the line of evil runs squarely through all human hearts, that we all have one thing in common, rich or poor, powerful or weak, privileged or otherwise: 

We share a dark side that brings out the worse in all of us. We are to blame! The final Scapegoat was for us.

The poor are not the reason for a nation’s financial woes; one single religion is not responsible for the threats of worldwide terrorism; immigrants are not the reason we have employment problems in this country. 

Good Friday reminds us that Jesus came to lift up those who find themselves on the bottom of society’s ladder. He came to offer freedom from economic exploitation and nationalistic fervor that blames the outsider for its woes.

Jesus became our final Scapegoat.

God decided to end this business of sacrificing others for our own woes. The Bible in fact makes it clear that God hated sacrifices. So God decided to become the ultimate sacrifice that would liberate the world from itself; that would free us all from ourselves.

Those on the bottom, those in the middle, and those on top of society have been given a new opportunity to live freely as God intended for us to live. We can stop all this business of blaming others for what we perceive is wrong with our own personal lives or what is wrong with our world.

When we look into the eyes of the poor standing on the wrong side of the tracks we can either see them as a threat or as a redeemed child of God, who Himself bore all the blame on their behalf.

Jesus is the final Scapegoat. 

We have no one to blame but ourselves for the mess our world is in today.

God bears our blame once and for all!

Good Friday reminds us of this eternal truth!

The Power of a Donkey!

As I write this article two presidents from two very different nations are sitting together in what may be considered the most unlikely of places: A baseball game between team Cuba and the Tampa Bay Rays. After more than half a century of bitterly cold relations between the United States and Cuba one wonders if reconciliation is really possible? Is forgiveness possible after so much has happened? 

There is no better time to reflect upon geopolitical issues such as this than this week. It is Holy Week, of course: the holiest of all weeks on the Christian calendar. Palm Sunday has just past and Good Friday is moving in our direction. The two days are significantly tied together.  Holy Week is the biggest week of the Christian year.

Yet Im fearful that many Christians will miss the broader historical implications of Palm Sunday and Good Friday. Let’s begin with Palm Sunday which kicks off Holy Week. In the words of the late New Testament scholar Marcus Borg here’s what was happening:

"On Sunday, Palm Sunday, Jesus entered Jerusalem from the east in a procession riding on a donkey cheered by his followers. At the same time, a Roman imperial procession of troops and cavalry entered the city from the west, headed by Pilate. Their purpose was to reinforce the Roman garrison stationed near the temple for the season of Passover, when tens (hundreds?) of thousands of Jewish pilgrims filled the city."

From the east one procession enters the city proclaiming a kingdom of peace and on the opposite side a procession announcing an Empire sustained by military force and brutal power. As Jesus rides on the back of a donkey his procession represents a kingdom founded on humility, whereas Pilate riding on a Roman warhorse represents the prideful power of Empire. The contrast is stunning but telling.

This is street theatre at its very best. Jesus is subversively mocking the power of Rome. He is announcing to his fellow Jews that his kingdom is not founded on bloodshed and brute military force. His role as Messiah will not look like Roman military power.

But then comes Good Friday, the culmination of Jesus’ Palm Sunday ride into Jerusalem. We must not forget other significant events such as Jesus driving out the money exchangers from the Temple court, or Jesus eating the last Passover meal with his disciples, or his agonizing prayer in the garden, or his arrest and trials which ultimately led him to the cross.

Now here’s our take away: This Friday Christians will gather for worship all over the world as they commemorate the crucifixion of Jesus. Pastors and priests from many different Christian traditions will most likely focus on the sacrificial death of Jesus as it pertains to the forgiveness of our individual sins.

In some traditions Good Friday will be reduced down to a Divinely foreordained event designed as a method to expiate our individual sins. There will be creative liturgies focusing on the individual benefits resulting from Jesus’ death on the cross. 

While all thus may be true let’s think about Palm Sunday and Good Friday a bit differently:

What if the cross also represents Jesus answer to Empire? What if Jesus’ humble ride into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey was his way of announcing what God’s kingdom is really like? What it his obedient and willful journey to the cross was his way of saying: “My Father’s kingdom is built upon sacrificial love and not the brute military force of the Empire?”

What if we Christians gathered  together this Good Friday as an opportunity to tell the world: God’s kingdom is a kingdom of peace, joy, love, faith, light, and life? What if we announced to our own government that God’s kingdom is not to be used as the participating agent of Empire to help further nationalistic agendas.

Look, we Christians are not going to change the way world governments do business. It is idealistic to assume that we can even change the way our own government organizes and operates as a nation. Empires act like Empires and that's the plain truth. You can’t change the spots on a leopard nor can one hope to change the way human governments operate. Nor should we try. Only God can change the heart of human government.

This is why the claim that America is a Christian nation is so ludicrously false. Quite frankly America does not act like a nation operating like God’s kingdom. For her to be a Christian nation she would have to submit to the kingdom values that Jesus demonstrated on Palm Sunday and Good Friday. Friends, this is not going to happen, so please stop referring to America as a Christian nation.

The Good News is this: God’s kingdom is available to each and every human being that hears the Gospel. The Good News is that Jesus came in order to demonstrate how God prefers his world to be organized and operated. 

As Christians our responsibility is to faithfully reflect that Divine purpose in whatever context we find ourselves. Jesus obediently gave his life for the purpose of revealing how God wants us to live. The naked truth is that no earthly government is listening to this Palm Sunday/Good Friday message. Nor should we expect them to listen apart from the transformative power of God’s love filling the centers of governmental power.

I close with the words of Jesus to Pilate when asked if he was really the king of the Jews: 

“My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here” (John 18:36).

The real power of Christ's kingdom is on the back of a donkey. 

The Culprit Behind Jesus'Death

The pastor explained in vivid detail the scourging of Jesus, the thirty-nine lashes and the placement of a crown of thorns on his head. It would have been difficult for me not to visualize the skin being ripped from Jesus’ back as he was unmercifully beaten or picture the droplets of blood falling down his face as the thorns of his crown bit deeply into his scalp.

The cruel images the pastor was describing had already been indelibly imprinted on my brain by Mel Gibson’s brutally graphic film, The Passion of Christ. It is very difficult for modern people to get their minds wrapped around the barbaric cruelty and violence of Roman crucifixion. 

Crucifixion was nasty business in Jesus’ day. The torturous suffering of the one being crucified is unimaginable for many. We ask: “How can humans treat other humans with such barbaric cruelty?” That’s a good question but the better question to ask is: 

“Would God treat a human being like this?”  

The way one answer this question depends on one’s interpretation of the meaning of the cross of Jesus.

As the pastor was describing in colorful detail the suffering of Jesus I kept saying to myself over and over: “Please tell the congregation that it wasn’t God who was doing all this to Jesus!” I wanted him to make it very clear to all of us: “Yes the cross of Jesus was extremely bloody; yes it was cruel punishment; yes it was brutally violent; BUT, God was not the One inflicting all this torture and pain  upon Jesus!“Please make this clear” I kept saying to myself!

Allow me to say it again: “God did not torture and kill Jesus.” God was in no way responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus. I realize that there are theories of the cross and models of salvation that require God to punish Jesus in order for Him to forgive us and offer us eternal life. Oner may even find some Scriptures in support of such an idea.

This is what I was taught to believe concerning the meaning of Jesus’ death. I sang old hymns that portrayed the death of Jesus as payment for my sins: “Jesus Paid It All” or “Are You Washed In The Blood” or “Covered by the Blood” and many more like these. Hymns that portray what author Dallas Willard described as “Vampire Theology.”

Now I am not denying, nor should I, the reality of Jesus’ horrific bloody death upon a Roman cross. The Gospels are very clear that Jesus died on the cross and that somehow that obedient death and God's forgiveness are inseparably connected. 

But did God have to kill Jesus or have him killed in order to forgive us of our sins?

God did not kill Jesus! I am fairly convinced that God is fully capable of complete forgiveness apart from the death of Jesus on the cross.

What kind of God would demand that His only Son be crucified in order to provide salvation to us? Brian Zahnd calls this interpretation of the cross: “Salvation by sadism.” It makes God out to be a petty tyrannical bloodthirsty deity whose capacity for forgiveness is dependent upon sacrificial blood being spilt. Such an idea paints God as a cosmic child abuser.

There is something deeply mysterious in the death of Jesus and its correlation with the forgiveness of sins. Something of cosmic proportions took place that I believe defies all human explanation. All blood atonement theories aside, Jesus’ death and our salvation are mysteriously connected. 

The truth is God didn’t kill Jesus, the Romans killed Jesus in collusion with the religious authorities.

 Jesus died as the result of human sin and not Divine need for a bloody sacrifice for sin.If you get right down to it, we humans killed Jesus!

Let me be crystal clear about this: God did not torture and crucify Jesus . . . Period!

Did Jesus obediently give up his life for us? Yes he did! 

Did he willingly sacrifice his life so that we might live. Yes! 

But it was not a sacrifice to appease some bloodthirsty God before he could forgive us humans. 

We serve a God who does not need to kill in order to give life! He needs nor does He want blood sacrifices in order to forgive human sin (see Hebrews 10:5-9).

This is the real message of Good Friday! This is the real Good News! In the words of author and pastor Brian Zahnd:

"The cross is a cataclysmic collision of violence and forgiveness. The violence part of the    cross is entirely human. The forgiveness part of the cross is entirely divine. God’s nature is revealed in love, not in violence. The Roman cross was an instrument of imperial violence that Jesus transformed into a symbol of divine love . . . Punishing the innocent in order to forgive the guilty is monstrous logic, atrocious theology, and a gross distortion of the idea of justice."

I could not agree more. Good Friday will past and Easter will indeed dawn! 

For the Love of Family!

Last night turned out to be one of those special nights for me. Not because it was St. Patrick’s Day, although the holiday did inspire the events of the evening.

My family gathered together to eat a traditional St. Patrick’s meal of corned beef and cabbage. Well some of us did. My wife also cooked a pot roast with all the trimmings for those not disposed to the Irish delight. One of my daughter’s-in-law brought a delicious brownie dessert (that I didn’t need as good as it was though).

Food aside however, I was overwhelmed by the opportunity to spend a couple of hours with my family all under one roof. There were only twelve of us, one being the boyfriend of one of my granddaughters. Not a huge family but big enough I suppose.

The conversation was lively as usual (no politics thank God). Just the normal chitchat that seems to characterize American family dinners. It was all good; it made me feel extraordinarily blessed.

Why am I telling you all this? Why should you care? 

Well, I wanted to share something with you I am sure you already know, at least in your minds you know: These kinds of opportunities are only temporary. 

My wife Marise and I are now both orphans. I know that sounds morbid but it is true. Our parents are no longer with us. We don’t have a dad or a mom to talk with when we need a safe place to talk. 

Yes we have each other, but there is just something special about talking with a mom or a dad. 

There is also something special about our children and grandchildren as well. Listening to the noisy banter of four teenagers in one room can be incredibly disorienting to older folks but it is nonetheless something quite  special. Let them rant!

Their worlds are significantly important and exciting as they document what they believe to be the most important things happening in their lives at the moment. They are teenagers only once (thank God).

As the parents of these grandchildren grow into older adults themselves they begin to remind us of when we were younger. They may even begin to look like us. Sometimes they even act like us, which is scary.

It is said that daughters become their mothers and sons become their fathers. Well it could be the other way around but who cares? It just is.

We see them make the same mistakes we made when we were their age but we keep our opinions to ourselves because we don’t want to be interfering old farts. We mourn their failures but we realize we had our own share of failures so we refrain from being judgmental. We do celebrate privately their successes. But most importantly we have learned to extend grace to each of them.

But last night for some reason seemed special. Any parent would wish that opportunities such as these would be endless. But we know this is not the case. 

But here’s the deal: Whether you are a grandparent or a parent or a teenager whose life is filled with friends and activities, take every opportunity to spend time with your families.

Families will not always remain intact. Life plays cruel tricks on us all. Relish those moments of togetherness. They are special.

Enjoy the opportunity to be a part of something special that only birth can confer: Being a member of a family! 

This my friend is one of those things that is larger than life itself.

Thank God for Evolution!

For many folks “evolution” is a bad word. In the church that I grew up evolution was looked upon with suspicious disdain, often described as Satan’s attack on the Biblical creation story (literally understood). 

In the public schools I attended it was mentioned but never elaborated upon or never offered as a credible alternative to a literal reading of the Genesis creation accounts.

The fear of evolution was so intense that many positive aspects of it were neglected or misunderstood. This is sad because in many ways we all are products of our own evolving lives. 

For instance, our brains have evolved over time and so have the ways we think about our world. For example, do you know of anyone who really thinks slavery is acceptable and normal anymore. We just don’t think that way any longer. We’ve evolved beyond such primitive thinking (well, most of us have).

I would even argue that there is solid Biblical evidence supporting the evolution of human thought, especially how folks thought about God. For example we witness an evolving understanding of God developing within the Scriptures themselves. Biblical characters evolved in their thinking about whom God is, how he operates in the word, and their own relationship with him.

The Apostle Paul is a great example of how one’s understanding of God evolves. Certainly the man who hunted down and persecuted followers of Jesus is not the same man who wrote Romans. In fact many New Testament scholars would argue that the Paul who wrote 1 Thessalonians is different from the Paul who wrote Romans.

Why? Because Paul’s thinking about God evolved over time.

We see aspects of evolutionary thought right on the pages of the Bible itself. The God of Abraham for example, then later Moses, was conceived of as a tribal Deity fighting for his people and exterminating their enemies. Read the stories of the conquest of Canaan in the book of Joshua which represent early thinking about God. 

God made it crystal clear that he was going to give Canaan to the wandering Hebrews and defeat their enemies (God’s enemies too it seems) for them. But along comes Jesus saying: “Love your enemies.” These three little words represent a huge shift in the way folks thought about God. This did not happen over night.

Many will push back at the suggestion that our understanding of God evolves (changes) over time. The belief that God never changes seems to be a preferable confession. It feels safe. It feels orthodox. It feels right. 

Yet what changes is not God but rather our understanding of him over time.

My understanding of God is much different now from what it was when I was younger. My thinking has grown so to speak in the ways I understand God.

The God of vengeance, the God whose anger simmered against my own personal failings no longer exists. I feared this God. His wrath was real to me. 

This God also hated those who were not members of my own faith club. Non-Christians were doomed to eternal torment. God would ensure that they would pay for their disbelief in never ending torture.

This God was on the side of all those who believed like I believed (which probably didn’t include the Catholics and maybe even the Pentecostals, and certainly not the Jehovah’s Witnesses or Mormons). 

One’s fellowship with other Christians depended on what those other Christians believed of course because God for me was in charge of the doctrine police.

Moreover, I pictured a God who hated homosexuals and transgendered people. Certainly he hated Communists. It was very clear to me that God also hated liberals, with a passion of course!

Yet there was so much mental dissonance between the God I believed loved me yet also who could turn on me in an instant if I failed him in some way. But as I grew older my understanding of God evolved. One could say that God himself was actually transforming my image of him. Either way I evolved as a Christian. 

Then it occurred to me that this same evolving phenomenon took place on the pages of Scripture themselves. The God of Moses or Abraham looked much different from the God of David and Solomon who looked much different from the God is Isaiah and Amos, who looked much different from the God of Jesus and Paul. 

Jesus came to reveal the God of universal love; the God who is merciful beyond anything any of us can imagine. The God of Paul the Apostle was certainly different from the God of Saul the persecutor.

The God of Peter before Cornelius was indeed different from the God after Peter’s encounter with Cornelius.

Thank God for evolution—at least the kind of evolution that helps you and me understand God in new ways. 

As my life evolves those  small images of God begin to grow. 

Don’t be afraid of the evolving images of God that might occur in your life. Welcome them and embrace them as the fruit of your own personal growth.

Remember the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson: “The mind, once stretched by a new idea, never returns to its original dimensions.”

Once your image of God is stretched into a much larger evolving image, the smaller images will no longer work. 

Is Jesus Dead?

“Jesus is dead.”

As I read these words alarm bells went off in my head. “What?” Has this author gone mad? 

But then I continued reading:

“He is dead to a modern Christianity that so very often seems fully content to call itself that, without the slightest trace of Christ.

"He’s dead to a faith that’s gone to bed with politics, shacked up with power, had a wild fling with materialism; one that’s given birth to something so very unlike him, yet named after him.

"What passes as Christianity here in America often bears no resemblance to the humble, gentle Nazarene Rabbi, who came armed with no cash, no building campaign, no mega church, no lobbyists, and no army, only the greatest of good news on the planet and an extravagant heart bursting open for every weary soul that crossed his path” (John Pavlovitz). 

Could it be? Is Jesus really dead? Is it possible to even think of such an absurd idea, let alone publicly announce it? What pastor or Christian would ever dare make such an outrageous claim? Isn’t this heresy of the first order?

You might be surprised.

A good friend of mine recently told me that her church was not having a Good Friday service this year. “What a shame” was my response. What a opportunity the folks of this congregation are going to miss: An opportunity to acknowledge that we all are guilty of Jesus’ death! 

Good Friday services are not so popular among many Evangelical Protestant churches. The idea that Jesus died is an upsetting idea for many. This is why so many nominal Christians show up in church only on Christmas and Easter.

They go from his birth to his resurrection without having to deal with all the difficult in-between stuff. I can understand this:

American Christians are not comfortable with death—whether it’s their own or Jesus’. 

Just as Nietzsche’s God died in the imagination of 19th century Europe so has Jesus died in the American version of Christianity. We have replaced the gentile subversive rabbi from Nazareth with a pseudo Jesus-like figure defined principally by American Exceptionalism and Capitalism.

We have dressed up Jesus in the stars and stripes of American nationalism and buried him beneath the horrific doctrine of Manifest Destiny. There he lies beneath the dust of American expansionism.

He died and was replaced with an insipid religious figure that sanctions a dysfunctional political system driven by anger, greed and the lust for power. 

We have killed Jesus and replaced him with a religious figure that will bless our wars and legitimize the bloated military industrial complex, with God’s blessings of course.

He died and reappeared as the celebrity like proponent of a prosperity Gospel invented by American capitalism and a hybrid form of ancient Gnosticism (a Jesus who is only concerned with our spiritual lives and a disembodied life after death). 

The humble Nazarene who angered the domination systems of his day and frightened the religious establishment has been domesticated and made the good friend of peddling televangelists and political hucksters. 

Whatever happened to the non-violent Jesus who taught us to love our enemies and to pray for those who persecute us? Did that Jesus die?

Whatever happened to the Jesus who appeared more comfortable hanging with the homeless, prostitutes, and beggars of his day?  Did we kill this Jesus?

Whatever happened to the Jesus who proclaimed Good News to the poor, the marginalized, the sick, and the captives? 

Good Friday is important. Without Good Friday Easter is hollow and meaningless. Jesus is dead and it is time for him to resurrect in American Christianity. It is time for us to confess our complicity in killing Jesus of Nazareth and replacing him with an American Jesus:

“He’s dead to a faith that’s gone to bed with politics, shacked up with power, had a wild fling with materialism; one that’s given birth to something so very unlike him, yet named after him” (Pavlovitz). 

Good Friday reminds us that we have killed Jesus, not the Romans, nor the Jews, nor God; no, we have killed Jesus. We are responsible for his death. God be merciful!

So Easter is coming and Jesus will resurrect. But will he resurrect within our own hearts and minds? Will Easter reveal to us that there is indeed a Jesus of the Gospels, a living Jesus that America desperately needs?

Christians will have the opportunity to reacquaint themselves with this humble rabbi from Nazareth who gave the world a genius way to live as human beings. 

Perhaps this Easter a real transformative resurrection will occur throughout American Christianity; a resurrection that will change our understanding of who Jesus really is—according to the Gospel script that is.

One can only hope.

“Christianity is at its best when it is peculiar, marginalized, suffering, and it is at its worst  when it is popular, credible, triumphal, and powerful.” ― Shane Claiborne, Jesus for President: Politics for Ordinary Radicals

I wonder if Jesus would participate in the flurry of political conversations that are swirling around us today? Would he post his views on Facebook? Would he allow himself to be part of the seemingly endless political debates of today? Would he write blogs expressing his political views? Would he allow himself to get caught up in cliché politics?

Of course all this is speculation but there is one thing I am fairly certain about: Jesus would never talk about politics without also talking about the Kingdom of God. Politics for Jesus was the kingdom of God. 

I believe that it would be a grave mistake for us to turn the kingdom of God into some afterlife reality only or into some spiritual reality that transcends life here on earth. As I pointed out in my last post: Jesus inaugurated God’s kingdom in real earth time. One cannot separate Jesus, the God’s kingdom and life today.

So whenever Jesus talked about the kingdom of God he was going political on us. The parables of the mustard seed and yeast found in Matthew’s Gospel (13:31-33) illustrate this for us. 

The kingdom of God may be compared to a mustard seed that begins its life really small but grows into a significantly large tree. The kingdom of God began small in the life of Jesus. It grew and grew over time. Saint Paul described it this way: “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow” (1 Corinthians 3:6). How did it grow? By planting!

Jesus is saying: You want to participate in the politics of God’s kingdom then plant the seeds of the Gospel and water (nurture) them along the way. You want to be political then plant seeds of God’s love, peace, justice, and grace in your world. One small humble act of planting could lead to significant change and good.

The parable of the yeast describes the nature of kingdom growth: It grows unnoticed and in subversive ways. There is no room in God’s kingdom for arrogant and flamboyant politics such as we witness today. God’s kingdom grows apart from all the rallies and cheering supporters.

There is no persona (false image) in kingdom politics. Optics are not everything. Kingdom politics occur often without the world’s notice. There are no rallies of cheering supporters and gaudy signs.

Jesus was a politician at heart but one of a different stripe. His kingdom politics were driven by radical inclusiveness, by restorative justice for all, by fairness and equality, and most importantly his politics were powered by kingdom love (agape). One does not need to be powerful nor wealthy to be a political leader in Christ’s kingdom; but one does have to be humble and gentle in spirit. 

Finally, Jesus’ kingdom politics were never about domination or violence. He had no armies. His was a kingdom of nonviolent resistance. 

So what is our big take away from all this? 

As Christians we are to model Jesus’ approach to politics, meaning of course that we would never engage in any political discussion or debate or system without first considering what the demands of God’s kingdom might be on our own lives, including our politics. 

Our political imagination should be shaped by our Christian faith and not just by our loyalty to our nation or to one political party or to one political theory over another. The fundamental starting place for Christian involvement in any politics is Christ and his teachings on his father’s kingdom. 

Let me say it as simply as I can: 

We should never allow our politics to shape our Christian faith, but rather we should allow our Christian faith to shape our politics.

The Political Imagination of Jesus

Let it be said that Jesus definitely had a political imagination. It was both creative and provocative. It would be unwise of us today to separate Jesus’ teachings from the political context in which they arose. Jesus was not apolitical. Of course this is what the modern political system wants us to believe: "Jesus is all about the spiritual realm and politics is all about the real world." Not true!

You see if politics is about how we structure, order, and organize our world then Jesus had to be concerned about how we do just that. He was not just concerned with our spiritual lives. I have heard people say that politics and Christianity don’t mix. Well I would say it a bit differently: The politics of this world and the politics of Jesus stand in stark opposition to one another. But this no way implies that Christianity was ever meant to be apolitical. 

Jesus had a political vision as well as a political imagination. His vision was simply this: The kingdom of God has already arrived? Or, heaven is already on earth today? If we miss this we will then misunderstand much of what Jesus taught and thus relegate Christianity to the spiritual realm only.

For example, our obsession with life after death has blinded us to Jesus’ real concern for life before death. His political vision was not just about heaven after we die. It was about bringing heaven to this earth and he had some pretty radical ideas on how we might help implement this vision. Check out his Sermon on the Mount.

Jesus unpacked his political vision with creative imagination in his parables that begin with: “The kingdom of heaven is like . . .”  (Matthew 13). For example there is the parable of the “Weeds and the Wheat.”

A man plants a garden and sometime in the middle of the night the enemy comes into the garden and plants weeds. I knew that there had to have been somebody planting weeds in my garden.

So the man’s servants ask if they should pull up the weeds from the garden. The man’s answer is surprising: “No!” His rationale is also surprising: “In pulling up the weeds you may do harm to the wheat. Let them grow together until the harvest.” That’s metaphorical language for: God will separate them in due time.

Now the first thing to know about this parable is that it is not about heaven after we die. It is about learning to live in God’s kingdom (heaven) that has already been planted in our world. This is key to understanding the meaning of all the kingdom parables. It is key to understanding Jesus.

The wheat is God’s kingdom on earth. It is heaven on earth right now. The weeds represent all that knowingly or unknowingly opposes God’s kingdom. Jesus’ point: They all grow together and any attempt to eliminate the weeds might do great harm to God’s kingdom. Elimination of the weeds requires Divine discernment as well as our faithful participation in that process.

Now the world cannot understand this line of reasoning. It never has and never will. So as Christians we must not expect the world to embrace the politics of Jesus. Resistance is to be expected. We can’t change that. Jesus was real clear about this: 

“The reason I speak to them in parables is that ‘seeing they do not perceive, and hearing they do not listen, nor do they understand’” (Matthew 13:13). That’s pretty clear.

So what is Jesus recommending in this parable? Is he saying that we are not to defend ourselves against those who desire to kill us or do us great harm? Are we to ignore the likes of ISIS in hopes that God will take care of them in due time? Are we expected to become Christian Pacifists? These are good questions. Hard questions.

But let’s not forget that Jesus was talking to Jews who were living under the oppressive rule of the Roman Empire. There were those who wanted to revolt, drive out the Romans with force (pull up the weeds). Jesus understood that the weeds were definitely growing among the wheat in his own day. So what were they to do?

This is where it becomes tricky for those of us living among both the weeds and the wheat. In today’s context we are bombarded with political promises from several aspiring presidential candidates. Promises to keep America safe no matter what seems to be the most popular mantra. In a post 9/11 America the war on terrorism is a most prominent component of any political campaign. Grandiose promises are being made regarding the safety of our nation.

But this is also where we as Christians must step back and take a deep breath by discerning Jesus’ political vision. You see we are first and foremost citizens of heaven, meaning that our citizenship is rooted in God’s kingdom and not the kingdoms of this world: The world’s kingdom and God’s kingdom are like oil and water, they never mix well together in spite of our best efforts.

So why is this so important? Because we must learn to discern between what best coheres with the politics of Jesus and what does not. 

For an example, is carpet-bombing an appropriate method for eliminating our enemy? Does such a tactic cohere with Jesus’ political strategy? 

Or when the United States dropped the atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Nagasaki, hundreds of Christians were incinerated in the blast. The kingdom that God had planted in that city was almost completely obliterated (See A Song for Nagasaki by Fr. Paul Glynn).

Could this be what Jesus was talking about? Is this plucking the weeds out of the garden and perhaps doing great harm to the wheat? It’s worth our consideration don’t you think?  

Stay tuned for more on the Political imagination of Jesus!

What is Wrong With Us?

The Christian story always seemed pretty straightforward to me. The storyline went something like this: Adam and Eve committed the first sin in the garden by eating fruit from the forbidden tree (Genesis 3). Their sin created a great chasm of separation between God and themselves. Even to this day when a person is born he or she enters this world as a sinner separated from God.

The early Calvinists (16th century) taught that a human being was born totally depraved—implying that there is no implicit good to be found in anyone. Only God can provide the remedy for this so-called “depraved” condition. The cure for this condition therefore is confession of sin and salvation.

In some traditions baptism is tacked on as a necessary requirement.

This condition was first labeled “Original Sin” in the 2nd century. It has become second nature for most Christians to accept this as the only explanation for what is wrong with the human condition.

Surprisingly though this is not how the original story in Genesis 3 is told. The storyline seems to point us in a much different direction and changes how we might understand the basic human condition.

Adam and Eve were ordered by God not to eat the fruit from the tree that contained knowledge of good and evil. They were told if they did they would surely die.

Well they disobeyed God and did eat the fruit from the forbidden tree. So what was the first thing that happened to our ancestral parents?

Well, for the very first time they experienced shame. The story does not indicate that they felt sinful or depraved. No, they felt shame, so they hid themselves from God. Shame alienates us from God. We want to get away from him so we do all we can to hide from his presence. Shame turns us against ourselves and against God. Alienation becomes our primary illness as it were.

But where is God as this drama unfolds? He is searching for them. He’s already there in their presence even though they think they are well hidden from him. He calls out to them. They answer.

They do not die right then and there. They are expelled from the garden but the story never indicates that they are now separated from God because of their disobedience. The story never implies that God is offended by their actions or that his honor had been somehow violated. They attempted to cover their shame on their own by sewing fig leaves together and covering their private parts since they realized for the first time that they were naked. But their efforts failed them. God ultimately had to cover their shame.

Pastor Stan Mitchell (GracePointe Church) asks us some intriguing questions about this story:

“What if the Diagnosis that sin is humanity's core illness is wrong? And what if the Prognosis that we are separated from God because of said sin is also wrong and, in sad irony, actually perpetuates our core illness? And what if the Prescription offered as cure only feeds a religious process, even industry, that sadly makes us sicker? What if?”

Yes, what if?

So Mitchell suggests that perhaps the core problem concerning the human condition is “shame and alienation” rather than “sin and separation.” I must admit that this is an intriguing way to read the story of Adam and Eve.

Mitchell then suggests that the cure for our condition is “healing and reconciliation” from and with God? How would such a scenario color the way we understand our Christian story now?

Can you see the implications of such a shift in the way we read the story of the fall? How might we now understand the meaning of the cross? How differently might we see ourselves in our relationship with God? If our biggest problem as humans is alienation from God rather than separation what does this imply regarding the solution to that problem?

It seems to me that this way of reading the story of redemption coincides much better with the notion that salvation is all about  healing.

I’m going to have to think about all this for sure. But that’s okay. Thinking critically about one's faith is not a sin. Asking questions that lead to new ways of understanding our story and the story of Redemption is what it means to grow. Asking hard questions is not the result of a weak and wavering faith but rather a sign of a healthy and risk-taking faith.

Mitchell, I must admit, has piqued my interest by asking some compelling questions as to the nature of our human condition. He’s got my attention. Have I got yours?

What do you think?

Note to reader: All the quotes from and questions asked by Stan Mitchell may be found on his Facebook timeline. Additionally this alternative view does not negate the reality of sin, but rather represents a shift in our understanding of the fundamental problem of our human condition. 

CONVERSION

Jesus grew up in a small village named Nazareth. Nazareth was located in a region in which poverty was widespread. The people with whom Jesus grew up with were overly burdened with Roman taxes, temple tithes, and other levies that forced many of them into brutal poverty. They were angry for sure.

The Romans, because of unpaid debts, confiscated their ancestral lands leaving many homeless. It has been estimated that more than 90% of the population of Jesus’ homeland lived in poverty. The world in which Jesus lived as a young boy and man was a harsh cruel world in which many dreamed of better times.

Perhaps this is why we read so much about beggars, poor widows, and sick children in the Gospels. Certainly these conditions of poverty impacted Jesus’ worldview. It certainly was in the background of much of what he taught. This is why I have a difficult time with Christians jumping on popular political bandwagons by berating the poor and painting those on welfare as lazy and undeserving. 

No wonder the expectations of a coming Messiah were so high: A Messiah that would make Israel Great again!

Actually many messiahs arose in and around Jesus’ lifetime yet ended up as utter failures or at worse crucified . The established government would have nothing to do with any movement or person that aimed to take it down. Rome was merciless in this regard.

Now there were basically four responses to Rome’s occupation among the Jews living in Jesus’ day. One was compliance. Do what they tell us to do, don’t make waves and perhaps they will just leave us alone. These were the religious elite, the Temple keepers, and the Jewish establishment. The High Priest Caiaphas was part of this compliant group.

Then there were those who believed it best to disappear and keep below the radarscope: Out of sight, out of mind as it were. These were the Essences who lived in the Dead Sea region far from the center of power in Jerusalem. John the Baptist hung out with these folks. This was the stick-your-head-in the-sand response to Rome.

Then of course there were the fundamentalists of the day who believed that if everyone would just stop sinning and obey the Law then God would wipe out the Romans and Israel would be great again. These were the Pharisees whose religious zeal was second to none. Their world was colored through the lens of sin. Sin was responsible for all the pain and suffering the people were experiencing under Roman rule.

Finally there were the hawks of the day, the zealots whose mantra was: Drive out the hated Romans by military force. These were the hawkish Jews who were looking for a military like Messiah who would restore Israel back to the good old days of David and Solomon. Their war cry was clear: “Let’s make Israel great again!” Jesus even recruited a couple of these hawks to follow him, Simon being one.

Jesus rejected every one of these responses, especially the fourth response. He offered a fifth way: The way of God’s kingdom on earth! God’s kingdom subverts the governments of all kings, prime ministers, and presidents. Yet one cannot see how God’s kingdom operates unless one experiences the conversion necessary to open one’s eyes to God’s presence in this world. Conversion enables one to realize God’s kingdom cannot be co-opted by the world’s political powers or to serve one particular political system. Jesus once said that this kingdom was not of this world.

For so long now we have understood conversion as that moment when we are saved and inherit eternal life. Unfortunately this is a very shortsighted understanding of what it means to be converted. 

The Apostle Paul experienced a conversion that changed everything for him, including how the world was meant to work. His eyes were opened to a totally reordered and rearranged world. A new operating system as it were.

Paul was converted from seeing his world in terms of power and violence to seeing it through the lens of God’s grace and love. In other words, everything that Paul understood as making his world operate came unglued. His conversion deconstructed his old worldview. He gained new eyes to see.

This is why so many today cannot see their world in the same way that folks who have experienced conversion can. It is impossible for them to see with such clarity. Thus we see the same four responses to the global threats today and the one response that speaks the loudest is: Violence must be dealt with and only with further violence. The mantra is clear: Make America strong again. Ironically this approach will just further weaken us as a nation. 

Remember the Scriptures teach us that through weakness we are made strong. That's upside down isn't it?

Yet Paul, through his conversion, came to understand that violence is never redemptive. It perpetuates further violence. War is a hopeless cyclical means to resolve human conflict. Yet we continue down that pathway in hopes of someday creating a lasting peace or eventually eradicating all our enemies once and for all. Conversion exposes this myth of redemptive violence.

To be converted is to have one’s eyes and ears open to the truth of the Gospel. Jesus once said: “You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.” Free from what? Free from the old ways of seeing one’s world. Free from an old worn out worldview that continues to fail all of us.

Conversion frees us to see our world in new ways, hopeful ways, redemptive ways, and best of all, life-giving ways—ways in which God sees the world. To be converted is to be transformed in the way we understand how our world was meant to work according to God’s plan and purpose.

The one who has eyes to see will get this; the one who doesn’t won’t! 

Checklist Christianity

Did you check the right box? 

I grew up in a church that taught me salvation was absolutely free! That’s right, it cost me nothing because Jesus paid the full price for me. All I had to do was say the magic words in what was called the “sinner’s prayer” and I was in—meaning I got to go to heaven when I died.

Then those little boxes appeared that I was required to check off:

• You must believe that Jesus was born of a virgin . . .

• You must believe that Jesus is God . . .

• You must believe that the Bible is inerrant . . .

• You must believe that God had to punish Jesus for our sins . . .

• You had to believe in the Rapture and a literal thousand-year kingdom . . .

And the list goes on and on. These are the boxes I had to check to remain a full-fledged member of the exclusive “I-am-going-to-heaven” tribe. Yet salvation was free I was told!

But those pesky little boxes kept reappearing. Check this box and that box. Now I didn’t realize it at the time but the implications are pretty clear to me now: If you really want to be a heaven bound Christian then you must check all the appropriate boxes. Those of you who were reared in this tradition know what those boxes are so I don’t have to list them all here.

Yet I was still told all I had to do to get into heaven was take Jesus into my heart and I was home free. And this getting into heaven business became for me the central point of my being a Christian. It was the main thing.

Then I realized something pretty amazing: None of this getting into heaven language is found in the Bible. I searched and I searched and not once did I find the words: “Take Jesus into your heart as your personal Savior and then you will be saved and go to heaven” and the word “free” never appears. Nada! Not once!

Then I realized that there were also no little boxes in the Bible to check off. The Bible really had little to say about what I believed concerning the Rapture or the Second Coming, or whether I believed the Bible to be without error and perfect in its original form, or whether being a member of my particular church tribe was mandatory. The Bible seemed to care less about these things.

But Jesus did give us a formula for what it means to be his follower. Remember Jesus called people to follow him not just believe things about him. This formula is called the “Great Commandment.” It appears in three Gospels. The most compelling context in which this formula appears is in Luke’s Gospel chapter 10, the context in which Jesus tells a famous parable demonstrating what this all looks like in real life (The Good Samaritan).

So what is this formula or this Great Commandment?

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself” (Luke 10:27).

I am going to go out on a limb by saying that this commandment represents the very heart of what it means to be a Christian—and the costs are many.

If you want to talk about being a Christian then this is the point of departure. You want to be saved? Then start by embracing the Great Commandment.

Now here’s the kicker: It’s not free!  Loving God with all that you have is not free. It is costly. Loving your neighbor (a metaphor for anyone) is not free. It’s going to cost you big time.

To love homosexuals in a homophobic church will cost you. To love the poor in a society that believes poor people are what’s wrong with America today is going to cost you. To love your enemy in a society that is still living by the antiquated eye-for-an-eye rule will cost you. To love Mother Earth in caring and nurturing ways is going to cost you in a society that believes the earth is ours to do whatever we please with her.

Salvation is not free my friends. Jesus told his disciples that if they wanted to follow him then they had to die to themselves (their whiteness, their blackness, their ethnicity, their own tribe, their family, etc).

In fact, Jesus rarely mentions heaven. His biggest concern was to bring heaven to earth not help us escape earth in order to get to heaven. How do we do that?

Loving God with all that we have and loving our neighbor and becoming the people we were created to be.

This is salvation in its fullest. It’s costly for sure but for those willing to pay the price it represents the one lifestyle that really does have the practical potential to transform the world. If we don’t get this then we don’t understand the meaning of salvation.