Who Needs Change?

People change. Life changes. You change. I change. The only thing that stays the same is change itself.

If I were honest with myself (and with you) I would admit that change sometimes affects me in negative ways. I like sleeping in my own bed. I like being at home more and more. I avoid travelling on airplanes. I like eating lunch at noon and dinner by 6 pm; breakfast before 9 am is crucial. Well I am retired now.

My wife tells me that I am getting “set in my ways.” I guess I am. Sorry.  I repent!

Yet there is a kind of change I do embrace. Theologians, pastors, and priests refer to this type of change as “transformation.”

Transformation as I understand it is a developmental process that occurs in the way we think; a process of change that helps us see things in bright new ways; it is change that even changes the way we understand God. The Bible itself is a record of this kind of change.

This notion of transformation comes from a single sentence in one of the Apostle Paul’s letters (Romans 12:2). It reads: “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.” There is so much packed into this one sentence.

Conformity resists change. Conformity hates change. Conformity is grounded mostly in the past where one thinks safety and security live. The world in general loves conformity. Politicians, clergy, and church leaders love conformity.

Yet Paul suggests that we instead seek transformation by the “renewing” of our minds. In other words, Paul is recommending that as Christ-followers we should be willing to move to new and higher places in the ways we understand God, faith, and the world.

You see faith is never a settled issue and one cannot settle in on one stage of faith as if that stage was the final and ultimate step in the journey. No one ever arrives. This, I believe, is the huge mistake of Fundamentalism. Fundamentalism is an expression of a settled faith that leaves no room for further growth, let alone transformation. Fundamentalism grows in on itself, never outward. Conformity is Fundamentalism’s best friend.

Now this can be scary stuff. Messing with the way one thinks about faith is dangerous business. Just ask the little old church lady. It’s risky. But it’s also adventurous. It’s also the only pathway to real growth. It’s sad that so many resist it let lone embrace it.

Don’t be afraid of having your mind changed. Allow God to transform your mind. You will see in new ways. You will be amazed what God, the world, and others really look like through the lens of a renewed mind—a mind transformed by God.

Besides, you may even find Christianity exciting and invigorating again, worth investing your life in again. That’s a plus wouldn’t you say?

Heaven Promised--Hell Gained!

The Irish philosopher Peter Rollins once commented: “Whenever someone promises you heaven there is hell to pay.” I am sure that such a statement might raise an eyebrow or two among some Christians, thus causing them to wonder if Rollins is just another one of those New Age Atheists. Well he isn’t, he is Christian to the core. 

He’s also brilliantly perceptive. So please stay with me for a few minutes and I hope I will be able to help you appreciate the wisdom in Peter Rollins.

We are now well into the season of Lent. Thank God we have Lent each year to remind us all of our need to “change!” Now I am not talking about those cosmetic changes that might result from our New Year’s resolutions—promises we make to ourselves that we hardly ever keep. No, I am talking about a life altering, transforming change that occurs deep within us.

I will tell you that such deep change requires a lifetime of effort. One Lenten season will not suffice. Such transformation takes years and years of intentional effort in allowing God to shape our hearts and minds. As a dear Christian friend once said to me: “Please forgive me, God isn’t through with me yet.” 

Essayist Daniel Clendenin writes: “There's a deep hunger and thirst in all of us . . . a palpable longing for human nourishment that no amount of power or money, no prestigious job, nor any gorgeous home in an upscale neighborhood can satisfy. My anxieties won't disappear by winning the lottery. A new lover will not bring true love.” Lent helps us recognize the elusive rabbits we often chase in life—rabbits that are almost never caught by our own efforts alone (happiness, contentment, acceptance, love, well being, etc).

Clendenin gets very close to the meaning of Rollins statement. In a word: Be careful of the promises that are made to you because they also bring the fury of hell with them. We would say more colloquially: “There is hell to pay when the price of a promise comes due.”

The German people, for example, are still paying the price of hell for believing in the promises of a psychotically unstable megalomaniac: The promise of a return to world dominance and greatness; a return to economic health; and, a return to global respect following the demoralizing defeat of World War I and the treaty of Versailles. It was just to tempting for most Germans not to embrace. It was as if Hitler was saying to his people: “I will make Germany great, again!” And many believed Hitler and there was hell to pay for believing in such promises.

Today we hear similar promises don’t we? Promises of creating peace through strength (which never works); promises of safety and security by eliminating the undesirables amongst us; promises of solving the complexities of immigration by building border walls of exclusion; the promise of eliminating welfare fraud by indiscriminately drug testing all poor people on welfare; and, the promise to take America back (back from where and from whom is still up for grabs).

Rollins reminds us that when heaven is promised hell is the price we most often have to pay. Germany learned that difficult lesson. Will we avoid such a painful lesson? Whose promise will we believe?

The promise of Jesus to give us “abundant life” has been widely ignored. This rabbi from another time and place promised humanity the ultimate reward for living in ways that God created us to live. Once we are able to see that the promise of abundant life has little to do with money, wealth or health, or even heaven after we die, then learning to live abundantly in this life becomes a real possibility—it becomes our major responsibility in fact. 

Once we learn to appropriate the ways of Jesus into our life patterns then abundant life becomes a reality for us all. It is the one promise that will never fail.

Christ is the great Promise Maker and the ultimate Promise Keeper. 

Yet history has demonstrated that the world has largely ignored Jesus’ promise of abundant life. So many today are being persuaded to embrace the promise of a better America and a better life by those who quite frankly cannot and will not deliver on that promise. The hell we might have to pay for believing in such a promise is almost too painful to consider yet remains a real possibility.

The only promise these loud promise makers will keep is the hell we will eventually pay. For me, I trust in the One Promise Maker whose promise of an abundant life is the only legitimate promise worth considering.

So my prayer for Lent this year is for the Lord to help me remove those things within me that make me less of the human being he created me to be and to eventually become. The promise of abundant life is ours to claim and the best part of the promise? 

There is no hell to be paid.

Rantings of a Political Inoperative!

The Englishman G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936) once commented: “Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried.” In the context of an American Christianity that has been popularized by both the prosperity Gospel and a version of Evangelical Christianity whose focus is primarily on life after death, Chesterton’s observation merely raises a few skeptical eyebrows.

In the former Christianity has been aligned with capitalism and the attainment of health and wealth. The underlying assumption of the prosperity Gospel is that God’s favor of health and wealth may be attained by the proper measure of faith, or the right kind of faith, or the right expression of faith. In this prosperity version of Christianity consumerism becomes its closest ally and biggest supporter.

The latter form of Christianity is a modern version closely resembling the ancient heresy of Gnosticism. Because there is a disdain for the physical world the heavenly spiritual realm becomes the ultimate goal of Christianity, making it the primary reason for faith. Therefore one believes Jesus came primarily to offer us eternal life in heaven once we escape this prison we call the body (a very Gnostic idea).

Unfortunately many well meaning Christians are completely unaware of how closely aligned they are with this ancient heresy of Gnosticism. Additionally many Christians are also unaware of how Nationalism/Capitalism and Christianity have blended together into a flag waving consumerist brand of religion that the early Christians would never have recognized.

Now all this isn’t to say that there are no faithful American Christians today. There are indeed those faithful ones who take Jesus seriously enough to pattern their own lives after his example and teachings. Yet when I hear presidential candidates playing on the religious expectations of the population (mainly the Evangelical voting bloc) I have to ask myself which version of Christianity are both sides espousing?

Yet what is even more disturbing to me is the naïveté of many of the American voters. I have maintained for years that Americans can be at times the most religiously naïve or gullible people in the Western world. Many today are duped into believing certain presidential candidates are good Christians simply because their candidate is good at using just the right amount of God talk. Yes, God talk goes long way in the Bible belt, right?

Truth check: Words are empty when not supported by actions. Saying that the next President should be a man who begins each day on his knees in one breath and calling for a carpet-bombing campaign in the next creates some cognitive disturbance for me. I cannot trust such a person. His words and his actions do not cohere. Excusing these campaign tactics as nothing more than a politician playing the crowd will not suffice to justify such behavior.

Claiming to belong to one of America’s great historic denominations in one breath while ignoring that denominations stance on immigration causes me to question the man’s religious integrity. I believe we have the responsibility to make these kinds of judgment calls. It’s not being judgmental but rather practicing discernment—something one candidate in particular would do well to remember when criticizing the Pope for his own discernment of the candidate’s lack of Christian character. When a person’s words and actions misalign something is amiss.

Jesus once said that what’s really in a person’s heart is revealed by the way a person lives. Works, not words, serve as the ultimate litmus test for authentic faith. The American voter would do well to turn down the volume on all the campaign religious rhetoric and closely observe the lifestyle and life history of any given candidate.

Truth is, the version of Christianity Jesus inspired would not win many votes today or any popularity contests. The radical version of faith that Jesus demonstrated is too often branded as unrealistic and naive at best. It’s out of step with the modern world say many. It won’t hold up in the face of today’s harsh realities.

Frederick Douglass, a former slave and self-educated man, wrote in his autobiography the following prophetic words:

“Between the Christianity of this land, and the Christianity of Christ, I recognize the widest possible difference — so wide, that to receive the one as good, pure, and holy is of necessity to reject the other as bad, corrupt, and wicked. I love the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity of Christ; I therefore hate the corrupt, slaveholding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of this land. Indeed, I can see no reason, but the most deceitful one, for calling the religion of this land Christianity.” 

I too notice a huge disparity that exists between what is popularly embraced as Christianity in America and the brand of Christianity that aligns itself with the teachings of Jesus. Perhaps Chesterton is right and the latter is indeed too tough to try.

Love Wins Revisited

Someone ought to put a warning label on all ordination certificates issued to freshly minted pastors. The label should read: “Christian growth can be hazardous to your reputation and could cost you your job!” The following story illustrates this point:

“Pastor, I cannot understand why you brought that book into our church?” It was apparent that the lady sitting across from me was visibly upset. The book she was referring to was Rob Bell’s controversial book Love Wins (2011). In case you have been visiting Mars and were not aware of this provocative book the subtitle may give hint as to why it stirred up so much controversy: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived. Wow that took courage

Having read Love Wins I thought it was worthy of the attention of my congregation. I also was personally intrigued by the many questions that Bell raised in the beginning of the book, questions that I believe every Christian should be asking, especially if one desires to grow in the faith. Was I in for a shock!

I offered a series of weekly classes on Love Wins as well as preach a series of sermons based on some of the big topics that Bell courageously addressed. But there was almost an immediate negative response by some within the congregation.

In fact, there were those who suddenly stopped attending worship because of that sermon series, especially after I preached the sermon on hell. I am convinced that most of those who vanished never took the time to read the book and read only scathing reviews by Evangelicals who themselves seemed to be stuck in their own atrophied version of faith. Even some of my staff were upset and also refused to read the book even though I offered them a free copy. I thought to myself: “Why don’t these people want love to win?”

I do not regret teaching those classes on Love Wins nor preaching that series of sermons. Yes we lost some members, angered others who did not leave, and lost some regular non-member worshipers. The lady who asked why I brought the book into the church left the church with her husband. I suspect she never read one page of Love Wins. If truth were known my own reputation as a serious Bible teacher took a major hit (I know how such things work in the church world).

I can understand the anger that Bell’s book generated among so many good people. There was a time in my own faith journey in which I would have been the first in line to accuse Rob Bell of being a heretic. In fact there was a time in which I really believed those who did not believe in a Dispensational style of Eschatology (all that secret Rapture stuff) were not really Christians.

There was even a time when I seriously believed that the Bible was without error or contradictions and those who said so probably had one foot in the devil’s lair. But thankfully I grew beyond all that nonsense, not because I am more intelligent than anyone else or because I attended theological seminary, but rather I started asking really tough questions, like those Rob Bell asked in his book. Some of the questions I began asking kept me awake at night.

I struggled with the questions; I vacillated between doubt and faith along the way. I experienced a few crisis of faith like when I realized that I could no longer believe in a secret Rapture in which God was going to snatch all living Christians off the earth and put them in a seven-year holding pattern (like some wide body jet waiting to land). I kept asking those hard questions nonetheless.

Growth is difficult for at least two reasons: First, it often requires a person to give up what he or she believes to be sacred and true. This is never easy and for some it is believed that to do so is to abandon one’s own faith (become a backslider). Truth is it is an abandonment of a less mature faith but not one’s ultimate faith. This is a good thing to know.

Secondly, growth always challenges our certainties. People like to be certain about what they believe. Having the things we are so certain about challenged is often more than many people are willing to accept. As a result many Christians today are stuck in what author James Fowler describes as a childhood stage of faith. 

This is a faith that one inherited from children’s Sunday school and it has never developed into a more mature version of faith. I am convinced that those who rebelled against my teaching and preaching on Love Wins were themselves stuck in this early childlike stage of faith. It had worked for them all their adult life until it was challenged with new insights and hard questions, so they retreated back into their early stage faith in which growth never occurs.

I hold no hard feelings towards those who resisted an opportunity to grow and deepen their faith by what was a very good study for so many. Many also confided in me that the sermons I preached on Love Wins helped them see an exciting new version of Christianity they had never seen before. Some thanked me for being brave enough to preach those sermons although there were times when I questioned whether it was something other than bravery that compelled me to tackle such controversial topics. I’m still glad I did though.

Growing a deeper and more robust faith is never easy. It can be hazardous to one’s own standing within a given faith community and it can be damaging to one’s reputation. Yet Jesus experienced those same dangers by bringing a radically new version of the Jewish faith to his own people. It cost him his life. 

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse!

BREAKING NEWS!!!!! We are living in the “End times!” 

Have I got your attention now? Good, because the end times may not mean exactly what you think they mean. With all due respect to pastor John Hagee the book of Revelation is really a description of life in real time. Yes I said in real time because I don’t read the book of Revelation from a futurist perspective.

I read Revelation as a letter that describes life in the present and in whom our ultimate hope resides. This is the way I believe the recipients of this letter would have read it. In other words, Revelation is an ancient document of encouragement, hope and salvation to be applied to the full range of human history. Creating detailed futuristic scenarios is speculative and detaches itself from the realities of life today.

For example, in Revelation 6:1-8 we read what is commonly referred to as “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.” Many Bible scholars understand each of these four horsemen to symbolize present day realities: The white horse represents conquest; the red horse represents war; the black horse represents famine; and, the pale horse represents death.

A futuristic reading sees these horsemen arriving near the very end of world history during the time of the so-called “Tribulation” period. Pushing Conquest, War, Famine, and Death to the very end of history does little to help us deal with present realities that continue to repeat themselves over and over again.

In fact I believe the message of Revelation centers around Jesus’s critique of the world’s repeated cycle of conquest, war, famine, and death by showing the world that there is an alternative way to live and order our lives, a way that offers hope and salvation for the world. In other words, the book of Revelation is not just a blueprint for the end of human history but rather a treatise on hope and salvation in the face of evil that exists in real time. The letter was intended to offer encouragement and hope to its original audience and to every subsequent generation of Jesus followers.

Yes the Four Horsemen ride today creating fear and suffering in the hearts and lives of those living on this orbiting spaceship called earth. Much of today’s politics exploits this fear and suffering and offers lame solutions that do nothing but keep its finger on the repeat button. War does not end war. Conquest is not progress. Famine originates in human greed and poor management of the earth’s resources; and death cannot be escaped in this life.

Over and over again these four horsemen ride through every epoch of human history creating their destructive work: Conquest, War, Famine, and Death! Make no mistake about it: The heavy finger of the world’s political systems is planted firmly on the repeat button of the four horsemen.

There hasn’t been one period in human history, not one mind you, in which the Four Horsemen have not ridden. So in this sense we are indeed living in the last days.

Today’s global political systems continue to feed the horses upon which the riders of conquest, war, famine, and death ride! These human systems provide the necessary fuel for the four horsemen to continue ravaging the earth and the people who live on it. So what’s my point?

Read the Book of Revelation through the eyes of real time faith rather than with an eye on the end of history! Trust in the Messiah who has come and has already ushered in the end times called the “Kingdom of God!” As Christians we are citizens of Christ’s Kingdom and live according to an alternative vision for how life is to be ordered and lived. Our hope is in the One who offers life both now and in the Age to Come—Abundant life brimming with the goodness of God’s grace.

Our hope is not in a political system and its promises, which can do very little itself to dismount the four riders, let alone stop the repeated destructive cycle. Our hope is in the politics of Christ’s Kingdom, a politics that is grounded in and shaped by love, light, life, and the Spirit; life that is ordered by the reality of God’s grace that provides hope for the world.

Nor is our hope in a futurist (speculative) theology that ignores the riding horsemen of today while looking for them to appear near the end of human history. This is a popular reading but not one that is very helpful. It’s been tried before and always fails—every time. Futurists are always embarrassed by their failed predictions, they just don’t know they are embarrassed, or don’t care to know. Futurism is a cottage industry that reaps millions of dollars a year; just ask Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins.

The Book of Revelation is grounded in the real world, in real time, and encourages its readers to keep their feet firmly planted in this life by trusting in God’s promise of the Age to Come. There will be a great renewal of heaven and earth and this is the culminating message of Revelation; but in the meantime we live in the here and now and must live in ways that minimize the dreaded effects of the four horsemen.

American Christianity!

“I believe people on welfare should be drug tested!” 

“People on welfare are lazy and want a free handout!” 

“Poor people are poor because they choose to be poor!” 

“If immigrants want to become citizens of our country then let them do it the right way!” 

“Universal healthcare is Socialism!”

“Let’s carpet bomb ISIS and make the sand glow!”

When I hear folks making statements like those above I normally don’t respond—what would be the point. Their minds are already made up concerning such important issues as taking care of the poor, or being welcoming and generous to aliens, or making sure everyone has access to healthcare, or even war. I have found that arguing with those who make such outlandish claims is fruitless and does nothing more than elevate my blood pressure.

But when I hear confessing Christians making such statements I am inclined to think that they are either reading a much different Bible from the one I read, or they haven’t read it at all, or they have only read the warm and fuzzy parts (e.g., John 3:16). I wonder to myself: Do they follow the same Jesus I try to follow? Or, do they read the same Gospels I read?

 Now I don’t intend to be judgmental for thinking such things but really, what did Jesus ever say that comes even close to supporting any of the above statements (chapter and verse please)? I am not implying that those who make such statements are not Christian; I am implying that they are living according to a much different controlling narrative and it’s not the one Jesus spun!

In other words these kinds of statements do not originate from the movement Jesus originally inspired. The movement Jesus inspired was deemed illegal, its members were pacifists and were prohibited from serving in the Roman Army. They opted instead to take care of the poor, the widows and orphans, and the sick. They often lived in small faith communities that pooled their resources together for the good of their community (Acts 2:43-47). I challenge you to read this passage.

The early Christians, I don’t believe, would have never uttered statements like those cited above. So why are so many Christians applauding and even supporting the controlling narrative spun in today’s American culture?

The answer to this question I think (some of you aren’t going to like what I am about to say) is that American Christianity (especially the Evangelical brand) identifies with being an American as much as it does with Jesus. This blending together of faith and nationalism (God & Country) is what the Bible refers to as “Idolatry!” If you think I am blowing smoke then do a quick read of the following Gospel texts: Mark 12:13-17 or Matthew 22:15-22.

For example ask yourself if there would have ever been one Roman ensign (National flag) displayed in the place of early Christian worship. Would the Roman banner have been situated next to the cross as the American flag is in many of today’s worship spaces? Idolatry is often so hard to see when it is staring you directly in the face.

When the Apostle Paul told the Christians at Rome that they were to make the following confession, “Jesus is Lord” (Romans 10:9-10) he was recommending a subversive and treasonous confession. Claiming Jesus as your Lord was akin to saying, “Caesar is not Lord!” Anyone back in Paul’s day would have immediately understood this dangerous implication. No one would have thought Paul was recommending a confessional formula for getting saved or getting one’s ticket punched for heaven (that’s an invention of modern day Evangelicalism).

No one would have thought for a second that being a good Roman citizen and a follower of Jesus the Christ were cut from the same confessional cloth? The early Christians fully understood the immanent dangers of making this Pauline confession. How, may I ask, have we missed this all these years? How have we allowed Christianity to become a nationalist religion adjusted not only to prop up our nation’s agenda but also support it as well? We have a lot to answer for on that great day of reckoning my friends.

So the big question for me is this: “Who provides the controlling and guiding narrative for my life?”  

My answer reveals the type of Christianity I have chosen to embrace . . . and you?

SELMA REMIXED

“But let justice roll down like waters,

and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”

--Amos (Hebrew Prophet from the 8th Century)

Last night my wife and I finally watched the movie Selma. It is a critically acclaimed film and though far from perfect was nonetheless nominated for Best Picture at the 87th Academy Awards and won Best Original Song award.

Quite frankly the film left me emotionally disturbed. I remember well that dark era of racism and segregation portrayed in the film since I lived through much of it. I was a mere teenager when the 1964 Civil Rights Bill was signed into law, thus theoretically ending legalized segregation in the United States. I remember being against that historic bill simply because everyone else in my family and town opposed it—all white folks of course.

That piece of historic legislation did not end segregation and racism in this country; it did little to change the attitudes of whites toward the so-called American “Negro” of that era. The Civil Rights Bill may have made segregation illegal but it did not effectively end the practice of prohibiting African Americans from voting in local, State, and Federal elections, a gross injustice and major premise of the film Selma.

I remember in 1965 shortly after the Civil Rights Bill was passed an African American family visiting my hometown was rudely told to leave the restaurant they had entered to have Sunday lunch. I also recall vividly the signs on the front of the town’s municipal building clearly stating: “Negro Restrooms in the Rear” and “White Only” signs affixed to the restroom doors in the front of the building. The schools I attended were all white and the military in which I served in the 1960s was laced with racial tensions.

My children and grandchildren have no idea what it was like to live in such a potentially explosive  environment during the Civil Rights era.

But that was then . . .

Here we are now in 2016 and the big elephant in America’s living room is once again racism. This is why I was so emotionally disturbed by this film: White America has yet to deal with the latent racism that seems to have been revived with the election of our nation’s first African American president. Of course the denial of such a claim does not make it less real or invalid.

But what really disturbed me the most about the film was that I never recall hearing one sermon on racism in all the years I attended church during he 1960s—not one, nada! I was beginning to experience some cognitive dissonance however between the racial injustices I witnessed and the Christian faith I had come to profess as a young man. Sadly I received no guidance from my church or pastor concerning the issues of racism and it certainly wasn’t because the racism of the day was hidden from plain view.

I am disturbed by today’s campaign rhetoric that is laced with racial overtones. Even more so is the continuing deafening silence from the white American pulpit. Presidential hopefuls are scapegoating Muslims and Mexicans while most white churches remain silent on the issue. An African American president has been shown incredible disrespect by his detractors and just might be one of the most hated presidents of our time by his partisan opponents. Once again I hear very little being said from white pulpits today reminding us of our own complicity in the egregious sin of racism.

American white preachers are failing to publicly speak out against the blatant racism concealed behind the guise of keeping America safe and secure and protecting our borders. Lord forgive us preachers who fear offending the political sensitivities of our congregations while preaching on less dangerously insipid sermon topics such  marriage or parenting or prosperity.

The movie Selma reminds us all of a very dark period in American history. But it also reminds us that justice cannot be created nor sustained by legislation alone. America today stands in need of a heart transformation. We need to collectively confess the sin of racism even as it exists among us today. Racism did not die in 1960s Alabama or Mississippi or as the result of the signing of the Civil Rights Bill.

I truly believe that Jesus came to knock down walls of hostility that we humans erect to divide us from one another, particularly from those who are not like us or who do not look like us. Racism is a sickness that needs healing. I pray for a healing of our nation’s heart. I pray for God to heal my own heart and remove the things that prevent me from acting and living justly and from recognizing racism regardless of the form in which it presents itself.

I pray for the courage of American pastors (myself included), priests, Rabbis, and Imams to speak up and out against the reality of racism in this country and around the world, for it infects us all. It is dangerously corrosive and unhealthy for all people. I pray that we all hold our politicians accountable for perpetuating racism by their actions and their campaign rhetoric. I call on all people of faith to rise up against racism in any form for it is indeed a sickness unto death.