Blah Guy

There is considerable discussion today as to what “core beliefs” are necessary for being a Christian, a sort of “what makes you in/out” sort of discussion.

Two problems with this discussion are found in our assumptions. First, that our lists actually matter, as if God comes to me wondering, “What does AJ think the list should be today for everyone to be a good little Christian.”. Secondly, every-one’s list is different. I rarely to never find two lists the same, which from my perspective, appears to create somewhat of a theological “pickle” if you will.

At the same time, I think it is a cop-out to simply say “Jesus” like a 5 year old in Sunday School as an answer to that question.

I love the discussion, but it can only be done in the context of the understanding that this discussion will never end. At any point our little “list” is set, I am checking out of the talk. And at the same time, when the “list” never ends, I can never be in with God.

So, keep the discussion rolling.

Dan Kimball has an excellent discussion going on right now and I would highly encourage you to check it out. I love his style. So will you hopefully!

“The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever.” Rev. 11:15

I love urban renewal. It makes the dump that is downtown fun again. It takes the nasty old coffee shops and bars, gets a vision and a plan, an architect, and a new start. I am glad we don’t just let our down towns go.

I wonder why God didn’t just leave this world and start a new one. It seems at time that it would be a better time usage and he would get more free time. Why not just start over?

The nature of God is such that he creates, allows to fall apart, and re-creates. That is his nature. He is like the man who buys a house, watches it fall apart in a flood, and decides to stick around to see it get rebuilt. But why?

Maybe it’s the neighborhood. He likes the way it looks. Maybe it’s the location. God doesn’t have to drive to work, but walks or rides public transportation. Maybe it’s the mortgage. He can’t find anything for a better price.

I don’t think its any of those. I think God will renew creation as he knows it is because there is something about it he loves a ton. So much, that thinking about moving to another part of the galaxy where the grass is always greener, he comes back to the good ole’ dump he started here. He loves the neighbors. He loves those he moved in with. He loves his friends. He loves the people he can take cookies to when he has time on the weekends. He loves us.

And he loves us enough to stay. Not to quit and let all hell go loose. He stays. And when the flood that is our world ends, he will stand among the soppy and moldy rubble and say, “Man, this stinks. Its going to be way to much work to rebuild. Let’s get started.”

God don’t quit.

This week I was the guest of a local radio program. It is the most liberal radio station in Eugene. I loved it.

Born and raised a conservative who is learning to rid all labels and political subscriptions from his profile; I found the experience absolutely enlightening. They as well I am sure were expecting something quite different. They knew I am a pastor at a large (mega large) church in town that tends to lean quite right. With their expectations most likely hover somewhere between low to nothing, it was awesome to witness to Jesus without having to fight for a political party.

I am learning this as well. The people I am learning to love who happen to lean left in their own political fetish tend to be very good at listening. While this is of course not the case for every bobble head radio commentator around today, it is for the people I am beginning to know.

Jesus is teaching me to look past labels. It’s my mind that loves to find and obey them.

The great thing about truth is it doesn’t come by association. You don’t have to know the right people to know truth, although it can help. Truth is God’s. He owns it. He also gives it to people who hate him. Satan is smart.

The most dangerous Christian is he who is willing to be obedient to truth wherever they find it, whether at a Christian bookstore or not. I would argue that the Christian tradition has a large corpus of truth, it does not have a monopoly on it.

My point?

I am done seeing truth as something we have. Rather, I see truth as something we all have. I just have to shut up and listen.

Read this open letter from the NAE (National Association of Evangelicals) concerning a fellow evangelical voicing his opinion on Global Warming.

The debate is getting thick and dirty. This really breaks my heart.

Although to me, the problem is not the global warming. It is our lifestyles. I saw a poster the other day that said, “You can’t do anything about Global Warming, but you can do something about you.”

I think there is a reason God does not speak like a piece of “chain email”? God does not always, and rarely does, speak uniformly to his church. He will give different messages to different people. Not different truth. God does not seem to lie. But he will present truth in so many different ways to so many different people because people hear truth differently. And people always have differing views and opinions on truth. It is like putting a coffee cup in the middle of the room and saying to the people standing around it, “what do you see?” This is okay, yet frustrating at times.

Yves Congar, theologian and overall brilliant guy, argues that the Holy Spirit speaks in two main ways. Personally and institutionally, meaning that he speaks to individuals and groups alike. The problem with this is truth can look so vastly different to both groups.

I have been wondering. Is my preaching an email or a blog?

Do I send people unwanted messages or are they coming to me to learn and sit at my feet? Don’t we always want to create ministries where people who want to come can come in freedom and not oppression?

That is the problem with text-messaging. You can’t text tears. Jesus didn’t text humanity his love. He came and showed it.

Although I would rarely consider myself a skeptic or an idiot, there seems to be an interesting difference in the witness of the scripture and my own personal theology.

I always assumed there would be no tears in heaven. I was wrong:

“I wept and wept because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside of it” Rev. 5:4

Does anyone cry in heaven. Jesus talks a ton about the “weeping and gnashing of teeth” in hell. Maybe that is why so many dentists are going to hell……just joking.

In chapter 7:17, John says that God says, “For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes…”

This heavenly picture is laced with potent imagery which no sane human being should assume to fully understand. I understand that. The image that sticks out is that of tears. John has seen them before, so he knows what they are when he sees them. I have seen them out of they eyes on my own face. And so have you!

Tears are universal.

There are tears in heaven.

Heaven is the place where God wipes them off, not abolishes them.

God lives in color!

Revelation 4 stands among some of the many dangerous and somewhat confusing chapters of the Bible. Seriously, nothing can drive Christians apart than a little future talk. “After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven” (v. 1). It is marked by all the colors you could imagine. John does not see the Kingdom in black and white, but beauty and technicolor.

Remember the good ole’ days of simple color movies. Revelation is the first “technicolor” scripture (among the likes of Ezekiel in the OT) in the New Testament.

From this chapter…two rules for all Christians to live by:

1) Look! - When you hear a voice, and it appears to come from heaven, look. This is the essence of “fearing God”, being willing to hear his voice and respond, not just hear it. The only sin greater than sin is ignoring the voice of the Lord when you hear it. Why? Think about it. The only thing worse than wrecking your Dads brand new T-bird isn’t nearly as bad as running away. Your dad would rather have a wrecked T-bird than an empty place at the dinner table. This whole letter of John is marked by looking, going, and seeing. He is taken for a heavenly “Cribs” march all the way to the throne of heaven. (Hear heavenly rap playing in the background). “And this is my sweet sound system, and this is my new car, and yeah, check this out, the throne-zone. boo-ya”

The nature of God is such that he really wants to show us around the Kingdom. He has no need to hide it from us. He even says something along the lines of “the keys to the Kingdom of heaven are yours”. Come on in. But in order to come on in…you must look!

2) Go through the Door - Doors are nothing more than movable walls. God sets up a building with four walls right. But the grace of God is this. His buildings are a lot like ours in the sense that there are movable walls, walls that we have permission to walk through. The mean ones in the neighborhood are the ones who lock their doors and never let anyone in. God isn’t like that, at least from this perspective. John gets to go in a look around. He lets us go in and look around.

In the earlier chapter he says, “I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.” In this chapter, it is John going up to the door of heaven, while Jesus says he stands at our door. Here is the reality:

The door to heaven is opened when the door to our lives is open. Meaning this. Jesus not only stands at our door to come in, he stands at his own door waiting for us to come it. It’s like “the Sims”. In the Sims you have to make friends. And they are your friends only if you have them over first. Well, basically, have Jesus over for dinner and he will let you over to his place. The secret of the the Kingdom is really cool. Jesus has a house with doors, not four unmovable walls.