I had an interesting phone conversation last week.
Today, America will choose who will be President for the next four years. Our church building is a polling center. And we are participating in the Election Day Communion event.
These facts all mean that last week, I had to call our county’s Board of Election to figure out exactly what sorts of signs we were allowed to put up. And since we’re offering communion throughout the day, for voters to partake in after they vote, I wanted to be sure we weren’t violating any poll laws.
The person with whom I spoke (who was helpful and kind) essentially told me any political signs had to be 100 feet away from the entrances, but when it came to communion, we could do whatever we wanted.
The County Board of Elections clearly doesn’t consider receiving Communion to be a political event.Continue reading
I don’t usually post from my devotional time, but I was particularly struck by a reading today from the prayer book some of my friends and I have started using:
In his view, the Fall was essentially a matter of wrong growing up. St. Irenaeus believed,a s did many of the early Christians, that Adam was created as a young child. The reason why he was forbidden to eat from the tree of knowledge was simply that he had to grow up first, and that takes time. Unfortunately, Adam was impatient; in trying to anticipate his adulthood, by seizing the fruit before the time was ripe, he thwarted the process of true maturing. St. Irenaeus recognizes that one aspect of this is the disorder that afflicts human sexuality, and in fact we might say that his presentation of the Fall is, essentially, as a mishandling of the crisis of puberty. The result is that man can now only grow up properly by a painful dismantling of his false grown-upness. To this end, the Son of God “came to be a child with us,” so that we could be led back to childhood and then grow up again, this time in a true way, till we come to the full stature of Christ himself (cf. Eph 4:13). — From Prayer by Simon Tugwell
I’m captivated by the metaphor of growing up wrongly, that our sin is a manifestation of our immaturity. When we see CEOs taking advantage of those below them, it’s immaturity.
When we see two grown men bullying each other in election ads, and all their friends stand behind them and cheer them on, this is immaturity.
When we can’t understand someone else’s point of view, even if we disagree with it, that’s immaturity.
When we can’t control our sexual appetites, that’s immaturity.Continue reading
Before 9/11, Islam was just another weird world religion that the vast majority of American Evangelical Christians didn’t really think about – in the same category as Hinduism and Buddhism. But in the wake of 9/11, we realized that over a billion people in the world are Muslim. And many of the countries most hostile to America are mostly Muslim.
For the last decade, we’ve demonized Muslims. But using Dr. Scott Poole’s methodology, we know that our monsters say more about us than about those we monsterize.
What does the Monster look like?
Is this representative of all Muslims?
The picture of Monstrous Muslims we have in our collective Evangelical imagination looks roughly like this:
As election day inches closer, the campaign rhetoric continues to heat up. And as in previous years, religion is at the forefront. This year, however, Evangelicals are faced with a dilemma we’ve never faced, at least not in our lifetime.
Most Evangelicals have traditionally voted Republican (74% voted for McCain in the last election), and every Republican candidate in the last 50 years has been at least Protestant if not Evangelical.
Republican candidate Mitt Romney is not an Evangelical. He’s not Protestant. He’s not Christian. Mitt Romney is a practicing Mormon.
But primarily because of Obama’s views on Abortion (he’s pro-choice) and Gay Marriage (he favors it), Evangelicals as a whole – and especially Evangelical leaders – have been unwilling to support Obama despite his Christian faith.
In the last election, between two Christians, this wasn’t a problem for Evangelicals because McCain was a Christian. This election is totally different.
Because Mitt Romney is not a Christian, Evangelicals must choose either to vote for a Christian candidate whose politics they disagree with, or a non-Christian candidate whose policies they affirm.
As faithful readers know, Matt Mikalatos is one of my favorite authors. And since I’m ripping off his Night of the Living Dead Christian for my current sermon series, I asked him to contribute his take on a particularly scary Christian monster. Check out Matt’s blog, follow him on Twitter and read all his awesome books.
Oh, and be sure to come to Beavercreek Nazarene this Sunday, because Matt is speaking! Now, without further ado, Matt’s Christian monster:
JR has been running a series on his blog about monsters we create in the Christian community, and what that says about us. I volunteered to share about that most feared and repulsive of creatures, THE ATHEIST!
On a dark and stormy night in Christian America, families were happy, marriages were strong, and the economy was a powerhouse as God intended. But, unbeknownst to God’s people, a woman named Madeline Murray O’Hair lurked in the darkness. She hated God and hated Christians because she was…. AN ATHEIST! And she wanted nothing more than to undermine the very fabric of Christian society by outlawing prayer in schools and getting the FCC to removed “Touched By An Angel” from television. As we all know, to outlaw prayer would be the death of Christian America. What would happen next? No ten commandments on courthouse walls? No nativities on government property at Christmas? Christians being executed on the White House lawn?
For some time (even after her tragic death), chain letters and forwarded emails used to warn Christians about the dangers of Ms. O’Hair, the atheist. Today, we have to work ourselves up about the “new atheists”… the new vocal minority who are writing books about how there is not God and that if there is, he is not good. And yes, we occasionally (often?) paint them as monsters.Continue reading
In Galatians 4:21-31, Paul allegorizes the story of Sara and Hagar. He speaks of those who bear children of Spirit and those who bear children of Flesh. Children of flesh are those who trust in the Law, who define their value by externals (achievement, etc.).
Some of our “kids” are born in flash: they don’t need Gods help. Some are born out of only God’s intervention.
Justification is the crown jewel of our salvation. But Justification isn’t an end in itself. Justification should lead us to Sonship/Daughterhood. As Matt pointed out,
Few Evangelical Christians are active peacemakers. Why?
Some Christians see Israel’s modern state as the fulfillment of prophecy. Others feel the opposite. Both sides caricature the other. Far from Peacemaking, many Christians only fuel the conflict.
Lynne spent much time with both Palestinian & Israel; communities. She learned that,
We disagree on some points of theology, but we agree on the basic human dignity of all peoples in the Holy Land.Continue reading
Destructive to marriage is the self-fulfillment ethic that assumes marriage and the family are primarily institutions of personal fulfillment, necessary for us to become “whole” and happy. The assumption is that there is someone just right for us to marry and that if we look closely enough we will find the right person. This moral assumption overlooks a crucial aspect to marriage. It fails to appreciate the fact that we always marry the wrong person. We never know whom we marry; we just think we do. Or even if we first marry the right person, just give it a while and he or she will change. For marriage, being [the enormous thing it is] means we are not the same person after we have entered it. The primary problem is . . . learning how to love and care for the stranger to whom you find yourself married.
— Stanley Hauerwas, quoted in The Meaning of Marriage (emphasis mine)
The day we both married the wrong person. Good Decision!
Yesterday, we talked about what it means to marry the stranger, how marriage sanctifies us, and what it means that we always marry the wrong person. So I had to write about my own marriage, and the glorious truth that my wife married the wrong person.
For everything my wife Amanda and I have in common, we are pretty different people. I’m an attention hog who loves the spotlight and has a tendency to run over people. She’s a behind-the-scenes servant who puts herself last no matter what. I always have to have a plan; she’s go-with-the-flow. I squeeze the toothpaste from the bottom, she squeezes from the middle.
But what we fight about most, ironically, is fighting. Amanda and I have very different conflict-resolution strategies.Continue reading
This week we explore the seven letters to the Seven Churches of Revelation. We’ll see that each Church faced the pressure from the dominant Roman culture differently, and Jesus’ message speaks directly to each church.
Jesus’ message to the Seven Churches of Revelation is just as urgent for the Church today.
You can subscribe the the podcast right here: SUBSCRIBE IN ITUNES (and rate it if you like it!)
YOUR TURN: Which of the Churches do you most connect to? How did chapters 2-3 treat you overall?
The Revelation to John is the Bible’s scariest, most intimidating book. But it’s not the End of the World! This podcast will explore the book of Revelation. We’ll take the book on its own terms, learning to hear what the original audience would’ve heard.
The Book of Revelation is a message of hope, written to Christians struggling to remain faithful in a faithless culture.
Download the powerpoint and the notesheet. If you missed, you can still participate. We’ll see how fun reading the book of Revelation can be!
You can subscribe the the podcast right here: SUBSCRIBE (and rate it if you like it!)
YOUR TURN: What experience do you have with the Revelation? What did you think of week 1?
