Sunday School for Atheists

Yes...you read the title right. It seems as though atheists are holding their own brand of Sunday school. Check out the story.

HT: Scot McKnight

Legal Rights for Embryos

Groups in various states are proposing legal rights for embryos. According to the story at the Pew Forum:

Opening a new front in their assault on abortion, activists in half a dozen states are preparing ballot referendums that would grant "personhood" and constitutional rights to embryos from the moment of conception...

If the embryo is declared a person under a state's constitution, the reasoning goes, the termination of its existence must be considered murder.

This is probably a story to keep up with.

Sermons

Hey Ya'll,

Kerry Skinner is a colleague of mine from school. He is, shall I say, one cool guy. Kerry is smart, kind, and has a serious heart for God. I received an email from his ministry and found a link to some free audio sermons of his (the first two; the rest are $1.99 each).

My confession: I have not heard them. But I look forward to listening very soon. However, I do not hesitate to share this link because I have only heard from Kerry a passion for God and His people. I hope you enjoy.

Faith Mentors

Here is a quote I just received from Sojourners:

We participate in the possibility of becoming faith mentors by opening our lives to God at work in us and nurturing our own spiritual journeys. We live as if we are faith mentors, and we use our skills and faith on behalf of others in the hope that God will work through us for their growth in faith. With humility, we provide guidance and discernment for those who are seeking for meaning in their lives. And we live in the hope that others will experience us as faith mentors, knowing it is not a title we may claim for ourselves.

- Sondra Higgins Matthaei
Faith Matters

Profound stuff.

Prayer Questions

My confession is this: I grew up Assemblies of God and in charismatic churches. Because of this the idea of praying with prayer books, beads, walking the labyrinth, etc. is fairly new to me.

So, here is my question: How do you pray?

Do you use prayer books? prayer beads? prayer lists? let the Spirit lead? sit quietly? walk around the house?

Do you pray loud? quietly? silently? All of these depending on the situation?

When do you pray? in the morning? at set times? in the car? in the shower? as you fall asleep?

Do you have a certain ritual?

Do you have a certain place you pray? car? shower? bed? chair? outside?

Is there any rhyme and reason to your prayer practice?

Faith and Public Life

I think it is my friend Jim Wallis (whom I have never met) who says that faith is personal but never private. That being said, here is a source that is helpful in keeping up with faith and the public life.

http://pewforum.org/

Grace and Peace.

Question, pt. 2

Here is the second part of the questions asked by Scot McKnight:

How is your understanding of the Gospel reflected or lived out in your ministry?

I'd love to hear your thoughts, or read them. :)

Question

I was at a conference last week where the question was asked:

What is the Gospel?

The question was refined to include these questions:

If Jesus is the answer, what is the question?

If Jesus is the solution, what is the problem?

Ooooh Politics

There is a group of Christian conservatives that have recently said they would back a third party candidate if Rudy Giuliani receives the Republican nomination. Check out the NY Times articles here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/01/us/politics/01evangelicals.html

James Dobson writes about the meeting here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/04/opinion/04dobson.html

In light of our conversations about power-under vs. power-over, what do you think?

What do you think about single issue voting?

Miracles

Howdy ya'll. We missed a few questions on Sunday, so here they are for discussion:

1. What is it about this woman's behavior--behavior that is commended by Jesus--that ought to be a part of our lives today?

2. Gary Burge talked about the difficulty of bringing some of the men from Hope House to his own church because of societal judgments. Are there people in your life that you might see as "unclean" who need to encounter Jesus, the powerful one? how might you be able to reach them for Jesus?

3. What would our churches have to do in order to begin embracing the homeless, drug addicts, and AIDs patients?

(Questions taken from Deeper Connections, The Miracles of Jesus by Matt Williams.

What do you think?

Compassion

Have I told you about Frederick Buechner? The dude can write. He has a profound insight into the spiritual life. If I haven't told you about my friend Fred, whom I've never met, then I apologize.

In Wishful Thinking, A Seeker's ABC Frederick defines compassion like this:

Compassion is the sometimes fatal capacity for feeling what it's like to live inside somebody else's skin.

It is the knowledge that there can never really be any peace and joy for me until there is peace and joy finally for you too.

Today's thought from my friend Frederick.

Boyd on Jesus' Example of Lobbying Against Gays

Greg Boyd wrote the following essay on his blog on May 7, 2007.

Jesus' Example of Lobbying Against Gays

(warning....satire ahead)

This past weekend in the Saturday paper I found a lovely article that reports that both the House and the Senate approved a bill that would make violence against gays simply because of their sexual orientation a "hate crime." This bill, if it became law, would put anti-gay violence on the same level as religious or race motivated violence. Punishment for official "hate crimes" tends to be more severe than for just random acts of violence. So, the law would help protect gays. Not surprisingly, the newspaper article said that George Bush is receiving PRESSURE FROM EVANGELICALS to VETO the bill. Some Evangelicals are apparently afraid that the passing of this bill is a step in the direction of making it a punishable crime to refer to homosexuality as a sin. And, of course, we need to protect our rights.

Now, followers of Jesus are called to imitate Jesus, as I recall (Eph 5:1-2). In this light, taking this public stance makes sense, doesn't it? I mean, Jesus does this sort of thing a lot in the Gospels, doesn't he? Passing laws not only against gays and prostitutes and tax collectors, but against protecting these sorts of people. Surely this sort of religious-political behavior is all over the place in the Gospels, isn't it?

That's probably why sinners like gays and prostitutes and tax collectors avoided Jesus like the plague -- just like they do the Church today (e.g. Mt. 11.19; Mk 2:15-16; Lk 15:1). This was also probably how Jesus kept his reputation so untarnished, especially among religious folk like the Pharisees (e.g. Lk 7:34). Not only this, but this was no doubt why Jesus was so well known for his political posturing against various sin groups. He had his followers putting pressure on Caesar and Pilate all the time to make life tough on these select groups of sinners (Jn. 18:36). Paul certainly made judging those outside the church a high priority in his ministry (I Cor. 4:3, 5; 5:12). This is also undoubtedly why Jesus told his followers that, even though they may not be perfect, at least their own sin was a mere dust particle in comparison to THESE sorts of sinners, whose sin is a big log by comparison (Mt 7:1-3). No wonder Jesus talks so much more about homosexuality than greed or self-righteousness or the need to love our enemies.

Beyond this, its obvious that Jesus spent a lot of time involved in politics to protect his own rights -- especially the right to call certain kinds of people sinners (Jn 8:3-11, 15). Let us follow his example. He was, after all, just being practical. Why should he have to go to prison for exercising his right as the Son of God to call some group of people sinners, for crying out loud? Probably the only reason he eventually got crucified, despite his persistent interest in defending his rights, was because the government of his time wasn't as good as ours and didn't give him enough power to defend himself. If only he'd had the means of protecting himself, he'd surely have taken it (Mt 26:53)!

All of this totally explains why religious people loved Jesus so much and why those worse-than-other-sinners groups of people despised him so. I've always wondered about that.

So -- let us who call ourselves Evangelicals imitate Jesus' example and rise up in our superior righteousness and fight for our rights while blocking laws that help protect gays!!!

Onward Christian Soldiers, marching as to war. It's worked so well in the Inquisition and Crusades. Why stop now?

For they'll know we are Christians by our laws, by our laws. Yes, they'll know we are Christians by our laws.

Greg

ps. If you didn't check the proof texts I cited in my little essay, you might want to. It will clarify a few things.

Gotta love it. Thanks Greg.

God's Warriors

I really hope you had the chance to watch Christiane Amanpour on CNN with her report called "God's Warriors." The documentary aired three nights exploring the impact of Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. Each night examined one religion. Amanpour and the producers did an amazing job.

Of particular interest was a segment on a minister in Minnesota named Greg Boyd. Boyd studied at Yale and Princeton, and he has a fantastic book called The Myth of a Christian Nation. The back cover of the book states: Through close examination of Scripture and lessons drawn from history, Dr. Boyd argues that evangelical Christians who align themselves too closely with political causes or declare that they want to bring America 'back to God' are actually doing harm--both to the body of Christ and society in general."

The description continues by stating, "Boyd shows how Jesus taught us to seek a "power-under" kingdom, where greatness is measured by sacrifice and service. there are no sides or enemies because we are meant to embrace and accept everyone. In The Myth of a Christian Nation, Dr. Boyd challenges readers to return tot he true love of Calvary and the message of the cross--setting the "power-over" politics of worldly government aside."

In response to church members asking Boyd to speak to the current election in 2004, he preached a sermon series called "The Cross and the Sword." The result: his church lost about 1,000 of its 5,000 members. That's about 20%. That sermon series provided the beginnings for this book, and you can download it free at the above link.

Boyd's book is biblical, well-written and convincing, and it will probably continue to make a lot of people mad. My guess is if you buy and read this book you may be angered, but I doubt you will find it unbiblical.

Bowling and Faith

A long time ago in a city not too far away I was a pretty decent bowler. Since I have moved to the Austin area I've only gone bowling a few times. Sunday ended my kegler drought when I went bowling with some friends. I must confess my game was not a pretty sight.

The first couple of frames were atrocious. Atrocious might not be a strong enough word. The problem was my follow through. My arm kept going across to the left, and consequently so did my ball. Kadunk. Kadunk. Kadunk. Kadunk.

Slowly my game picked up, and my follow through improved. In most sports follow through is a huge aspect. Batters have to follow through completely if the ball is going to go past the pitcher. Bunting might be the exception. Follow through effects the trajectory of a golf ball. Tennis players follow through. It is a fundamental of most sports. And so it is with the spiritual life.

Follow through. Each Sunday we gather, listen to a sermon, and commit to living out the Christian life. But then Monday morning comes and we have to drive down I-35. A challenge that would cause most to stumble. Would Jonathan Edwards have been the Jonathan Edwards we know if he had to navigate the 35 corridor? (just kidding)

Then the love we vowed to show our neighbor results in cutting off the driver that just cut us off. What's the problem? Lack of follow through. We don't follow through on our commitments. We don't follow through on our promises, and we don't follow through on the Christian ethic Jesus set for us in the Sermon on the Mount.

Follow through sounds a lot like faith and works. Follow through is what my sister calls "showing up." Actually doing what we believe. Follow through amounts to not being just a bunch of hot air.

Tips to follow through:

Be accountable to someone. When you feel challenged in an area, find someone you trust to hold you accountable to living your faith.

Place little reminders around your house. Post-it notes on the restroom mirror. Notes on the refrigerator. Tie a string around your finger. That kind of stuff.

Memorize scripture that relates to your area of growth. How we think and act are directly related.

I'm sure there are a lot more tips available, but that's enough to follow through on.

The Gospel According to Monk

I love Monk. I love St. Francis, St. Benedict, and Thomas a Kempis. But my current love of Monk is a character played by Tony Shalhoub. Tony plays a person who has obsessive compulsive disorder, and he has outstanding powers of observation. The result: a phenomenal detective on the show "Monk." Adrian Monk has a large list of phobias and compulsions. Included in Monk's phobias is a fear of milk. Some of his fears make sense, some don't. But somewhere along the line we can find spiritual applications to Mr. Monk's approach to life.

1. Fear of germs -- keep a pure life.

2. Fear of snakes -- while we only fear God, we should avoid that old serpent. Adam and Eve could have learned a lot from Monk.

3. Fear of frogs -- do anything to avoid plagues.

4. Fear of Crowds -- don't follow the crowd; follow the Master.

5. Loves multiples of 10 -- keep the Ten Commandments.

6. After Monk shakes hands with someone, he cleans his hands with a wipe --

Ps 24:3 Who may ascend the hill of the LORD? Who may stand in his holy place?
Ps 24:4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear by what is false.

7. Fear of hailstones -- yup...that's an obvious one. See the frogs.

8. Monk avoids stepping on cracks -- avoid stumbling blocks.

9. Fear of darkness -- nice reminder to us to walk in the light.

10. Monk likes everything to be perfect -- we are called to be perfect like our heavenly Father is perfect.

That makes ten...seems like a nice place to stop.

Thoughts from my friend S.K.

Rebeccas comments on chimichanga faith reminded me of a story by an old friend of mine. I have a lot of friends I have never met. Blaise Pascal, Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, Dallas Willard, John Ortberg, and others. Included in my list of friends I've never met is a guy named Soren Kierkegaard.

Kierkegaard lived in the 19th century. He wrote the following:

Imagine that geese could talk – and that they had planned things in such a way that they, too, had their divine worship services. Every Sunday they gathered together and a goose preached. The gist of the sermon was as follows: What a high destiny geese have, to what a high goal the creator – and every time this word was mentioned the geese curtsied and the ganders bowed their heads – had appointed geese. With the help of their wings they could fly away to distant regions, blessed regions, where they really had their homes, for here they were but alien sojourners.

It was this way every Sunday. Afterwards, the assembly dispersed and each one waddled home to his family. And so to church again next Sunday, and then home again – and that was the end of it. They flourished and grew fat, became plump and delicate, were eaten on St. Martin’s Eve – and that was the end of it.

Yes, that was the end of it. Although the Sunday discourse was so very lofty, on Monday the geese would discuss with each other what had happened to the goose who had wanted really to use his wings according to the high goal set before it – what happened to it, what horrors it had to endure. Of course the geese would not talk about it on Sunday; that, after all, was not appropriate. Such talk would make a fool of God and of themselves.

Still, there were a few individual geese among them who looked poorly and grew thin. The other geese said among themselves: There you see what happens when you take seriously this business of wanting to fly. Because they harbor the idea of wanting to fly, they get thin, and do not prosper, do not have God’s grace as we have it, and become plump, fat, and delicate. For by the grace of God one becomes plump, fat, and delicate.

So it is with our Christian worship services. We, too, have wings, we have imagination, intended to help us actually rise aloft. But we play, allow our imagination to amuse itself in an hour of Sunday daydreaming. In reality, however, we stay right where we are – and on Monday regard it as a proof that God’s grace gets us plump, fat, delicate. That is, we accumulate money, get to be a somebody in the world, beget children, become successful, and so forth. And those who actually get involved with God and who therefore suffer and have torments, troubles, and grief, of these we say: Here is proof that they do not have the grace of God.

Such are the words of my friend S.K.

Chimichanga Faith

I love chimichangas. I'm not sure I love eating them as much as I love saying the Word: chimichanga. It kind of rolls off of your tongue like "Denny Crane" rolls off of William Shatner's tongue on "Boston Legal." Try saying it: chimichanga. See what I mean?

But when I go to a Mexican restaurant, I usually don't order a chimichanga. I tend to stick with chicken enchiladas or carne guisada.

It makes me wonder if we have the same love of God. We love singing the songs, raising our hands, and hanging out with other Christians, but do we really love God.

Jesus said, "If you love me, you will obey what I command." (John 14:5). Strong. Clear. Direct.

So, if we gather for our warm fuzzies, and walk out the door ignoring his commands, do we love Jesus? What does it mean when we "Amen" the preacher and then gossip and backbite? When we fail to show practical compassion? When we are hateful to entire people groups?

Hmmm...

I think I'll go have a chimichanga.

The Resurrection and the Life

Sunday morning we were looking at Jesus’ “I am” sayings. When we got to John chapter 11 and Jesus’ statement of “I am the resurrection and the life,” we had a couple of different views of interpretation.

The Jews are watching Jesus interact with Mary and Martha. They respond:

^{Jn 11:36} Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”

^{Jn 11:37} But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”

I pointed out how they appear to be gaining a level of belief, and Bryan saw sarcasm in their statements. So I came home and looked up some commentaries on these passages, and found these views:

36-37 Jesus' true humanity was emphasized by the response of the people at Lazarus's tomb. Some were impressed by Jesus' open show of emotion and took it as an evident token of his love for Lazarus. Others, perhaps not so lovingly, wondered why Jesus had not prevented Lazarus's death by one of his miracles. The reference to the healing of the blind man again (cf. 10:21) shows that it must have created a sensation in Jerusalem since it was remembered several months after it had occurred. Zondervan NIV Bible Commentary (2 volumes), Pradis CD-ROM:Jn 11:36, Book Version: 5.1.50

11:37 Their position was like that of Martha (v. 21) and Mary (v. 32), but they based it on Jesus’ ability to give sight to the blind (cf. ch. 9). NIV Study Bible Notes. Pradis CD-ROM:The New Testament/John/Study Notes on John/Chapter 11.

So, what are your thoughts. Were the Jewish leaders beginning to believe? Do you think they were being sarcastic? Maybe a little of both?

BLOBD,

Yvette