Advent Love

I am a fan of Eugene Peterson. He is my mentor, at least in print. I met him once, recently, and told him so. He was very gracious and humble in his acceptance of my compliment.

Often Peterson writes about incarnation. He reminds us that God’s love is manifested not in wispy ideas and ungrounded spirituality, but in the real stuff of life. I quote:

"Matter is real. Flesh is good. Without a firm rooting in creation, religion is always drifting off into some kind of pious sentimentalism or sophisticated intellectualism. The task of salvation is not to refine us into pure spirits so that we will not be cumbered with this too solid flesh. We are not angels, nor are we to become angels. The Word did not become a good idea, or a numinous feeling, or a moral aspiration; the Word became flesh. It also becomes flesh. (The Contemplative Pastor, p. 68)"

Interesting that the Gospel of John begins with words that are intentionally used to bring to mind the opening story in Genesis. . . “in the beginning.” God created matter. And then, in God’s time, God becomes matter/flesh. The birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus are not to be understood as God pretending to be human, but as God taking on the very same humanity that you and I have to deal with. God’s intent is not to save us OUT of this world (as too many Christians suppose), but in order to redeem us IN THE MIDST of this world.

Thus, there is something holy about earth, wind and fire; about brambles, thistles and holly bushes; about flies, bees, and centipedes; about people, too – grandparents, sisters, and babies. So, Jesus comes as a baby. The incarnation of God’s love. Not in the abstract, but in the flesh. Jesus loves people in the flesh. He loves the poor and hungry (feeding the 5000). He loves the rich and misguided (Matthew, Zaccheus). He loves the prostitute into repentance and heals the leper into wholeness. Jesus has to put up with followers who misunderstand him, who fuss with each other, who are thorns in his side. Sounds like the church. There is nothing abstract about the way Jesus loves. He loves in the flesh with all its glory (and all its embarrassing and annoying aspects, too). As Peterson puts it, “Matter is real. Flesh is good.”

This is my fourth Advent word – Love. Love is real. Not like Charlie Brown who once said, “I love humanity, its people I can’t stand.” If we are to love like Jesus, then we will love people, in the flesh. Loving people is harder than loving humanity, but it is incarnational. It is earthy – grounded in the love God has for the world. Be thankful for God’s love that comes in the flesh, and not the abstract. That is the love that saves us in all our fleshly messiness.

A Gift that Means So Much

Did you know that India has a thriving movie industry? Most movies produced in India have not had the international success of the recent “Slumdog Millionaire,” but the movie business in India, known as “Bollywood,” is relentless in its churning out of films, and has done so for decades. Actors know fame and fortune and are immortalized on film posters of a particularly unique style.

The iconic hand-painted Bollywood movie posters of yester-year have given way to digitally produced photographs with graphic imaging, but you can still purchase a hand-painted poster for your own private use. Just send a photograph of yourself, or a loved one, and the artist will paint you into the scene of any number of Bollywood classics. You, too, can be immortalized like your favorite Bollywood actor. Costs range from $1000 to $3500 for this personalized, hand-painted work of “art.” Imagine the reaction of someone who receives this as a gift - "Dear, you shouldn't have . . . I mean you really SHOULDN'T have."

Perhaps you pick up the sarcasm in my description above. When I read the article describing this new marketing ploy I had to wonder about anyone who would actually spend that kind of money on such a piece of fluff. Obviously, people have more discretionary income than I have, and they sometimes spend it with NO discretion whatsoever.

I have to be careful not to sit in self-righteous judgment of such things, but I have difficulty not joining in with the disciples in their indignation when the woman came and poured a jar of precious, costly ointment on Jesus’ feet. “This could have been sold and the money given to the poor!” they cried.

There is a difference, however, between an act of beauty given on behalf of Jesus (symbolically preparing him for burial), and the conceit of a Bollywood poster purchased for self-satisfaction (What could they be thinking?).

There are plenty of purchases that I have made that, at my income level, are probably the equivalent of a personalized Bollywood poster (well, maybe not). The market in the trivial seems to thrive in any economy.

Christmas is about two weeks ahead. I’m hoping folks might give relational gifts this year. Gifts of time spent doing what my wife likes to do. Gifts of work done for someone else’s benefit. Gifts of a listening ear for the lonely neighbor. Those are the gifts that keep on giving. That’s the kind of gift I’ve received from Jesus – the gift of himself. That’s the gift that means so much. Beats a Bollywood poster any day.

Advent Joy

Children get confused at Christmas. TV and radio and every other form of media relentlessly seek to convince them and the rest of us that Christmas is about buying, giving, and getting; about Santa, elves and reindeer with bright, shiny noses; about snow, holly and mistletoe – ho, ho, ho.

Then for a short spell on Sundays, and if parents are conscientious they’ll also hear this at home, however briefly, that the real meaning of Christmas is Jesus, born in a manger a long time ago.

Children are confused by this, as are many adults. Is Christmas about Jesus or about the presents, decorations, and parties? Well, yes.

What I mean is this – when we have occasions for joy, such as the delight of seeing the surprised look on someone’s face as they open up a gift you gave them, then there is something of Jesus in that. So, the parties, festive music, and colored lights all are geared to signal a time of joy and gladness (Behold I bring you tidings of great joy . . .).

But there can also be a superficiality, a thinness, to our festivities. The exchange of presents at an office party can feel like a requirement and insincere. The endless songs of “rockin’ around the Christmas tree,” have a shallowness that makes a mockery of the joy that will be for all people. And often the forced gaiety of the season is difficult to swallow for those who are hurting, whether through grief, or loss of job, or illness. We can become cynical about it all – bah humbug.

The thing about joy, at least the joy that is associated with one’s relationship with God in Jesus Christ, is that it is not something you can buy at the store. Joy is a gift, indeed. We cannot manufacture it. We can only prepare to receive it. And joy comes, not because of the music, or because we have drunk plenty of Christmas punch, but because God wants to bless us, and does so repeatedly, even in the midst of grief, loss and pain. And it often comes as a surprise, too, not because of our buying, planning, baking, decorating, etc.

An angel comes to an unmarried, teenaged girl – “Surprise, you’re going to have a baby.”
A man has a dream telling him to marry that girl, tho’ she is pregnant and the baby is not his – “Surprise!”
The girl goes to visit her cousin who is a member of AARP – “Surprise, I’m pregnant, too!”
Angels appear to shepherds keeping watch over their flocks by night – “Surprise, there is a Savior born in a stable in Bethlehem.” (Why wasn’t this announced on CNN? – Or the equivalent in that day? – “Surprise.”)
Strange travelers bearing royal gifts come to see this baby after traveling a great distance from “the East” – “Surprise!”
And this is only the beginning of the surprises – the gifts – the joy – a joy that remains long after the presents have been forgotten, broken or outgrown; long after the decorations have been put back in the attic, and the bills for the festivities have been paid. This joy does not depend on Santa, or elves, or reindeer. Thank God.

Trim the hearth and set the table – and prepare to be surprised by joy this Christmas.

Everyone Did What was Right in His or Her Own Eyes

I’ve lost control. As if I ever had any. There was a day, so I hear, when clergy were highly respected and influential in American culture. I’m not thinking about Billy Graham, who belongs in another category altogether. I’m thinking about pastors in local congregations: high-steeple preachers and low-country parsons. There was a time when their counsel and wisdom carried more weight than it does today.

I’m trying not to sound pitiable, here. I’m not asking for sympathy. I’m trying to make an observation about the state of spiritual leadership in the context of 21st Century culture. I doubt I can be objective but I’ll try.

Eugene Peterson wrote in the 80’s that clergy are considered by the culture at large as something of an anachronism, as out of touch to the realities of our day. I sometimes feel like American culture treats us like an appendi; a rather benign, but useless, presence on the organism of society, which occasionally ruptures and pollutes the environment, rather than doing anything helpful. Clergy are portrayed as mildly benevolent, but mostly irrelevant; or as annoying parasites, feeding off the gullible; or even as devious schemers, wicked manipulators of the innocent.

And here I am, in the midst of this context, trying to talk about Jesus and his kingdom. It sometimes feels like Eugene Peterson’s translation of Ecclesiastes, “blowing smoke and spitting into the wind.”

The greatest challenge is the disintegration of pastoral authority in this post-modern world. The word of the preacher is often suspect, more so these days than ever. In seminary I learned about the “hermeneutics of suspicion,” which was a modern approach to scriptural interpretation seeking to discover the “hidden agenda” of the sources. For instance, Christian feminists might find much to complain about in the patriarchal narratives of the Hebrew scriptures as they read the stories with a suspicious or critical eye.

There is some value to this hermeneutic, but I detect a cousin to this school of interpretation in the pew these days. For lack of a better phrase, you might call it, “taking the preacher with a grain of salt.” At best, it means that we preachers can’t make anyone swallow everything we say (keeps us humble). At worst, it means our preaching is approached with some cynicism on the part of the listener (undermining our teaching effectiveness).

The internet contributes to this climate. On the one hand, I love the internet as a great resource for preaching. I can do research in one morning that several years ago might have taken days in one or two library visits. On the other hand, the internet is a non-filtered resource, and therein lies the problem. You can do a search for “Noah,” which can lead to rich teaching on God’s covenant with all creation, or you can find some video of some sincere but misguided soul who says he discovered a section of the ark on Mt. Ararat a couple of years ago. The second perhaps stirs our curiousity, but does little to address the meaning of the story for how we are to live in relationship with God.

For years the preacher could guide Sunday School classes in their spiritual growth by ordering proper curriculum from trusted denominational sources. But now, people have access to so much religious material, much of it of unsound or questionable theological perspective that the pastor has less and less control over the direction of teaching. The internet has reduced the teaching office of the preacher to just one more item on the menu of a cafeteria of choices, and like the American diet, spirits are bloated by too many empty theological calories.

In the book of Judges the cultural context is described over and over again as “everyone did what was right in his or her own eyes.” In other words, everyone was his or her own authority. Sounds current. Robert Bellah in Habits of the Heart, describes Sheila Larson who describes her self-made religion as “Sheilaism,” simply defined as taking care of herself and loving others. Doesn’t sound too bad, does it? But it has little in common with the traditions of Judeo-Christian religious teaching. The sad thing is that the church today is filled with “Sheilaists.” A Gallup poll quoted in Bellah’s book found that 80 % of Americans agreed with the statement, “an individual should arrive at his or her own religious beliefs independent of any church or synagogue.” So should we close the doors to our religious institutions? What a spiritual disaster that would be!

So, here I am blowing smoke and spitting into the wind in a Sheilaist culture. Why should I persist? Because of one simple promise. The prophet Isaiah says that the “word of God will not return empty.” There is so much garbage out there claiming to be gospel. It bothers me, but I can’t let it distract me. So I continue to offer what feels like a burning in my bones. But I offer it as one without authority, knowing there are people listening with suspicious ears. Still I’m trusting that this word that I preach or teach will be Spirit-honored as long as I offer it as honestly as I can. And maybe, just maybe it might become The Word of God accomplishing God’s purposes in the world today. The apostle Paul gives me some perspective, “For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided through the foolishness of our preaching to save those who believe (1 Corinthians 1:21.)” Here I am – a fool of a preacher.

Advent Peace

Several months ago I received an email from my cousin Mary Ann, asking for prayers and political action. Her children were at risk in a region of Africa where violence and inter-tribal conflict were commonplace. As background, you might want to know that I have many cousins on my mother’s side who are missionaries, several of them in places like the Congo, Central African Republic (CAR), and Chad. And many of the people they are serving have recently come under threat of a rebel/terrorist group who call themselves the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).

What kind of “lord” would resort to terror? I suppose a war lord. The LRA are led by Joseph Kony a self-styled “prophet” who sees himself as some sort of apocalyptic apostle of the wrath of god (I use lower case on purpose here), carrying out the necessary business of ridding the world of undesirables. A sad and even evil misreading of any scripture I know.

In any case, cousin Mary Ann was asking me to write to President Obama to encourage him to sign into legislation a bill which would place the U.S. in serious opposition to the LRA, including plans to defuse its power and influence. I was happy to do so and am equally happy to report that the legislation is now passed and the Obama administration has a strategy in place. Hopefully it will do some good. I do know that hostilities in the CAR have diminished and the threat to my cousins and the people they live among has been reduced.

All this makes me think about one of the themes of Advent – Peace. So many of the scriptures surrounding the anticipation of Christmas have to do with peace – angels sing of peace on earth, prophets expect a Prince of Peace, and the root of Jesse will reign over a peaceable kingdom.

Most of the time, I find Christians throwing up their hands in despair over the hope of peace among the nations, and then convincing themselves that perhaps the peace that Christ brings is only that sense of tranquility that is possible to the individual soul – “the peace that passes understanding.” And while I long for that peace of heart and mind within me, I am convinced that such a peace is not the only peace God has in mind. There are too many scriptures that point us toward a “healing of the nations,” or a “beating of swords into plowshares,” for us to so readily toss aside the Christmas promise of peace on earth.

I am convinced that one of our principle tasks as Christians is to be peacemakers. It is hard work. One of the repeated themes in apocalyptic literature (if I could only teach Joseph Kony), is not about lifting up swords to smite the enemy, but about patiently enduring hardship. Working for peace is a labor of patient endurance. And it does begin inside the human heart. I must be at peace with God and myself if I am to live in peace with my neighbor. Sometimes it is all the challenge we can handle just to live peaceably with our family, so obviously the task of living peaceably with people of different nationalities, languages, cultures, etc., is incredibly difficult.

Maybe, as some say, there will never be peace in the world until Christ comes again. However, that’s no excuse for us not to try. After all, Christ is already here isn’t he? Isn’t that what the resurrection-leading-to-Pentecost-Holy-Spirit-inspiration is all about?

As Paul says, “if it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone (Romans 12:18).” So, yes, peace begins with me. But it doesn’t end there.

How to Read the Bible

The Bible is a marvelous book, filled with all manner of ancient literature. The Good Book is actually a library containing stories and poems, ordinances and letters, aphorisms and songs, and through it all there runs a narrative thread that holds it all together. That thread is this – the Bible tells the story of God’s loving work to save a fallen world. In that thread we find adventure stories and parables, apocalyptic visions and fireside tales, history lessons and romance, tragedy and comedy. What a marvelous read!

Still, the Bible is also a battleground for misunderstanding. People fight over interpretations. Preachers pontificate on prejudiced perspectives. Sadly, these in-house (or should I say “inter-church”) battles lead a skeptical world to remain unconvinced of the Bible’s veracity and relevance. What’s a well-meaning Bible teacher to do?

I love the Bible, but I have often been frustrated by the great divide between the scholarship which was commonly accepted in seminary and the resistance to that scholarship in the local church. I have spent more than twenty-five years in the local church and I am still trying to bridge the divide between seminary and church.

At the risk of oversimplifying, the issue seems to be centered on the questions we ask of scripture. I find in the local church that questions are too often focused on the historicity of scripture, as in, “Where did Cain’s wife come from?” “Have they found the ark on Mt. Ararat?” Where can we find the inn of the Good Samaritan?” Most of these questions have at their root a desire to know “if it really happened or not.” The supposition is, if it happened then the Bible is trustworthy, and if it didn’t happen then the whole of scripture is called into question.

Interestingly, none of those questions ever came up in seminary, because there the questions were not so much about the historicity of scripture, but about the theology of scripture. What we assumed was that this Good Book was written, not to give us facts, but to teach us about God and God’s relationship with the creation, particularly men women. So the questions were more like, “What does the story of Adam and Eve tell us about the nature of sin?” “How does the flood story tell us about God’s attitude toward sin?” “In what way do the people of Israel in their wilderness wandering serve as a picture of the church today?” In these questions we then seek the kinds of answers the Bible was actually written to address. The authority of scripture was never called into question, but the authority was based less on historical accuracy than theological profundity.

Historical questions are important, of course, but they are secondary to the theological questions. And I don’t care if we do find out where Cain’s wife came from because that knowledge will not help me be a better disciple. But if I wrestle with the theological questions, then perhaps I’ll learn more about the nature of God, and gain greater understanding about my own human nature, and God’s desire to illumine the divine image in which I was made.

I’ll go out on a limb. Seems to me it doesn’t matter if God created in seven days or over the course of billions of years. What is important is the faith THAT God is the one who did the creating (and I might add, is still creating (Psalm 104)). In that case, we can accept the science that supports evolution while still affirming the faith story that teaches us WHO is the Creator, and that the creation is essentially a “good” gift of God for human beings to “till and keep,” as good stewards. You see what I’ve done here. I’ve arrived at answers based on theological questions rather than, “how did it happen” questions.

So, instead of asking, “Did this happen or not?” Why not ask, “What does this have to do with God in my life?” Seems to me you will get plenty of mileage out of that second question, regardless of what your opinion of the historicity might be.

John Wesley said that scripture contains “all things necessary for faith and practice.” I like that. It says that scripture doesn’t answer all our questions, only the ones that help us live more faithfully. I’ve never been satisfied with attempts to prove the events of scripture. They always seem to me a misguided attempt to make faith unnecessary. Instead, let’s ask what this story has to tell us that is true about our struggles to live authentically? And how does God offer grace, judgment, hope, correction, and most of all, compassion in the midst of our human condition?

Early on in my pre-seminary days I had the helpful guidance of a mentor, my Father, who helped me ask the right questions of scripture, and in the pages of the Bible I heard the ring of Truth. My prayer for my congregation, and my hope for the world, is that we all discover this Truth in the well-worn stories of our sacred canon.

“Sing them over again to me, wonderful words of life.
Let me more of their beauty see, wonderful words of life.
Words of life and beauty, teach me faith and duty.”
Beautiful words, wonderful words, wonderful words of life.”

Advent Hope and Metaphor

Advent means “arrival.” Christians celebrate Advent, the season before Christmas as a time to remember the arrival of Jesus, God in the flesh, born of a woman in Bethlehem. We also remember the coming of Jesus as a young man ushering in the kingdom in answer to the hope of the Hebrew prophets.

There is another “arrival” we anticipate during Advent – the arrival of Christ to bring God’s purposes to their final conclusion. Many call this the “Second” coming but scripture simply speaks of the parousia(the appearing) of Jesus. In any case, the Advent of Christ, in its many forms, is a reason for hope for Christians and for the world. God brings salvation in Christ.

There is so much confusion about what Christian hope really is. Some writers have written series of fictional novels based on their peculiar interpretations of hope (the Book of Revelation plays heavily into these novels). The cataclysmic visions in Revelation play out like some fantasy epic in these interpretations. My still, small voice says, “Don’t buy it.”

The flaw in these interpretations is the failure to recognize the nature of first century apocalyptic literature, and the refusal to acknowledge something we all should have learned in ninth grade English literature classes – the use of metaphor. Metaphor - the use of poetic language to seek to expand or deepen meaning. When scripture says (Psalm 18:15),

Then the channels of the sea were seen,
and the foundations of the world were laid bare
at your rebuke, O LORD,
at the blast of the breath of your nostrils.

are we to believe that God has a nose? I doubt it. This is what we mean by metaphor – poetic language to enhance our sense of what is happening.

Likewise, when the writer of Revelation is describing apocalyptic visions of riders on horses, bowls of wrath, and great dragons, we might picture something out of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. But for goodness sake remember that it is all metaphor.

The short story is this: God wins. This is our hope. And my guess is that the way God wins has less to do with the violence of Revelation (all metaphor) and everything to do with the life of Jesus (stark reality). What is clear from Revelation is the absolute victory of God. What we often overlook is that the one who sits on the throne is still the Lamb that was led to the slaughter. What I believe is that the Christian hope is fulfilled now and in the end through the Way of the Cross. We will never take the world by force, only by sacrifice. As long as we keep trying to claim Christian hope by any other way, it will continue to elude us.

Advent hope. For past, present AND future – it comes as a vulnerable baby in a manger. It comes as a fragile human being hung on a cross. And if you need more hope than God-made-flesh, don’t forget the resurrection. The resurrection is sufficient confirmation for us to believe in the hope that comes through the Way of the Cross. The resurrection is God’s way of saying, “See, my Son got it right.”