Enchanted Community

BLOG 8/7/16. GOD’S NEW HUMANITY PEOPLE AND THEIR INESCAPABLE POLITICAL CONTEXT.

Hey, friends: there is no way we can escape this season of the presidential and congressional campaigns. So, what’ new? Centuries before Jesus arrived on the stage of history, God’s erring nation of Hebrews had been taken captive by the Babylonian Empire, and God’s word to his people through the prophets was that they were not to seek escape but to settle down and to seek the welfare of the people, the city, among whom they lived. They were to be a witness to their God in the very real polis which was their setting. Then Jesus came into a political setting where there was a religious polis, the Jewish establishment. Then there was the political polis, the huge dominant Roman Empire. Then there was the more subtle, but ever present reality of those who were only focused on taking advantage of, and of making the most economically of the reality, and whose primary loyalty belonged to neither. Got it? Religious principalities and powers, political principalities and powers, and economic principalities and powers. Everyone had to deal with these very real political realities every day. It was a collusion of these powers that ultimately executed Jesus as a threat to their power by using accusations and lies about him.

Ah! but right here we need to stop and see that this was precisely the polis that Jesus came to invade and into which he inaugurated a whole new reality, namely, the Kingdom of God, or God’s New Creation. He came to create all things new, to bring the powers of the Age to Come into this age, to make real his dominion of Light in the midst of this dominion of darkness. He gave his people a whole new vocation. They were to be salt and light in the midst of this confusing, often destructive, and conflicted reality. They were called by their own teachers: aliens and exiles, and even so were to be those who were to overcome their inescapable circumstances by “the blood o the Lamb, the word of their testimony, even if it costs them their lives”. They were to be a radically different kind of political entity. They were to be the glory of God amidst the very real and seemingly intractable realities of the ‘empire.’

Biblical scholar, Gregory Boyd, helps us by defining ‘the glory of God’ as: the radiant display of the divine nature. Ah, yes. We are the children of God and we are to be the radiant display of His divine nature in a radically new kind of polis, i.e., one that dwells within the realities of this present age, but motivated by a radically new lifestyle, and a radically new kind of community whose purpose is to transform it by being authentic sons and daughters of God, by displaying his divine nature in our quest for peace and justice and order—by living each day in non-glamorous settings becoming the power of God by quietly and authentically demonstrating the fruits of the Holy Spirit in all of our relationships. Our political calling is to radiantly display the nature of the God who calls us. God’s New Humanity can never be primarily captive to any empire, any political party, any economic principality or power … and yet acknowledging that in the midst of these we have a calling to be a transformation presence … so that men and women and see our good works (our Kingdom behavior) and know that God has to be in it

Within a couple of centuries that persecuted Christian minority that was birthed in Palestine became such a powerful redemptive force within the harsh political realities of the empire that it transformed it. In the two millennia since Jesus, God’s new humanity people have always faced the very same kind of dilemma as we: dwelling in a broken and fallen world with very imperfect human leadership, but always as a transformational incarnation of God’s New Humanity. So it is a critical part of our stewardship here and now to fulfill our role as sons and daughters of light in the midst this polis in which we live, and to be voices of peace and order and justice at this moment, and in our day. It’s a gospel calling, would you believe?

http://wipfandstock.com/what-on-earth-is-the-church-13883.html

BLOG 8/3/16. THE SHEER, OFTEN CONFUSING, MYSTERY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH

For starts, Jesus told his followers that not everyone who calls him ‘Lord, Lord’ is going to enter his kingdom, but rather those who do the will of his Father who is in heaven. So then, there is some kind of a profession of Christian faith that is not authentic, i.e,. doesn’t make the grade. Or, maybe as the old Negro spiritual put it so plainly (really a ‘dig’ at white slave-owners): “Everybody talking about heaven, ain’t-a-gonna-go-there.” Church institutions are well populated with those who want their sins forgiven, and want to go to heaven when the die—but somehow miss the whole all-of-life-consuming and transformational dynamic of what Jesus came to be and to do…. Yes, those who are altogether comfortable with the words of the Christian message, … but for whom that same message is not that which is the heart and core of their lives, their motivation, their goals, their focus. Church membership is easy to explain, but how does one explain supernatural new life (… even if one has experienced it)?

(For Harry Potter fans, it would be like trying to explain Hogwarts to a bunch of muggles. I hope that doesn’t sound too sacrilegious.)

In my New Orleans sojourn, there was a movement of new life in the Roman Catholic community in which thousands of the Roman Catholic faithful, who had attended Mass all of their lives—suddenly encountered the Spirit of God and their eyes were opened and they became captive to Jesus, they discovered scriptures, and their lives took on a whole new dimension. How does one explain that: “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes? So is everyone born of the Spirit” (John 3:8).

Where does the the very sense of need of something to fill the lurking void in our lives come from? From where does our common human need for meaning, for acceptance, or for hope and a future come from. The eminent physicist, Blaise Pascal, spoke of the “god-shaped vacuum” that inhabits every human breast. If one is in conversation with that array of real men and women with whom one rubs shoulders every day, it doesn’t take long to begin to discern those from all kinds of secular and religious backgrounds who are on this quest. (Those engaged in mission studies refer to such as: men of peace, i.e., those looking for meaning, or hope, or something to explain their lives.)

I’m pretty suspicious of easy evangelistic formulae. The mystery of true Christian faith will not be confined to formulae. At the same time there is a venerable piece of explanation out of our theological heritage that is helpful. It says that there are three components to saving (translate: authentic) faith in Jesus Christ. First, one must have the knowledge of, the facts about who Jesus is, what he came to be and to do, taught, etc. This is referred to in Latin as notitia / knowledge. This is behind the Biblical teaching that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the communication/preaching of Christ. Secondly, one must give assent to the truth of that knowledge, i.e., that what is communicated in Christ’s incarnation is, in fact, reliable. This is referred to as: assensus / or assent to its reliability. But, thirdly, there is the necessity of embracing Jesus and his teachings in one’s whole life, of being willing to be formed anew into his likeness, and to have our lives totally built upon our loving obedience to him and his teachings. This is fiducia, the embrace of whole-hearted trust and obedience to the One who is the object of our love. And the mystery is that this all can emerge in a huge plethora of ways. The truth can lie dormant for years, it can germinate in strange ways, and it is an ongoing process of conversion after conversion when it all becomes more and more real. But the word mystery remains. And in every human being you meet, there is that element even when intentionally repressed out of one’s intent to remain autonomous. Welcome to the mystery!

BLOG 7/31/16. CONFESSION: A HILARIOUSLY LIBERATING DISCIPLINE

Hey, blog friends: Allow me to offer what might seem an utterly ridiculous proposition, i.e., that our confession of how imperfect we are, and how imperfectly we live our lives, and how dismally we often relate to our neighbors, or demonstrate love and caring, humility and courtesy … is really such a wonderfully liberating engagement with reality. C. S. Lewis wrote an essay, with a humorous note, on the Anglican prayer of confession in which the Christian worshipers confess that they have done those things which they ought not to have done, and left undone those things which they ought to have done, … and further that there was no health in them and that they were “most miserable offenders.”

Does that sound horribly lugubrious and negative? Or do all of us know deep down that we don’t even live up to our own aspirations and ostensibly commendable self image? The fact is that it is a ‘reality check.’ The apostle John taught us that if we say that we have no sin, then we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. … But, if we confess our sins, that the very acknowledgement that we’ve fallen short of God’s glory is healthy and that God will, upon that confession, forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all of our self-deceiving attempts at righteousness. It creates in us a wholesome and freeing humility.

It is probably those who live more commendable lives (inside and outside of the church) that have to struggle a bit with this reality, as we seek to maintain our public image of being really on-top-of-it folk. But go to an AA meeting where alcoholics are up front in confessing to one another that they are drunks, and note how liberating that is to them. But … remember that in the New Testament there is a teaching about those of us in the church, who are also to confess our sins to one another (James 5:16). Granted, it takes a colony of Christian folk, who have earned one another’s trust, to “come out” as real sinners. But, mercy! Is it ever liberating to have such a company (usually small) where we can engage in just such reality and get support—to confess to one another and receive absolution from one another. We sing “Amazing grace that saved a wretch like me,” but to laugh and admit how very true that is, if others only knew all of the subliminal garbage and bondage most live with as we seek to hide even that reality.

Ah, but here is where the person and work of Jesus Christ become transformingly real. We can com out of hiding. “If the Son shall make you free, then are you free indeed.” That liberation of knowing that God really, really loves ragamuffins, loves real sinners, real hypocrites and screwed-up people, who in so many subtle and not-so-subtle ways mess up and fail, … that calls forth holy laughter from us.

But there is another liberating dimension to this. If we can admit that we are most miserable offenders, capable of messing up in almost every dimension of life, … then we are also set free to learn from our failures, to get up, to accept God’s forgiveness, and to seek to live out our calling as God’s New Humanity with new humility and sensitivity—to take risks as we seek the welfare of others, and to be the glory of God in the daily imperfect context of our lives. To embrace that we are “most miserable offenders” but at the same time are the sons and daughters of God, … gives us liberty to engage in risky and radical obedience to God’s calling to be the walking-talking bearers of the divine image. Confession, honesty, forgiveness, humility, laughter … and a hilarious new freedom: … to “obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God …” (Romans 8:21).

So here’s to my fellow ‘miserable offenders’ and to the glorious liberty of the children of God. I’d love to hear back from you and hear your stories.

[If you find these Blogs provocative and helpful, recommend them to others. Thanks.]

BLOG 7/27/16. BEING GOD’S KINGDOM PEOPLE IN A POLITICAL SEASON

It’s worth taking a deep breath, stopping, and remembering that there is no way we can escape being engaged in a political process, beginning at birth. We are all (for better or worse) born into a polis, into a community of others, beginning with our parents and our siblings. There are those parents, if they are fulfilling their parental responsibilities, who are our authority, who give us some semblance of order in our lives, and provide for our needs—of course there are irresponsible and absentee parents also, but that blank spot will be filled with some other substitute. (Too many kids today have found their polis in gangs, alas!).

Then there are the local civic authorities in the towns and cities, the larger state structures, and the national polis, which is vastly complex. But our responsible political involvement begins with family and neighborhood. If it is healthy, it is an involvement that seeks the positive welfare of all of us involved—our caring, our mutual quests for peace, order, and justice. When we get into school we have our first encounter with elections, in which we elect the most talented and respected classmates as class president … and so it goes. But, note: it is never in an ideal or perfect context. It is often a context of injustice, deception, violence, and totally unqualified leaders.

The early Christian church was birthed in the tragic political context of Jewish hegemony threatened by this new entity, the context of the Roman Empire that was often horribly oppressive in seasons, then context of trade guilds that often required the worship of local pagan deities, … and other political realities. To be irrevocably committed to the teaching, the platform, the agenda of one whose identity was that he was Lord, was God, was the only ultimate authority, and in whose new polis God was creating all things new, from the start made the church to be both a community of hope and caring and love and justice on the one hand, and a threat to all other proclaimed authorities and political presences—but also a threat.

New Testament writers would define such other power structures, or self-proclaimed authorities, as ‘principalities and powers.’ And yet, … in all the centuries since the church has had to engage the plethora of different political realities, … sometimes successfully, and sometimes clumsily—sometimes as communities of peace and order and justice, and sometimes adopting the destructive agendas of the darkness. Most often the Christian polis is a minority. Often the light burns in the deep darkness of destructive governments, such as the Nazi German setting of the last century where a ruthless dictator sought to co-opt the church for his own agenda.

There have been bright spots such as when the British parliament was defending the slave trade, which was so profitable to many. But in that parliament was one deeply involved in the political process who also saw the brutal inhumanity of that trade, and with his Christian friends retired to the village of Clapham each weekend to pray about how to bring and end to this horrible practice. His name was William Wilberforce, and he ultimately succeeded in using his political presence and influence to bring slave trading to an end.

But no one escapes our corporate responsibility to the polis, to be the sons and daughters of the light. But that responsibility of being those who are the loving, caring, just, peace-making citizens begins in the home and the neighborhood. It begins with a servant spirit. It chooses its political stance in the array of imperfect political options by that company that most enhances the agenda of God’s New Creation—even when it may risk us our reputations. It is never easy, but it always begins with or ‘political’ essence in the basic community of family and neighborhood.

That for starts. I’d be happy to hear your comments. We’ve got several months when we are going to be immersed in political stuff, and doing or homework is a good place to begin if we are to fulfill our calling to be the incarnation of the divine nature with excellence.

BLOG 7/24/16. CONTAGIOUS AND INFECTIOUS JOY? WHAT ABOUT IT?

What would you say if I were to propose that part of our Christian calling is to be a people of contagious joy—profound, infectious, purposeful, hope-filled joy? So, OK, stick with me here. This may sound crazy. In scriptures there are promises made to the people of God that when all is said and done, and the brokenness of this present scene is passed, that God is going to fill their mouths with laughter (Psalm 126:3). The same ultimate design of God to bring mirth and gladness to his people is reiterated in Jeremiah 33:11. But then in Jesus’ own high-priestly prayer in John 17, he prays that his followers may have his joy fulfilled in themselves.

(As I write this, I have looking down on me an artist’s rendering of Jesus laughing / the laughing Christ, given to me by a super-good friend who has had a ministry of being a Christian clown, and a mime.) What did Jesus’ joy look like? How did it express itself? What do the New Testament writers have in mind when the tell us to rejoice always?  That certainly doesn’t mean that we are escapist, or some kind of dopey folk who seek to escape the realities of this tragic scene by artificial humor. But laughter, and joy are a medicine that this ‘current culture of distrust’ desperately needs. And I don’t have any facile answer to my own questions.

Last week I resolved that I would not watch the Republican convention. I had clues about what the candidates thought, and where they were going. So I turned to a program on PBS called: Globe Trekkers. The host and commentator was a fun, scruffy bearded young adult in cargo shorts who always looked like he was having so much fun leading us on this trip–mirth. He was going to take us watchers with him downs Highway 40, which goes all the way down the west side of Argentina from Ecuador to its southern tip of Argentina. He was a delight. He had a joi d’vivre, an infectious sense that he was having so much fun doing this, and his eyes conveyed his excitement about the scenery and history of this route as he drove us in his pick-up truck. The hour spent watching that program was like good wine to me. I felt refreshed and infused with the good humor of the host. He had infected me with his own joy.

Then the next night I was taken to a funky new and popular restaurant with an upscale menu. The ambience and the food were really cool, but what made the evening even more delightful was the server who was probably a biker, what with his head scarf and tattoos, but was again, contagiously upbeat and fun, always with a chuckle informing us about the food. And his name was Bubba (you’ve got to be from the southern United States to realize that Bubba is a colorful and favorite common name). The evening was like good wine. We left upbeat and more happy because of Bubba.

Abraham Lincoln used humor to be able to endure the tragedy of the Civil War. He said he might cry if he couldn’t make jokes. Our current president is observed to have a very keen sense and subtle sense of humor, and a classic sense of comic timing, which he uses most effectively.

At the end of this past week, I stopped to reflect: Why is a good sense of humor so refreshing? Is it something of the result of or being set free in Christ, of being infused with his hope, and the participants in his joy that, in turn, make of us who follow him, those with contagious and refreshing impact on those with whom we come in contact—mouths filled with laughter? We certainly are not called to be dour and pessimistic religious folk who are part of the darkness.

Here’s to mirth and gladness. Here’s to mouths filled with laughter no matter how dark the darkness. We are the people of the God of Hope. It’s a much needed dimension of our calling in this present moment. God give us all that super-abounding and contagious and infectious  joy and laughter. Yes!

BLOG 7/20/16. THE KINGDOM OF GOD: THRILLING AND RADICAL

In C. S. Lewis’ much-loved children’s story: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the children ask Mrs. Beaver if the anticipated lion, Aslan (the Christ-figure in these stories), is ‘safe.’ Mr. Beaver replied: “Who said anything about being safe. Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good.” I think of that frequently when I am seeking to communicate the awesome content the dominant theme of Jesus, and his teachings about the Kingdom of God, which has been so muted and/or misunderstood by so many. One would think that, what with Jesus making that gospel of the Kingdom his definitive theme from beginning to end, of his statement that: “When this gospel of the Kingdom shall have been preached in all the earth, then shall the Lord come,” … that the comprehension of that theme would be a primary enterprise of the church, along with the consequences thereof. Sadly, it is not so. It has been all too domesticated, or made inspirational.

I began my life in a fairly typical Protestant mainline church where the forgiveness of or sins (the atonement) and our hope of heaven were at the heart of the teaching. It was sort of a “Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine” comforting message. But in my adult life as a teaching pastor I was challenged by a gifted friend to read a thick, scholarly work by a Dutch New Testament scholar (Herman Ridderbos) on The Coming of the Kingdom, which I did. It was a tough read, but the author worked over that Kingdom theme historically, theologically, and Biblically and my lights went on! It is the interpreting them that ties Old and New Testaments together, and clarifies what it is that Jesus came to be and to do–his life, teachings, cross and resurrection. It is the fulfillment of God’s continual revelation through the prophets that he was going to do a new thing, … make all things new.

What became clear to me (I’m a slow learner, alas!) was that in the coming of Jesus, as God’s anointed one, that God was indeed inaugurating his New Creation, his Kingdom. That in Jesus, God’s future was backing into our present. That his calling to men and women to repent and believe was a call to be part of his radical new Kingdom. I learned that in the New Testament the designations: Kingdom of God, New Creation, eternal life, salvation, and sometimes even the word ‘righteousness’ are all near synonymous. It is the interpretive key to understanding both Jesus, and all of history. But, … that Kingdom, that New Creation, are also confrontational and transformational. Jesus inaugurated a new dominion that always stands in missionary confrontation with the dominion of darkness–this present age. So it’s not safe. I learned this when that theme launched me into a very visible role of leadership in my denomination, and I was asked to write this into a book. So I wrote a book: Joy to the World: An Introduction to Kingdom Evangelism (now long out of print), which, I am told by a missiology professor at Princeton, was the first such approach in recent times to that theme of evangelism. It was soon followed by several books on the same theme by writers much more gifted than I—but who were all academicians, and I was working pastor.

(Here’s where it becomes ‘not safe.’) So twenty years later I did another book on the same theme, but written around a conversation with a skeptical but spiritually hungry young adult, entitled: Subversive Jesus, Radical Grace. A conservative Christian publishing house, whose editor as ‘in-synch’ with me published it, but soon his board of directors decided that my book and the editor were too controversial (i.e., not safe) for their constituency and so terminated my book and the editor. Several years later the good folk at Wipf and Stock republished it, so it is still available. But the gospel of the Kingdom has consequences that are transformational and radical–radical and not safel. You might want to check it out. I’d love to hear from you.

http://wipfandstock.com/subversive-jesus-radical-grace.html

BLOG 7/17/16. RESCUING THE BEAUTIFUL WORD ‘EVANGELICAL’ FROM ABUSE

There is something very irresponsible, if not downright obscene, about the way the popular media and too many cnservative religious groups have hi-jacked the designation: evangelical to denote a segment of strident, very political conservatives (who seek refuge under a grossly misunderstood version of the Christian faith).. That usage is the very anti-thesis of an understanding of the Christian that flows from the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. First off, the early Christian church appropriated a neutral Greek word (euangellion), meaning: thrilling announcement to speak of the awesome life and teachings of Jesus Christ.

So what does it mean? Let’s begin with a reference from the 8^th century B.C. Old Testament prophet, Isaiah, that Jesus himself used to usher in his own earthly ministry: “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news (euangellion in the Greek translation of the Old Testament) to to the poor …”. So when Jesus inaugurates his own public ministry in his hometown of Nazareth (after his forty days of trial in the wilderness) he is asked to do the reading for the day, which happens to be that very passage from Isaiah. … Slow down here and note what that good news consists of. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to (whom?) the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives (primarily those imprisoned for unpayable debts, etc.) and the recovering of the sight to the blind, to set at liberty at liberty those who are oppressed, and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (the Jubilee year when all property and status was returned to its original owner in Jewish law [though there is no evidence that it was ever practiced]). Ah! But then he very candidly appropriates this prophecy as referring to himself. He, himself, is that good news: “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:16-21). They cannot accept this and chase him out of town—but to my Blog readers, don’t miss the content of the good news. He, then, forthwith begins: “Jesus came into Galilee proclaiming the euangellion/gospel of God, and saying ‘the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God (i.e., God’s New Creation-making all things new), repent and believe the gospel/euangellion.’”

What then does the euangellion/evangel look like? Jesus spells that out in Matthew 5 ff. It looks like adherents, or believers who identify with the poor, who mourn of those who have suffered loss and tragedy, who are modest/humble/meek, who hunger and thirst for what is right, who are merciful, who are pure in heart, who are peacemakers, who are willing to be reviled and persecuted for what is right, and who rejoice in all of this. In short, they (true ‘evangelicals’)are those who are suffused with the sweet aroma of Christ.

But most tellingly, what is ultimately the criteria about who is and who is not part of that New Creation, that evangelical people of Jesus Christ. Jesus teaches that when he comes again, he will come in judgment and the criteria will be: did they give food to the hungry? drink to the thirsty? take strangers (immigrants?) into their homes? clothe the naked? visit those in prison? Those who live such self-giving, humanitarian, caring lives to the helpless of this world will hear him say: “Come, blessed of my Father.” To those who harden their hearts to the poor and helpless and minorities or this society he will say: “Depart from me, I never know you” … (no matter how much they seek to identify themselves as  orthodox ‘evangelicals’ (Matthew 25:31ff). Such people obscenely appropriate the noble word evangelical for an agenda alien to the gospel of God. (By the way, … in the light of this passage it could be easily contended that those not necessarily even pretending to be religious but meeting these needs are closer to God (than those who harden their hearts and ignore such human tragedy), i.e., folk like: Doctors Without Borders, the International Rescue Committee, Oxfam, and so many others.) Do you get my point? The sweet aroma of Christ in the hurt and brokenness of this present scene—those with the heart of God for his hurting children.

BLOG 7/13/16. MY INDEBTEDNESS TO THE BLACK COMMMUNITY AND BLACK CULTURE.

Indulge me here. I’m a white guy, OK? I can never be black, nor can I imagine all of the subliminal pain that is that community’s heritage from the horrendous dehumanizing and demeaning reality of slavery and racism with which they live. But this past week, what with it’s racial clashes and bloodshed, provoke me to want to take a different turn … and to express my indebtedness to the black culture, since it has blessed me in many ways.

For-instance for starts (the easy one), take food. I am southern, and reared with the cuisine of southern cooking. The essence of southern cooking came out of the rural south and out of the kitchens of southern homes and plantations whose black cooks were those, often slaves, who knew how to make delicious dishes out of what they grew in the garden or on the plantation. In my young adult days here in Atlanta (before the civil rights watershed) the best restaurants in the city bore names such as Mammy’s Shanty, or Aunt Fannie’s Cabin, where that southern food was served in style—but which very names and restaurants were too painful for the black community. Now, however, that southern cooking has metamorphed into a gourmet style aimed at providing a new genre of southern cooking for the emerging generation’s palates, and have put franchises in many cities not southern.

Or music. I lived for one passage of my life in New Orleans where Preservation Hall, and the Olympia Brass (marching) Band were of the essence of the city’s culture. The black community has produced Duke Ellington, Winton Marsalis, Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong … and on and on. And, wonder of wonder, today’s off-the-chart Broadway musical: Hamilton, is a page of American history set to rap music. All gifts of black culture. Where would we be without them?

Which brings us to dance. Tap dancing, spontaneous dance, fancy footwork, dancing marching bands. In my neighborhood, when we had a local jazz band play at our annual picnic, all of my black neighbors couldn’t stay in their seats, but would do amazing dance—even the older ones. We white folk just sat and envied their rhythm and freedom.

Story-telling. I get into a bit of controversy here with some of my black friends, but I always grieved, that in their understandable desire to distance themselves from pain of the slave culture, that post-civil rights watershed blacks rejected Joel Chandler Harris’ Uncle Remus Tales. Harris learned these stories from former slaves around whom he grew up in rural Georgia. Those tales were the wisdom stories of the black culture, … their proverbs, if you will. When our nation became tragically involved in the Iraq War, my first thought was immediately to the Uncle Remus tale about the tar baby. Look it up.

Ah! But the giants in our national quest for racial justice, our prophetic voices of Justice have been out of the black community. Think of Frederick Douglas, Asa Philip Randolph (who pushed the Roosevelts on the issue), … or more recently of Fannie Lou Hamer, John Lewis, Martin Luther King, John Perkins, and so many others. Where were the white voices who would lay their lives on the line? There were many, but the visible ones were black. And all of us are in their debt (and that battle goes on, doesn’t it?).

As generations roll by these ethnic cultures become amalgamated into the larger community, but each leaves its legacy (think of the Angles, the Saxons, the Celts, etc. and how they merged, but each leaving its rich cultural legacy.).

So, here is to testify that I am enormously enriched by the rich legacy of the black culture which has always been part of the context in which I am formed. I am in their debt and I am most appreciative. Now I also live in a subdivision with wonderful black neighbors with whom I share daily life. “Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

BLOG 7/10/2016. NOT LOOKING FOR GOD? OR NOT SO SURE?

I have a remarkable acquaintance who self-consciously seeks out those on the margins of society who are so involved in their struggles for economic survival, or their illegal status, or their life of violence … that they are certainly not looking for God. I, on the other hand, live in a suburban community with successful professionals, medical and academic folk who would probably fit the same description. On the surface they are not looking for God, or have written God off as irrelevant to their personal goals. Many of these live with some background in religious institutions, but found out that many who inhabit such institutions are themselves not looking for God—they simply find the ethos of church institutions a comfortable part of the cultural fabric of their lives, what with its atmosphere of aesthetic spirituality, while at the same time are strangers to God and hardly make God any sort of priority in their lives. (Spymaster John LeCarre colorfully described such as those who “file in for their weekly dose of perdition or salvation, though I never saw that much to choose between the two of them.”)

But that’s not who I’m talking about. I’m talking about those apparently successful men and women with commendable professional credentials, keen minds, and social contacts … who for all outward appearances are not looking for God. My question is: Does what appears on the surface really describe the subliminal hungerings of their lives. Are they looking for God but could not admit this if they tried?

How would one discern? A generation ago Kurt Cobain was the arch rebel of the grunge musical community, and his musical group: Nirvana, was wildly successful. But then at the prime of his life and career he took his life. In his papers as he sought to explain his despair, he is reported to have said: “What I really need is God.” Or a super-bright graduate student who delighted in making life miserable for Christians what with his militant and skillful agnostic assaults on their belief in such a ridiculous myth as God. But then he called me one night late and asked if he could talk. It turned out that he was eves-dropping on a conversation I was having with someone else, and I had said something like: “The problem with a false witness is that they usually have a false estimate of themselves” (I don’t ever remember saying anything like that). That got through to that subliminal empty spot in him, and ultimately he became a most articulate follower of Jesus Christ.

I hang-out at a neighborhood coffee shop where I am not identified as anything other than a white-haired old man, who is also an author. And in that context I often get in brief and interesting conversations with those young enough to be my grand-children, and who don’t feel threatened by me. And often when they ask what I write about, I candidly tell them that I write stuff about the church and what it means. That’s not threatening to them. But it often opens the door to their longing for some contact with whatever God is all about. They are not self-consciously looking for God, but then again at that subliminal and often inarticulate level, they are.

If one was looking for God, where would they look? Some of my conversation partners are lapsed church members who didn’t find God in whatever expression of the church they abandoned. But there are those attractive colonies of faith that are like springs of water. D. T. Niles (a Christian leader in India a couple of generations ago) described evangelism as: “One beggar telling another where to find bread.” So how would my suburban, young professional coffee-drinking friends find God if they were looking? The answer may be that they would find God if some contagious follower of Jesus would quietly come into their orbit and walk non-aggressively along side of them. That’s how house-churches, and colonies of vital faith emerge in so many forms. Be confident that there are many people out there not consciously looking for God—but who really are.

BLOG 7/6/2016. WHY IN THE WORLD WOULD ANYONE NEED ‘GOD’?

Early in the last century George Jacob Holyoake gave us the classical definition of secularism: The doctrine that morality should be based on regard to the well-being of mankind in the present life to the exclusion of all considerations drawn from belief in God or the future life. I was reminded of that recently when someone asked me if I meant that a mutual acquaintance was an atheist, when I described that person as a secularist. Atheists, on one hand, tend to be a bit militant in their denial that there is a god of any kind. Secularist, on the other, fashion a whole way of life in which any conception of God is irrelevant to their pursuit of happiness.

I live in a substantial middle-class suburb of Atlanta. We are well-peopled with prosperous young professionals. But, then, I have a friend who carries on a remarkable Christian ministry in Central America and the Pacific northwest to illegal immigrants, to gang members, to prisoners, to those wanted by the law, to those who are incarcerated because they have been engaged in drug wars and violence. When this friend gets into conversation and dialogue with those persons, he finds them responsive to such conceptions as guilt, fear, rejection, sin, etc. … and to their response to such promises of Jesus Christ as forgiving love, acceptance, peace with God, realism about their mis-spent lives, … and a readiness to respond to the promises of Jesus and to receive the hope that comes in him, to open their lives to his healing. I find the writings of this friend (Bob Ekblad) just absolutely awesome.

But then, I don’t live in such a context of encounters with the law, with violence, with fear, and with estrangement and hostility. I live in suburbia. I live around young professionals who are skilled, who have achieved some security, who own homes, who are prospering so that they can send their children to private schools if they choose, take thrilling vacations, and who don’t even seem to give passing thought to such notions as any guilt and sinfulness, or of any real need for ‘god’ (even though they may maintain token identification with some church, or might go to mass occasionally). For most of such persons the description of being secularists fits.

When one reads the life and teachings of Jesus, it seems that he didn’t focus on the religious, or the righteous … but on (note) sinners: “I came not to call the righteous but sinners to new life, to seek and to save the lost.” Such language is lost on most secular suburbanites—it doesn’t even register. Why would they need to repent or change anything? They’ve got it made (until the roof of life caves in, they lose their jobs, the economy collapses, or they get the diagnosis of cancer). They are like those to whom the Old Testament prophets were sent, who have eyes but do not see, and ears but do not hear. Repentance requires a change of mind, or priorities, of one’s center and goal.

What we know, however, is that there is “a god-shaped vacuum in every heart.” We know that there is in all humankind a sense of deity, or “a haunting loneliness” that lurks deep in the sub-consciousness. It’s there. But it expresses itself differently in my young urban friends than it does with the illegal immigrants and prisoners and gang members that my friend lives with. That sense of incompleteness, of the meaning of life, of one’s need for an ultimate hope … is what Jesus addresses. It is all of such lost human beings to whom Jesus came incarnating the love of God, and opening a way into the acceptance, hope, newness, forgiveness, and joy of God’s New Creation. Secularism is a ‘dodge.’ It is not good news. And it is bankrupt.

Jesus came, as he said, that we might have life. He came to set us free. He came to reconcile us to God and to give us hope. That’s worth checking into, … whether you are a gang member in Central America, or a happy pagan in suburbia. What is your response. Feed back to me.

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