Has Christianity Been Hijacked?

Bear with me... I want to make a point that will take a few sentences to develop. Here it is: March 29, 1984 will be remembered as a sad day in the corporate memory of many Baltimore sports fans. Just after midnight on that date the Baltimore Colts were HIJACKED! Robert Irsay, the Colt's unpopular owner, understood that his decision to move the Colts to Indianapolis would be a devastating blow to Baltimore Colts fans and decided to pack up and sneak out of town under the cover of darkness. Now here is where I want to make my point, so pay attention. WHAT IF... Baltimore Colts fans showed up at Memorial Stadium the next year just as they had showed up in previous years? And what if the vendors showed up and continued to serve Natty Boh and Eskay Franks? And what if the pep band showed up and played the same old tunes? And what if the fans came dressed in Baltimore Colts caps and T-shirts? And what if they continued to chant the old familiar cheers? AND what if this pattern continued over the years into the next generation? If that had happened, there would be a whole new generation of Baltimore Colt's fans who confused REAL football with an empty Sunday ritual that involved little more than gathering in a "sacred" space to sing fight songs and chant familiar cheers.

Fortunately, Colts fans have too much sports savy to confuse mere Sunday rituals with real football. Unfortunately, Jesus fans haven't always been able to make the distinction between mere rituals and real faith. Mere rituals are powerless to change real life. The power to affect and influence real life requires the exercising of real faith. When John the Baptist was languishing in prison he began to doubt the identity of Jesus, so he sent a couple of his disciples to ask Jesus if he was the REAL thing. Jesus replied, "Go and tell John what you see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, and the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor," (John 11:4-5) Jesus knew that the authenticity of his claims was irrevocably tied to the quality of his actions. The precision, and even the passion with which we do our rituals (whether Presbyterian, Baptist, Anglican, Catholic or Pentacostal rituals) cannot measure the authenticity of our faith. Rituals move nothing. Faith moves mountains! With more than 2 Billion Christians in the world you would think we could do some serious damage to the other team. The reason we do so little damage to the other team is because most of us are content to sit in the stadium singing fight songs and chanting old famliliar cheers while the real game is being played out on the streets. -- Bob

Tell Me A Story

Donald Miller is in a room of 500 or 600 people, all waiting for him to speak. But as he steps behind the podium and begins, his voice seems more suited to a small group of five or six. "Okay," he starts, "what are some of your favorite movies?"

A murmur of response—"Come on!" Miller encourages—and then people start shouting out titles. The Matrix! A Beautiful Mind! The Straight Story! Finding Nemo! The audience oohs and aahs at each other's choices. Little Women! Napoleon Dynamite! It's a Wonderful Life! The shouting goes on for a while; they forget this is a workshop.

"Okay, great," Miller says, bringing attention front and center. "Now, call out your favorite parts of the Nicene Creed."

Awkward giggles throughout the room—they know they've been had. Then one man pipes up: "It's a wonderful life!"

Miller laughs along with, maybe louder than, everyone in the room. He's enjoying that his point was made for him: We know our movies better than we know our creeds. And now self-help banalities—Your life can be wonderful—compete for our attention with the classic truths of the Christian story.

In the next half hour, Miller delivers a variation on a theme ascendant in evangelical Christianity: Truth is rooted in story, not in rational systems. The Christian mission is not well served when we speak in terms of spiritual laws or rational formulas. Propositional truths, when extracted from a narrative context, lack meaning. "The chief role of a Christian," he says, "is to tell a better story."

You can read more HERE

OUCH!!!

If you are a fan of Pit Bulls, this is probably pretty painful to look at. If you are NOT a fan of Pit Bulls, shame on you for thinking, "Take that! You vicious, ugly, nasty beast!" Though I can't ever remember having a single tender thought about any of the Pit Bulls I've encountered. Nevertheless, they are one of God's amazing creatures and even vicious, ugly, nasty beasts that attack innocent children and sweet little old ladies need love and understanding. Here is what we can learn from the painful experience of this poor guy... here it is... are you ready... Listen, there are some things we are simply not equipped to deal with in our own strength! Even though porcupines don't look all that formidable, they are able to fire their quills with accuracy and precision. And once the quills hit their mark they aren't easily removed.

The Apostle Paul has some pretty awesome counsel about dealing with the painful darts that are fired from the dark side. He says that we aren't equipped to deal with enemy fire in our own strength... we need to put on the full armor of God to protect us from painful darts that are fired from the dark side. Here is the list Paul posted in Ephesians chapter 6:

• Belt of Truth... keeps us from being exposed
  
• Breastplate of Righteousness... protects our hearts
  
• Gospel of Peace... helps us to walk the path of peace
• Shield of Faith... enables us to keep the faith
• Helmet of Salvation... so things can't mess with our heads
• Sword of the Spirit... powerful ammo from the Word of God

Don't try to deal with enemy fire in your own strength. Regularly put on the FULL Armor of God. And when you are hit by painful darts from the dark side, don't try to hide your wounds. Allow others to apply the love of Jesus to where it hurts. Be Blessed and Stretched... Bob

Practicing RIGHTEOUSNESS
doing JUSTICE

I was about to preach at an evening service in a small church in a remote village in rural Honduras. I could barely see my notes, because the church was lit by only a few candles – all the congregation could afford, after their village was devastated by Hurricane Mitch a year earlier. Without wishing to be too graphic, the truth is that I was also fighting the worst case of diarrhea of my life! To top it off, I had just finished a bitter argument with one of my students, who refused to eat the food offered to us – because (very understandably) he didn’t want to end up getting sick like me.

In short, I was miserable! So I said to my friend and translator, “Miguel, I’m not sure I have a good message for these people tonight. So if I’m preaching badly, you just go ahead and say whatever you want to say.” Without missing a beat, Miguel responded, “Jeff, that’s what I always do when you preach.”

What power a translator has! The Italians have a saying, “traduttore traditore” – “the translator is a traitor.” I don’t know about that, but I do know that a translator has the potential to dramatically alter the meaning of the words she is using.

With that in mind, translating the words of the Bible must be a dangerous undertaking! I was thinking about the danger of translating today, after reading a comment about the book of Matthew, in David Bosch’s masterful book, “Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission.” Bosch focuses our attention on one of Matthew’s favorite Greek words “dikaiosyne,” which shows up in some of Jesus’ most famous sayings. For example, “…seek first the kingdom of God and his dikaiosyne, and all these things will be added to you.” (6:33)

According to Bosch, dikaiosyne can be translated as righteousness (a distinctly religious concept, suggesting a spiritual/moral quality to which we can aspire and receive from God), justification (God’s merciful act of declaring us just), or justice (our right conduct toward others, and especially those who are oppressed). All three concepts are contained in the one word, dikaiosyne. What a rich word it is! (You can continue this guest article by Jeff Johnsen HERE)

Here's the catch... We translate the scriptures with our lives, not merely with our words. We might say the right words, but how are these words translated by our lives? What we really believe is most accurately translated by our actions, not by our words. The problem with that is that... the first book of the Bible others are likely to read is the Book of You and Me. -- Bob

It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

Here are some pics from our Earth Day outreach
in the Butchers Hill community

Created
in
Our
Image

Which Jesus do you worship, the Vegan Jesus, the Weeping Jesus, the Gentle as a Lamb Jesus, the Political Activist Jesus, the Plastic Dashboard Jesus? We have a tendancy to want to create him in our image rather than being created in his image. In spite of the archaic language, I like the imagery created in the old gospel hymn:

Have thine own way, Lord. Have thine own way!
Thou art the potter, I am the clay!
Mold me and make me, after they will,
While I am waiting, yielded and still.

That imagery comes straight out of the Book of Jeremiah: "The Lord gave another message to Jeremiah. He said, 'Go down to the shop where clay pots and jars are made. I will speak to you while you are there.' So I did as he told me and found the potter working at his wheel. But the jar he was making did not turn out as he had hoped, so the potter squashed the jar into a lump of clay and started again. Then the Lord gave me this message: 'O Israel, can I not do to you as this potter has done to his clay? As the clay is in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand," (Jeremiah 18:1-6). I'm not completely comfortable with the idea of being squashed by the hand of God like a lump of clay. But I love the idea of being gently shaped by the loving hands of my creator. And if we are completely honest, most of us haven't done the greatest job of shaping our own lives. We are always at our best when we give God full creative rights to our lives.
One of my sons goes to Vintage 21 Church in Raleigh, NC. They have put together a hillarious set of videos that pokes fun at the way we sometimes distort the image of Jesus. You can view one of the videos here. Enjoy! -- bob

The New Trinity
"Me MySELF and I"

From the folks who brought you Me/Church, now you can order Me/Worship. Isn't it about time someone was willing to produce a worship CD about the one person we really want to worship!

Check it out here. Enjoy -- bob

Me /Church...

Where it's all about Me!

Check it out here here --Bob