Omnibus, Mayne

I've been away for a long time, so this post comes in the form of a few short bursts of brain activity.

1.) Allie and I are reading This Momentary Marriage: a Parable of Permanence by John Piper. You're going to want to go ahead and pick that one up immediately. We've had two weddings in the past two weeks and have seen two of the most Godly couples we know exchange the same beautiful vows in two very different ceremonies. Each service was a celebration of God's glorious image seen in the mystery of two becoming one. My covenant with my wife has been richer by the hour as we've reflected over the past few weeks upon the incredible gift we've been given. Two more weeks until our second anniversary. What a joy.

2.) I wonder if a technology that replaces a man's job is really an advancement at all.

3.) I used to cite three reasons against my ever becoming a pastor. They were, a.) I'm too much of an idealist, b.) I have a hard time empathizing with other people's pain, c.) I wasn't really in love with Biblical studies. God has eradicated all three of these obstacles quite acutely over the past few months. So now I've become very open to the pursuit of this avenue.

4.) Mark and I have been writing some songs together recently and it's really made me struggle with where God is leading me lately. I had finally become comfortable with the idea of pursuing pastoral studies and now my passion for songwriting has been revived (along with some truly legitimate possibilities for success in that arena). I can't possibly pursue both graduate studies and creative expression with the fervor needed to excel at either. I haven't processed this one yet.

5.) I can't find enough time to read what I want.

Idol, Glee, and Cecily

I've been marinating on this for a couple of days now, and I'm finally ready to talk about it. I'll try not to go off on too many tangents, but I make no guarantees this early in the post.

Tuesday night, a couple million of my closest friends and I pledged our allegiance to the Fox network and the ideals it would have our country espouse. Chiefest among them: the ideal that each person is more special than everybody else. Seem silly? Of course it does, but only if you're being rational.

First, we tuned in at 7 central to see an average Joe become an object of worship over a matter of weeks. Heart-wrenching drama. Then, we stayed tuned to see what the critics were all raving about. I won't give you a play by play as to the reasons I loathed Glee. I will instead tell you that I watched with awe the gifted young nobodies who performed with such artistic and athletic excellence. Most of them will remain nobodies within the show's economy, except for the characters with whom you as the viewer are supposed to identify. They're gonna make it, after all. It reminded me of a good friend of mine who is every bit as talented as they, and who is struggling in Los Angeles against all probability toward the hope of fulfilling his Hollywood dream. He, like everyone else within earshot of America's saccharine sales pitch, has a dream of rising against all odds and being that somebody.

The problem is, for every American Idol, there hundreds of thousands who were not chosen. You, my friend, are MUCH more likely to be that person. You may even be more gifted than the guy who actually makes it; that clearly happens all the time. (Who keeps buying Taylor Hicks' albums? Seriously.)

So then, what about all the rejects? Hollywood wants to convince us that rejects are always somebody else, so that they can keep selling us whatever product that will help us rise above the losers and BE the somebody. Nevermind that if everyone were somebody, no one would be special. So the dream rises and falls on the idea that everyone should do everything in his or her power to be that .001% who ever sees fame. (Don't focus on the work of maintaining once it's arrived. Paltry details).

I am told almost daily that my daughter will be the smartest, most beautiful and talented young woman the world has ever seen. Let's be real: that's not likely. Of course she's got better odds than many kids, but just look at the sheer improbability. And I'm not willing to push her to reach for that goal when I know that it's nearly impossible goal to attain. Think of the terrible investment of our time and energy toward such a maybe. Especially when, even if it were to be reached, it's worthless as an end. Even if she were the supreme specimen of female, what then? Then she dies.

So why do we do it to ourselves? Because we have been given a desire and a need to be a part of glory. We're just wrong about the aim. Some of us will be more well-known or liked by virtue of the fact that some of us are more impressive than others. But this is not the point of our abilities. They are given us to give back to our communities in service to the only One who deserves fame at all. So I'd rather train my daughter to love God and serve people. Honing our skills is only a worthy venture inasmuch as it helps us minister to others.

I had intended to be much more sarcastic and harsh in this criticism, but I just don't have the heart for it anymore. I'm just so sad for the people wasting their lives in pursuit of a rainbow. A mist. A vapor. Especially when Shekinah glory is palpable and everlasting.

The Agitator

My daughter is chewing on her agitator. I’d call it a pacifier, but that would be a misnomer. This thing pisses her off. I could call it the pissifier, but that conjures some unpleasant images. The point is, it’s something that’s supposed to have a calming effect upon her, but it in fact does exactly the opposite. Which is why if I want her to be truly pacified, I’m going to need to take away her pacifier. I am allowed to do this because I have authority over both my daughter and the things I have given her, and I love her enough to act in her best interest. Even if it momentarily upsets her.

This reminds me of Jesus’ sparring session (never a fair fight) with the Pharisees in Matthew chapter 12. Jesus tells the Pharisees that Sabbath time is over because their obsession with its parameters are preventing them from resting. Since he’s greater than the temple, he has this authority. After he follows through with his “discipline” by healing a man on the Sabbath, they plot to kill him.

Silly babies. That would be like my daughter deciding to reject me as her father so she could go on trying to be pacified by chewing on her agitator. Father knows best.

It Scares Me That I Believe This

We should give to the point that we have now placed ourselves in the position of the ones whom we sought to serve, having actually transferred our wealth for their sorrow. This is what Christ did, and we are to share in His sufferings. In community, grace is the outworking of our faith in others' lives. It's not about our overarching social action plans to erase poverty and pain from the planet. It's about being Christ where you are and extending your hands as far as they will reach. If, once they have met their threshold, the world drives spikes through them, you will know that you have been successful. In order to share in the Kingdom, we must first share in the Priesthood.

The Holy Spirit Is No Gentleman

Two friends came to me this week and told me that they had changed their minds on a very pivotal point of theology and they now agree with me. I was mortified. These are men with more education and experience than it looks like I'll have in a very long time, if ever. I was immediately struck with the weight of what they were telling me. Did the defense of my position convince them of its validity? I had not suggested that their interpretations were wrong; only that I had believed mine to be defensible. I am not comfortable with the idea of having that kind of influence over such men.

Peace came to me when I realized that the Christian is taught not with a convincing argument but rather with convicting acknowledgment. Believers are taught by the Holy Spirit, and He does not argue. He reveals. The Holy Spirit is not interested in whether you are convinced. He simply tells you what is true and expects you to respond appropriately. If you've ever heard me say Jesus is no gentleman, I assure you the same is true for His pneumatic counterpart. He is God, and He will come and go as He pleases.

This brings me peace, because I know that if my friends were originally convicted of their belief, no convincing would have changed their minds. Likewise, if they were merely convinced of their belief, then I could only have convinced them of a different one, and the Holy Spirit will teach them the truth between the two (or in spite of the two) in His own time. However, if they are now convicted, then we can be certain that our theoretical discourses had no consequential part to play in the transformation at all. For the LORD in His will not share His glory. If I played a part at all, it was because the LORD chose in His perfection to reveal His truth through me. Nothing of mine own was at play here.

I do not use this principle as an escape clause to teach whatever I desire without the fear of demagoguery, but rather as the blanket of grace over the fact that I am far too flawed to teach truth at all. Though grace may abound, I must make my effort toward righteousness. I simply do so without fear of eternal reproach when I inevitably fail.

God is good.

Evil Artichokes

The Prophet Jeremiah says,

"The heart is deceitful above all things
and beyond cure. Who can understand it?"

This is clearly a verse about artichokes.

We must be careful not to read this with our American concept of the heart. Most of us will not be silly enough to conclude after reading this passage that our primary cardiovascular organ is flawed and academically beyond the study of even the finest cardiologists. Instead, we immediately interpret this as referring to our emotions. We would therefore interpret the passage to mean that we should be careful not to be driven by our feelings, because they can lead us astray. While this advice is true, it is not the proper interpretation. As I said before, this is a verse about artichokes.

Jeremiah was a Hebrew, and as such, when he said "heart," he was referring to the seat, not only of emotions, but also of intellect and will. When the Old Testament writers refer to the heart, they do not mean the center of your cardiovascular system or even the center of your feelings. They mean the center of your self.

So when you read a Hebrew's warning about your heart, don't think anatomically or even emotionally. Think culinary. Artichoke hearts are the core of the vegetable: every bit of what's on the outside originated on the inside. If the heart is bad; it's all bad. This means we are wicked beyond hope of a cure and are therefore in desperate need of divine and miraculous regeneration. This also means that when the Bible says David was after God's heart, he was chasing the very core of Who God is.

The verse makes so much more sense when you realize it's talking about artichokes.

Degrees of Sin?

This quote is from a facebook message and is the context for my reply, which is the bulk of this post:

Hey Josh, Remember that old facebook note that I had for my paper on how we tend to rank sin but in God's eyes sin is sin? You had commented on that saying that that is not necessarily correct and you gave your views on it. Well, I deleted that note after I finished my paper but my mom for some reason is asking for me to get your response to that again. If you could tell me again, that would be great. Thanks so much

I vaguely remember the note, so I can only tell you what I think based on the info you've just given me.

The scripture usually in question here is James 2:10, which says, "For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it."This is the great equalizer. The truth of this statement keeps people from becoming arrogant about their righteousness as compared to that of others. For example, "Well, I only steal paper clips, but you are a homosexual. Therefore, I'm not as sinful." We see from the context of James 2 that what we're dealing with is the law of freedom (the gospel) vs. the law of justice (Judaism). James is saying that even if we live by rules and regulations, there's no room to boast. Whether you're an olympic swimmer or an amateur, treading water from New York to London is a hopeless cause, and that's what the law requires.

But we don't live by rules and regulations. We live by grace. Even so, as Paul is clear to mention in Romans 6, we don't simply go on sinning just because grace is there to pick us up. Why? Because there are concequences to our actions. These consequences are both physical and spiritual, and both personal and communal. The heart of the gospel is to restore peace between God and man and between all humans. If an action or attitude does not restore that peace, then we want to avoid it, because our calling is to be peacemakers. If an action or attitude is destructive, well then that's certainly not peacemaking.

So all of that is a foundation for this: There are varying degrees by which some actions or attitudes tear down the kingdom.

Homosexuality is destructive physically because we are, as Paul says, "sinning against our own bodies," but also spiritually, because we are altering the image of God in our souls as male or female. It's destructive personally because it's one's own lifestyle choice, but it's destructive communally because society's foundational institution is the family, and when we're broken at the foundation, there's not much hope for us elsewhere.

Now, compare that to a stealing a paperclip, and you see the vast difference in consequences, even though both break peace with God and man and therefore warrant eternal seperation.

Stealing a paperclip is definitely a physical injustice and a personal flaw. It also has the potential to affect the safety of the community who can no longer trust their things to be safe, which has spiritual remifications for their ability to be vulnerable. Everything is interconnected, which is why a breaking of the peace in one aspect of life is a big deal, and why our job as peacemakers is a huge calling. The Hebrew idea of "shalom" is supposed to conjure an image of a carefully woven tapestry without a single thread out of place.

Now, compare stealing paperclips or being gay to judging your homosexual brother. Maybe there are no obvious physical consequences, but peace is certainly broken as you have become self-righteous, hateful, exclusive, and prideful. And those attitudes deprive your community of at least one peacemaker, which is in itself destructive.

We make far bigger a mess than we are helpful cleaning up, but think about a child who has spilled milk all over the floor. Maybe the child's "help" isn't really all that helpful in the cleaning up process, but their parent certainly does delight in the spirit of repentance and making things right if that child desires to "help" fix his or her mess by grabbing a towel and at least getting down there. God is gracious to us all as a loving Father, and we are peacemakers as a sign of our grateful hearts that he forgave us while we were yet milk-spillers.

In short: we're all hopelessly messy, but some messes are bigger than others and at least some messes are avoidable, so we should try our best not to spill any more and stop pretending like we aren't just as hopeless as the next guy.

Hope that helps.

Josh