OK, I confess this post will be a bit of a rant on my part. But I'm hoping that just because it is somewhat rant-ish that it still has as least a bit worth considering. Do you want to know one of the things I'm tired of? Glad you asked.
I'm tired of Christian authors writing books for Christian men that encourage us to be 'warriors' of some kind or other. I'm also weary of men's groups and men's gatherings using those books and picking up that language that encourages me to essentially 'man-up' and become a 'Godly warrior'. The whole warrior metaphor seems to point in all kinds of questionable directions if you ask me. Let me list a few.
1. The last thing the world needs right now is another holy warrior...let alone a Christian holy warrior. Can anyone spell jihad? That's what it sounds like to me when we use this metaphor for Christian manhood. And I don't know about anybody else, but in the world I work in every day there are any number of people who tell me that religion IS the problem in the world. The last thing they need to hear is that I'm becoming a Christian warrior. Because to them there is not a hair's worth of difference between a muslim extremist and a Christian extremist. All they can see is suicide vests loaded with C4. It's a bad metaphor for the times.
2. The warrior metaphor more deeply ingrains the systemic violence and mentality that is already too much a part of most men's lives. I actually find the warrior metaphor psychologically painful, because I am already way too violent in my words, in my actions, and in my attitudes. The last thing I need is a picture that paves the way for more of that kind of stuff. Couldn't we find a metaphor with a little more peace-making in it?
3. The warrior metaphor is a bad metaphor because it flies in the face of the life of Jesus. Now, I don't consider Jesus to have been a mamby-pamby momma's boy, but somehow I don't see him gravitating toward the warrior image either. I think Jesus was one tough dude who could score man points any time he chose, but he chose to score them through ways of non-violence (well, OK, there was that time in the temple...but that seems to have been the exception rather than the rule...extenuating circumstances shall we say?)
4. The warrior metaphor cuts across the grain of the Sermon on the Mount. What of turn the other cheek? What of being humiliated and going the second mile? Not to mention blessed are the peacemakers and the mourners and the hungry and the meek; none of which sound very warrior-like.
5. The warrior metaphor claims too much. The way of Jesus appears to be mostly the way of paradox. The way to strength is through weakness. The way to riches is through becoming poor. The way to finding life is to lose it. The way to greatness is through service. You get the drift. But this warrior idea....it's too much the idea of 'let's go out and kill something'. It violates the way of paradox. It lacks imagination. It lacks creativity. It lacks thoughtfulness.
6. The warrior metaphor puts too much emphasis on the ability of men. Oh, I know, the folks who use this would be quick to say it is God who works in men, but the feeling I always get coming away from these conversations is that there sure is an awful lot that I am expected to do in order to be a real man. Which seems to me to have two equally bad results: (1) It leads to pride in those men who think they measure up and have the ability to be a real 'warrior' or (2) It leads to guilt and discouragement for those who know they don't measure up and doubt if they ever will be able to be a real 'warrior'.
7. The warrior metaphor lends itself to being sexist. "Me Tarzan. You Jane" is the feeling I get when I hear all of this stuff about what attitude I am supposed to have toward women. Give me a break. Most of the women I know are strong, capable, incredibly gifted, and have a faith that is deeper than that of most men. For the most part they neither need me nor want me to protect them...I'm not sure of my ability to fight alligators and swing from trees anyway. For the most part I find myself wanting to listen to women for a change and learn a thing or two.
8. The warrior metaphor has the feel of a shallow gimmick. If we can't get the men to embrace faith any other way, let's sell them a bill of goods. Let's paint it up and make it look good. Let's appeal to their more base natures. We can convince them that they can be disciple of Jesus and still have a "let's go kill something attitude". But it's not true. None of it is. To quote Brennan Manning, "The Gospel is one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread." Now that's something I would like to hear: "Come to our men's ministry meeting and help one another find bread." I suppose I'll be waiting a long time....
Thanks for hearing my rant. peace.
Sunday, June 07, 2009
Saturday, March 21, 2009
The Gospel as the Power of God
I'm preaching through a series on the Gospel as the power of God; that is to say the Gospel as more than a set of beliefs, or a system of doctrines, or a body of information, but Gospel as a power that has been set loose in the world. We're reciting Romans 1:16 together every week: For I am not ashamed of the Gospel because it is the power of God bringing salvation to everyone who believes....
In other words the good news -- Gospel -- is that God's active, effective, transforming, merciful, steadfast, unimaginable, re-creating, purposeful, love-filled power is all around us; moving and working in all sorts of expected and unexpected ways; yielding what can only be called salvation in all of its various forms. And God has made this power's entrance and presence known through his Son. What's more, the Son makes this power that is loose in the world available to us, both to work in us and to work through us.
I'm trying to get the point across that this approach moves Gospel from the category of noun to the category of verb. It is no longer the title of a plan of salvation or just a code word for what we believe, but rather the Gospel is both an announcement of God's power in the world and an action being done to us; to borrow John Indermark's word we are being 'gospeled'.
My hope is that we begin to see that when Scripture says salvation is for everyone who believes that it means far more than nodding our heads in assent to what we've been told. It also means nodding our heads in assent to God's power doing its work in our lives and in turning our lives over to that power to be used as God sees best for the sake of the world.
I like this move from noun to verb. It seems like it does at least three things for us. It moves us from a passive "OK I believe, now can I get on with my life?" to an active "what is this power calling us to become and where is it asking us to go?" It also should help us move from trusting our salvation to our ability to believe the right information toward trusting that God's power is working salvation in us even when we don't get all of the information just right. And finally it should move us from a closed world where the gospel is mostly about us or a particular church to an open world where we are anticipating, discerning, and discovering the good news that the power of God is breaking out in all sorts of ways and places...occasionally even inside the church itself.
And that's the Gospel. Blessings.
In other words the good news -- Gospel -- is that God's active, effective, transforming, merciful, steadfast, unimaginable, re-creating, purposeful, love-filled power is all around us; moving and working in all sorts of expected and unexpected ways; yielding what can only be called salvation in all of its various forms. And God has made this power's entrance and presence known through his Son. What's more, the Son makes this power that is loose in the world available to us, both to work in us and to work through us.
I'm trying to get the point across that this approach moves Gospel from the category of noun to the category of verb. It is no longer the title of a plan of salvation or just a code word for what we believe, but rather the Gospel is both an announcement of God's power in the world and an action being done to us; to borrow John Indermark's word we are being 'gospeled'.
My hope is that we begin to see that when Scripture says salvation is for everyone who believes that it means far more than nodding our heads in assent to what we've been told. It also means nodding our heads in assent to God's power doing its work in our lives and in turning our lives over to that power to be used as God sees best for the sake of the world.
I like this move from noun to verb. It seems like it does at least three things for us. It moves us from a passive "OK I believe, now can I get on with my life?" to an active "what is this power calling us to become and where is it asking us to go?" It also should help us move from trusting our salvation to our ability to believe the right information toward trusting that God's power is working salvation in us even when we don't get all of the information just right. And finally it should move us from a closed world where the gospel is mostly about us or a particular church to an open world where we are anticipating, discerning, and discovering the good news that the power of God is breaking out in all sorts of ways and places...occasionally even inside the church itself.
And that's the Gospel. Blessings.
Saturday, February 07, 2009
Monday, January 12, 2009
God in the Stranger
In my current preaching series on hospitality I've emphasized not only the benefits of welcoming strangers in our lives, but that God is often found in those strangers. Here are a few thoughts from Parker Palmer about that:
It is no accident that God is so often represented by the stranger, for the truth that God speaks in our lives is very strange indeed. Where the world sees impossibility, God sees potential. Where the world sees comfort, God sees idolatry. Where the world sees insecurity, God sees occasions for faith. Where the world sees death, God proclaims life. God uses the stranger to shake us from our conventional points of view, to remove the scales of worldly assumptions from our eyes. God is a stranger to us, and it is at the risk of missing God's truth that we domesticate God, reduce God to the role of familiar friend.
How often have we missed the possibilities and presence of God because we have stayed in the comfort and security of the familiar and friendly? That sounds a bit like some churches I know. To tell the truth, it sounds a bit like me as well. Blessings.
It is no accident that God is so often represented by the stranger, for the truth that God speaks in our lives is very strange indeed. Where the world sees impossibility, God sees potential. Where the world sees comfort, God sees idolatry. Where the world sees insecurity, God sees occasions for faith. Where the world sees death, God proclaims life. God uses the stranger to shake us from our conventional points of view, to remove the scales of worldly assumptions from our eyes. God is a stranger to us, and it is at the risk of missing God's truth that we domesticate God, reduce God to the role of familiar friend.
How often have we missed the possibilities and presence of God because we have stayed in the comfort and security of the familiar and friendly? That sounds a bit like some churches I know. To tell the truth, it sounds a bit like me as well. Blessings.
Monday, December 15, 2008
Heavenly Hospitality
After the first of the new year I plan to begin a series on Hospitality and so have been doing some reading lately. I came across this excerpt from Frederick Buechner's 'Love Feast' that seems to capture a picture of true hospitality. See what you think.
He said, "The Kingdom of Heaven is like a great feast. That's the way of it. the Kingdom of Heaven is a love feast where nobody's a stranger. Like right here. There's strangers everywhere you can think of. There's strangers was born out of the same womb. There's strangers was raised together in the same town and worked side by side all their life through. There's strangers got married and been climbing in and out of the same fourposter together for thirty-five or forty years, and they're strangers still. And Jesus, it's like most of the time he's a stranger too. Even when he's near as the end of your nose, people make like he's nowhere around. They won't talk to him. They won't listen to him. They keep their eye on the ground. But here in this place there's no strangers, and Jesus, he isn't a stranger either. The Kingdom of Heaven's like this.
He said, "We all got secrets. I got them same as everybody else---things we feel bad about and wish hadn't ever happened. Hurtful things. We're all scared and lonesome, but most of the time we keep it hid. It's like everyone of us has lost his way so bad we don't even know which way is home any more only we're ashamed to ask. You know what would happen if we would own up we're lost and ask? Why, what would happen is we'd find home is each other. We'd find out home is Jesus loves us lost or found or any which way."
This is what church should be like; strangers learning to be a community, finding welcome, finding one another, finding the Kingdom of God. Blessings.
He said, "The Kingdom of Heaven is like a great feast. That's the way of it. the Kingdom of Heaven is a love feast where nobody's a stranger. Like right here. There's strangers everywhere you can think of. There's strangers was born out of the same womb. There's strangers was raised together in the same town and worked side by side all their life through. There's strangers got married and been climbing in and out of the same fourposter together for thirty-five or forty years, and they're strangers still. And Jesus, it's like most of the time he's a stranger too. Even when he's near as the end of your nose, people make like he's nowhere around. They won't talk to him. They won't listen to him. They keep their eye on the ground. But here in this place there's no strangers, and Jesus, he isn't a stranger either. The Kingdom of Heaven's like this.
He said, "We all got secrets. I got them same as everybody else---things we feel bad about and wish hadn't ever happened. Hurtful things. We're all scared and lonesome, but most of the time we keep it hid. It's like everyone of us has lost his way so bad we don't even know which way is home any more only we're ashamed to ask. You know what would happen if we would own up we're lost and ask? Why, what would happen is we'd find home is each other. We'd find out home is Jesus loves us lost or found or any which way."
This is what church should be like; strangers learning to be a community, finding welcome, finding one another, finding the Kingdom of God. Blessings.
Monday, November 10, 2008
Welcome to the Table of the Lord
I don't get to offer the Table meditation very often in our worship, because I generally have some other responsibilities. But yesterday, I had the rare privilege of doing so. Here is what I shared with the congregation as we gathered at the Table.
Welcome to the Table of the Lord.
The table of the kingdom
The table of the age to come
Here, now, even if not yet fully realized
Welcome to the Table of the Lord.
A foretaste of God’s intended future
An announcement God’s steadfast love
A declaration of God’s lavish grace
Welcome to the Table of the Lord
A proclamation of the Lord’s death
An affirmation of Christ’s Resurrection
A celebration of the adopted children of God
Welcome to the Table of the Lord.
A Promise of New Creation
A Possibility of New Imagination
Welcome to the Table of the Lord.
Here the first are last and the last are first
Here there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female
Here all are one in Christ Jesus
Welcome to the Table of the Lord
Joined by a great cloud of witnesses
The martyred saints of ages past
And our own faithful dead recently laid to rest
Welcome to the Table of the Lord.
Let hope be evident among us
Let the joy of salvation overflow from within us
Let the peace of God reign over us
Welcome to the Table of the Lord.
Come; let us eat our fill of the bread of life
Come; let us quench our thirst from the cup of salvation
Come; let us receive strength for the journey
Welcome to the Table of the Lord.
Set for those called by the grace of Jesus Christ
Prepared for those gathered together in the love of God
Given to those sent out in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit
Welcome to the Table of the Lord.
This is the Table of the Lord.
Here we renounce the shameful things that one hides
And we live by an open statement of the truth in the sight of God.
This is the Table of the Lord.
Here the veil that blinds the world is removed
And we see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
This is the Table of the Lord.
Here light shines out of darkness in the face of Jesus Christ
And we proclaim Jesus as Lord and ourselves as slaves for Jesus’ sake.
This is the Table of the Lord.
Here clay jars are filled with the treasure of the gospel
And our lives are evidence that all power comes from God and does not come from us.
This is the Table of the Lord.
Here we see God’s mercy
And the afflicted, the perplexed, the persecuted, and the struck down do not lose heart.
Here we receive the death of Jesus
So that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in us.
This is the Table of the Lord.
Blessings.
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