Cancel Culture…Or, Maybe Not?

Cancel Culture

“Cancel Culture” is a term that refers to the collective practice of “cancelling” individuals or groups as a means of showing disapproval and enacting a “punishment.” The “cancelling” is the “punishment” and it happens in a variety of ways: social ostracism, public backlash, loss of financial funding or support, loss of privileges in social or professional contexts, etc. It is a sort of collective means of showing disapproval of an action, statement, or belief. 

The Good and…the Bad…

The idea that we, as a society, can sort of act as a moral compass by standing in solidarity with the oppressed or victimized is not a bad thing. The idea that people who are hateful, abusive, and engaged in unethical or immoral behavior should lose influence, privilege, and social standing is also not a bad thing. For example, business that have unethical sourcing practices should be held accountable. Actors who are accused of sexual assault should lose influence. 

That said, the rise of social media has made the cancel culture especially malicious and brutal. Social media has been weaponized to verbally assault people for simply disagreeing with a viewpoint or perspective. This is not good. This is really ugly and it is a primary reason I am not very active on Twitter. 

The other negative side of cancel culture (and the one that conservatives and Christians decry the most) is that it can be weaponized against people who simply hold minority views. Specifically, minority views as it relates to morality or religion. For example, Christians can be “cancelled” for believing that the Bible teaches specific things about marriage and sexual ethics that go against what is acceptable in the dominant culture. Conservatives can be “cancelled” for believing that we need secure borders. 

Both Sides Do It

Obviously, as a Jesus-follower, I don’t appreciate being characterized as a “bigot” for holding certain convictions about sexual ethics. 

However, I have noticed that both sides do the cancel culture thing. There are conservative Republicans—who have been Republicans their whole lives and who would align with most Republicans on policy issues—who have been labelled as RINOS because they do not offer their absolute devotion and loyalty to another politician. I mean, I have seen people turn on Mike Pence—who is probably one of the most bona fide conservative Republicans there is. Now, listen, I am not making a statement about the other politician here. I am simply pointing out that conservatives are guilty of “cancelling” people who do not agree with them too. So, let’s be real here. 

I am speaking to my “tribe” (Jesus-followers) for a moment. We need to be honest and fair. Mostly because as Jesus-followers, we should care about what is true and just. 

Christians are every bit as guilty of perpetuating “cancel culture” as the wider society at large. In fact, it could be argued that we started it. We call it “boycotting.” I remember boycotting Kmart in the 90s. I remember when Christians were up in arms over red Starbucks cups. There are debates on whether it is ok to use the worship songs written by a certain church because of this or that doctrinal belief. It matters little whether the lyrics are theologically sound. It came from that church and they believe that. If your worship team plays their song on a Sunday, people should find a more “biblical” church. 

My point is that if we are going to decry “cancel culture” then we need to not do the very thing we are decrying. That is, by definition, hypocritical. 

Clearing Up Some Misunderstandings. 

Lastly, I have noticed that there are some major misunderstandings among some in my Christian family of the what is meant by some issues. Or, to put it another way, I have noticed some Christians get upset and flustered and even outraged by things they should not be upset about. In fact, some of the things that are being “cancelled” either should be or at least offer some healthy food for thought. 

Let me explain. 

Nuclear Family

First, let’s define the term nuclear family. The nuclear family is a couple and their dependents. Many believe the nuclear family is under attack and they spiritualize it by saying it is the Devils main target. I do believe that the enemy targets marriages and children. There is a substantive amount of research that demonstrates the negative affects that divorce and familial strife can have on kids. Further, those kids grow up and become adults with childhood trauma and hurt that they have to overcome as they start families. Secondarily, there is a narrative in our culture about sexual ethics that is fundamentally rooted in the pursuit of unbridled pleasure. This is not healthy for any party involved. 

However, part of the conversation about the Western vision of the nuclear family has nothing to do with marriage and sexual ethics. It has more to do with the role of the extended family and the community in general in raising children. One scholarly article states it this way, 

“The importance of social support for parental and child health and wellbeing is not yet sufficiently widely recognized. The widespread myth in Western contexts that the male breadwinner–female homemaker nuclear family is the ‘traditional’ family structure leads to a focus on mothers alone as the individuals with responsibility for child wellbeing…..Expecting mothers to care for children with little support, while expecting fathers to provide for their families with little support, is, therefore, likely to lead to adverse health consequences for mothers, fathers and children.”¹

This is compatible with Scripture. In fact, most biblical families were not comprised of only the nuclear family. The extended family made up the household and then you had your clan and then your tribe and then the nation as a whole—it was all part of the family of Abraham. Many cultures in the world see the family unit as involving the extended family. 

There is Christian research that supports this criticism and concern. There are family ministry movements calling on the family to be the primary disciplers in a kids life rather than outsourcing it to the church. The family in this sense also means the extended family and the church family. Think Orange (a Family Ministry Resource) encourages parents to partner with at least five other adults who will intentionally invest in, encourage, listen to, and disciple their kids. ²

The redeemable point that is absolutely not in conflict with the “biblical family” is this: Parents need other adults—family, friends, teachers, church leaders—to help in the child raising and child discipleship endeavor. The nuclear family is not enough on it’s own. 

Toxic Masculinity

Back in 2019 Gillette came out with a commercial that called out toxic masculinity. I saw some people upset by that and it really confused me. The commercial called out bullying, the sexualization and objectification of women, misogyny, and violent behavior. The commercial said we can not longer simply say, “Boys will be boys.” The commercial goes on to say that men need to hold other men accountable. Men need to say the right things and do the right things and to stand up for the weak. I thought it was beautiful. 

I think some people misunderstood the term toxic masculinity as saying masculinity in general is toxic. That is not what was being said. The term “toxic masculinity” has to do with toxic forms of masculinity. The sort of toxic behaviors that demean and degrade those deemed as “weak,” the sort of masculinity that objectifies women, and the sort of masculinity that sees hot-headed violent behavior as a display of strength. That is toxic masculinity. And, for the record, I think Jesus would say the same. You know, all his turn the other cheek and forgive your enemy talk doesn’t really line up with the idea of exacting revenge through violence. 

So, calling out toxic masculinity is not a war on masculinity in general and it is definitely not an assault on “biblical manhood.” If anything, it is a call to be more humble, more honorable, and more just men. 

Historical Figures

I don’t have time nor the space to go into all the reasons our racist past still has implications for today. I will share that I recently heard a white pastor share about growing up in Mississippi. When he was a kid a black church was burned to the ground. His dad, a white man, donated a gymnasium to the congregation. After showing generosity and kindness to the black congregation he and his family were threatened with a burning cross in their yard. The pastor remembers not being allowed to play in his front yard for 3 months. He’s in his sixties so this happened within the lifetimes of many alive today. 

Racism has an ugly past and the Civil War was part of that ugly past. The southern states, like it or not, have had some not so shining moments when it comes to racial equality. The memorialization of slave-owning, secessionist, and racist men is not a good thing in my opinion. I am not a Black man living in the south, but I find it completely understandable that a memorial to a Confederate war hero would be an oppressive reminder. 

Secondly, taking down a monument doesn’t erase someone from the history books. Monuments are erected to honor the memory of someone not simply retain the memory. Germany doesn’t need a statue honoring the memory of a Nazi military leader in order to tell the history. Some historical figures do not need memorialized in a way that honors them. I do not think Jesus followers should be angry or outraged about this. Or, any other efforts that seek to rectify racism and restore dignity to people of color. 

Dr. Seuss and Racism

Ok, this one is almost silly. I remember when conservative media had a conniption over the discontinuing of six Dr. Seuss books. “They’re cancelling Dr. Seuss!!” Somehow the implication was that the “left” was responsible for “cancelling” Dr. Seuss. 

The fact is that Seuss’ Estate made the decision to discontinue the publications and it is not entirely unusual for publishers to cease printing older publications. The other thing is that at least some of the books did, in fact, have illustrations that were full of offensive racial and ethnic stereotypes. Lastly, for what it is worth, the six books discontinued were hardly the top sellers and many of them were obscure until the news coverage. 

As a Jesus-follower, I am against anything that demeans the dignity of another human being created in the image of God no matter their race or ethnic heritage. Similarly, I would not be upset if Disney stopped making a TV show that had a demon as a character and made light of the reality of evil and Satan. 

Cancel Outrage

As Jesus followers, we need to remember that outrage is not a fruit of the Spirit. We should also be mindful that our responses are to be motived by love not fear. Instead of fighting back in angry reactionary ways to our broader culture, let’s cancel outrage. 

And, when the wider culture is actually moving in redemptive directions, let’s not go against the current just because it is coming from a side we may not agree with. If a large company wants to put out a commercial that calls us to love our neighbor more generously, let’s celebrate that and affirm that. If there is discussion about how best to manage financial profit so that greed is suppressed, lets engage and affirm that conversation. If people want to know how we can better exercise our dominion over creation through creation care, let’s join those efforts. 

1 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rstb.2020.0020

2 https://theparentcue.org/why-your-kids-need-five-other-adults-in-their-lives/

Inconsistent Hypocrisy

(This is, admittedly, a provocative piece. My intention is not to endorse any single agenda, but rather to artistically wrestle with the inconsistencies of agendas from any side. As a Jesus follower, I have found that no single agenda captures the essence of how I am called to live.)

Fill in the blank which lives matters as we sacrifice dignity to the god of our agendas

The termination of the unborn life for selfish reasons is a moral injustice 

But don’t be a woke social justice warrior and don’t confront the injustice of my bias and privilege

Privilege to live my life my way, my body, my choice 

But don’t endanger others by denying science, it’s not a shot in the dark just get the shot in the arm

Armed shots kill, but my freedom will not be infringed; no discussion no debate, the data is fake

Freedom for the masses in the land of liberty 

But your life and what you’re fleeing from only matters if you obey the law and come here legally

Excuse me while I excuse my civil disobedience should the government muzzle my voice and cover my face

Go ahead and voice your peaceful protest, just don’t kneel in this place

Rioting and violence and looting I reject, but the ends justify the means if it stops the steal

Black Lives Matter unless they’re unborn Black lives, stop saying our nation needs to heal

Police lives matter unless they enforce mandates I fundamentally hate

All lives matter but the immigrant and incarcerated and LGBTQ are second rate

LGBTQ are people deserving of dignity because they were born that way assuming they were allowed to be born 

Me too was born uncovering the darkness of unbridled, selfish lust that perpetuated sexual abuse; let’s cope with our trauma by looking at porn

Human dignity is subjective to my political agenda which is right because might and media secure my dominance

Excuse my inconsistent hypocrisy while I look at my moral compass forged by popular opinion and subjective tolerance  

Left and then Right the compass directs, and here we are

No more able to love our neighbor than before.

Deep Dives & Deleted Scenes: Sermon Background on Acts

Deleted Scenes

Deleted scenes are scenes from a movie that do not make the final cut. Usually the cut is made because it adds unnecessary details and time to the story the director is trying to tell. 

In the sermon writing process, there are sometimes “deleted scenes.” Pieces of biblical information that are important, but may not enhance the “big idea” of the message. For the sake of time, I sometimes make “cuts.”

I don’t know that I will do this every week, but I thought I would share some deleted scenes from this past weeks sermon in our series Acts: How God Builds His Church. I taught from Acts 1:1-9. You can view the sermon here or listen to it here. 

The Kingdom of God and Heaven 

He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. Acts 1:3

I used to think that the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Heaven were synonymous with my idea of Heaven. Which, my idea of Heaven used to be this otherworldly, spiritual place that we would go to after we die. When I was younger, I even thought that Heaven was located somewhere in our spacetime universe. Or, to put it simply, I actually believed that Heaven was somewhere “up there” in the clouds or in the sky. 

I have found that the Scriptures talk about the Kingdom of Heaven/God and even Heaven itself a little differently. When Jesus taught about the Kingdom of Heaven, he was not primarily talking about the place we go to when we die. He was talking about the rule and reign of a good, just, loving, beautiful God being realized and actualized in and through the life of the community of God’s people. 

Dallas Willard, in his book The Divine Conspiracy, says it like this: 

Because of so much misunderstanding on this particular point, we must reemphasize that in speaking of the kingdom of the heavens being “at hand,” Jesus was not speaking of something that was about to happen but had not yet happened and might not….

…The reality of God’s rule, and all of the instrumentalities it involves, is present in action and available with and through the person of Jesus. That is Jesus’ gospel. The obvious present reality of the kingdom is what provoked the responses we have just discussed. New Testament passages make plain that this kingdom is not something to be “accepted” now and enjoyed later, but something to be entered now (Matt. 5:20; 18:3; John 3:3, 5). It is something that already has flesh-and-blood citizens (John 18:36; Phil. 3:20) who have been transformed into it (Col. 1:13) and are fellow workers in it (Col. 4:11).

 Willard, D. The Divine Conspiracy. (p. 28)

This is important for us to understand because it shifts our focus. I have heard some state it this way, “The primary focus is not about how to get to heaven when you die, but the primary focus is about how to get the life of heaven into you in the here and now.” The first notion focuses on escaping this awful world to eternal bliss. The second focuses on participating in the transformation of this world. The latter, I believe, is much more consistent with Jesus’ message. 

I also believe this is important for us to understand the meaning and significance the Ascension. Without this understanding, the Ascension seems like a bizarre and unbelievable myth. Luke tells us that Jesus was taken up and hidden by a cloud.

The idea that Jesus was taken up to Heaven in a cloud corresponded to their understanding of the heavens. We know that if you get in a spaceship and launch into space, you will not find or access “heaven.” But, for the disciples, Jesus’ ascension symbolized God’s raising Jesus to the place of authority by seating him at the right hand of the throne in heaven. The cloud would have called to mind the cloud that led the Israelites by day (Exodus 13:21) and enveloped the tabernacle in the Exodus story (Exodus 40:34-35), and the cloud that filled the Temple (1 Kings 8:10-11). In each of these instances the cloud represented the presence and glory of God. In other words, the ascension is meant to affirm that Jesus is the Messiah and has all authority on heaven and earth. 

Sunday I shared segments of a longer quote from my favorite theologian and New Testament Scholar, N. T. Wright. The full quote is below and says what I am trying to say much better: 

Heaven is God’s space, which intersects with our space but transcends it. It is, if you like, a further dimension of our world, not a place far removed at one extreme of our world. It is all around us, glimpsed in a mystery in every Eucharist and every act of generous human love. We are reminded of it by the beauty of the created order, which in its very transience points beyond itself to the fuller beauty which is God’s own beauty, and which he intends one day to bring to birth, as we say so frequently, ‘on earth as it is in heaven.’

The Christian hope is not, then, despite popular impressions, that we will simply ‘go to heaven when we die.’ As far as it goes, that statement is all right; after death those who love God will be with him, will be in his dimension. But the final Christian hope is that the two dimensions, heaven and earth, at present separated by a veil of invisibility caused by human rebellion, will be united together, so that there will be new heavens and a new earth. Heaven isn’t, therefore, an escapist dream, to be held out as a carrot to make people better behaved; just as God isn’t an absentee landlord who looks down from a great height to see what his tenants are doing and to tell them they mustn’t. Heaven is the extra dimension, the God-dimension, of all our present reality; and the God who lives there is present to us, present with us, sharing our joys and our sorrows, longing as we are longing for the day when his whole creation, heaven and earth together, will perfectly reflect his love, his wisdom, his justice, and his peace.

The ascension of Jesus, then, is his going, not way beyond the stars, but into this space, this dimension. Notice what this does to our notion of heaven. The Jesus who has gone there is the human Jesus. People sometimes talk as if Jesus started off just being divine, then stopped being divine and became human, then stopped being human and went back to being divine again. That is precisely what the ascension rules out.

The Jesus who has gone, now, into God’s dimension, until the time when the veil is lifted and God’s multidimensional reality is brought together in all its glory, is the human Jesus. He bears human flesh, and the marks of the man-made nails and spear, to this day, as he lives within God’s dimension, not far away but as near to us as breath itself.

 Wright, N. T. Following Jesus. (p. 100-101)

The Ascension is not a fairytale about Jesus going up into out space because heaven is “up there.” The Ascension is about Jesus being exulted to the throne of heaven thereby declaring that God has vindicated him. Or, in other words, the Ascension validates and affirms that Jesus is God’s Messiah. The Ascension is also Jesus going to the dimension of heaven. The heavenly realm is a veiled reality right beside the one we call the physical world. As N. T. Wright points out, the future hope is not for us to have disembodied souls that exist in a spiritual realm for all eternity. Jesus’ resurrected body is the first-fruit of God’s New Creation endeavor and affirms that one day the Heavenly dimension will be united with the (new) earthly dimension. 

Lastly, Jesus’ Ascension affirms that the disciples were ready to carry on the mission of God by being ambassadors for the Kingdom of God. The were to go into all the world and set up outposts of the Kingdom. Places where hope and healing and redemption come alive by the Spirit of God.

By His Power

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you… Acts 1:8

In the OT, when the Persian Empire conquered the Babylonians, the Persians allowed the people groups that the Babylonians had taken captive to return to their homelands. During this time, a number of Jews returned to Israel. The Babylonians had destroyed the Temple and decimated the city wall. The first wave of returning Jews started the work of rebuilding the Temple, but they faced opposition and grew complacent.

The prophets Zechariah and Haggai came on the scene and called on the their people to complete the work of the Temple. Zechariah inspired the people to complete their work by proclaiming the day when God’s future King would establish an eternal Kingdom. Zechariah 4:6 says “It is not by force nor by strength, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies” that he would accomplish the rebuilding of the Temple.** 

The Temple was believed to be the space where God’s actual presence could be encountered. The rebuilding of the Temple, Zechariah says will be accomplished by the power of His Spirit. Luke is emphasizing in Acts that now, God through his spirit will indwell a new temple—us! God will accomplish the renewal of all things by the power of His Spirit alive in His people! 

This foreshadows Acts 2, where wind and fire will dramatically fill the room where the disciples were staying on the day of Pentecost. Smoke and fire and thunder and clouds were all symbolic manifestations of God’s powerful presence in the Old Testament at Sinai (Exodus 19:16-19) and the Tabernacle in the wilderness (Exodus 40:34-38). Luke intentionally highlights that “They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them” (Acts 2:3). The real presence of God was no longer simply filling a space build by human hands with limited access. Rather, the real presence of God and all the glory that comes with it was filling the creation of his hands—humanity. That is what is meant by Paul’s teaching, “Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).

All this, He accomplishes this by his Spirit. 

Other Notes:

** The first wave of Jews returning to Israel were led by Zerubbabel in 538 BC. Daniel remained in the Persian Empire and his story briefly overlapped Israel’s return (Daniel was a prophet from approximately 605-535 BC and served in the Babylonian Empire and the Persian Empire). Zechariah and Haggai helped inspire the people to finish rebuilding the Temple. Esther was a queen in the Persian Empire around 479 BC. Ezra helped ignite a spiritual revival in Israel around 458 BC. Joel and Malachi were prophets shortly after this time. Nehemiah led the rebuilding of the wall surrounding the city of Jerusalem in 455 BC. 

Reflections on News and Media

Since I am on vacation, I have been mostly disconnected from the news and somewhat disconnected from social media. I am saddened by what I am reading concerning the shooting that took place in Buffalo, NY. 

There’s so much that can be said, but I want to avoid saying anything that is unwise or that would provoke a social media debate—they’re usually unhelpful. 

What my “pastor’s heart” does want to say is something about what we are being discipled by. 

There are polluted water sources on both sides of the political and cultural spectrum with some very dangerous, hateful, and evil ideologies. Extremist beliefs exist on both sides of the spectrum. 

We need to be careful about the stream we are drinking our ideologies from. Some of the ideologies seem like they are miles away from the “polluted waters,” and perhaps they are, but some of the ideologies are still streams coming from a very polluted source. We need to sift through our ideologies and biases. 

I took a class on communication in seminary. We studied how rhetoric and propaganda work together to instill and incite dehumanizing viewpoints of “those people.”

I have observed news sources *on both sides* craft their article titles, structure their sentences, and select video snippets in very intentional ways. (This is why I will read articles from diverse sources as I look for the corroborating facts not just the particular spin and bias of one source). Often, the goal is to incite fear or provoke outrage. This is very intentional, my friends. And, it is working. People are extremely polarized, often based on ideological differences and beliefs that have been planted by….news media. 

So, here are some pastoral recommendations for the Jesus follower: 

Is the news media you consume causing you to be more at peace or more fearful? 

More loving and compassionate and forgiving and empathetic and gracious towards those who are different from you or more frustrated, enraged, and hateful? 

If the media you consume is continually creating frustration towards a particular group of people, I can assure you it is not helping you to love God and people more fully. Outrage is not a fruit of the Spirit. 

Perhaps it would be beneficial to limit some of the news we consume? Perhaps it would be helpful to take a fast from certain sources? Or, at least, maybe it would be beneficial to make sure we are being discipled as much by the words of Jesus as we are the words of whatever our favorite news anchor might be? 

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

The Good, Bad, and Ugly

I am on vacation at the moment. We have the privilege of staying at a resort with several pools and even a “water park.” The water park is not spectacular, but it has a nice section for the kids to play in. Even though the water is shallow enough in the water playground area, we keep an eye on our kids. Why? Not for fear that they will drown, but out of concern that they could be taken. While the likelihood of this happening is somewhat small, it is never completely out of the mind of a parent. 

We also have a rental car. Someone told us to take our guest pass for the resort out of our window when we park offsite. Why? Because, apparently, some people will damage or deface rental vehicles for the sheer fun of it. Perhaps this is hearsay and the likelihood of this happening is small, but we still take the precaution. 

While here, we went to one of those resort spiels where they try to sell you a vacation package. We were in it for the “gift” they give you just for coming to the presentation. We went into it with a large amount of skepticism and jadedness. Why? Because we have been hoodwinked and swindled and scammed before. 

What all of these cautious behaviors reveal is something we all know: people are capable of doing bad things and can not be trusted. 

On the other hand, I have also encountered the goodness of other people. I have watched as people have graciously and kindly interacted with my kids even though they had every reason to find my kids annoying. I had someone help me with the cart at Aldi the other day. It was a small act, but it was a small act of generosity. There’s just something about an act of generosity no matter how large or small that lifts my soul. I have seen people rally together to help strangers, pay-it-forward in a drive through line, and seek to make a profound difference through charitable giving. 

All this affirms another thing we all know to be true: people are capable of doing good and beautiful and loving and generous things. 

Herein lies the paradox of the human condition: We have a sense of right and wrong and there is a tension within us between this thing we call “right or wrong.”

At the moment I do not want to engage the debate that these moral sensibilities are culturally and socially constructed. There is truth to the observation that our social, cultural, and even historical contexts shape the parameters surrounding what is right and wrong. However, there is a sense of right and wrong that transcends those parameters. We may define the boundaries differently, but we would all affirm that there are wrong, harmful, hurtful, destructive, dangerous, immoral, unjust, selfish, hateful ways to be and act and think. 

The ugly truth is this: Each of us has the capacity to contribute to what we would call “evil” in the world. Dallas Willard, in his book Renovation of the Heart, writes, “Denial—usually in the form of rationalization—is the primary device that humans use to deal with their own wrongness.”

We are really quick to be enraged by the injustices committed against us or our cause, but we are equally as quick to rationalize our own mistakes. I’ll give you a simple example. Have you ever been cut off in traffic? Or, has anyone ever almost hit you because they were not paying attention or were simply driving carelessly? How angry did you become in those instances? I have been utterly beside myself at times that someone could drive with such selfish disregard for the other drivers on the road. I ascribe a moral standing for such drivers: they are evil people who don’t care about others. Selfish jerks. That’s who they are. The problem with this is that I have often made some really bad driving mistakes myself. A couple have resulted in an accident or two. Am I a selfish jerk? Of course not. I just wasn’t paying attention. It was an accident—a completely innocent error in my driving.

I am sure you have never judged someone else more harshly than you have judged yourself for the same error. I am sure you are completely unbiased in your judgments right? Maybe you are…but I am not. I always have “my side of the story.”

Sin, Wretchedness, and Why I Think Some Preachers Are Wrong

Some Christians preach at people about how evil and sinful they are and how much they need to repent in a way that comes across as self-righteous and judgmental. To acknowledge that there is something wrong with the human heart is one thing. To tell others that something is wrong with their heart and not your own because you have all the right beliefs and you’re “saved” now but they’re going to a place called hell is off putting because it creates a separation. It creates a hierarchy that makes a distinction between the sinful person and the saved person in a way that doesn’t begin with solidarity. It doesn’t seem to come from a place of genuine love because the starting point is a place of separation. 

This divide is further illustrated when some people seem to delight in the idea that people are wretches and filthy and moral scum. I have heard some (this is a key word here) preachers rant about the “world” with so much disdain in their voice that I can hardly conceive that they have any ounce of love for people who do not believe the way they do. They appeal to Scriptures that certainly do speak against what I like to clarify as the way of the world in contrast to the way of the Kingdom. The problem isn’t that what they say is incompatible with the Scriptures. The Pharisees were not saying things that were incompatible with the Scriptures in Jesus’ day. They were missing the heart of God. 

The notion that God views people this way— that God is so Holy and pure that he can hardly stand to look upon the vile state of humanity, that God can hardly stomach the sight of our broken filth, that humanity is a stench to Gods nostrils—is to theologically deny the significance of humanity being created in the image of God and to fail to recognize the significance of the Incarnation. God took on flesh—God entered into the human condition and both affirmed the goodness of humanity and redeemed the brokenness that has plagued humanity. I would argue that the image of God is broken in humanity but not destroyed. I would further argue that God is consumed with love for humanity not disgust. 

Is he Holy? Yes. Is holiness incompatible with our fallen sinfulness? Yes…but…the incompatibility is not fundamentally rooted in a legalistic and random and authoritarian view of holiness. The incompatibility is about the difference between love and hate, forgiveness and revenge, reconciliation and resentment, life and death. God is holy and because he is holy, his heart is shaped by perfect love for humanity. 

To talk to people about sin in a way that induces shame is harmful. Shame can psychologically damage people and many a religious folks have been responsible for causing shame. Some have been well-intentioned while others are what Jesus would call “white washed tombs” and “vipers.” Shaming people and painting God’s heart as being predominately shaped by his justice and wrath and anger is…wrong. Can biblical arguments be made to support such beliefs? Sure. Again, the Pharisees had some pretty solid “Torah/Biblical” arguments for why they thought Jesus was a fraud. Hindsight tells us they missed it. 

So, telling people they are filthy wretches that God can’t stand is not helpful. 

However, the opposite extreme is just as unhelpful. To deny that we are capable of great evil and a frightening degree of selfishness is to deny the obvious. We are capable of constructing within ourselves a habitat for resentment and bitterness to grow, even thrive. Our appetites and desires are capable of being captivated and addicted to things that literally destroy every aspect of who we are: our physical bodies, our relationships, our mental health, and our spiritual selves. We are capable of using our incredible capacity to learn and create and invent to develop nuclear weapons that could potentially end our own existence. Most of us tend to think that evil is something those people would do and that our own potential for evil is somehow self-limited. We would never do ________________. 

Yet, I know that I am not, at times, the “me” I want to be. I know that the root cause of some of the evil I see out there is in me. I know that the resentment inside of me comes from the same tree that hate comes from. I know my unchecked lust, my manipulative selfishness, and my unforgiveness will not lead to me being the sort of person—husband, father, friend, Jesus-follower, pastor, son, brother, etc.—I want to be. What is worse, I know that if it goes unchecked it will become like a cancerous disease that will kill my soul. The Christian tradition calls these things “sin” and sin is not benign.

Concrete and Clay

The Scriptures talk about a “hardened heart.” I was thinking about the idea of a hardened heart the other day. The image of concrete came to mind. When the concrete mix is combined with water, it is very pliable, almost completely fluid—moldable. The other image of pottery clay came to mind. I don’t know much about pottery clay. I know it can be molded and shaped. But, both concrete and clay eventually solidify. At which point, the shape and structure is set. The concrete or clay hardens. 

In Renovation of the Heart, Dallas Willard suggests that all humans undergo “spiritual formation.” The spiritual part of their personhood is formed by a number of cumulative experiences and choices. The question is not whether or not persons are formed. The question is what kind of person are we becoming. How are we being shaped? The problem is that we are, to a degree, shaped by the things that happen to us by no choice of our own. Meaning, we are shaped, sometimes profoundly so, by the wrong things done against us and to us. We are victims of the sins of others. 

Yet, the sad and unfair reality of this is that we have a choice concerning how we will respond to the wounds others have inflicted. When we respond with revenge or bitterness or resentment, it deforms our souls. On top of this, we are not perfect which means we have hurt others with our own sinful choices. 

We are both victim and perpetrator; the oppressed and the oppressor. 

The other sad reality of all this is that our souls seem to be formable, pliable, moldable. But, it would seem there is a point at which our souls or our hearts can become hardened. Solidified. Our souls can take on a certain shape and there is no way to return to an earlier state of pliability without the solidified shape being destroyed. I would suggest that a hard heart is not the normal state of a human being created in God’s image. A hardened heart is a heart that has allowed a certain callousness towards love and grace and forgiveness to set, cure, and solidify. 

I think there is a difference between a wounded heart, a deformed heart, a sinful heart, and a hardened heart. The wounded heart can be healed. A deformed heart can be reformed. A sinful heart can be atoned for. A hardened heart… a hardened heart has to be broken up and broken down. I am speaking metaphorically. I am not suggesting that heartbreak must come to the hardened heart—although heartbreak may be part of the journey. I am simply saying that the shape the heart has taken on must be demolished in order for a new shape to be re-formed in its place. 

I am also suggesting that none of us would want for our hearts to harden in a state of resentment, hate, prejudice, unforgiveness, anger, selfishness, etc. The only way to avoid this inevitability is to recognize when we are on the path to allowing our hearts to solidify into a state of deformation and turn around. Go a different way. The Scriptures call this repentance. 

Repentance and Love. 

Let’s review: 

I don’t believe it is helpful to tell people how wicked they are and how much God can’t stand them. Not only do I think it is unhelpful, I think it completely misses the heart of God by subjugating his extravagant love (an essential part of his nature) to his justice and wrath. 

At the same time, I do not think it is helpful or true to say that humanity is basically good and if we were just enlightened enough and made a few more technological advances and even, possibly, eradicated the primitive idea of religion, everything would just be a jolly good time. 

There is something off in the human heart and the scary thing is that whatever it is, it can solidify our character. 

This is where the Good News comes in. The Gospel is fundamentally about a reconciled relationship with a God who is utterly good and is love. He is not simply loving. He is love. 

The good news is that this God’s heart is for you. He wants for your good, but unlike him, your soul is not comprised of the Divine, unchanging nature. You are changeable. Moldable. Your soul can be formed… or, deformed by what you worship. Or, in other words, by what you surrender your affections to. 

Your soul is formed by what you have given your affections to, and there are some things we have given our affections to that enslave us. Substance addiction is the most overt display of this truth, but it is not somehow more immoral or bad. It just has more observable consequences. There are other things that are not as observable but are every bit as destructive to our souls. 

The response, in part, is to repent. To recognize we do not want to continue heading in the direction we are heading. But, the turn around is not just about heading in a more positive direction. It is not merely meditating more and recycling more and seeing a life coach. Although, all of those things are good and helpful. The invitation of Jesus is to turn to him and find there that the God of the universe is fundamentally good and gracious and forgiving and loving. When you turn to this God and give your affections to this God, you will be shaped by this God who in his essence is good. 

Now, there are all sorts of questions about whether this God is good that come up at this point… and, I get where those questions come from. I get that there are some things in the Bible that don’t seem good. I get that there are some people who claim to worship this God and in the name of this God have done horrible things. Perhaps even to you.

The truth is, I can’t adequately answer all the questions some people have. I just know that I am captivated by Jesus and that following his Way leads to that which is life-giving. I know that when I take seriously my discipleship/apprenticeship/followership of Jesus, I am more likely to participate in the healing of the world around me rather than contribute to the brokenness around me. 

I also know that Jesus promised the Holy Spirit. Jesus promised that His Spirit could abide, or take up residence, in our hearts. His Spirit would empower his followers to do the things he calls them to do. Now, I believe the Holy Spirit can and does empower and gift believers to do what some would define as the miraculous, but I believe it is always for the purpose of manifesting hope and healing for the glory of God. Empowerment from the Spirit is not so much about supernatural displays as it is about transforming us to be the sort of people who contribute to the healing of the world. Or, as Jesus taught us to pray: to seeing things come to pass on earth as in heaven. 

I know for me, I feel that I am so far behind the curve on my understanding of the person and work of the Holy Spirit. I feel that I need to experience more of the Spirit’s presence and empowerment in my life in order to speak to it. That said, I know the Spirit has transformed me to care about people I otherwise would not, to forgive—to want to forgive not just begrudgingly forgive—people who have hurt me, to have compassion and empathy and a desire to understand people different from me, to want to be generous, and even to love others more fully. 

Don’t get me wrong. I can still be incredibly selfish. But, I know there are new desires in me to love like Jesus. At this point in my faith journey, I am not so much concerned about being a Christian in any religious sense as I am concerned about following Jesus. I want to live the way of Jesus, and, what I am finding, is that as I do and as I allow the Spirit to work more freely in my life, I am formed into a person who is shaped by love and grace. 

I don’t know about you, but that is the shape I want my heart to take on. I want for my heart to solidify in a shape that looks like Jesus. 

Hey Dad, I Love You and Jesus Does Too

I grew up with our family going to church. We were very blessed too. My dad worked for the Chrysler Foundry in Indianapolis as a certified electrician. He often worked overtime hours, but he worked those hours to provide a certain standard of living for his family. To be honest, I am thankful for that, but we cared more about him than the stuff and the house and the material comforts. 

He worked long hours, but we took two week family vacations almost every summer. Our family vacations stand in my memory as some of the best times we ever spent together as a family. My parents go into the whole timeshare thing so we would stay at these condo-like resorts wherever we went. We went to Branson, MO; Orlando, FL; Palm Springs, CA; Sedona, AZ; Washington D. C.; Williamsburg, VA; and a host of other places. I have seen the Grand Canyon, Yosemite Falls, the great Sequoia trees, the National Monuments in D.C., and a number of theme parks in Orlando. All of these experience were truly remarkable, but the time we spent together as a family sharing those experiences is what I will always cherish. 

When I was heading into high school, dad found out that the Chrysler plant was going to be shutting down. For a number of reasons, this significantly rocked his world and consequently ours. He took a lot of pride in providing for his family. He made good money and built a good life. I think he felt like if all that came crashing down, it would mean he failed us or something. I don’t know for sure if that is what it was, but whatever it was, it triggered something inside him that exposed a host of other wounds and hurts and shortcomings. 

My dad turned to alcohol to cope and eventually to numb his disillusioned pain and shame. It got a hold on him. He would sabotage himself, deceive those he most loved, and contrive of ways to get a drink. When he did, he would become less of his true self. 

This reality, unfortunately, comes with a lot of judgments and assumptions on the part of other people. To be an alcoholic, to be an addict, to be so obviously broken is looked down upon in our world. Within the church, addiction is often judged and misunderstood. Outside the church, it is not much better. 

I can’t tell my story or my dad’s story without including the other character in the story—alcohol. There is hurt in my story. There are memories of my dad and his addiction that are not the best and that are painful. But, one of the things I want for people to know is that he was not somehow exceptionally sinful or immoral or weak in comparison to anyone else. 

What I came to realize is that he was broken. The truth is, I do not know all the sources of his wounds, but my dad was wounded somewhere deep in himself. From my vantage point, one of his deepest wounds was his shame. He carried a deep amount of shame for all the ways he felt like he let people down.

At times, it seemed that he would get to a place of being so ashamed of himself that he nearly hated himself. He would numb the pain with alcohol, but then the alcohol would cause him to let people down even more. Which, in turn, simply fueled the shame. A vicious cycle emerges. 

My dad was so deeply sorry for how alcohol had consumed him. He was sorry to my mom, he was sorry to me and Victoria, he was sorry to Chris, he was sorry to his parents, and he was sorry to Jesus. He tried several times to get past it. He would try to go all out on spiritual disciplines—reading devotionals, watching sermons, going to Bible study. He tried. Shame would hunt him down. I believe something dark, the one Christians call the “enemy” and the Scriptures call the “Accuser,” took every single one of his failures and played it on repeat in his head. He couldn’t seem to get past his failures. So he tried, but he often relapsed.   

Some, I fear, may look at his life and see someone who was too weak, too sinful, or too lazy to take ownership for his own healing. To be sure, my dad did try, but, he could have and perhaps should have done more. But, regardless, my years in ministry and my own growth as a person has taught me that my dad was not different than any other person. He was a broken person who had been hurt by other broken people and in turn responded in broken ways. His struggle was different in regard to the specifics, but not in regard to nature. 

In the book Addiction and Grace, Gerald May levels the playing field of addictions by talking about the process of attachment. Attachments can be anything that captivates our affections, and they become addictions when they consume our affections. Essentially, work or performance or food or exercise or any other number of seemingly innocent things could become an attachment or an addiction. In that way, a number of people have “addictions.” Any of us, no matter how religious we think we are, are capable of allowing other things to consume and hijack our affections. It’s just that some of our attachments (my regular morning coffee perhaps…) are more socially acceptable and less destructive. 

My point is that we are sometimes quick to think more highly of ourselves than we ought, and less highly of others with certain obvious hangups than we should. 

So, I can’t tell my story with out talking about my dad’s addiction, but I want people to know I did not see who my dad was as a person through the lens of his addiction. 

Jesus told a parable in Luke 15 about two sons. There is a Father with two sons. The youngest one comes and demands for his share of his inheritance to be given to him. The audacity of this younger son’s demand in that culture would have been extremely offensive. The Father has no obligation to give the son what he wants, but he does. 

The son liquidates his newly acquired assets and left for a distant country. Essentially expressing his desire to be disconnected from his father’s family in every way. Luke 15:13 it says,  “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living.” The son squandered it. Hear me, I am saying this as a matter of fact not as a judgment: my dad squandered some of the things he had been given. 

The story doesn’t end there though. The son finds himself in a desperate situation because he was out of money and no one would help him. He decides that he will go home, apologize to his father, and request to be his servant. He recognizes he has damaged his relationship with his father and truly believes he is barely worthy to be a servant. 

The Message version reads in Luke 15:20-24: 

“When he was still a long way off, his father saw him. His heart pounding, he ran out, embraced him, and kissed him. The son started his speech: ‘Father, I’ve sinned against God, I’ve sinned before you; I don’t deserve to be called your son ever again.’

“But the father wasn’t listening. He was calling to the servants, ‘Quick. Bring a clean set of clothes and dress him. Put the family ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Then get a prize-winning heifer and roast it. We’re going to feast! We’re going to have a wonderful time! My son is here—given up for dead and now alive! Given up for lost and now found!’ And they began to have a wonderful time.”

The Father in the story responds to his son’s return with extravagant love and the robe, signet ring, and sandals for his feet are all symbols meant to emphatically declare that he is not unworthy but rather he is a beloved son. 

That picture is how I believe God saw my dad. The night dad passed I prayed that Jesus would take him by the hand and walk him from life to life. I also asked, knowing Jesus would already, that he give my dad the embrace his soul has longed for his whole life. 

Brennan Manning wrote in the Ragamuffin Gospel, 

“Because salvation is by grace through faith, I believe that among the countless number of people standing in front of the throne and in front of the Lamb, dressed in white robes and holding palms in their hands (see Revelation 7:9), I shall see the prostitute from the Kit-Kat Ranch in Carson City, Nevada, who tearfully told me that she could find no other employment to support her two-year-old son. I shall see the woman who had an abortion and is haunted by guilt and remorse but did the best she could faced with grueling alternatives; the businessman besieged with debt who sold his integrity in a series of desperate transactions; the insecure clergyman addicted to being liked, who never challenged his people from the pulpit and longed for unconditional love; the sexually abused teen molested by his father and now selling his body on the street, who, as he falls asleep each night after his last ‘trick’, whispers the name of the unknown God he learned about in Sunday school.

‘But how?’ we ask.

Then the voice says, ‘They have washed their robes and have made them white in the blood of the Lamb.’

There they are. There *we* are – the multitude who so wanted to be faithful, who at times got defeated, soiled by life, and bested by trials, wearing the bloodied garments of life’s tribulations, but through it all clung to faith. 

My friends, if this is not good news to you, you have never understood the gospel of grace.” 

While I did not see my dad experience the transformation and freedom that I would have wanted him to have in this life, he was an indelible part of my transformation. My dad helped me  see that I am just as broken as he is and he helped me come to see other people in their brokenness with a lens of grace and compassion. The relationship with my dad also taught me how important forgiveness is—unforgiveness is a like a cancer to our souls. We have to forgive others and, we have to learn to accept God’s forgiveness for ourselves. 

I told my grandma a couple of months ago that, “Dad is a ragamuffin, but he is God’s ragamuffin.” (For the record, we are all ragamuffins in our own right.) As my dad lay in the hospice bed, sedated and on a trajectory of death, my heart was frequently overcome with compassion and a deep sense that God really loves him. “Abba” was so fond of him. My dad just struggled to believe he was worth it. It is ok though. The Father’s love is not determined by our capacity to understand it. God was fond of him. 

I want people to know that that is how I saw him. I also want people to know that I desired to live out these values of grace, compassion and forgiveness, but I did not always do it well. There were times I responded to my disappointment and frustration in ways that were not gracious. I responded out of my own brokenness at times. My hope is that, even in the midst of it, my dad knew I loved him and that I forgave him. 

There was a guy my dad knew who was struggling with addiction. I think he was a little younger than my dad, but my dad wanted to help him. He would pick him up on Sunday mornings so that they could watch the live stream of our church’s service together. I preach a lot about grace, and his friend was encouraged by one message in particular. My dad told me that this guy had been in jail and had a few volunteer chaplains tell him things like, “God only hears our prayers when we kneel to pray…” or “God can’t forgive someone who’s lived a life like you have…” and things of that nature. Which, for the record, is complete garbage. However, this only further intensified the shame this guy felt. My dad told me that he explained to him that Jesus died for his sins because he loved him. He doesn’t have to pay for his sins because Jesus already did. God loved him so much. 

Dad, God loved you so much and he paid for your sins so you wouldn’t have to. I know you are whole now. You are loved and will be missed. 

—

Some Memories I shared with him in a letter in November 2021: 

• I remember when Victoria and I would fight, one of your wisdom sayings was that “Family is all you got in this world.” The lesson imparted was that Victoria and I were family and we needed to learn to love one another. I think we turned out ok. 
• I learned very early that I was not to ever hit my sister and that I was to protect, look out for, and honor her. 
• I first heard the saying, “A man is as good as his word” from you. I place a high value on honesty and follow through to this day.
• You have always been consistent with affirming my value. You often remind me that you love me and you are proud of me. I have tried to continue that practice with my own children. 
• I always enjoyed the times you entered into my world and did things with me/us. Like playing the Joshua video game on the SEGA, playing H-O-R-S-E at Roger’s with me and one of my friends, getting on the water rides at Universal, swimming in the pool at home or on vacation, taking us fishing, or watching movies with us. 
• One of my fondest memories is when you and I went to the Ford F-150 show in Gatlinburg, TN. We left before the sun and went just the two of us. 
• One of my funny, somewhat embarrassing memories is when we went fishing off the pier and dropped the pole in the ocean. I thought I was a good fisherman… I learned that day that I had a lot to learn. 
• I remember one time I asked you to draw one of my Batman toys and you sat at the kitchen table and drew it. Your airbrush pictures were also a favorite of mine when I was a kid. Knowing you were good at drawing helped me have confidence in my own abilities. 
• I also loved when you would cook, creating something full of flavor and different from the usual. I have a similar ability to throw some things together and create something that tastes pretty good. It is usually not ever very healthy but… it’s good. 
• It goes without saying that my love for motorcycles is your fault. 
• I loved the Grandmas cookies that you brought home. I also remember that you often communicated your love by giving gifts. When we were little it was often a stuffed animal that we didn’t need, but it was your way of showing your love.
• We always won the fundraiser competition at school thanks to your selling the goods at Chrysler. 
• Family vacations, Florida, Universal Studios, the Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Williamsburg, Gatlinburg, Louisville, Branson—our family vacations are some of my most favorite memories I hold. I know your working the job and hours you did was part of making our vacations possible. 
• I didn’t fully understand your schooling and electrician training, but I was proud of it. I understood enough to know that it was an important job and took a lot of work to achieve that position. 
• I was really proud of the work you did with the Car Show at Grace. It was always a really fun event. 
• You have a soft heart towards other people. Especially people who need help. I believe my empathy is partially a reflection of your own. 

Other random memories that came after his passing: 

• One time we were visiting mom and dad, dad was going to go over to grandma and grandpa Cottrell’s and I wanted to go over to say “hi.” Titus wanted to go too, so he hopped in the back of dad’s care. While driving the couple couple hundred feet from dad’s driveway to grandma and grandpa’s, Titus just randomly says, “Grandpa, I love you.” 
• When dad was working in Ohio, I called him to ask for help for changing the breaks myself on my car. I do not have a ton of mechanical knowledge, but he coached me over the phone and I successfully changed my own break pads. 
• In my recent adult life, he has owned a couple of motorcycles. He always let me and even encouraged me to take them for a ride. Some of them were the really big dresser bikes, so I always took them out for spin with a degree of trepidation. 
• He used to take Victoria and I fishing. There were a couple of ponds of some of his friends he would take us to. 
• One time I drew a portrait of a basketball player. He was so proud and impressed he took it up to the Wilbur Corner Shop and who knows where else in our neck of the woods showing it off.
• When I started playing guitar he encouraged this endeavor. He took me to used guitar stores and helped me learn how to look for certain qualities besides the color of the finish. 
• Before 2020, he was going to a Saturday morning Men’s Bible Study. A couple of times when we were down to visit he invited me to go. I went 2-3 times and I am so very thankful for those times now. 

Somethings Not Right

I know this post will trigger some reactions in people. I don’t say that to be dramatic. I just know people are capable of finding reason to disagree with just about anything. I mean, there are some people in this world that do not like chocolate! 

I suppose I will make the request that suspend your judgement and criticism of what I say until you read the post in it’s entirety.

I am going begin with simply sharing stories. Not research facts. Not political talking points. Just stories. 

I spoke on the phone with a mom who has a son that is immunocompromised. They have taken a pretty cautious approach in regards to COVID. She shared about the open house they hosted for their other son last summer. They requested that the friends they invited wear masks. I could hear the grief, betrayal, and pain in her voice as she shared that they essentially lost most of their friends over that request because most of them were militantly anti-mask. The grief was compounded by the fact that many of those people were fellow believers. 

I spoke with an older gentlemen—in his seventies—earlier in the pandemic who shared that people’s refusal to wear masks out of concern for people in his situation communicated a lack of compassion. The “people” he was mostly referring to were other Christians. 

I have watched as a friend of mine who serves as a chaplain in a larger hospital has advocated for precautions and vaccines. His immediate context is this: he sees exhausted health care workers who are currently frustrated that a majority of their COVID patients are unvaccinated. I want to take a parenthetical moment to say: I realize and understand that people’s reasons for not getting the vaccine are diverse and complex and nuanced. I am simply sharing that his advocacy and his own exhaustion is shaped by his daily experience. Agree or disagree, some empathy could be extended. 

I know another mom who works in a hospital who has been assaulted with anxiety as she has seen an increase in COVID patients. Her concern is for our children who are not yet old enough to get the vaccine. Again, her perspective is no doubt shaped by her daily experience, but the truth is this: each of our perspectives are shaped by our experiences. None of us are completely objective and unbiased. 

I know believers who spoke with pride about defiantly refusing to wear a mask in a department store. Eventually, after forcing an employee to simply do their job by enforcing the company policy, they complied. 

I spoke with two gentlemen on separate occasions, who were part of the generation ahead of mine, who articulated a change in their views. They shared about how they are increasingly unable to identify with the conservative politics they have long affirmed. One of the men actually was involved in politics working for a conservative congressman. Both shared about how their encounters with the stories from people of color challenged their previous views because the stories of some people just didn’t fit nice and neatly with their pat answers and political rhetoric. They both see that racial issues are nuanced and complex. One of them has four adopted children—none of them are white. 

I spoke with a pastor who shared about an illegal immigrant in his church. He has an associate’s degree, but couldn’t find work in his country. He has been in the US for almost two decades I believe. He has a wife and four children. But now, he is in serious danger of being deported, leaving his wife and four kids behind. Should he have come here illegally? No. Do I believe it is congruent with the love of Jesus to heartlessly advocate his deportation? No. I also find it incredibly hypocritical for people to matter of factly demand an immigrant follow immigration laws—regardless of the circumstances they are fleeing from—while simultaneously advocating people defy government mandates about masks and such. 

I have watched as friends of mine have advocated something as basic as having compassion for the poor or the immigrant, and I watched their comment threads blow up with hateful arguments and political tropes surrounding the issues. 

I have watched as Western, American Christians cry “persecution” because they were mandated to not meet in person during a global pandemic. Pay no heed to the fact that during the same time college basketball and other sports, theaters, music concerts, and Hollywood movies themselves were also put on hold or cancelled. It is targeted persecution towards conservative Christians! Meanwhile, halfway across the globe, Christians are actually losing their lives for their faith. 

I watched a clip from a video podcast where someone advocating capitalism literally denied that individuals should have primary concern about the well-being of the greater community. The individual comes first and then, and only if they desire and only if they have a surplus, should they turn their attention towards others. I hope I don’t have to point out that this logic is completely incompatible with Jesus who washes feet and dies the death others deserve. 

I’ve Been Sad

I know you can find a pastor on social media who will go on an angry rant about the world, the liberal media, Marxists, and Dr. Seuss books. I know you can find a meme that makes people who would disagree with you sound stupid. I know there are articles and experts and research data out there than corroborate and support your view—regardless of which view it is… there’s “facts” out there for any side of the coin it would seem. I know there are pastors who will rant about the wussification of America and about how pastors who closed their churches lack a backbone. 

I’m not that pastor. I am not going to use my influence to rile people up into an angry frenzy over CRT and government mandates. 

Here is why: I am much more concerned about the heart posture of people who claim to be Jesus followers than I am about the world apart from Christ acting like the world apart from Christ. 

It appears that many Jesus followers think the point of being a Christian is for us to be on the “winning side” rather than about being last and losing our lives (Matthew 20:16; Matthew 10:39). 

I have been grieved to watch people who claim to be Jesus followers post things on social media about other human beings that rips apart the other person’s dignity? Why are dehumanizing things posted about other people? Because they represent the “other side.” Have we forgotten that flesh and blood is not the enemy (Ephesians 6:12) and that our pro-life position is built on the conviction that all people are created in the image of God? 

Have we forgotten that defiance is not a fruit of the Spirit. Going into a store and refusing to abide by the established policy is not a good way to be a light in our world. In fact, it probably adds significant and unnecessary stress to the employee who has to enforce the policy.  

My pastoral concern is not whether people are right. I know some people have done research about masks and vaccines. I know they corroborate whatever position they have chosen to embrace. I know they have reasonable, correct, and technically “right” reasons for their position. 

It’s just that their militant heart posture and aggressive attitude doesn’t look like Jesus to me. Again, I must stress this—regardless of whichever side. At this point, it makes no difference to me which specific side the argument is for. What I am concerned about is whether people exhibit the fruit of the Spirit. 

Here is why it makes me sad: I know unbelievers who’s issues with the church were reinforced over the last year. Their views that the church is hypocritical and intolerant of different perspectives and overly interested in political power were affirmed. 

I also have spoken with other believers who are deeply hurt and confused by how other Christians have treated them. Over what? A mask? Over not hosting in person services? The Church is not the weekly gathering by the way. The Church is those people who are, as John Mark Comer puts it, “Apprenticing with Jesus and seeking to follow the way of Jesus.”

That way, by the way, took him to the cross. Following his example of embracing the outcast and marginalized, serving the lowly (washing their feet even), and forgiving enemies (while being executed) is what it means to be a Christian. Jesus told the disciples to go and make disciples (Matthew 28:19-20). A disciple is an apprentice. A follower. One who aims to live like the master teacher. 

Again, I am not concerned about the accuracy of some people’s views. That is not to say truth and accuracy are inconsequential. I am simply more concerned about the heart posture. Where’s the humility? Where is the neighbor love? Where is the empathy and compassion and kindness? Where is the practice of bearing with the fellow believer? Even if that believer makes the insufferable request for you to put on a mask? Or, even if that believer actually feels there is something to the race conversation that should be considered. Or, if that believe feels like immigration issues are complex and nuanced. Or, if that believer didn’t or did get vaccinated!

Repentance

The only remedy moving forward, the only thing that can reform some of the toxic displays of selfishness and pride going on in the church today is repentance. We have to be committed to loving our neighbor above being right. We have to be humble enough to repent—to allow Jesus to change our hearts through the Spirit. Our hearts need to be soft towards those who have a different view, political party, or COVID perspective than we do. We have to love God and love people more fully and more beautifully. 

There was this an ancient Roman Emperor by the name of Julian the Apostate (332-63 AD) who is known as the Apostate because he considered Christianity for a time but then rejected it. He observed about the Christians (whom he considered to be atheists because they rejected the Roman gods): 

“Atheism (i.e. Christian faith) has been specially advanced through the loving service rendered to strangers, and through their care for the burial of the dead. It is a scandal that there is not a single Jew who is a beggar, and that the godless Galileans care not only for their own poor but for ours as well; while those who belong to us look in vain for the help that we should render them.” (Bruce Shelley, Church History in Plain Language, p. 36)

Early Christians turned the world upside down, not by a relentless commitment to their rights and self-preservation, but by loving others. They overcame by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony. The blood of the Lamb who was slain. The way of the cross is to lay our lives down for the sake of loving people. Even our enemies—perhaps especially our enemies. 

I feel it is far past time that disciples of Jesus renew their commitment to following the way of Jesus. Not adhering to some perverted form of American Christianity. I know, this isn’t a popular call among many American Christians. Especially those who believe the advancement of Christianity is dependent on the influential power of Christianity in America. Jesus said the gates of hell will not prevail against the Church. The loss of religious freedom won’t either. Do I desire the loss of freedom? Of course not! I am incredibly averse to pain and suffering. But I can’t compromise my conviction that loving people matters more than standing up for my rights or being right or winning an election or gathering during a global pandemic or what have you. 

Repentance involves a change in mind. A change in mind requires a humbling admission: I. was. wrong. 

Repentance necessitates surrendering our own mindset to adopt the mind of Christ. This can be a painful process, but it is certainly a transformative one. I could be wrong. I could be arrogant. I could be naive. But, I think there are a lot of Jesus followers who need to repent. I know I have had to, and will have to again. Maybe even for sharing this post. 

Call me a Marxist, a Leftist, or whatever pejorative name you can think of. Jesus was mocked by those who had fallen in love with legalism and nationalism too. Perhaps I am in good company. Perhaps, I am also naive and very misled. I still have a significant amount of peace knowing that my naivety is motivated by a desire to love God and love people. I’d rather be wrong and kind than right and prideful. 

“Curiously, however, the separation from the world propagated by Moody and other premillennialists was not a radically outward separation (as it was, for instance, in the Anabaptist tradition) but rather (only) inward. There was no appeal to people to ‘abandon most of the standards of respectable American middle-class way of life. It was to these standards, in fact, that people were to be converted’ (Marsden 1980:38). The values the revivalists espoused, albeit unintentionally, were those of middle-class American culture: materialism, capitalism, patriotism, respectability (:32, 49, 207).” (David Bosch, Transforming Mission)

Confession and Hot Dog Buns

Originally published March 20, 2019

Hot Dog Buns

Have you ever seen Father of the Bride? It’s a 1991 comedy starring Steve Martin about his daughter’s wedding. There’s this scene where Steve Martin’s character, George Banks, is so frustrated and stressed by the wedding costs and preparations that he leaves to go for a drive. His wife says, “While you’re out would you mind going to the supermarket and picking up something for dinner?”

The next scene shows him in the bread isle ripping open hotdog bun packages and pulling four buns out of each package. One of the employee’s approaches him and asks, “Excuse me sir, what are you doing?”

“I’ll tell you what I am doing. I want to buy eight hotdogs and eight hotdog buns to go with it. But no one sells eight hotdog buns, they only sell twelve hotdog buns. So I end up paying for four buns I don’t need. So I am removing the superfluous buns.”

The employ tries to explain that the buns are not priced individually. George responds by launching into a rant about the greed of corporate America—specifically about the big shots at the hotdog company and the big shots at the bun company who conspired to rip off the American public. Shortly after his diatribe, security is called and he gets arrested.

Confessions of a Pastor

The other day I had a similar meltdown over the phone. At the time, my wife was a couple weeks out from her due date, our son was sick, and we were supposed to have a bunch of family come visit. I also had some irons in the fire at work, and we had received a letter from a debt collector a couple weeks prior. The letter stated that we owed money from a medical bill dating back to my son’s birth in August of 2016—2.5 years ago!

Needless to say, I have been feeling overwhelmed lately. The sort of overwhelm and anxiety that feels like the walls are closing in or that the oxygen level in the room is expiring. I called our insurance to inquire about the supposed bill. The lady in the billing department couldn’t go back that far so she passed it up the line for investigation. She told me someone would call me with their findings.

A few days ago I received the phone call, but I missed it. The voicemail said I could return this call from Jessie who was a Provider Services Team Lead. So I called the number back. After almost yelling at the automated response questions, I was finally able to speak to a person. I had already spoken with these people about the issue they were investigating and I just wanted to speak with Jessie. Simple right? Wrong. Because I wasn’t authorized to speak on behalf of my wife she could not transfer me through.

I lost it. I went George Banks on her. Usually, I care a lot about how I treat people because I firmly believe that is one of the simplest ways we can reflect Christ. I came unraveled on the phone. She said she couldn’t answer anything in regards to my wife’s profile. I said, “How about this, I don’t want any information about my wife. I just want to talk to Jessie. Who called me. I am SIMPLY returning a phone call. How about that? Just let me talk to Jessie.”

I realized I was clearly not getting anywhere so I hung up after attempting an apology. Turns out, the issue was not even related to my wife’s coverage. It was on my son’s, and I could have spoken for him because he’s a minor. I eventually got through and they are still sorting out the details with the debt collector. They filed a grievance for us and I am praying it is resolved without us having to pay. I find it ridiculous that we are being billed 2.5 years later.

Anyhow, the point is this: Sometimes I don’t have it all together. Actually, the truth is that most of the time I do not have it all together. I really love people and I really desire to reflect Christ to people. But sometimes it is hard to try to reflect hope and grace for other people’s struggles and then go home to your own. Sometimes it is hard to be attentive to everybody when you just want some solitude time. Sometimes it is hard proclaiming the nearness of God when you feel He is distant. Sometimes life hits me too.

There is a perceived pressure, whether it is true or not, to have it all together as a Christian and especially as a pastor. Sometimes people even allude to the idea that “You probably don’t struggle with [fill in the blank] because you’re a pastor.” Sometimes I just want to say to people, “Actually, I’m a human.” Some people have even said to me, “I appreciate your sharing about your own struggles because it makes you seem human.” As if being a pastor automatically graduates you to glorification.

So, here it is—my confession: I struggle to believe the truths of God’s promises when my circumstances cloud His goodness. I am easily swayed by my emotions and my circumstances. I have questions for which I have found no satisfying answer either in theology or secular philosophy. I am grumpy sometimes. My wife and I disagree occasionally. In the midst of those disagreements we even say mean things. I lose my patience with my son every now and then. I think I’ve come close to murdering our dog a time or two. It’s a challenge in our world to not face the temptation to lust on a regular basis. Sometimes I skip my devotional time because other things seem more pressing. Forgiveness is hard for me to give when I have been deeply hurt. My identity is often rooted in how successful I feel as a pastor. I care too much about other people’s opinions. Sometimes I wish we made more money. Every now and then I get depressed.

Gospel of Grace

I am not sure where along the way we got the idea that being a Christian meant that we have it all together. The very premise of the Gospel is that we don’t. That all of our striving and grasping and trying and working cannot heal the brokenness or satisfy the ache in our own hearts. The very heart of the Gospel is that we can’t, therefore He did. Paul says it like this, “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.”[1]

In his book The Ragamuffin Gospel, Brennan Manning writes,

We must know who we are. How difficult it is to be honest, to accept that I am unacceptable, to renounce self-justification, to give up the pretense that my prayers, spiritual insight, tithing, and successes in ministry have made me pleasing to God! No antecedent beauty enamors me in His eyes. I am lovable only because He loves me.

…Honesty requires the truthfulness to admit the attachment and addictions that control our attention, dominate our consciousness, and function as false gods. I can be addicted to vodka or to being nice, to marijuana or being loved, to cocaine or being right, to gambling or relationships, to golf or gossiping. Perhaps my addiction is food, performance, money, popularity, power, revenge, reading, television, tobacco, weight, or winning. When we give anything more priority than we give to God, we commit idolatry. Thus we all commit idolatry countless times every day.[2]

I think what Manning points out is easy for us to forget—that we all need rescue. That we all need redemption. That none of us, if we were honest, have it all together. Even after coming to believe the right things about God, our inner lives need transformed. The beginning of that transformation is the honesty and humility to acknowledge we need it. God doesn’t want to make you nice. He wants to make you new! This isn’t a renovation project. It’s resurrection! And resurrection, last time I checked, was above my pay grade.

The beautiful thing is that we don’t have it all together, but God is absolutely obsessed with loving us. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. [3] He knows what He purchased with His blood. He knows what we are in the dark recesses of our being. He knows our selfish natures, and yet He loves us. This is not an invitation to act like sin doesn’t matter. It is an invitation to cooperate with God’s transformative power by humbly acknowledging the essential truth that we don’t have it all together. God’s transformative grace can work with humility; it cannot work with pride—especially of the self-righteous kind.

Often it is not our sins that keep us from God. It is our reluctance to admit we have them. In the Gospels it was not the sinners, prostitutes, and tax collectors who missed the Kingdom of God. It was the religious. The people who had it all together. The sad reality is that Jesus loved them too, but they were to prideful to embrace grace. For them, God’s love had to be earned, but you can’t earn something that is free. When you try to work for something that is free, you end up missing the very essence of it. Not because it wasn’t offered, but because you didn’t live in light of the freedom reality.

Philip Yancey states it well, “Grace comes free of charge to people who do not deserve it and I am one of those people.”[4]

That is my confession: I am one of those people who doesn’t deserve grace, but desperately needs it.

[1] Romans 5:6

[2] Manning, B. (2000). The Ragamuffin Gospel. (p. 83-84)

[3] Romans 5:8

[4] Yancey, P. (1997). What’s So Amazing About Grace? (p. 42)

A Millennial’s Reflections on Deconstruction

“Those who believe they believe in God but without passion in the heart, without anguish of mind, without uncertainty, without doubt, and even at times without despair, believe only in the idea of God, and not in God himself.” MADELEINE L’ENGLE

Recently, I heard someone pray for young people. There was nothing inherently wrong with the prayer, but there was something the person said that hit me wrong. Now, I do not believe he meant it how I perceived it. But, it got the wheels turning in my head. He prayed for God to protect our young people from “joining the ranks of the de-conversion movement.” 

I assume he was talking about the “trend” of what is called “deconstruction” that is somewhat prevalent amongst the younger generation (including my own). Please understand that I have no problem with praying for young people or even praying that they are protected from leaving the faith. What struck me the wrong way was the recruitment language and the portrayal of deconstruction as a “movement.” As if those who have walked through deconstruction are trying to advance a movement of de-conversion and unbelief. 

I am sure there are some skeptics and de-converted individuals that are aggressive with their views and seek to “recruit” believers to their ranks. However, many of the “young people” and even high profile people who have deconstructed their faith have walked through a disillusioning and painful experience of doubt. For many, leaving the faith was a grief filled experience. Many were extremely committed—I mean, some had devoted their lives to full-time ministry. Their deconstruction was a disorienting, agonizing process. 

When I was in college there was a band* that was started by some students and became quite popular. Part of the appeal was the raw and honest lyrics in their songs. One that I remember was titled “Times are Changing.” The lyrics of the second verse capture the internal angst of a doubter: 

Lives are changing
Everybody's waving hands in the air 
They're singing songs of praise
But it feels so dead to me
Could it be that I just don't believe?

That’s the question that a believer who collides with doubt is faced with: Could it be that I just don’t believe? 

A Snippet of My Story

I grew up in the church. I went to a Christian school where I had Bible class as an academic subject every day. I knew the Bible answers. Somewhere along the way I picked up the idea that faith was being certain about what you believed. We had whole sections of our Bible class focused on apologetics—knowing the right answers so that we could defend our faith. What logically followed is the idea that being a “strong Christian” with a “strong faith” meant you had zero doubt. Zilch. Nada. 

Questions that could lead to doubt were to be avoided. When faith is measured by your certainty, doubt is a sure sign of a weak faith. Or, as Peter Enns* puts it “When knowing what you believe is the nonnegotiable center of true faith, questions and critical self-examination pose a threat.”

So, you can imagine how disorienting doubt and questions can be for someone who believes  that “know what you believe with absolute certainty” is the measure of true faith.

If knowing what you believe with absolute certainty is the measure of true faith, and you find you have questions… well, you start to wonder if your faith is true. Most times, you start to wonder in isolation because you don’t feel safe voicing your struggle in a subculture that treats doubts like they’re ants at a picnic—something to be squashed. 

My Collision with Doubt

I have always had a sort of inquisitive nature. I like to investigate, understand, research—you know, do nerdy things. When I went to school to study ministry, I went in believing I knew all the answers and knew what I believed. I mean, I had Bible class every day since first grade. 

I had a “strong” faith according to some standards. It took one undergrad theology course to introduce me to the reality that I knew so very little about church history, the context of the Scriptures, the larger history and scope of Christian orthodox theology. Suffice to say, I realized I did not know as much as I thought I knew. 

But, I desired to learn. I decided sometime during my undergrad that I wanted to be a life-long learner. I wanted to read and study and explore the world of theology, Church history, and the context of Scripture. 

Long story short, my search for knowledge confronted me with diverse ideas and more questions than answers sometimes. I do not think the pursuit of knowledge or truth is the problem. My framework for understanding the measure of faith was the problem. This, in combination with a few cross-cultural experiences and a dose of disappointment with the local church added in for good measure…and, well, I had a few full-blown existential crisis. 

I had questions about everything. Suffering and justice. Why are some people born into seemingly hopeless circumstances? I’ve been to countries where children struggle to have enough to eat on a daily basis. How do I reconcile my Christian version of the American dream with the reality that most of the world’s population has very little opportunity to dream. 

I had questions about Scripture. I don’t want to send anyone else down an unnecessary path. And, let me say up front, I believe the Scriptures are inspired by God, are authoritative for all matters of faith and practice, and are beautifully mysterious and at times, incredibly frustrating to understand.

I love the Scriptures. I make it habit to read through the entire Bible every couple of years (I don’t share that as a brag. I simply want to make it clear that I love the Scriptures and make them a priority in my life). It’s just that the fact that it was written in a completely different language, culture, historical and cultural context makes it not as “black and white” as some people assert. “The Bible is clear” is one of the most frustrating statements I hear people say. Don’t get me wrong. I believe some things are clear. But there are some things that are just not. 

I’ll give you just one example. When you lay the gospels together side by side and try to construct a clear timeline of the Passion Week and the Resurrection, things get… well, not “black and white” clear. 

Was the “Last Supper” just a normal Thursday night meal, or was it the Passover meal? How could it be the Passover meal when John states in John 18:28, 

Then the Jewish leaders took Jesus from Caiaphas to the palace of the Roman governor. By now it was early morning, and to avoid ceremonial uncleanness they did not enter the palace, because they wanted to be able to eat the Passover.

Meaning, according to John, the Passover meal was on Friday evening not Thursday. 

With the Resurrection, Matthew and Luke depict multiple women going to the tomb. John only mentions Mary Magdalene going to the tomb. In Matthew, Jesus appears to all the women. Mark and John depict Jesus appearing to only Mary Magdalene first. When and where Jesus appears to the eleven is a little tricky too. 

Now, I want to again clarify: I believe the Scriptures are true. I believe a timeline can be constructed that makes sense. There are some cultural and contextual details relating to the Passover and the timing of the Sabbath that can help make sense of the Last Supper. I also believe that John mentioned Mary Magdalene for a specific reason and that his mentioning only her does not by nature mean the other women were not with her. Each author communicated what he wanted with beautiful intentionality to bear witness to the Resurrection. And, each account has a vantage point—they would actually be less credible if the accounts were exact replicas.

I simply share these examples to demonstrate that one can run into some questions by studying the Bible deeply. I share these examples to point out that the Scriptures are not exactly clear on all points. Some Christians seem to think the pathway to questions and doubt is one of rebellion and obstinance. For me, some of my questions came from deeply and sincerely studying the Scriptures. 

Another thing that fed my doubt was the lack of grace and love and compassion and empathy among some of Jesus’ followers. I don’t want to spend too much time here because a vast majority of Jesus-followers are making a huge and positive difference in our world. However, it is very disillusioning when the people who are supposed to reflect Jesus cause so much pain in the name of Jesus. Some people wrestle with doubt because they come to doubt the authenticity of His Body (the Church).

Why I Still Follow Jesus 

The disciple we have labelled as “Doubting Thomas” articulated doubts about the resurrection. The truth is, he wasn’t any different from the other ten. When the women reported the empty tomb, the men didn’t believe them either. Luke writes, “But they [the eleven] did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense” (24:11). The other ten were doubters too when the report came from the women. 

Additionally, when Jesus appeared to the other ten disciples, John makes it clear that Thomas was not there. The ten saw Jesus with their own eyes. Thomas demanded to see what the other disciples had already experienced. Seems fair. 

You know what is the most beautiful part of Thomas’ story? Jesus appears to Thomas a week later and meets every single one of his demands. Jesus meets him in the place of his doubt. What follows is that Thomas is recorded as making one of the first and most explicit declarations of Jesus’ divinity, “My Lord, and my God” (John 20:28). 

I believe my questions have pushed me to a deeper faith. A faith that boldly approaches the throne of my Father and asks questions. I know God can handle them. I put God on trial sometimes. Is that appropriate? I don’t know. Some would say “no.” But I have found that he often meets me there. There in the place of my doubts. 

I also have found that I just can’t walk away from Jesus. I do not have a concrete, skeptic-proof explanation for this. I have tried to go down the path in my mind of walking away from faith. I have found that I could walk away from religion. I could even fill my life with other things besides church activity. What I can’t do is walk away from Jesus. 

I believe Jesus is who he says he is. I believe Jesus overcame death. I believe in Resurrection hope. So, I will live my life trying to follow Jesus. As a pastor, I will invite others to follow Jesus with me while striving to be salt and light in our world. I will invite those who do not believe to “come and see.” To join me at the table of grace where sinners, prodigals, and even skeptics are welcome. 

I doubt, but I follow anyways. In the midst of my unanswered questions and in the midst of unexplained mysteries, I follow Jesus. I think that is called faith. 

I was listening to a sermon the other day on a bike ride. The preacher* was speaking about Jacob’s story. Do you remember the scene in Genesis where Jacob wrestles with God and God touches his hip leaving him with a limp (see Genesis 32:22-32)? The pastor referenced this scene and stated words that resonated deeply with my soul: 

“There are people here who are still fighting with God. It’s not always your fault. You haven’t done anything wrong. Maybe. But one day when you were minding your own business, it seems to you that God himself jumped you and assaulted you… you’ve started to wonder with all this wrestling going on in your soul if that denies the fact that you’re a Christian—a follower of God. Listen to me. It might be exactly the opposite. The identity of an Israelite is one that fights and wrestles with God. It is not one who has figured everything out…You must learn to wrestle with God without walking away…Maybe this doesn’t prove that you’re a skeptic. Maybe it proves you’re a saint if you stay in the fight.”

I am staying in the fight. I am not walking away. 

How You Can Help A Family Member or Friend Deconstructing

1. Listen. Listen to their questions with empathy. Don’t try to answer their questions. Just listen to understand. 
2. Pray for them. Not in a patronizing, self-righteous sort of way. Just lift their stories up to the Father. 
3. Encourage them to participate and belong in community. We need relationships. Even those who don’t believe in Jesus need relationships. Just being a part of community shapes us. They need to be in community. 
4. Do not demonize them. Please do not demonize their struggle with doubt. Doubt has the potential to lead to a deeper experience of faith and trust. Questions compel us to search. 
5. Encourage them to search for answers and stay in the fight. Encourage them, without patronizing them, to not resign to unbelief. Resignation is easy. Unbelief is easy. Wrestling and searching is hard work. Encourage them to do the hard work before they just walk away. 

*Mosquito Fleet is still making music if you want to check them out: https://mosquitofleet.bandcamp.com

*Peter Enns is a Bible scholar who teaches at Eastern University. His views would be considered by some as “Progressive.” I did not share his quote as an endorsement of all of his views, but I have learned from his scholarship.

*The message was by Pastor Steve DeNeff at College Wesleyan Church. You can view the message here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duMKMhbETt4 (the part referenced starts at 51:15)

History, BLM, and Complicity

On August 24, 1955, a fourteen year old black boy would cross a social boundary that would cost him his life. Emmett Till was visiting his cousins in Mississippi from Chicago. On that hot August day, Emmett and his cousins went to grab some snacks and refreshments from Bryant’s Grocery store in Money, Mississippi. The story goes that Emmett Till flirted with or whistled at or inappropriately touched shopkeeper Mrs. Carolyn Bryant. In response to the accusation, her husband, Roy Bryant, and his half-brother J.W. Milam drove to the house where Emmett was staying and abducted the teen boy.

Their intention was to “teach him a lesson.” What happened can only be deduced from the remains of Emmett Till’s corpse. His body was found mutilated and disfigured in the Tallahatchie River. This fourteen year olds body was found with a broken femur, sliced ear, cracked skull, missing eye, bullet wound to the head, and a face beaten so badly it was hardly recognizable as human.

As for Roy and J. W., they were acquitted on September 23, 1955 by an all-white, all-male jury. Lest we think this was some horrible event from our distant past, it is worth noting that if he were alive today, Emmitt Till would be 79. In other words, this happened within the lifetimes of people still alive today. [1]

Contrast that with 24 year old Recy Taylor’s case. Recy Taylor was on her way home from church on the evening of September 3, 1944. While walking home from church, Recy—a black woman—was forced into a car at gunpoint by seven young white men and later gang-raped by six of the seven men. These young men were never indicted for their horrific crime. Recy Taylor died at 98 years old back in December of 2017. Again, it is worth noting that her experience is not something from the distant past of slave-holding America, but it was, in terms of the larger scope of history, a recent event.

The Constitution Is NOT the Standard for Right and Wrong

Article I, Section 2 of the US Constitution states, “Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons.”[2] This is known as the Three-fifths Compromise. The compromise has to do with how slaves would be counted in relation to taxation and representation. Free states wanted taxation to be based on total population, but slave holding states didn’t want slaves counted for taxes. Conversely, the slave holding states wanted their slaves to be counted for representation purposes in the Congress, but free states didn’t want slaves to be counted for representation. “Instead of acknowledging the full humanity and citizenship of black slaves, political leaders determined that each slave would count as three-fifths of a white citizen.”[3]

Article IV, Section 2 of the US Constitution states, “No Person held to Service or Labour in one State, under the Laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in Consequence of any Law or Regulation therein, be discharged from such Service or Labour, but shall be delivered up on Claim of the Party to whom such Service or Labour may be due.”[4] In other words, it was written into the Constitution that a fugitive slave fleeing to a free state would have to be returned to the “property owner.”

On this basis, the South seceded from the Union over the unconstitutional infringement of individual State’s rights. What were the individual State right’s that were infringed upon by the Federal Government? Free States were not returning fugitive “property” to slave-holding states. Where did they have such basis to secede? The US Constitution. The Constitution intentionally and explicitly protected the institution of slavery.

Where did many conservative Christians of the day land on the issues of abolition, slavery, and the South’s secession from the Union? “Southern theologians challenged their abolitionist opponents to produce the chapter and verse where Jesus, or the Bible generally, condemned slavery…when abolitionists made their case from the Bible, they were criticized because they were not able to cite a specific passage that explicitly condemned slavery….Southern theologians, by contrast, appealed to a ‘plain reading’ of Scripture…it seemed like the proslavery theological arguments respected the Bible’s authority and employed a straightforward method of scriptural interpretation.”[5] It is important to note that the rhetoric used against abolition used language that painted the proponents of slavery as being “biblical,” “constitutional,” and “conservative.”

This rhetoric was again used in the segregation era to fight against desegregation. Integration was “unnatural” and went against the God-ordained laws of nature. Advocates of desegregation were “communists,” “liberals,” and a threat to a particular way of life that defined the America many wanted to preserve. “I firmly believe in each race having its own schools, social organizations, and churches…. Of course, what I am suggesting will be considered ridiculous and absurd by today’s liberal and brainwashed public and I will be labeled a dirty old racist and bigot” wrote one Southern Baptist in 1974.[6] What is alarming is that this quote sounds similar to rhetoric I have seen in 2020.

The Haunting of Sins Past

From slavery to redlining, Jim Crow laws to “blockbusting,” lynchings to segregation, the “Lost Cause” narrative to the unequal distribution of the “GI Bill”—America has a long history of racism. Thankfully, the intensity and overtness of racism has significantly decreased, but the current climate of racial tension cannot be extricated from the nearly four hundred years of our nation’s racist history. Further, one cannot do an honest reading of history and remain confident that systemic racism did not contribute to the black-white wealth gap that is statistically observable today.

The reflexive rejection of having these difficult conversations is evidence of pride. I have observed many white people react with outrage at the idea that their status in life could have anything to do with privilege. The basis of their outrage is rooted in pride: “I worked hard to get to where I am,” “They must have ran out of privilege when I was born,” “Everyone has the opportunity to be successful if they work hard enough.” While these things can be and are true, it does not negate the historical fact that people of color have been systematically disenfranchised throughout the majority of our country’s history.

While the Civil Rights Act of 1964 did much to address the systemic cases of racism, this piece of legislation did not undo decades of generational ideologies that asserted that people of color were, by nature of their skin color, inferior. These ideologies were ingrained in the minds of individuals who had, and in some cases still have, positions of authority and power.

Earlier this January, a man who claims to be a Christian sent a letter to a black pastor who decided to leave the Southern Baptist of Texas Convention. John V. Rutledge, a white supremacist who masquerades as a Christian, sent a letter to Pastor Dwight McKissic. Below are some of his comments:

“In recent years the Southern Baptist Convention has been repenting (foolishly) of the ‘sin’ of whiteness, and has rebaptized itself as an exemplar of diversity……For the Negro, nothing is ever enough. LBJ’s Great Society and War on Poverty gave the Negro the keys to the U.S. Treasury, the response of which has been ingratitude and ‘Giveusmo!”…Yet they remain savages; they defile and diminish every arena in which they parade: academic, political, corporate, judicial, military, athletic. Seeking another white bastion to badger and beleaguered, they invaded the church.”[7]

Again, this was written by a man in 2021 who has “Christian” books you can buy on Amazon. Racist ideologies are very much alive and well. They must be confronted in no uncertain terms. Isaiah 1:17 calls us to “Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.” Psalm 82:3 states, “Defend the weak and the fatherless; uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed.” Paul wrote to the Galatians, “For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’” (5:14). Paul was of course echoing the teachings and call of Jesus when he taught us to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these” (Mark 12:30-31, emphasis added).

The Gap in Views

The fruitless arguments that frame racial reconciliation conversations as a leftist, political agenda and not as a Kingdom issue need to stop. Pure and simple. The fact that black Christians see things differently than white Christians indicates that there is a gap in our perceptions of the world. In order to reconcile this gap, we have to engage the conversation not just resist it because someone hash-tagged a phrase that triggered us. Consider the data that Barna Research Group published in 2020:

• For instance, only two in five white practicing Christians (38%) believe the U.S. has a race problem. This percentage more than doubles, however, among Black practicing Christians (78%).[8]
• Seven in 10 Black practicing Christians (70%) report being motivated to address racial injustice. Only about one-third of white practicing Christians (35%) says the same.[9]

Also consider the data collected by the Pew Research Center:

• About three-quarters of blacks and Asians (76% of each) – and 58% of Hispanics – say they have experienced discrimination or have been treated unfairly because of their race or ethnicity at least from time to time. In contrast, about two-thirds of whites (67%) say they’ve never experienced this.[10]
• Among those who say being black hurts people’s ability to succeed, 84% of blacks – vs. 54% of whites – say racial discrimination is a major reason why blacks may have a harder time getting ahead.[11]

This is just a sampling of the statistical data that is available. Admittedly, it is an intentional sample that I selected to make this point: there exists a divide between how whites and blacks see the world. This divide exists among white and black Christians as well.

For white Christians to approach the conversation with the presumption that their view is void of any blind spots while black Christian views are full of blind spots is not only incredibly arrogant, but it is also evidence that some white Christians have in fact been blinded by privilege and see their view as superior. Which is evidence that they see the world through a racialized lens. At the end of the day, we still may not 100% agree on every issue, we may not vote the same, and we may not agree on all the same solutions. However, we cannot claim to love our black brother and sister while also outright dismissing their views and ignoring the gap between how whites see the world versus how people of color see the world.

Jemar Tisby writes, “The longstanding failure among many white Christians to acknowledge the ongoing discrimination embedded in systems and structures means black and white Christians often talk past each other. One group focuses on isolated incidents; the other sees a pattern of injustice. To properly assess and move toward a solution to racism in America, both perspectives are needed” (emphasis added). [12] James, the brother of Jesus, wrote that we should be should be “quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry” (James 1:19). Many white Christians could be quicker to listen to their black brothers and sisters and slower to be outraged about a hashtag or simply criticize something as being “leftist” or “Marxist.”

A point Jemar Tisby makes in his book The Color of Compromise is that the “national presence and influence of Black Lives Matter, both as an organization and a concept, should prompt critical engagement rather than a reflexive rejection.”[13] In other words, instead of just rejecting the movement unreservedly and absolutely, Christians could devote energy to engaging the conversation in a redemptive way. Even reclaiming the truth embedded in the BLM movement and redeeming the values that do not align with the values of our faith.

Here are a couple of things I believe we can do to be advocates of reconciliation and justice:

• Listen. As has already been stated, we could listen to those who have different views than us and actually believe that their perspective could add value to our own. Listening does not require complete alignment. However, listening can help add dimension to our own perspectives that otherwise would have remained a blind spot.
• Learn. Below are some books I have read or intend to read that are great resources for understanding racial issues:
  • The Color of Compromise: The Truth about the American Church’s Complicity in Racism, by Jemar Tisby
  • How to Fight Racism: Courageous Christianity and the Journey Toward Racial Justice, by Jemar Tisby
  • Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America, by Michael O. Emerson and Christian Smith
  • Bridging the Diversity Gap: Leading Toward God’s Multi-ethnic Kingdom, by Alvin Sanders
  • Cultural Intelligence: Improving Your CQ to Engage our Multicultural World, by David A. Livermore
• Confront. Confront racialized ideas in your own heart. If we tend to see certain stereotypes that are specific to people’s ethnicity and if those stereotypes are seen as negative qualities or as divergent from the norm (the norm being our way of seeing things), then we have views that are shaped by racial assumptions and prejudices. For example, the idea that black men are just more aggressive, violent and prone to criminal behavior than white men is a racialized and prejudicial stereotype. It is also just not true. The crime statistics are often appealed to in support of this idea, but they are heavily nuanced, arguably shaped by the injustice that has been prevalent in our justice system, and arguably connected to the environment and poverty of mostly black communities.[14] Additionally, white men are just as capable violence and crime as any other man no matter the ethnicity. Why? Because they are sinful human beings. Jemar Tisby recounts a story from the Jim Crow era of a pregnant black woman who was lynched for verbally protesting the lynching of her husband. The men who lynched her cut her womb open and then one man proceeded to crush the head of her unborn child by stomping on it.[15] Pure evil. Pure evil committed by white men. Scripture says that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). As we confront the racialized ideas in our own hearts, we should also courageously confront racist ideas, rhetoric, and actions when exhibited by others. We can stand for truth and love with firm resolve while also exemplifying holy love and compassion. It is possible to do this well and we should strive for this.

I am striving to listen, learn, and confront racism and racialized ideas in my own heart. I am determined to be an advocate for God-honoring justice as I seek to love my neighbor. I do not want to be complicit or silent because of fear. I do not want to shrink back because someone might call me a “leftist” or a “liberal.” Jesus was a liberal by the standards of the religious folk of his day. I will not do it perfectly, and indeed I have not, but I will strive to stand with Jesus who identified with the brokenness of humanity in all of its forms when he hung on the cross.

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[1] Tisby, J. (2019). The Color of Compromise.  (p. 130)

[2] https://www.senate.gov/civics/constitution_item/constitution.htm?utm_content=buffer05951

[3] Tisby, J. (2019). The Color of Compromise.  (p. 59)

[4] https://www.senate.gov/civics/constitution_item/constitution.htm?utm_content=buffer05951#a4

[5] Tisby, J. (2019). The Color of Compromise.  (p. 80 & 84)

[6] Feldman, G. (2005). Politics and Religion in the White South. (p. 117)

[7] https://www.relevantmagazine.com/faith/church/a-black-pastor-received-a-horrifyingly-racist-letter-when-he-announced-he-was-leaving-the-southern-baptists-of-texas-convention/

[8] https://www.barna.com/research/problems-solutions-racism/

[9] https://www.barna.com/research/problems-solutions-racism/

[10] https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2019/04/09/race-in-america-2019/

[11] https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2019/04/09/race-in-america-2019/

[12] Tisby, J. (2019). The Color of Compromise.  (p. 184)

[13] Tisby, J. (2019). The Color of Compromise.  (p. 180)

[15] Tisby, J. (2019). The Color of Compromise. (p. 108)

[14] https://www.channel4.com/news/factcheck/factcheck-black-americans-commit-crime

A New Year’s Challenge

I remember when I signed up for Myspace for the first time. I was a junior in high school (I think). I was too sheltered to know much about it, but I was told I could connect with this girl I liked in youth group…We could message one another and stuff.

Just before college I signed up for Facebook. At the time, it was sort of the graduated version of Myspace. I was told that mostly college students had a Facebook. At the time, Facebook allowed me to connect with “new friends” that I met that one time at that freshman orientation event, and to stay in touch with my friends from back home.

Since then, social media platforms have significantly evolved. I am not really sure if I would say it has been for the better. While the original pros still ring true—I am able to stay somewhat in touch with friends who live elsewhere in the world—a significant number of cons have come to characterize social media.

Besides the sociological concerns of how connected/addicted people (including myself) are to their devices, another concern I have is related to the things we post. Sometimes some really inspiring, encouraging, or fun things are posted and shared on social media. Sometimes, I have come across posts that send me into a bout of depression for a week because they are so ruthlessly…. mean.

Jesus, Paul, and James

Jesus sometimes had some pretty strong admonitions for those who wanted to follow him. One of those strong admonitions is found in Matthew 5 and involves this strange Aramaic word “raca.” Jesus is teaching about the heart of the Kingdom and sort of re-framing their understanding of the Law. His teachings begin with, “You have heard it said…,” and then he says, “But I tell you…”. He is challenging their paradigms. He is calling them to go beyond the letter of the Law and pursue the sort of heart that God desires in His people.

He teaches that murder begins in the heart. “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment.”[1] All of us would probably agree that murder is a pretty serious sin because taking the life of another person requires a sort of calloused inhumanity that most of us would like to think we would be immune to. But Jesus says that the hanging onto anger and hatred for another person is the same root sin that produces murder.

What is striking is that in the next sentence Jesus connects murder and hateful anger to our words. He says, “Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.” The word “raca” is an Aramaic term of insult. It is a term used to put others down and degrade them.

I used to think this Scripture was literally saying not to call someone a fool or use the word “raca.” I thought, “Well, that’s easy to obey. The word “raca” makes no sense in English.” The heart of what Jesus is saying is that murder and hatred and the capacity to view others in derogatory ways are all part of the same family.

Jesus says elsewhere that, “For the mouth speaks from the overflow of the heart. A good person produces good things from his storeroom of good, and an evil person produces evil things from his storeroom of evil. I tell you that on the day of judgment people will have to account for every careless word they speak.”[2] Our words that we say about other people disclose the condition of our heart. The degree to which we are able to demean and degrade other people is the same degree to which we have not been formed into the image of Christ.

James sort of reframes Jesus’ teaching about words by using an illustration. He wrote,

“Blessing and cursing come out of the same mouth. My brothers and sisters, these things should not be this way. Does a spring pour out sweet and bitter water from the same opening? Can a fig tree produce olives, my brothers and sisters, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a saltwater spring yield fresh water.”[3]

The overflow reveals the condition of the source. The fruit reveals the root as my pastor says. If saltwater comes out of our mouths or shows up on our Facebook posts, the spring is polluted.

Sometimes people try to justify their harsh language by appealing to the notion that sometimes “the truth hurts.” The assertion is that it is apparently ok speak the truth with little regard to the collateral damage it may have on other people. I believe that speaking the truth does not require that we be jerks. Remember, “love and kindness and gentleness” are all listed in the fruit of the Spirit list. If the spring is being led by and inspired by the Holy Spirit, the overflow will reflect love and kindness and gentleness. Paul also said that we are to “speak the truth in love.”[4]

Memes, Shared Posts, and Status Rants

My heart has been consistently heavy the last several years because of all the animosity that exists in our country that makes its way to social media. I have gotten myself into to some of my own tense conversations on social media platforms. I have said or posted things that I probably should not have. I have also been mischaracterized and misunderstood. It happens. But, my pastor’s heart is grieved when I see people who claim the name of Jesus post things that are mean, rude, and demeaning to others.

I have literally seen people who claim to be Christians post a meme containing a Scripture verse and then hours later on their page they post a meme that contains profanity and degrading language about people who are different from them. As James wrote, “My brothers and sisters, these things should not be this way.”

I’ll be honest, a good bit of the animosity revolves around political ideologies. Please don’t read into what I am about to say or assault me with a rebuttal. I just want to point out that hypocrisy exists if we appeal to a pro-life conviction because the Scriptures condemn murder and then turn around and call our political opponents “fools” or we essentially say “raca” to them. In the same segment of teaching that Jesus addresses murder, he also addressed our words. There’s a Proverb that states, “The tongue has the power of life and death…”[5] This should at least concern us enough that we reconsider what we might post or share on our social media platforms.

I read Brené Brown’s  book Braving the Wilderness: The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone in 2019 and this quote rings true:

“….When people call the president of the United States a pig, we should reject that language regardless of our politics and demand discourse that doesn’t make people subhuman. 4. When we hear people referred to as animals or aliens, we should immediately wonder, ‘Is this an attempt to reduce someone’s humanity so we can get away with hurting them or denying them basic human rights?’ 5. If you’re offended by a meme of Trump Photoshopped to look like Hitler, then you shouldn’t have Obama Photoshopped to look like the Joker on your Facebook feed. There is a line. It’s etched from dignity. And raging, fearful people from the right and left are crossing it at unprecedented rates every single day. We must never tolerate dehumanization—the primary instrument of violence that has been used in every genocide recorded throughout history.”

Please don’t get defensive because she mentioned politics. Simply acknowledge the validity of her point. She calls out both sides. The point is that dehumanizing language is never ok—no matter how much it agrees with any other agenda.

In 2021, would you consider joining me in accepting the challeng to speak and share and post things that are life-giving?

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[1] Matthew 5:21-22

[2] Matthew 12:34-36

[3] James 3:10-12

[4] Ephesians 4:15

[5] Proverbs 18:21

Christmas, Greek Words, and Embodied Deity

A Larger Story

The Apostle John opens his gospel with the words “In the beginning…” Sound familiar? That’s how Genesis 1:1 opens, “In the beginning…”

With this one phrase John not only connects his gospel to the larger body of the Hebrew Scriptures, but he also connects his gospel to the larger story of redemption that the Israelites believed they were a part of. There is also implication that the work of this Jewish rabbi from Nazareth is equal in magnitude to the Creation of the cosmos. John connects the creation of all things to this story of New Creation.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning.  All things were created through him, and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created.  In him was life, and that life was the light of men. That light shines in the darkness, and yet the darkness did not overcome it.

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed his glory, the glory as the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:1-5; 14)

Logos and Zoe

John’s gospel is the most theological and possibly the most artfully written book in the New Testament. The themes and words and stories John selects for his telling of the story he witnessed is layered and beautiful. One of the themes and layered metaphors John uses is related to his use of a particular Greek word. John borrows a term from Classical Greek philosophy. The Greek word translated as “the Word” is the Greek word λόγος, or logos.

The idea of the “logos” is first attributed to the Greek philosopher Heraclitus, and the idea is beyond my intellectual capacity to explain in a way that does justice to the idea.

In short, the “logos” was the idea that there was something fundamentally and absolutely true that brought order and purpose to the universe. The “logos” was the unifying force or principle that governed and pervaded the reasonable order we see in the universe. The “logos” was the organizing principle that brought order to the ever changing nature of life and reality.

Later Greek philosophers adapted the idea of the “logos” and applied it to human reason and rationality.

A sort of modern way of understanding this would be to say that the “logos” is the ultimate reality behind the existence of all things. The idea of “logos” is still talked about in academia today. Professor and clinical psychologist Jordan Peterson said,

You could think about it as the power of speech to transform reality. But even more importantly, more fundamentally, it’s the power of truthful speech to transform reality in a positive direction. We have this magical ability to change the future, and we do that through action, obviously. But action is oriented by thought, and thought is mediated by dialog. And so it’s speech, in particular, that’s of critical importance to this logos process. The logos is symbolically represented in the figure of Christ, who’s the word that was there at the beginning of time. So that’s a very complicated topic, but what it essentially means is that the West has formulated a symbolic representation of the ideal human being, and that ideal human being is the person who speaks the truth to change the world.[1]

Like I said, the depth of the concept in historical philosophy and modern day academics is beyond my current capacity to explain.

John begins his gospel by essentially affirming this secular, Greek idea of the “logos.” He sort of basically says, “Yeah, you guys were on to something here.” Paul does this in Acts when he is in Athens. In Athens, they built an altar to the “unknown god.” Paul says, “I am going to proclaim truth to you about this ‘unknown god’” (Acts 17:23).

What I love about this is that sometimes Christians tend to take a defensive posture towards secular ideas whether they are found in science, philosophy, psychology, or even ideas from other religions. I believe the biblical witness shows us that we can claim all truth wherever we find it as God’s truth and apply redemptive revelation to it. So, when science discovers something true about nature, when psychology offers insights for mental health, and even when other religions affirm moral truths—we don’t have to reject the truths, but rather we can re-ascribe the implications in a way that points to Jesus.

John says that the organizing force that brings order and purpose to the cosmos is pre-existent, and that this pre-existent Word, the “logos,” is also the originating source and sustainer of all things.

In fact, he says that in this “logos” was life. The Greek word here is ζωή or zoe. This word for life carries more than just the idea of biological life. Zoe has to do with the vitality and fullness of life. We might say when someone has a sort of contagious joy that they are “full of life.” We often understand that there are things that are “life-giving” and “fulfulling.” Many of us have experienced a concert, an adrenaline inducing ride, or once in a life-time opportunity and said something along the lines of “I feel so alive.” That’s “zoe.”

Zoe is a sunrise with painted with brilliant hues of purple, pink, yellow and orange. Zoe is a hot cup of coffee paired with a delectable strawberry scone. Zoe is laughing with family until it hurts. Zoe is finishing a half-marathon and with that finish accomplishing a goal you never thought possible. Zoe is your wedding day.

Zoe is what permeates the Christmas spirit of joy that we can all identify with yet can’t quite explain. Zoe is the sense that life and life-giving things are good, right, and true. Which is why John says that this Zoe gives light to all men. John also says that the darkness, evil and chaos, did not and by implication will not overcome it.

So, for John, this pre-existent “logos”—this “ultimate reality” that brings beauty, life, love, music, joy, and orderly purpose—was with God and is God.

It Gets Personal 

But it gets better. You see, for the Greeks, the “logos” was an impersonal force or Divine reason.

John says that this ultimate reality is not just an impersonal Divine force, but that the Divine is a personal God and by nature also relational. And, this God became flesh.

The “logos” became flesh and dwelt among us. The idea behind the word “dwelt” is that the “logos” tabernacled or took up habitation among men. This language here would have reminded any Jewish readers of the tabernacle in the wilderness. The central place in which the very presence of God was believed to inhabit among God’s people.

John says that ultimate reality was embodied in the person of Jesus Christ and he dwelt among man!

The glory of this ultimate reality as revealed in the person of Jesus Christ is full of grace and truth. Think about that. Grace and truth.

Christmas and Embodied Deity

So what do a few Greek words and tabernacles have to do with us?

Jesus is the embodiment of God—of ultimate reality. Paul put it this way: For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form… (Colossians 2:9). The author of Hebrews wrote, “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact expression of his nature, sustaining all things by his powerful word” (Hebrews 1:3).

 Christmas is about more than just a baby in a manger. Christmas is about more than just the necessary prelude to the main event of Christ’s atoning work on the cross.

Christmas is about the incarnation. The “enfleshing” of the Divine nature. Christmas is about the expression of God’s love being revealed in a person. The transcendent divine nature took on flesh. Part of the message of Christmas is that God is fundamentally a relational, personal being.

Pre-existent transcendence is deeply and fundamentally personal—God is relational.

What is more, He desires a relationship with you!

And, this divine, transcendent reality is good. When the fullness of God is embodied, we see that God is full of grace and truth.

When all the fullness of deity took up residence in a First Century Jewish rabbi…

When the divine nature could be passed by on the street, heard teaching in a synagogue, hosted at a dinner party…

When God became human…

…We see Jesus. We see that God has compassion for the poor, the power to heal the sick, and the desire to associate with outcasts.

Jesus is the supreme revelation of the Divine nature and this revelation culminates in the humiliation of the Messiah through his death on the cross. The paradox is that in this humiliation, the supreme revelation of God in Jesus is glorified. 

 I am convinced that the glory of God on the cross is not just about the atoning work of Jesus’ death for our sin, but it is also about the self-giving love of God on display in Jesus.

When the “logos” that gives “zoe” is embodied in the person of Jesus Christ, ultimate reality is revealed to be fundamentally personal and radically oriented towards self-giving love.

The Logos Was With God… The Logos Is God…

There’s this cool scene in Exodus 33 where Moses asks to see God’s glory. God tells him that he cannot see his face because it would kill him. This is not to mean God’s literal face. Essentially, God is telling Moses that the weight of the fullness of his glory would crush him. So, he will pass by Moses and declare his name.

Exodus 34:4-7 records Moses going to the top of Mount Sinai and God doing as he said. He passes by Moses and declares his name. Verses 6-7 are the most quoted verses in the whole of the Old Testament:

The Lord—the Lord is a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love and truth, maintaining faithful love to a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, rebellion, and sin. But he will not leave the guilty unpunished, bringing the consequences of the fathers’ iniquity on the children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generation.

Many people get hung up on the “bringing consequences of the fathers’ iniquity on the children and grandchildren. There’s a lot there to unpack there and it is not what it seems. In short, God will make things that sin has destroyed right and will hold people accountable. Not only that, our actions have far reaching consequences. Just ask a child of an alcoholic or an abusive parent or of divorced parents if their parent’s sins have brought consequences upon them.

What is important to notice in this passage is that the order in the original Hebrew indicates importance and repetition indicates emphasis.

When God describes himself, he leads with his compassion and grace and emphasizes his faithful love by mentioning it twice.

In his book God Has a Name, John Mark Comer connects this to John 1. He writes:

Usually people read ‘grace and truth’ and talk about how Jesus was the perfect balance of grace and niceness and loved mixed with truth and the backbone and the courage to say what needed to be said.

That’s totally true.

It’s just not remotely the point that John is making.

John is ripping all this language out of the Exodus—‘tabernacled’ and ‘glory’ and ‘love and faithfulness’—as a way of retelling the Sinai story around Jesus. He’s making the point that in Jesus, we see the Creator God’s glory—his presence and beauty—like never before. In Jesus, Yahweh becomes a human being.

In Jesus, we get a new, evocative, crystal-clear glimpse of what God is actually like.

Christmas reminds us that the Word became flesh and showed us what God is like. It turns out, God is full of compassion and grace, he is faithfully true, and he made the debt of sin right by absorbing it’s consequences on the cross! 

Reflection:

1. What is God like? Do you have impressions and ideas of God that are void of any personal or relational attributes? Or, when you think about God do you think about a loving, relational, and personal being?
2. If you are a follower of Jesus then we are called to imitate Christ. This raises the question: Does our imitation of Jesus reflect and exemplify grace and truth?

May Christmas be a reminder of God’s deeply personal nature and of his self-giving love for you.

[1] https://www.jordanbpeterson.com/transcripts/transliminal/

Exciting Things Are Coming!

I am excited to announce the launch of my new website.

Anthonymcottrell.com will now be the one stop location to connect with my blog, the Theologizing Life podcast, and….

Wait for it…

Some other new and exciting things that I cannot yet share, but you will want to stay tuned.

If you are a subscriber to my pastoranthonyblog.wordpress.com, you will still be able to access all of my previous posts, and I will continue to share some updates here for the next couple of weeks. But you will want to subscribe to my new blog site.