Blog Archive
for November, 2007
Oh, Grow Up!
— Tuesday, November 27th, 2007 —
How do you live as a mature Christian in a culture that celebrates adolescence? How do you maintain the gravity of the Gospel in an era when the most immature person in any given room is likely to be the most celebrated? Won’t you seem odd as a mature Christian in an age of Halo 3 and Facebook? Does sobriety mean joylessness?
We tend to assume, too often, that “maturity” in Scripture is something really spiritual Christians are called to. But the Book of Hebrews, along with the rest of the Bible, takes a very different approach. The much-quoted “milk to meat” verses in Hebrews, after all, are set in the context of a warning passage. Those who are “immature” are those who have not honed a sense of discernment.
It is that maturity that our study of Hebrews examines, in this installment of the series, Blood Brother: The Word of Christ in the Gospel of Hebrews, from Hebrews 5:8-6:3. You can listen to it here, and to the entire series here.
But, warning: the kind of maturity envisioned in Hebrews, a self-sacrificial gravity willing to suffer persecution, and, perhaps even more difficult, to have the discernment to know what’s going on around you, will make you seem increasingly odd in the Hall of Mirrors we know as contemporary North American culture.
Keep Reading...Who Would Jesus Bomb? War, Peace, and the Christian
— Monday, November 26th, 2007 —
Do you honk your horn in anger at the “Visualize World Peace” bumper sticker on the Volkswagen bug in front of you? Does Toby Keith's song “The Angry American” cause you to roll your eyes in disgust? These pop culture expressions may be the closest many Americans come to wresting with the ethics of war and peace. But they-and your reaction to them-point to an ancient and important conversation: When, if ever, is it right for a government to kill people?
As you sort out the ethics of war, the stakes are high for your spiritual formation. Sure, you probably won't single-handedly decide whether the United States should invade Canada. But the way you think through the rightness or wrongness of military action tells you something about how you see your own personal story in light of the bigger story of the kingdom of Christ. Unbalanced and unbiblical attitudes about war often point to distorted views we hold about the meaning of peace, and even the gospel itself.
Keep Reading...Trent Lott to Resign, Sources Say
— Monday, November 26th, 2007 —
In my home state of Mississippi, the term “eternal security” refers not just to personal salvation but to our seats in the United States Senate. These senators tend to be wheeled out of the Senate chamber at the end of their careers/lives. So I am really, really surprised to hear reports this morning that U.S. Senator Trent Lott (R-Miss) is resigning suddenly.
The news is still sketchy, with no reason noted in the sources leaking the information, but Sen. Lott plans to hold news conferences in Mississippi today.
This is bad news for the Katrina-torn Gulf Coast, which needs all the seniority it can get in the Senate. If Lott does resign, expect U.S. Rep. Chip Pickering, a former Southern Baptist International Mission Board journeyman and father of five young sons, to be appointed to the seat by Gov. Haley Barbour.
Lott, of course, was the source of infamous controversy in 2002 over his remarks about Strom Thurmond’s 1948 “Dixiecrat” campaign for the White House, remarks that cost Lott his Senate Majority Leader’s position.
Keep Reading...What a Tempted Jesus Means for Us
— Sunday, November 25th, 2007 —
My computer screen indicts me, and I hate it.
Specifically, my Microsoft Outlook calendar hits me every day with my own failure. Knowing that I need to exercise every day, I added a daily, carved-out hour to do it. And I have hit “dismiss” repeatedly in recent weeks. Without the motivation to do it, I’ve fallen to the wayside. And it’s depressing.
Scripture speaks of testing as that which yields maturity and solidity, a testing more rigorous than physical activity. Why does the Book of Hebrews return so repeatedly to the temptations of Jesus? Why is it seen there as such a liberating truth that He was “tempted in every way we are, yet without sin?” Why does whatever happened in that Judean wilderness or in those Galilean marketplaces mean that I can now have the freedom to pray boldly, without reluctance or fear?
Keep Reading...Prophet Sharing?
— Saturday, November 24th, 2007 —
Pop quiz: Where did Lyndon Johnson go to church? Don’t know? Don’t care? Neither did the voters in 1964 (in 1960, it mattered that he was Protestant, generically, just to balance out the ticket with John F. Kennedy). So what changed?
That’s the question posed by Peggy Noonan in this morning’s Wall Street Journal. Noonan laments the heightened attention to candidate religion in the 2008 presidential election. Noting the lack of attention to George Romney’s Mormonism in 1968, compared to his son’s religion in 2008, Noonan writes:
“No one cared, really, that Richard Nixon was a Quaker. They may have been confused by it, but they weren’t upset. His vice president, Spiro Agnew, was not Greek Orthodox but Episcopalian. Nobody much noticed. Nelson Rockefeller of New York was not an Episcopalian but a Baptist. Do you know what Lyndon Johnson’s religion was? He was a member of the Disciples of Christ, but in what appeared to be the same way he was a member of the American Legion: You’re in politics, you join things. Hubert Humphrey was born Lutheran, attended Methodist churches and was rumored to be a Congregationalist. This didn’t quite reach the level of mystery because nobody cared.”
Noonan pleads with the American populace to get over the religion question, whether it is asking Gov. Romney whether he really believes the Garden of Eden was in Jackson County, Missouri, or whether it is expecting Sen. Clinton to prove how her Methodist upbringing leads her to reform the managed care health system.
Keep Reading...An Anthill on Which to Die: What a Colony of Insects Could Teach Us About the Church
— Sunday, November 18th, 2007 —
A Princeton biologist has found Jesus in an anthill. No, he didn’t discover a Last Supper scene made of bread crumbs. And, no, he wasn’t the victim of a new coercive form of evangelism. In fact, I don’t know if he’s ever thought about Jesus at all. But he’s found a laboratory-based, grant-funded way to say something quite old: “Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways and be wise” (Prov 6:5).
According to the International Herald Tribune, Princeton University mathematical biologist Iain Couzin is constructing a computer model to detail how army ants are able to move from colony to colony without “a mad, disorganized scramble.” Couzin expresses awe that these tiny, relatively simple, organisms can build intricate highways and food-delivery systems without ever experiencing gridlock. Humans can learn a thing or two here, he suggests.
Now, at first glance, nothing seems further from the spiritual life of most Christians or from the mission of most churches than an Ivy League entomology study. But, what if our listening to this researcher will astound us even further about the wisdom of our Christ in the same way the Hubble telescope photographs cause us to gasp anew at the old truth that the heavens declare the glory of God?
Most Christians are familiar with Solomon’s admonition to look to the ant (Prov 6:6-11). Our children sing songs about it. Our leadership manuals teach us to plan for retirement based on it. Most of us, however, tend to see this as helpful, homespun advice about good hard work. It makes sense to us, but it hits us with all the spiritual gravity of “Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy and wealthy and wise.” But there’s much more here.
Keep Reading...
