Salvation and an Inconvenient Weekend

 I love Easter. I love everything that goes along with it. I love Good Friday, this year thanks to the new Pope I accidentally gave a crap about Holy Thursday, and Palm Sunday is always fun with the kids at church hitting each other with wisps of palm leaves(let's be thankful it wasn't baseball bat Sunday, right?). When we compile all of this with the ending of winter and the beginning of spring it's borderline magical.

But then, like Christmas, it ends. The chocolate bunnies go on sale, all the ham in the northern hemisphere is eaten, there isn't standing room only in church, and we're back with our regularly scheduled programming  Jesus died and rose again for the reconciliation of mankind to God, so how are the Red Sox looking in spring training?

One of my atheist friends put up a status that said, “Remember everybody, Jesus had a really inconvenient weekend to redeem us all from our sins.” Like most of these things I reacted first with an eye roll, then took a little offense, and finally figured out what God was showing me. Now, I ask that you read til the end of this before you write me off as a heretic.

While the redemption of man was the only reason Jesus came to earth it wasn't the most time consuming part of His life or ministry. It was the most painful, it was the most important, but it really was the quickest. It was the climax of the story. It was the section where all the rising action peaked and then it was concluded in the resurrection and Ascension. Jesus showed the Universe who was boss and now we're stuck in the sequel that will hopefully end soon.

But ask yourself this question: If Jesus came to die for our sins why did He wait 33 years? He could have been a child savant that was killed at the age of 9 because of his miracles and teachings. Hell, Jesus could have been a still born baby and it would've sufficed. The goal was perfect life, perfect death, save the world Why wait the 3 decades? Earth couldn’t have been that much fun in comparison to heaven, could it?

In Luke 19:10 Jesus tells us His scheme. He had a two fold mission of seeking and saving. While the saving was he most important, He did spend the lion's share of His time seeking. That's all the miracles were. That's all that the teaching was. Jesus did not come just to provide free health care and encourage a good moral compass. He totally could have done that without dying. He came to seek out people. He came to show people their need for saving. He spent the first thirty years posing a question and exposing a need, and three days providing the fix.

Philippians 2:12 is not a coffee mug, t-shirt verse because it is one of the most honest verses in the New Testament. Fear and trembling is not something we often connect with Salvation. It's true though, isn't it? Half the time we're worried that we're not doing it right. The other half of the time we're worried that everybody is going to see us for what we are and the

n we're going to embarrass God and completely screw up what Jesus did on the cross all because we can't quick smoking or looking at porn on the internet. We live in victory but we also live in fear and trembling. The majority of our life is spent showing off why we need salvation.

Jesus' life modeled this. Salvation, death to sin, victory over death, while not the easy part, was the quick pull off of the band-aid. It's the same way when we accept Christ. It's easy to see our need. It's easy to see His fix. But that is just one quick, yet important, moment in the rest of our lives. But the three decades of walking, teaching, healing, being talked about, lied about, betrayed, used, and abandoned. The three decades of all that, and still trusting in God, still praying to the Father, still doing the Creator's will; that's the marathon. That's the punch. That's where Jesus modeled the fear and trembling. That's where He modeled walking the walk.

That's a lot more than an inconvenient weekend. 

The Invisible Leprechaun in my Bathroom Rejecting the Religion of Rejecting Religion

 Back in the late 90s I bought a t-shirt that said “Reject Religion, Embrace Jesus.” I was still in high school. When I wore it out I got some funny looks from both Christians and non. This shirt helped me engage in many conversations and more than one argument. It was an edgy idea. It was the idea that religion and God were not one and the same. I loved that shirt.

Now I see those shirts all the time. There are sermon series, books, bumper stickers, podcasts, viral videos, Tumblr, Pintrest, and Facebook posts all about this. It's borderline become the mantra of Western non-Orthodoxy: God is a Relationship not Religion. The church is not a building. Shrug off the old and bring in the new. Reject religion, Embrace Jesus.

I still agree with this philosophy. Nothing that I just said is untrue or un-Biblical. God desires a relationship and not empty religion (Mark 7:8-13, Isaiah 29:11-16). But like all things that get put on a t-shirt, bumper sticker, Tumblr, and Facebook, this whole idea has become trite. It's fun to say. It's a great thing to drop on people when we talk to them about Jesus and they say, “I'm not religious.” It becomes the next fad and it eventually dies out.

Anybody out there rocking their WWJD? bracelet?

The thing that gets lost in all of this is the source of the main problem. Religion is easy, but relationships are difficult. Rejecting the standard way of living in favor of something that most people would find crazy is not an easy way to live. One of my atheist friends acquainted my relationship to God to his “relationship” with the invisible leprechaun who lives in his bathroom. It is a lot easier to say, “I follow the teachings of Jesus, and go to church to be a better person” then it is to say, “I have surrendered all of my will to Jesus, and I love Him.” To be fair it is just as easy to say, “I reject all the trappings of religion and I follow Jesus” without actually doing it.

A relationship with Jesus has a lot more riding on it then talking to the invisible leprechaun in your bathroom. Jesus puts some pretty clear boundaries on the relationship (before you get all arrogant remember the very nature of relationships is boundaries). Jesus says to follow Him in His sacrifice (Luke 9:23). Jesus tells us if we love Him then we show that through our obedience (John 15:9+10). Jesus promises us that with a relationship with Him we will have trouble with the world at large (Matthew 10:33-35).

When we tell people it's about a relationship and not religion we leave all that stuff out. It sounds to religious that Jesus would want us to live differently. It sounds so constricting to have Christ be the center of our lives. It's hard to seal the deal when we reveal that following in Christ's sufferings means discomfort, and no longer being able to be true to oneself. Nobody likes to be a disciple when the Romans come in with torches and clubs.

Religion sounds so sweet at this point. That's why we've turned all this into the Religion of Rejecting Religion. A lot of us like the idea but few of us like the execution. For those of us who don't like rules we just turn this into the rule of no rules. We drop this line so we cannot be judged. We are quick to jump on all the issues with organized religion without mentioning the plights of unorganized religion. We've become what we hate. We've become rote.

This is not a condemnation it is a gut check. If we consider ourselves religious or not we need to see if we're hiding behind what we've built or standing firm on what Christ has done.  

Half Atheist

One of my favorite punk bands is Bad Religion. They are punk rock veterans who are against government, religion, and are pro thinking for yourself. A lot of my friends, Christian or not, wonder how I can justify liking a band like that. Don't they hate my God? Aren't they philosophically opposed to me? Aren't they condescending towards me as a person? I won't deny any of that. They are opposed to organized religion, they worship science, and believe that if God does exist (which they are sure He doesn't), He is of no consequence.

One day I was listening to Bad Religion and I was feeling spiritually weird. This is bound to happen when you listen to somebody who sees the world in a way that you do not. I was feeling odd because I wasn't disagreeing with a lot of what they were saying. I have times when I feel like God isn't there. I have times when I feel like religion causes more hurt than help. Dare I say it, I have moments when I feel like I know better than God does. Listening to Bad Religion had put me in such a weird mood that I made a very startling admission.

I am an Atheist.

I said it. I said it out loud and do you know what happened? The Spirit of God fell on me in such a real way that I started to cry. I hadn't felt that close to God in a long time. All of my doubts and fears about God had be pushed aside at that moment. I became a stronger Christian and God used Bad Religion to do it.

If you are still reading, which I hope you are, I owe you an explanation. As a Christian the difference between my flesh and spirit is at the forefront of my day to day. I totally relate to the Apostle Paul when he said:

“For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.”

Romans 7:18-20

All day long I see the good I want to do and I do the bad instead. I see God's will, which I know is right, and I do my own thing. All day long I do stupid, stupid, stuff that is covered by the Grace of God. My flesh is atheist. It doesn't want God, it thinks it doesn't need God, and sometimes it wins. Sometime I cuss, sometime I lie, sometimes I lust, sometimes I get mad, and this is the atheist in me doing what I think is right at the moment.

As a Christian you might just say, “Well, that's the sin nature,” or as an atheist you might say, “That's just human nature,” and you'd be right as well. “Well, that doesn't make you an atheist,” is what both sides are probably saying in unison. To a certain extent I guess you'd be right. What I can tell you is that the two halves of me are diametrically opposed and that's how it should be. There is a part of me that God has to beat down and make submit and a part that He has to nurture and enhance. There is a part of me that kicks at the idea of God and there is a part of me that embraces it. This polarity is needed.

It's the blending, deliberating, compromising, and joining of the two that make issues. This, ironically, is the breeding ground for both fundamentalist heresies and Unitarian heresies. This war will wage as long as we have breath. It wages whether we acknowledge it or not. That is why we need Christ. If we can't tell the difference between who we used to be without Jesus and who we are with Jesus then we don't know Jesus. If we rely on rules and not Jesus to be our salvation from our atheist side then all we are is a better behaved atheist.

I've watched a lot of my friends become atheists because they were taught that if you are loved by Jesus you never want to sin. They can't kick the desires they have. They here a different philosophy. They meet a gay person who isn't trying to take down the whole American infrastructure. Sex is fun. All of a sudden God is on the chopping block and it makes more sense to kill Him off then to follow Him. Off with His head. The war isn't worth it so somebody has to die and it might as well be the thing that they can't remember seeing, touching, or feeling.

The thing I love most about Bad Religion is they remind me that the choices I make can only be made by me. They remind me that I don't have to take crap from anybody. They remind me of what lives inside of me. They make me not take my faith for granted. They make me seek out truth and not just swallow what I am taught. They, inadvertently I'm sure, show me how much my flesh hates God and how much my spirit needs Him. 

Picture acquired from: www.ampmagazine.com

Video acquired from: www.youtube.com 

The Relationship

Leviticus 9/Luke 5

            The fact that God asks anything of us shows the level of intimacy that He wants to have with us. The depth of any relationship is measured in how high the expectations are. If you don’t believe that to be true look at the different labels we have for non-family members. You have strangers, acquaintances, friends, buddies, best friends, bros, boys, significant others etc. We label people by how close they are to us and the closer they are the more we expect from them.  This isn’t mean spirited; it isn’t unreasonable, it is the very nature of relationships.

The Man (Johnny Cash) and Wife. 

            Look at a good marriage. Each member gives 100% of themselves. There is no 50/50. It is all or nothing. God often equates our relationship with Him to a marriage. My wife has higher expectations for me then anybody else on the planet. Are these expectations given out of distrust or hate? No, they are given out of love and intimacy. These expectations show the difference between love and like.

God is not out of line in asking us to love and serve Him. He created us, we goofed, and He saved us. He has put Himself 100% in this relationship multiple times. He has proven to us that He cares. Jesus modeled the level of expectation in the relationship God wants with us. God is not unjust. God is not a tyrant. He leads by example. God loves us all and with that love comes expectations. The expectations don’t save us but they show how He feels about us and how He wants us to feel about Him.

Why is it so hard for us to look at our relationship with God this way? We have super high expectations for Him. If anything bad happens we say, “Why did you do that?” When we don’t like what He has for us we say, “You could’ve done better.” When He gives us His expectations we say, “No, I’m philosophically opposed to that, so You’re wrong.” Why can’t we look at God’s example, what He’s done and just say, “Thanks”?

Relationships are always messy. The deeper the relationship is the bigger the mess will be. God knows this. God knows that the intensity of our relationship with Him will cause some sparks and spilled milk. The question to pose is where will we be standing after the smoke clears: closer or further?

Image originally found at:www.lettersofnote.com 

                       

           

             

           

            

Jesus & Church

Luke 3+4

            For a lot of us who are on the outskirts of society and church we love to see it in the Bible when Jesus preaches and teaches in bars, parties, and in the countryside. What we often neglect is on every given Sabbath Jesus was in church. Not only was He in church, He was active in church. Not only was Jesus active in church, He was active in a church where nearly everybody disagreed with Him. He went to church out of obedience to His Father, and for the few who would listen and be changed.

            To be blunt, a lot of Sundays I go to church out of begrudging obedience to the God who loves me and saved me. I hate the show, pomp, and circumstance the church in America has become. Then I think of what Jesus-the guy who came up with the whole Temple, worship, sacrifice, Sabbath thing-must have felt going to the spiritually raped and abused version that was in His day. He went, “as was His custom.”

            Yes, church can be twenty people in a living room or twenty thousand people in a stadium. Church is the body of Christ (all Christian believers) universal. However, if we follow the Jesus model we should be ministering to both the outcast and the upright. The hardest part about living for Christ in the church is the same as living for Christ in the world. Standing up for Christ is unpopular. People won’t like you. People will assume you’re an idiot and they will try to drive you out of town.

            It’s hard to go to church when people think you’re stupid. It’s hard to go to church when they are missing the mark. It’s hard to talk about the Bible when others want to talk about budgets, mortgages, and carpet colors. That’s why we don’t. That’s why people like us have to be in the mix reminding people that if Jesus isn’t number one, then lets go fishing on Sundays.

           You do what God tells you to do. End of story. But if we stop going to church because people are dumb then we aren't listening to God we're listening to man. All man will ever do is try to push you off a cliff. 

             Image found at: http://www.holyinnocents.org.uk/library/jesus/colour/jesus_teaching_in_the%20Synagogue%20(700x794).jpg

How to Be Offensive

Luke 1+2

            I once heard a pastor read about John the Baptist and he said, “You have no idea of the context here. To say that John was ‘Dressed in camel’s hair with a leather belt eating locust and wild honey’ is the equivalent to saying ‘John had a foot tall green Mohawk, punk vest, and kilt and ate what he found in garbage cans.’” This resonated with me for obvious reasons, but it is much deeper than “God uses weirdoes.”

            The way we live our lives should not make sense to the World. That’s not to say we should run around overtly offensive and odd but we should stand out a bit. Our desires should be different because God has changed them. Our view on the world should be different because He has taken the scales off our eyes.

            Our behavior change needs to bleed from a changed heart or it doesn’t matter. Church is not about getting single people to have less sex or getting punkers to shop at Old Navy. It is so much deeper. It is about the fabric of which we are made not the fabric of which our clothes are made.

            We are so afraid to offend because so many Christians in the past have made themselves offensive as opposed to let the Gospel do it’s thing. The Gospel is offensive enough. We don’t have to use our behavior modification techniques and guilt about our mortgages to add to it. If somebody is offended by the Gospel of Christ, good, God is using that. If people are offended because of us then we need to knock it off.

            This is hardest when we want to fit in. We don’t want to get all camel’s hair and locust so we rush to the other side of everything is okay. We either try to get people to not accept us up front or we beg, borrow, and steal to get people to like us. This is short sighted and defensive at best. I need to trust that God is in every interaction and in every reaction.

            This is a fine line to ride on. Sometimes we doubt that we are serving God because nobody is listening. God doesn’t guarantee that people will listen and change their lives. Some will, some won’t. Look at the ministry of Jesus. Where the faith in Christ comes needs to take hold is in how we decide what to do and when we need to change. John the Baptist didn’t change his message or tactics even when it made him unpopular. This only shows his faith in God.

            “He must increase, and I must decrease,” was one of John’s famous lines. If we apply this to our love for God we will spend a lot less time wondering about how we should be behaving around people. 

Images taken from:

http://haveravitoriaquandosatanvier.blogspot.com/2011_11_01_archive.html

and

http://www.1st-art-gallery.com/Bernardino-Luini/Salome-With-The-Head-Of-St-John-The-Baptist.html  

      

            

Not Working

Mark 14- Jesus Anointed at Bethany

            I heard a sermon about Jesus getting anointed by the sinful woman and the pastor pointed out a nice bit of irony. The expensive perfume that this adulterous woman had in the alabaster jar was probably what she used to entice men into her bedroom or what she used afterwards to get rid of the stench of her sin. Either way, there she was, pouring it out on Jesus’ feet, mixing it with her tears, and wiping it with her hair.

            The people at the party had the snide, Christian comment of, “If He knew what kind of woman she was He wouldn’t let her do that.” Hooray for missing the point. Jesus knew what kind of men they were and He was eating food with them. At least she was real. At least she came in with a humble heart, the truth of her situation, and all that she clung to.

            What’s in your alabaster jar? Mine is the desire to be accepted. I need to know people like me and care about me. I’m really an insecure egomaniac. That’s what I bring to the Master’s feet. That’s what I use to get what I want or cover up the stench of my failure. I’m in constant need of “Ataboys.” Whether it is kudos from my boss, followers on my blog, obedience from my kids, or affection from my wife: I vainly thrive on affirmation.

            This woman was probably similar to you and me in this respect. Yes, I’ll lump you in too. I only know you because you’re human and you do stuff to fill voids just like I do. This lady probably became a floozy because it’s easy to get quick love and affection from sex. I would even be as bold to say that like the rest of us, the more she received it, the more she needed next time to get her fix.

            So she did what all us posers and fakers deem unthinkable. She took the very symbol of her biggest issue, regardless of the cost, and poured it out as an offering to Jesus. She was admitting that she couldn’t fake it anymore. She was admitting that it wasn’t working.

            I bet she was the only non-divine being who left that dinner with peace, joy, and fulfillment. She had an epiphany, a salvation moment; she had a true interaction with God. She was surrounded by bullshitting hypocrites who were trying to put her down and she said, “No, I’m going to Jesus!”

            Here I am plowing through all this again. It feels like I’m dealing with it for the zillionth time. I can’t wait ‘til these distractions go away. I can’t wait ‘til my doubt because obsolete and my faith becomes sight. I put some much time and effort into these things that I will one day just lay at the feet of Jesus. I can’t wait until the day I don’t have to worry about filling my life with stuff that I know doesn’t work but I do it anyway.

Picture originally found at http://www.jrdkirk.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/jesus-feet.jpg