Stop It! Just Stop It!

I love this piece by Bob Newhart where he plays a counselor,

"Stop it! Just stop it!"

I wrote yesterday about how hypocrisy is a sore subject for those of who seek to follow Jesus. It's brutally tough because we are compared by the whole world to Jesus. That is our name after all isn't it? "Christian" or "little Christ". Jesus is the plumb line and we fall short.

Our lives don't reflect well the life of Jesus. But, our words, oh our words, they are demand it and we preach and we preach and we preach. We tell others and one another how we are to live and then our lives fall dramatically short of our words.

HYPOCRITES!

The charge is accurate.

Many of us respond by trying really hard to be better. We try to be good people. We apply a lot of effort into being like Jesus. Our lives get disciplined, we create rules for ourselves to keep us on the straight and narrow. We give it everything we have and we experience failure. That failure creates in us shame and guilt or it hardens us and makes us even more ardent to work harder.

One of my favorite passages in all Scripture is found in Ephesians 2, it reads:

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Every time, every, single, time, I read those words I am left in awe of God. His grace abounds to us. He saved his followers not because of their works, but in spite of them.

Did you catch that? He saved us not because of what we did but in spite of what we did. This is what grace is all about. I don't deserve to be in a relationship with God and be forgiven of my sin. Yet, he did all that anyway.

Beautiful.

The thing is we get so caught up in the "saving" bit that we stop reading and start celebrating. The last sentence is just as important as the first. We are God's workmanship created for good works, which he prepared for us. This should overwhelm us! The good lives and works that we are supposed to do God has ready for us, by his grace!

If we could understand this truth about how we are to grow and live and love in faith by grace it would change everything.

When someone becomes a follower of Jesus they do so because they understand that they can't get right with God on their own. They are in a position of brokenness. Then a funny thing happens they start trying to live for God on their own apart from grace. When we do this, we have moved ourselves away from the beauty of the gospel. We set ourselves up to be hypocrites because our words and our actions will inevitably not match up.

But, if we're living in faith, trusting in God's overwhelming grace for how we live then something happens to our words. Instead of "you should's" and "I ought to's" they become penitent and humble. Our preaching becomes an admission of our own weakness and desire to be more like Jesus and how through his grace we are starting to see his character and competency developed in our lives.

You see the follower of Jesus who is well aware of his sin and brokenness is also acutely focused on the grace and mercy of Jesus. She must live there and as a result her life reflects the gospel story. A story of how broken people separated from God are reunited with him through his self-sacrifice and grace.

How do we get lose of the charge of hypocrite? We live into grace (tweet this). We look at our efforts to measure up to Jesus and we just, "Stop it!"

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You're A Hypocrite!

E. Stanley Jones, the missionary to India, asked Ghandi: “Mr Gandhi, though you quote the words of Christ often, why is it that you appear to so adamantly reject becoming his follower (Christian)”? Ghandi famously replied, “Oh, I don’t reject your Christ. I love your Christ. It is just that so many of you Christians are so unlike your Christ”.

This quote by Ghandi has struck deep into the hearts of many Christians. It has been a guilt trip pastors in sermons (heck, I'm pretty sure I've done it). It's also been wielded by those who don't like "organized religion" as a weapon to keep the religious at a distance. 

So, what's the issue? Hypocrisy. 

Webster's dictionary defines hypocrisy this, "a feigning to be what one is not or to believe what one does not;especially : the false assumption of an appearance of virtue or religion." 

What troubled Ghandi was this is issue of "feigning to be". What he saw in the Christians around him were people who were utterly falling short of Jesus. If you take a moment and read some of what Ghandi had to say about Jesus it is clear that he had, at the very least, a deep appreciation for him. Christians on the other hand were not living up to the standard of Jesus. This is made all the more evident due to the fact that Ghandi was pushing against a "Christian" imperial force for freedom and self-governance in India. 

Whenever I am sharing the message of Jesus with people the typical response is this, "I like Jesus, he's pretty cool, but Christians are such hypocrites." 

Why is that people that have that response? I think it's the result of a couple of key things. First, in America many people grew up going to church (although this is becoming less and less true). As they went to church they saw people who were "members" of the church or even "leaders" in the church act in ways that they considered to be immoral. They heard so many words and experienced little congruity with the actions. They left for college never to return to the church because there was a significant gap between people's performances on Sunday from 10 am - Noon and the rest of the week. 

Second, the scandals and cover-ups within large wings of Christianity as it relates to the sexual abuse of children and other areas of sexual brokenness. Everyone is familiar with the scandal of the Catholic Church. In recent years similar scandals have been uncovered in the Protestant church as well. In the not too distant past we have found that those who been the loudest to speak against sexual sin, have themselves been engaged in that particular sin. 

The public words and the public works of the Church at large continues to point toward hypocrisy and because the message of Jesus includes the call to repentance for one's own sin, the charge will not go away. 

I will let you in on a little secret: the charge is often legitimate. 

Here's one more secret: the charge of hypocrisy points to something greater still...

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What's the Center?

In the realm of politics a "centrist" is one who doesn't fit neatly in one party or the other. They are a middle ground sort and find that they agree and disagree with bits of both ideologies. In the church there is a debate about what the center of the faith ought to be. Some argue for the Scriptures while others argue for Christ. What is the center?It is interesting isn't it? If we place the Scriptures over and above Jesus then are we really being faithful to Jesus? Are we deifying the Scriptures? Some have said that in the evangelical church the trinity is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Bible. 

On the other hand, if we set the Scriptures on the outside of things then what do we have? A few years ago there was a burgeoning Christian subculture called "Emergent" and it offered some really helpful critiques of mainstream evangelicalism. They were very Jesus centered and talked about how the Scriptures were one voice in the discussion. In other traditions Christians are not encouraged to read or study the Bible, that's better left to the clergy. 

What do we do with this? Is Jesus the center or is the Scripture the center? What is the center?

John 1 is really helpful in untangling this, 

The Word was first, the Word present to God, God present to the Word. The Word was God, in readiness for God from day one.

Everything was created through him; nothing-not one thing!-came into being without him. What came into existence was Life, and the Life was Light to live by. The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness; the darkness couldn’t put it out.

The word translated as "Word" is the Greek word "logos". The concept of the logos in the Greek mind was full of meaning. It was weighted and heavy.  It was the basis of knowledge and reason. Here, John personifies the logos and places it at the foundation of creation. It was pre-existent with God the Father.

Later in the chapter John says,

The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son, Generous inside and out, true from start to finish.

This is a remarkable statement. He is saying that Jesus is the logos. Jesus is the Word. This does not mean that the Scriptures = the logos. So, we can't go too far with this connection. However, it does inform us as to how we approach the issue of the "center".

Hebrews 1 says,

Going through a long line of prophets, God has been addressing our ancestors in different ways for centuries. Recently he spoke to us directly through his Son. By his Son, God created the world in the beginning, and it will all belong to the Son at the end.

The author to the Hebrews says that Jesus is the ultimate self-expression of God to us.  What's the center? Is it Jesus or the Scriptures?

The answer is, "yes". Jesus is the center but the Scriptures reveal Jesus to us. So, we can't have one at the center without the other. We must properly place them both at the center of our faith because apart from the Scriptures displaying Jesus for us we will merely create him in our own image. When this happens we place ourselves at the center.

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Where's Your Heart?

A good friend asked me this question the other day. It might be the most important question that we can ask ourselves. 

With the Antioch Movement we are starting something called Huddles. These are high invitation and high challenge discipleship groups of 3-5 individuals or couples. We are looking to delve into kairos moments (kairos moments are those moments where we experience God breaking in..) in our lives to discover what the Father is inviting us into. How is he challenging us? In what ways is he calling us to step out in faith? 

So really the question is, “where’s my heart?” We keep asking and asking because as we wrestle with this question we find that we have kairos moments all over the place and miss them, usually. It is amazing what happens when you begin to try and see them. They are everywhere!

*Where’s my heart?* I am looking at my heart these days through a triangle matrix of up, in, and out. First, “out”. This is my heart towards people who are not followers of Jesus. At no time in my life have I ever been so comfortable and happy to be around people who don’t know Jesus. A number of years ago if I were to look at my life and see the world within which I now live, I don’t think I would have believed it. Most of my time is spent with people who are far from God and it fills me up. The conversations we have are deep and meaningful. As a result I can’t wait to hit the ground running every single day. 

Second, “in”. The community of the Antioch Movement - Ypsilanti is amazing. The people who call AM home are beautiful people who love well. We are able to do life deeply together. We fight and argue. We forgive and receive forgiveness. My heart towards believers has experienced a revival or renewal these last number of months as I see this authentic community growing up around me. There is honesty and humility. But most of all there is love. It is overwhelmingly beautiful. 

Finally, “up”. It’s a struggle these days. I am going through a bit of a dry period and it’s really hard. Ever since we moved to Ypsilanti, about 12 months ago, I have been struggling to really find an ever deepening level of intimacy with Jesus. I connect with God through the study of the Scriptures and I have found over the years that I needs large chunks of time. When I was serving at Grace Chapel, I had a wonderful study where I could close the door and get lost in the Scriptures. For the last year that has alluded me. My heart aches to write this and I long for time and a space. It’s been a strange experience because I am blown away by God’s great faithfulness and care in all things. He keeps showing me how awesome he is through our community. Yet, there is a lack of intimacy. It’s that feeling of longing you have when you haven’t seen a close friend for a period of time. My “up” needs some work.

So, I’m living in a kairos right now where I am longing for more of God. It’s a good place to be but my heart is heavy as a result. I can’t wait for one of those days where I get lost in the Scriptures for 3 or 4 hours. It will be amazing

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In The Beginning…

Photo Courtesy: Todd Waller

I have been thinking about this post for a few days. How do you begin a 28 day blogging experiment? You begin at the beginning and the beginning is...

Why?

A friend, +Todd Waller,  has said that anything worth doing must begin with the an answer to the question, “Why?”

I have been blogging for years. However, it has been marked by fits and starts. The concept of continuity and consistency has been largely lost on my blogging experience. Some weeks or months see a good number of blog posts. Then all of a sudden everything dries up. There are no words and there are no posts. So, this blog experiment is an act of discipline for me. Writing every single day, even if it’s not very good, it doesn’t matter. I am going to discipline myself to put something out: Every. Single. Day.

The second reason is that I am intrigued by the Google+ platform. I have been reading some articles about how Google+ could be a game changer in the realm of blogging and social networking. There have been a number of guys who have committed fully to the platform and even some who have left the world of traditional blogging to blog only on Google+. They have found that engagement was significantly higher as a result. So, I am going to compare engagement at Google+ with that of the Tumblr platform.

Finally, 28 Posts in 28 Days is going to force me to slow down, process, and create. Human beings are created in the image of God. As image bearers we only experience our full humanness when we create. I don’t paint or build things. But, I have always enjoyed the creative process of writing. I remember being in Mrs. Kramer’s fifth grade class and writing an epic science fiction story. It was the first time I remember actually creating something. Ever since then I have loved writing. So, for 28 days I will write and seek to live out who I am as an image bearer of God.

Those are the “why’s”. I hope you consider coming along for the journey. 

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How To Write A Better Sermon

Over the last number of years I have worked really hard on developing my craft as one who preaches the Gospel. Pulpit ministry is tricky because there is a sense that you look for affirmation in the wrong places. You want people to like what you say, but, if you're preaching the subversive gospel then they probably won't like what you have to say very often. 

I have come to realize that it doesn't matter whether people like my message. I want the message to stick and I want it to be fruitful. That means, when I preach my hope is that life change follows.

Early on in my days of preaching I would often bite off more than I could effectively communicate. I studied so hard and prepared so much that messages would last 45 minutes and really be all over the place. I would over illustrate, over metaphor, and educate. 

A few years ago at Grace Chapel we began writing children's questions for every sermon. If you were preaching you were responsible to write the questions. I have found that thinking through these questions with children (4-12 year olds) in mind has transformed my preaching. 

One of my good friends said that the best thing that he had to do in seminary was give a message to 5 year-olds. I believe it, now, more than ever. 

You see when you are thinking about communicating the Scriptures to a child you know that there have to be a few things that are true of your message:

• It has to have movement. This means that you need to have a narrative arc to your message. If you don't then boredom will set in. There must be a clearly defined beginning, middle, and end. 
• It has to be focused. You can't go on rabbit trails. If you do they lose interest.
• It has to be concrete. Your messages can't be theoretical. Kids don't get the theoretical, they don't have the intellectual hooks for it. 

Here's my secret: The things that are true about speaking to kids are the same things that are true for speaking to adults. 

The beginning of this process for me is writing children's questions. This exercise forces me out of my "great" theological mind and into the necessity of movement, focus, and the concrete. 

Do you want to be a better preacher? Write a few children's questions. 

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How Should Christians Respond to the Demise of Public Officials

Today in Detroit, former mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, was found guilty and sent to prison. As a mayor he failed and did some horrific things. The evidence proved his guilt. Most of the response in my social network feeds is that of jubilation and mockery.

Mostly by Christians.

It seems that this kind of response is not the way that we ought to respond. As a people we are called by God to pray for those in authority. We are also supposed to pray for our enemies.

It's interesting, when I regularly pray for someone it makes it very difficult to hate them. I find myself seeing things from their perspective. I begin to experience empathy.

In the case of Kilpatrick I am thankful that the city of Detroit and our metro area will experience closure. But, I am saddened that a family has been destroyed. What is lost in all the mess is that Kilpatrick through his decisions destroyed a city and his family. His children won't have a dad around.

This is not a time for celebration. It's a time for somber reflection.

It's a time to ask hard questions of ourselves and those we have placed in public office.

There is joy when justice happens. There is also sadness when we see the effects of evil. I hope that we as Christians will bring both to the public forum.

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