If I had to choose a church...

...only knowing it from the Web I would like to go here. I am totally in line with what they say church should be. I don't have to choose a church as they currently pay me to go the one I am at now...pretty good gig I think. Not many people get paid to go to church. So I'm sticking around, but I would like to see my own church move in that direction as well. I know there is no perfect church...and I don't expect that Life on the Vine feels as if they've arrived. It's just refreshing to see that people are thinking and talking about what church is supposed to be instead of just being content to leave it as it is.

Setting the table this Sunday...

We do communion at our church the first Sunday of every month. It's coming up this week. That frequency is just enough to be dangerous. Just enough to open the option of treating it as something commonplace, a ritual that we do because us church type people like rituals. And after all, didn't Jesus tell us to do this?

But there's more to it than just ritual. In a Peanuts cartoon Lucy demanded that Linus change TV channels, threatening him with her fist if he didn’t. “What makes you think you can walk right in here and take over?” asks Linus. “These five fingers,” says Lucy. “Individually they’re nothing but when I curl them together like this into a single unit, they form a weapon that is terrible to behold.” “Which channel do you want?” asks Linus. Turning away, he looks at his fingers and says, “Why can’t you guys get organized like that?” Far too often the church is like of Linus’ fingers. We have amazing potential – we are Christ’s body in the world – but we can’t see to “get organized”. Someone once said that the Christian Army is the only one that spends more time polishing their armor and fighting among themselves than they do actually fighting the enemy.

That’s one reason why communion is so important. It affirms the basic things that we can all agree to. It reminds us of what Jesus did. He came to serve us by giving His life. He died so that we might be forgiven. He rose from the dead to prove that He can transform and empower us. In eating the bread and in drinking the juice we say with believers all over the world that we believe these things to be true, and that we accept this as the only true spiritual nourishment for our hungry souls.

But we also say something else. We say that not only what Jesus did is important, but also the way He did it. He restored us by being broken. He gave us life by dying. In the words of Paul in Philippians, Jesus did

“…nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility (He) consider(ed) others better than (Himself). (He) looked not only to (His) own interests, but also to the interests of others…” (Phil. 2:3-4)

In eating the bread and drinking the juice we say together as one people (along with believers all over the world) – “I believe in Jesus. I believe that my only hope is what He did on my behalf, and that my only purpose is to follow His example.”

This is no empty ritual. The question is, "What do you bring to the table?"

More than we bargained for...

Okay...one of my soapboxes is that technology is changing us more than we can imagine. A key catalyst that started this line of reasoning within me was an amazing essay by Bill Joy, co-founder and chief scientist at Sun Microsystems, called Why The Future Doesn't Need Us. This was compounded by my own observations about how the cell phone and the internet were changing the dynamics of human interaction. My reflections led to a poem about the cell phone. I won't share the whole thing, but the following lines communicate a bit of my thinking...

Constant wireless communication
Merits quiet contemplation
Shallow words breed shallow minds
Which left unchecked yield shallow lives

We make things then they make us
All our tools will one day be
The hammers and the chisels
That give shape to you and me

The future’s born of our inventions
This despite our best intentions

So beware the innovation
For which the masses stand in line
Progress is a word
That takes a long time to define

I won't get started because once I start ranting I usually go on to long...but I will tell you that I think I'm right. And along the same lines...this just in - Social websites harm children's brains: Chilling warning to parents from top neuroscientist.

Now stop reading blogs and go out and talk to someone face to face!

Just for fun...

More on Lent...

Here you go...some food for thought.

Just in case you were wondering...

As of Wednesday, 2/25/2009, 11:58:39 AM EST

• I am 41 years old.
• I am 495 months old.
• I am 2,155 weeks old.
• I am 15,083 days old.
• I am 362,003 hours old.
• I am 21,720,238 minutes old.
• I am 1,303,214,319 seconds old.

Curious? See this.

Word Creation Wednesday...

Here's this week's word...in honor of today being Ash Wednesday, a day of repentance and confession leading into Lent.

"dustification" - The process of realizing that we are not the center of the universe - God is. We were created from dust and were it not for His grace we would have no hope of anything more. Yet because of His grace, dust is the stuff of glory.

For those of you not familiar with Lent or Ash Wednesday, you may want to check out this. For some assistance in this process of "dustification" you may find it helpful to take some time today in silence and prayer to refocus. I especially like this prayer from the Anglican Book of Common Prayer...

Almighty God, you have created us out of the dust of the earth: Grant that these ashes may be to us a sign of our mortality and penitence, that we may remember that it is only by your gracious gift that we are given everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.

Church...this wierd thing we do.

As spring approaches my backyard begins developing its "to-do" list for me. When I was on sabbatical a couple of years ago I wrote this poem about two things that may seem different and yet are really have a lot in common - church and my backyard. Sometimes taking your breath away can be fatal...

My church is right behind my house
I call it my back yard
A place where I can just relax
While I’m working hard

Things of beauty call me there
They take my breath away
Yet what delights my eye may be
The death of me someday

For every weed I pull it seems
That two or three take root
At times serenely walking
I’ll smell poop upon my boot

I tell the plants of higher things
Of loving God and neighbor
I sing to them of peace and joy
They call me to hard labor

Oh there’s potential – All can see
What someday it could be
This garden who has crucified
One more divine than me

So why is it I go there?
Why can’t I stay away?
Not really sure, so I blame God
Who wired my DNA

Or maybe there’s a deeper plan
If I have eyes to see
Maybe while I’m tending them
He’s cultivating me.

My church is right behind my house
I call it my back yard
A place where I can just relax…
While I’m working hard.

Not what we know but who we love

I learned a lesson from watching my father over 20 years ago. Like many of his generation, smoking was a rite of passage - something that you just did at a certain age. You learned to drive, you got a job, you lit up a smoke. That decision plagued him for years. As he married and had a family he began to loathe his need for a cigarette. Many times in desperation he threw has pack out the window of the car, only to return to the spot later to, in his own words, "…part the weeds to look for my smokes.” Today he is free from that addiction. He credits it to two things. First, he told God that he wanted to quit but that he couldn’t. He asked for help. Second, what motivated his prayer of desperation was a comment from my older sister who was soon to be married. After my dad had recovered from a coughing spell, my sister simply said, “Dad, I sure want you to be around to see your grandchildren.” That comment moved him to pray. That prayer empowered him to change. And 26 years later, he is still a changed man.

What motivates change? It’s not education. My father knew the dangers of smoking for years before he quit. His motivation came from something deeper than knowledge, it came from relationship. He changed not because of what he knew, but because of who he loved. He saw how lighting a cigarette was going to impact his children, and his coming grandchildren. That drove him to his knees. That was the catalyst for change.

The Bible is full of this idea of the power of relational motivation when it comes to change.

• We love, because He first loved us.
• Now that I, Your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.
• As the Father has sent me, so send I you.

God’s plan was not just to teach us who He was, but to invite us into a transforming relationship with Him. In that relationship we learn who He is, but not as a laboratory student doing a dissection, we learn as a friend. If our life is to bring about transformation in the lives of others, it has to facilitate relationship. And while that will involve knowledge and education, it has to go deeper than that. It must allow truth to impact emotions.It needs to dig in deep on a relational level. It needs to help us (and those around us) know God, not know about God. It needs to reflect the true image of God to the world around us.

This week's sermon...

The time is ripe...Amos chapters 7 and 8.

Quote of the week...

This week's quote comes from a fictional letter from a senior demon (Screwtape) to his nephew (Wormwood) as found in the C.S. Lewis classic, The Screwtape Letters. He cautions his nephew about the dangers of letting "his human" become surrendered to Jesus instead of being blown back and forth by the winds of circumstance.

"Our cause is never more in danger than when a human, no longer desiring, but still intending, to do our Enemy's will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys."

-- Screwtape via C.S. Lewis

Here's another one for the wish list...

I want to read this...but I don't have it yet. So many books, so little time.

What the world eats...

From Time Magazine, a photo essay about what families around the world eat in the course of a week. You have to see this...click here.

Anybody else see the problem with this kind of thinking?

Today from CNN...

"U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton broached the issue of human rights with Chinese leaders Saturday, but emphasized that the world economic and other crises are more pressing and immediate priorities." (Read the rest of the article here.)

Clinton's actual quote was...

"Human rights cannot interfere with the global economic crisis, the global climate change crisis and the security crises."

Contrast this with the word of Amos...

"They sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals. They trample on the heads of the poor as upon the dust of the ground and deny justice to the oppressed. (Amos 2:6-7)
"Will not the land tremble for this, and all who live in it mourn? (Amos 8:8)

My thoughts are best expressed in the words of Randy Stonehill...

"Stop the world, I want to get off. This is too weird for me.
Stop the world, I want to get off. I get the definite impression that this isn't how it's meant to be.
Stop the world, I want to get off. I've just got to find a planet where they're interested in sanity."

Once Upon A Time...

“Once upon a time there was a great religion that over the centuries had spread all over the world. But in those lands where it had existed for the longest time, its adherents slowly grew complacent, lukewarm, and skeptical. Indeed, many of the leaders of its oldest groups even publicly rejected some of the religion's most basic beliefs.

In response, a renewal movement emerged, passionately championing the historic claims of the old religion and eagerly inviting unbelievers everywhere to embrace the ancient faith. Rejecting the skepticism of leaders who no longer believed in a God who works miracles, members of the renewal movement vigorously argued that their God not only had performed miraculous deeds in the past but still miraculously transforms all who believe. Indeed, a radical, miraculous "new birth" that began a lifetime of sweeping moral renewal and transformation was at the center of their preaching. Over time, the renewal movement flourished to the point of becoming one of the most influential wings of the whole religion.

Not surprisingly, the movement's numbers translated into political influence. And the renewal movement was so confident of its beliefs and claims that it persuaded the nation's top political leader to have the government work more closely with religious social service organizations to solve the nation's horrendous social problems. Members of the renewal movement knew that miraculous moral transformation of character frequently happened when broken persons embraced the great religion. They also lobbied politicians to strengthen the traditional definition of marriage because their ancient texts taught that a lifelong covenant between a man and a woman was at the center of the Creator's design for the family.

Then the pollsters started conducting scientific polls of the general population. In spite of the renewal movement's proud claims to miraculous transformation, the polls showed that members of the movement divorced their spouses just as often as their secular neighbors. They beat their wives as often as their neighbors. They were almost as materialistic and even more racist than their pagan friends. The hard-core skeptics smiled in cynical amusement at this blatant hypocrisy. The general population was puzzled and disgusted. Many of the renewal movement's leaders simply stepped up the tempo of their now enormously successful, highly sophisticated promotional programs. Others wept.”

What you’ve just read are the opening paragraphs of an article by Ron Sider called “The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience”. You can find the rest of the article online here. Why don't you bop on over and let it stretch your thinking a bit...

'Being in Iraq ... you become different'

Found this great story on CNN.com -

"Matt Robinson returned from infantry duty in Iraq struggling with drugs and alcohol and soon was homeless. He is not alone. One-third of all homeless adults in the U.S. served in the military. Robinson turned his life around with the help of CNN Hero Roy Foster, who founded Stand Down House to support veterans in Florida." Foster's full story is here.

One-third of all homeless adults in the U.S. served in the military. That's an incredible statistic. A statistic this disproportionate calls for some serious reflection. The one question that the article doesn't answer and one that forces us to re-evaluate war in general is this -

"What is it about time spent in combat that damages the hearts and souls of so many people?"

In my mind the answer is obvious:

You can't train people created in the image of God to kill other people who are created in the image of God - no matter how good the cause or how evil the actions of the other - without serious impact to their spirit, mind, and body.

The difficult truth is that this answer carries with it implications that are complicated and costly. Most people prefer to ignore the steps we need to take in order to remedy the situation. May God bless the work of Roy Foster and others as they lay down their lives for the broken...and may God call us to live in such a way that both follows their example and refuses to avoid difficult answers.

You know you want to try this...

...but it might shape your thinking a bit and challenge the way you live your life.

How rich are you? >> I'm loaded. It's official. I'm the 58,262,892 richest person on earth!

Waiting...

As some of you know I am currently in crunch time for a distance ed course for my Masters. I have until Feb. 28th to finish. I'm closing in, but my agenda includes writing three papers between now and then. That has made life extremely focused with little time for more than family, work, and study. But on March 1st it will be over. And then I'm going to read for fun. Here's what I'll be reading in March...






I can hardly wait to get started...but first I need to finish that stuff that I don't really want to do but that I paid someone else to make me do it...go figure.

This is all we can do...

In Elmer Bendiner's book, "The Fall of Fortresses" he describes one bombing run over the German city of Kassel.

Our B-17 (The Tondelayo) was barraged by flak from Nazi antiaircraft guns. That was not unusual, but on this particular occasion our gas tanks were hit. Later, as I reflected on the miracle of a twenty-millimeter shell piercing the fuel tank without touching of an explosion, our pilot, Bohn Fawkes, told me it was not quite that simple. On the morning following the raid, Bohn had gone down to ask our crew chief for that shell as a souvenir of unbelievable luck.
The crew chief told Bohn that not just one shell but eleven had been found in the gas tanks – eleven unexploded shells where only one was sufficient to blast us out of the sky. It was as if the sea had been parted for us. Even after thirty-five years, so awesome an event leaves me shaken, especially after I heard the rest of the story from Bohn. He was told that the shells had been sent to the armorers to be defused. The armorers told him that intelligence had picked them up. They could not say why at the time, but Bohn eventually sought out the answer. Apparently when the armorers opened each of those shells, they found no explosive charge. They were clean as a whistle and just as harmless. Empty? Not all of them. One contained a carefully rolled piece of paper. On it was a scrawl in Czech. The intelligence people scoured our base for a man who could read Czech. Eventually, they found one to decipher the note. It set us marveling. Translated, the note read: ‘This is all we can do for you now.’”

There is a beauty in this story that points toward our calling to live as Kingdom citizens in a foreign land. When Christ brings His kingdom to complete fulfillment, we will have peace; peace unlike any peace ever known. Until that time, through the power of His Spirit, His people are to bring peace to the world in whatever way they can. We are the ones who must refuse to pack the shells with explosives. We do that by offering forgiveness. Loving the unlovely. Accepting the outcast. Serving the broken and needy. We are the ones who tell the world, “This is all we can do for you now.”

"Teaching them to obey..."

I've been wondering about something lately. What if we elevated the importance of a "lifestyle" statement in our churches? What if instead of being focused on what Baptists or Presbyterians or Anglicans "believe" we really tried to grasp (and apply) how Christians "live"? Please do not jump to conclusions and think that I am trying to ignore biblical doctrine. I know we have to have doctrine, it is VERY important. But maybe in our rush to quantify every single aspect of our doctrine we have neglected some very basic things about our practice. Maybe we have been so concerned about what we believe that we have forgotten to be concerned about how we live.

I was reminded of these ideas by a quote from an Associated Baptist Press article about Rick Warren at the Baptist World Alliance congress. Warren says that what we need now is a transformation. Warning that Baptists often are

"...known for what we're against rather than what we're for..."

Warren continues,

"I am praying for a second reformation of the church" that will focus more on deeds than words. The first Reformation was about beliefs. This one needs to be about behavior. ... We've had a Reformation; what we need now is a transformation."

How would this look? I'm not really sure. Maybe we could start by coming up with a "Statement of Essential Beliefs" that would probably be much like some of the creeds of the ancient church. This would list the biblical doctrines that we could never compromise. Our foundation. From there we could develop a list of values or behaviors that reflect specifically the teachings of Jesus. After all, He said,

"All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you." (Matthew 28:18-20)

He didn’t tell us to "teach them to believe all the right things." He called us to obey.

I know, I know, the danger of legalism creeps in. Obviously this list of behaviors would have to be descriptive instead of merely a list of do's and don'ts. And what will drive our actions if we aren't careful about what we "believe"? Those would be problems we would encounter along the way. But I guess that at present I'm more afraid of ignoring the call to obedience and think that maybe the pendulum needs to swing the other way for a bit. It's food for thought. What do you think?