Uh....what?

"The more often Americans go to church, the more likely they are to support the torture of suspected terrorists, according to a new survey."

So says a CNN article.  Read the rest here. I understand that there are complexities when it comes to the church and the power of the state, but can we really just write off "turn the other cheek" that easily?  It was Jesus who said that, right?

I was saving the following quote for next week's quote of the week but I think you'll agree that it's quite appropriate for this particular post.

“Christianity, with its doctrine of humility, of forgiveness, of love, is incompatible with the state, with its haughtiness, its violence, its punishment, its wars”

-- Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy

Go ahead...tell me what you think.

One further note...

The funny thing about the post below is that by including those words I have actually increased the likelihood of someone coming to this blog based on that search criteria.  I find that slightly amusing.  I am saying less and yet attracting more attention.

In case you ever feel too important...

Here's an interesting fact that is helping bring a little humility to my life. I can tell when people come to my blog via a search engine such as Google and also what they were searching for when they came across my blog.  The top search terms have always been my name - "Jeff Kuhn".  But in the last three months a new "hot item" has directed an incredible amount of traffic my way. In fact, it appears as if this post - World's longest dead snake - will soon surpass my own name as being the search term most used to find my site.  So while I'd like to think that people come here for the witty and profound words that I pour forth from somewhere deep in my soul, the truth may be that a good "YouTube" video has more pull. Oh well...

"Life is a long lesson in humility”  

-- James Matthew Barrie

Far from the church we often see today...

A church that doesn’t provoke any crises,
 a gospel that doesn’t unsettle,
a word of God that doesn’t get under anyone’s skin,
a word of God that doesn’t touch the real sin
of the society in which it is being proclaimed–
what gospel is that?

Very nice, pious considerations
 that don’t bother anyone,
that’s the way many would like preaching to be.
Those preachers who avoid every thorny matter
so as not to be harassed,
so as not to have conflicts and difficulties,
do not light up the world they live in.
They don’t have Peter’s courage, who told that crowd
where the bloodstained hands still were
that had killed Christ:
“You killed him!”

Even though the charge could cost him his life as well,
he made it.

The gospel is courageous;
it’s the good news
of him who came to take away the world’s sins.

-- Oscar Romero - April 16, 1978

Word Creation Wednesday

This week's word has to do with the way we adopt the things that we choose to believe.

"Pseudocontemplation" - The mental act of choosing to believe a certain idea or concept due to the way it is presented, our personal bias, or our feelings about and reaction to the presenter of the idea.  The converse is also included in this, where we reject an idea because it is poorly presented or we don't like the presenter. This is especially practiced in North America where we often, consciously or unconsciously, adopt the ideas presented in the news and entertainment media as our own.  Every idea seems to have great merit if it is the only idea that you consider.  There is a famine of true critical thinking in our world...in my own life.  Edward R. Murrow said, "A great many people think they are thinking when they are really rearranging their prejudices and superstitions."  If you've never taken the time to listen to the person who disagrees with you then you are building beliefs on a shallow foundation.

This week's sermon...

Part 2 on Disciplines for a Busy World - Solitude and Silence.

Full study guide and outline is here.

Quote of the Week...

Passed on to me from my good friend Wes...

“You can safely assume that you’ve created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do."

--Ann Lamott

Prayer for a Sunday...

Written by Walter Brueggemann - 

We are strange conundrums of faithfulness and fickleness.

We cleave to you in all the ways that we are able.

We count on you and intend our lives to be lived for you,

and then we find ourselves among your people

who are always seeking elsewhere and otherwise.

So we give thanks that you are the God

who yearns and waits for us,

and that our connection to you is always from your side,

and that it is because of your goodness

that neither life nor death

nor angels nor principalities

nor heights nor depths

nor anything in creation

can separate us from you.

We give thanks for your faithfulness,

so much more durable than ours.  Amen

And never be the same...

Pastoral Epiphany

June 10, 2007

A vending machine of God

I am not

No slot for quarters

No chutes of spiritual sweetness

Dispensing divinity

Guaranteed to satisfy

At times people see me thus

I hate it

Mostly when I’m empty

When sweetness is hard to find

Quarters overflow

Yet there is nothing to give

And a line of those who want

Then, in a moment of grace

Insight comes, ripping scabs from eyes and heart

I see the truth

I like it too

Being a source 

Supplying quantities of God yet consuming none

Prepackaged Jesus, clean and sterile

Spiritual truth sealed in bags

A God contained

There is a joy in teaching 

Free from pain of being taught

Truth observed but not encountered

Analyzed, but paralyzed

You do not build another’s stones of remembrance

There is no life in living truth for others

If you handle fire you will be burned

Scars will evidence lessons learned

A vending machine God does not need

Maybe yet, a cup, albeit cracked

Filling, spilling, overflowing

Telling of the God I know

In hopes that they will someday go

To meet Him for themselves

And never be the same.

A Re-Run...

Here's a post that I wrote back in 2005.  It came back to me as I sat through our denominational convention this week - excited by some of the changes happening in our Fellowship and yet still wondering about this weird thing that we call church.  As we work through budgets and by-laws and begin to discuss theological issues (while they are both important and necessary) it is so easy to lose the joy in laying it all our for the Kingdom.  We lose the focus of Jesus in the trappings of running a church.  And, as often happens with me, the same questions surface in my head.  Here's what I wrote about it 4 years ago...

July 5, 2005 - 

The more time passes the less I am sure of and the more confident I am that Jesus is all He said He is. It is encouraging for me to see others at the same point in their journey. My faith has become less about answers and more about quiet trust in the One who is leading. Anne Lamott writes,

“Another problem involves what the light looks like. I have thought over the years, that the light would look like success, a good man, a child, a Democratic president, but none of these were right. Moses led his people in circles for forty years so that they could get ready for the Promised Land, because they had too many ideas and preconceptions about what a Promised Land should look like…We have to sit in our own anxiety and funkiness long enough to know what a Promised Land would be like, or, to put it another way, what it means to be saved.”

So much of my spiritual journey has been about letting go of what I thought God was doing in order to embrace what He’s actually up to.

I never wanted to be a pastor. I thought that they were too secluded from the real world. What an idiot I was. But God is patient (and persistent), and here I am pastoring a church, never more sure of His calling in my life than I am now.

I thought that spiritual leadership was about giving people answers. Truth is that it’s more about walking with people through their questions. I’ve realized that God doesn’t need me to be His agent; He can do His own PR work. He wants me to be His hands, showing compassion, serving, loving, dying. Sure, you speak the truth, but your eloquence and insight aren’t needed, He just enjoys letting you be a part of what He is doing.

I thought that being a pastor was about discerning vision and preaching with passion. I am learning that it’s more about riding the roller coaster we call life. Let me share with you a day from a couple of weeks ago. I got to the office at 9:00am on Friday and spent the next hour talking with a suicidal woman on the phone. Our church has tried to help her repeatedly, just like every other social agency in our town. But she continually burns her bridges, abuses those who help her, and justifies it by saying that God is leading her to do these things. At 10:00 I met with another person. She has every reason to be suicidal and yet God is slowly but surely changing her heart. On my way back to the office I met with a family of a 66 year old man who had just died. They have little or no understanding when it comes to Jesus and what He intends for us. It was an hour of trying to bring some hope to a situation where there is none, or at least it feels that way. When I got back to the office I had to do the intensely spiritual work of responding to emails. That was followed up by an hour of wrestling with Acts chapter 2, asking God to speak to me and enable me to speak clearly to others. At 2:00 I did a funeral. Once again, very little hope, just a deep love and respect for a man who they will miss everyday for the rest of their lives. I wrapped up the day trying to finish off my sermon. And all of this is set against the back drop of hurt feelings and misunderstandings that surround a recent church decision. And yet I love it. I’m seeing God in places that I never dreamed He would be. And guess what, He’s getting the job done. I should’ve known that when He said that He would build His church that is wasn’t some politician’s promise, good only for the time it takes to get them in office. He meant what He said. And He’s good for His word.

I thought that peace was the absence of all these struggles. I am learning that the real peace comes in the midst of the roller coaster. You can only use a parachute when you’re falling to the earth at some insane speed. You can only trust God when it looks as if there is no hope.

So I’m learning to be sure of less, but to be more confident of the less I know to be true. It’s an interesting paradox, and one that’s difficult to explain. I guess that’s what makes it so beautiful. Easy answers lose their beauty when held up to the light. But when you experience something that is beyond describing, or at least describing fully, the truth seems to actually grow in beauty as the light reflects across the surface of the unknown.

That’s just the way God likes to do things.

Following up from yesterday's word...

Dallas Willard says,

“In solitude we confront our own soul with its obscure forces and conflicts that escape our attention when we are interacting with others."

On the lighter side, when hearing a sermon it is okay to focus on what is being said and who says it. Below is a little poem (not mine) that speaks to one who has added solitude and silence to his (or her) life:

The color of my pastor's eyes, 
In truth I can't define;
For when he prays he closes his,
When he preaches I close mine!

Word Creation Wednesday

This week's word has to do with our tendency to avoid times of quiet and introspection...

"Diversionism" - The practice of constantly adding sound or activity to our lives (i.e. always turning on the radio in the car, occupying our quiet moments with the internet) as an attempt to avoid the conversation that goes on in our head during times of solitude and silence. Our world suffers from this condition without realizing it's devastating consequences. We become so occupied with things outside of us that we fail to give sufficient attention and thought to what is going on inside of us. The result is an entire population who never listen to their hearts long enough to wrestle with the larger questions of life. Forward momentum has a deafening effect on the voice of both the human soul and the Holy Spirit. The Spirit doesn't send e-mail or text messages. To hear it speak you must sit with it a while.

This week's sermon...again

Turns out there were no audio problems this week so here's the sermon from last Sunday.  I'm starting a new series called Disciplines for a Busy World.  The first focus is on keeping Sabbath. Kristine Haig writes,

“Keeping Sabbath is not about some sort of legalistic, moralistic ‘What do you do on Sunday’ question, but about finding enough quiet time to refresh our spirits and turn our hearts back to God. We’re sort of on the fast track to global, cosmic, economic burnout.  My sense is that our exhaustion is of the spirit, and this really is God’s way of drawing us back.”

So here it is...

Full outline and study guide can be found online here.

I am the richest of all men...

My youngest turned 9 this week.  My kid's birthdays always bring the nostalgic contemplation side out in me. Life seems to be zipping along and then all of the sudden the balloons and steamers kindle the fires of memory.  I am reminded with great joy and deep sorrow that one day they will grow up and leave me and start their own families...in their own houses...with some painfully inferior husband who isn't worthy to have jewels such as these in his life. Sometimes the fatherly nature of my thoughts is so predictable.    

People always say that life goes faster the older you get.  I'm not sure that it goes any faster, but you definitely grow in the understanding of what it is that is actually happening.  Your comprehension of life grows and it seems like it takes more of your time to just mentally take it all in.  The becomes most evident to me in the lives of my daughters.  Through them I see the life of a 15, 12, 10, and 9 year old through 41 year old eyes.  I remember when I was 15 and thought I knew everything but was terrified that maybe I didn't.  When I was 12 and was desperately concerned that my school mates like me.  When I was 10 and the big questions in life consisted of what was for dinner and what do I want for Christmas.  When I was nine and there was no place better than my dad's lap.  

But then you grow up.  You begin to see that at every stage of your life that your thinking is limited.  You realize that you never arrive, you continually grow, change, and deepen in your understanding of what is going on around you.  I think there comes a day, or maybe a number of days, where you make peace with this.  You realize that you won't achieve all of your dreams. You realize that it's okay that you don't.  Part of the process is the epiphany that some of your dreams would have destroyed you and others would have shaped you in a very different way. Life then becomes a process of loving what you have instead of longing for what you don't. Realizing that sometimes in our constant desire for more we cheapen and devalue what we have.  

One of my favorite things to say is "I am the richest of all men."  I know this is true.  I believe it...most of the time. I have everything that I could want.  I have a relationship with Jesus who is "making all things new".  I have an amazing wife who keeps me fresh and alive. I have four beautiful daughters who, if they could ever grasp even a tenth of how much I love them, would never have self-esteem issues. I have extended family and friends, a warm and solid house, a job where I get to invest in the lives of others.  What more could I want?  

Kid's birthdays are good for me.  They remind me that life is short...but sweet.  They point me to the gifts I have rather than to the gifts I don't.  It's a lesson that I seem to need to re-learn over and over.  But that's always the way it is with truth.

This week's sermon...

...had some audio difficulties so I'm posting one from 2008 on Matthew 20:1-16 - The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard.  I called it "The Great Reversal".



Full outline and study guide can be found here.

Quote of the Week...

Here's a bit of a thinker for you...

"The real struggle is not between East and West, or capitalism and communism, but between education and propaganda."

~ Martin Buber

Today's post...

The reality is that I have posted on this blog everyday since January 25th.  That's quite a streak for me and since I am either an all or nothing person I have realized that if I'm ever going to write on this blog I need to discipline myself to do it faithfully.  The problem is that nobody has something to say everyday.  It's just not feasible.  

I could tell you that someone gave us a fridge.  It was a true gift from God and our food is happily chilling as I write.  

I could also tell you that I preached today on incorporating the discipline of Sabbath.  And I am just going to veg with my wife and watch a movie.  

Other than that there is not much to say...I'll try again tomorrow...

Music soothes the savage beast...

In spite of having appliance problems today (see the post below) there is one thing that soothes my refrigeratorless soul...the music put out by Red Mountain Church in Birmingham, Alabama. Recommending music is always risky.  People have varied tastes.  But I really like what these guys and gals do with old hymn lyrics.  My favorite album is called The Gadsby Project, and coming in close second is Help My Unbelief.  Find out all about them here...and enjoy a few of the samples below.

King of Saints



Come Boldly to the Throne of Grace



With Melting Heart and Weeping Eyes



Help My Unbelief

Enjoy!  

Well...it's not.

Know that old joke, "Is your refrigerator running?"

Well...it's not.  I thought the Diet Cokes were a bit warm.  Funny how you wake up with this perfect Saturday planned and then life happens.  So look out Craigslist, here I come...

Speed

This week-end I am starting a three part sermon series titled, "Disciplines for a Busy World." It's my attempt to remind myself that there are some counter-cultural practices that the church has utilized for centuries that help keep us focused on life through Jesus when the world all around us offers what appears to be life through everything else. There are a ton of things that I could cover, but I've chosen to limit the series to...

• Sabbath
  
• Solitude and Silence
  
• Simplicity

Why only three?   Because we need to approach these ideas slowly.  More isn't always better. As I have been poking around in my own heart I have been reminded just how counter-cultural these disciplines are, even within what I would call the evangelical Christian sub-culture. 

Sabbath sets itself up against busyness, even busyness for good reasons.  It's not just going to church on Sunday, it's a conscious decision to let things stop for a day in order to remind ourselves that the success of the Universe (or our local Christian body or even my own spiritual life) has more to do with God than it does with me.  He asks us to stop in order to break our momentum.  To remind us that it's His work and not ours.  Solitude and Silence helps us to listen.  A strange idea for the iPod and internet generation.  And simplicity says that less is more.  Something I am reminded of when I see the fact that my stuff owns me instead of the other way around.

What motivated this series?  Primarily my own sense of lostness and desire to be refocused. Pastoring can be too busy at times and I find that I wrestle with what I call "people fatigue". I think that I am not alone in this.  While Jesus calls us to open up our hearts to people we are often so busy that we just don't want to surrender to that call.  Of course, there's always this option...

Are you there, God? It's me, the Internet.

Prayer has gone digital with help from a new web service that allows people to outsource their holy communication to a computer. On Information Age Prayer, the faithful simply choose their preferred passages and a text-to-speech synthesizer gives voice to them at regular intervals, for a nominal fee.

Available e-prayers include Our Father, for Christians, the Fajr, for Muslims and, for the agnostic, a prayer for financial health — which ironically will set users back about $53 annually. "I don't make any particular claims about efficacy, but I do believe that God is omniscient and He will hear (the prayers)," says creator James Mcarlos, who describes himself as spiritual but not religious. "Whether He listens or not is really a reflection of the subscriber."

The 23-year-old Bostonian says he designed the pay-per-prayer site for people like himself "who don't have time to put in the effort they'd like, to pray." (Read more at Digital Prayers)

As it says in the video below, we are living in exponential times.  Life is moving faster than ever before.  But honesty calls us to admit that just because it's faster doesn't mean it's better - especially when it comes to our spiritual life.