Through the Deep Waters -- Feb 23

Genesis 1:1-26

God started it all. It was his idea and his word that created the world. He didn’t do it accidently, half-heartedly or unwillingly. He didn't make the world because he was lonely or because he needed worship. God is a completely self-sufficient community of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Yet, God desired us. So, he created the world with his word of power.

Over Lent, we are reading through the great themes of Scripture. The Bible is a collection of books, covering 4000 years, but it tells a common story – the story of salvation. It is a story of great recovery, as God rescues his people from sin, death and slavery. However, the story begins with God. God knew what he was getting into when he created you and me. And he made us anyway.

God wanted to get into this messy business we call life – and he kicked it off because he loved us, before we were even here. So, if we are discouraged, anxious or fearful, we can be reassured that God knew what he was doing when he started it all.

And it began good. We know that since then it isn’t always good. But it started good and it will be good in the end too.

Prayer: God, thank you for beginning. Thank you for making this world. Thank you that no matter how difficult things get, you gave us an enormous gift simply by creating us in a good world. Thank you that your vision of good will never fail. Amen.

Sound and Fury

I am a bit of a political junkie. I love following the media coverage of the presidential campaign. The media is obsessively guessing, second-guessing, analyzing and editorializing – and I love it! But, seriously, sometimes I need to check myself. The amount of attention given to Iowa over the last few months only to have a difference of 8 votes between Romney and Santorum – inconclusive and inconsequential. And that’s just the reporting. It’s the guessing and speculation that takes up most of the time.

Mike Murphy, a Republican strategist gave a very funny illustration of the media on Meet the Press;

“The media is like a Jurassic Park dinosaur; 30 foot tall, huge teeth, and all due respect, not the biggest brain, and it follows movement. When it sees movement… Rick Santorum… it stomps over there.”

It’s so true… the media constantly makes a big deal about the latest and biggest. And I fall for it every time.

Marilynne Robinson’s wonderful article on the Bible in the New York Times last week was a great corrective. It is a great article all the way through, but in particular, it reminded me of how differently the Bible sees the world. She describes the Bible as a history of God’s movement through the most insignificant and marginal people. It is not filled with great movers and shakers. It is filled with ordinary, insignificant people, loved by a great God.

“Moments of the highest import pass among people who are so marginal that conventional history would not have noticed them: aliens, the enslaved, people themselves utterly unaware that their lives would have consequence. The great assumption of literary realism is that ordinary lives are invested with a kind of significance that justifies, or requires, its endless iterations of the commonplace, including, of course, crimes and passions and defeats, however minor these might seem in the world’s eyes. This assumption is by no means inevitable. Most cultures have written about demigods and kings and heroes. Whatever the deeper reasons for the realist fascination with the ordinary, it is generous even when it is cruel, simply in the fact of looking as directly as it can at people as they are and insisting that insensitivity or banality matters. The Old Testament prophets did this, too.”

That influence of that point of view on literature and culture cannot be underestimated as a corrective to the aggrandizement of the political and media landscape. The media is a harsh judge, that raises up and puts down for the most frivolous virtues. The Bible shows us a God who judges and shows mercy – the least of these.

Beyond Deserving

Being a parent is a lot of fun.

However, it is a huge existential crisis. What is my role in influencing someone else? How do I help a little human life develop spiritually, physically, mentally and emotionally? And more prosaically – how do I manage the family life, like getting kids off to school, getting them to get their homework done, and stopping them from fighting like cats and dogs? Robin and I often talk about this – and stumble along together!

I have been reading a great book that has helped me to think through the very role and purpose of parenting – grounded in the theological concept of grace. It’s called ‘Beyond Deserving’ by Dorothy Martyn. It has helped me in my thinking. I highly recommend it.

The basic thesis of the book is that parental love (and any kind of mentoring love) works to the degree that it breaks the cycle of ‘this for that’ justice. True, nurturing love moves beyond rewards and threats to the much more powerful force of unconditional alliance with the child. She is really taking to task the common (and very tempting) mindset of rewards and bribes.

She uses Jesus’ parable of the workers in the vineyard (Matthew 20:1-16) who all received from the generosity of the lord. Fairness and merit disappear in the face of love which transcends “deserving” all together.

That may all sound airy-fairy – but it is a really helpful book! Here’s a quote from the conclusion:

A good parent doesn’t simply wash his or her hands of hurtful behavior and abandon a child to impulse. He or she recognizes that the out-of-control child, attempting to act on a destructive impulse, is at the the mercy of a force within that he may not be able to withstand alone.”

“Understanding what it is like to be under siege, the good parent, as well as the good mentor, intervenes powerfully and unconditionally on the side of what is good for the child, standing with the child instead of standing over against him in judgment. Such a stance is in fact derived from the way that God enters into human suffering with mercy, moving first with grace – not waiting for bad behavior to change – and with patience, that is to say, sustaining and accompanying the human being without coercion.”

Think Different. Really Really Different

What to make of Steve Job’s death, and the many reactions to it? The outpouring of emotion about Steve Jobs was completely genuine. I saw tears and sentimental Facebook posts from the most stoic of Mac users. And then, there was of course, the analysis. Steve Jobs was the model of innovation. Steve Jobs was a true genius, a true rebel, a true pioneer. Steve Jobs and his little silver boxes changed the world.

And then, because there were still more columns to be written, there was the cynical questioning. Steve Jobs could be quite nasty apparently. Steve Jobs just edited and repackaged what others invented. Steve Jobs abandoned the rebellious counter culture to create the most closed, secretive, centrally controlled technology company ever.

Well, Steve Jobs probably isn’t overly concerned with this praise or critique now. He probably wouldn’t care about these opinions even if he was still alive. He was a man with remarkably focused vision which didn’t include the caring about the criticisms of others.

But what got me thinking was this whole idea of changing the world. We live in a culture that feels compelled to ‘change the world’. We are constantly talking about changing our world to address the issues of climate change, poverty, disease, economic inequalities or human behavior. (Andy Crouch has a fabulous book called Culture Makers in which he describes the uptick in books about ‘Changing the World. See him talk about it here.)

But can we really change the world?

For Apple it was the commitment to ‘Think Different’. But how different was the thinking at the end of the day? Apple grew because of a fierce vision, intense corporate culture (often driven by fear of failure), secrecy and the same business practices that put the onus on the backs of the poor. Some of this thinking was good and most would say, necessary. But I would not call it ‘different’.

As Mike Daisey wrote in his op-ed;

“We can admire the design perfection and business acumen while acknowledging the truth: with Apple’s immense resources at his command he could have revolutionized the industry to make devices more humanely and more openly, and chose not to. If we view him unsparingly, without nostalgia, we would see a great man whose genius in design, showmanship and stewardship of the tech world will not be seen again in our lifetime. We would also see a man who in the end failed to “think different,” in the deepest way, about the human needs of both his users and his workers.”

Our experience with President Obama has confirmed this. After 3½ years in power, it’s almost embarrassing to go back and see the commercials for ‘CHANGE’ when we reflect on the way politics has steadfastly remained politics, no matter how inspiring the rhetoric.

We can change the packaging of the world for some. We can change the experiences some of us have in the world. But the underlying dynamics of power are just the same. The fundamental brokenness of our world seems unchanged. The labels on the building may be different, but the world, it seems to me, remains actually, quite unchanged.*

What’s most concerning to me is that the American church has bought into this rhetoric. We can ‘change the world’ through better presentation, better packaging, better organization and better branding. Our passion, our commitment, our drive and focus will change the world.

I doubt it.

We are not the ones who will change the world. The whole point of the gospel is message is not that there is a new brand in town, this one called Jesus; not that we are bigger and better than all the others.

The church is weak. The church worships a crucified, buried and risen lord. The church is for losers. The church admits people based on their failure, not their success. The church succeeds and will only ever succeed if what she fundamentally believes is true… that the heart of the universe is the God revealed in the baby in the manger, the carpenter on the road and the man upon the cross; unless the world itself is already changed by Him.

Most people who want to change the world argue that they must work with the world ‘the way it is’. That’s why even the most radically idealistic corporate identities abuse workers, cut costs on labor and lobby for corporate welfare. But Jesus shows us that the way the world is, is different to what we see. The cross is foolishness to the world, but to those who believe, it is the power of God.

* Maybe Steven Pinker’s new book ‘Our Better Angels’ will prove this wrong?

Like and Love

Just read an article from David Brooks in the NYT about empathy. Empathy is an attractive idea... it's the capacity to be affected by and share the emotional state of the other. It's our ability to identify others as 'like us'. Empathy makes us 'feel' closer to others.

But Brooks, who these days specializes in broadening our understanding of the human social being, says that the problem with empathy is "when we try to turn feeling into action." He cites a number of studies in which empathy is shown to be a weak motivator, especially when it comes to personal sacrifice. "Empathy orients you toward moral action, but it doesn’t seem to help much when that action comes at a personal cost... [Some] scholars have called empathy a “fragile flower,” easily crushed by self-concern."

He comes to a conclusion by talking about 'duty'.

"Nobody is against empathy. Nonetheless, it’s insufficient. These days empathy has become a shortcut. It has become a way to experience delicious moral emotions without confronting the weaknesses in our nature that prevent us from actually acting upon them... People who actually perform pro-social action don’t only feel for those who are suffering, they feel compelled to act by a sense of duty. Their lives are structured by sacred codes...

"The code isn’t just a set of rules. It’s a source of identity. It’s pursued with joy. It arouses the strongest emotions and attachments. Empathy is a sideshow. If you want to make the world a better place, help people debate, understand, reform, revere and enact their codes."

A sacred code. A source of identity.

I call this the 16 hour bus ride effect. I once took a group of 18 university students on a trip to Uganda. We then joined 20 Ugandan students to do a mission trip in Northern Uganda. The students were primed for empathy. They really wanted to understand and befriend the Ugandan students -- and visa versa.

Then we took a 16 hour bus ride to get there.

But at some point in a 16 hour bus ride, the power of empathy to suppress our anger and selfishness completely collapses. The thought process went like this: "I don't want to understand you. I don't even like you. I want you to stop singing the same song 20 times."

But here's the thing - as we stopped 'liking' each other, we began to 'love' each other. We began to draw on something deeper than our empathy. We began to ask ourselves - what is right to do?

Empathy doesn't last. Feeling connected doesn't help me sacrifice for others in the long run. We need more than that. We need a command and a sense of duty. We need an identity that is grounded in love, not 'like'.

As a church planter, I had a vision of a church made up of people who don't belong together. I really believe that we come to understand people who are different from us through the lens of Jesus' grace. Initially, this is an exciting idea. We love different flavors! We love the bright new shiny thing! We love being thought of as... I don't know... 'cosmopolitan'.

But these feelings of connection or empathic sentiments will not move us far enough. This is why the command of Jesus is so important. I must love my neighbor because my Lord commands it. I love my enemy, not because I get him, but because it is right and good to do so. I love my brother in Christ not because I feel brotherly. But because he actually, in Christ, my brother.

We need more than empathy. We need commitment to one another. We need a family identity that is actual.

This is SO different from how the church works today. Most churches today are bonded by 'like'. I am invested only in so far as I am drawn.

Like = Excitement/ Energy/ Attraction.

But the church should be a place of commitment and duty and loyalty as well.

Love = Commitment/Sacrifice/ Work.

Now, don't get me wrong. We need and should pursue both 'like' and 'love'. But perhaps I can put it this way. Some seasons are seasons of 'like' - when we are drawn in and everything feels smooth. Some seasons are seasons of 'love' - when we roll up our sleeves and commit because the community we have is real and we have a responsibility to it.

In seasons of 'like', the worship music, the fellowship, the food all tastes great. In seasons of 'love', our only nourishment

In seasons of 'like' we are conscious of what we are receiving. In seasons of 'love'

The seasons of 'like' are a wonderful harvest. The seasons of 'love' are when the roots go deep. Both seasons are needed.

In the first century church, it took a long time to become a member. In some cases, it was up to 7 years of catechism. In a world of persecution, they wanted to see if people were only up for the 'like' season, or if they were up for the 'love' season as well.

Which season are you in right now?

A Football Prayer

OH LORD, AS WE HUDDLE HERE

HELP US ALL TO SEE IT CLEAR

PLAYING RIGHT PLAYING FAIR

IS WHAT WE ASK EVERYWHERE

AS WE GO FORTH TO PLAY THIS GAME

SPORTS AND LIFE ITS ALL THE SAME

WE HOPE TO WIN LIKE ALL THE REST

BUT HELP US LORD TO DO OUR BEST

AMEN

- Larry

Reflection on Our "Goodness"

On Sunday we talked about the challenge of our goodness. One of the key ideas that Jesus addresses in his conversation with the rich young ruler is our casual usage of the term ‘goodness’. Especially when we are healthy, employed and relatively wealthy, it is easy to imagine ourselves ‘pretty good’.

The danger of our casual imagination is that we start to bring God’s goodness down to our level, and expect God to treat us as relative equals. We don’t see how far we fall short of God’s holiness and so our entire approach to God becomes, to say the least, inappropriate.

We need to become attentive to our self-righteousness, because it always rises up and is deadly damaging to our spiritual growth. Especially for those of us who seem ‘ok’ on the surface (what an illusion!) we need to notice when we are patting ourselves on the back.

I had a personal experience of this just before I delivered the sermon. I was walking down to the Walgreens to get grape juice for communion (yes, our grape juice comes from communion. Our wine comes from Safeway and our bread comes from Mariposa bakery.)

I was walking into Walgreens and held the door for an older woman who was moving rather slowly. And the simple act of holding this door, filled me with a sense of ‘being good’. I patted myself on the back. I basked in the warm glow of doing good. Part of that is the simple pleasure of acting on behalf of others – but it went deeper than that.

At the same time – at the same time, I saw from the corner of my eye a man that knew. We have had several conversations over the last few years, all of which involved him asking for money for his family. I had helped him in the past and knew that his story would be the same. We had shared a significant amount of time together and I would have considered us friendly. However, this day I didn’t have time for his issues. He hadn’t seen me, so I steadily ignored him until he had walked by. I was barely conscious of this, let alone allowed the implications of my hardheartedness to sink in.

Now, which one did Jesus specifically command… hold open the doors for old ladies? Or do not ignore your neighbor in need? Somehow I feel like the parable of the good Samaritan was more about the latter…

It wasn’t until I was walking home that I realized just what had happened. I am so practiced at observing good in myself and so poor at allowing my sin to truly confront me. Just wanted to share that with you, so that you guys can know that I am just as much a rich young ruler as anyone. - Josh