Heads bowed and eyes closed,
Or at least staring down one's nose.
Thoughts run wild, focus is scant,
But appearances kept, backs remain bent.
Lists of concerns of great import
Fall on ears numbed by the weekly report.
Tired eyes find good excuse
To remain closed and unused.
Monday, February 1, 2010
A Call to Arms
I also wanted to say that we can do better than this.
We've been pulling down one or two posts a month for too many months now. Between the six of us that's ridiculous. When I initially had the idea for this blog, I imagined it as a place that we could all go to be encouraged, to be strengthened in our resolve to keep fighting the Good Fight (so they say). As inconvenient as it is sometimes to sit down and write something (I'm extremely guilty of this sentiment), it is worth it for the everyone that is reading this (whether that is us or others). I personally commit to picking it up and being much more open about sharing with you guys. I hope you're all on board with me.
I'm not calling you out Kyle - you've been keeping this ship afloat.
p.s. How about the Chicago Bulls?
We've been pulling down one or two posts a month for too many months now. Between the six of us that's ridiculous. When I initially had the idea for this blog, I imagined it as a place that we could all go to be encouraged, to be strengthened in our resolve to keep fighting the Good Fight (so they say). As inconvenient as it is sometimes to sit down and write something (I'm extremely guilty of this sentiment), it is worth it for the everyone that is reading this (whether that is us or others). I personally commit to picking it up and being much more open about sharing with you guys. I hope you're all on board with me.
I'm not calling you out Kyle - you've been keeping this ship afloat.
p.s. How about the Chicago Bulls?
A New Year's Resolution
I've never been one for new year's resolutions. In fact, I've never made one before. Being the cynic that I am, all I can do is scoff whenever someone tells me their "new year's resolution". The problem for me is that it has always seemed like betterment for betterment sakes. If you really wanted to change your life, you would just do it. The coming or going of a year shouldn't have to control that. I realize it's a good time to start, but the people that have the motivation and willpower to change their lives won't wait for a date of convenience. That being said, I've decided to make a change this new year. I've decided to become a vegetarian. Muffle your groans, I have real reasons.
As some of you may or may not realize, I'm somewhat of a hipster. I wouldn't say I'm a true convert, soaking in the pools of blind faith, and fervent worship - but I'm definitely interested enough to stop by a couple Sundays a month and hang out with the crowd. I even have the cloth shoes, black trimmed glasses, and Animal Collective discography to ward off anyone that would question my loyalty to the movement. As of late, vegetarianism has a popular topic in these circles. In an environment such as the United States, it's a very effective way to be counter cultural and draw attention to yourself. That is very annoying. I knew a good number of people that when I'd ask them, "Why are you vegetarian?", they could produce nothing more than vague ramblings. That is not to say everyone was like this. There are several, prominent examples in my life of people that have wholeheartedly made the life-choice for great, logical, Godly reasons. Each of them taught me that's its a personal decision that one needs to make for personal reasons. Ever since then, I've known the mounds of statistics and all the formal arguments against meat consumption (primarily in the United States). But for all the facts, there was never a reason that emotionally resonated with me.
Eating is one of the most social things we do as a society. That means that becoming a vegetarian is not only about you. You're bound to run into countless, awkward situations that start with you gingerly saying, "I'm actually a vegetarian." and then ending with an awkward silence. For me, statistics, no matter how convincing, couldn't motivate me to make the leap. [They are pretty good statistics though.] For the past couple of years it has remained in the back of my mind. Even this past term in India it had come up several times. I'm a obsessive Google Reader user and these were two of the more memorable articles I read - one an interview for a book from the author of Everything is Illuminated and then a crazy response by Natalie Portman to the book. Yet even these weren't enough. But alas, last term I found my personal reason.
One of the churches here in Mussoorie (the town I live in) has a reputation for particularly dance-happy youth. My roommate and I decided to throw a dance party at our house before he went back to the states. We approached their proverbial leader and proposed the idea. He was ecstatic. We made plans for everyone to come over next weekend on a Sunday afternoon. We could all make momos (a labor intensive tibetan dumpling) together, eat, and then dance into the night. We said, "Bring 15 to 20 people. We'll provide the food." Not too surprising, by the time the next Sunday rolled around, there weren't 15 to 20 people in our house, there were upwards of 60 to 70. Word spread all around the church community in Mussoorie. So pretty much anyone under the age of 25 that attended a church in Mussoorie was in our house. We clearly weren't prepared for this, so we had to leave and get more food. We had buff (which is buffalo meat, since you can't get beef 'cause it's India) from a town down the mountain. Buff is actually unofficially illegal in Mussoorie itself. I was going to go get more chicken but then someone said they knew where to get buff in Mussoorie. I said ok, knowing it would probably be good knowledge to have. Anyways, we went down to the market on his scooter and parked it. There was a small stairwell between two store fronts that we descended down. The sun was setting, making the whole scene even more sinister. We were in tight residential area, smashed behind the market. The paths were so narrow and the buildings so narrow, that the only light came from haphazardly strung up lanterns every 100 feet. We were walking around and around in places that seemed almost completely indistinguishable when suddenly he stopped and knocked on a door. It was just a house. A man opened the door. They both exchanged Hindi greetings and we walked in. It was just a man's living room. We asked for 2 kg of buff. The man went behind a curtain and brought out a gigantic piece of meet that was easily as tall as he was. He threw it on the floor and started cutting it. You might think this is the moment I wanted to become a vegetarian. It wasn't. I actually thought it was really cool to see the physical meat and to see him physically cutting it. Anyways, we took our meat, paid the man and returned to the party heroes.
The party was a lot of fun. There were squads of people tackling different parts of the momo making process. Everyone was engaged and having fun. Eventually, after many hours, the momos were officially done cooking. We had made over 400 momos. There were two large buckets full of momos to show for it. The sheer amount of momos was absolutely overwhelming. Yet during the delicious gorging of momos that commenced, I noticed a small pot on our stove pot. I thought, "What is this? We have enough momos to feed a small village." I stepped out of line and walked over to see a pot of Maggi noodles (the equivalent of Ramen noodles here) boiling. I looked around trying to find the owner. Suddenly several individuals that had been invisible before stood out. They were standing in the corner talking amongst each other. They weren't hiding. They weren't sad. They had smiles on their faces. They were just the only people in the room that weren't eating momos. I knew some of them so I walked over and asked them what was going on. One of the simply responded, "We're all vegetarians." I was shocked. Then immediately, I was shocked that I was shocked. You may think it not very odd for an Indian to be a vegetarian. You'd be right most of the time. But it's very odd for an Indian Christian to be a vegarantian. I had never made that connection before I came here, but in 5 short months I associated Christian with meat eating. They each went around and told how they had come from Hindu families (that still remained largely Hindu) and how important diet was to their families. It may not have meant much to anyone else in the room, but to their families it meant a lot. Their families, like me, associated Christianity with eating meat, to the point where many people around India think that people convert to Christianity so that they can eat meat. All of a sudden, my chicken and buff momos weren't so appetizing.
It just dawned on me that diet is such an important issue all around India. People's lives revolve around it. People's lives are judged by the choices they make in this circle. I can understand how this can be important, but it's not. Diet is not something of eternal significance, at least not anymore. That's something that Christianity teaches us. Yet not everyone else feels this way. For me it all suddenly became clear. The best way to fight this notion isn't to do whatever I want, because it means nothing to me, but to respect other people's beliefs since I know it will mean something to them. That's why I decided to become a vegetarian, because I'm venturing to show people that Christianity isn't about meat but about Christ.
The statistics are also helpful.
As some of you may or may not realize, I'm somewhat of a hipster. I wouldn't say I'm a true convert, soaking in the pools of blind faith, and fervent worship - but I'm definitely interested enough to stop by a couple Sundays a month and hang out with the crowd. I even have the cloth shoes, black trimmed glasses, and Animal Collective discography to ward off anyone that would question my loyalty to the movement. As of late, vegetarianism has a popular topic in these circles. In an environment such as the United States, it's a very effective way to be counter cultural and draw attention to yourself. That is very annoying. I knew a good number of people that when I'd ask them, "Why are you vegetarian?", they could produce nothing more than vague ramblings. That is not to say everyone was like this. There are several, prominent examples in my life of people that have wholeheartedly made the life-choice for great, logical, Godly reasons. Each of them taught me that's its a personal decision that one needs to make for personal reasons. Ever since then, I've known the mounds of statistics and all the formal arguments against meat consumption (primarily in the United States). But for all the facts, there was never a reason that emotionally resonated with me.
Eating is one of the most social things we do as a society. That means that becoming a vegetarian is not only about you. You're bound to run into countless, awkward situations that start with you gingerly saying, "I'm actually a vegetarian." and then ending with an awkward silence. For me, statistics, no matter how convincing, couldn't motivate me to make the leap. [They are pretty good statistics though.] For the past couple of years it has remained in the back of my mind. Even this past term in India it had come up several times. I'm a obsessive Google Reader user and these were two of the more memorable articles I read - one an interview for a book from the author of Everything is Illuminated and then a crazy response by Natalie Portman to the book. Yet even these weren't enough. But alas, last term I found my personal reason.
One of the churches here in Mussoorie (the town I live in) has a reputation for particularly dance-happy youth. My roommate and I decided to throw a dance party at our house before he went back to the states. We approached their proverbial leader and proposed the idea. He was ecstatic. We made plans for everyone to come over next weekend on a Sunday afternoon. We could all make momos (a labor intensive tibetan dumpling) together, eat, and then dance into the night. We said, "Bring 15 to 20 people. We'll provide the food." Not too surprising, by the time the next Sunday rolled around, there weren't 15 to 20 people in our house, there were upwards of 60 to 70. Word spread all around the church community in Mussoorie. So pretty much anyone under the age of 25 that attended a church in Mussoorie was in our house. We clearly weren't prepared for this, so we had to leave and get more food. We had buff (which is buffalo meat, since you can't get beef 'cause it's India) from a town down the mountain. Buff is actually unofficially illegal in Mussoorie itself. I was going to go get more chicken but then someone said they knew where to get buff in Mussoorie. I said ok, knowing it would probably be good knowledge to have. Anyways, we went down to the market on his scooter and parked it. There was a small stairwell between two store fronts that we descended down. The sun was setting, making the whole scene even more sinister. We were in tight residential area, smashed behind the market. The paths were so narrow and the buildings so narrow, that the only light came from haphazardly strung up lanterns every 100 feet. We were walking around and around in places that seemed almost completely indistinguishable when suddenly he stopped and knocked on a door. It was just a house. A man opened the door. They both exchanged Hindi greetings and we walked in. It was just a man's living room. We asked for 2 kg of buff. The man went behind a curtain and brought out a gigantic piece of meet that was easily as tall as he was. He threw it on the floor and started cutting it. You might think this is the moment I wanted to become a vegetarian. It wasn't. I actually thought it was really cool to see the physical meat and to see him physically cutting it. Anyways, we took our meat, paid the man and returned to the party heroes.
The party was a lot of fun. There were squads of people tackling different parts of the momo making process. Everyone was engaged and having fun. Eventually, after many hours, the momos were officially done cooking. We had made over 400 momos. There were two large buckets full of momos to show for it. The sheer amount of momos was absolutely overwhelming. Yet during the delicious gorging of momos that commenced, I noticed a small pot on our stove pot. I thought, "What is this? We have enough momos to feed a small village." I stepped out of line and walked over to see a pot of Maggi noodles (the equivalent of Ramen noodles here) boiling. I looked around trying to find the owner. Suddenly several individuals that had been invisible before stood out. They were standing in the corner talking amongst each other. They weren't hiding. They weren't sad. They had smiles on their faces. They were just the only people in the room that weren't eating momos. I knew some of them so I walked over and asked them what was going on. One of the simply responded, "We're all vegetarians." I was shocked. Then immediately, I was shocked that I was shocked. You may think it not very odd for an Indian to be a vegetarian. You'd be right most of the time. But it's very odd for an Indian Christian to be a vegarantian. I had never made that connection before I came here, but in 5 short months I associated Christian with meat eating. They each went around and told how they had come from Hindu families (that still remained largely Hindu) and how important diet was to their families. It may not have meant much to anyone else in the room, but to their families it meant a lot. Their families, like me, associated Christianity with eating meat, to the point where many people around India think that people convert to Christianity so that they can eat meat. All of a sudden, my chicken and buff momos weren't so appetizing.
It just dawned on me that diet is such an important issue all around India. People's lives revolve around it. People's lives are judged by the choices they make in this circle. I can understand how this can be important, but it's not. Diet is not something of eternal significance, at least not anymore. That's something that Christianity teaches us. Yet not everyone else feels this way. For me it all suddenly became clear. The best way to fight this notion isn't to do whatever I want, because it means nothing to me, but to respect other people's beliefs since I know it will mean something to them. That's why I decided to become a vegetarian, because I'm venturing to show people that Christianity isn't about meat but about Christ.
The statistics are also helpful.
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Hi. My name's Derek Webb and I'll convict the hell out of your heart.
There are few things Derek does better than convict my heart of the sin of self-righteousness. Lyrically the album "I See Things Upside Down" surpasses anything I've experienced in terms of conviction. Here's a sampling.
Songs and lyrics that have ruined me from I See Things Upside Down:
1. I want a broken heart
"i've traded naked and unashamed
for a better place to hide
for a righteous mask, a suit of fig leaves and lies"
2. I repent
"i repent, i repent of parading my liberty
i repent. i repent of paying for what i get for free
and for the way i believe that i am living right
by trading sins for others that are easier to hide
i am wrong and of these things i repent"
3. Medication
"Don't paint my face
I need to see the scars
So i don't forget
The back of my tutor's arms"
4. Ballad in plain red
"‘cause you can make your life look good
you can do what Jesus would
but you’d be surprised what you can do with a hard heart"
5. What is not love
"What looks like failure is success
And what looks like poverty is riches
When what is true looks more like a knife
It looks like you're killing me
But you're saving my life
But I give myself to what looks like love
And I sell myself for what feels like love
And I pay to get what is not love
And all just because I see things upside down
What looks like torture is a time to rejoice
What sounds like thunder is a comforting voice
When what is beautiful looks broken and crushed
And I say I don't know you
But you say it's finished
When what is beautiful looks broken and crushed
And I say I don't know you
But you say it's finished"
All I have to say is wow. Thanks be to God that the album ends with the refrain "you say it's finished." That's the only righteousness that will save this self-righteous hypocrite.
Songs and lyrics that have ruined me from I See Things Upside Down:
1. I want a broken heart
"i've traded naked and unashamed
for a better place to hide
for a righteous mask, a suit of fig leaves and lies"
2. I repent
"i repent, i repent of parading my liberty
i repent. i repent of paying for what i get for free
and for the way i believe that i am living right
by trading sins for others that are easier to hide
i am wrong and of these things i repent"
3. Medication
"Don't paint my face
I need to see the scars
So i don't forget
The back of my tutor's arms"
4. Ballad in plain red
"‘cause you can make your life look good
you can do what Jesus would
but you’d be surprised what you can do with a hard heart"
5. What is not love
"What looks like failure is success
And what looks like poverty is riches
When what is true looks more like a knife
It looks like you're killing me
But you're saving my life
But I give myself to what looks like love
And I sell myself for what feels like love
And I pay to get what is not love
And all just because I see things upside down
What looks like torture is a time to rejoice
What sounds like thunder is a comforting voice
When what is beautiful looks broken and crushed
And I say I don't know you
But you say it's finished
When what is beautiful looks broken and crushed
And I say I don't know you
But you say it's finished"
All I have to say is wow. Thanks be to God that the album ends with the refrain "you say it's finished." That's the only righteousness that will save this self-righteous hypocrite.
Monday, December 21, 2009
The Road to Emmaus (Week 2)
This week in my Sunday School class we continued our introduction to biblical theology and interpreting the Old Testament. After the holidays, we'll kick into full gear looking at case studies.
Biblical theology asks the question: "By what process has God revealed himself to mankind?" and results in the relating of the whole Bible to our Christian life now. Some of the strengths of biblical theology as a discipline is an increased ability to deal with problem passages in light of the whole of scripture; the ability to relate an individual story to the whole Bible and therefore ourselves; the displaying of the relationship between all parts of the OT to Christ; and the ability to map out the unity of the Bible by looking at whole message.
The Bible like all narrative has a plot flow. A basic narrative plot flow follows the following course: Introduction (Setting); Rising Action (Conflict Introduced); Climax (Conflict Resolved); Falling Action; Denoument (Conclusion). A basic narrative plot flow of the Bible could look like the following: Creation; Fall; Redemption in Process (rest of OT); Redemption Accomplished (Christ); Redemption Consummated (Glory). Vaughn Roberts has another great outline in his book "God's Big Picture."
If we are to understand any part of the narrative, we must wrestle with the issues context and application. In other words, how do we interpret an Old Testament text in light of our cultural, historical and theological distance from the original context? One method of thinking about this is to divide the main idea of a passage into three categories.
The first is called the Author's Big Idea (or ABI as it will be referred to from here on out). The ABI is concerned with the author's original intent to the original audience. It seeks to distill the main point of the passage in its original cultural, historical and theological context. For example, an ABI for Romans 3:21-26 might be: "Paul writes to the church in Rome about the appearance of the righteousness in God in the person of Christ for the sake of their justification and God's justice for those who believe."
The second is called the Theological Big Idea (TBI). It is concerned primarily with the transcendent theological principles that can be derived from the passage that would be true in any cultural or historical context. In the TBI we generally see statements about who God is and how he acts toward his people. In Romans 3 the TBI might be: "The righteousness of God has appeared in the person of Christ for the sake of the justification of sinners and the display of God's justice for those who believe." See, that statement is true no matter the cultural context because it is a statement primarily about God.
The third category is called the Message Big Idea (MBI), which might be better titled Application Big Idea if not for the fact that the acronym ABI is already in use. The MBI is concerned with taking that transcendent theological principle we derived from the text (the TBI) and reinserting it into our own cultural, historical and theological context. It asks questions like, how does this truth about God apply to me in my present reality? In Romans 3 the MBI might be: "Because the righteousness of God has appeared in the person of Christ for the sake of my justification and the display of his justice, I can have forgiveness of sin through faith in him."
Every (good) pastor goes through the process of developing an ABI, TBI and MBI for a given passage they are preaching (even if they don't use those categories or that terminology), even if they spend most of the time in the pulpit dealing with only one of them. Preaching, by its very nature, out to include all three to some extent. It is a message from a story (ABI) about God (TBI) for our edification (MBI).
At this point I'll take a break before posting again about the different ways one might interpret a given OT text in relation to Christ.
Sunday, December 6, 2009
On the Road to Emmaus
Today I began a Sunday School series at my church titled "The Road to Emmaus: Seeing Jesus in the Old Testament". It is the first time I've taught adults that are substantially older and wiser than myself, and I entered into it with a bit of insecurity. It ended up being incredibly enjoyable and I'm looking forward to how the rest of the series will go.
The reason I post this is to advance some thoughts laid out by Dave several weeks ago regarding biblical theology. I am going to post short thoughts on each Sunday's lesson so that you can follow along if you are interested.
This week we looked at a few introductory concepts that inform the how and why of studying the Old Testament. Biblical theology is a distinct area of theology from the more popular systematic theology as well as historical or pastoral theology. Systematic theology is concerned with seeing what the whole Bible says about a particular concept or topic. Historical theology is concerned with the development of theology over time in history. Pastoral theology is concerned with how we ought to live our lives and operate as a church as dictated by scripture. Biblical theology is concerned with the overall story or meta-narrative of Scripture. It asks questions like, "what unifies the Bible?"
So why study the Old Testament? Well if the Bible is all one story, that means that the OT is over half of the story, at least in quantitative terms. This also means that the OT informs the remainder of the story that we find in the New Testament. We see the NT quoting the OT on almost every page. Additionally, we see the OT always pointing us forward to Christ. The same God, the three-in-one, is the God of the OT and the NT. Despite the protests of some who would declare the God of the OT a God of wrath and the God of the NT a God of love, both testaments portray the same God--a God of both justice and mercy.
Finally, we see the NT speaking of the both the significance of the OT scriptures for NT believers. In 2 Timothy 2:15-17, Paul tells Timothy that the OT scriptures are "profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work." Additionally, we get the most important statement about about the OT scriptures from Jesus himself when, after his resurrection, he confronts two of the disciples about their failure to understand the OT. He says "'O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?' And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself" (Luke 24:25-27).
Thus, the class is aptly titled "The Road to Emmaus." My hope is that in the coming weeks we will continue to see the way in which the OT is telling the same story as the rest of the Bible: the story of God's rescue mission through his son Jesus.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Gay Christians Don't Make Me Sad
A brief reflection this morning in light of some processing I've done lately:
When I used to see openly gay or lesbian people who claimed to be Christian, I would generally feel a sense of anger because they had abandoned themselves to their sin. I would feel betrayed as a Christian who has to fight those longings every day. I would feel sad that their perspective on this issue was actually keeping them from God.
Lately I have not been so saddened by those who claim to be both Christian and gay. The reality is, if I met a gay person who actually believes the gospel: that they are a sinner in desperate need of the salvation that is found only through the blood of Jesus in whom they must place their faith and to whom they must submit as their Lord; if I met that person, I would rejoice that I have a brother in Christ. I would rejoice because what you believe about homosexuality doesn't make someone a Christian--what they believe about Jesus does.
I will tell you what does sadden me however. I haven't ever met the person I described in the previous paragraph. I know several gay Christians, and to be honest, to the man they have all abandoned the gospel. And that makes me overwhelmingly sad. In accepting a hermeneutic that permits their sexuality, they have embraced a view of the gospel that is monolithic, that interprets all of scripture through one single lens: that God is love. Everything else is subservient to that claim, and thus God is devoid of wrath, justice, judgment, righteousness and people really don't need atonement as much as a model of loving selflessness. So gay Christians don't make me sad. People who fly the banner of Christianity but don't embrace the gospel of scripture make me sad. People's eternal destiny is not defined by their sexuality--but it is defined by their view of Jesus--and so often the two seem to go hand in hand.
When I used to see openly gay or lesbian people who claimed to be Christian, I would generally feel a sense of anger because they had abandoned themselves to their sin. I would feel betrayed as a Christian who has to fight those longings every day. I would feel sad that their perspective on this issue was actually keeping them from God.
Lately I have not been so saddened by those who claim to be both Christian and gay. The reality is, if I met a gay person who actually believes the gospel: that they are a sinner in desperate need of the salvation that is found only through the blood of Jesus in whom they must place their faith and to whom they must submit as their Lord; if I met that person, I would rejoice that I have a brother in Christ. I would rejoice because what you believe about homosexuality doesn't make someone a Christian--what they believe about Jesus does.
I will tell you what does sadden me however. I haven't ever met the person I described in the previous paragraph. I know several gay Christians, and to be honest, to the man they have all abandoned the gospel. And that makes me overwhelmingly sad. In accepting a hermeneutic that permits their sexuality, they have embraced a view of the gospel that is monolithic, that interprets all of scripture through one single lens: that God is love. Everything else is subservient to that claim, and thus God is devoid of wrath, justice, judgment, righteousness and people really don't need atonement as much as a model of loving selflessness. So gay Christians don't make me sad. People who fly the banner of Christianity but don't embrace the gospel of scripture make me sad. People's eternal destiny is not defined by their sexuality--but it is defined by their view of Jesus--and so often the two seem to go hand in hand.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)