"You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves in Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." -Galatians 3:26-28
"Each
looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and
astounding. Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God;
and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange
that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing
their bread from the sweat of other men's faces; but let us judge
not that we be not judged." -Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address
This blog will not be without disagreement I am sure. But I am also sure that it is important nonetheless. Heck, disagreement is what moves us forward. It isn't a bad thing.
A little more than a month ago the Boy Scouts of America made the decision to allow openly gay youth to full admittance. This week, the Supreme Court will render a decision about the Defense of Marriage Act and Prop 8.
Today, the issue of gay marriage, and more globally, of homosexuality itself, is a heavy one, no longer waiting in the shadows but at our very feet, demanding a voice.
You would've had to have been under a rock the past couple of years to be unaware that the issue has been rising, as magma rises in a volcano, ready to explode. Lines have been drawn and people have been aligning themselves on either side, for and against. Voices have become louder, and most often angrier.
And it has become a defining question of and for the church. Heck, if you Google "What did Jesus..." one of the first auto-fill selections is "say about homosexuality." Christians, particularly straight Christians, have been forced to wrestle with how to understand homosexuality.
Here's the truth: I have great and dear friends who read scripture and pray and live lives desperately fumbling to follow in the example of Jesus who have no problem with homosexuality at all. They've read the texts of the bible which they take incredibly seriously and they've prayed in earnest for understanding and wisdom and come out fully convinced and trusting that the movement of God is towards inclusion and wholeness and that includes homosexuals.
And I have other great and dear friends who read scripture and pray and live lives desperately fumbling to follow in the example of Jesus who cannot reconcile homosexuality with the God they know. They've studied scripture and prayed and thoughtfully wrestled with the nature of God and His creation and cannot reconcile homosexuality with the Christian faith.
It's true that there exists a tension between certain texts of scripture and homosexuality. It cannot be denied. That's why Christians are divided just as the rest of the country and world is divided.
I know some very simple, everyday folk who have voted Republican their whole lives who whole-heartedly support gay rights. And I know some very highly educated, metropolitan people who don't. People of all shapes, colors and backgrounds fall on all different angles of this conversation.
But that is just it. This must become and remain a conversation. Wherever you fall in this debate, I am ABSOLUTELY convinced that the arc of scripture and the nature of who God is are defined with arms open for embracing our neighbors and with a grace and love that overflows. And in this conversation, it is much more important that our words be filled with grace and love than anger and hate.
Sometimes, it's more important to be gracious than to be right! Through the years, our words have become more violent, more angry. We have groups like Westboro Baptist Church picketing funerals with signs declaring "God Hates Fags." But they're not alone, just a little bit louder. If someone's being right comes at the expense of someone associating the Father with hatred, then we've messed up, no matter what our words say, no matter our position.
I know and trust with the entirety of my being that God is and that God is moving and that God's love and grace are of a nature I cannot possibly wrap my mind around. And I have a lot of hunches about what God is like. I take the words of the Bible, particularly in the four gospels, incredibly seriously. I try my best to listen, both in prayer and in conversations with friends (and even people who aren't so friendly.) And all of that has shaped the way that I see God's nature and character. And I think I have a pretty good picture of who God is.
However, I am neither arrogant nor ignorant enough to imagine that my finite mind can fathom the infinite nature of a God who is beyond imagining. And I will not presume to speak for the God of the universe, on this issue or any other. I believe there is truth, that it's not all just relative, but I'm equally sure I'm not the only one to understand it. I will gladly share my hunches and explain where they come from, but to speak for the Father I dare not. I hope that my picture of God is never set in stone, but that He is always teaching me and pushing me to understand who He is in new ways.
This is why we have to learn how to speak with our brothers and sisters who disagree with us. Can't reconcile homosexuality with your faith? Talk with someone who's gay. Maybe it'll help give you a deeper and fuller picture of what is going on. I have a number of very dear and very gay friends, and our conversations about it are some of the most honest and special conversations I've ever had. Convinced homosexuality is at peace with God's nature? Listen to someone who doesn't. Allow yourself to be stretched. Study and talk and wrestle and pray and never stop growing and discerning and listening.
But we've got to learn to listen and speak with people who don't always fall in line with our thinking. We've got to remember that there is always room at God's table. We've got to remember that if our words build walls between us and others, and especially between others and the Father, then we have missed the mark. It's OK to disagree. In fact it's really important to have deeply held convictions and opinions. Conversations and differences lead to deeper and richer understanding and relationships. Let's stop being so loud and so angry trying to convince people we are right that we also convince them we don't love them. We've got to learn to disagree well. Because there is ALWAYS room at the table!
forever unfinished...
Monday, June 24, 2013
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Prince Ali...
"The best I can be is Jamaican! Look... I'm telling you as a friend, if we look Jamaica, walk Jamaica, talk Jamaica, and IS Jamaica, then we sure as heck better bobsled Jamaica!" -Sanka, Cool Runnings
"The man asked him, 'What is your name?' 'Jacob,' he answered." -Genesis 32:27
I have a confession: Princess Jasmine was my first crush.
That's right, the princess with a pet tiger from Aladdin was my first taste of attraction. Of course, this was still a season of life (being a 3-year-old) even before girls had Cooties, so maybe it's not TOTALLY crazy! My first memory of wanting to choose my own Halloween costume was wanting to be Aladdin as a little tyke because maybe, just maybe, if I was Aladdin Princess Jasmine would fall in love with me.
It's all a bit silly I know, but it's hardly the only thing in my life that would fit that description.
I love Aladdin. Well, for those of you who don't know me too well, I love pretty much all of the Disney animated movies. What can I say?
But Aladdin has always been one of my favorites. Jafar was a terrific villian, especially when he turns into a giant snake! Iago might be one of he funniest sidekicks of all the Disney flicks. The genie... well, it goes without saying that Robin Williams pretty well stole the show. And the music is absolutely fantastic!
But it's funny how Disney movies change as you get older. You notice new things: new jokes you couldn't possibly understand when you're a toddler, new elements to the story, new morals woven into the plot. Maybe that's why Disney has aged so well, because there are elements for children, teens and adults alike.
Aladdin is like that. I was watching it with my roommates last year and there was a new dynamic. If you've seen the movie, you know that Aladdin is a "street rat" (basically a poor guy who steals to survive) who meets the princess and falls in love. But he's convinced a princess would never fall in love with a lowly beggar, even one with his charming good lucks and sense of humor. But he gets his golden ticket when he finds a lamp containing a genie who can grant him three wishes.
Seeing his opportunity to woo Princess Jasmine, he makes his first wish, "Genie, make me a prince!"
And a prince he becomes. He storms through the city streets of Agrabah with a parade only Disney could imagine, and with a little charm and a little singing the princess begins to fall in love.
But a funny thing starts to happen. Just as all his dreams are coming true and the girl of his dreams is flying across the world with him on his magic carpet, he begins to feel guilty. It's all a lie, and he knows it. He's playing the role of Prince Ali while being somebody totally different. He's at war with this conflict between confessing himself while also maintaining the illusion.
He's not the only one who does this though. We do it every day. I do it every day. We play roles. We become who we think people want us to be and have become tremendous at hiding certain parts of us while showing others.
Jacob was like that. All the way back in Genesis, he stole his older brother Esau's blessing from their father Isaac by impersonating his brother. He wanted to be the first born with all its privileges and honors. He wanted to be somebody he wasn't. So he fooled his blind father into believing he was his older brother by wearing sheep wool to mimic his brother's hairy arms and received Esau's blessing.
And then he had to flee. Esau, understandably, was furious, and he happened to be a much larger and much rougher man than Jacob. So Jacob ran. But after many years abroad where he married and had many children and accumulated a vast amount of wealth, he is forced to flee again and heads to return home.
But on his way home, he is met by some alarming news: Esau is headed his way! That night he splits his camp and remains alone on one side of a creek. And then a very strange thing happens: someone (and the Bible is not exactly clear who, maybe God, maybe an angel, maybe some man) begins to wrestle with Jacob. They fight all night, and eventually Jacob gains the upper hand. Holding strong, he demands of his mysterious adversary, "I won't let you go until you bless me!"
And his opponent says something very interesting. "What is your name?" he asks Jacob. It's an innocent enough question, but is incredibly profound at the same time. Jacob has been in hiding for years because he was trying to be somebody else, and now as he is preparing to meet the brother he cheated decades before, he is asked his name. He is asked to acknowledge who he is, who he REALLY is.
"Jacob," he replies. And with that, with the acknowledgement that he is Jacob, that he is nothing more and nothing less than the man God created him to be, his adversary responds, "Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel."
Jacob had to come to terms with who he was before he could go forward. He had to stop pretending. He had to stop hiding. He had to embrace who he was. He had been blessed by his father as Esau. This new blessing would not come until he became Jacob again.
This is our story. We're like Jacob, just like we are like Aladdin. We morph and mold ourselves to what we THINK others want us to be, what others want to hear. But what that leads to is insecurities, a war between who we are and who others expect us to be. We struggle with what we see in the mirror and what others see. And like Jacob, when someone asks, "Who are you?" we find it a hard question, as if that answer could change depending on the audience.
We've become Mr. Potato Heads, willing to replace the gifts and beauty of who God made us to be for an image others superimpose on us. And this is not a teenager thing, or a college thing, or an adult thing. It's a human thing.
But that's not what the world needs us to be. We need to be US! We need to take the passions and gifts and personalities that the Father has made us with and live into them. When Genesis says God made us in his image, I'm convinced that there is beauty in the diversity. We weren't meant to be the same. We were made fine the way we are. You don't need to become somebody else. Trust me, if God made one of them, that's enough! He wants you to be YOU. Because YOU is the best you can be! It's who God made you to be. And it is without flaw.
forever unfinished...
"The man asked him, 'What is your name?' 'Jacob,' he answered." -Genesis 32:27
I have a confession: Princess Jasmine was my first crush.
That's right, the princess with a pet tiger from Aladdin was my first taste of attraction. Of course, this was still a season of life (being a 3-year-old) even before girls had Cooties, so maybe it's not TOTALLY crazy! My first memory of wanting to choose my own Halloween costume was wanting to be Aladdin as a little tyke because maybe, just maybe, if I was Aladdin Princess Jasmine would fall in love with me.
It's all a bit silly I know, but it's hardly the only thing in my life that would fit that description.
I love Aladdin. Well, for those of you who don't know me too well, I love pretty much all of the Disney animated movies. What can I say?
But Aladdin has always been one of my favorites. Jafar was a terrific villian, especially when he turns into a giant snake! Iago might be one of he funniest sidekicks of all the Disney flicks. The genie... well, it goes without saying that Robin Williams pretty well stole the show. And the music is absolutely fantastic!
But it's funny how Disney movies change as you get older. You notice new things: new jokes you couldn't possibly understand when you're a toddler, new elements to the story, new morals woven into the plot. Maybe that's why Disney has aged so well, because there are elements for children, teens and adults alike.
Aladdin is like that. I was watching it with my roommates last year and there was a new dynamic. If you've seen the movie, you know that Aladdin is a "street rat" (basically a poor guy who steals to survive) who meets the princess and falls in love. But he's convinced a princess would never fall in love with a lowly beggar, even one with his charming good lucks and sense of humor. But he gets his golden ticket when he finds a lamp containing a genie who can grant him three wishes.
Seeing his opportunity to woo Princess Jasmine, he makes his first wish, "Genie, make me a prince!"
And a prince he becomes. He storms through the city streets of Agrabah with a parade only Disney could imagine, and with a little charm and a little singing the princess begins to fall in love.
But a funny thing starts to happen. Just as all his dreams are coming true and the girl of his dreams is flying across the world with him on his magic carpet, he begins to feel guilty. It's all a lie, and he knows it. He's playing the role of Prince Ali while being somebody totally different. He's at war with this conflict between confessing himself while also maintaining the illusion.
He's not the only one who does this though. We do it every day. I do it every day. We play roles. We become who we think people want us to be and have become tremendous at hiding certain parts of us while showing others.
Jacob was like that. All the way back in Genesis, he stole his older brother Esau's blessing from their father Isaac by impersonating his brother. He wanted to be the first born with all its privileges and honors. He wanted to be somebody he wasn't. So he fooled his blind father into believing he was his older brother by wearing sheep wool to mimic his brother's hairy arms and received Esau's blessing.
And then he had to flee. Esau, understandably, was furious, and he happened to be a much larger and much rougher man than Jacob. So Jacob ran. But after many years abroad where he married and had many children and accumulated a vast amount of wealth, he is forced to flee again and heads to return home.
But on his way home, he is met by some alarming news: Esau is headed his way! That night he splits his camp and remains alone on one side of a creek. And then a very strange thing happens: someone (and the Bible is not exactly clear who, maybe God, maybe an angel, maybe some man) begins to wrestle with Jacob. They fight all night, and eventually Jacob gains the upper hand. Holding strong, he demands of his mysterious adversary, "I won't let you go until you bless me!"
And his opponent says something very interesting. "What is your name?" he asks Jacob. It's an innocent enough question, but is incredibly profound at the same time. Jacob has been in hiding for years because he was trying to be somebody else, and now as he is preparing to meet the brother he cheated decades before, he is asked his name. He is asked to acknowledge who he is, who he REALLY is.
"Jacob," he replies. And with that, with the acknowledgement that he is Jacob, that he is nothing more and nothing less than the man God created him to be, his adversary responds, "Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel."
Jacob had to come to terms with who he was before he could go forward. He had to stop pretending. He had to stop hiding. He had to embrace who he was. He had been blessed by his father as Esau. This new blessing would not come until he became Jacob again.
This is our story. We're like Jacob, just like we are like Aladdin. We morph and mold ourselves to what we THINK others want us to be, what others want to hear. But what that leads to is insecurities, a war between who we are and who others expect us to be. We struggle with what we see in the mirror and what others see. And like Jacob, when someone asks, "Who are you?" we find it a hard question, as if that answer could change depending on the audience.
We've become Mr. Potato Heads, willing to replace the gifts and beauty of who God made us to be for an image others superimpose on us. And this is not a teenager thing, or a college thing, or an adult thing. It's a human thing.
But that's not what the world needs us to be. We need to be US! We need to take the passions and gifts and personalities that the Father has made us with and live into them. When Genesis says God made us in his image, I'm convinced that there is beauty in the diversity. We weren't meant to be the same. We were made fine the way we are. You don't need to become somebody else. Trust me, if God made one of them, that's enough! He wants you to be YOU. Because YOU is the best you can be! It's who God made you to be. And it is without flaw.
forever unfinished...
Monday, June 3, 2013
ˈkris-chən...
"We're 'disciples.' We're 'students.' We're 'followers.' We're 'doing it.' But what's really interesting is if you insist on using the word 'Christian' and you insist on embracing the word with such power and passion and conviction that you force people to readjust their definitions" -Rob Bell
"Come, follow me" -Jesus
There's a recent trend in the world of Christianity. We call ourselves "believers." Or "disciples." Or "followers." We've found a bunch of new, "authentic" names for what we can people who follow Jesus.
But one word seems to be getting left behind, particularly among younger church-goers.
"Christian."
There's just too much baggage that comes with it: anti-gay, hypocritical, conservative, BORING, completely outdated, not authentic, fake, cliché, parents, etc. For many, to call oneself a "Christian" is a bit of a scary term. It doesn't encompass everything their faith means to them.
But why is that?
I remember writing papers in middle school (well, more like essays... or probably MORE accurately, "lots of run on sentences and bad English"). My favorite introduction went something like this: "The dictionary defines (insert subject here) as..." My English teachers must've gotten bored reading "paper" after "paper" that began with dictionary definitions. I probably defined half of the B section. At the very least I was consistent.
But as we all know, words and names mean SO much more than what we can find in Mirriam-Webster's masterpiece. Just ask the Obama campaign. They made a name mean more than just a face and policy ideas. It became "hope" and "change."
Or take Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. By definition, they are modes of social networking facilitating the articulation and connection of people, pictures, ideas and experiences. But to a middle schooler they might be life. And to a grandparent they might signify the downfall of society. They are so much more than a definition. They carry second, or as my sophomore English teacher Mr. King would remind me, implicit meanings.
"Christian" is no different. By definition, it is "one who professes belief in the teachings of Jesus Christ." But, over the years it has grown to mean a lot of different things, and to a lot of people it has grown to mean things that aren't always positive. In fact, to most, especially those who don't claim any faith. So we've abandoned it a lot.
But what if we reclaimed it. What if we were willing to CLAIM the name Christian? What if we were willing to love God and love our neighbors SO well that people were forced to redefine how what they think about when they hear the word?
If the words "Christian" and "church" carry less than flattering connotations for people, it is because they have seen people claiming them and not loving in the way Jesus loved.
What if we didn't leave it behind, but claimed it for what it is? What if we didn't keep it at arms distance but so fully embraced the incredible depths and truth that are Jesus and the God who created us in His image?
We aren't perfect. We who call ourselves Christians will always be hypocrites and less than Jesus calls us to be. We will always be broken vessels through which graces spills and moves. But so were the disciples. So is every living person who has ever claimed the name Christian. God uses the broken and left behind, but He calls us to live and love in such a way that His love is unmistakeably at work!
Let's be disciples. Let's be followers. Let's be all these new age words for "Christian." Let's be people who love our neighbors with our whole heart and all that we are. But know that those words are just new Christianese words that will come to mean the same thing if we don't let God invite us into His much better story.
"Christian" isn't a dirty word. It's not a scary word. At it's core, it is a word to define people who have been so moved by the grace of a personal, infinite God that to love out of that truth seems wrong. So let us live in such a way that people hear Christian and can't help but think of love. Let's redefine it.
forever unfinished...
"Come, follow me" -Jesus
There's a recent trend in the world of Christianity. We call ourselves "believers." Or "disciples." Or "followers." We've found a bunch of new, "authentic" names for what we can people who follow Jesus.
But one word seems to be getting left behind, particularly among younger church-goers.
"Christian."
There's just too much baggage that comes with it: anti-gay, hypocritical, conservative, BORING, completely outdated, not authentic, fake, cliché, parents, etc. For many, to call oneself a "Christian" is a bit of a scary term. It doesn't encompass everything their faith means to them.
But why is that?
I remember writing papers in middle school (well, more like essays... or probably MORE accurately, "lots of run on sentences and bad English"). My favorite introduction went something like this: "The dictionary defines (insert subject here) as..." My English teachers must've gotten bored reading "paper" after "paper" that began with dictionary definitions. I probably defined half of the B section. At the very least I was consistent.
But as we all know, words and names mean SO much more than what we can find in Mirriam-Webster's masterpiece. Just ask the Obama campaign. They made a name mean more than just a face and policy ideas. It became "hope" and "change."
Or take Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. By definition, they are modes of social networking facilitating the articulation and connection of people, pictures, ideas and experiences. But to a middle schooler they might be life. And to a grandparent they might signify the downfall of society. They are so much more than a definition. They carry second, or as my sophomore English teacher Mr. King would remind me, implicit meanings.
"Christian" is no different. By definition, it is "one who professes belief in the teachings of Jesus Christ." But, over the years it has grown to mean a lot of different things, and to a lot of people it has grown to mean things that aren't always positive. In fact, to most, especially those who don't claim any faith. So we've abandoned it a lot.
But what if we reclaimed it. What if we were willing to CLAIM the name Christian? What if we were willing to love God and love our neighbors SO well that people were forced to redefine how what they think about when they hear the word?
If the words "Christian" and "church" carry less than flattering connotations for people, it is because they have seen people claiming them and not loving in the way Jesus loved.
What if we didn't leave it behind, but claimed it for what it is? What if we didn't keep it at arms distance but so fully embraced the incredible depths and truth that are Jesus and the God who created us in His image?
We aren't perfect. We who call ourselves Christians will always be hypocrites and less than Jesus calls us to be. We will always be broken vessels through which graces spills and moves. But so were the disciples. So is every living person who has ever claimed the name Christian. God uses the broken and left behind, but He calls us to live and love in such a way that His love is unmistakeably at work!
Let's be disciples. Let's be followers. Let's be all these new age words for "Christian." Let's be people who love our neighbors with our whole heart and all that we are. But know that those words are just new Christianese words that will come to mean the same thing if we don't let God invite us into His much better story.
"Christian" isn't a dirty word. It's not a scary word. At it's core, it is a word to define people who have been so moved by the grace of a personal, infinite God that to love out of that truth seems wrong. So let us live in such a way that people hear Christian and can't help but think of love. Let's redefine it.
forever unfinished...
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