NWUncorked ConsumeChristorOther

#love #trinity #jesus #newwine #nwnws 

Followers of Jesus are called to consume Christ. And yet this world would have it that we consume it and its products. 

In this episode of New Wine Uncorked, Kayla, and Matt are joined by Matt’s mom and Kayla’s Granny, Beth Farlow and Sarah Gonzales, Kayla’s sister-n-law, and together they step into the lush fields of consumption. What do consumerism and the Church have to do with one another? In a world of consumption, what is the Jesus follower to do? Is all consumption wrong? 

Recorded live on Fridays at 10am (pst) New Wine UnCorked seeks to step into culture with a heart bent towards engagement, reconciliation, and relationship.

Dialogue is the truth of participation as dia via Latin from Greek dia-logos invokes a participatory conversation. It is interactive. From dia "through" + legein "speak." Going through the Word so to engage through our word, New Wine seeks to uncork the impossible possibility of the human and our pursuit of this Uncommon God so to realize our common good.

 

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Podcast: https://anchor.fm/newwinenewwineskins 

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Web: http://www.new-wineskins.org/

Fall into His heart

Read James 1.2-25

Ever have those times when you feel like doing nothing but crying? Times when you hardly want to get out of bed and have no energy to do anything, let alone prayer or reading the Bible. You know those times when every door seems to close, every way seems to be darkened and everybody seems to have turned their back to you?

Times when even God seems distant and unloving and you actually wonder if He even sees you…

Strange truth of faith is that through our trials we find growth, because we find Him… 

“Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” (vs. 2-4).

Joy? How so? Because such trials have a way of pressing us to go deeper with God. When we are brought to our knees we see fresh truths about God intersecting with our lives in the hardest of times. When we fall to our knees so as to cry out to His heart we realize what David did: “He sent from on high, He took me…He rescued me,” –and here is the best part—“because He delighted in me” (Psalm 18.6-19).

How many of us, when we cry out to Jesus, realize that He has entered into our suffering with us, broken down the barriers of sin and eradicated death so as to reach out and rescue us because He delights in us?

In our trials we are not expected to fall back on our own power, control or resources. No, Jesus wants us to embrace the Spirit so as to “rely not on (myself) but on God who raises the dead” (2 Cor 1.9).

All Jesus wants is for us to fall into His heart so that He can take care of us.

There in our suffering and through our trials Jesus says to us, “I want you to have peace. I want you to be deeply joyful. I want you to believe in what I say and what I do — to have unshakable faith. I want you to have the kind of peace that I give, not the world. The kind of joy that I give, not the world. The kind of faith, I give, not the world. I want you to have the truth of love and the truth of faith—I want you to have Me.”

Do you want Jesus? Then go to Him, embrace Him and receive His love…Amen Jesus!

His Passion

Read Hebrews 12.1-2, 28-29

What a week we enter into… Some may point to March for its madness of basketball, but for anyone who loves Jesus, March 2016 finds its madness in this week.

This week is known as Passion week. It is the week that all who love Jesus are freed from the bondage of sin, released from the darkness of evil and elevated to the throne of heaven as they are embraced by the amazing love of the One nailed to the cross.

The cross is the place where the grace of Christ’s kingdom meets with and overcomes the lost state of the kingdom of the world. This week we enter into the shadow of the cross where we find forgiveness, redemption, reconciliation…Amazing Love.

Only love justifies the suffering, only love’s suffering justifies the terrible distress of the world. Only His passion has the power to overcome our pain, darkness and fear. Only His passion offers everything we need…

Let us this week wrestle with the passion of the Christ so as to erupt with the insane love of Jesus. Let us this week wrestle for the passion of the Christ so as to become the insane love of Jesus for the sake of the world. Let us wrestle on the inside with His grace so that our lives might become His grace on the outside. Let us this week seek to offer our hearts to the One who offered His life.

Take a moment and listen to David Crowder’s Here’s My Heart and as you do, ask the Spirit to awaken your heart to the truth of this week...

Open your hearts, open His word and enter into His passion…Amen Jesus!

Heart of the Savior

Read Hebrews 11

Living by faith is often perplexing—leaving us feeling at one point completely confused while at another point completely confident. Such a reality encompasses each one of us…a reality which is why, I think, Paul prays incessantly that followers of Christ would have “spiritual wisdom . . . and bear fruit in every good work” (Col 1.9-11).

Truth is, faith and “good works” are risky, inconvenient, dangerous, inopportune and will hardly be written in the sky or spoken in a dream. In fact, such faith and works will most assuredly bring about persecution, pain, turmoil or disruption. And this is precisely why Paul prays for spiritual wisdom.

Paul prays that we might have spiritual wisdom so that we might have spiritual tenacity. In order for us to catch fire of faith, we must be consumed by the wisdom of heaven. We must wrestle with the flesh so as to be crowned with the spiritual. We must saturate our hearts in prayer. We must engulf our minds with the words of Scripture. We must embrace the Spirit so as to consume the heart of Christ. For there in the heart of the Savior we will find the assurance of faith. 

Faith is the assurance of things hoped for. Faith is the truth of stepping into the inconceivable acts of God. The wonderful acts of God - both extraordinary miracles and more ordinary acts of providence - come about “by faith.” When we enter into the scene of Hebrews 11 we see that:

By faith they passed through the red sea (v29) . . . by faith the walls of Jericho feel down (v30) . . . by faith Rahab . . . did not perish (v31) . . . by faith [they] conquered kingdoms (v33) . . .

In our faith we come to realize at the deepest of all levels just how crazy God loves us. And in this love our hearts are drawn into the delight and wonder of surrendering to His everything so that we might become everything He created us to be. Amen Jesus!

Believe in love

Read John 13:1-35

Millions watched the Super bowl halftime show and millions were asked to believe. We were asked to “Believe in love.”

What a wonderful call for the world…However, this call to believe will only become life changing if our belief is in the One who is love. That is, the only way for the world to unite in believing in love is if it comes to believe in the One who is love…Jesus Christ.

As the church, we are called to give the world the truth of life. We are called to give the world the reality of what it means to be alive. When the world asks us to believe in love it is asking us to give it love. And as followers of Christ we must know that there is only One who is love-Jesus Christ.

And when we say we believe in Christ we are saying that we believe in His truth of life. As the first century church father, Tertullian, said:

“It is our practice of loving-kindness that brands us in the eyes of many of our opponents. ‘Look,’ they say, ‘How they love one another! Look how they are prepared to die for one another!’” 

This type of love is anything but superficial or vain…I wonder how often non-followers of Christ would describe modern Christians like this?

How many people today could look at the church and say “yes, there in the church of Jesus Christ I see love.”

Today, we who follow Jesus need a wake up call. We need to come to grips as to what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. The world is looking in on our lives and our lives need to be a witness of the crazy insane love of Jesus—a love that elevates the other over self…

Yes, as followers of Christ we are called to go beyond ourselves so as to care for the other. We are called to “wash one another’s feet,” so as to step into life with each other and stretch ourselves to go beyond living simply for self. We, who follow Christ, are called to imitate His life:

“For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you” (v 15).

As servants of Christ, we are called to be servants of one another. The only way for the idea of “believing in love” to become the truth of this world is if the church begins to live out the truth of Jesus. That is, the world will only come to understand the belief in love when the church becomes infected to its core with the love of Jesus such that who we are becomes the truth of living for the other. Yes, when people begin to understand the church as those who sacrificially live for the sake of the other.

As Jesus was quite prone to remind us that “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (v. 35).

Today do we believe in love? That is, do our lives live out His love by our love of the other?

Reform the devastation

Thanksgiving is here and Christmas looms. So what are we celebrating?

A quick look around the globe presents the tremendous tension that hovers over us: to give thanks and celebrate while destruction and death overwhelm the lives of so many. Planes brought down, scandals in our high schools, shootings in communities and freeways. Devastation all around seems to dampen the delight of divine beauty.

In light of this present reality many are wondering how it is that we can move into the holidays with hearts filled with good tidings and cheer? Where is our hope?

The complexity of the answer to where is our hope is found in the simplicity of what was done some 2000 years ago for the whole of humanity. A baby was born so that as a man He might hang on a tree. 

One birth. One death. One tree. Three nails. History witnessed hope.

Hope is wrapped in the truth of Immanuel - God with us. The only way to engage the happenings of life while seeking to celebrate the reality of life is found in the One who came to reorient our perspective. Christ came so that we might have hope, and in His coming He gave us the way to respond to the darkness of life.

We can only celebrate the truth of Christmas if we are willing to give thanks for the ability to step into the devastation and give of ourselves. To give until it hurts.

We give until it hurts because of what was done on our behalf. Yes, for us the giving did not stop at "until it hurts." The giving was done "to the point of death."

God’s self-giving in Christ is the epitome of His love and should become the essence of our thanksgiving. These days where we find our perspective constricted by the devastation of living our hearts must become saturated in the eternal vision of divine joy. We must look to the cross so as to see the beautiful joy that erupted through the birth of a baby.

Through His revelation, invitation and reconciliation we can step into the performance of a lifetime and live out the truth and reality of “God with us” so as to reveal the way of reformation of today's devastation. Through Christ's self-giving performance we are given the way to live out the truth of "we with God." It is a way that sees the truth of our "we with God" performance exploding on the stage of life through acts of kindness and love, acts of self-giving towards the “other” that not only overcome, but transform the postsuburban mentality that seeks to elevate self over the “other.”

Christ's Eucharistic performance (His self-giving) must become the root and foundation of the Church's being so as to become the motivation for her living. Hope will remain deferred if the Church remains destitute and deficient in her response to the world's devastation. But if we embrace the Spirit so as to grab hold of the heart of Christ, we can then become the hope that will reform the devastation into the divine image of heaven's glory.

So Close No Matter How Far

The band Metallica writes:

So close no matter how far

Couldn't be much more from the heart

Forever trusting who we are

No nothing else matters

 

Never opened myself this way

Life is ours, we live it our way

All these words I don't just say

And nothing else matters

This is how so many people live their lives – focused on self such that their trust is in who they are, living life their way, because in the end, “nothing else matters.”

The drama of life - what does it have to say about a life focused solely on self? What would this look like? A nation of self-possessed people...Chaos and confusion or comfort and compassion?

The Bible says that those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will not only be satisfied, but they will also be blessed (cf. Matt 5.6). In fact, Jesus goes on to tell us not to store up treasures on earth but to store up for ourselves treasures in heaven. He then makes this most audacious claim: where your treasure is, there your heart will be also (cf. Matt 6.19-21).

Oh Jesus...

Think about it, Jesus is stating that the one who hungers and thirsts for righteousness is one who has her priorities right. Let's be realistic, surely Jesus must not understand what He is saying...Or better yet, His sermon on the mount isn't meant for Americans. America is the land of the free, the land of independence. Any show of interdependence is a sign of weakness. We are meant to have our treasures here on earth and have the focus of life be on self - on myself.

This is why the message of Jesus is radical and expects nothing less than radical change. He does not ask us for anything - He asks us for everything!

The follower of Christ is one whose heart is an offense to this world because it is enveloped by and in the love of Jesus. We want nothing more than to live as Jesus because He is our treasure. For a person who hungers and thirsts for righteousness nothing else matters but the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

The drama of salvation reorients the meaning of life; it re-writes the lyrics of our lives. Those who hunger and thirst for the righteousness of God are satisfied because they have stepped into Christ’s redeeming performance and now, everything, or better yet, everyone matters because nothing else but Jesus matters!

Ah the beautiful paradoxes of faith…If nothing but our Triune God matters in the treasure of our heart, then the lyrics of our song can truly sing, “forever trusting who we are” because we have realized the truth that we are created in the image of a loving God who has poured out His love into our hearts. And from this love we live life our way, which is Jesus’ way, seeking the lost and brokenhearted so that they too might hunger and thirst for the righteousness of God.

Seeing Empty as Full

Georges Rouault (French, 1871-1958)
Christ among the poor

One of the most beautiful yet challenging chapters of the Bible is Philippians 2—why? because it illumines the aspects of humility and servanthood. The idea of emptying ourselves so that we might be filled up is an interesting concept, but such a reality sits in opposition to today's culture.
Think about it, to empty yourself in today's world is to surrender. That is, to let go of your rights or deserved rights is equivalent to surrendering because instead of "demanding what is yours" you are placing the sake of the other first. And let's be honest, surrender is not a popular issue or philosophy; in a society that says win at all costs, surrender (or to empty yourself) in order to gain or be elevated, is an extreme paradox.

Here is the deal: the church will always have a foundational belief and being that is counter-culture but this must never be to the eradication of culture. That is, the church will often times be in opposition to the ways of society but the church must not discount or discard the voice of society. Dialogue is essential for the sake of the world hearing the "Good News" of Jesus Christ.

The reality is this:

• society does not understand how surrender can bring about glory, victory and elevation
• society does not understand how Jesus could have the audacity to call His followers to die so that they might live
• society does not understand how Jesus can say that in order to be first we must be last

Jesus goes against everything we have been taught about who a King is supposed to be, or a ruler, or a person of power and prestige. Jesus comes and takes all our concepts, turns them inside out so as to turn them right side up. In his letter to the Philippians Paul urges his readers to be humble and to follow the example of Christ, who, although He was “in the very nature of God,” became human and underwent death on the cross. God therefore exalted Him to the highest place (2.1-11). This leads to a further exhortation to his readers to serve God faithfully (2.12-18). In this beautiful hymn (Phil 2.1-11) Paul explains the truth of Christ, that He "emptied Himself, taking the form of a Bond-servant and being made in the likeness of men (v7). Here Paul draws directly from the book of Isaiah, specifically Isa 52.13-53-6. Isaiah writes, "Behold My servant will prosper, He will be high and lifted up and greatly exalted" (52.13). And then Isaiah goes on to illumine the reason for this exaltation. This is what it says of the Bible's crucified King:

He has no stately form or majesty That we should look upon Him, Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him (53.2)
He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him (53.3)
Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted (53.4)
But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed (53.5)
All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him (53.6)

We express the heart of humility in the same way Christ Jesus did, when we promote peace and unity among the church as well as the world. We are the church when we look out and stand up for the good of others, not our own selfish interests; when we live out this reality, we demonstrate and actualize the heart and mind of Christ, which is the truth and realization of humility (Philippians 2.1-4).

Jesus’ teaching on servanthood and suffering was not intended to merely inspire good behavior. Jesus wanted to impart (to give a part or share; to communicate the knowledge of; to make known) the spirit of servanthood, the sense of personal commitment and identity that He expressed when He said, “I am among you as He who serves” (Luke 22.27). Christ is calling us to “empty” ourselves of our selfish ambitions and self-centered acts. What a paradox that stretches our mind’s eye, to think that as we become “empty” of self and dependent on God, the Holy Spirit will use us mightily, but this is the life we are called to live faithfully and obediently.

Empty in order to be filled...how are you doing today with this? How can the Church transform society - by becoming greater servants and lovers of the other. How can you, how can I, how can we become more of a servant today and tomorrow? As Jesus reminds us, "When you did it to the least of these you did it to Me" (Matt 25.40). Come Lord Jesus Come!

What's So Funny about Peace, Love & Understanding

Elvis Costello asks, "What's so funny about peace, love, and understanding?" How do we answer such a question? Seems like today all three are quite comical. Peace - laughable. Love - yeah who really knows what it means to love. Understanding - only if you take my truth to be the ultimate foundation of understanding.

What really do peace, love and understanding mean? And who even cares whether or not we have peace or if we understand one another, let alone love each other? The one people that should care...the Church.

What if the Christian church stepped into God's radical, insane love? Maybe the world would come to recognize the profound need for peace, love, and understanding. And in doing so, the world just might be a better place to live.

Now in Farlowesque performance, what if I push the envelop just a little further...What if I throw in the reality of hell? That is, any comprehension of love, peace and understanding should seek to incorporate the realities of heaven and hell - if a Christian answer is to be rendered.

Now you might be asking, "What does a discussion about truth, love, peace, understanding, have to do with hell or heaven for that matter?" In some ways I think everything. I think any discussion that deals with love, with peace, with understanding, must, from a Christian standpoint, delve into the realms of heaven and hell as both represent the reality of eternity. And then we must ask, where are heaven and hell? Who will see heaven and who will see hell? Might it be true that in the end, God's love wins and and all will be saved?

In talking about hell I am reminded of the play No Exit, written by Jean-Paul Sartre with its depiction of hell as three self-consumed individuals locked up in a room with no escape, and whose eyelids cannot shut. As one of these three damned souls from the play exclaims, "hell is other people."

Today in a very real sense, heaven and hell are heart issues. Heaven abounds in hearts bent on loving God and loving the other. Hell resides in hearts and lives that are turned inward, consumed in self-love as opposed to being drenched in Savior love. The predominance of our self-love mindset today makes it very difficult to see how diabolical this orientation is, and blinds us from seeing that by turning inward we close ourselves off from making our exit and entering into true freedom.

It is a self-centered heart's orientation that continues to attempt to step beyond the performance of Christ, or simply say ‘no’ to His invitation. But this does not have to be the last word or society's final act. Through the church's incorporation into Christ’s reconciliatory performance we not only encounter our salvation, but through the leading of the Spirit, can bring this hope to the ends of the earth, thereby assisting in the mass exit of hell. We can, through a performance drenched in love, bring peace and understanding by giving people heaven now. I guess then, the answer to Costello's question is "What are you doing to close the gates of hell?" And in closing these gates we elevate the truth and reality of love, peace and understanding - nothing funny about that!

Fake Plastic Bobble Head Jesus

Cops killing cops, Blizzards of unprecedented strength, 26 shot dead in an elementary school, elementary children taken hostage...from Syria to the climate to the "post-Gangnam" era, the looming question beckons: What do we really have to hope in?

The news of today makes me wonder, has the darkness of the world made us lose sight of  "Carpe Diem." How can one be blamed if they do not see the hope of humanity. Rather than living for, let alone thinking of the "other," people today live as though seizing the moment or the day means acquiring more stuff for themselves. "Love your neighbor" is nothing more than a statement given by pastors before the "sacred" offering of our money. We are living out purgatory...


Tell me something I don't know Dr Farlow. Okay, let's get rid of our fake plastic bobble head Jesus religion. The Christian life does not suggest there might be tough roads ahead - it explicitly shouts at us - the roads ahead will most assuredly be bumpy! The problem arises when those that call themselves "Christian" tell us that faith does not require sacrifice. This type of thinking leads to what Dietrich Bonhoeffer called "cheap grace." 

Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.

Jesus does not tell us that life is all about comfortability. In fact, the writer of Hebrews makes the audacious claim that Jesus, "the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God," (Heb 12.2). Following Jesus means living sacrificially and in so doing you will receive generously the joy of life! 

Generosity and self-giving  are so often thought of materially. But theologically they should be thought of relationally. C.S. Lewis in the Weight of Glory, wrote: 

Next to the blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest thing presented to your senses.

Selfless living and self-centered living are not opposites, they are enemies that are in competition for your heart. 

A relational church is a self-giving church, it is, a Eucharistic church. The church is what William Cavanaugh calls the Eucharistic community. It is the community who “participates in the life of the triune God, who is the only good that can be common to all. Its reality is global and eternal, anticipating the heavenly polity on earth.” A Eucharistic church is a missional church.

The difference between being missional and being static in expressing the good news of the Kingdom is this: A church that evangelizes from a static paradigm creates space for those who seek it out, and politely leaves the side door open for those who don’t fit its categories (or target market). A church acting missionally forever redefines itself,  “extending its hand”, sacrificially, to draw boundaries of loving inclusion around all who enter its province.

 The Gospel of the kingdom is the person of Jesus Christ himself and the church is his body on earth (Col 1.28, 1Cor 12.27). Emanating from his hands is the sweet smelling balm of social injustice made whole, brokenness mended, the lost being found; resounding from his mouth is the message of reconciliation (2Cor 2.14 & 5.19), and we, the church, are called to live out this performance.

The reality of today: the world is in need of selfless, generous churches. Newsflash - it is not about butts in the seats or making the church or the gospel relevant! Its about our heart - about the souls of those lost. Is the purpose of the church today the pursuit of the consumer crown or the pursuit of the crucified crown? Does that which breaks Jesus' heart break ours?

Living out heaven here and now on earth cannot occur through isolated lives, nor can it occur through lives bent towards the trajectory of loving only that which is like. Life is meant to be lived out in authentic community as it is in and through such community that authentic living occurs. A missional church emulates her Savior and His sacrificial life. Anything other than this is the worship of a fake plastic bobble head Jesus.We worship a King who dramatically entered into the mess of life (remember He was born amid the stench of donkey doo!) so as to re-orient humanity thereby generously offering us the abundant life! The question remains, are we, His church, willing to participate in this act? Tomorrow is no guarantee - but right now is! Live the crazy insane life of love right now!

The Greatest Show on Earth

"Touchdown Jesus" nickname given
to the large mural that overlooks
Notre Dame Stadium 

The Greatest Show on Earth: The Superbowl?

Is this true? Is the Super Bowl the "greatest show on earth?" Do we really believe that Jesus cares about football (cross reference "Touchdown Jesus"). Does it really matter if Beyonce lip-synched or really sang during the halftime show? Should the Christian church by into the hype? And if I question it, am I a "negative nancy," a "downer," a "joy-drainer?" Why? I wonder if the lights going out at the Super Bowl is not the greatest of all metaphors - you can hype up materialism, consumerism and humanism all you want, but eventually, the lights are going to go out.

Should the Church play such earthly games? That is, should we buy into the hype of a game or some type of societal event (Grammy's, Sport's championships, Oscars, 4th of July, etc). I mean think about it, millions huddled around a glowing object with a group of dudes moving all around the green carpet. People from all over the nation shouting at a flat screen as if those on the inside of that screen can actually hear your shouts - and if they could, would they really care? Sure, the lights eventually will and do come on, but what does the light illuminate?

Don't get me wrong, I dig sports - I participated all the way through college and even attempted to go for the Olympics (wrestling), so I am not one who doesn't appreciate the art of competition. I just wonder why all the hype on this weekend (Superbowl weekend)?

What is the super bowl all about anyway? Commercials controversy, materialism, etc...See unfortunately, the numbers accounted for over the weekend of those participating in super bowl parties far exceeds the numbers of those taking in communion, a sermon and worshiping the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Instead of folks from the church huddling around a screen that presents images of people in Africa, Oakland, China, Canada, witnessing about the life-changing message of Jesus, the millions we speak about are huddled about a glowing screen that illuminates the finer points of capitalism. Over the next few days, Facebook will blow up with people putting in their 2 cents as to the best commercial. These type of events and situations always seem to get me wondering the same thing Jesus did, when "the Son of man comes, will he find faith on earth?" (Lk 18.8)

Again, I know many will balk at my argument, but I wonder why? What am I saying or presenting that is not true? Truth is, we live in a world bent towards materialism. A post-modern world that tells us we are the center of the universe. We are the masters of our own fate. Today's prescription of happiness (as defined by society) is subtly blurring our vision such that the church and the world are becoming one right before our eyes.


Stop and think, what if you and I, the church, spent as much time, hype and money on the "least of these" as we did this last weekend on our super bowl parties? Concerning the pursuit of the material world C.S. Lewis wrote:

As long as this deliberate refusal to understand things from above, even where such understanding is possible, continues, it is idle to talk of any final victory over materialism.

Whether we like it or not, we Americans are programmed to be consumers. Even when hard-pressed financially, we are pressured by our culture to forget our situation (in the betterment of the whole) and maintain our rate of consumption. This is our identity. We have become sewer pawns to the system of materialism. It is better to be an optimist or positive thinker than a critical thinker in today's post-modern, post-christian society.

Let us not attempt to engage culture within the context defined by culture, but instead, let us stand up and live the life deemed crazy and insane according to the standards of society. Indeed, the break from mainstream thought and consumption will be a struggle, but it is a struggle we must joyfully accept (Heb 12.1-2). Our perspective on life cannot continue to be defined through the consumer mentality prevalent today. We, the body of Christ, must have a Trinitarian perspective if we hope to engage the situation of today.

We have to understand the gospel is relational. Christ comes to earth and draws a circle around himself and He says everybody outside this circle is broken—you are all equal—you are broken, but behold, here is your hope...marry Me, marry Me. So what is our response? Are we willing to walk down the aisle with the Savior of the world, or would we rather climb in bed with the world? Truth is, you can't do both.

Let us not continue to be consumers of society for the good of society but instead, be consumed by the crazy insane love of Jesus for the good of society. Then, in our insanity we truly can give the world the "greatest show on earth" - the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. A show that does not simply remain a show because instead of seeking to be observed, Christ's performance invites the world to participate in this act of love so as to reorient and re-humanize the whole of humanity. Are you ready for the role of a lifetime in the greatest show on earth?

The “tude” of Righteousness

The News: what craziness this thing we call life is all about. Or maybe this is just the script we are attempting to write on our own?

Whenever I read the news I seem to ask myself: "Self (I like talking to myself, because I always have an attentive audience :0) what the heck does it mean to say I worship a Just God? Like Pilate I wonder what is truth, what is justice?" On Monday of this week, (Jan 21) the paradox of life could not have been more apparent: America inaugurates its first Black President for his second term and on the day this nation stops to celebrate the life a civil rights pioneer, the POTUS uses the very bible of the Rev Martin Luther King Jr to be sworn in by; on this day, a 15 year old boy kills 3 siblings and his parents; on this day 37 hostages are killed in Algeria; on this day the POTUS hails civil rights for "all" people - black, white, gay, straight - moving the discussion on to the road less traveled thus far; on this day the S&P 500 and Dow Jones both finished in the green (with earnings) while nearly 1.3 billion people got by on less than $1 for the day (hardly a gain); on this day millions went about life with hardly a thought of the "other"; on this day, I wonder what Jesus thinks about our nation, His church, me and my role in His drama of salvation?

So often I remain blind to the reality of the action on the world's stage. I become bent on the "tude" of self as opposed to the "tude" of the Savior (cf. Phil 2). The injustice I appear to face always has a way of eventually making me aware of the lack of justice all over the world. Bummer that I am so often blind to injustice until it lands smack on my doorstep! I live just as Alice in Chains song "Man in the box" sings:

I'm the man in the box
Buried in my crap
Won't you come and save me, save me

Lord, would you open my heart, my eyes, my ears so that I would be one who "hungers and thirsts for righteousness" (cf. Matt 5.5-10) so that I might be one who seeks to be a peacemaker thereby helping "justice roll down like a river, and righteousness, like a never-ending stream" (Amos 5.24).

In reading through the Beatitudes, I was awakened to how so often the Lord uses the so called "injustices" in my life to re-orientate my focus back to Him. There are real injustices that I neglect because I don't want to be inconvenienced by them, be challenged by them, or what's worse I don't want them to destroy my own comfort because in the end I am nothing more than self-focused. This is how Eugene Peterson translates Habakkuk 2.4: "Look at the man, bloated by self-importance--full of himself but soul-empty. But the person in right standing before God through loyal and steady believing is fully alive, really alive." Most of us understand or have heard this verse as "the just or righteous will live by faith."

A study of the four times this verse appears in the Bible sheds light on the attitude or the "tude" of the righteous. We have a choice in how we respond to life, the question we have to ask ourselves is what foundation will we build our responses on and from?

Helen Keller wrote:

Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired, and success achieved.

For those who call themselves a follower of Christ, our character and our response to life is in light of His response to us, and this is not always easy nor does it often times lack pain and suffering, but we are called to respond to life as our Savior did, with joy and praise! We who follow the Crucified King are called to live out His insane love through actions that the world will see as being nothing more than pure insanity (cf. John 10.20). We are called to participate in His Eucharistic (self-giving) performance by and through our own self-giving (Eucharistic) performances. So as the author of Hebrews writes, "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God" (Heb 12.2). Let us live out the "tude" of righteousness as we live out the insane love of Jesus...

Dude Jesus you rock my world everyday! Thank you!

Are you elevating the "Ought" of humanity?

I find it hard to show mercy when I feel as though I have been wronged, what about you? I wonder how God feels? This coming Monday (Jan 21) we will celebrate a brilliant character in God's drama; a man who reminds us of the beauty of grace and mercy in the midst of pursuing peace and justice.

Yesterday (Jan 15) marked what would have been the 84th birthday of Dr Martin Luther King Jr. And while King was a man in search of justice and peace, most importantly, he was in search of the man from Nazareth - the Prince of Peace, the Crucified King.

On April 15, 1967 Dr King discussed justice and our pursuit of communal peace. As King said, "There are people who have come to see the moral imperative of equality, but who cannot yet see the moral imperative of world brotherhood. " Justice and peace are only possible when we see the other and their needs before we push our own wants and desires to the front. We have to elevate the "ought" of humanity.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said it like this:

You remember one day a man came to Jesus and he raised some significant questions. Finally he got around to the question, "Who is my neighbor?" This could easily have been a very abstract question left in midair. But Jesus immediately pulled that question out of midair and placed it one a dangerous curve between Jerusalem and Jericho. He talked about a certain man who fell among thieves. Three men passed; two of them on the other side. And finally another man came and helped the injured man on the ground. He is known as the Good Samaritan. Jesus says in substance that this is a great man. He was great because he could project the "I" into the "thou." He was great because he could surround the length of life with the breadth of life . . . . May it not be that the problem in the world today is that individuals as well as nations have been overly concerned with the length of their individual lives and concerns, devoid of the breadth? But there is still something to remind us that we are interdependent, that we are all somehow caught in an inescapable network of mutuality. Therefore whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. As long as there is poverty in the world I can never be rich, even if I have a million dollars. As long as diseases are rampant and millions of people in this world cannot expect to live more than twenty-eight or thirty years, I can never be totally healthy even if I just got a good checkup at May clinic. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the way our world is made. No individual or nation can stand out boasting of being independent. We are interdependent.

Peace and Justice are brought about by and through our faith-filled acts. See for Dr. King, peace and justice on earth are in themselves evidence of the eternal peace which Christ on the cross establishes between God and humanity. For the Christian, therefore, a plea for justice is a plea to God himself. When the church becomes a witness to God’s performance, in Christ through the Spirit, it points beyond itself and into the communion of love. In so doing we become active participants in the revealing of and living out of the Kingdom of God here and now.

Christian love is rooted in the overflowing love of the Father, Son, and Spirit, who have poured out this very love into the hearts of the body of Christ. It is only in this love that the church finds the ability to pour itself out into the lives of the "other," bearing witness to Christ so as to bear witness to the abundance of life. In this faithful performance of love, mercy and grace, we raise the "ought" of humanity to the realm of reality. We live out the hope of tomorrow today when we elevate the other to be what they ought to be so that we can all live out the "ought" of humanity. Amen Jesus!

Performance of the Absurd

Soren Kierkegaard said that “genuine Christian Faith is faith in the incarnation of God in human form, something that appears to human reason to be the absolute paradox. Such a paradox is the absurd, and faith in the highest sense actually requires that its object be absurd.” You might not think of it being absurd, that is the incarnation, but imagine if you were out working in the garden or the lawn and there appeared in the sky, an angel:

And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. "This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger." Luke 2:9-12

Probably think the weeds you were pulling were the "Colorado" type of weeds! The truth of the matter is, at the center of the Christmas drama is this amazingly absurd story of a baby, the Savior of the world, born in a manger! God cloaked himself in humanity so as to bring humanity back to him - to reconcile those who are lost, wandering, stuck in the pig trough! What is more, Jesus wants us to participate with him in this performance of a lifetime!

Christ's incarnational performance is not one we are called to observe; observing the incarnational performance of Christ as opposed to participating in it results in nothing more than a group of people - who would like to call themselves "the Church" - presenting the Christmas story as if it is nothing more than a big blow up lawn decoration. Christmas without the baby in the manger produces lives that are fat, dumb and "falsely" happy.

The God whose grace to humankind in times past was shown above all in the deliverance of Israel as God’s chosen, covenant people is the same God whose grace is shown now in the person of Jesus whose life, death and resurrection constitute the inauguration of a new covenant people. Jesus, therefore, is Immanuel “God with us” (Mt. 1.23). He is the one in whom God is “well pleased” (Mt. 3.17; 17.5). Through the invasion of the incarnation and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the Church participates in the continued revelation and clarity of the Kingdom of God. Such clarity and understanding is made real through the likes of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. The Triune God invites us to join their performance of the absurd - to love the "other" who cannot repay us, cannot give us a better job, cannot offer us more stuff. To love just as Jesus loves us. This is the meaning of Christmas - the acting out of More Christ!

Stop and think for a moment about the statement “God with us.” What does that mean for you? What does it mean for the Church as a whole over the span of history? What does it mean for Christmas!

Christmas cheer and Donkey dung

Imagine...Some dude stands atop the White House and shouts out "a virgin (of all things) is going to give birth to a son, and this son of hers is going to be the King." And where will this King be born...in a cave amid the donkey dung, cattle and dirt. Imagine, I know you may say that I am a dreamer, but I tell you, I am not the only one...

In what is arguably one of the most imaginative acts of all time, God changed the course of history through His most dramatic move. From a cave God revealed to the world the King of all Kings. Born in one of the most creative and unsuspecting settings, God cloaked himself in human flesh and came to live among us (John 1.1,14,18). Jesus Christ our Wonderful Counselor, our much needed Prince of Peace, Immanuel, God with us gave humanity the greatest gift, Himself. 2000 years ago, Jesus gave us Christmas.

And while so many of us imagine ourselves cozy and comfortable as we bask in the "Christmas cheer," make no mistake about it, the Christian drama is no fairy tale, it is not a warm and fuzzy story told to make us feel fat, dumb and happy. The Christian drama is the definition of reality - it is our foundation. And at the crux of this dramatic story stands the incarnation. "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth" (John 1.14). Christmas without the incarnation is nothing more than eggnog, silly parties centered around a chubby fella in red with his strangely sized helpers and their weird ears - it is nothing more than a story told to make us feel fat, dumb and happy.

As followers of Christ, any and all Christmas celebrations should begin with and flow out of the ultimate and most dramatic reality and act of history that humanity has encountered—the incarnation. J.I. Packer describes the incarnation as the "supreme mystery" associated with the gospel. This mystery is absolutely mind-blowing and as Packer continues, "nothing in fiction is so fantastic as is this truth of the incarnation." In Jesus, the fullness of God enters the human realm. The incarnation is the sacrificial giving of God to humanity. It is from the performance of Christ that the church, and thus humanity, witnesses the ultimate giving of self.

One thing we need to always keep in mind, the incarnation points directly to the cross, resurrection and ascension of Christ. There is no Christmas without Easter and vice‐versa. Furthermore, the incarnation, cross, resurrection and ascension are not merely to be observed, analysed or discussed, they are the life events of Christ that call for a response from the ones He came to save. 

What are you doing this Christmas season to participate in Christ's incarnational performance?