Good Theology Should Produce Good Art

There was a day when the church was known for its artists.  Da Vinci famously painted the Last Supper, Michaelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel, and J.S. Bach wrote music influenced by his Christian faith.  In not quite as distant history, C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien wrote classic works influenced by their Christian faith.  Unfortunately, when we think of the church in today’s culture, we do not likely think of art.  And this is not about the buildings; because although our building may no longer be painted or built the same way, our churches are still full of music, design, film, performance art, and writing.

In the 21st century, art in the church tends to get associated with mediocre music, preachy films, or copycat designs.

This shouldn’t be.  Our life-changing theology should lead to art that is not simply “Good for Christian art” but instead just “Good, period.”  Christians should be making the best art, because we have the most compelling story to tell.  Our theology clings to the divine story of redemption and that should inspire the best art.

The stories we tell.

Academia likes information and speaks to the mind.  Art prefers a compelling story and speaks to the heart.  And both of these are important.  It is important that we are able to have a systematic theology and understand the complexities of our doctrine, but it is also important that our doctrines are interwined with the divine story.

A friend of mine said, “Stories are equipment for living.”

Stories help give words and life to the theology that we carry with us into everyday life.  And since good theology is interested not simply in our Sunday mornings, but our Monday through Friday too, stories become deeply important.  Good theology always has a story to tell.

The theologian C.F.W. Walther spoke of the doctrine of Law and Gospel as an artist when he said, "Rightly distinguishing the Law and the Gospel is the most difficult and the highest art of Christians in general and of theologians in particular. It is taught only by the Holy Spirit in the school of experience.”

This is fascinating, because Walther describes something that I’d never consider art as an art form.  He somehow sees his pastoring as an art.  Just as an artist decides which colors to use, which words to write, and which scenes to cut, so also the theologian has to determine which stories to tell, which words to say, and which scriptures to teach.  The theologian will always be an artist because the theologian must be a story-teller.

So the question then becomes, is he a good one?

Is the theologian telling a compelling story when he re-tells the divine story?  Is he showcasing this story with beautiful art?  Is the preaching, writing, music, design, and film showcasing this same divine story?  We are all theologians, we are all story-tellers, and the story we tell should inspire beautiful art.

And whether or not we see ourselves as artistic, our theology should absolutely inspire our desire to share the compelling story to those around us.  And if we are sharing this story with those around us, we are artists.  Because as artists, as we decide what to share from our own story and from the divine story, we are deciding what colors will go on the canvas and what colors will be left out in order to paint a picture of the God we know and love.

What’s your art?

Repentance Requires Sight

I have bad eyes. I have since high school, maybe longer.  I’m also stubborn, so although I have trouble seeing things at a distance, I still don’t wear glasses or contacts.  Having bad eyesight creates some problems.  In school, it created a problem seeing the board.  That was actually how I discovered I had bad eyes; my classmates could clearly make out the dates in history class while I struggled to figure out what was being written down.  I can see well enough to drive safely, but if I have to pick out a street name in an area I have never been, it is not an easy task.

As humans, we all have a sight problem.

Sin is a problem that runs deep in our hearts, yet is also a problem that we ignore.  As humans we sometime do not see this problem of sin clearly.  Our vision gets a little blurry and we start to think that something else is the problem.

We forget it.

We ignore it.

We look the other way.

Imagine if this was something like heart disease.  Imagine having heart disease and your life was at risk, yet you were completely unaware of it.  If you were a walking heart attack yet you don’t realize that there is any problem, you would not be very successful in dealing with your disease.

Because if you don’t know there is a problem, you are not going to seek healing.

The Way of Repentance requires sight.

Paul writes in Corinthians, "Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.”  Ignoring a heart problem is certainly dangerous.  Ignoring sin is even worse.

Repentance requires seeing clearly.

“Godly grief has sight.” - Thomas Watson

Because of our sight problem sin often gets overlooked.  And when we overlook sin, when our vision gets blurry in matters of our sinfulness, it is a matter of life and death.

The path of godly sorrow and repentance is a path of life, healing, salvation, and no regrets.  Worldly sorrow on the other hand is a path towards death.  When God gives us sight, two things become very clear.  We see clearly the problem and we see clearly the promise.

In repentance we see things clearly.  We clearly see what the law makes known.  We are sinners.  In repentance we also cling to the promise of the Gospel.  We are assured that our sins are forgiven by the death and the resurrection of Jesus.  We are called both saints (the promise) and sinners (the problem) at the same time.  Although we have been marked and scarred by sin, we also have been marked by Christ.

Martin Luther actually believed that all of the Christian life should be repentance:

“When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, ‘Repent,’ he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.”

As Christians all of our life centers around seeing clearly both the problem and the promise.

God Won't Give You More Than You Can Handle

There are certain phrases and stories that within Christianity often get treated as though they were Scripture.  Like the story of the footprints in the sand… it’s awful (and by awful, I just mean it's cheesy)!  But Christians everywhere know it.  It’s treated as though the footprints in the stand story comes in the appendix of all our Bibles and is expected to hang in at least one office in every church.  Sometimes these phrases can be helpful in helping us understand and remember core aspects of our faith.  But other times the phrases themselves can actually be a disservice to our faith.  They can actually teach something contrary to what the Bible teaches.

One of these phrases:

“God won’t give you anything you can’t handle."

I’ve heard this a ton from well-meaning people who are either trying to encourage someone else in a moment of pain or trying to make through a situation they are in.  The problem with this phrase is that it gets twisted into something that isn’t taught in the Bible.  And the theology of the phrase itself is inaccurate and dangerous.  Now, this phrase probably didn’t come out of nowhere, there is something like it in the Bible.

"No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.” - 1 Corinthians 10:13

This is the closest thing we have to “God won’t give you more than you can handle.” So if we are talking about our temptation, that God won’t let our temptations go beyond what we can handle, the statement is accurate.  But if we are talking about the difficulties, the suffering in life, this statement is a poor application of Paul’s letter to the Corinthians.

Do you really think you can handle it?

If God really doesn’t give you more than you can handle, who is the hero?  Because when you’re dealing with a death of a family member and “God didn’t give you more than you can handle,” God doesn’t seem like the good guy in that scenario.

Cancer?  Can you really handle cancer?  No one can.

When we believe that God doesn’t give us what we can’t handle, we are the heroes.  We are the ones who deserve the boasting.  We are the ones who are strong enough and can make it through.  We are the ones who can handle it on our own.  When we believe that it’s up to us to handle it, we are left relying on our own strength and our own fight.

When things get difficult, the best thing we can do is not convince ourselves that we can handle it.  Instead we need to be honest about what we can and cannot handle.  God may allow us to face things that we cannot handle, but he can handle it.  It is in those moments when you don’t think you can make it another moment that God promises to be with you.  And he handles it.  He suffers with you. He listens.  He weeps.  He is present.

God handles it; you don’t have to.  And based on what we read in scriptures it doesn’t seem like you want to be the one who handles it on your own.

But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being[d] might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” - 1 Corinthians 1:27-31

God chooses the weak.  He chooses the despised and the foolish.  He chooses those who can’t handle it themselves.  And in doing so there is no one that can boast in themselves, but instead they must “boast in the Lord.”

And he handles it.  You don’t.  It’s his power, your weakness.  It’s not about you handling anything, it’s about your God handling what you are completely unable to handle on your own.

Theological Conversations Require Everyday Language

Theology is often seen as something reserved for academics and seminarians.  Part of the this is simply a misunderstanding of theology, but part of is also because of the way that Christians tend to talk about theology.  As soon as we venture into theological topics, the conversation becomes lofty and out-of-reach.  It quickly requires extensive biblical knowledge, a vast theological library, and excellent proof-texting abilities.  The problem is this isn’t the way most of us want to think or talk about God.

It’s not that most of us don’t want to think theologically about God (this is logically impossible).  Most of us simply want a theology that is not out-of-touch with reality.  When theology is only for the classroom, we are missing out on the theology that the Scriptures teach.

Theology, Plain & Simple

Our theology is something that we carry with us into our homes, neighborhoods, and workplaces it also needs to be in the language we speak.

Martin Luther said:

“To preach plain and simple is a great art: Christ himself talks of tilling ground, of mustard seed, etc; he uses altogether homely anad similitudes.  Cursed are all preachers that in the church aim at high and hard things, and neglecting the saving health of the poor unlearned people, seek their own honor and praise…When I preach, I sink myself deep down.  I regard neither Doctors or Magistrates, of whom, are here in this church above forty; but I have my eye to the multitude of young people, children, and servants, of whome are more than 2000.  I preach to those.”

This should be true in our preaching and in our conversations.

Our theology should be rich, deep, and life-changing but also plain and simple.  When we make our theological conversations complex, we end up speaking a foreign language in a culture that cannot understand the Good News that we are talking about.

None of us would dare go into a foreign country ignorant of the language, the culture, and practices of the people we were visiting.  And if we are going in as missionaries, this would become even more important.  We would pay careful attention to how people talk, the nuances of their language, how people dress, and what things are and are not important in that culture.

As Christians, part of our calling is to bring the message of the Gospel (our theology) to the people in the language of the people.

And I’m not speaking of dumbing down our theology; absolutely not.  I’m simply stating that the richness of our theology needs to be spoken in a language that people understand.  And when it is taught in the language of everyday life and connected with implications for everyday life, our theology becomes mobile.

It moves with us from church to work to home.

What’s a theological concept that you know is important but is often difficult to put into everyday language? 

The Sabbath and Healing

A friend of mine runs what are called ultra-marathons.

When I hear ultra-marathon, I just hear a lot of pain.  I’m not sure any human should put themselves through something like that.  An ultra-marathon is basically anything more than a traditional marathon.  Not being a runner, I naturally have a lot of questions when it comes to trying to wrap my mind around training for something like this.  My friend actually ran a 24-hour marathon and so I asked him some questions about what it takes to do this kind of marathon.

One of the questions I asked about this kind of running was, “What is the most difficult part in running a 24-hour marathon?”

My expectation was that I’d hear something about the difficulty of the length of time or the toll a race like this puts on your body.  Or maybe the 18 hour mark, when you are 75% done but still know that you have 6 hours remaining.  I thought maybe the discipline of getting your body to do what your mind was telling you not do would be a huge challenge.  But when I asked Mark about his 24-hour marathon, he said the hardest part was the two-weeks before the marathon.

What happened in those two weeks?

Resting.

In training for a marathon like this, like other kinds of athletic trainings, your body not only needs to be pushed to its limits but it also needs a period of recovery.  So you push and push and push and then the body recovers and rebuilds.  In training for the 24-hour marathon what would happen for Mark is that he would train and push his body to the limits and then in the 2 weeks before the run, he would have to stop training in order to allow his muscles to rebuild.  So in order for him to actually run the marathon, he had to not run.

In order to run, he had to rest.

And you can only imagine what goes through your mind when you are in the resting and rebuilding phase.  Did I push myself enough?  Did I put enough time into it?  Will I be able to to make it that many hours?  Maybe I should’ve set different goals?  But the problem is if he quits resting, all his training and hard work is ruined.

Healing in the Resting

There is healing in the resting.  The body heals as we rest.  We see this same kind of language when the Bible talks about the Sabbath.

In Exodus 31:17, "It is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.”  God enjoys his creation and it’s refreshing.  The resting is life-giving.  One of my professors said it brilliantly when he said, “We are refreshed when we attend to the work of God in creation and in redemption.”  In the Sabbath, as we are connected to the work of God, we find healing.  Because there is healing in the resting.

Jesus gets in trouble a few different times in his day for breaking the rules of the Sabbath.

Notice what he’s doing when he gets in trouble though…“Come on those days to be healed, not on the Sabbath.” (Luke 13:14)  Talk about missing the point.

What is Jesus getting in trouble for on the Sabbath?  Healing?  Healing, which gives life.  Sabbath, a day of rest that gives life. It’s quite ironic that Jesus gets in trouble for healing on the Sabbath - which is ultimately what the celebration of the Sabbath is all about - being refreshed and given life by the work of God.

Healing is in the resting.

This isn’t because by stopping our working we have found some way too unlock spiritual points.  Healing is in the resting, because in resting we stop doing our work and let God do His work.

In resting we trust that God says, “It is finished.”  In resting, we run to that which gives life - the work of God, both in creation and in redemption.  In resting we find healing as Jesus says, “Come to me all who are weary and heavy burdened and I will give you rest.”

Who Was St. Patrick?

We all know about St. Patty’s day, but very few of us know anything about the history behind the holiday.  For most of us, our knowledge of the Saint Patrick’s day rarely extends beyond green clothing, lepurchauns, green beer, some Irish music, and the occasional shamrock shake.  But, believe it or not, behind all that makes this holiday popular is a holiday rooted in Christian faith.  Saint Patrick’s Day, or the Feast of Saint Patrick, is a celebration of the arrival of Christianity in Ireland.  And more specifically, a celebration of the missionary, Saint Patrick.

St. Patty’s day is a day to celebrate missions.

I am a servant of Christ to a foreign nation for the unspeakable glory of life everlasting which is in Jesus Christ our Lord. ~ Patrick

Who was Saint Patrick?

Despite his widespread popularity and the desire to celebrate the day that honors him, many of us haven’t the slightest clue who this guy is.  Saint Patrick is technically not a saint; he’s never been canonized by the Roman Catholic Church.  He’s also not Irish, but British.

Patrick was born into a Christian family, his father was a deacon and his grandfather a priest.  According to the Declaration, he was captured at the age of 16 and taken into slavery by a group of Irish raiders who were attacking the family estate.  In Ireland, Patrick spent six years in captivity working as a shepherd.  It was during this time that Patrick’s relationship with God changed.

But after I had arrived in Ireland, I found myself pasturing flocks daily, and I prayed a number of times each day. More and more the love and fear of God came to me, and faith grew and my spirit was exercised, until I was praying up to a hundred times everyday - and in the night nearly as often. So that I would even remain in the woods and on the mountain in snow, frost and rain, waking to pray before first light. - St. Patrick

One night during Patrick’s captivity, he believed that he heard a word from God during his time of prayer.  He believed that God was telling him to run away from captivity in order to find a ship to sail back home to Britain.  Patrick successfully escaped captivity, traveling 200 miles on foot in order to find the ship he was looking for.

On a mission.

After escaping to Britain, Patrick believed that he experienced another vision from God - this time an angel telling him to return to Ireland as a missionary.  Patrick soon began his religious training, and 15 years letter would be ordained as a Priest. Patrick would then go back on mission to Ireland with the goal to spread the message of Jesus to the pagans in Ireland.

The Roman Catholic Church had given up on converting such “barbarians” deemed beyond hope. The Celtic peoples, of which the Irish were part, were an illiterate bunch of drunken, fighting, perverted pagans who basically had sex with anyone and worshiped anything. - The Resurgence

As St. Patrick went on mission into the culture of the Irish, he did so in some unusual ways.

St. Patrick not only went into the Irish culture with the message of the Gospel, but he also spoke the language of the culture.  He utilized the languages and customs of the people in order bring them the message of Christianity.  Instead of trying to eliminate all the native Irish beliefs, St. Patrick sought to redeem those beliefs and use them in a way that honored the message of the Bible.  For example, the Celtic cross comes from St. Patrick’s blending of the Christian cross and the Irish symbol of the sun.

St. Patrick did not do everything right.  His practices caused several conflicts between the Romans and the Celtic Christians.  There are certainly things he said and taught that were not right on.  And there may have been places that we feel like he even compromised too much in embracing culture.

But what we cannot argue is that St. Patrick was a missionary who was committed to do whatever was necessary to share the message of the Gospel with a people that most others had ignored.  And that’s something worth celebrating.

Photo Credit: John Cooke

Additional Reading:

• History.com - Who Was Saint Patrick?
• The Resurgence  - St. Patrick: One of the Greatest Missionaries Who Ever Lived
• Wikipedia Entry on Saint Patrick’s Day

Good Theology Says Nothing New

I love new things.  When I got my new Macbook, their was a sense of excitement as I opened up the box and carefully removed the plastic over my shiny new piece of technology.  Anytime an entrepreneur puts out a press release or makes a keynote announcing their innovations, I can’t help but be excited about the new possibilities.  When an internet start-up launches a new social network, I am quickly intrigued.  New is exciting.  When brands, business, and individuals create, innovate, and push the boundaries, people get excited. Because innovation and creativity are exciting. We love new.

Unless we are talking about theology.

Good theology says nothing new.

Because while new is exciting for our smartphones.  Good theology is not innovative, it simply says the things have been said for thousands of years.  It might be said in new, exciting, and innovative ways, but the content of what is said is the same, unchanging truth.

Let me be very clear.  Creativity, innovation, and pushing boundaries are important - even for theologians.  But creativity, innovation, and pushing boundaries are important in the art that flows out of good theology not in the developing of the theology itself.

We need theologians that are creative, but we don’t need theologians that are creating new theologies.  We need theologians that are pushing the envelope, but not in the understanding of scripture.  Creativity should be spent crafting art that says something old in new and innovative ways.

“Everything that needs to be said has already been said. But since no one was listening, everything must be said again.” - Andre Gide

If you hear someone teaching the Bible claiming to have found a new way of understanding the Bible, run.

A good theology will always have been said before because good theology is rooted in an ancient truths of Scripture.  It’s an old, ancient truth that has been taught in thousands of different ways, by thousands of different theologians, and in hundreds of languages. The scriptures are an ancient text that say today what they have always said.  We may find new applications for our day and age, but they mean today what they always meant.

Theology for Everyday Life

When most people think of theology, they think of something that is reserved for the academics or the dead guys who wrote big books a long time ago.  But theology isn’t reserved for the academics or the dead guys, theology is for everyday life.  Theology may not be a popular word, but it is something for all of us and it should flow into all of life.  Our theology should shape the way we raise our kids, relate to our spouse, and do our work.

We are all theologians.

You may not immediately think of yourself as a theologian, but you are one.  Theology is simply the study of God, which means that having some kind of thoughts, ideas, or beliefs about God make you a theologian.  Even believing there is no god is technically a theology.  So while you may in your mind picture a theologian as someone with a long white beard, several degrees, and a lot of books, you’d do much better to simply look in the mirror.  Because you are a theologian.

R.C. Sproul said it beautifully:

“No Christian can avoid theology. Every Christian is a theologian. Perhaps not a theologian in the technical or professional sense, but a theologian nevertheless. The issue for Christians is not whether we are going to be theologians but whether we are going to be good theologians or bad ones.“  - R.C. Sproul 

Good theology makes God the hero.

There are a ton of ways that we could describe what would constitute as good theology.  But for sake of simplification I want to make one simple way of describing good theology.  A good theology always makes God the hero; a bad theology makes you the hero.  Anytime you encounter a theology that tells you what you can do to make yourself right, find a path to holiness, or have all the desires of your heart….be very afraid.  A good theology is never going to make you out to be the hero, because if you are the hero we are all screwed.  Because you are never going to be good enough to make yourself right, you are never going to pursue God enough, pray enough, or have enough faith.  But when God is the hero, he is the one that makes us right, he’s the one that grants the faith, and he’s the one that gives every good gift.  This is foundational and if understood will flow into every area of our life.

Good theology matters on Monday morning.

A good theology isn’t simply something that you talk about on Sunday mornings.  A good theology has implications for how you live your life.  This is why Martin Luther’s theology was so influential for people living out their faith in their careers, families, and communities.  Because Luther taught, “God doesnt need your good works, but your neighbor does.”  The great theology that rightly taught whose work sets us free from sin also sets us free to do our work for the benefit of our neighbor.  If your theology doesn’t have implications for your normal, ordinary, every day life - than it might just be time to find a new theological framework to work within.

The Gospel According to Bacon

Bacon is proof that God loves us.  Seriously.  Imagine what life would’ve been like in the days of the Old Testament.  The smell of fresh cooked bacon floating through the air as the Israelites camped out in the wilderness… never an option.  The pigs that jumped off the cliff because they were possessed by demons… imagine all the quality meat that could’ve been had if Jesus just said, “Let’s eat."  Maybe we shouldn’t be surprised that the Israelites complain about the manna and want meat instead.  God’s people just want themselves some bacon.

The reason they couldn’t eat bacon came from some simple rules in Leviticus regarding their dietary laws.  Leviticus includes all kinds of rules about how God’s people should dress, what they can or cannot eat, and all kinds of details about how to properly make a sacrifice.

"Nevertheless, among those that chew the cud or part the hoof, you shall not eat these: The camel, because it chews the cud but does not part the hoof, is unclean to you. And the rock badger, because it chews the cud but does not part the hoof, is unclean to you…And the pig, because it parts the hoof and is cloven-footed but does not chew the cud, is unclean to you.” - Leviticus 11:4-5, 7

This was the rule for thousands of years.  No bacon.  Bacon came from pigs and pigs were unclean, therefore bacon was off the table, literally.

If you are like me, you obviously don’t follow this rule.  Why?  What happened that changed a rule that was around for thousands of years?  Bacon wasn’t Kosher for the Jews, and Christians believe the Old Testament too, so what happened that changed the rules.

Jesus happened.

Two Kinds of Laws

In the Old Testament, there are two types of the law.  We see the moral law (or natural law) and also the ceremonial law.  The moral law are the laws that we see throughout Leviticus and in other books that could be summed up simply in a list like the 10 Commandments.  And then there is the ceremonial law, which are the laws that include instructions on the ceremonies.  It includes things like sacrifices, circumcision, dietary restrictions, the feasts and festivals, and so on.

The moral law are the laws connected to God’s nature.  These types of laws, like do not murder, are universal and timeless.  In fact, even before God gave the command, “Do not murder,” it was wrong to murder.  These laws are timeless because they are woven into the way that God has created the world to work.  These are the same laws that the apostle Paul would argue are “written on our hearts.”  Bacon is not one of these laws, bacon (and all the dietary laws) are a part of the ceremonial.  The ceremonial law is just a shadow of something better.  The restrictions, the sacrifices, and the festivals are good things.  But they are only good because of what they point to.  They are significant, but they aren’t the main thing.  The shadows are good, but the substance is much better.

The thing that these ceremonial laws point to: Jesus.

Jesus is what these laws point forward to and Jesus fulfills all that these laws could do.  And in fulfilling the law, Jesus brings about a new, better covenant.

"But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second. In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.” - Hebrews 8:13

Enter the new covenant.  Now as people start following Jesus in the early days, people don’t immediately give up all their rules that they had previously centered their lives around.  Jesus and his followers celebrated the passover, they observed the Sabbath, and they followed the dietary laws.  The members of the early church were good Jews and kept the Jewish law and didn’t eat bacon… for a while.

Go and make disciples of all nations… and eat bacon

Jesus’ first followers were Jews, but this message of the death and resurrection wouldn’t be a message only for the Jews.  God wanted to make this clear.  When Jesus came and gave his life to be a sacrifice once and for all, that’s a message for everybody.  The news that Jesus came as the high priest who sits down at the right hand of God declaring, “It is finished” is not just a news for a nation, but it’s news for all people.

And so Peter is going to share this Good News with a group of people who aren’t Jews.  And when Peter goes up to the roof to pray, he gets hungry and has this crazy vision.

"In it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air.  And there came a voice to him: “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.” But Peter said, “By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.” And the voice came to him again a second time, “What God has made clean, do not call common.” - Acts 10:12-15

Peter is a good Jewish boy and everything he knows is being challenged.  Clean and unclean foods.  Feasts and festivals.  The ritual washings.  Circumcision.  Peter all of the sudden is forced out of everything he knows for the sake of the Gospel.  Peter already knows the Gospel is for all people, but he quickly is faced with the reality that his dietary restrictions shouldn’t be what keeps someone from hearing the Good News.

"So Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. As for the word that he sent to Israel, preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ (he is Lord of all) you yourselves know what happened…To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.” -  Acts 10:34-37, 43

The Gospel is for all people.  It’s not reserved for the people who follow the right rules, it’s not reserved for a certain nation or tribe, it’s not reserved for the people who are intellectually superior, and it’s not reserved for those who have abstained from bacon.  The Gospel is the Good News for all people.  And for Peter this means giving up everything that he had grown to know for the sake of bringing the Gospel to a people who had not yet heard it.

Peter is told by God that the foods he once knew to be unclean were no longer unclean.  And in that moment, thus saith the Lord, “Eat bacon.”  And this is why you and I can eat bacon.  Because in the New Covenant, foods were declared clean.  The dietary laws of the Old Testament were no longer necessary because Jesus had come and because he came for all people

Jesus came.  We eat bacon.

Photo Credit: dave77459, misterjt

Where is your blue dot?

If you’ve ever used a smart phone for some sort of navigation, you’ve likely encountered the blue dot.  You know, the indicator that shows up on top of the map you are looking at as a way to make it clear to you, “You are here.”  The blue dot shows you at any given moment the exact coordinates of your location.  It tells you the city you are in, the street you are traveling on, the neighborhood you are entering, and the driveway you are approaching.  The blue dot makes it very clear that, “You are here."

Where is your blue dot?

The most natural way that we will think of the blue dot is likely our location.  But I’d like to expand our radius, if you will, to think about your blue dot beyond simply your location, and also your culture and your relationships.  If you’re blue dot says, “You are here at this location.”  I’d like to consider how it might also say, “You are here at this location, at this time in history, as you do life with these people.”  God has placed you wherever you are.  Your blue dot is the very place in which God has placed you.  Certainly that dot is affected by a variety of factors - like the housing market, your career, your family members, etc.  But God has placed you wherever you are and he has entrusted you with the Good News in the places he has placed you.

Location.

Where do you live?  Where do you work?  What community do you live in?  God has placed you in these geographic locations and has entrusted you with the Gospel in these places.  People all around you do not know the Gospel, many of them not even knowing a Christian who believes this very Gospel.  Being a missionary doesn’t require you to go across borders or over seas, it just requires you to walk outside.

Culture.

The communities in which we live are not isolated from the world and period in history in which we live.  What is the culture in which we live?  What is the language of our culture?  What is important in 21st century America?  How do people see Christianity?  Based on what many of us have likely seen and heard form culture, this can be terrifying.  For many, it does not seem like a great time in history in culture.  Regardless, it is important to understand the world in which we live.  None of us would dare go into a foreign country ignorant of the language they speak, the way the dress, the social nuances of their culture, and the religious influences.  The same is true in our own culture, we cannot ignore the world in which we live, even if it is far different than we would like it to be.

We live in a post-Christian, pluralistic culture.  This means that we must understand that our culture is not shaped by the same values that many of us hold to as Christians.  This means that our culture may be interested in spirituality, but have some difficulty with the idea of an objective truth.  This is important because being a missionary today means taking this message of the Gospel and sharing it in the context of a post-Christian, pluralistic culture.

Relationships.

If you look at your own spiritual life, who has been most influential in your spiritual growth?  Relationships are central to the way God has created us as humans and relationships are also central to to sharing of the Gospel.  1 out of 5 non-Christians don’t know a Christian.  For some unbelievers, the first barrier to hearing the Gospel isn’t some kind of argument but it’s simply they don’t know anyone who believes it.  God has placed us in all kinds of networks of relationships - in our workplaces, in our families, in our friendships, and in our neighborhoods.  And God uses these relationships as we look for opportunities to share the Good News with those around us and to love our neighbors as we have been loved.

What are the challenges surrounding your blue dot?

When God Calls You to Get Social (Media)

As Christians we believe that God calls us to live out our faith in all kinds of different arenas.  We are called to live out our faith in our homes as we raise our kids to love Jesus and as we treat our spouse with love and respect.  We are called to do our work skillfully and for the glory of God, even when that work is not distinctly Christian work.  We are called to love our neighbors, whether or not that always means talking about Jesus.  In today’s modern world where life is lived online, should we consider God’s calling as extending into our online profiles?  Has God also called you to your Facebook, Twitter, instagram, and tumblr?

I had an opportunity to spend some time talking about this topic specifically with a friend of mine. Justin Wise is an author, trainer, and speaker when it comes to online marketing and social media.  In fact, he recently released an awesome book called Social Church all about how the church might embrace social media.  In light of his work with social media, I asked Justin to do an interview about the subject and what it looks like for the Christian to live out his faith in a social media world.

[gss-content-box color="gray”]Make sure you check out Justin’s book The Social Church: A Theology of Digital Communication. [/gss-content-box]

Me: If you are a Christian, God has called you.  He has called you to your family, to your community, to your workplace.  Do you think this extends to our internet presence?  And if that’s the case, how does God call us to live out our faith in the digital realm?

Justin: The best way to answer that is by looking at the offline version of living out your faith.  Followers of Jesus live out their faith in all kinds of different ways.  In the scriptures, we most clearly see this in the commands to “Love God,” and “Love others.”  As Christians we are called to love God and love others, period.  This means we approach our work with this in mind, we approach our families with this in mind, we approach our friendships with this in mind, and we approach social media with this in mind.

Me: So for the Christian trying to go about using their Facebook, twitter, and instagram for the glory of God?  Does this mean that the Christian should tweet a verse-a-day and instagram quotes of bible verses with a cool filter?

Justin: A Christ-centered approach to social media isn’t about constantly tweeting bible verses and beating people over the head with it.  Instead it simply asks the question, “How can I live out my life online in a faith-based way?”  In many ways it is simply living out your Christian faith online and letting people witness that. And that can look a thousand different ways.

Me: When I think of this question, I think of the quote that’s attributed to Martin Luther that says, “The Christian shoemaker does his Christian duty not by putting little crosses on the shoes, but by making good shoes.”

Justin: I love that quote.  Let’s give an example of what this might look like.  Let’s say you are a Christian entrepreneur.  Not an entrepreneur running a Christian business, but a Christian who wants to start a normal, not Christian, for-profit business.  As you start your business and run your business you might use your twitter account in a thousand different ways.  You make sure that you are rendering a service that you are proud of.  You make sure your service is something that you care about.  You make sure you use tools like twitter to build connections with customers that you care about.  It may even mean that flowing out of the platform that you build, you use this platform to elevate others or promote an individual or organization that doesn’t have a platform of their own.  It’s not necessarily about quoting scripture, it’s about doing good and using your social media to help make that happen.

Me: In your book, The Social Church, you make the comparison between social media and the printing press.  But we aren’t all Martin Luther, so what role do we play as we use our tweets and instagrams? 

Justin: This is actually the genius of social.  When you look at the printing press, it was still a very expensive piece of technology and very few had access to it.  The impact of what we are seeing today with social will be much greater because of the accessibility.  Anyone with a computer connected to the internet can start their own publishing channel. Even if you are not looking to reform Christianity, the barrier to being able to publish, share, and connect with ideas is lower than ever before.

Me: I know with me, when it comes to technology I tend to jump in with both feet right away.  What cautions would you suggest to someone like me who is all about the new devices, the new networks, and the new technological fads? 

Justin: Use social media; don’t let social media use you.  Social media, and all technology, can quickly become consuming.  And this isn’t simply only a time thing, but it can even be a mind-share thing.  Are you constantly engaged with your Facebook even when you aren’t on your phone or desktop?  For those of us who are embracing social, we also have to learn to be able to distance ourselves and disengage.

Religion of Doing

In the minds of many, being a Christian is equated with a set of rules.  For many being a Christian means, “Do this,” or “Don’t do that.”  Christianity becomes defined by morality; it very quickly becomes about your ability to follow the rules and has little to do with faith.  While behaviors are certainly important - they do all have consequences - they do not define what makes a Christian.  The religion of doing is one that focuses on behaviors over the savior.  It focuses on what you need to do over what has already been done.  The Gospel is never about behavior modification, moralism, or more rules.  The Gospel is about what Christ has done to rescue us from sin.

Treat the Symptoms, Ignore the Heart

When we trust in the religion of doing we try to deal with the symptoms of the problem while ignoring the deeper issue. This would be like suffering from heart disease and simply trying to deal with the chest pain by taking some tylenol, all the while ignoring that your arteries were being clogged and you needed major surgery.  Treating the symptoms may temporarily make you feel better, but it doesn’t get to the heart of the issue.  Behavior modification only ever goes so far.  Because while we may slowly curb our behavior, what we will continue to find is that sin is much deeper than a single struggle.  And we will find that the behavior we try to correct either will resurface or come up in the guise of something else.

The Religion of Doing tries to deal with the symptoms of the problems.  Christ deals with the disease.

Are you interested in putting a Band-Aid on the wound that runs deep within your soul?  Being a Christian is about a finished work; the work that God has done.  If you make your faith about what you do, you will quickly find yourself exhausted at your inability to do it.  The Good News is that while we are sinful, Christ died for us.  While there is a disease that runs deep within us, it’s not on us to deal with the symptoms or the disease, because Christ came for the sick.

The preacher, Tullian Tchividjian, said, “Contrary to popular belief, Christianity is not about good people getting better.  If anything, it is about bad people coping with their failure to be good.”  In other words, being a Christian is not about us doing all the right things; it’s about Christ doing the one right thing that was necessary to save us while we were unable to do anything about our own situation.

The Good Samaritan

“A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers.  They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead.  A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side.  So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.” - Luke 10:30-32

The priest walks by.

The Levite walks by.

Many of us may look at that and naturally ask the question, “Well, how can the religious leaders leave the man on the side of the road?  How can the priest do something like that?”  And we think of our own church leaders and pastors and how appalling it would be to see them leave a man dying on the side of the road.

But when the expert in the law hears Jesus telling this story, he would not be surprised at this point. Because as Jesus is telling the story, the expert in the law knows the Hebrew Scriptures very well, and he knows the culture very well, and he knows that what the priest and the Levite do is exactly what priests and Levites do.  The expert in the law whom Jesus is telling this story to is familiar with the Levitical laws and the priestly system.

He knows the text:

The Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them, ‘A priest must not make himself ceremonially unclean for any of his people who die except for a close relative, such as his mother or father, his son or daughter, his brother, or an unmarried sister who is dependent on him since she has no husband.  For her, he may make himself unclean.  He must not make himself unclean for people related to him by marriage, and so defile himself.” - Leviticus 21:1-4

And like it Leviticus 21:11, which gets more specific about high priests:

 “The high priest must not enter a place where there is a dead body.  He must not make himself unclean, even for his own father or mother.”

When the expert in the law hears this story, he would not be surprised at the behavior of the Priest and the Levite.  They are simply doing what Priests and Levites do.  In fact, to this day, Orthodox Jewish priests still avoid going to cemeteries or funerals of people who are not in their family to avoid breaking the Levitical law.  And so, as the expert in the hears the story, he is not surprised.  Of course the Priest and the Levite don’t help the man on the side of the road, because he was dying.  And if he were to die on their watch, they would no longer be able to fulfill their priestly duties.  Helping the man on the side of the road would risk their obedience to the law.

And so a man is left dying on the side of the road because a Priest and a Levite are focused on their religious rules.

As the expert in the law hears this story, the question would quickly become, “Where is he going to see himself in the story that Jesus tells?”  It’s unlikely that he’s going to see himself as the priest or the Levite.  As an expert in the law, he would likely not only be not surprised by the choice of the priest and the Levite, but he would be a little frustrated.  He would get the feeling that we get when we turn on the news and see people in the name of the Jesus, declaring or doing things in the name of Jesus that are contrary to his message.

The expert in the law would be thinking, “Here are the religious people; more religious hypocrites, who follow their laws but ignore the law to love your neighbor.”  And so as he hears the story, in his frustration, he couldn’t imagine himself as the priest or the Levite.

This only leaves two characters.

Jesus continues the story.

‘But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him.  He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine.  Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him.  The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper.  “Look after him,” he said, “and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.”  Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?’

Jews despise the Samaritans.  Out of anybody in the story that Jesus tells, the last person the expert in the law would resonate with is the Samaritan.  The Samaritans were the half-bloods.  They are the hated; they didn’t truly follow God.  The plot twists in Jesus story as a Samaritan shows up as the hero.  This presents a problem for the expert in the law.  If he’s not the priest and not the Levite and he’s definitely not the Samaritan, that only leaves one person.

The man dead and dying on the side of the road.

When life and sin leaves us beaten down on the side of the road, where do we turn?  In this story, religion leaves a man dead and dying.  The religious behavior of the priest and the Levite don’t come to the rescue.  They may have been following the rules, but the man on the side of the road was still left for dead. The only one that does anything while we are beaten and dying on the side of the road is the one who is hated, who was despised and rejected.  The despised and rejected comes when nothing else could rescue and picks us up, bandages our wounds, and takes us to the inn.

Childlike vs. Childish Faith

Walt Disney said, “That’s the trouble with the world, too many people grow up.”  When we are kids, we can’t wait to get older.   When we have kids of our own, we desperately want to cherish the moments we have before they grow up.  There’s something incredible about seeing the joy, the innocence, the creativity of a child as they play and imagine.  But there are also traits that we hope don’t stick around forever - things like the potty training, the tantrums, needing to have their food mashed up and spoon-fed.

When the Bible describes faith, it uses children as both the example of what to be like and also what not to be like.  In Matthew 18:3 it says, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”  And 1 Corinthians 13:11 writes, “When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child.  When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.”  There is truth in this tension.  Be childlike.  Don’t be childish.

Childlike Faith

Frederick Buechner describes how he envisions the scene when Jesus says "become like little children."

Jesus puts him in front of him perhaps, his hands on his shoulders so he won’t make a run for it. The child stands there wide-eyed, more than a little scared, much more than a little embarrassed, toeing the dust. If it weren’t for the honor of the thing, as in Lincoln’s joke, he’d as soon have been left unnoticed. He wishes he’d had time to get the hair out of his eyes and button up his shirt, at least to spit out his bubblegum. He dreads being asked some question that he can’t answer or even one that he can. He hopes he won’t be told to do something beyond him. He’d give a lot as he waits there to be as tall as his big brother or as smart as his Uncle Joe. He wishes he were anything worth being or knew anything worth knowing. All he knows for sure is that when the man called him, he had to go. -  Whistling in the Dark

Children are helpless - powerless, in need of love, protection, and provision.  They are cute and bring about great joy to their families, but they don’t contribute to society.  They require a lot and have little to give.  Jesus calls up a little child as a great object lesson and says, “This is what faith should look like.”

Faith is not about your abilities to provide for yourself, it is not about the hard work you do or your dedication to following me.  Children are quite aware that they can’t do life on their own (at least until they hit middle school); adults on the other-hand are able to take care of themselves and think they know exactly what they need.  In the movie Willy Wonka, this same point gets made by Willy Wonka when he tells Charlie his reasoning for choosing him over and adult.  He says, “A grownup would want to do everything his own way.”  Isn’t this exactly what happens in our faith?  We want to do things our way, on our schedule, and based on our preferences.

Be like a child.  Helpless, powerless, and completely reliant on God.

Childlike is not childish...

Childlike is the positive qualities of childhood.  The qualities that we should embrace and encourage in our faith, especially as we no longer are children.  But not all qualities of childhood are childlike.  Children are afraid of the dark, unreasonable, and quarrelsome.  The require frequent changing of diapers, they can’t feed themselves, and they freak out if they don’t get what they want.  Childlike is not the same thing as childish.

So while the scriptures certainly call us to a “childlike faith,” they also call us to leave behind our “childish ways.”  This is what maturing is - both physically and spiritually - we leave behind certain childish ways.  As our children grow up, we hope that some of these things change with maturity.  If our teenagers still require us to mash up food and cut it into tiny pieces, that’s going to be weird.  That’s not maturity.  Instead, eventually our kids should learn to start to feed themselves, to go to the bathroom on their own, and take responsibility for their actions.

Childlike means we are helpless to do the things that only God can do.  We are helpless in our own salvation, our own forgiveness, and the faith that we have.  But we are not helpless to use the gifts that God has given us.  Childish means we are helpless to use gifts like God’s Word and don’t take responsibility for our own faith.  Childlike means we are helpless in that we have to completely rely on God to provide.  But being childish means that we claim to be helpless in using what God has provided to us.

Grow up.  But don’t ever grow up.

The Tiring, Difficult, & Humbling Race

I don’t understand runners.  I understand playing a sport and being punished with running, but running simply for the fun of it is beyond me.  And runners will often talk about the way it makes them feel afterwards - they talk about the adrenaline of the “runner’s high” - this has not ever been my experience.  Running typically makes me feel like I would rather die soon.  In the few times that I’ve tried to take up running, I’ve ended my running by walking into my house, with my heart pounding through my chest, and thinking, “What in the world did I do that for?"

My first experience with this kind of running was actually in fifth grade.  Fifth grade was the first year we were ever allowed to sign up for sports at my school.  I didn’t play soccer, so the only fall sport that was an option was a sport called, “Cross-country.”  I signed up because I had been told that this would be a helpful sport if I wanted to play basketball in the Winter.  And then I showed up to practice.  And we ran.  And we kept running.  That was also my last day of cross-country.

Marathons take a certain kind of athlete and a certain amount of work and commitment.  It’s strenuous, draining, and grueling.  It requires perseverance and training.  Throughout the scriptures in a few different places, the Bible actual describes life with this same kind of language.  Life is called a race.  We are called to “persevere" and “press on.”  The same kind of feelings that are prevalent in a marathon.

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” -Hebrews 12

At time life grows tiring.  It requires that we endure through the trials.  And other times it seems like we run through life right on pace.  Some days we are celebrating the victories, joys, and personal bests.  And other times we have to remind ourself to simply keep putting one foot in front of the other, pushing on for one more mile, one more week.

The runner Bill Rodgers said, “The marathon can humble you.”

Isn’t this true of life.  Life humbles.  It is exhausting.  People disappoint you, let you down, and talk about you behind your back.  Life wears you down.  And this doesn’t change whether or not you are a Christian.  Life humbles all, whether or not your hope is in Jesus.  Life is tiring, it is exhausting, there will be pain and trials.  As a Christian, you can still go to a job that beats you down, where you feel under-appreciated.  You can give, give, give to your family only to have your kids disown you.  You can pursue Jesus with all that is within you and still face pain, loss, and tragedy.  Life will humble; it will wear you down, and for the Christian, in the midst of this grueling race of life, we look to Jesus with hope.

Hope that while we run the race, we can look to Jesus knowing that it doesn’t rely on us, but Him.  Hope that while we run the race, we look to the one who ran the race before us.  Hope that while we are exhausted and worn down, we look to the one who says, “Come to me all who are weary and heavy burdened.”  We run the long, tiring, difficult race and look to Jesus.  We look to Jesus who “for the joy that was set before him endured the cross."