I hope you have wonderful day full of family, fellowship, and peace. A day focused on the advent. I even hope you get some stuff you've been wanting. I hope you sing songs and eat good food and have a generally joyful day. Our Savior is here!
In other words...
Merry Christmas.
The Jim Carrey Grinch is pretty good. A fairly accurate depiction of what Christmas has become about around here..
"That's what it's all about, isn't it? That's what it's always been
*about*. Gifts, gifts... gifts, gifts, gifts, gifts, gifts. You wanna
know what happens to your gifts? They all come to me. In your garbage.
You see what I'm saying? In your *garbage*. I could hang myself with
all the bad Christmas neckties I found at the dump... The avarice never ends! "I want golf clubs. I want diamonds. I want a
pony so I can ride it twice, get bored and sell it to make glue." Look,
I don't wanna make waves, but this *whole* Christmas season is STUPID STUPID STUPID"
I'm with the grinch.
So i was thinking about how ridiculous it was to celebrate Jesus' birthday by buying presents for ourselves. And I thought of how we should buy Jesus presents instead. His not being physically here makes that difficult...until I remembered this verse:
"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.' Then the righteous will answer him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?' And the King will answer them, 'Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.'"
-Matthew 25:31-40 (ESV)
How cool would it be if Christians, sheep in this story (right?), had a completely different type of Christmas tradition? If I showed up at your birthday party with presents for everybody but you I'ld be considered a little bit of a jerk I think. What if we stopped putting "Jesus is the reason for the season" on our sweaters, bumpers, marquees and toothbrushes and lived like this was really a celebration of the birth of Jesus? If we actually celebrated Jesus as he said we should in the Bible by lifting up the least of these. If the poor (Jesus) were (was) excited about Christmas time because the Christians would be about the (real) work of the kingdom?
Americans will spend like 450 billion dollars on Christmas gifts this year...Do you know what a billion of those dollars would do in Africa? 10 billion would provide clean water for the whole world... 1/45th of the money we spend on needless gifts would supply water for the whole fricking world. (source) People are dying because they're hungry and we just carry on "Christmas as usual" If Jesus really is the "reason for the season" then why not act like it and keep Him from starving? Maybe next year we should just give Jesus a present. Make your checks payable to "the hungry" "the thirsty" "the stranger" "the naked" "the sick" or simply "the least of these."
In the past 24 hours me and jenny got to hang out with 3 different groups of people I don't normally get to see. good times.
anna fulton lives lives in Tennessee and is a cool kid.
caroline patterson lives in kennesaw but we rarely see each other. and as of today she's engaged. congrats.
allen tignor was new but cool. he has nice shoes.
N8 Lee moved to new orleans because he's stupid. but he's back for christmas and we went to red robin and guitar center. its nice to talk to old seminary friends.
Cory taylor lives in sunnyside, ga. (its not as happy as it sounds). he's cool. we ate smoked wings together and learned about subways. he's jumped on the LSU bandwagon now that they're doing well.
the point is...i enjoy hanging out with people. I spend a lot of time with Jenny. I enjoy it. Its marvelous and I wouldn't trade it for the world. but skipping the college experience for an extension center+a job in a non-college town is a lonely life. Its better for my resume...i'm getting my schooling and experience at the same time. It lets me have a lot of free time and its loads cheaper. but it doesn't offer community. Soooo I enjoy when I get to spend time with the marvelous friends I have. Thanks kids, keep up the good work.
I've been reading this excellent Selections from the Table Talk of Martin Luther recently...I found some words that voiced a concern I've had over some of the recent happenings:
"As when I have that text before me of St. Paul, where he
saith, "All the creatures of God are good, if they be received with
thanksgiving." This text showeth that what God hath made is good.
Now, eating, drinking, marrying, etc., are of God's making,
therefore they are good. But the glosses of the Primitive Fathers
are against this text, for St. Bernard, Basil, Dominicus,
Hieronymus, and others have written far otherwise of the same. But
I prefer the Text before them all, and it is far more to be esteemed
of than all their glosses; yet, notwithstanding, in Popedom the
glosses of the Fathers were of higher regard than the bright and
clear text of the Bible, through which great wrong oftentimes is
done to the Holy Scriptures;"
This was echoed in the words of a pastor who recently lost the MBC's support due to the mens opinions being of "higher regard than the bright and clear text of the Bible"
“While at Southern, I honestly hadn’t heard anything about Acts 29 [the church planting ministry he works with], but, in my view, an abstinence only view would be unthinkable by virtue of students having sola scriptura beaten in their heads everyday.”
-Kevin Larson via Vitamin Z.
Once again I find myself on the side of people I'm not willing to join. I'm not a drinker or even for alcohol...I'm against legalism. Jesus fought against people taking commandments and violating the spirit of the law. (1) How on earth can we take something that is clearly not a sin and make it a law? How much more are we violating the spirit of the Bible when we use it as a weapon and a vehicle to mold people into a form not required (or even depicted) in the Bible itself? I don't really care whether somebody drinks or not...they'ld probably be better off abstaining (there aren't many benefits and lots of negatives) but is THAT really the battle we're fighting? What a waste of time. We (people who supposedly form our entire faith around the words of the Bible) are spending time to fight against something the scriptures don't fight against. We wouldn't support a church Jesus started???
"I'm sorry Mr. Savior sir but if you remember that water to wine fiasco you'll understand...we can't be associated with people like you..."
That, my friends, is behavior I want no part of...
____________________________________________________
1. Luke 13:10-17. Honoring the sabbath was one of the 10 commandments. To not do so was clearly a sin. The point was obviously not "you can only walk so far" or "you can only do ____ type of activity" but something to the effect of "rest." I am simply amazed that we can follow the same Jesus who said this and take something the Bible doesn't call a sin and turn into the same legalism Jesus was so adamantly against.
Earlier this week I sat on my porch and ate lunch. It was absolutely gorgeous shorts and flip flop weather early this week. I loved it...my toes had missed the light of day. I enjoy sitting down eating some chicken noodle soup and reading a good book. An old copy of Latourette's A History of Christianity which I seem to have misplaced is pictured...only I could lose a book that hefty. I was just reading it today...where'd it go?
The high here on Wednesday was 74 with a slight, comfortable breeze...today it was 47 with a freezing wind. I'm starting to agree with Ben Gibbard (the greatest poet/lyricist of our generation?) when he said...
Where concerns about the world getting warmer
The people thought they were just being rewarded
For treating others as they like to be treated
For obeying stop signs and curing diseases
For mailing letters with the address of the sender
Now we can swim any day in november
1.my old ipod is now officially an ebook reader. it had two problems before...I fixed one:
1. the battery was dead. normally not an issue but due to a silly little engineering oversight by apple if you drain a 5g video ipods battery just right it won't be able to recharge via usb (the only cable they give you). The geniuses (hehe) at apple made it so that it won't charge while its booting. so there is a point where it will continually attempt to boot run down the battery to the 'extremely low battery' screen, attempt to boot... in a never ending cycle. a $15 wall charger from walmart fixed that problem right up. (i might return it...is that wrong?)
2. no audio. its a hardware problem and from what i've read is fairly common with no easy fix.
which leaves me with a battery, screen, and a 30 gig hard drive but no audio. through a fun little program called ebook to images i converted some books to pictures easily viewable on the ol' ipod. A few sources supplied the free books...
On there right now:
St Augustine's Confessions
The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence
The Prince by Machiavelli
Selections from Table Talk by Martin Luther
Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton
St Francis by G.K. Chesterton
1 John by John
The Sermon on The Mount by Jesus
2. The Missouri Baptist's recently withdrew funding from some church plants because they were working with a group that wouldn't require total abstinence from alcohol. I don't really care how ya feel about that..i'm not so upset about that I just read a really good quote from a guy defending it.
“I understand that the Bible does not say, never says, ‘Thou shalt not drink,’” Tolliver said, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "It is also true to say that the Bible does not specifically refer to drinking as a sin. However … the only Christian position in this 21st century Show-Me State environment that we live in is total abstinence!”
Thank you Mr. Pope sir. I'm gonna go with the Bible FTW, thanks. (Quote from Wade Burleson's Blog)
3. Me and Jenny watched Hotel Rwanda today. It was good. Made me wanna go to Darfur. Film is such a powerful medium. I don't think there is any better way to move somebody in an hour and a half. Maybe Rob Bell's onto something with these Nooma's. There is something about it that is simply more powerful than the spoken word, IMO. If thats true how do I use that in my ministry setting? (besides playing Nooma's instead of preaching, hehe)
Vitamin Z linked to a really good article. Ima send you to him though because he added a picture that fit better than the (literal) garbage in the article.
I'm surrounded by crap I don't need. and I long for more. I try to justify books...i mean they're for my edifi/education. Some of them are. I mean Kittel's Theological Dictionary of the New Testament for example (which is on my amazon wishlist) would help me prepare for sermons/papers and help me to better understand the words of the New Testament. Is it that important? $160 dollars? Do I need a 10 volume dictionary?
I'm writing this from a computer that cost more than millions of people make in a year. (Granted, that was 3 years ago). I mean its easy for me to say "I think its a sin to drive a ridiculously nice car, boat, tv, or house while somebody dies because they didn't have enough to eat" I agree with that but what can I say? I have a nice TV. I am in a constant battle to not download something from Itunes (feist, the national, LCD Soundsystem, and iron & wine are on the current lust list). I regularly let myself waste money on everything from coffee to a sandwich to a book or download. Hypocrite anyone?
If I cry out about other people's large expenditures shouldn't I be able to control my own small ones? Maybe somebody makes a debit card with a picture of a small african boy on it. heck I've got a printer and tape. Everything I spend on myself is something he doesn't have.
If you haven't seen cornerstone simi's video "Think of me" here it is.. This was their rationale for not building a $20 million dollar building. Its good and it applies. Check it out.
Random things:
1. I watched The Incredibles with my sister today. It was wonderful as usual. (it was so hard not to type incredible there...) I just thought you should know.
2. Hvarf-Heim by Sigur Ros is good. I bought it yesterday from itunes (no album art/insert but i got impatient). I'm a
3. I miss making music. Its been way too long. But alas..next thursday I think I'm headed back to the ecstasy that only occurs at the height of a decent postrock song you're creating. Just hope I didn't lose my chops during my absence from non CCM worship guitar.
4. There was something else...
5. Finally, I leave you with a Christmas word jumble inspired by a song title from Sufjan Stevens recent cd pack (worth the $20 bucks; pick it up.) The following words are out of order. Arrange them to spell the correct word and then draw conclusions. The first correct answer wins. The winner will be awarded one pack of creamy chicken raman. (Redeemable in the Greater Atlanta Area.) (Hint: I would use this coincidence as my sermon title if I were an independent Baptist preacher.)
SANTA
The colors don't matter...I just wanted to be festive.
I just wish I could take a "Bible-believing" good ol' boy to the time of the Bible. (*)
Take him to the party where Jesus turned water into grape juice (lol) and watch him tell Jesus that its not appropriate to drink the wine He just made. (1)
Let him tell Anna the prophetess (2) to stop talking out loud and tell Paul "you might not want to use the word 'deacon' to describe a woman" (3)
Oh to hear Jesus jump on today's "christians" for being legalistic (isn't that what almost every conversation between Jesus and the pharisees is about?) (4)
"Did you hear a word I said?" He would ask.
Or just to let them see Jesus...middle eastern Jesus. Dark-skinned Jesus. and let them whisper "aren't they the bad guys?" and back up. (5)
We are so far from the message Jesus brought to us. He came and said things that turned the world upside down. He spoke of a kingdom completely different than anything this earth had ever seen. A kingdom where the powerful are to serve, where wealth and possessions are a hindrance instead of the definition of success, where your status in society doesn't matter, where being meek is a good thing, where you dont' strike back when you are attacked...A kingdom where the poor are fed, sinners are forgiven, and enemies are loved.
And we're focused on the grape juice?
We're up in arms about women teaching?
We're preaching war sermons, building crystal cathedrals, and fighting about minor theological issues? (6)
It seems we have missed the point.
* I say "Bible-believing" not because I don't believe the Bible, because I think its wrong to, or because people who believe the Bible look like the guy depicted. I am simply trying to contrast the words of the Bible with the people (myself included) who say they believe it but fail to live out its teachings.
1. John 2:1-11. I used grape juice as a joke. "wine" is wine. Jesus drank wine. There. I said it. Sue me. Personally, I dont touch the stuff because to be "above reproach" in my ministry situation requires it plus I am addicted to CocaCola and drink milk by the gallon... moderation isn't my middle name so I'm just gonna avoid it all together. I'm not really campaigning for alcohol...there's lots of evil in the world because of it. I'm just campaigning for less hate/a realistic view of what the Bible says from people who say they believe the Bible. It's not wrong so stop claiming it is please.
2. Luke 2:36. prophetis - female version of prophetes. prophetes - "one who speaks forth or openly...a proclaimer of a divine message, dentoed among the Greeks an interpreter of the oracles of the gods." Quote from: Vine, W.E. Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words. (Mclean, VA: Macdonald Publishing Company), 904.
3. Romans 16:1. Consult your interlinear to find that the word diakonos is used...the same word we get 'deacon' from. NLT and NRSV translate it 'deacon' but the greek (and paul) say 'deacon' regardless of the translation. We let women do the work of deacons but we won't call them that?
4. Luke 13:10-17. The Gospels.
5. Not that every good ol' boy is a racist. But some of them are. If Jesus of Nazareth walked into churches all across the south (where I'm at) but didn't tell people who He was people would back up. Thats wrong is all I'm saying.
6. Your (or anybody elses) view on election doesn't matter and it isn't worth fighting about. Sorry.
the link to the board game that will change your life..
Your best life now.. the game. I'm seriously hoping the description is a joke. "this level players, after turning the 15-second timer, make positive statements about themselves while looking into the tiny, barely-reflective mirror provided with the game."
Here's a description of the gameplay.
