three posts really...

It's been a mad mad month around here, and things aren't getting any saner. I haven't had the time I usually have to blog, which means I haven't really had much time to process lately, which for me is not good. So, I have a long day in the office with a long To-Do list in front of me and I'm going to put it all off a half an hour and do some blogging. Actually I'm going to put blogging on my To Do list. So here they are: three things I want to blog about, take your pick.

1) Worlds of Fun: Christian Edition
This past saturday we went to the "Heartfest" day at Worlds of Fun, our local amusement park. Every ride had at least 30 minute lines and the parking lot was packed with church vans and buses from around the midwest. Surely this would be a great day at Worlds of Fun. We were disappointed. Lots of stories about that, including David Crowder Band's incredibly predictable and uninspired concert, but I just wanted to share this little scene which I feel captures the attitude of a lot of Christians right now: A couple walking through the grassy-hill concert seating area, the one wearing a classic pop-theology, penal-substitutionary-atonement-theory (I think) tee-shirt that said "Jesus died for myspace in heaven" with the word "myspace" using the logo from the popular social networking website. Typical, I thought, but then I had to laugh when I read the t-shirt of the guy she was with; his said "I'm open to suggestions, as long as they're mine." Classic. Nothing like the double barreled shotgun of closed mindedness and narrow mindedness to really express your love of Jesus Christ.


2) Speaking of being disappointed, Tony Jones is Disappointing me. I read on a blog that he was starting up a new website called "rethink Christianity" intended to be "interactive with posts and videos" I thought that sounded cool, so headed over to the site, and I was intrigued by their tag line, an apparent play on the radio shack commercials, it read "We have questions, you have answers." Now that sounds like a nice idea to me, but then I found that the only way I can post my answer is by video. I contemplated the possiblity of using my morning to shoot,edit, and post a video in response to their question, but besides my not having time I felt it was a bit of cheap gimmick. AND the more I post, the more chances I have to win a free iPod! Woooo! I must have this sort of mental filter that kicks in whenever the words "free" and "iPod" are combined in an effort to get me to do something. But this site, it seems, represents the co-opting and corporatization of at least some of the "emergent" church.

3) A few days ago I had an affirming comment about my "job performance" over the past three years at St Luke. The person who made the comment actually didn't realize it pertained to me in any way, but it did. She found out that I worked at "the church next to penguin park" and started telling me about how she used to go to the youth group there, but that she "just felt like another number" and that every time she was there she ended up being asked to talk or do something else that embarrassed her. The group was just too big. And when I arrived at St Luke, I felt the same way: there were almost 40 kids coming on Wednesday nights. Some people may see the fact that we're down under 10 on a regular basis now as a failure of some kind on my part, remarking how sad it is that we have such a small youth group now, but really I think it's much better this way. It's a tricky balancing act in youth ministry, trying to be responsible in doing outreach but at the same time wanting to have a small enough group that a can get to know them all and build relationships. In the end it looks like I chose a small group of close relationships over a large group with high-energy/high-emotion meetings, and I'm glad I did things the way I did. I think the kids in that group are too. Last night was my last official meeting with them, and we had some really nice conversations. I felt good about where we've come from and where the church is headed based on last night's conversation.

Two DVDs, one big Idea

In the past week I've watched two DVDs. The first was Rhythm, one of the Nooma videos By Rob Bell. The second was August Rush.

August Rush was supposed to be really good, and we finally watched it thanks to a Large drink from McDonald's and a RedBox machine that didn't work. Anyway... It turned out to actually be actually quite good. A bit of a cliffhanger ending, but a really great story. The basic idea is that some people can just hear music in everything. They may be an accomplished musician, a struggling rock star, or just an orphan with no musical training, but if they can hear the music, it will guide them, even haunt them, and never let them go. At one point someone (Robin Williams' kind of deranged character) describes music as "a harmonic connection between all things."

In Rhythm, which is basically a 10 minute sermon with some extra visuals and background music, Rob Bell talks about how he thinks of God like a song. This song is a compelling song, one which is in all people but which some know better than others. It's song we can recognize when we see it, in things like love and truth and justice. And some people, Rob says, have studied it, and know all about the technical aspects of it and can hear things other people can't. Other people just have an innate ability, maybe even an unexplainable ability, to know the song and live it out.

I think as Christians we need to combine these two ideas into a theology of connection, where we recognize that in God we are connected to all people and through God we are shaped and tuned and composed. Different people add harmony. Denominations strengthen the melodies. The song is real, it is everywhere and on some level you can't deny it. God describes God's self as "I am."

God is.

Our striving in life should be to also be as God is.

and the winner is...

me! well, one of the winners. Jesus Manifesto, an online magazine which I really enjoy reading, held a Pentecost Writing Contest, which I entered back around Pentecost time. It's exciting for me because it's the first writing contest I've ever won. Anyway, be sure to read it here and make a comment, either there or here, about what you think!

Love me Light me Give me Guide me

This song came up in the shuffle of mp3s today, and I think it's a good prayer for where I'm at right now. I feel like my life has been in transition for years now, but for the first time I'm actually starting to see a possible clearing up ahead.
press play in the box, then read the words below, and some of my thoughts below that.

"Mansions" by Burlap to Cashmere

God of light, light me some passion.
Green fields and lovely mansions.
Let your mansions live inside me.
Love me, light me, give me, guide me.
Cross of skin and naked figure.
Broken legs and crooked fingers,
Help me live for good tomorrow,
Today's too late and full of sorrow.
Light is good and dark is evil,
But I'm running around
Through the cross and through the steeples,
Trying to make it to higher ground.
Come on light, please live beside me.
Love me, light me, give me, guide me.
Pride and hate, they live inside me.
I need your love enough to guide me.
Help me walk across these borders.
I'm a pilgrim in deep waters.
Faithful God, like faithful sunrise,
Help me break from all these old ties.
Lead me all to that is holy.
Break these chains, but break them slowly.

Some lines in particular that I like...

"...but I'm runnin' around / through the cross and through the steeples / tryin' make it to higher ground "

This speaks more to my cynicism of organized religion than anything else, and I'm trying to be less cynical so I won't go into it. too much. Only to say that I feel disillusioned by the church, even deceived. I felt that the best way to honor my commitment to God was to work in the Church, full time even, and I've since come to realize that it's just not true. I leave my job at St Luke in a little less than 2 months and I do not intend to be employed by the church ever again. Now, having said that, I will not say "no" if God calls me back. I'm just saying I don't think it will happen.

"Help me walk across these borders / I'm a pilgrim in deep waters "
well, that's pretty obvious. I am leaving the US, crossing several borders, and I will be a sort of pilgrimage for Sarah and I. We are even now realizing that this is going to take more then we have, and we will at many times be in deep, deep waters.

"Faithful God, like faithful sunrise,
Help me break from all these old ties.
Lead me all to that is holy.
Break these chains, but break them slowly."

Leaving St Luke, my job, our appartment, and eventually the country will be for us the beginning of a new chapter of life. My prayer is that we will have the strength and courage to turn the page.

"Help me live for good tomorrow / Today's too late and full of sorrow"
another prayer for the next chapter of my life. I don't feel like I've really been "living for good." I've been thinking about it, talking about it, but I haven't really started living it.

"love me light me give me guide me"
This is the Church, or what it's supposed to be, it one of the simplest and most beautiful statements I have come across. People come together to show love and ignite passion for good. then we are sent out, given to the world, and guided.

Amen.

Trip Update

We've been talking a lot about our trip- especially since we announced it to the whole congregation on Sunday- and though we're still both really excited, now the hard part begins.

We are stuck in a series of catch-22's, most of which will hopefully be worked our by a cooperative travel agent and a little higher limit on our credit card...

The biggest problem seems to be that tourist visas to Paraguay only last up to three months, and in order to get one, we have to have a return flight within those three months. We won't be staying in Paraguay the whole time (we'll leave to visit Argentina and renew our visas then) but we aren't planning to fly back until February. One solution is just to buy two round-trip tickets for each of us, but that of course is not cost-effective (they're about $1800 each.)

So we need to buy our tickets ASAP, besides the fact that prices will be going up the longer we wait. However, we need money to do that, and we haven't raised any money yet. So as you can see, it's not all fun and games. But we're working though it all. We also have shots to get, insurance to buy, figure out our mail and storage of our stuff, our car, etc. It's crazy, but it's worth it.

I've been reading a lot about Paraguay lately, mostly on Google news (I told it to show me any story with the word "Paraguay" in it...) I read all about the native Guarani people and their spiritual beliefs, and about the new Presidente Fernando Lugo, who before running for office was a Catholic bishop. Interesting things! I feel like I use the word "excited" so much it looses any meaning, but that's how I feel. Although ost of the stories are just about soccer.

Sarah and I will be in Terre Haute for the weekend visiting family. Also, our Church lost one of it's members yesterday, and we'll be back in town Saturday to help with the funeral. We thought about rescheduling our trip, but we're pretty much booked from now until February of 2009.

Sometimes, God doesn't Call...

...sometimes God just sends an email. Over the past week my wife and I have exchanged several emails with people from the US and the South American Field Office of the Nazarene world mission. The end result of these emails is an exciting new opportunity for Sarah and I:

We're movin' to Paraguay!

Right now we're planning to leave in early August to volunteer for 6 months with missionaries in Asunción, Paraguay. The details are still hazy (and mostly in Spanish) right now, but we are really beginning to sense God's call for the next part of our life. We formally (Sarah more formally than me, of course) submitted our resignations last night, and tonight at Youth and Children's activities we told some of the people closest to us that we will be leaving at the end of the summer. That was that tough part, but went well. Now all we have to do is raise $9000... any suggestions?

time meta-blog 2

I've been working on blogging about time for... well a long time now here's what I've come up with. To start us off I want to look at this verse from Ecclesiastes 3:11 – He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.

I think this shows us the time-less-ness of God, having already “made everything beautiful in it’s time” and also done everything “from the beginning to the end,” all past tense. It’s not what God has done and what God will do, but one statement, past tense, about what God has done. From an outside-of-time perspective, everything God does is done. Form an inside-time perspective this may look like some things are still happening, but from God’s perspective it is done.

If this is correct it means two things;

1) a shift in our thinking about things like predestination, free will, and prayer. I might get into those things more later. (I’ve been talking about them with my wife for years)

2) an incredible hope, following a God who already knows the way it all ends

So lets look at this a little more. This post was motivated by a conversation I had with some friends about life and death and I found it difficult to explain and support the point I was trying to make about time. I started out by looking through the New Testament for references to “eternal” or “eternity” that might give us more insight into the idea of time, I found the following: there are 69 references in the new testament, 63 of them don’t really say anything specific about time. Here are the other 6:

John 6.40:This is indeed the will of my Father, that all who see the Son and believe in him may have eternal life; and I will raise them up on the last day.”

The last day (end of time) is the beginning of eternal life, which I think shows that time ends and then eternity begins.

Romans 6.22:But now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God, the advantage you get is sanctification. The end is eternal life.

This could be understood to mean that at the end of everything, including time, is eternal life.

2 Corinthians 4.17:For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure,

On the issue of time, this seems to me to say that now we are in time (momentary being a reference to an amount of time) and that now is preparation for eternity which is beyond all measure. Time is a measure, and the glory of eternity is beyond even the measure of time.

Titus 1.2:in the hope of eternal life that God, who never lies, promised before the ages began—

Here we have an example of how eternal life was promised before time began, showing that it is something outside of time.

2 Peter 3.18: But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity.

“day” is a measure of time, which here is linked with eternity. I think this shows that our understanding of time with at very least be different in eternity, because “day” is used to mean an ambiguous (or even infinite) amount of time, not a 24 hour period

Luke 18.30: who will not get back very much more in this age, and in the age to come eternal life.”

Here eternal life is referred to as an age, which seems to imply an amount of time with a beginning and an end. I suppose eternity could be an “age” with a beginning and simply no end, but it seems clearer to understand it as a starting point for an existence not governed by time whatsoever.

Other things like “eternal life”, “eternal glory”, “eternal dwelling”, “eternal fire”, --none of these terms imply a dynamic state of time in “eternity.” In fact, they all seem to point to eternity as a state of existence, without really specifying an amount (or lack) of time.

It comes down to this: is eternity infinite time, or an actual lack of time? I think there is scripture that hints at the latter, but nothing entirely decisive.

When scripture lets me down, of course I turn to Scot McKnight…

In Scot’s blogging about the Jesus and the kingdom, he shows how Jesus uses the term “kingdom” as both earthly and eternal, but there is a theme of “eternity” to the understanding of kingdom emphasized over and over again in the gospels.

Again in his discussion there doesn’t seem to be much that indicates whether there is in eternity an experience of time or whether eternity exists apart from time I read through it again and I didn't catch anything, but I could be wrong.

Right now I’m working on reading N.T. Wright’s book Surprised By Hope, which is what sparked this conversation in the first place and hopefully will help me as I continue to read it. If he says anything meaningful relating to time and eternity, I’ll post it!

What do you think? Time? No time? Waste of time? Don’t have time to think about it?