Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Blue Like Jazz

Just got finished reading "Blue Like Jazz" by Donald Miller. Very good book. There is something in the writing that really resonates with me. The writer being from Houston, and me so close by in Louisiana, helps that connection I suppose. I told my wife last night that I didn't want to sound egotistical, but that I felt that I could have wrote this book. Not because I am talented, I am not a writer, more like a quick sketch artist maybe, but not a writer. I guess what I meant was, if I were a talented writer like Don Miller, that I think I could have wrote this book. Mainly because it was like listening to my story, my spiritual journey in words. He is not like me in lots of ways, he isn't married (or so he isn't at the publication of this book), doesn't live near hear anymore, Portland, goes to a pretty emergent sounding church, but we have shared some of the same things. He started life in institutional church and learned all the Sunday School stories. Led youth for a time. But something happened. I light came on at some point, and the questions haven't stopped. I really understand exactly what that is like. It's really hard to explain in words, but if you have experienced it, there is no doubt you understand what that means. John Ortberg's endorsement says, "Its hard to find people who write about God from a position of commitment but still sound as if they are being human and honest...". I guess that's why I liked it so much. It's raw, funny, real. I definitely recommend this book to anyone.

SIM CP

Friday, July 21, 2006

Forgiveness

Recently my mom was taking a class on letting go of the past or something similar to that and she felt led to do some visiting and settling of the past to make the future more livable. What is forgiveness but letting yourself move on past the offense. Anyway, it seems that the first visit to my sister-in-law went well. I know that being apart of a family is difficult. There are ups and downs. Different personalities clashing. Similar ones wrestling for stage time. The most rewarding and yet most vulnerable people group on the planet. If we can all learn that we are on the same team, on each others side through it all, we will be much better off. All in all, I think if they will be open and honest with each other in all situations, the healing will begin and that is a beautiful thing.
The second visit to my pawpaw's house was not so good though. To save you the awful details, the short story is little communication has taken place between he and our immediate family over a 14 year period. To be fair, my mom has sent him letters, cards, etc. My brother has visited and sent pictures and letters. I have done none of the above. Several years ago, I felt that it was time to visit and if nothing else give forgiveness a try. My mom and I had decided that we would go, but when she called, he told us not to bother he would not be there and that we were dead to him. I guess I could have tried a bit harder to go, but I know that I have forgiven him. To get back to the visit, my mom said that he was asking her to leave, that she wasn't welcome there, from the moment she got there. His wife, not my grandmother who passed away in '89, has from the beginning pitted him against him own family. She and he are so caughtup in unforgiveness, they have not moved ahead in life for 14 years. All they could do was bring up the past, in detail, another sign of immovability from the past.
The two visits had different results. One hopefully will heal quickly and the other in all probably will never heal. That is what happens when we become transparent and invite others to join us in forgiveness.

Monday, July 10, 2006

Right? Left? Middle?

I am reading Dallas Willard's The Divine Conspiracy. It is a lengthy book and even though I consider myself an accomplished reader, have not been able to get through 60 pages in a week. It is slam full of information, so much so, that I find myself re-reading several things just to try and get some of it. One thing that I did read today was worth noting here in the ol' blog.
He has been discussing Christian right and left theologies. Right wingers focus heavily on life after death and lefties on social action. Willard points out rightly that both come up short. The closest he finds to the Gospel is kingdom life now.
He sites that the "system is perfectly designed to yield the result [we] are getting". He even goes as far as to say that it would be foolishness to expect anything different than what we have got based on the basic message of the church as it is heard today.
Again he says, "We who profess Christianity will believe what is constantly presented to us a gospel. If gospels of sin management (I really like that phrase as a definition of the Christian message of today) are preached, they are what Christians will believe. And those in the wider world who reject those gospels will believe that what they have rejected is the gospel of Jesus Christ himself--when, in fact, they haven't yet heard it."
He says that the result is human souls left to shrivel and die because they have not been given the message central to the New Testament, the kingdom of eternal life, now.
What is the answer? A return to learning, teaching, preaching, the Kingdom of God by the church to its followers. As I remember it, Jesus said that if we would seek the Kingdom of God first, all other things, life after death and social action included, will be added at there appropriate places.
"...return to your first love" said Jesus to the church at Ephesus.

Sim CP

M.O.C.

I haven't gotten back to the previously discussed matter of Michael and his boyfriend. I have been again visiting this hot button of today's Christianity, and again I am at a crossroads. I am not a advocate of same sex relationships. I don't see a time when I will participate in a rally for homosexuals. With that being said, I do see people with same sex partners as human beings with just as many rights as you and I have. They are not the same as some of us may be when it comes to likes and dislikes of spouses, intimate "friends", etc., but does that make them wrong? The biggest problem for me is that most people who call themselves Christians don't represent Christ at all when it comes to homosexuals or on a broader stroke, people different from themselves. Why is it that I, as a male, don't find other males attractive in a "sexual" sense? Is it because I am wired the "right" way and those others are wired "wrong"? If that is the question, why is God wiring people wrong? Is it that they are just rebellious towards God? Aren't we all? (I told you I am at a crossroads). As I said earlier, my biggest problem is with Christian heterosexuals who, in the name of Jesus, belittle and vilify homosexuals. I believe it was Jesus who said that people who had not found life in Him would recognize those that had by their...what is it again?....oh, yeah, LOVE.

Sunday, July 02, 2006

Does Sin Seperate Us From God?

Sitting at Emmanuel Baptist Church this morning, during children's church no less (I always seem to understand that more), the leader made a statement that today seemed to jump out to me. The statement was "sin seperates us from God". I began to think about that statement as I never have before. If I understand Jesus' statement that He was in fact God in the flesh, then the statement of seperation from Him because of sin doesn't have a place. Jesus hung out with people of ill-repute more than any other people group. If my sin seperates me from God, how could Jesus be so connected to...anybody. Are we not all sinners? When are we "sinless" enough to commune with God? IF what I understand God as I think I do, He is not seperated from us because of sin, He loves us all the more. As far as God turning His face from Jesus at His crucifixion because of the sins of the world being on Him, bulloney! God had sent Jesus to do just what He was doing. He couldn't have been more proud of His Son. Maybe the reason was it hurt God to see His Son in such agony and pain. I know if that was happening to my son, I would not want to watch it either. Could you?
Something else that I heard this morning during the Old Testament reading was in II Corinthians, the 7th chapter. The all to used verse of scripture that says that we are to follow X,Y, and Z conditions, then God hears us and helps. That reading of that scripture really bothered me today. I no longer see God as a tit-for-tat God. He doesn't have a sin-o-meter , like Spencer Burke form The Ooze calls it, keeping track of all our short-comings. Maybe we are the scorekeepers or our...er...other's sins.

Sim CP

Saturday, July 01, 2006

M.O.C. continued...

Father Capon gave what he calls a three "booby-trap" problem with trying to put someone back on "the right track". Someone contemplating suicide, having an abortion, or like our example, Helen, continuing an adulterous relationship, the principle job of the minister would seem to place them on the theoretical right track so he/she can become a non-sinner. First booby trap, that is not what the Gospel promotes. The Gospel says that Jesus came to save the sinners not remove the sin. The New Testament says that we are saved by grace through faith, not by frightening people into getting their act together. The second is, this approach puts all people who can't, won't, or don't get their lives together (and that includes all of us in one department or another at some time or another)outside of the forgiveness of God through Christ--a forgiveness that is offered sin notwithstanding, while we were still sinners. The last and probably the most lethal of the booby traps is our theology is based on systematic thought about what we believe. It is only as good as the system you invent to do your thinking with.
Tomorrow we will meet Michael. Michael has a problem in the romance department and visits Father Capon for some advice. The problem that most will have is who the romance is between. Michael and his boyfriend.

Sim CP