HANDS IN THE AIR LIKE YOU JUST DON’T CARE!
Author: Allan (Page 11 of 482)
“You are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” ~Galatians 3:26-28
I believe we are blessed to live in the country we live in, but the systems and structures and mottos and politics of this world will never unite anybody. The only place where the “all” becomes “one” is in Christ alone. In Christ is the only place where all people become one people. Our Lord Jesus is creating one global eternal community, not a bunch of them. So, in Christ, all the barriers are gone. There’s no more separation, no more distinctions or differences–everybody’s totally equal in Christ. The walls are down, the doors are open, the bridges are built! Now that Christ Jesus has come, all people have become one people!
To treat anyone differently, to deny anyone equal standing or equal freedom in God’s Church based on their nationality or their social standing or their gender is to, as Paul writes, proclaim “a different Gospel, which is really no Gospel at all” (Galatians 1:6-7). That kind of discrimination or distinction contradicts not just how we’re saved, but also why we’re saved. When we discriminate or make those distinctions in the Church, our actions contradict our message.
For illustration and application purposes, Paul gives us three pairings. All in the same context. All in the same breath.
In Christ, there is neither Jew nor Greek. This is about ethnicity. He’s talking about nationality and culture, this is about color and race and language, anything ethnically that the world divides over. No one has to become a Jew to be a Christian. When we give equal honor and equal freedom and equal standing to Christians of all colors and from all nations and who speak all languages, then we’re proclaiming the Word of the Lord.
The worshipers in Revelation are singing to Christ Jesus in heaven. Listen to their song:
“You were slain, and with your blood you purchased people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation!” ~Revelation 5:9
The saints of God come from all over and they’re singing the same song. If we treat Christians differently or show them less honor or give them less freedom because they’re a different color or come from a different country or speak a different language, we are proclaiming something different than God’s Word.
In Christ, there is neither slave nor free. This is about social standing and economic status. How a person is educated, what kind of job she has, or how much money he makes has nothing to do with how a person is accepted as righteous by God or how that person serves and worships in God’s Church. It’s totally irrelevant. If anybody’s getting preferential treatment at church, it should be the poor and the marginalized and the people on the outside. Listen to our Lord:
“Invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed… Bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame… Go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in so that my house will be full!” ~Luke 14:13, 21, 23
Our Lord’s brother says it straight up in James 2, that if you show favoritism for a rich man over a poor man, you are sinning against God who has chosen the poor to be rich in faith and to inherit his Kingdom. If you only talk to Christians who have jobs, if you only eat with Christians who live in your zip code, if you only show honor to Christians who can pay you back, you’re proclaiming a different Gospel, which is really no Gospel at all.
In Christ, there is neither male nor female. This is about gender and all the different dynamics that surround gender. This is about bestowing or not bestowing status or freedom in the Church based on a Christian’s sex.
It’s interesting to me that in a lot of our churches, in our Bible classes and small groups and in almost all our church settings, our Christian sisters are encouraged to express their full freedom in Christ and asked to exercise their spiritual gifts. But it’s different in the Worship Center. Generally speaking, women lead prayers and read Scripture and exhort the church at 9:30 all over the campus, but they’re not allowed to do those exact same things in front of the exact same people and the same God in the Worship Center at 10:30.
It seems like we should interpret and apply this third pairing just like we do the other two.
In 1 Corinthians 11, where the apostle Paul instructs women on how to pray and how to teach in the Sunday assembly, it’s in the context of we are all one together in Christ and how we need each other and each other’s spiritual gifts.
“In the Lord, however, woman is not independent of man, nor is man independent of woman. For as woman came from man, so also man is born of woman. But everything comes from God.” ~1 Corinthians 11:11-12
In Christ, men and women are the same. No gender is better than the other, no gender is more honored or more gifted or more free to exercise those gifts than the other. Males and females are equal in Christ. Again, it seems to me we should interpret and practice this third couplet like we do the other two. We wouldn’t tell some Christians they can’t lead a prayer in the assembly because they’re Black. We wouldn’t tell some Christians they can’t lead the communion time because they don’t have a job. So why do we tell some Christians they can’t do those things because they are women? Paul sees these categories as the same.
Now, there are two verses in the Bible that are used to restrict Christian women in exercising their spiritual gifts, two lines addressing two particular concerns in two very specific settings. But we have this central passage in Galatians 3 and many others that call for and demonstrate this equal standing between men and women in Christ. It seems that if we restrict our Christian sisters where the Bible doesn’t, we’re proclaiming a different Gospel, which is really no Gospel at all.
Peace,
Allan
The day the boys were born, the Rangers were in fourth place in the AL West, three games under .500, and ten games back of the Astros. Since then, they’ve won 11 of 13 to pull into second place, four games back of Houston, and into the third Wild Card playoff spot.
Sammy and the El-Man are bringing that Rangers MOJO!
Well. Until last night. Yeeesh!
Who was that guy wearing the Jacob deGrom jersey last night in Anaheim?
Let’s Go Rangers. Clap. Clap. Clap. Clap. Clap.
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Sixteen years after its series finale, ‘King of the Hill’ is making a comeback with a full season of all new episodes beginning Monday August 4 on Hulu. If you’re even mildly interested, I recommend this excellent piece in the latest Texas Monthly by Sean O’Neal titled, “Why ‘King of the Hill’ is the Most Significant Work of Texan Culture in the Past Thirty Years.”
O’Neal puts ‘King of the Hill’ in the same category as Larry McMurtry and ‘Friday Night Lights’ for its serious and seriously entertaining treatment of what it means to be Texans living in Texas. What Mike Judge, the show’s creator, tackles so well is the plight of Texans who live in urban areas–84-percent of us now–attempting to live into and through the outsized Texas legends and myths and the expectations that come with them. ‘King of the Hill’ is also about relationships between dads and their sons, namely how the sons are almost always disappointing the dads and how the sons know it. And how they cope. I’m not sure how uniquely Texan that is. Texas might contribute to it.
What first attracted me to ‘King of the Hill’ in the late ’90s is how perfectly it captures my experiences growing up in southeast Dallas with the Tom Landry Cowboys, blue laws, St. Augustine lawns, traditional values and gender roles, and the State Fair of Texas. The random references to Luby’s Cafeteria, Tom Thumb, Central Expressway, and Drew Pearson are emotional for me. I also really love Tom Petty’s frequent voice work as Luanne’s boyfriend, Lucky. But what keeps me watching the re-runs today is that the show is ultimately about our identities as Texans: our copped attitudes, our inherited traditions, the foods we eat and refuse to eat, the weird mix of superiority and insecurity with which we’re all familiar. This brand new season features a freshly-retired Hank and their son Bobby as an adult chef working in Dallas. A lot has changed in Texas over the past 16 years, and I’m sure a lot has changed in Arlen. I can’t wait to see how Hank and his friends deal with today’s politics, social media, electric cars, and veggie tacos. But we’re all still Texans, trying to get along, attempting to do what’s right, trying to help our fellow Texans, and navigating all the ups and downs of living life with those we love the most.
The best part of O’Neal’s excellent article is near the end when he quotes Hank Hill as saying, “A big part of being a man is doing things you don’t want to do.” Hank’s not complaining. He just feels a certain understated pride in assuming the mantel of being useful. He finds identity and meaning in being the one other people can count on. In a lot of ways, that’s Mike Judge’s vision for what it means to be a Texan. Or, at least that’s the way O’Neal interprets it:
“Like being a man, being a real Texan isn’t about aspiring to some outsized, mythical life but about finding fulfillment in doing the things that need doing, the same way we’ve learned to embrace the things about Texas that, if I’m being honest, aren’t all that great: the heat, the harsh terrain, the Dallas Cowboys. We’re not super beings, but simply the descendants of people who arrived in some of the most unforgiving land in America and declared it, rather obstinately, to be heaven on earth. Our surroundings may have softened and shifted, but that stubborn self-reliance remains.”
Read the piece. It’s very well-written. And maybe go to Whataburger for lunch today.
Peace,
Allan
What’s it like to be a Granddad? What’s it like to hold those new grandsons? How does it feel to have grandchildren? How does it feel to be a Granddad?
Well, I would tell you. If I could.
How does it feel to be incredibly, undeservedly blessed by God? What’s it like to watch your daughter’s face explode with unconditional love and unabashed joy as she locks eyes with her own babies? How does it feel to hold a precious baby boy who only lives because your wife forgave you and loved you and married you and said “Yes” to you a million times when you did nothing to merit any of it? What’s it like to marvel at the miracle(s) in your hands, this gift from God’s hand, as a personal experience of his love and faithfulness and grace? How does it feel?
I don’t know how to talk or write about it, other than in terms of a fullness of heart and soul, a fullness of life. A swelling of gratitude and thanksgiving, a completeness of joy and contentment, so full I could just bust wide open into a laughing, weeping, smiling, delirious mess.
How do you describe those moments when that little baby’s eyes are looking right into mine and I tell him how much I love him? How do you explain the feeling of being with your beloved daughter and her husband, in their house, taking care of those newborn twins together? Experiencing all of the emotions and hormones and questions, moving suddenly from overwhelmed to confident and back again during one diaper-changing. Being with their great friends from their great church and that little community of faith that is taking care of them so faithfully. Watching Valerie gush and coo over these boys. Watching David feed the boys at 2am, knowing how mentally and physically exhausted he is while studying for next week’s bar exam. Realizing how perfectly healthy Elliott and Samuel are and how every prayer you’ve ever prayed for your daughter and her husband and these boys is being answered right in front of your eyes by a loving God who loves them even more than I do. Feeling a massive hole in my soul knowing I’m not going to be with those boys today. Or tomorrow. Or for the next few weeks. A deep longing to be with them, to hold them, to speak to them, to feed them, and love them. And knowing that hole didn’t even exist fourteen days ago.
How do you describe all that?
I can show you pictures. And, get ready, I probably will show you more than you would ever want. But I don’t know how to articulate how this all feels. It’s an indescribable fullness of gratitude and humility and praise.
Peace,
Allan
Elliott and Samuel are not identical twins. As they approach their one-week anniversary of life and begin to fill out their faces and features, they do look more alike than they did on their birthday last Tuesday. But there are other differences, more subtle differentiations in personality and behavior, that are marking our twin grandsons as distinctive individuals.
The most obvious thing is the way Elliott prefers to have at least one arm straight up in the air at all times. Sometimes two; always one. It’s the funniest thing, the way his arm shoots up while he’s eating, in the middle of a nap, while he’s getting his diaper changed–all the time. Carrie-Anne says he’s praising God. I say he’s signaling for a fair catch.
Right now, I’m viewing Elliott as emotional and impulsive, while I see Samuel as contemplative and deliberate. Sammy seems serious, while Elliott seems ready to jump into action without counting the cost. Samuel’s little forehead is always wrinkled up and his arms always crossed in deep reflection. Elliott is fidgety and jumpy. They both have the deepest, bluest eyes. Elliott’s are opened more often. But Sammy’s, when they’re opened, are bigger and darker and striking in their depth. At this point, Sammy’s face is more expressive. The way he moves his eyes and mouth in seeming response to his circumstances, I keep expecting him to say something–something clever, something funny, something deep. I’ve been singing to both of them. Elliott prefers Tom Petty’s “All Right For Now,” while Samuel tolerates the Beatles’ “Golden Slumbers.” I’ve been talking to both of them about the things we’re going to be doing together very soon. And I’ve been informing them about our Creator and how loved they are by him and by all of us.
I’m sharing with you here two recently-released photos from the very first moments of our grandsons’ lives. One of the nurses in the delivery room Tuesday asked for David’s phone before the C-section and promised to take pictures. I didn’t see these until late Saturday. The first shot is Valerie seeing her newborn boys for the very first time and the second is their first family portrait. I think these are just incredible pictures.
I’m in Midland today and tomorrow, taking care of some things around the house and the yard, before I head back to Tulsa early Wednesday morning for the rest of the week. This is our summer vacation this year — grandsons in Tulsa! And it’s awesome!
Peace,
Allan
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