The Kingdom, The Kids, & The Cowboys

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The Church In The Kingdom

February 1, 2008 / / 20 Comments

Only got two suckers to jump in and post corny preacher and corny Bible jokes yesterday and early this morning. I thought we needed a little humor after a couple of days of pretty heavy stuff on the blog. Sure enough, that’s what we got. Very little humor. If you have corny Bible or preacher jokes, it’s not too late to share. Just hit comments on yesterday’s blog and pile on.

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IF the Pats win it Sunday, they end all debate about the best team in pro football history. Period. It’s over. As we’ve said all season long, PatsLogoespecially as it pertains to the Cowboys, it’s difficult to get wins in the NFL. Forget beating everybody, it’s hard beating anybody in that league. They’re all so equal in talent and skill and coaching and scouting and payroll. To do what New England has done is remarkable. And if they pull it off against the Giants on Sunday, it blows away what the ’72 Dolphins did.

Shula’s72FinsHow many playoff teams did that Miami squad beat during its run to 17-0? Zero. They didn’t play a single playoff team that year. In fact, they only played two teams with winning records: the 8-6 Chiefs and the 8-6 Giants. And you can’t downgrade what New England has done this year because the AFC East is so weak. The ’72 Dolphins’ division opponents that year were the 7-7 Jets, the 4-9-1 Bills, and the 3-11 Patriots. One of thier other wins was against the 1-13 Oilers.

Contrast that with what the Pats have done this season. New England faced seven teams with winning records, seven playoff teams, during the regular season and won by an average score of 37-17. New England scored at least 27 points in every game but two and only gave up more than 28 once.

In their two playoff games, the ’72 Dolphins barely squeaked by the Browns 20-14 and beat the Steelers in Pittsburgh 21-17. (Why did the undefeated Dolphins have to play the AFC Championship Game on the road? I might be looking at a bad list.) And they won Super Bowl VII 14-7 over the ‘Skins. The current edition of the Pats has won their two playoff games 31-20 and 21-12.

Go Giants. And if New York can pull off the biggest Super Bowl upset since Joe Willie’s Jets shocked the Colts in Super Bowl III, then the Greatest Ever tag belongs to the Dolphins without dispute. But if New England does what they’re expected to do, it’s over.

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Jesus preaches the Kingdom. “Repent!” he says, “The Kingdom of God is near!” And then what does he do? He frees the prisoner, heals the blind, rescues the oppressed.

Those are the signs of the Kingdom.

John the Baptist sends to find out if Jesus is the Messiah and Jesus says look, you know what the signs are. “..the blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor.”

That’s the Kingdom.

Jesus, show us the Kingdom. What does the Kingdom look like, Jesus? Where is it?

Not once did Jesus ever say, “See those people over there meeting every Sunday for Bible class and worship? That’s the Kingdom.” Jesus never once pointed out, “That group that takes communion weekly and sings acappella, that’s the Kingdom.” The Son of God didn’t say, “When you see three songs and a prayer and announcements either at the beginning or the end (or both), you’ve seen the Kingdom.”

Distressed people being encouraged. Cold people being warmed. Hurting people being comforted. The outcasts being brought in and made family. That’s the Kingdom.

When we talk about the Kingdom strictly in terms of Church and the institution and the rules and the order — when that’s our whole idea of Kingdom — we quickly lose sight of the very things that make the Kingdom of God what it is. Centuries of church development and decision-making and rule-making can cloud our vision. When we see the Kingdom exclusively as Church, we tend to focus only on the features and characteristics of the Church.

Our challenge as the Legacy Church of Christ is to occasionally flex our autonomy — you know, that autonomy we brag about — to insure that our identifying characteristics genuinely correspond to those of the Kingdom Jesus was preaching. Maintaining our institutional status quo is not necessarily the same as being faithful to Jesus and his mission. Being a member in good standing or being a middle of the road church isn’t necessarily the same as living under the reign of God.

The true marks of the Kingdom have very little if anything to do with what happens between prayers and announcements in our building. The Kingdom of God is firmly grounded in Jesus’ foundational principles, the “weightier matters” of justice and mercy and faithfulness in our community. Our requirements as subjects of the King are not as much about keeping the rules as they are about acting justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly before God.

Our King came into this world in order to serve and to save. And that is the business of his subjects, as well. May our Lord bless us as we serve and rescue and save in his name.

Peace,

Allan

Party Lines

January 30, 2008 / / 5 Comments

Screwtape“The congregational principle makes each church into a kind of club, and finally, if all goes well, into a coterie or faction.” ~Screwtape

In his 16th letter to Wormwood, the senior tempter advises his nephew that if he can’t cure his patient from going to church, the next best thing is to “send him all over the city looking for the church that ‘suits’ him until he becomes a taster or connoisseur of churches.” Once he finds the church that meets his needs and makes him feel comfortable and important, the trick is to cause the patient to be “violently attached” to some party within it. And Screwtape claims that the devils don’t really have much use for Christian doctrine. They’re much more concerned with the things that don’t really matter.

“The real fun is working up hatred between those who say ‘mass’ and those who say ‘holy communion’ when neither party could possibly state the difference between, say, Hooker’s doctrine and Thomas Aquinas’, in any form which would hold water for five minutes. And all the purely indifferent things — candles and clothes and what not — are an admirable ground for our activities. We have quite removed from men’s minds what that pestilent fellow Paul used to teach about food and other unessentials…you would think they could not fail to see the application.”

The difference, I think, between C. S. Lewis’ Anglican Church in 1940s England and our Churches of Christ in 2008 America is that our parties or factions all get together in different congregations. Liberal churches and conservative churches, progressive congregations and traditional congregations; those are our party labels. And members of our  “parties” up and move all over the place—admittedly much more so here in Texas and in the South than in other parts of our country where there aren’t Churches of Christ on every corner—to join congregations that suit them. So our arguing over the unessentials isn’t done at an annual convention. It’s done across town between “competing” congregations, in magazines and books, at lectureships and seminars.

Screwtape refers in this letter to Romans 14 and Paul’s discussion there on one of the hot button issues of his day, the eating of meat. I’ve generally tried to apply Paul’s message of mutual love and patience and respect in that situation to our inter-congregational disputes over hand-clapping, song selection, praise teams and whatever other indifferent thing about which we argue. But upon further review, it’s so much bigger than that! Paul’s talking about the eating of meat! There are huge theological differences between the “man who eats everything” and the “man who eats only vegetables.” There were sharp divisions in the early church over meat offered to idols, meat sold in the pagan marketplaces, meat deemed clean or unclean depending on to whom you talked. Keeping the sacred days of the Hebrew Scriptures or ignoring them altogether was another massive theological issue. This wasn’t just sitting or standing for three songs or where to put the announcements. These were the big things, the huge things, the things that cause us today to leave our churches and go somewhere else.

Paul says in Romans 14 we should assume those on both sides of these issues are sincere in their gratitude and dedication to God and that they’re fully convinced in their own hearts that what they’re doing is right. And leave it at that. Love each other. Serve each other. Encourage each other. Stop fighting and arguing.

“For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by men. Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification” (Romans 14:17-19).

Paul paints a picture in Romans 14 of brothers and sisters going out of their way, sacrificing their own feelings, for the benefit of their brothers and sisters who hold opposite convictions. He never speaks of leaving to find a group of people who agree on everything. Seeing things differently and acting differently and believing differently is actually God’s plan for his Church. That’s the kind of setting that fosters mutual love and patience and sacrifice and service. That’s the kind of dynamic that produces a Christ-like transformation. Our differences on these things are God-ordained for God’s purposes.

At the end of the 16th letter Screwtape actually rejoices because churches so often split up along these party lines.

“Without that the variety of usage within the Christian Church might have become a positive hotbed of charity and humility.”

Peace,

Allan

You Knew This Was Coming

January 29, 2008 / / 11 Comments

Super Bowl parties at church. Church-sponsored Super Bowl parties. You knew this was coming. Let’s go ahead and throw it all out there.

Let’s not avoid this. Let’s actually embrace this discussion and see where it leads us.

The larger issue I see is with a Christian church celebrating and glorifying the sex, violence, and greed symbolized by this American free-enterprise entertainment extravaganza in the same room where we glorify and worship our God and on the same screen where we post the holy words of Scripture and sacred songs of praise. I see a tremendous disconnect and mixed-message. If you watch NFL football — and I do — you know a lot of what those broadcasts stand for, including but not limited to the PG-13 pregame, postgame, and halftime shows, directly opposes our Christian message. It contradicts the very things for which the Church of God stands. At the very least I believe it’s questionable to invite our family and friends and little kids to the church building and project those images on a huge screen in our worship center.

I don’t see a difference between doing that and holding American Idol or Dancing With The Stars or Survivor parties at church. Fans of those TV shows are just as passionate and follow it just as closely as fans of the football TV shows.

I know the building is just a building. I’m fully aware that the church is the people, not the space. But what the church does together as a collected community of God’s people in the space that community has designated for Christian activities such as worshiping our Father and encouraging each other is important. It does matter. At the very least, it demands careful thought.

And it’s not easy. I do struggle with my thoughts and my feelings and my convictions on this. (Please see the three-day blog from August: The Question of Sacred Space, Sacred Space Part Two, and Sacred Space Last Part.) Again, God is no more present with me in a beautiful cathedral with a thousand other disciples than he is with me alone in my closet. I get that. And I believe that.

Also, I don’t think it’s hypocritical to object to the idea that if watching the Super Bowl at home in my living room is OK, then it’s OK to watch the Super Bowl in the worship center at church. I would answer that we would probably all agree that there’s nothing wrong or sinful with you drinking a glass of wine  in your kitchen. But we wouldn’t want to wheel in a dozen barrels of it for a Fifth Sunday Fellowship at the building. For many reasons.

I understand a lot of this makes me look and sound like a prude. And I generally try to avoid that as much as possible.

I’m curious as to your reflections and thoughts on this matter.

Peace,

Allan

P.S. Please don’t cancel your Small Groups Church meetings this Sunday. Schedule your dinner and times of worship and application of the Word around the TV show if you must. Watch the TV show together. Bond around the TV show. But please don’t cancel.

Chutzpa as Faith

January 28, 2008 / / 2 Comments

Jesus tells the Phoenician woman in Mark 7 “No.” Flat out. Right to her face. “No.” She’s coming to Jesus for healing. Her daughter is demon-possessed. She’s desperate. She begs. And Jesus says, “No.”

But she keeps coming.

Her gender as a woman in this male-dominated society with very little, if any, rights is pressing against her. But she won’t give up. Her nationality as a pagan, idol-worshipping Gentile from the very center of the Ba’al cult works against her in this situation. But she doesn’t quit. Satan is battling her. His demons have taken over her daughter. But she persists. Her timing is awful. Jesus walked 40 miles from Capernaum to be left alone. He didn’t come here to teach or heal. He came here to chill out. But she keeps coming. In an effort to protect their rabbi from the crowds the apostles oppose her. “Shoo! Scram! Beat it!” But she begs even more loudly. Jesus tells her, “It’s not your turn. Get back in line.” But this woman will not stop.

In preaching this story here at Legacy yesterday, I compared this woman coming to Jesus with Earl Campbell running to the end zone. Remember Earl Campbell? Nothing ever stopped him. It always took six or seven guys to bring him down. For those of you who don’t remember him, he ran like Marion Barber. Only Campbell was much bigger, must stronger, much faster, and without all the attitude.

This woman is not the Tyler Rose. She’s the Tyre-and-Sidon Rose. And she will not be stopped.

The Hebrews call that “chutzpa.” Intense persistence. Determination. Gust. I will not quit. I will not give up. I will not let go. There’s more of a negative connotation linked to the word now. We hear ‘chutzpa’ and we might think assertive, pushy, or bossy. But when a Jew sees ‘chutzpa,’ he thinks tenacity. Singleness of mind and purpose. It’s a synonym for Biblical faith.

See, faith in the Bible is never, “Oh, I understand that so I can believe it.” Biblical faith is never, “Yes, that makes sense to me so I’m going to trust it.” No. Faith in the Bible is, “I’m gonna latch onto this thing with everything I have and I’m not going to let go no matter what.” The way Abraham grabbed the promises of God and was forever reminding God of those promises. The way Moses and Joshua hold on with God through thick and thin, victory and defeat.

God honors that kind of faith. God loves that kind of faith.

No matter the sin that’s opposing me. No matter the guilt in my life that’s dragging me down. The broken marriage. The terminal illness. Satan’s grip on somebody in my family. Job status. Financial woes. Peer pressure. Other brothers and sisters in Christ who prevent me from getting closer to Jesus. Even God himself telling me “No!”

I. Will. Not. Let. Go. Of. God. No. Matter. What.

I. Will. Not. Quit.

I. Will. Not. Let. Go.

I. Will. Not. Stop. Coming.

I. Will. Hang. Onto. God. With. Every. Single. Fiber. Of. My. Being. No. Matter. What. Happens. To. Me.

Faith is trusting our God to provide and protect, to heal and forgive, and to carry us into his eternal Kingdom. And not letting go.

Peace,

Allan

Trust Me

January 25, 2008 / / 0 Comments

I’m ashamed to admit, more than a couple of times in my life I’ve been suckered into the “Buy 14 CDs for a penny and never have to buy anything else ever again!” It took a few times, but I don’t trust those offers anymore. I don’t trust Joe Isuzu. I have a hard time trusting politicians, lawyers, used-car salesmen, and college football coaches.

Jesus is no used-car salesman. He doesn’t hold out his hand and call me friend so he can take what’s mine and make it his. He seeks me out to save me and to enjoin me in an eternal relationship.

The apostles trusted him. They left homes and families and jobs and security in exchange for ridicule and rejection and suffering and instability. They followed him all the way to Jerusalem knowing they were heading straight into the teeth of big trouble.

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, trust also in me.”

Is Jesus trustworthy?

Look back over your own life and your own experiences with Jesus. Every single time he’s warned me, by calling it sin, that some action will be harmful he’s been exactly right. Every time his teachings tell me to make the tougher and better choice, he’s been right. When he promises to take care of me, he’s always right. He’s never been wrong. He’s never failed me or forsaken me. Sometimes it takes a while — sometimes years — for me to see it and understand it. But his track record with me is spotless. It’s perfect because his motivation is perfect.

“Trust me.” The apostles did. I do. And you can, too.

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Pal&CookieValerie didn’t get a lizard yesterday. It was a gerbil. She named it Cookie.

I just don’t want to see a bunch of little chocolate chips all over her bedroom carpet.

Peace,

Allan

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