Why dinosaurs weren’t on Noah’s Ark

Monty Python’s version of “football”

Just one of the differences between Rick Warren and John Piper

Piper tweets that instead of watching the Superbowl last night, since he has no TV, he read and fellowshipped. Rick Warren, on the other hand, draws attention to  “our Drew Brees” sharing his testimony here. He also tweeted, “Watched the Saints win while wearing 1 of my brother’s four 49er Superbowl Rings. I bet Jim was watching from heaven!” This illustrates the Christ in Culture and the Christ against Culture choices that the disciple faces. On this one, I am with Rick. And it explains a bit about why Rick’s church is 25,000 and growing.

I think being a Christian means that God will make sure your favorite team wins the Superbowl, not that you don’t watch it!!!!

As their spirituality “deepens,” it makes them less and less real.

This is the way one reviewer describe the plot of a book being reviewed. And it is my biggest fear.

So much of our spirituality is putting on the models of spirituality we are taught in the same manner we put on a coat. It might be on us, but it is not us. Being spiritual can make us less us.

There is one thing pastors know but cannot say, at least loudly enough to blow the covers off this thing – no one escapes the compromises, the disappointments, and the outright failures that cling to us all no matter our spirituality. Yes, there are wonderful times of love, joy, peace, etc. But we stay human.

I am more sympathetic to those spiritual writers, pastors and leaders who assure me that they are as every bit in touch with the human condition as they are with God’s provision. Somehow I get closer to God when someone has the honesty to affirm what I already know about me but disown in public – I struggle. I don’t mean sort of struggle. I mean cage match struggle. And as a pastor I am close enough to people to not buy into the pretend models that are supposedly bringing so much success to their so-called spiritual life.

They (we) aren’t hypocrites. They just don’t know how to do very well the juxtaposition of what they wish were true and what is true. We go to church on Sundays and salute the flag. But we go home and step into a world of broken relationships, fears, not a little anger and some aching longings unfulfilled. We are not living a lie. We really believe there is another way and that Christ is our sufficiency. In fact, we really do love him. But somehow there is a disconnect, and that disconnect makes us shadowy, less really us. I struggle to say this well.

I think that is why I like Celebrate Recovery. The whole thing is simply an admission that I am in the hole shoveling like everyone else. And I am a better Christian when I say this and am around other people who are saying it. The thing that is freaky is that I can’t say it easily on Sundays. Because on Sundays I have no doubts, my life sequences with the gospel, I sing how the Christian life is supposed to be as if it is in fact that way for me. And every time I do that without some kind of outlet for honesty I die a bit. I lose substance. I become less real.

Maybe this is one of the reasons I like the Older Testament so much. The stories are earthy, real and leave no doubt that we almost never get it right. The Newer Testament is too short for all the stories that could be told. I mean, the Apostle Paul hints at how much he is the chief of sinners but I never hear the stories that fill this out. There is a lot of aspiration, theology, instruction but too few stories that tell me how spiritual growth really looks.

And maybe this is why supposed Christian fiction doesn’t really make the grade. It ends up making people less, well, people.

Today’s Money Shot 2/5/10

If people were taught more about who they are [in Christ], they wouldn’t have to be told what to do.  Rob Bell, Velvet Elvis

For Those Who Sleep Alone

I want to offer to you the insight of Ronald Rolheiser in The Holy Longing. p.209ff.

“As we struggle with the pain of inconsummation, it is valuable too for us as Christians to look at Jesus and the way he incarnated his sexuality to see what might be learned from that.

Jesus, as we know, never married. However, the proper question to ask is not: “Why did Christ remain celibate?” Why? Because, asked in this way, the very questions suggests that somehow celibacy is a higher state than marriage. Moreover, if the focus is on celibacy then married persons cannot imitate Jesus in this important part of his life, his sexual stance.

Today’s Money Shot 2/6/10

The teacher is always silent when the test is given. When God is silent in your life, you are being tested.  Rick Warren

Rob Bell gets into my soul

I was trying to explain to a friend the other day that when I read or listen to or watch Rob Bell I spiritually breathe. When I listen to 1, 2 or 3 John (Driscoll, MacArthur or Piper) I feel a blanket being pulled over my head and I am fighting for fresh air.

In so many ways I agree with the Johns. But I walk away from their sermons feeling an oppression of sorts. I am trying to figure this out.

Here are some ways of explaining it:

AC/DC’s Brian Johnson: Bono Should Do Charity Work In Private

Here’s the article.

I like what Bono does. I like the way he does it.

But it does occur to me to wonder how could people still be so rich after they constantly tell people how much they should give. I would expect at some point to see some kind of Mahatma Gandhi lifestyle when one preaches so much.

I wonder why Christianity does not produce ascetics like Gandhi in their leadership ranks. You would think there would be a few. I get tired of hearing how much our leaders are worth and how much they could make in the private sector.

Our ranks are filled with multi-millionaire preachers. It’s a scandal. But I hear no noise in the ranks about it. What’s up with that?

Today’s Money Shot 2/4/10

THE HAPPY MAN
G.K. Chesterton

To teach the grey earth like a child,
To bid the heavens repent,
I only ask from Fate the gift
Of one man well content.

Him will I find: though when in vain
I search the feast and mart,
The fading flowers of liberty,
The painted masks of art.

I only find him at the last,
On one old hill where nod
Golgotha’s ghastly trinity–
Three persons and one god.