Southmoon & A Cup of Java

In a few hours Deb and I will be going over to the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh campus to speak to a group of students about healthy relationships.   The meeting is sponsored by His House Campus Ministries and I cherish the opportunity to be a part of the event.

Deb and I will seek to share a few things we’ve learned…and are still learning….about relationships.  Being that it is Valentine’s day, we have been asked to speak a little about marriage and husband/wife dynamics as relates to the greater context of healthy relationships in general.  I’m looking forward to exploring with these young adults in this great and challenging theme.

As I was preparing my thoughts it occurred to me just how many of my favorite passages are grounded in the relational.    This is, of course, not a rocket science observation, as the Bible is a book about relationships from cover to cover.  We have a tendency to make it about commandments, thou shalts and thou shalt nots…and forget that scripture is primarily focused on how God is drawing us back to the relationship He had in mind from the beginning.

Take a look at the following:

Matthew 22:34-40 – Jesus sums the law, the prophets and entire Divine Agenda of God.  Love God.  Love your neighbor (all other humans)  Get God in the proper place at the core of your identity.  Love him with all that is within you.  And then turn that God/love thing loose on the rest of humanity.  It’s relational.

The core of the Bible is relational-  Think of these great passages:

Ps. 23    John 3:16  Romans 12  1 Cor. 13   Gal. 5:22 ff  John 13 

Jesus said:  John 15:13  “Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”  Its pretty hard to miss the idea the even in the scheme of redemption, it wasn’t just a matter of solving a theological problem.  This was about friends working things out through sacrifice and devotion.

Note in the Creation epic the distinction made when God transitions from creating things to creating humans: Gen. 1 “Let there be…light, land, water, vegetation, fish, animals….”Let there be….”

1:26  “Let Us make man in our image…in our likeness….let them rule….(Purpose-Function-Primacy-Participation)

Gen. 2:7  Even better:  “the Lord formed the man from the dust of the ground….and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life….”  God is portrayed in the creation epic as more than an energy force working mighty acts in cosmic proportions.   When it comes to mankind it is obvious that there is a personal intimacy going on here which is not evident in the other creative acts.  Mankind is made in the image of God, formed in his hands from the dust of the ground, as it were,  and has breath “breathed in” by God.

It is evident from the very earliest glimpse, that God intends to stay close to this project of His.  He will have relationship with us and we with Him.   This connection will not be easy for God.  God becomes vulnerable when he establishes this relationship.  In Genesis 6:6  in the Noah and the flood narrative, it is said,   “The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth and his heart was filled with pain.”

God’s agenda has always been about fostering and maintaining a healthy relationship with His Creation.  He never intended distance, nor even a casual relationship.  He always intended intimacy.

Our desire for healthy relationships finds everything it needs to know in observing the way God loves and invests Himself in Creation.

“God is love.  Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.  In this way love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him.”  I John 3: 16-17

Last week I had a visit from a young graduate student from Syracuse University.  He has a degree in Architecture and expressed an interest in our uniquely historic and architecturally intriguing church building.

  Many of you are probably aware that the congregation where I serve as minister, known as Oakhaven Church, meets in a renovated dairy barn.  I have previously written about its spiritual implications.  Read the piece that started it all here.

The architect, Doug, has a fascination in structures which have been reconfigured for re-use.   Old barns transformed into Church houses are not all that common so his interest in our project was not surprising.  I was delighted to tell him about the transformation process and as I was giving him a tour through the building, I pointed out a wall which is finished with materials reclaimed from an old granary which, at one time, sat next to the barn.

The granary looked like an old chicken coop and was originally used to store grain for the livestock.   The granary was one of the most functional buildings on this property back when it was a working farm.  This was back in the early part of the twentieth century.   When our congregation attained ownership of the property, the granary was rickety. in shambles and looked worthless.  I shared with Doug that we tore the granary down and salvaged what we could with the idea that some of those materials could be used in the renovating the barn.   I don’t know that we were thinking “green” as much as we were thinking “cheap”.   As I gave him a tour of the office area, I pointed out one old board in particular, which measures approximately 1” X 20”.  That’s right, I said, one inch by twenty inches.  By the way, don’t go to your local lumber yard and expect to find many one by twenties in stock.  This old plank was from one of the sawmills of long ago when boards were turned out in varying widths and thicknesses.  This old plank is truly one of a kind.  

“We saved these old boards….. and as you can see, they have found new life here in the office area” I said, as I pointed at the office wall.  “Much of the lumber from that old granary could not be saved, but this one was salvaged and serves its purpose to this day.”

It was right about here in our conversation that my mind began reaching, as it often has, for a spiritual application in the sharing of the Oakhaven barn story.   I have written about it before, but this time there was a nuance to the story I had never considered.

I considered that when we speak of being saved,  I think we often take a shallower view of salvation than God does.  By that, I mean, we frequently hear the word “saved” in theological discussions, to mean someone was living badly but found Jesus, got saved and started going to church and stopped doing wrong-headed, immoral activities and saved means escaping the “burn pile”.

Now granted, much of the old granary got put on the burn pile and subsequently got the match.   But my story of the old “one by twenty” just hit me like a ton of bricks or a two by four upside the head.  (Pardon the construction metaphor…but after all, this is about a wooden plank.)   So the insight that presented itself relates to how salvation needs to be looked at as more than just saving someone from the “burn pile”.

It has to do with opening oneself up to being part of the on-going project of God to serve in His purposes and His work.

Thank God, we are redeemed and saved by God and his redemptive work in Jesus.  Thank God that we are not saved from the “burn pile” only to be stacked in a warehouse with other planks and boards without a view to be utilized in some good purpose.

Indeed, as I directed my young architect friend to look at the old board which partially covered that office wall, I realized how sad it would have been to have saved the old plank only to just have it stored away somewhere on a shelf with no function, no purpose, no sense of glory.  It’s a fine purpose to save something from being burned up, it’s a finer purpose still, to bring something to purpose, meaning and function.

Kind of like what it would be to have church members stacked on pews on Sunday morning.  Saved from the “burn pile” but really having no sense of participating with God in His Grand Project of renewing a world, bringing about a new creation.  The Grand Architect has a higher purpose.  Being “saved” has far deeper meaning than it is often given.

I enjoy listening to Christmas music.  

I find that people are generally in two camps regarding this genre.  There are those who love it and there are those who hate it.   A few are undecided and can either take it or leave it.  Fortunately those who have a distaste for it seem to be pretty patient with  carol singing, wassail drinking, figgy pudding eaters like me.

I confess that I usually start dialing up Christmas music on my IPod a week or so before Thanksgiving.   Call me a sentimental sap or a grown-up kid but I still get a kick out of everything from Rudolph to Rocking Around the Christmas Tree, to The First Noel.   I like em done jazzy, country, classic, instrumental and blues.  (I’m in Memphis as I write this so I have to add blues to the mix.)

Music is one of the major portals through which moods are shaped and thoughts get focused. 

Have you ever noticed that a great deal of the early part of Luke’s gospel consists of song lyrics?  Thanks to Zechariah and Mary, we have some marvelous theology that gets delivered through song.  And yes, I consider these to be Christmas songs of a sort.

Most “secular” Christmas songs are about Santa Claus, snow men, reindeer and sleigh rides and such.  On a recent road trip I listened for a couple of hours to a variety of artists singing just such songs.  I made note of frequent themes like:  giving, family, laughter, joy, good will to men, home, love, peace, neighborliness, appreciation for creation’s beauty…..snow, stars, mountains, country lanes and city sidewalks.  Mostly the stuff of Christmas music reflects on goodly and Godly themes.  If grandma hasn’t got run over by a reindeer, you can listen to most Christmas music right alongside her and neither of you will blush.

Songs with a spiritual theme speak of good will to men, deep respect for God incarnate, angelic proclamations, the inclusive project of redemption that includes wise men, shepherds and even little drummer boys.  Granted, sometimes these songs exercise poetic license and embellish or simply are fictional in origin.  But even those songs pretty much represent the heart of God.  I’ve got a Bible and you do too, so we can all sort out the faith from the fairy tale and be no worse for the brain work.

In a few days I will put aside the Christmas music for another year.   I thank God for this seasonal music which delights, enlivens and alerts me to the simple joys of life.

I like Christmas music.  

  Joy to the world !

 Giddy-up giddy-up giddy-up let’s go!

Resistance in the form of preoccupation and distraction often prevents us from seeing the truth of our lives, hearing God’s voice, and living a spiritual life.  To listen with obedience to the voice of God requires building up a resistance to all the other voices that compete for our attention.

Henri Nouwen –       Spiritual Direction   with Michael J. Christensen and Rebecca J. Laird

Perhaps every person is a victim of preoccupation and distraction.  A lot is said about Attention Deficit Disorder.  I do believe there is such a thing.   It is observable among the young and old alike.

Many who have made a study of cultural shifts and especially the ill effects of our highly technical age, have said that our gadgets are working against our efforts to focus and specialize on one thing at a time.

I can confirm this in my own experience.  Last summer I got an IPad 2.   It primarily functions as a reader and some note taking and a few photos of the grandkids.  Along the way I have picked up a few games and have a small amount of music and some cartoon videos my grandkids like to watch with pop-paw.

With this little electronic companion has come a variety of applications and capabilities in the palm of my hand.  I can read for a while and then I can check e-mail, then watch a you-tube video and play Angry Birds for a while.  This only contributes to my resistance to long-term focus on any particular thing. 

I used to take one book to a doctor’s appointment to read in the waiting room.  Now I have a library.  I can read C.S. Lewis for a while, then move to Beowulf then a poem or two by Billy Collins.  Even when I stick with one application, I have grown resistant to more than a 20 minute focus on any one text.

I have so many choices. 

I have too many choices for my own good. 

Now, of course, this is nothing new.  I have frequently taken just my Bible with me to a waiting room or to await a flight etc.   And my Bible has a library of 66 books in a palm-sized application.  (I wonder if God thought of it as developing an “app” for that?)  Anyway, there is something emerging in my mind as a new spiritual discipline that I must pursue.

It is called:  focus, attention, fixation, even….horror or horrors….narrowness.

Now back to resistance.  See how easily I got side-tracked from the title of this blog entry???

Resistance is one of the works of the flesh somehow left out of the list in Galatians 5.  Nevertheless I think it is resistance to seeking the way of God that has tripped us up ever since the days in the Garden.  Nouwen is right.

We must learn to listen to the one voice of Jehovah as the One and Only, True and Living God. 

To do anything else is to resist the voice which promises:

“Seek me first and all these things shall be added to you.”

I am blessed.
I have a tremendously supportive wife.
I have a family who bolsters my courage and cheers me in my fight against cancer.
I have an amazingly supportive loving fellowship with my family at Oakhaven Church.

I am, however, all too human.

At my most recent visit with my oncologist at Mayo Clinic, I was reminded that I am a cancer patient. Inasmuch as there is no reason  to be pessimistic about my recovery, I am still at risk.  Melanoma is vicious, it is sneaky and it is covert.

This consultation left me in a temporary darkness.

For the last few days I have had moments when my illness has sought to define me.

My real self has gotten lost in the description, “cancer patient”.

I conferred with Deb before posting what follows. I don’t want anyone to think I am about to throw myself off a bridge.   It is……with a nod to Jimmy Stewart, but by the grace of God, “a wonderful life”  I live…… and I rejoice in this.

I share this because I know many of you will identify with these words. You are not alone. None of us are superwomen or supermen.

We are made in God’s image but even the best have sometimes wished there was another cup from which to drink.

Gary Cleveland 11-8-11 “Nothingness”

I’m a nobody floating around in nothingness
and there is nothing on the horizon.
I’m sure I used to be somebody….
my navel reminds me I used to be connected somehow,
somewhere, to someone.
But today I am floating. Drifting to the ceiling and back to the floor.
Adrift, awaiting a breeze to blow me in some direction where perhaps there exists bright and warm.
I yearn out loud for a clue to my identity, I plead in silence for a pathfinder.
who am I? from where did I come? where is it I am supposed to be going?
Eyes strained, I squint to make sure I haven’t missed something,
but still there is a void out there,
and in here,
where it hurts.
I’m blind on a day when I just know there is beauty to be seen,
and I long for a glimmer of something yellow or orange like sunlight.
In a mirror, I gaze and no reflection….. just the vagueness of blur and shadow.
But something in me urges, “keep looking” “keep listening”
“You’ve got to climb on top of something bigger than yourself and then you will see.”
“So, I am somebody after all”,  I say.
“I’m a searcher, a seeker and a yearner”.
To hurt and ache is to be somebody.
I hurt, therefore, I am.
I just need a higher place to stand.

Keep in mind that we are never as far away from hope as we think.  If you are hurting and in a dark place, talk to someone.  Get it out.  Don’t let the hurting get locked inside.  There are people within your reach who will clasp your hand, brush your tear and shoulder up to you.

Let’s climb up to that higher place together.  I’ll stand there with you and we’ll drink together from God’s good cup.

The Bible is crammed with material proclaiming to be of eternal importance and consequence. 

From beginning to end there are teachings, commandments, stories, poems, allegories and character studies.  It is, to say the least, a repository of teaching for which one may study and meditate upon for a lifetime.

Those of us who seek to provide teaching and instruction, are faced with a most formidable task.  Our good intentions have not always produced what we intended.  In our interest to simplify and package complex biblical truths in manageable containers we have sometimes chosen to give pint size overviews when the subject demands a gallon’s worth of thought and theological reflection.  In other words, we have a tendency to boil down, condense and summarize ideas into bullet points which have a tendency to become canonized and thought of in terms of indisputable truth packets.

Recently I delivered a presentation for a group of preachers entitled, “What Is Shaping Our Theology Today?”.  I harvested some outstanding quotes from theological thinkers which I want to pass along to you as an encouragement……whether full-time ministry types or people in the pew.  Think Theologically.

Consider for yourself whether you have the tendency to think in bullet points.  For those of us who do preaching and teaching, I would suggest that we even use discretion in the utilization of Powerpoint slides as a way to present complex theological ideas.  All I’m saying in this is that we recognize the pitfalls which one can fall into by formulating
“The five steps to Salvation” or “Five Acts of Worship” or “7 Things Identifying the Church of the New Testament”.

So the following is for your theological reflection.  These quotes are in no particular order nor do they represent a complete sampling of those who very well could be quoted as outstanding theological thinkers.  They say something important.  And yes, these quotes are little more than “bullet points” but are offered as an encouragement to

“think about how you think about……”

the Great Work of God.

    IN this season of harvest,  I bring to the threshing floor these quotes and ideas to get us thinking exploring and conversing.

From Tom Olbricht, Hearing God’s Voice, My Life With Scripture in Churches of Christ.

Just as a preacher is not worth his salt who cannot explain a text in such a manner that it can be understood by a specific audience, so biblical theology is not helpful unless it can be brought to bear upon a specific context.  The effort to do so is what I designate “theology”.  Biblical theology is an undertaking which focuses only upon the message found within the Scriptures, the message located in the inspired text.  It is once for all, and sits in judgment on all subsequent theology.  Nevertheless, the church cannot do without theology, which is the effort to communicate the theology of the Scriptures to a specific age.  While biblical theology is immutable, theology should change as needed to communicate with its own era and social context.  The theologian in my view, should know from the outset that his theology is doomed.  He should highlight the self-amortizing nature of theology.   p. 373

“Human fallenness almost always leaves its mark.  Even theology itself (to borrow a line from Gerard Manley Hopkins) wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell.”   Michael Bauman- Professor of Theology and Culture, Hillsdale College, Hillsdale, MI.

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From Kenneth Cukrowski, Mark Hamilton, James Thompson,  God’s Holy Fire,

How does a teacher take the data of Bible study and craft it into a lesson that allows God’s Word to address the church today?  How can names, dates, outlines and word studies challenge the church to live faithfully?  If the teacher cannot think theologically, then the lesson is often a mind-numbing, soul-deadening experience.   p. 188

With its focus on the recovery of the practices of the early church, especially baptism and the Lord’s Supper, the Restoration Movement has served Christianity well.  We have, however, tended to ignore the restoration of the theology of the early church.   The presence of theological meaning is important because in its absence church practices tend to devolve into mere ritual and legalism.  However, when practice and theological meaning are connected, then our actions are not primarily an expression of our own willpower.  Rather, Christians should act because of what God has done and because of who they now are as his people.   In addition, it is important to recognize that having a theological foundation provides some protection against being overly influenced by bad, but popular theology.  p. 188

Theological reflection is necessary not only in the study, teaching, and preaching of Scripture, but also in the daily life of individual Christians and the church.  p. 190

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Theology seeks first to provide orientation to religious communities through critical and constructive engagement with their convictions, rituals, and practices – “to foster the knowledge and love of God” as the Yale Divinity School mission statement puts it.   Miroslav Volf,  Captive To The Word of God, p. 9

Second, theology’s goal is to shape how life is lived in the broader society, indeed on the whole globe, in the light of God’s purposes for the world.  Church and society are the two main “publics” of academic theology, those for whom it endeavors to interpret reality so as to offer guidance about what it means to live well before God.   Miroslav Volf,  Captive To The Word of God, p. 9

In contrast with a “hermeneutic of suspicion”  Volf suggests:  Approaching the Bible as a genuinely sacred text calls for a hermeneutic of respect rather than a hermeneutic of suspicion.   We approach it with an attitude of receptivity appropriate to the presumption—maybe always only a provisional presumption—that it is a site of God’s self-revelation.  We read it expecting that by finding ourselves and our world in the story of God’s dealings with humanity, we will (re)discover our true identities and world’s proper destiny.  We study it anticipating that we will discover the wisdom to help individuals, communities, and our entire planet genuinely to flourish.  We read it trusting that we will learn better to love God and neighbor.   Volf, p. 34

But should we not mistrust the proposed hermeneutic of respect?  It seems to undermine critical judgment and leave us in an excessively passive relation to the text.  Yet this need not be the case.  First, “respect” and “receptivity” are not incompatible with critical judgment: instead, critical judgment ought to accompany them.    p. 34

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From Randy Harris,  God Work – Confessions of a Standup Theologian

Epistemological humility – Be humble about what we know (and how we came to know it, I might add  GMC)

We hold the views we do because we think we are right.  The question is whether we are open and humble enough to say, “It is possible I might have it wrong.”  Humility is a trait very close to the core of the gospel.  Perhaps God would like to hear us say, “I wonder what I’m going to learn out of this.”  Not “What am I going to teach,” but “What am I going to learn?”    Randy Harris,  God Work – Confessions of a Standup Theologian, p. 17

Theology grows out of spirituality – It is a lot easier to have doctrinal conversations among prayerful people who have taken seriously the call to follow Christ in every word, thought, and deed.  If we first attend to our spiritual lives, our relationship with God, and are bathed in prayer, the conversations go a lot differently.  As I grow older…. more rapidly, I find myself less interested in fencing over doctrinal issues which will not change the people in the conversation.  I’m interested in what will lead us into a deeper and fuller relationship with God.  Harris, p. 18

Be contextually faithful-  I do not believe the church looks exactly the same in every context.  Missionaries generally understand this.  ….My hero for contextual faithfulness is Paul, who is not, as far as I can tell, a systematic theologian.  He doesn’t sit in the library and write theological treatises because he’s having a slow day or because he’s in prison and doesn’t have anything else to do.  He writes theology to particular situations, and the situation often makes his theology to particular situations, and the situation often makes his theology come out quite differently.   Harris, p. 20

I want to say to those who are younger that truth matters.  It always matters.  Be rigorous.  Be committed.  And I want to say to those who are older that humility matters.  Be humble.  Be prepared to admit that where you’re located sometimes impacts the way you see things.  Be ready to admit with me that disagreement with me is not necessarily disagreement with God.  Harris, p. 74

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Notes from Scot McKnight – The Blue Parakeet

3 Ways people read their Bibles…..most people are not aware of how they read the Bible.

1) Reading to Retrieve- Some of us have been taught to read the Bible in such a way that we return to the times of the Bible in order to retrieve biblical ideas and practices for today.  There are two kinds of “return and retrieve” readers—some try to retrieve all of it and some admit we can retrieve only what can be salvaged.  p. 26

What we need is not a return to the first or fourth or sixteenth or eighteenth century but a fresh blowing of God’s Spirit on our culture, in or day and in our ways.  We need twenty-first-century Christians living out the biblical gospel in twenty-first-century ways.  p. 28

2) Reading through tradition – Ordinary people need to learn to read the Bible through tradition or they will misread the Bible and create schisms in the church.  …..I believe we are called to read the Bible for ourselves.  (But not entirely on our own.)  The reformation’s best and most dangerous, revolutionary idea was putting the Bible in the hands of ordinary Christians.

3) Reading with tradition –

God was on the move;

God is on the move;

God will always be on the move.

And God is still on the move in your life, is He not?

So in this season of harvest here are a few ideas intended to encourage us to think theologically.  These ideas are not so much harvested fruits ready for serving but seeds to be planted for future harvests.  May we be moved to think of and yearn for a relationship with God with all the theological richness open to us as lifetime learners.