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An honest question...
From a conversation I recently had with my brother.
When Jesus said don’t judge, and then went on to judge - in very harsh words - the Pharisees, what, if anything, made him different than being a Pharisee himself?
it's greed. just greed.
“Greed is the root of all evil…” - a wise man (Jesus) once said.
“But whereas compassion, forgiveness and love are part of the moral code of the world’s religions, capitalism is characterised by precisely the opposite: greed, selfishness and avarice…” another wise man (Raoul Martinez) once said.
We have to always be careful to say if A=B then B=A or C or whatever… but that said… it’s not a stretch to say…
“Capitalism is the root of all evil.”
I mean it’s at least worth thinking about for a bit.
200 pharisees...
Jesus talks quite often about Pharisees. It’s a label thrown around a lot inside of “Christian” circles and ascribed to all kinds of people. Part of the reason I never want to throw out the Bible in its entirety is because it contains stories and parallels that are relevant and informing of our situation today.
If you want to know what a pharisee looks like at the end of 2019, here is a list of 200 of them.
—-
Lourdes Aguirre
President
United Marketing Solutions
Stephen Alessi
Pastor
Metro Life Church
Chuck Allen
Pastor
Sugar Hill Church
Rev. Rick Amato
Dream Believe Institute
Wellington , FL
Doug Anderson
Pastor
Rose Heights Church
Michele Bachmann
US House of Representatives
Fmr. Member, Minnesota
Marty Baker
Pastor
Steven’s Creek Church
Rev. Wesley Baldwin, PhD
Lead Pastor
Aloma Church
Luke Barnett
Pastor
Dream City Church
Tommy Barnett
Pastor
Dream City Church
Gary Bauer
President
American Values
Henry Becarra
Pastor
City Church International
Steve Berger
Pastor
Grace Chapel - Nashville
Gary W. Blackard
President & CEO
Adult & Teen Challenge USA
Paul Blair
Fairview Baptist Church
Liberty Pastors Network
John Blanchard
Pastor
Rock Church International
Bill Bolin
Pastor
Floodgate Church
Ryan Bomberger
Co-Founder & Chief Creative Officer
The Radiance Foundation
Mario Bramnick
President
Latino Coalition for Israel
Josh Brown
Founder & CEO
SoulHeart.co
Dr. Daniel Caamaño
President
Alma Vision Radio and Television
Paula White Cain
Paula White Ministries
Pastor, City of Destiny
Chris Cambas
CEO Relationscape
Founder / Chairman of Board Full Circle
Anita Christopher
President
West Michigan Prayer Center
Barry Clardy
Pastor
Princeton Pike Church of God
Dr. Tim Clinton
President
American Association of Christian Counselors
Bishop Kelvin L. Cobaris
Cobaris Ministries International
Paul Cole
Christian Men's Network
Cynthia Collins
Founder, SpeakHope.net
Global Advisor, OperationOutcry
Jack Countryman
Vice President & Publisher Emeritus
Ministry Development
Harper Collins
David Aaron Crabb
Pastor
Restoring Hope Church
Brad Dacus
Pacific Justice Institute
Dr.Jimmy L. De La O DDiv.
Founding Senior Pastor
Iglesia Cristiana Nuevo Pacto
Apostle Alberto Delgado
Senior Pastor
Alpha and Omega
Rachel Dennis
Awaken The Dawn
Dr. James Dobson
President
James Dobson Family Institute
Dave Donaldson
Co-founder and Chairman
CityServe International
Greg Dumas
Pastor
The Crossing Church
Dr. Kirk Elliott
Founder
Veribella Foundation
Jenna Ellis
Constitutional Law Attorney
Al Elmore
Senior Pastor
Lima Baptist Temple
Jerry Falwell Jr.
President
Liberty University
Joey Fine
Pastor
Seasons Church
Dan Fisher
Pastor
Fairview Baptist Church
Jentezen Franklin
Senior Pastor
Free Chapel
Jim Franklin
Pastor
Cornerstone Church
Dr. Gary D. Frazier,
President
Discovery Missions International
Dr. Day Gardner
President
National Black Pro-Life Union
Brian Gallardo
Pastor
LifeGate Church
Jim Garlow
Founder
Well Versed
Rosemary Schindler Garlow
Schindlers Ark
Dr. Nick Garza
NHCLC Board member
Sacramento, CA
James Gildwell
Pastor
Amazing Grace Baptist Fellowship
Bishop Anne Gimenez
Rock Ministerial Fellowship
Jack Graham
Senior Pastor
Prestonwood Baptist Church
Brad Graves
Senior Pastor
Ada First Baptist Church
Danny Gokey
Contemporary Christian Artist
Paul Marc Goulet
Pastor
International Church of Las Vegas
Rev. Mark Gurley
Director
Michigan Oak Initiative
Ken Gurley
Vice President/Director of Operations
National Apostolic Christian Leadership Conference.
Jon & Jolene Hamill
President
Lamplighter Ministries
Dr. Frank Harber, Ph.D., J.D.
President
The Institute for Christian Defense
Len Harper
Pastor
Overflow Church
Mike Hayes
Founder/President
Center for National Renewal
Skip Heitzig
Pastor
Calvary Church of Albuquerque
Randall Hekman
Director
Grand Awakening Prayer
Jim Henry
Pastor Emeritus FBC Orlando
Former SBC President
Robert Herber
Pastor
All Peoples Church
Jack Hibbs
Pastor
Calvary Chapel Chino Hills
Rev. Tim Hill
General Overseer
Church of God
Mark Hoover
Lead Pastor
NewSpring Church
Walter B. Hoye II
CEO
Issues4Life Foundation
Lori Hoye
CFO
Issues4Life Foundation
Mike Huckabee
Honorary National Chairman
My Faith Votes
Shane Idleman
Pastor
Westside Christian Fellowship
Bishop Harry Jackson
Pastor
Hope Christian Church
Brian Jacobs
Pastor
Metroplex Family Church
Dr. Mike & Cindy Jacobs
Founders
Generals International
Phillip Jauregui
Judicial Action Group
Dr. Thomas Jamieson
Senior Pastor
First Baptist Church of Mount Dora, FL
Obed Jauregui
Pastor, Betania Church
President of MBCS
Robert Jeffress
Senior Pastor
First Baptist Dallas
Brian & Jenn Johnson
Bethel Music
Travis Johnson
Church of God Executive Council Member
Dr. Brad Jurkovich
Senior Pastor
First Baptist Church Bossier City, LA
Troy Keaton
Pastor
EastLake Community Church
Becky Keenan
Pastor
President of One With Israel
Alveda King
Pastoral Associate, Priests for Life
Director, Civil Rights for the Unborn
Gary Kirouac
Tent America
David Kubal
CEO/President
Intercessors for America
Kelly Monroe Kullberg
Veritas Forum
Hank & Brenda Kunneman
Pastors
Lord of Hosts Church and One Voice Ministries
Greg Laurie
Senior Pastor
Harvest Christian Fellowship
Jerry Lawson
Pastor
Daystar Church
Todd Lamphere
Pastor of Global Outreach
City of Destiny
Chris Leader
Ignite Outreach
Greg Locke
Pastor
Global Vision Bible Church
Frank López
Senior Pastor, Doral Church
VP of Hispanic Association of Pastors
Cissie Graham Lynch
Samaritans Purse
Apostle Guillermo Maldonado
President and Senior Pastor
King JESUS Ministries
Tim Martin
Pastor
New Life Christian
Victor Marx
President & CEO
All Things Possible Ministries
Gregg Matte
Senior Pastor
Houston’s First Baptist Church
Bishop Joseph Mattera
Christ Covenant Coalition
Pastor Jurgen Matthesius
C3 Church San Diego
Overseer C3 Churches in the Americas
Bob McEwen
US House of Representatives
Fmr. Member, Ohio
Dr. David H. McKinley
Pastor-Teacher
Warren Baptist Church
Augusta GA
Dr. Yolanda McCune
Director
HAPN Kingdom Culture
Rev. Dusty McLemore
Senior Pastor
Lindsay Lane Baptist Church
Barry Meguiar
President Meguiar’s, Inc,
Founder, Revival Outside the Walls
Eric Metaxas
Author, Host
Eric Metaxas Radio Show
Jonathan Miller
Pastor
New Beginnings Church
Morgan Mitchell
Director
Grand Traverse House of Prayer
Pastor Sergio De La Mora
Cornerstone Church
Kent Morgan
President
Randall Bearings, Inc.
Robert Morris
Senior Pastor
Gateway Church
Pastor Tom Mullins
Senior Pastor
Christ Fellowship Florida
Penny Nance
CEO and President
Concerned Women for America
Rev. Dean Nelson
Chairman of the Board
Frederick Douglass Foundation
Dr. Malachi O’Brien
Former 2nd Vice President
Southern Baptist Convention
Tim Oldfield
Pastor
Potters House Church
Dr. Rod Parsley
Founder and Lead Pastor
World Harvest Church
Founder and Chancellor Valor Christian College
Ramiro A. Peña
Pastor
Christ the King Church
Tony Perkins
President
Family Research Council
Paul Pickern
Executive Director
All Pro Pastors
Chonda Pierce
Comedian
Dr. Everett Piper
Best Selling Author
Former University President
Dr. Anthony Ponceti
Director, South & Central America
All Pro Pastors International
Rob Price
Associate Professor, Communication Arts
Southwestern Assemblies of God University
Ralph Reed
President
Faith and Freedom Coalition
Steve Riggle
Pastor
Grace Church International
Rev. Dennis Rivera
Assemblies of God
NHCLC executive committee
Ernie Rivera
President
Las Americas Evangelistic Association
Marilyn Rivera
Pastor
President of Hispanic Association of Pastors
Juan Rivera
Executive Director
Hispanic Israel Leadership Coalition
Jeremy Roberts
Pastor
Thomasville Road Baptist Church
Wayne Roberts
Pastor
Bethel Baptist Church
Gerald Rohn
Pastor
First Renaissance Community Church of Sterling Michigan
Dudley Rutherford
Pastor
Shepherd of the Hills Church
Myles & Delana Rutherford
Pastors
Worship with Wonders Church
Dexter Sanders
Founder/President
Back 2 God Movement
Rick Scarborough
Recover America Now
Tom Schlueter
Texas Apostolic Prayer Network
Darrell & Belinda Scott
Pastor
New Spirit Revival Center
Tony Scott
Pastor
theChurch, Maumee
Mark Seppo
Pastor
Vassar Victory Center
Scott Sheppard
Pastor
Cornerstone Church
Danny Silk
President
Loving on Purpose
David Smith
Pastor
Oak Park Church
Ron Smith
Pastor
FBC At The Villages
Ted Squires
CEO Squires Global
Dr. Jay Strack
Founder
Student Leadership University
Mat Staver
Liberty Counsel
Darryl & Tracy Strawberry
Strawberry Ministries
Pastor Tom Sterbens
New Hope Church
Tony Stewart
Pastor
Citylife Church
Rev. Tony Suarez
Executive Vice President
National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference
Lanny Swaim
Worship Artist
Michael Tait
Christian Music Artist
Zach Terry
Senior Pastor
Fernandina Beach, First Baptist Church
Claude Thomas
Former Executive Director
GP3
David Tipton
Vice President
National Apostolic Christian Leadership Conference.
LaNell Babbage-Torres
National Diversity Coalition
CT Townsend
Pastor
Victory Baptist Church
Pasqual Urrabazo
Pastor
International Church of Las Vegas
Andre Van Mol, MD
Elder
Bethel Church
Kris Vallotton
Senior Associate Leader
Bethel Church
Dr. Gilberto Velez
Founder and Senior Pastor for Iglesia Cristiana Misericordia
Chairman of the Board for National Hispanic leadership Conference.
Anthony Verdugo,
Founder and Executive Director
Christian Family Coalition (CFC)
Wendell Vinson
Pastor
Canyon Hills Church
Judy Wade
Uniting Our Hearts
Kevin Wallace
Pastor
Redemption to the Nations Church
Lance Wallnau
Lance Learning Group
Rick Warzywak
Director
Michigan Capitol House of Prayer
Wendy Waterson
Pastor
Sanctuary Ministries
Edward Watts
Pastor
Gateway Hope Center
Tom Winters
Winters & King Associates
Ken Whitten
Pastor
Idlewild Baptist Church
George Wood
Chairman
World Assemblies of God Fellowship
the "misfits".
It’s well documented in the stories that Jesus hung out with the “misfits”: the prostitutes, the tax collectors, the ones that were generally shamed by the society. Jesus did not hang out much with the religious elite, the politicians, the ones that were generally praised by the society.
Sometimes you’ll hear the reasons for this are a) they need Jesus more b) they are more likely to listen c) God sides with the oppressed, marginalized, and weak… because…. well it’s more of a fact than a list of reasons.
Here’s my thing: Jesus hung out with the “misfits” because they are a) more fun b) more genuine c) more empathetic d) more forgiving e) more joyful and f) generally just more pleasant to be around.
At least it seems that way today and I assume it’s generally been that way through most of history.
Power generally makes people less enjoyable.
perfect love.
It’s a pretty well-known saying “perfect love drives out fear”.
I don’t love diving into wordplay much anymore but it is interesting to me that the word perfect is before love. I don’t know what the original author was getting at it, but right before the line the author says that there is no fear in love.
And then he adds that this mysterious “perfect” love not only doesn’t exist with fear, it actually expels it.
So it would seem part of the point was not to just say that fear and love don’t belong together but that if we want to know how to love better, bigger, more inclusively, more mature, grown-up, and completed love, we can start by driving away fear wherever we see it.
Or on the flip side, wherever we drive away fear, we’re doing some damn good loving.
or maybe...
The stories say that after Jesus rose from the dead he appeared in a few different locations but people didn’t recognize him right away. So they called him a “gardener” and a “man walking on the road to Emmaus” in many of the first witness accounts.
The interpretations generally go that Jesus was in “disguise” or a “different resurrected body”, etc… but here’s another one.
What if the gardener was actually a gardener?
What is the man walking to Emmaus was actually a man walking to Emmaus?
What if, what his disciples came to realize was not that Jesus had literally resurrected but that the Jesus idea and love and way of life was still a part of all kinds of people and that this whole resurrection thing was way more metaphysical and symbolic than literal?
After that they began to see Jesus in more places.
Which, by the way, is far more powerful.
Just a maybe…
Jesus wept.
A friend of mine passed away a couple of weeks ago from leukemia. It’s beyond sad. He leaves two boys behind and an amazing wife and lots of friends.
I’m a seven on the Enneagram which means I hate pain. I like nothing of this story, although, there are these incredible rays of light within it, because my friend was a beyond amazing person who loved so well.
All of it got me thinking about all of the clichés we throw around around death, especially in Christian circles - or at least the ones I grew up in. Some I’ve quoted at memorial services - they aren’t all bad.
It’s better to go to a funeral than a wedding.
Some are terrible.
God has a plan.
God doesn’t give us more than we can handle.
But, there’s one I don’t think is talked about enough: Jesus wept. The short context is that Jesus’ friend had died. Just at it’s base, it’s pretty comforting: the most enlightened human on the planet wept because he was sad at death. It’s so very human, it’s warm to think about. There is nothing enlightened about coming up with clichés to avoid the things we don’t like about life. (Good for me to remember.)
And yet, there is so much more to the story of Lazarus.
Which got me thinking.
But first, the story in a nutshell: Some friends tell Jesus that his friend Lazarus is sick. Jesus doesn’t seem overly concerned and says that it’ll be alright because the sickness won’t end in death. A couple of days later Jesus decides it’s time to head over to the town of Lazarus because Lazarus has “fallen asleep”. The disciples are confused. Jesus says Lazarus has died. Still pretty confusing.
They take the journey and when they get there, they find out Lazarus has been dead for four days. Well, they kinda already knew that. They are grieving. Jesus is told if he had been there, Lazarus wouldn’t have died. He’s told that a couple of times, kinda like “Where the hell have you been?” Jesus responds with more confusing language about never dying and resurrection - which it seems people don’t purely get. Understandably.
Finally, Jesus sees them all mourning and he’s moved. He’s troubled. He weeps. The grief affects him, like it affects all of us. He has them roll away the stone calls Lazarus out - he raises him from the dead.
(If you want the full version you can read John 11)
A few things.
We tend to read these stories as literal. That’s fine. At its literal, it’s pretty confusing while also obviously pretty, miraculous.
Jesus wept even though he knew the whole time Lazarus was coming out?
Why again was he weeping then? Why did he play this whole game? Was he acting? Was he moved by others grief that he knew wasn’t deserved? Why didn’t he just end the whole thing faster?
How does this help me? Most people who die (that I’m aware of) don’t come back to life after 4 days.
So, what’s the point?
Mythical readings are generally so much richer.
There are all kinds of people metaphorically dead. Yes, they are breathing but they aren’t living.
It’s these kind of people Jesus weeps over. And over. And over.
It’s these kind of people who Jesus calls out of their tombs.
It’s these kind of people I don’t want to be.
Jesus is a bit of this representation of Love/Mystery in the Human. In that sense, he helps us not be those dead (but breathing) people.
You see, in short, my friend isn’t coming back. I wish to Hell like he was, for his wife and his kids most of all. But, I do know this: my friend lived when he was alive and that’s more than I can say of many people. Sometimes me. He lived big. He lived humanity. He lived impact. He lived love.
And, in a sense, because he was alive, he doesn’t die. You should hear the stories of him and his impact that are just now being planted all over this city - and that will turn into a forest of love at some point - as the stories continue to grow.
Where is Jesus in all of this? Everywhere. It’s Love/Mystery in the Human that calls us zombies out of our tombs. It’s Love/Mystery in the Human that weeps over wasted lives. It’s this Love/Mystery in the Human that offers a life that lives on. Maybe literal. Definitely real.
The story ends with Jesus saying “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.” That’s bad ass right there.
Wait, who has been not letting him go?
What if all those friends and family represent bad culture? Bad spirituality? Interestingly enough, the next sentence is about the religious elite - they don’t like the fact that this guy Lazarus has found life. They tend to keep people in tombstones. In fact, they say “If this guy Jesus goes on doing stuff like this, they’re going to take away our temple and our nation.”
In other words, if people keep waking up like this, we are going to lose our religious power and our national power. So, they prefer people in grave clothes, stuck in tombs. They get to keep their power.
Okay, so all that to say this: I already miss my friend, obviously. But, it’s true, it’s better to go to a funeral than a wedding… why? I’m reminded that there are forces fighting the kind of life my friend lived, and I’m encouraged to resist those forces like he did: to impact the world with the kind of energy he did, and plant the seeds of Love (great song by Tears for Fears) and Mystery that can be found in us Humans… even when we weep.
Weep. Yes.
Take off the grave clothes? Yes, definitely that too.
RIP Joe.
—
Jack Gilbert wrote an amazing poem that I found when my friend was first diagnosed. I’ve been reading it a lot.
Sorrow everywhere. Slaughter everywhere. If babies are not starving someplace, they are starving somewhere else. With flies in their nostrils. But we enjoy our lives because that’s what God wants. Otherwise the mornings before summer dawn would not be made so fine. The Bengal tiger would not be fashioned so miraculously well. The poor women at the fountain are laughing together between the suffering they have known and the awfulness in their future, smiling and laughing while somebody in the village is very sick. There is laughter every day in the terrible streets of Calcutta, and the women laugh in the cages of Bombay. If we deny our happiness, resist our satisfaction, we lessen the importance of their deprivation. We must risk delight. We can do without pleasure, but not delight. Not enjoyment. We must have the stubbornness to accept our gladness in the ruthless furnace of this world. To make injustice the only measure of our attention is to praise the Devil. If the locomotive of the Lord runs us down, we should give thanks that the end had magnitude. We must admit there will be music despite everything. We stand at the prow again of a small ship anchored late at night in the tiny port looking over to the sleeping island: the waterfront is three shuttered cafés and one naked light burning. To hear the faint sound of oars in the silence as a rowboat comes slowly out and then goes back is truly worth all the years of sorrow that are to come.
jerry is right.
Apparently, Jerry Seinfeld once said that one of the worst things you can do to a comedian is to put her in charge of a late night show. The idea of having to be “on” every night - to create humor - is a drag and will kill the comedy in anyone.
For the same exact reasons, one of the worst things you can do to a spiritual person is make her a pastor that has to speak a different message every Sunday.
margarita mix
In the winter, we sometimes leave stuff outside - like most people. It’s a big refrigerator. Well, we’ve had a bottle of margarita mix on our deck for about four months.
The funny thing is that as spring has come on the scene, and we’ve cleaned up the deck, brought out furniture, bbq’d… I stopped seeing the bottle.
I walked by it probably a hundred times and when my wife brought it inside last night, it really rattled me. My brain stopped registering its existence. I didn't see it and didn’t believe that it was still there.
Which brings up an important point. Repetition, ritual, comfort, and consistency obviously has its place but it can also lead to blindness if we’re not careful.
I think this is probably why most of the great wisdom teachers ask us to make sure we don’t get too complacent with anything in life, even amidst discipline and ritual.
Shake it up. It keeps us seeing.
turn your back on god...
Christians sometimes have a tendency to throw this phrase around: “Be careful, lest you turn your back on god….” (they don’t really say “lest” but it’s usually spoken like a dire warning from a medieval wizard so I went with it.)
Since I have had it served my way a few times, I’d like to take a moment to throw it back.
If we want to talk about turning our back on God, we should probably talk more about these kinds of things:
Turning our back on the LGBT community.
Turning our back on refugees and immigrants.
Turning our back on the largest prison population in the world (the U.S.)
Turning our back on Palestine and the greater Muslim community (for Israel).
Turning our back on the Earth and the species being systematically destroyed.
BONUS: Turning our back on mystery for the sake of knowledge and answers.
It’s curious to me that, generally speaking, the Christians most afraid of “turning their back” - and who love to hand out the warning the most - have no problem turning their back on the people that Jesus most equated with himself, the “enemies” the prophets warned of treating as enemies, and the planet and animals that they love to speak of as “God’s creation” while murdering it. BONUS: A point of that creation story was if you’re so desperate for knowledge that you forsake mystery, well, be careful, everything starts to go to shit from there.
Reasons #…. well…. I’ve lost count at this point… that I’m not a Christian.
Reasons #…. I’m humbled and challenged to keep on seeing, living, and loving as best I can.
poor Cayetano
A lamppost? Yes, but not any lamppost. A lamppost was put in Valencia after the last martyr of the Spanish Inquisition in 1826. It replaced the gallows that were there - made of stone because they were used so often - that hung Cayetano Ripoll. The church wanted to burn him, but at that point things were a little too messy for burning (the secular authorities doing the church’s dirty work wouldn’t do it) so they hung him in the city square and put his body in a barrel with painted flames around it instead. Nice.
Why? Details are a little hard to find but Cayetano Ripoll had converted from a Catholic theist to a deist. Which might sound like a big deal but, in essence, means, as our tour guide put it: he was a teacher who told his students that God existed everywhere - not just inside the church.
So if you’re down today remember to be thankful you live in 2019, a time when the church judges its own in a more subtle fashion and only figuratively hangs its “heretics” instead of literally, in a town square, like poor Cayetano Ripoll.
Because that means today’s heretics get to keep talking... and we get to keep learning from them.
how much change?
If an orange is genetically modified to have a green skin and soft green flesh that is a little sour, is it still an orange? How are there so many fruits defined as orange, even though some are sweet and some are bitter? Some are big and some are small?
How much can something change and still be the thing?
There’s a great story of a monk who was trying to pray and kept being bothered by a cat. So he tied the cat to a nearby tree so he could pray. He ended up doing that every day.
Eventually the monk died, but his protegé also tied to the cat up to pray. Eventually the cat died, so he started tying another cat up to a tree. Eventually generations of cats died, generations of monks died, but they always found a cat to tie up to a tree.
Eventually the tree died, and they planted a new tree to tie a new cat up to, before praying. One day, someone asked, why do we tie a cat to a tree before we pray?
Well it’s what we do. It’s what we’ve always done.
But why?
How much can a ritual change and still be meaningful?
How hard can we hold on to a ritual and suffocate it of all of its meaning?
isn't it ironic? Christmas version.
I was recently with a friend who told me the following story?
Friend’s Friend: Do you want to come to church with us on Christmas Eve?
Friend: Oh that time doesn’t work for us.
Friend’s Friend: Oh, do you want to come to a later time?
Friend: No, if we go it will have to just be on that Sunday.
Friend’s Friend: What? You have to go to church on Christmas Eve! Christmas is not about Santa - you know that right? It’s about going to church.
(That’s a rough summary of the conversation.)
Most of us don’t agree with that I’m sure. But here’s the irony. The entire Christmas story is about one thing: the divine in the human. The sacred in the secular. A smack over the head of God in humanity. Nothing is explicitly ordinary and thus, nothing is explicitly sacred.
So… the point of the Christmas story is actually that you don’t have to go to “church” anymore at all. Ever. Especially on the day that celebrates that point in a pretty outlandish story kind of way. Because it turns out that God was just born in a barn to some poor refugees - not in the temple.
Yes, the irony.
being good.
I grew up hearing “Being a good person is not enough…”
Many still claim it. In fact, it’s basic theology for many.
But, ironic enough, the Bible (of Christianity) says differently. It actually pretty clearly states that being good enough is enough.
The Parable of the Sheep and the Goats is a little story Jesus tells about two groups of people who meet the “King”. One group is sent away by the King and the other is welcomed in. And both groups are judged strictly on what they did.
So, not only does the story say being a good person is enough, it also says what a good person does: they feed people who are hungry, they give water to people who are thirsty, they clothe those who are naked, help those who are sick, invite strangers in, and visit those in jail. In other words, they take care of their fellow humans. In other words they are “good” people.
Interestingly enough, sex or no sex, gay or no gay, drugs or no drugs, pledging allegiance to America or not, reading one’s Bible or not, going to church or not, believing Jesus died on the cross for your sins or not, and a whole list of other things don’t appear to have anything to do with being “good” or not - at least not in this story told by Jesus.
Being good is taking care of our fellow human beings.
So, just try to be better - a little more good - today.
It’s probably more than “enough”.
10 signs we should take a break from a ritual.
We still believe the ritual matters - simply because it’s a ritual.
We allow “the ritual” to replace “the life”.
We’re exhausted. We don’t have space or rest.
We think we have to. Or are supposed to. Or are expected to.
We get mad at people who don’t practice it.
We think we are pleasing someone with it.
We think it pleases a deity.
We wonder why that deity seems so far away.
We’re bored.
We can’t think of 3 other experiences/actions that provide similar results.
a new drug.
Not sure if you've heard of it but there is a new drug coming on to the market for parents. It's based off of an (up to now) fairly hidden bacteria found in southern Africa.
When ingested the patient will become sick for about a week with severe body aches and pains - no fever or risk of infecting others - and nausea and weakened vision.
It disappears after about a week.
It's being marketed to parents because they can give the drug to their children a) as punishment for doing something wrong b) as a way to teach their children something and c) to simply encourage their children to be more needy and, thus, "cuddly", loving, etc...
It seems to work great.
I only write all of this because I recently heard, again, from someone who was suffering form an illness, that they had complete faith that god had given them the illness for a reason and they would learn what they needed to learn from it.
When a god does something we would find atrocious for a parent to do, there's probably something off with that view of god.
just love.
One doesn't become a Christian by believing that "God is" but by believing that God is love.
--Tomáš Halík, from I Want You to Be
Amazing how so few words can summarize perfectly and provoke in all the right ways. Yes, I just ordered the book.
structures vs. systems.
I've been thinking a lot about structures and systems. Yeah, not something I usually think about either but after reading Fantasyland (every American should read it) and watching Believer (every human should watch it) I'm still trying to reconcile, in my own head, the good and bad of systems and structures.
Specifically, as it pertains to religion. My question is, can we have structure without a system? (At least how I define them.)
Because...
Systems seem, generally speaking, more self-serving, more afraid of change, and more attractive to those who want power and/or control over others.
But they also provide structure. And without structure we're all just free floating larvae desperately seeking something to attach to, so we can turn into a beautiful, colorful, reef, that helps to feed the ecosystem.
How do we not throw out the baby with the bathwater?
Some random observations/thoughts... that I just need to write down for now:
1. An evolving individual will move from system to structure. A stagnant person will stay in a system their entire life. (Systems are more easily digestible and provide more protection, etc... like milk.)
2. Systems feel threat much more than structures, especially to people who critique the system. Individuals who express fear and threat are generally defending a system more than a structure.
3. Systems are not inherently destructive all the time. Structures are not inherently beneficial all of the time.
4. Systems strongly resist giving up the spotlight. Structures are end up hidden by whatever it is they are supporting.
5. Pharisees perfectly represent the system. Jesus perfectly represents the structure.
6. Religion is a system. It's why Jesus talked so negatively about it (and Jesus really didn't talk bad about too many things.)
7. Church, at it's worst, is part of the system. When it's at its best, it's simply providing structure. That expression of church is more prevalent than we might think, although also much less obvious, because structures always are.
I want to be more wary of systems less apt to reject structures.
Maybe more later...