Let it snow

Last night I got back into town from the wonderful city that is Yakima, WA. And to welcome me properly, the skies began to drop a large amount of white goodness: snow. I love it. The picture above I took while on a short hike just outside of Yakima. It's the sun beginning to set behind the Cascades and Mount Rainier, though both are covered by clouds. Just use your imagination.

Peace,
Matt

Reads: A while back I forgot to mention that I read The Shipping News by Annie Proulx. Right now I'm just finishing up Marcus Borg's Jesus: A New Vision. The fact that I agree with 90% of it is a little bit disturbing to me, considering what most people say about him. I'll have to get back to you on that one...

Two Prayers for this Day and Week

Jesus, I desire to start this day with you. And yet, my mind keeps flitting to so many things: the projects I want to accomplish, the people I want to talk to, the people I wish I didn't have to talk to.
I wonder. Are these things distractions to spiritual concentration or invitations to see God in the ordinary? I'm not sure. Jesus, I know that you are the Center who knows no distraction. So I offer up my mental fragmentation to you, O Lord my God. May my scatteredness become your gatheredness. As I'm contemplating a thousand things, Jesus, may I somehow be contemplating you.
-Richard Foster

Listen, GOD! P lease pay attention!
Can you make sense of these ramblings,
my groans and cries?
King-God, I need your help.
Every morning
you'll hear me at it again.
Every morning
I lay out the pieces of my life
on your altar
and watch for fire to descend.
-Psalm 5 (Message)

Peace,
Matt

Mark Driscoll: Pride of the Northwest

So I'd be lying not to say that Mark Driscoll makes me ashamed to call myself a Christian sometimes. Recently he stepped over the line again in another declaration of learned ignorance, and I'm glad to see he's being called out on it in a bigger way than usual.

A Prayer from Richard Foster

Let me enter your heart, O God.
Let me see what breaks your heart.
Let my heart be broken too.
Amen.

Random Links, Thoughts, Etc...

These are just some things that have been running through my life lately...

What is most frustrating to me this week is the fact the George W. restarted the School of the Americas and nobody in the US even blinked. If you don't know what this "school" is for, I'll fill you in quickly. The SOA is a military training camp in Georgia. At this camp we train Latin/South American men to kill, torture, and brutalize, then send them back to their home countries to do just that. Besides nuking Japan, it's probably one of the most shameful things in our past (and that's even including slavery). So right now you are probably wondering why the hell we would restart such an evil program. The answer is simple: our neighbors to the south are turning to the left again. US business interests need right-wing governments down there so we can get rich off the backs of the people, so we are going to have to eliminate democracy and bring back the good ol' days of massive "disappearances," burning of villages, raping of nature, women and children, and of course displacements of whole people groups. Not to mention violent of overthrows of democratically elected persons by the government of the one nation that claims to desire nothing less than the spread of freedom and democracy across the world. Golly gee, who doesn't want to get excited about this one! For more info, you can check out the SOA Watch link on my sidebar.

Another interesting website that has been of great interest to me lately is Naomi Klein's No Logo site. I thought about linking one article, but every single one she writes is great and extremely relevant to what is going on today.

There is a great new (or at least new to me) satirical website called The Church You Know. Watch some of the videos and see if you don't think it's brilliant. Of course the people who need to see this will probably get nothing from it, but I love it all the same.

Also, I'm glad to see this Christian Vision Project coming to life. It's far from being a deeply theological movement, but it is a step in the right direction for evangelicals trying to find a voice in the missional church movement.

Peace,
Matt

Currently Reading (and loving): The Trinity and the Kingdom by Jurgen Moltmann. This is his fourth book I've read, but also probably my favorite yet. It is brilliant, beautiful, and still needs to be engaged with and talked about now, 26 years after it was written. I think I might blog a bit about it in the coming week or two. But either way, you need to check it out.

A Glorious Week Brings Some Questions

Having no desire to gloat, nor to declare myself a member of the democratic party, I am nonetheless very excited about the departure of one our government's biggest facists/neocons, Mr. Donald Rumsfeld. It's great to see a swing in power within the halls of government as well, though I know better than to base my hopes on such things. Especially with George W. still in power for another two years.

So here is where I'm at with these news items in mind. It has been brought to my attention that we (as in, the Western church) look too often to government to bring about the Kingdom of God. I agree. And plead guilty to the charge. So how much involvement should the Church have in politics? Or structures of power in general? Yes, I believe we should definitely vote. But what about lobbying people in power to push for certain laws that are Biblically-based? Or trying to persuade friends to vote in ways that agree more with Biblical ethics? And what about being a Christian running for political office?

I used to think these questions were easily answerable, but no longer. God's work is done through God, who works through us when we lay down our rights/power and give it all to Him. So if we are trying to work through government, are we allowing God to work through our weakness, or are we seeking power as a way to personally advance God's kingdom? I feel like this is inappropriate for us to do, yet feel like the church is still called to have a prophetic voice when it comes to speaking truth into our culture. But how can we call a culture to follow God's call, when it does not believe in Him? Feels like a catch-22.

Any (thoughtful) thoughts?

Peace,
Matt

Just Read: Powers, Weakness, and the Tabernacling of God by Marva J. Dawn. Years ago I read her book about Sabbath, which was good. But this book was brilliant. She dealt with biblical concepts of power and weakness, took on Jaques Ellul and Walter Wink, and basically called the church out on its blatant hypocrisy and idolatry. Read this book.

Christianity in a nutshell???

This morning I arrived at work and noticed an Awana 24-7 ministries booklet and found myself flipping through it. This pleasant little children's workbook was all about one of the important things a child apparently needs to live a life of faith: doctrine. Near the beginning, 1 Timothy 4:13 and 16 are quoted, after which it says the following; "he [Paul] was talking about the power of God that would save Timothy from falling into sin and error - if he continued holding onto correct doctrine."

So what is this "correct doctrine" that kids need to learn so God can save them? For one thing "God is the truth [and] only truth brings certainty. God's truth is given to us in His Word" To paraphrase, this means we need to read the Bible and gain certainty from our reading. If we don't, does that then mean we have not experienced God? But I digress. It goes on to state that God is omnipotent, eternal, immutable, omnipresent, triune, and sovereign. Funny how most of these words are not in the Bible, which is of course where they claim all truth lies... Beyond that, is God really immutable or omnipotent? I'm not absolutely certain. Guess I don't read the Bible enough... And what about the fact that God is love? I guess love isn't as important as words referring to power and strength. Sounds pretty American to me.

And then there's Jesus. Actually, that's not entirely true. Then there's the death of Jesus. The gospels are not quoted once in the chapter on Jesus. All that is mentioned is how his death gets us into Heaven. Sounds like a pretty full teaching of the Gospel to me. And after this death? The Holy Spirit arrives, who apparently comes only to keep us from sinning and strenghening our faith, but not for any sort of mission. Darn it all, this sounds almost too good to be true (yes, that is sarcasm)!

I don't even want to talk about the angels/satan chapter. It honestly made me want to vomit. As does the humanity chapter. Ad the chapter on salvation? Well, apparently salvation is all about going to heaven after you die.

There is a pretty decent chapter on the Church though. For a kid, I think it's probably a good teaching, though far from complete.

Then we get to the section that really set me off; The Future. What does "The Bible" say God has in store for us? It depends who "us" is referring to? If by us you mean Christians, we get to be raptured before the tribulation! Yippee! As for everyone else, they get to experience the tribulation, in which the Antichrist and Satan rule the earth (my antichrist money is on either George W or Tim Lahaye, but we'll just have to wait and see). And after this, of course, Jesus will reign on earth for 1,000 years, kick Satan's booty, and then take everyone he likes to heaven, which is somewhere up in the sky, and sends everyone on his naughty list to hell, which "is a place of constant, conscious torment," where you feel like you are on fire "over your entire body forever with no releif in site." So live by faith. Then do some crossword puzzles at the end of the book, and you are set up to be a Christian for life.

The reason I rip apart this curriculum, which was designed for kids, is that this is what a lot of the adults I know believe. And when these kids reject their faith, they may not even know that the faith they are rejecting isn't faith at all! If this is Christianity in a nutshell, count me out. Consider me the rodent who's job is to bury the nut and move on to something better. Or crack it open and take out the good bits, leaving the rest to decompose as it should.

Peace,
Matt

Currently Reading: Paul, the Spirit, and the People of God by Gordon D. Fee.