"What if there's no tomorrow? There wasn't one today."

It's Groundhog Day - a completely irrelevant holiday only made noteworthy because Bill Murray is the king of rock and roll.

If you want to blow off your adult responsibilities, you can actually watch the entire movie online for free at youtube. Here's the link.

This is one of my all-time favorite movies. It perfectly demonstrates what it means to live a life of purposeful discipleship and growth in wisdom and purpose. Here's one of my favorite scenes.

"I'm a God"

Theology Matters

I stumbled across this interesting video the other day. It's really well done & as a theology nerd, I enjoyed it. It's a promotional tool for a book called Dug Down Deep by Joshua Harris. I have never read the book and so cannot recommend it. However I can quibble with one aspect of what the video is promoting.

The final line of the video says, "The question is whether what we know about God is true."

Is that the question?

Truth is not a rational abstraction that you can write down in a sentence. You can write things down which are true, but you cannot write Truth, because Truth is a person - Jesus. Absolute truth exists in the person of Jesus and thus we can relate to the truth, we can live truthfully, we can say things that are true about Jesus (and false as well). But the ontological category of Truth only exists in Christ.

I'm pretty sure this is neo-reformed theology & more of the same attempt to say that doctrine is "truth," and to treat the scripture as a repository of timeless truths. The question isn't about WHAT you know - because everybody has a heresy or two lurking in the shadows of what they say they believe. The question is about WHO you know.

I don't think we should want to say things about God which are not true. I just think we need to recognize that what matters is not how perfectly our beliefs line up to reality. In my opinion, this is a good thing for Calvinists, because limited atonement is whacked!

Still...  I found myself a little bit jealous. I want a well made video promoting my book.

Have a look and be jealous for me!

Monday Morning Confessional

I confess that I am on retreat at Conception Abbey until Wednesday.

I confess that I have tried to post my confession all day I have not been able to. Blogger is blocked on the computers here, and my goofy EVO wasn't allowing me to type in the field for a blog entry. I couldn't get the keyboard to pop up... so frustrating! I finally downloaded the blogger app. Don't know why didn't I think of that work around sooner.

I confess that I miss my iphone.

I confess the first day of retreat is always the hardest for 2 reasons: first, I miss my family. Second, breaking the bonds of busy-ness while settling into rhythm of life in prayer which is foreign to me it takes a little time. I confess that my attempts to ratchet down my expectations concerning productivity will no doubt fail. I confess that in my attempt to allow myself to simply exist in silence and solitude, my need to produce and consume lays siege to my consciousness.

Nevertheless, I confess that I give thanks for the day.

I confess that the chair I'm sitting in here is incredibly hard and  uncomfortable, but I love the room (library)... Dilemma.

Although the rules of the dormatory at Conception are clearly posted stating that I want or quiet conversation must be observed till after 10 pm, I confess that 3 women stayed up till well past midnight  laughing in carrying on wildly up and down the halls of the dorm. (I say women, it could have been man with incredibly high voices. I never actually got a visual I can hear the cackling all the way down the hall). I confess that my annoying had much more to do with the fact that they were breaking the rules than with any actual bother they were causing me. I just put on noise blocking headphones and went right to sleep. I confess I'm fighting the urge to circle the "after 10 pm" policy on a copy of the house rules and tape it to their door. The only problem with that approach is that I'm currently breaking several rules myself.

I confess that I am a hypocrite.

I confess that I have hit the point where I can no longer beat my oldest son and video games anytime I want to. I use to have to sand-bag it to let him win, now I have to try my best not to look  incompetent so as to avoid the awkward moment when my 8 year old tries to console me after kicking my butt in wii bowling. I confess that I'm considering the new tactic of talking trash during the game. I'm pretty sure I can get in his head start winning again.

I confess that I dictated this entire confession into my EVO voice to text app and that it likely contains egregious typos.

I made my confession, now make yours.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Gay Pride Parade...

So - at a Chicago gay pride parade a group of Christians showed up... what do you think they were there for? This is typically the point at which we learn that Fred Phelps and his crazy family were there with their "God hates fags" signage.. Thankfully that's not what happened.

Look at this: http://imgur.com/bVD9p

What do you think?

I told my wife, "I love the sentiment, but can we just wear pants?" (you have to see the picture)

She said, "You wouldn't think that if it were a woman in the picture."  I seriously think I would still think that. I'm not trying to be a prude or anything, but can't we all just agree that when walking in a parade of any sort, pants should be an essential part of our attire? Out of all of our differences, I think this really could be cultural common ground :-)

In all seriousness, I think Christians, just like every group, have a lot to apologize for. No matter where a Christian stands on LGBT issues - and evangelicals are all over the place on this - we have often been guilty of judgmental and dehumanizing behaviors toward those for whom sexuality is a complicated issue. I'm glad to see a bunch of Christians invading public space just to say "sorry" for the sins of our past (and our future?).

Lampooning the Modern Worship Service

This is one of my all time favorite clips. I know it's old, but I ran into today by accident & couldn't stop laughing. The clip is produced like a movie trailer – explaining everything which happens in nearly every contemporary church in America each weekend – eerily on target. I’m pretty sure NorthPoint made the video. Having a laugh at our own expense is good! I cannot even begin to remember how many worship services like this I’ve been responsible for. Old habits die hard, yes? Anyway, watch this and allow it to subvert what we think it means to worship.

BTW, my favorite lines are:

WELCOMER: “Young, hip guy welcoming all with graphic tee and cool glasses, I welcome everybody with arms wide open… revealing my tattoo. So you know I have a past. Quirky transition to band, invite everybody to stand… let’s do this.”

WORSHIP LEADER: “Feel free to give if you feel led, it’s between you and God… but… we’re tracking it.”

PASTOR: “Long prayer so that the worship leader can get back on stage.”

ANNOUNCER: “We call that – Growtivation”

The fake awards at the bottom saying “Winner: papyrus font aware, informally dressed pastor awards, edgy t-shirt awards.” These guys are good!

Phineas & Ferb Meet Epiphany

This Sunday is the fourth Sunday in Epiphany. In the church calendar, Epiphany means, "to show, to reveal, to make known," and so during this season we tell these great stories from the life of Jesus, about how God began to reveal who Jesus really was and what he was trying to do. We are following the Revised Common Lectionary (actually we are following textweek.com which is an incredible resource for everyone from Sunday School teachers, to CM directors, to pastors & worship leaders), between Advent and Pentecost this year, so that we can be sure and discipline ourselves to tell all of the stories that need to be told, not just the ones I gravitate toward or like to tell.

Here's what we've been doing with links to the audio on the first three:

Epiphany One: Herod & the Magi crashed into the Baptism of Jesus
Epiphany Two: Calling of Disciples in John
Epiphany Three: Calling of Disciples in Mark
Epiphany Four: Healing in the synagogue (Coming next week)

So the healing in the synagogue is all about authority. Here's a little Phineas & Ferb to get you thinking about authority. Although this show usually annoys me, I love this song & this clip.

State of the Union Brings Inequality into Focus

One of the major themes of President Obama’s State of the Union Address last night was the inequality between the rich and the poor. It made the main headline in today’s Washington Post. The president noted that something is wrong when Warren Buffett pays fewer taxes than his secretary. If you want to read a good article on the inequality and the issue, here’s a NY Times editorial by Paul Krugman.

I’m glad the president saw fit to bring inequality into focus last night.

As a Christian, I believe the problem is not that some people are wealthy. What the bible seems opposed to is not that some people would be wealthy, but that some people would be wealthy while others live in poverty. Scripture says:

“If any of your fellow Israelites become poor and are unable to support themselves among you, help them as you would a foreigner and stranger, so they can continue to live among you. Do not take interest or any profit from them, but fear your God, so that they may continue to live among you” Lev. 25

Leviticus isn’t an isolated case. All of the prophets address this theme in one way or another. (Amos 2:7, Jer. 7:5, Ez 16:49 – that’s just a drop in the bucket. We could read these verses for hours – literally0.

My reading of the scriptures is that God does not have a problem with people having wealth, even lots of money. The problem is when people forget why they have lots of money. What is expected of those who have significant financial resources? What is expect is that they will work hard, and use significant portions of their wealth, to make sure everyone has enough.

The situation the scripture envisions is that some are wealthy because God has chosen them to care for those who are poor. If we are wealthy, our wealth is not meant for our own pleasure, but to make sure everyone in our society has enough.

I think the question we have to ask ourselves is: Do we believe God has created the earth with enough? Did God make it all so that there is enough for everyone… food, resources, opportunity?  I believe the answer is yes. But the truth is that everyone doesn’t have enough in our society. Poverty is concentrated along racial lines. Opportunity for work is not the same for upper and lower classes. Our entire economy, including the tax code, is skewed to take care of the wealthy. Even that would be okay, if the wealthy took it upon themselves to care for the poor.

In the end I don't really care what the government does with the tax code. They should make it more just, but if we’re waiting on our current crop of politicians in Washington to act justly, we’re going to be waiting a long time. But the wealthy don’t have to wait in order to use their wealth to act on behalf of those who are struggling in our society. What should we do? We should do whatever we can to help those who struggle in poverty. What does God want from us? God wants us to do whatever it takes to make sure everyone has enough.