Evan Almighty and Shoddy

We watched "Evan Amighty" tonight. Last weekend, we started a new series called "Shoddy". What do the two have to do with each other?

Evan Almighty is a movie about a newly elected US Senator who get's called by God to build an Ark. Like many of those that are called, he is understandably skeptical. As he get's closer to completing the ark, however, he gets sold out for the task given him. If you are expecting solid doctrine, you will be disappointed. If you are looking for a feel good movie, this will not disappoint.

The sermon series, "Shoddy", is about the book of Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament. Malachi is sent to the people of Israel who were living shoddy lives. To God at that time, it means people who are doing all the right things but are not living the life God really has for them.

Why do I see the connection? In Evan Almight, Evan is asked to do something which is totally crazy. Ignore is duties to the country and build an Ark. As Evan settles down to the task, those around him mock him, he becomes a media freak show. You will, however, need to watch the movie to get the full story.

Throughout the Old Testament, God asks his prophets to perform actions that one person called "little dramas" to get the attention of the people around them. Unwilling to live "shoddy" lives, they do those things, many times, questioning God at the same time. What were some of those actions?

• Isaiah was asked to walk around naked for 3 years to illustrate the shame Israel would feel in captivity.
  
• Hosea was asked to marry a prostitute and later, buy her back out of slavery to illustrate God's forgiveness for Israel (the prostitute).
  
• Jonah lived out a drama showing God's forgiveness when he was asked to go to Ninivia to warn them to repent.

Questions that the movie (and the sermon series) are raising:

• How would I react if God asks me to do something unusual?
• How would those around me react if I start to follow what God asks?
  

The Rockies pulled it out.

I am not a huge baseball fan although I did get to a ballgame this year when we had an afternoon group outing. It was two games before the end of the season and we got to see a win.

In fact, at this point, the Rockies have won 19 of their last 20 games (it may be 20 of the last 21 -- as I said I am not a huge fan). That includes the first two pennant games (on the road), the 3 games to get them there and the one game that got them to the post-season play (they were tied for the wild card spot).

It has also been fun seeing my friends blogging about their success. That includes optional:g, and Rob (he posted here and here) as well as Rob's wife.

What I find interesting is this article titled "Batting for Jesus" that was published today in "The Independant", a newspaper in England. It starts out...

Most sports fans are used to praying for a win but one of baseball's rags-to-riches teams have more reason than most to believe a higher power is answering.

Click here to read the whole article.

Erwin McManis on being relevant

Last week the Catalyst conference was held in Dallas, Texas. This is a conference for Christian leadership development. Erwin McManis is one of the speakers. This is a clip.

Back of the hand?

I went to lunch with some friends on Friday. One of the things that came up was the passage in Matthew 5:39 (and Luke 6:29 ) where Jesus tells those listening to him...

But I say, do not resist an evil person! If someone slaps you on the right cheek, offer the other cheek also.

This sounds quite passive. From what I have learned, it is not. According to this page...

In the society of that time, a slap on the cheek was not intended as a physical injury but rather as an insult, putting an inferior back in his or her place. The strength of that insult depended greatly upon which hand dealt it: as the left hand was seen as unclean, a slap with the left hand was the insult far greater than one dealt with the right hand. This was reflected in the legal penalties for an inappropriate slap: the penalty for slapping a peer with your left hand was a fine one hundred times the penalty for slapping a peer with your right hand; the penalty for slapping a better with your right hand was a fine while the penalty for slapping a better with your left hand was death. The people Jesus was speaking to most directly were, by and large, slaves and the downtrodden. A slap on the right cheek was dealt with the left hand. To turn the other cheek would leave the master with two options. The first would be to slap the slave again, but this time with the right hand (therefore declaring the slave a peer). The second would be not to slap the slave again (therefore effectively rescinding the first slap). Now, such impudence and sauciness would often tend to bring punishment, but it none the less says "Hey, I'm a human. I have rights. You can't treat me like this." It is not an action without suffering for oneself, nor does it inflict suffering on the "enemy": but it does say and do something in a powerful way.

One of my favorite quotes this week?

From Bono, the lead singer from U2:

Religion can be the enemy of God. It's often what happens when God, like Elvis, has left the building. A list of instructions where there was once conviction; dogma where once people just did it; a congregation led by a man where once they were led by the Holy Spirit. Discipline replacing discipleship.

Audio Isaiah

Over the last two weeks, I have been listening to Isaiah on the Daily Audio Bible.

This passage (Isaiah 46:5-11 The Message) struck me...

"So to whom will you compare me, the Incomparable?
Can you picture me without reducing me?
People with a lot of money
hire craftsmen to make them gods.
The artisan delivers the god,
and they kneel and worship it!
They carry it around in holy parades,
then take it home and put it on a shelf.
And there it sits, day in and day out,
a dependable god, always right where you put it.
Say anything you want to it, it never talks back.
Of course, it never does anything either!

"Think about this. Wrap your minds around it.
This is serious business, rebels. Take it to heart.
Remember your history,
your long and rich history.
I am God, the only God you've had or ever will have—
incomparable, irreplaceable—
From the very beginning
telling you what the ending will be,
All along letting you in
on what is going to happen,
Assuring you, 'I'm in this for the long haul,
I'll do exactly what I set out to do,'
Calling that eagle, Cyrus, out of the east,
from a far country the man I chose to help me.
I've said it, and I'll most certainly do it.
I've planned it, so it's as good as done.

The first two lines are telling to me...

So to whom will you compare me, the Incomparable?
Can you picture me without reducing me?

It is quite easy to recreate God in our image. We reduce God to a managable god. Some think of him as loving but not just, some think of him as just but with no grace. Some even go as far as the rest of the paragraph, talking about how it is easy to replace God with an image we not only construct in our minds but with our hands. The next paragraph is the rebuttal...

Remember your history,
your long and rich history.
I am God, the only God you've had or ever will have—
incomparable, irreplaceable—

This is good because any god I could make would be quite destructable, not crafted well and definately replaceable.

100K in 20 years

Yesterday I filled up the gas tank in my truck. It is a 1988 Toyota pickup with no bells or whistles... The you could say the maunal windows are "automatic by arm-strong". It can barely fit the family in the front seat. We are the 3rd owners, buying it from some friends in the early '90's with less than 35,000 miles on it.

It is the somewhat legendary 4 cylinder engine and has been quite reliable and, since having the thermostat changed out, has been very comfortable. It rides like a truck because it has suspension set up for 4x4 travel, something that has come in handy more than once in snow.

As I mentioned, yesterday I filled up the tank and as is customary, filled out the log book with the miles, price and quantity. The odometer read 100125.4. We finally cleared 100k miles. I have heard rumors of this engine going 300k miles with care so I figure I have another 40 years with this truck.

A new perspective on the apostles

I have often wondered why the 12 followed Christ so easily and quickly. After all, the call was simply "Follow Me".

Pastor Rob explained this yesterday as:

• Jewish boys at the time of Jesus memorized the Torah (the first 5 books of the Bible) by the age of 10, starting at 6.
• If you were an exceptional student and "made the grade", you were promoted and got to memorize the rest of the Old Testament by the time you were 14.
  
• If you were exceptional with that, you graduated and were then taught the the theology and traditions behind the law until you were 18.
  
• A hand picked number of boys then actually got to study with a rabbi... If you were a good student with good character. You would then become a rabbi yourself at around 30.
  

Rob then explained that Jesus was considered a rabbi or some renoun for his understanding of scripture and walked up to 12 men who, because of their professions, likely didn't make the grade somewhere along the line. He than said "Follow Me". From the text, many of these guys may have been young men of around 20 or younger. They would have been eager to be recognized by a rabbi and asked to follow. On top of that, this is someone who was well known.

Little did they know what they were in for!

Confessional

I know that those of us that are not from the Catholic tradition sometimes look down on the "rite" of confession. I ran across an interesting site today, however. It is called Christians Confess.

One of the things I find interesting about it is that, although I think confession is healthy, here you do not confess "sin" but you apologize. I am not sure there is a difference... On the other hand, I am not so sure there isn't.

Influences

I know I have mentioned before that I thought we tend to look at our faith through culture colored lenses.

I was struck with this a few times over the past weeks. A few months ago, I read a post from Greg Boyd who mentions the influence the Greek culture had on our view of God and prayer.

Then, recently, I listened to a podcast of a couple of philosophers, Jack Caputo and Richard Kearney, talking about the effect of Greek philosophy on the teachings of the early church. It is pretty dry but I included the link to part one above.

Some of the effect that Greek philosophy had was the process of reasoning but much of it tended to try and define God.

Yesterday, on the recommendation of my friend Dave, I (finally) listened to "Ten Shekles and a Shirt" on Judges 17. The message was given by Paris Reidhead many years ago. In this message, he talks about the effect that humanism has had on the Gospel since the 1800s when Darwin started the movement.

My thoughts?

• We need to start looking to the God of the Bible, not the God we think is in the Bible.
• While one of the reasons Christ died on the cross was to offer us salvation, "It's not about me"!
• Once we start letting other philosophy's form our view of the Bible, we start getting off track.
  

Google Earth adds Google Sky

Have you recently upgraded your Google Earth program recently? They have now added sky maps. There is a button on their top menu bar which flips it around.


The image of Polaris (center) on the left was generated using this (you can click to enlarge). Each of the blue dots in the image can be clicked to reveal photos taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.

Now, if I could just remember the constellation names.

Pride and Amazement

First the pride. Yesterday (Saturday) Kyle went to a test at his Martial Arts studio. Here is a picture of the results.

He was given his middle brown belt. The guy with Kyle is his Karate instructor.

This is only 2 belt levels away from the provisional black belt. To get his black belt, Kyle will need to become proficient in self defense (sparing) as well as better conditioned.

On another note, Marj took her test to go to a purple belt. She has already broken her first board, learned lots of self defense and done quite a bit of sparing.

(Should I be afraid?)

Now for the amazement.

We have been going through I John in church for the last several weeks in a series called Ignite. The classic verses, the ones I remember most from I John is I John 4:7-8 which says:

Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love. (New Living Translation)

In context, this verse is talking about loving others who are followers of Christ.

What amazes me is how picky we are as a group to call people names, level accusations and all around, enjoy others pain.

I ran across a website (I will let them remain nameless lest I start to fall into the trap) which blasts any Christian organization, denomination, church or person who they don't agree with. This includes differences of "minor" theology or practice.

What are my list of "major" theology... I heard one good explaination... The things contained in "Mere Christianity" by CS Lewis. These cover the basic life and death of Christ, basic thoughts on God and the Trinity. These are things that as I have re-explored my faith, I haven't questioned. What are the minor things? Things like Free Will vs Predestination. Views on the end times, etc. Things that are, quite frankly, gray areas that have been discussed by theologins for many years.

So, these verses in I John, tell me that in spite of where the guy next to me in church is on any of these issues, my duty (not choice) is to love him. Now, the word "love" here is not typically they way Hollywood sees it. The word in the Greek is agape (there are at least 3 other words for love in the Bible meaning other things). The easiest explanation here is the sort of love that a parent has for their child.

How then, can we turn around and blast someone who differs on the minor points and call that love? I am sure that some can do that. I don't see it, however. It makes those in that are trying to follow Christ look petty and childish. That reminds me of another verse about love...

More on God's Warriors

My guess on the common thread for the program "God's Warriors" was nearly right.

Part 1 was God's Jewish Warriors which concentrated on the struggles around the West Bank area in Israel. Here the common thread is they believe when they fully control Israel, the Messiah will return.

Part 2 was God's Muslim Warriors which looked a lot at the terrorist activities but also tied into the chain-reactions that Israel and the US have "caused". The militant Muslims like Bin Ladin believe that the presence of our troups on their soil defiled their land. Muslims also believe, however, in a coming Messiah. This Messiah is the grandson of Mohammad. One of the more touching parts of this segment was the desperation felt by the Palistinations due to being forced into what they call "apartheid".

God's Christian Warriors was part 3. The first hour concentrated on the link between conservative politics and the Christian Right. It highlighted Jerry Falwel, his last interview before his death, as well as serveral others in that movement. Again, the issue of apocalypse showed up as the show talked about churches who are helping to fund illegal West Bank settlements.

I thought the series was well done, fairly well balanced

Warriors, the war and the Peace

Tonight, I started watching a series on CNN call God's Warriors. Tonight is God's Jewish Warriors, tomorrow, God's Muslim Warriors and Thursday, God's Christian Warriors. Since I am only 20 minutes into th show, I can't tell you much what it is about but I will try and report more later. I do, however, sense an interesting common thread -- Apocalypse.

The history behind this is that for some time now, I have been thinking a lot about the Kingdom of God and what that might mean. (The link pulls a list of all mention of that phrase in the Bible).

The really odd thing about this was 2 weekends ago when Marj and I went to see The Bourne Ultimatum. The movie is an action and violence packed adventure telling a story of cover-up and deception (I guess you can't cover-up without deception). About half way through the movie, I was struck by the difference between "The Kingdom Under Heaven" (the kingdom of God) and the "Kingdom of this world"(Satan's domain), even if only a fraction of what was being done in the name of patriotism in this movie was true.

Shortly afterward, while still watching the movie, these thoughts started running through my head: "The Kingdom of God is like..." followed by various analogies from Jesus' words.

In spite of Christiane Amanpour's assertion, are these people really God's warrior?

Computer Problems

No, not the one I am typing on. The computer in our office was being primarily used as a print server for the Marj's and my Laptop as well as a file server. For some reason, most likely a cooling fan, it died. Oddly enough, so did our printer so we were forced to purchase a new one.

As a result, we have a set of printer cartridges. If you have an HP printer that can use the "78" tri-color, we have a cartridge (still in packaging) looking for a home. You'll need to talk to Marj on the price... Personally I might just give it away but I wouldn't make any promises.

There is also a partially used 78 and a partially used 45 (black) cartridge that I would happily give away but they need to be handed off quickly.

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to Kyle.

12 years ago at this time, I was (calmly) driving Marj to the hospital where we would have a son.

Kyle Gordon was the name picked out on the way to the hospital. Gordon is a family name in Marj's family.

We love you Kyle!

To honor the day, I am on vacation!

The Chicken and the Pig

My post yesterday talked about Anna's thoughts on being Fit or Fat. My friend (and pastor) Scott discussed the same post here, adding his take on being a Consumer or Contributor.

This is a common illustration in the software industry. In fact, we call it the "The Chicken and the Pig go to Breakfast".

The story goes something like:

A chicken and a pig went to breakfast one morning and talked:

Chicken:
Let's start a restaurant!

Pig:
What would we call it?

Chicken:
Ham and Eggs!

Pig:
No thanks. I'd be committed, but you'd only be involved!

(from Implementing Scrum)

Fit or Fat?

On one of the blogs I read (see it here), a woman told about loosing 60 pounds and how it changed her perspective.

She then goes on to talk about the difference between "Fit" or "Fat" Christianity.

Whatever happened to Country Music?

I've often said that the only types of music I don't like are Opera and Country. The odd thing is I do like Classical and Bluegrass.

Tonight, however, a Country Music Association program was on and I listened to a couple of the songs and decided that the new face of Country Music is more like Rock 'N Roll. Yes, the vocals are a little different but the words really are not. The instrumental backing sounds very similar.

I may have to change my tune about Country. Now if they could just do something about Opera...

Roof Tile Syndrome

I was introduced to this phrase coined by Mark Buchanan. You can read his article here. It refers to the story of Jesus healing the paralized man in Mark 2:1-12. Unfortunately, I am somewhat familiar with this syndrome. Buchanan defines it as:

Roof-tile Syndrome is when we are so caught up in the preaching of Jesus, we turn our backs to the needs of those still outside the building. We become barriers and not gateways. It's when we care more about keeping things intact than about restoring lives that are shattered. It's when we're more upset when stuff gets broken than excited when the broken are mended. It's when church gets reduced to the preaching of Jesus so that we fail to notice that we're seeing very little of the forgiveness and healing of Jesus. It is when we are so fearful about upsetting the religious folk (or homeowners) in our midst that we stop taking risks to get people to Jesus.

I have attended churches with this syndrome. And, of course, if you expand the definition a little, you not only see it in churches but in business, familes -- life in general.

Why is this? Because we always seem to forget that God is BIG and I am not. It is not about me.

Over the last 20 years, I have seen Roof Tile Syndrome:

• In a church that had people unwilling to go one Sunday because there was no message, just music.
• In a company that was trying to change the culture (in my opinion, for the better) but people would need to learn new job skills.
• In families who are unwilling to accept the childrens new husbands or wives.

The funny thing is, as much as change sometimes hurts and the process of ripping apart the roof-tiles is uncomfortable, I want to be a part of a family and church willing to do that for the Kingdom of God.

God's Pie

A couple of days ago, I ran across this video from Central Christian Church in Las Vegas called "God's Pie". This video won the Best in Show Award at the Buzz Conference.