Epiphany 4: Jesus Loves Lepers

Here's a video we used during worship to celebrate the 4th week of Epiphany.

What would Jesus Brew?

As we approach the 3rd Sunday in Epiphany we look at the first of Jesus' miracles: Turning water into wine. It's odd to me that Jesus would do such a thing; or, should I say, it's odd only because our understanding of who Jesus is, the Kingdom of God, alcohol, & parties are distorted.

Alcohol is a theological hornets nest in almost any room filled with Christians. Some use it to prove they're: Mature, unreligious, or part of the intelligentsia. Others decry it as an ultimate evil: Prohibition! It seems to be a very polarizing subject.

Yet Jesus neither made wine to show he wasn't a Pharisee (which He was) or that He was cool (which He still is); & Jesus, knowing western Christianities view on alcohol didn't reject His mothers request to make it. He made a product people used & still use to sin.

Sadly, I think this is just one area we see Jesus distorted through our theological lenses. I see many people whose faith is constipated with erroneous theology, anger, frustration, disappointment, & sadness. But this isn't because of Jesus. He is pure, undefiled, & a perfect representation of the Father. We are the ones who approach Him with conditions, theologies, expectation, doctrines, & other distorted tails we blindly attempt to pin on the donkey. However, thankfully our theological donkey tales never stick to Him. He is the reality we should aspire to in theology, which leads to Life as He intended, using the things of the world He created in ways that honor Him. 

I'm thankful Jesus was a wine maker. It's challenging because it opens up the Kingdom of God to me. It demonstrates a faith of parties, fun, fellowship, & laughter. We've got much to learn from Jesus.

Addiction

Last night was our time of community worship & we did things a bit differently. There are several reasons why, three actually, that are leading me to imagine new spiritual activities as we gather.

First: On ITunes you can download podcasts of just about anybody; & all of this for free (mostly). Thankfully Eugene Peterson has several podcasts from various talks he has given throughout the country. The talks I have been listening to revolve around his latest 5 books, or as his wife calls them: Peterson’s Pentateuch. As a pastor, scholar, & practitioner of the faith for over 50yrs, Eugene has so much wisdom to share with us.

One of the themes he continually, & appropriately, works through is his dissatisfaction with the Evangelical church. I’m thankful for his perspective on this because he’s seen so much & this is the field I find myself in. He continually brings up illustrative points as to how we’ve created something so distant from Biblical & historical Christianity. I must admit as I listen to Eugene I am equally amused & convicted by his wisdom. He shares how in so many ways we have created a generation of Christian culture addicts; they sit, listen, tithe, & go their way. He, without reservation, details how we have not done so well at helping people to access the Holy One as a way of life.

All that to say this: He was invited to Seattle Pacific to do a sermon series. What was most intriguing to me was that each one of his "sermons" wasn’t a sermon; it was a story. He passionately, profoundly, succinctly, & effectively told stories to a listening audience. As I was running & listening to this I found myself smiling often because I was engrossed in the story he was telling. It was God’s story; it was my story. It wasn't a 3 point sermon; he told a story. As I look at world history one thing is beyond a doubt: Stories, & good story tellers, are a cross-cultural hit. Stories have been & always will be one of THE most effective ways to share information. Thanks Eugene.

Second: Reading through Charles Kraft’s book on communication has been illuminating. He continually demonstrates how our communication models aren’t really comparable to God’s via. Jesus’ communication on earth. Since this book is written to those who actually care about Christian communication one natural audience for this book is pastors, so naturally the topic of “sermon” is brought up many times. Dr. Kraft does an outstanding job putting “preaching” within its proper context; he never says monologues are bad; yet he, like many other scholars, reminds us: It is one of THE least effective ways of communication. This, for most of us isn’t a new idea; however, & this is a big however: I guarantee that the next time I sit in a room of pastors & we discuss how church is going 8 out of 10 pastors will share with the group what they’re monologue topic is. Preaching: Fresh, exciting, humorous, convicting, accessible, apologetics, power-point, passionate, etc; is one the least effective means of communicating. All of this has its roots, not is the NT as Dr. Kraft make obvious, but in the Reformation. Jesus’ monologues, but what percentage of his communication is monologue? Paul, Peter, John? Actually, John did a lot of monologues: John Calvin. But he ruled his own city, so he could monologue if he wanted to.

Last: I have continually been asking myself, “Who are the 95% who don’t follow Jesus & find church to be irrelevant to their spiritual needs?” Thankfully, God placed an awesome group of people around me to help me see who they are & how they worship their gods. As I recently attended one of their worship times I was struck by several things: The music was simple, repeatable, & had a moving tempo. The scene was sensual (not sexual, but there was a bit of that too!); people were dancing, others were blowing incense in your face, people were sitting & meditating. There was a ton of worship happening & there was no teaching, monologue, or preaching. As I reflected on “church” I imagined the opposite happening: There’s a ton of monologue, but not so much worship. Too, as I sat in the room with these passionate worshippers I asked myself, “The goal is to introduce these people to the living God & the gathering of the saints is one of the main ways this happens. How would any of these people respond if I asked them to leave this way of worship in exchange for a neat Bible & a comfy chair where they could listen to me extrapolate Biblical truths in the name of solid apologetics.” I at once was struck by the difference between their active worship with our static worship. But, in our faith (generally) when the greatest amount of space is given to monologue by the experts, what are the people to do, but sit, listen, & be amazed at the oratory skills of the speaker?

So last night, which was the first Sunday of Epiphany, I didn’t preach. We sang songs to God, I shared a story about the pain of a dark creation giving way to joy, as the stars lit the way for the Magi to worship the light born in a manger. Too, I told the story of the light being born in my life. We then practiced Lectio Divina on the text where Jesus says, “those who practice my words build upon the rock.” We: Read, Meditated, Prayed, & Contemplated the Word; Together.

Where this is all headed is a mystery to me...

Preach it Brotha!

As a pastor's group we are reading: Communication Theory for Christian Witness, by Charles Kraft. It's been heady, but really good. Here's what he has to say about preaching:

"It is simply a damaging myth that supports our tradition of preaching. It is based on the one hand on the historical fallacy that this is the way the early church did it and on the other by inadequate translation that gives the impression that monologue preaching is God's intended way of getting his message out. There is no magic in this (or any other) method. Jesus himself much preferred personal, interactional communication that encourages immediate feedback and, if necessary, adjustment of the message to assure greater relevance." Pgs. 28-29

&

"In what follows I will argue that Christians should use a multiplicity of forms of communication (as Jesus did), chosen according to their appropriateness in each given situation. A monologue approach is thoroughly appropriate if one wants to present a body of cognitive information in a short period of time...But a monologue approach is very poorly suited to either changing people's opinions or leading them to make significant changes in their lives." Pg. 31

He says quite a bit more & really demonstrates that what we believe "preaching" is really isn't what the NT means when it uses the words; or rather what the Bible translators thought of the words they translated. Too, given "preaching" is the preferred method of communication by the vast majority of churches, Dr. Kraft goes on to show how monologue (that's what our preaching is) is one of the least effective means of transformation for anyone. Yet, as Evangelicals monologue/preaching IS the main method of communication. This is challenging to me; especially as I find myself coming into closer proximity with a group of people who worship their gods in almost every way other than the way we do.

Eye Opening: Epiphany.

Some people take the beginning of Epiphany more seriously than others.

Epiphany: Thomas Merton

We're doing our best to go through the Liturgical Calendar. The book I'm using had this quote from Thomas Merton, an author I have yet to read.

“We who have seen the light of Christ are obliged, by the greatness of the grace that has been given us, to make known the presence of the Savior to the ends of the earth…not only by preaching the glad tidings of His coming; but above all by revealing Him in our lives…Every day of our mortal lives must be His manifestation, His divine Epiphany, in the world which He has created & redeemed.” Thomas Merton