After several months of "Rome-less" radio down in Bradenton, my wife let me know that Jim Rome was actually available on FM. That was music (ironically we're talking about 'sports talk radio') to my ears. Rome discussed the whole Riley Cooper racist tirade caught on video while at a Kenny Chesney concert (his first mistake). The "N" word was dropped like a set of dumb-bells by a meat head in a weight room. Only this meathead wasn't big enough to scare people after the racist ranting video went viral. Tebow's former teammate, and roommate, is in some serious trouble.
While the NFL doesn't seem likely to suspend him right now, it is tough to rebound from such a debacle. Remember Michael Richards who played Kramer on Seinfeld after his tirade? While he certainly has a career to think about, Cooper has to come to realization very quickly, that what he said (and probably thought-though seeing into the heart of another is impossible) was terrible and the consequences of said words could be around to stay long after.
Marcus Vick, who has done nothing good, well ever, has never been a great spokesperson for his older brother Mike. Getting kicked off Va Tech's football team opened the door to playing for the Miami Dolphins. For a pre-season. But with the help of a famous brothers name, and twitter account, you can always make enough noise to be heard by a number of folks. He actually put out a "bounty" (a la Greg Williams and the Saints, allegedly) of a 1,000 for a safety to take out Cooper in a game. Not sure where he gets that kind of cash, but that's for another day.
For today, I want to look at Vick's response.
“I know what type of person he is,” Vick said of Cooper. “That’s what makes it hard to understand but easy to forgive him.”Mike Vick also disagrees with his brother’s remarks about Cooper,
saying that Marcus should “not show a level of ignorance himself.”
Receiver Jason Avant also forgave Cooper. “I just know him,” Avant said. “He’s not racist.”
I wonder if there's also something else going on. Most people are centering their forgiveness around the words. But what about the thoughts? Could that be forgiven? If so, by who?
By someone who had been forgiven of something really big. Really stupid.
Mike Vick did jail time for his role in dog fighting. It was bad. It was stupid. It was evil. But I wonder if that plays into his quickness to be able to forgive. Grace begets grace.
In Jesus parable in Luke 7:36-50, which he tells to some self righteous religious folks, he poses the question which person would be more thankful, someone with a small debt cancelled or bigger debt cancelled? The answer is obvious. Then he expostulates:
47 Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.”
Whoever has forgiven Vick, or whomever he feels forgiven by-whether God, teammates, owner, friends, fans-it probably plays into his take on forgiveness. He has loved Cooper much because he has been forgiven much. For those unwilling to forgive such racist remarks, or racism in general, it reveals how small a debt they had cancelled. Of course it does take time, and it seems as though it may take time for other teammates to come around. But if there is belief in the gospel, even racism, not just words, but beliefs, can be both called out as evil, while the forgiveness process (provided there is repentance) can begin.
One of my prayer requests for the "core group" of our church plant (obviously including me) is for a deeper personal conviction of sin. What I mean is that we would be aware of, and regularly repent of our particular sins. Not just that we engaged in sin like gossip, lust, jealousy, envy, selfishness, self-righteousness, or didn't engage in what we were called to (sins of omission), but why we did the things we did. Why chose to gossip (to tear down instead of considering how Christ builds us up) to lust (failure to see Christ as worthy of our gaze) or selfishness (failure to heed Jesus promise that there is more joy in giving life away). Why would a pastor pray for something like this for himself and Christ's sheep?
If that seems like a strange request, I promise you it is a prayer that will bring praise to Christ, joy to the believer, and blessing/opportunity to neighbors/co-workers/friends. To repent of particular sins and recognize personal sin in general opens up the opposite of pandora's box: the deep treasures of the gospel to you and others.
1.) For your neighbors benefit: The more you are aware of your own personal sin, the less self-righteous you become. You become the biggest sinner you know. You don't look down upon someone else for doing _____. Instead you look sideways, seeing them as a fellow sinner, also in need of grace. The difference is...you have received grace, not that you're a "better" person. Often you'll find you aren't! You become a better neighbor when you realize God doesn't need your good works but your neighbor does (a la Martin Luther).
2.) For your benefit. Obviously you have to turn to Jesus, but if you have a constant
recognition of your own sin, then you have a constant rest, appreciation, and joy that God's love for you is grounded not in your performance but in the person and work of Christ. That is freeing and makes you want to make a joyful noise to
Jesus. The flip side is also true: if you have little understanding of your own sin, you have little need for Jesus. Maybe you needed him back a few years ago, but now, not so much. What happens? You'll find yourself becoming more and more self-righteous, angry, and bitter. Remember the "other prodigal son?" If not, check out how his self-righteousness made him and angry SOB (Luke 15:11-32). We miss out on joy and become more self-righteous by ignoring our sin.
We don't repent from personal sin regularly so that God will give us more stuff (health and wealth gospel), but so that God will give us more of Himself. On the other side of the cross there was joy for Jesus so that on the other side of repentance, which is faith, joy will abound to us.
3.) For the sake of the Commission. A deeper understanding of sin led Isaiah into volunteering for a mission done got himself killed (Isaiah 6). And he volunteered for it! In the presence of God's Holy throne he came undone (no it wasn't because someone pulled the thread of his sweater as he walked away a la Weezer) because of a deep recognition of his own sins of the tongue. Once God cleansed and symbolically atoned for his sin, he said, "Here I am, send me." His own sin, and the forgiveness by God, moved him toward mission. It moved him to sacrifice even his life for his neighbors. It move us to sacrifice comfort and convenience when we recognized that Christ has atoned the sins of our tongues (among a plethora of other sins). In contrast, a lack of personal sin is what led Jonah to self-righteously and unwillingly preach the gospel, and then actually, angrily hope for the worst (Jonah 4). Notice the difference?
4.) For the sake of Christ. One of the reasons we have been saved is so that we would praise God for the glorious riches offered to us in the in person of God the Son, with those promises sealed to us by God the Holy Spirit (Eph 1). Instead of morbid introspection where we spend time thinking how bad we are, we quickly turn from looking at our personal sin for the day or sin in general, and immediately cast our gaze upon Him who is already looking down from Heaven with a smile. When our countenance meets His, we burst forth in song, praise, and possibly dance (depending upon denomination or skill level). Regular, albeit brief glances at our sin leads to a panoramic view of Christ and His work.
The TV show Breaking Bad, probably better than any other show I've seen, reveals the cosmic affects of personal sin. But the gospel message and power invite us to live within a different narrative. Personal sin has/has had cosmic consequences, but personal gospel dynamics also have a cosmic redemptive affect.
If you've read this and think of someone else who needs to take sin more seriously, you've missed the point. If you've read this and think I'm writing this about YOU in particular, well there's a Carly Simon song you might remember called "Your So Vain-I bet you think this post is about you." But if you read this and have begun to recognize how messed up you really are, and then how perfect, righteous, gracious, satisfying, loving, merciful, powerful, holy, giving Jesus is, and that he offers all He demands, then you'll have read this post correctly.
If you begin with your goodness, you'll love Jesus and your neighbors a whole lot less. On the contrary if you begin with your sin, Jesus will be honored and your neighbors blessed. They may just thank you-even if they don't understand exactly how such sacrificial love was kindled.
This Sunday I'll be preaching for St. Petersburg Presbyterian Church for the third time. I'll be wrapping up a series on faith and doubt. Thanks to a facebook friend, who actually happens to be a real life friend of mine-though now separated by 900 miles-I came across this article of an Atheistic de-conversion. It is the journey from faith to doubt to disbelief (although if you read the article it does seem that doubt preceded disbelief for only a very short period of time). I love reading articles about conversion, particularly someone coming from a hostile atheist background to saving faith in Christ. But I think these articles of de-conversion are also helpful, even though they can be quite discouraging. We can still usually learn something from them.
Here are some things I took away from the article, aside from simply being saddened by this dark descent into disbelief.
1.) The relationship with one's father is often key.While this gal couches her disbelief in science and rationality, I think there is much more going on.
According to one pastor who started an outreach ministry, asking a friend or neighbor about his/her father opens the door to understanding barriers to a relationship with God. For instance, people often reject faith because their father rejected faith. It is of course no tit-for-tat, but there does seem to some connectedness. Understanding that relationship can help you minister to that person.
When I read in this article that this gal ran away from home and has no relationship with her father, I cannot assume that had nothing to do with it. Yes her mother is a Christian, but how much of her rejecting God is her rejecting her father? I wonder.
Bad relationships with fathers seem to be incubators for doubt. But, according to this pastors experience in ministry, they can also be open doors to faith based discussions.
2.) I don't think anyone makes a decision to follow or un-follow, believe or disbelieve in God or specifically His plan of salvation through His Son from an entirely rational basis. I've heard atheists on a discussion panel explain that they got into Atheism because their friends were such. This story of de-conversion is not a treatise on a pure quest for rationalism. Now I think she advertises it as such, but there is too much baggage she is so quick to leave behind. And I don't blame her for some of this seems pretty sad. But there is an emotional experience she is quick to leave behind, and I don't think it is simply because "the bible lied to me."
3.) What question is the person really asking? In general the post-modern mantra is "does it work or help" (pragmatism) more so than "is it true" (modernity/rationalism)? This gal seems to fit into the modernist quest. I just read Andy Stanley's Deep and Wide, and he argues that most people simply want to know "does this work." But I find very rarely does someone fit into a purely rational or purely pragmatic category. Where I live now, and when I lived in Bradenton, I found skeptics to fit into more the modernist rational variety. Many people do ask the question, "Would I like what I would become?" So we have to make sure to present the gospel in such a way as to respond to these "defeater" beliefs (what Tim Keller refers to as the barriers we have to deal with before we can actually get to the gospel). For the Jews, Paul discerned it as "power" for the Greeks it was "wisdom." (I Cor 1). What is it for your friends?
4.) Where was the gospel? This gal was allegedly raised in a grace-less home. One always needs to consider the source (an estranged daughter), but it is hard to misinterpret 10-15 beatings based upon a child not obediently responding the first time. Regardless, from her perspective, there was plenty of law but not a lot of gospel or good news. And regardless of whether or not the dad felt like he was showing grace, the message perceived (which is still important, for if someone doesn't feel like we're showing grace, maybe we're not!) was I'm proud of your performance. Not a delight in the person but a delight in the performance of your child. That's not grace. As a parent, that's something I never want my kid to think. I was only proud of how well he did and not simply that I loved him simply because he was my son.
Would a gal be so quick to "jump ship" if she had at least had an experience of grace, where she could honestly struggle and question? I would like to think so. But in the end, I think what this gal is rejecting is more than just a belief in God; she is rejecting a form of moralistic behavioral performance based Christianity that has at the very least been perceived as Christless.
5.) Don't be so quick to jump ship. Doubting is not a bad exercise. But doubts are best done within the community of faith. If you try to discern whether or not God exists, and you posed certain question, and you don't get satisfactory answers, then it might be good to look a little bit harder.
...This changed one day during a conversation with my friend Alex. I had a habit of bouncing theological questions off him, and one particular day, I asked him this: If God was absolutely moral, because morality was absolute, and if the nature of “right” and “wrong” surpassed space, time, and existence, and if it was as much a fundamental property of reality as math, then why were some things a sin in the Old Testament but not a sin in the New Testament?
Alex had no answer — and I realized I didn’t either. Everyone had always explained this problem away using the principle that Jesus’ sacrifice meant we wouldn’t have to follow those ancient laws.
But that wasn’t an answer. In fact, by the very nature of the problem, there was no possible answer that would align with Christianity.
I still remember sitting there in my dorm room bunk bed, staring at the cheap plywood desk, and feeling something horrible shift inside me, a vast chasm opening up beneath my identity, and I could only sit there and watch it fall away into darkness. The Bible is not infallible, logic whispered from the depths, and I had no defense against it. If it’s not infallible, you’ve been basing your life’s beliefs on the oral traditions of a Middle Eastern tribe. The Bible lied to you.
Everything I was, everything I knew, the structure of my reality, my society, and my sense of self suddenly crumbled away, and I was left naked.
That's not a big question of mine. I have them. Plenty of questions, but they are more of the "why did this happen variety" (which ultimately reveals a latent belief anyway but that is for another post) than of the philosophical variety like this. But as Billy Madison so eloquently argued in reference to the book The Puppy Who Lost His Way, "You can't give up looking for your dog after half an hour, you have to put up some signs, and get your butt out there and find your bleeping dog!"
I
know this gal had grown up believing the bible, but according to her
own words, she disbelieved very quickly and in isolation from real
gospel centered community.
If answers aren't satisfactory, we have to spend time and be willing to spend time with doubters. There are people smarter than us who have asked harder questions and have found intellectually satisfying answers. CS Lewis anyone? Please don't be like the boy in The Puppy Who Lost His Way and give up after half an hour. Don't let doubt grow into disbelief in the matter of minutes, hours, or even days. Let's put up some posters and find, or help others find, that bleeping dog.
I have two boys right now. One five, and one almost three. Even though my five year old has been around a few years longer, my two year old has broken far more things in his shorter life. Lamps, glasses, dishes, radio attenanae on mini-van, and missing Roku controller-I can't prove he discarded it somewhere but I'm pretty sure he did.
The other day while working in my first office (Atlanta Bread Co is office number 2), I heard a loud crash. Cade knocked over the lamp, again, but this time it landed on tile instead of carpet. That ended its 5 year period of providing light.
But I didn't get all that frustrated to come down and see the cracked lamp. Better it land on the tile than his little frame. And I don't get too attached to lamps.
I don't know how much money Cade has cost me in broken items over the years, but I would guess it doesn't add up to all that much. Whenever I become frustrated when one of my kids break things, I remember back to all of my father's stuff I've broken over the years.
For some reason, in middle school, I worked on my baseball swing in the garage and dented the Porsche. In high school, I crashed a boat into our dock one afternoon because I had neglected to take the weeds out of the jet in the jet boat on the previous trip. After college, I left the boat lift on, went inside, and came back outside after I realized my mistake. Too late. The beautiful ski boat's windshield was completely shattered against the roof.
I'll never forget my father's face. Instead of anger at what was one of the most expensive, avoidable, and stupid mistakes I've made, he said, "Hmmmm.......well......" Or something like that. I screwed up big time and my father's face, instead of being filled with anger, was instead filled with compassion. He moved toward me, not away. He knew that I knew I had screwed up, and how bad and embarrassed I felt.
I've broken way more than my son will ever be able to break. So how angry should I get when he breaks things? Even more so, when I remember my father's reaction, not angry at me for destroying his otherwise flawless boat, how can I become angry at my son? Believing in grace makes you a better parent. I need to believe more. Much more.
If my dad had become vehemently angry with me, I would then be scared to mess up in the future. I would follow the best I could out of fear. That wouldn't be the last thing I would break. I flew a remote controlled helicopter into a ceiling fan a few years ago. While I didn't want to break it, fear wasn't my motivator. I thought I would break it, and I even told him I would probably break it, and yet I wasn't afraid to break it. And I did. But I desired not to break it out of love, not fear. You see, that's one mark of a son.
Fear of failure may work for a job, but it doesn't motivate sanctification. Jean Larroux, one of my favorite preachers, posed a question in a sermon, "Describe God's face toward you now? A smile? OK, well what does His face look like after you sin? A frown?"
Does God look down upon you with a a Jon Gruden-like scowl when you sin, but then smiles over you when you do something good?
I don't believe we lose that smile when we screw up. And I don't believe we can put that smile back on His face when we don't screw up. We're just not that good, and our faith isn't all that much better.
If our Heavenly Father's face doesn't turn to a dark scowl when we screw up, doesn't that motivate you to follow after Him with all of your heart? I didn't cost Him a boat, but a Son. That's steep.
My dad could afford to pay for another boat. My Father already paid for all the "boats" I could break. Doesn't this make me care about sin more than those who don't know about grace? Doesn't this make me want to honor a God like this in all that I do? If not, then we're probably not really "getting" it.
I'm reminded of the old Hymn: "What Wondrous Love is This?"
When I sinking down, beneath God's righteous frown,
Christ laid aside his crown, for my soul, for my soul,
Christ laid aside his crown for my soul
The righteous frown for the Christian is over. We follow Him now in freedom, not in fear.
My previous post considered the danger of having a "sales-report" type mentality when it comes to your relationship with God. Now I want to consider another fairly unique management style.
If know anything about the Tampa Bay Rays, you'll know that they have to be one of the loosest teams in baseball. When they travel, they have themes: they all dress in some sort of themed attire. All of this flows from laid back manager Joe Maddon. After one of their losses against a struggling Toronto Blue Jays team, when the Rays almost came from behind to win, Maddon irritated a local sports talk by posing the question, "Aren't you just so proud of our guys today?" They lost. "Aren't you proud?" Really?
Yes, that is Joe Maddon, often known for his calm demeanor as "Merlow Joe."
Joe's relaxed ways haven't been without results. In fact, after mired in myriad losing seasons, Joe's Rays teams have been to the world series once and playoffs two other times, just missing out last year by a game or two.
But of course, it is the players who ultimately have to perform. And when they get to Tampa Bay (or rather St. Pete to be precise), perform they do. In fact, player after player comes to Tampa after previously under-preforming with other teams-which is actually why the Rays can afford them. And then something clicks.
Previous let-downs become All Stars. Fernando Rodney, who bounced around with several teams, had the best season ever for a closer last year. This has happened with relief pitchers on a yearly basis, but the same rings true for position players like James Loney. This 1st baseman should have been an all star and is now batting .318 after only posting a .230 mark last year. This happens over and over. It is not coincidence.
There is something to Maddon's madness.
He told Loney, "Don't worry about hitting home runs." In other words, relax and just hit it where you hit it. Just be yourself out there. So Loney hits it wherever the pitch dictates.
This year Fernando Rodney started off very poorly. He gave up runs. He blew saves. He blew opportunities when he was up by several several runs, several different times. I was done with him. Maddon wasn't, and much to many fan's frustration.
Luke Scott, who under-performed last year as well, was again under-performing this year. I was done with him. Maddon wasn't, much to the dismay of many media.
Now the two are playing fantastic and making a huge difference. They actually are performing.
But they had the freedom to fail. They had the freedom to not be obsessed with how they were performing. They weren't afraid to get benched, sent down to the minors, or released. And it has made a huge difference. It does every year.
Maddon shows patience with struggling players, and it shows. They blow it sometimes. But they don't fear losing their position on the team.
It drives me nuts sometimes as a fan, but Maddon gets more out of these players than anyone else does. In fact, when they go elsewhere to make more money, they usually once again, under-perform.
Now I'm not going to argue that God is laid back and loose with sin. He is Holy, Holy, Holy. But because He has paid the punishment of sin HIMSELF, we can now approach him and no longer fear about "under-performing" for Him. When that fear is taken away, what happens? We do end up "performing." We do end up changing, loving, pursuing holiness. What happens when God is patient with us? We love him more and don't use our freedom for selfish gain but instead to serve others (Gal 5:13). His kindness moves us to repentance (Romans 2:4). If it doesn't, then you probably don't understand His kindness.
Don't think these Rays players don't want to perform. But Joe knows in order for that to happen, they have to know that even if they don't, they're not going anywhere.
I think such is the case with our sanctification. As Steve Brown put it once, "The only ones who really get any 'better' are the ones who know if they never do, God will love them just as much."
I'm sitting in my 2nd office (Atlanta Bread Company) and overhearing bits and pieces of a medical sales meeting. Numbers are being scrutinized and folks are being told that they are doing well or that they are below the national or state average. A computer screen is pointed to and a man says,"You are here, but should be more over....here." Fortunately neither of the two subordinates have numbers that are going to get themselves fired today. That's a good thing. But there's no real assurance that such meetings will continue in the future.
I'm reminded of a few things.
1.) I'm thankful that I'm not in sales. I'm not sure that I would be good at it. Maybe I would, but I never did well selling chocolates door-to-door in high school, even when I embellished where the money actually went. Not condoning this by the way, just showing how poorly I performed.
2.) I'm thankful that God doesn't do this with me. I'm thankful that I'm not evaluated each week and compared with other people. With other pastors. Other church planters. How freeing is that? Don't ever get tired of hearing this.
3.) In some ways, regardless of whether or not we are in sales, I think the "sales review" mentality is still part of us. There are plenty of ways in which we are evaluated by others. How do your house, spouse, kids look? What is in the bank account or in your back yard? How many friends or "friends" do you have? You may be evaluated by many people, but that's okay (for us, not for those evaluating). It really shouldn't bother Christians all that much. What if there were only One with a computer whose evaluation really counted? After all, in the end, there really is only One with a computer. So probably a good idea for us to start thinking like that now.But that's only part of the story.
What if the One with a computer said, "You are HERE, and you need to be THERE, but relax, I'm going to count Jesus' performance for you. He's over THERE, and His are the only numbers you need to be concerned with.
If that's the case, let the haters hate, judges judge, and performers perform. If Jesus' performance counts as ours, then we will judge less and be less concerned when others judge us. Far from taking the wind out of my "sales," it moves me to want to be a better parent, pastor, friend, neighbor, without fear or over-frustration when I fail. Now I'm off to pound this into my head...
After having been slightly let down by the first few episodes of Arrested Development, Amy and I were in the "market" for a new show. Since we've always been interested in midwifery, particularly during the 1950's in England, we thought Call the Midwife would be a perfect fit. Obviously I joke, but I was in fact the one who questioned why there were no male duolas (I called them dude-las) in the field while going through our first birthing classes. Strangely enough the question wasn't taken too seriously.
We're only one episode into the series, but I was impressed from the start. It depicted a privileged and unsuspecting midwife graduate taking her first job in a rough section of England. And to her surprise, and dismay, she gets saddled with a bunch of nuns. Nothing against nuns, of course. The main character is blown away by the rough conditions in the apartments, particularly after one of her patients has a huge syphyllus sore that she just "hadn't gotten around" to checking out.
She opens up to one of the "veteran" nuns, "I can't believe people live like this."
The nun immediately responds, "But they do live like this. And that is why we are here."
What a beautiful scene! What is a local church to do with the sin, shame, and at times syphyllus in its surroundings? Should we be surprised? Should we bring more shame upon shame by distant judgments and telling people to simply change? Should we vacate the area and head for "higher" ground?
Since we are all sinners, we certainly have common ground with non-Christians. Lots of it. I sure do. And my theology reminds me that I shouldn't be surprised at any condition people live in; should I expect people who have not tasted the gospel to live as though they have tasted grace (regularly repenting from sin/self righteousness and resting in Christ's performance for and approval of me)?
Now "living like this" may look like gross personal sin: syphyllus and shancre sores. Or it may look like poverty, crime, disease, and other affects compounded by personal and communal sin. Or it may look like good old-fashioned self-righteousness, self-sufficiency, and idolatry. Regardless, people everywhere, all over, "do live like that" and are in great need of the gospel (as are Christians too by the way-so we have that in common as well!).
Instead of running from them, a church and its people have an opportunity to run toward them. Shouldn't we say, "That is why we are here?" That is why our church plant is here. "Living like this" is a result of disbelieving the gospel, and doesn't that give us and others hope? Our answer to the surrounding world isn't "live like us" or "live like Jesus" but turn and rest in Jesus. I suspect that many people who have rejected Christianity as a whole, reject moralism or self-helpism without really understanding the actual gospel message.
Why is this church here? To bring the gospel to both the needs of believers and unbelievers, for it is robust enough to provide rest for both types of sinners. On Sundays and in between.
