I dont have a whole lot of time, thanks to two papers due and a test all on the same day, this is more of a quick reflection.
Apparently, on the Academy Awards, a winner that helped with the movie "Milk" got up and said that God loves gays, and that soon they will have equal rights as everyone else.
The church is inconsistent on the view of homosexuality, some churches vastly against it, others calling it a sin but accepting the person into their community, and others are ordaining them as their pastors. With this unclear understanding of homosexuality, the church has no way of defining a clear Biblical stance on it.
I want to say two things in regards to this sinful world, and especially homosexuality. A Biblical stance on marriage is one between a man and a women, or simply opposite sexs. With that being said, the church is absolutely horrible at being Christ in the world. Jesus, the one we call Christ, hung out with the people that no one would. This is seen even as far as his parables, when it is the Samaritan (a Gentile that was seen as the absolute lowest class of Jewish/Roman citizenship) that helps the man beaten and left to die.
Christianity then, accepts homosexuals as sinners, just like every Jew, every Gentile, every Free, every Slave, every petifile, murderer, slanderer...you name it. Here is the realization: We are all sinners in need of a savior. Our calling is then to see how the disciples lived in light of Jesus's direction for their lives. Where that leads each individual is up for God to decide. All that can be asked is for each individual to use the Bible as our divine authority in our lives, and truly make sense of the texts at hand.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Thursday, February 19, 2009
And the Holy Spirit will come to you
So we will speak in tongues. So that fire will role down upon you. Through the rush of winds it will come down from Heaven. And you will go an proclaim what Jesus has done.
The Day of Pentecost. In a few sentences I have described this day, and in a few sentences I have probably lost most of you. Not in a sense that you do not understand, even though you cannot understand, but in a sense that we as the church do not understand. My question is, where did this day go? Why have we lost this sense of speaking in tongues so that every nation might understand what we are saying? Where is the fire that roles down upon us, giving us the will, the energy, and an unexplained sense of victory that will empower us to go? Have the winds of Heaven left our midst? Where has Jesus gone?
In an everyday church the answer certainly does not lie in the church. When we are focused on every day troubles, and whether the floor will get vacuumed or not, we have lost sight of the true work of the Holy Spirit.
Here is the issue, and here is my rant. Prayer is the source in which we interact with the Trinity. It is our dialogue with the most high, who through Jesus gave us the Holy Spirit so that God's name might be shared. People, no awdays, as Philip Yancey points out, pray with hints of what they want in their life as if they were putting together a Christmas list, with subtle hints of how other people should be acting. The Holy Spirit, if it were like a person, would begin to dry heave, then vomit up the prayers that these people are praying. The Holy Spirit would say this is not the Kingdom. It would say that Jesus meant for us so much more than what we are experiencing. Yet, this is what Christianity has become. Not what it is becoming, what it is, right here, right now.
If you, like myself, have experienced this form of Christianity, take heart. This isnt the first time people have became mislead and have wondered away from the promised land. The Pharisees and the Tax Collectors did the same, and Jesus turned tables because of it. But who is turning our tables? Where have we let Jesus desicrate our own desicrations? And when will we let the Holy Spirit flow down like a river of fire...through the rushing winds, and empower us to speak tongues. But if speaking in tongues makes you skeptical, think about it in the way of sharing with different cultures, those who speak in a different language. When has the Holy Spirit lead you to this place? Have we lost the Day of Pentecost so much so that we do not even know how to be a missional church?
I tell you this. The church, especially in American, has lost sight of the Kingdom of God. We are rolling in our own material needs and wants that the simple idea of having our daily bread is all too foriegn. Our relience on the Holy Spirit to reveal God's son Jesus Christ to the world is lost, and evangelism becomes a way of increasing our church's numbers. In doing so, we increase the ability to be paid. There it is again...money tables.
Holy Spirt come. God most high send us. Jesus Christ nuture us. For we are still a people chosen by you and lost in our own disdain.
The Day of Pentecost. In a few sentences I have described this day, and in a few sentences I have probably lost most of you. Not in a sense that you do not understand, even though you cannot understand, but in a sense that we as the church do not understand. My question is, where did this day go? Why have we lost this sense of speaking in tongues so that every nation might understand what we are saying? Where is the fire that roles down upon us, giving us the will, the energy, and an unexplained sense of victory that will empower us to go? Have the winds of Heaven left our midst? Where has Jesus gone?
In an everyday church the answer certainly does not lie in the church. When we are focused on every day troubles, and whether the floor will get vacuumed or not, we have lost sight of the true work of the Holy Spirit.
Here is the issue, and here is my rant. Prayer is the source in which we interact with the Trinity. It is our dialogue with the most high, who through Jesus gave us the Holy Spirit so that God's name might be shared. People, no awdays, as Philip Yancey points out, pray with hints of what they want in their life as if they were putting together a Christmas list, with subtle hints of how other people should be acting. The Holy Spirit, if it were like a person, would begin to dry heave, then vomit up the prayers that these people are praying. The Holy Spirit would say this is not the Kingdom. It would say that Jesus meant for us so much more than what we are experiencing. Yet, this is what Christianity has become. Not what it is becoming, what it is, right here, right now.
If you, like myself, have experienced this form of Christianity, take heart. This isnt the first time people have became mislead and have wondered away from the promised land. The Pharisees and the Tax Collectors did the same, and Jesus turned tables because of it. But who is turning our tables? Where have we let Jesus desicrate our own desicrations? And when will we let the Holy Spirit flow down like a river of fire...through the rushing winds, and empower us to speak tongues. But if speaking in tongues makes you skeptical, think about it in the way of sharing with different cultures, those who speak in a different language. When has the Holy Spirit lead you to this place? Have we lost the Day of Pentecost so much so that we do not even know how to be a missional church?
I tell you this. The church, especially in American, has lost sight of the Kingdom of God. We are rolling in our own material needs and wants that the simple idea of having our daily bread is all too foriegn. Our relience on the Holy Spirit to reveal God's son Jesus Christ to the world is lost, and evangelism becomes a way of increasing our church's numbers. In doing so, we increase the ability to be paid. There it is again...money tables.
Holy Spirt come. God most high send us. Jesus Christ nuture us. For we are still a people chosen by you and lost in our own disdain.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
The oddity of Baptism
This past weekend, my nephew Jace was baptized. When Jesus was baptized, John had already come declaring the truth about one who was to come. When Jesus was baptized, he came up from the Jordan, he had a vision of a dove descending from the heavens. The dove, a classic symbol of the Holy Spirit descending upon the son of God. For my nephew, there was no seeable dove, and he was certainly not baptized in the Jordan. For my nephew, he was baptized at an EPC church as an infant. Welcome to the Kingdom.
Jesus then when out into the wilderness to face his temptations. This is an interesting parellelism, for isnt that what we have all do? We are all baptized by water and the Holy Spirit, and then we move into the world of temptation? As a baby, we are innocent, or so it seems. As a baby, Jace is completely atune to where his food will come from, how his teeth are coming in. But, for Jace, his world is completely dependent on his parents, and those who love him. Jesus, was also dependent, he was dependent on His Father, God in Heaven, for everything. Jesus was then dependent on God's Word, Scripture (what would have been the Hebrew Scriptures), to ward of the temptations of Satan. Jace will move forward, and his dependency will lessen, to the point that he will think he no longer needs those who love him. He will be an individual. But, not even the very Son of God believed he could be independent. Why, in any sense, would we be independent.
Yet, baptized by water as an infant, is an in depth event that various people have defined, or rejected, through out history. For some, it is the very salvation that a baby needs in order that they may become children of God most high. For others, and some in the same breath, baptism is what circumcision was in the Old Covenant, and was a sign of the covenant given through Abraham to his descendents of Israel. As the New Covenant comes to us, this new form of circumcision is offered to both Jew and Gentile. The Bible says that it is through faith and water that we are saved. Calvin says that until the infants faith comes forth in fruition, the pedobaptism means no more than that very sign. I tend to assert teh same, seeing some baptized and never come to faith, and others who have not been baptized, but will come to faith. We are but children, God is but the Father, and all who are given faith will come to know the one true God. Salvation is available for all, few will be chosen, and only our Father knows who will come to faith. The church, though, is Christ's agent in the world. Without knowing the will of the Father, we are however called to baptize all nations in the name of Jesus Christ.
Whether Jace's faith comes to fruition in his life, is not up to me, is not up to you or his parents, but is up to God. Our faith lies in the fact that he was baptized into a community of believers. Those believers then have a responsibility to raise him in the way of the Lord, and as the Proverbs says, when he grows old he will not depart from this teaching. Our faith then becomes our childrens, and Christ is further shared. Through faith and baptism we are saved. Thanks be to God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit the Paraclete. Amen.
Jesus then when out into the wilderness to face his temptations. This is an interesting parellelism, for isnt that what we have all do? We are all baptized by water and the Holy Spirit, and then we move into the world of temptation? As a baby, we are innocent, or so it seems. As a baby, Jace is completely atune to where his food will come from, how his teeth are coming in. But, for Jace, his world is completely dependent on his parents, and those who love him. Jesus, was also dependent, he was dependent on His Father, God in Heaven, for everything. Jesus was then dependent on God's Word, Scripture (what would have been the Hebrew Scriptures), to ward of the temptations of Satan. Jace will move forward, and his dependency will lessen, to the point that he will think he no longer needs those who love him. He will be an individual. But, not even the very Son of God believed he could be independent. Why, in any sense, would we be independent.
Yet, baptized by water as an infant, is an in depth event that various people have defined, or rejected, through out history. For some, it is the very salvation that a baby needs in order that they may become children of God most high. For others, and some in the same breath, baptism is what circumcision was in the Old Covenant, and was a sign of the covenant given through Abraham to his descendents of Israel. As the New Covenant comes to us, this new form of circumcision is offered to both Jew and Gentile. The Bible says that it is through faith and water that we are saved. Calvin says that until the infants faith comes forth in fruition, the pedobaptism means no more than that very sign. I tend to assert teh same, seeing some baptized and never come to faith, and others who have not been baptized, but will come to faith. We are but children, God is but the Father, and all who are given faith will come to know the one true God. Salvation is available for all, few will be chosen, and only our Father knows who will come to faith. The church, though, is Christ's agent in the world. Without knowing the will of the Father, we are however called to baptize all nations in the name of Jesus Christ.
Whether Jace's faith comes to fruition in his life, is not up to me, is not up to you or his parents, but is up to God. Our faith lies in the fact that he was baptized into a community of believers. Those believers then have a responsibility to raise him in the way of the Lord, and as the Proverbs says, when he grows old he will not depart from this teaching. Our faith then becomes our childrens, and Christ is further shared. Through faith and baptism we are saved. Thanks be to God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit the Paraclete. Amen.
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