i am paradox

The Secret Message, Part Two

More from Brian McLaren's lastest book: The Secret Message of Jesus .

" Here's the scandal: not just that Jesus speaks of the new kingdom, but that he says the kingdom is at hand, available to be grasped, knocking at the door--not just someday in the future, but here and now!  To a Jewish hearer then, "the kingdom of God" may have been an accessible and evoactive metaphor, but "at hand" would come as a shock and a contradiction to what everyone thought. To them, it could only happen later--after the Romans were ejected or eliminated.  And this was so hard to imagine actually occurring anytime soon that they were considered completely improbable and practically impossible.

Think of our reality today.  We might all believe that war and poverty should end someday, but how many people would believe a self-proclaimed prophet who arose from say, Panama or Sierra Leone or Sri Lanka and was interviewed on CNN with this message: " Now is the time!  It's time to decommission weapons programs and reconcile with enemeies!  It's time for prosperous multinationals to become rich in generousity!  Don't say someday or tomorrow, the time is today!  Shut down your weapons and open your checkbooks!"
(pgs. 24-25)

"The Greek phrase John uses for eternal life literally means life of the ages, as opposed, I think we could say, to life as people are living these days.  So John's related phrases--eternal life, life to the full, and simply life--give us a unique angle on what Jesus meant by kingdom of God:  a life radically different from the way people are living these days, a life that is full and overflowing, a higher life that is centered in an interactive relationship with God. "
(pg. 37)

Who gives a @#$% about profanity?

Via CNN:

"You probably hear these words often, and more than ever before. But even though we can't print them, we can certainly ask: Are we living in an Age of Profanity?

Nearly three-quarters of Americans questioned last week -- 74 percent -- said they encounter profanity in public frequently or occasionally, according to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll. Two-thirds said they think people swear more than they did 20 years ago. And as for, well, the gold standard of foul words, a healthy 64 percent said they use the F-word -- ranging from several times a day (8 percent) to a few times a year (15 percent).

Just ask Joe Cormack. Like any bartender, Cormack, of Fort Dodge, Iowa, hears a lot of talk. He's not really offended by bad language -- heck, he uses it himself every day. But sometimes, a customer will unleash the F-word so many times, Cormack just has to jump in.

"Do you have any idea how many times you've just said that?" he reports saying from time to time. "I mean, if I take that out of your vocabulary, you've got nothin'!"

Read the rest here

Visual Liturgy

If you didn't already know, the amazing guys from over at Highway Video  have a new project team they have been working with called The Work of the People. They have some nice video they have put together for Christmas, Hurricane Katrina, and now Lent. Check em out if you haven't yet:

The Work of the People

New Dr. Pepper

Was in the grocery store the other day, and came across a new flavor of soda being offered by Dr. Pepper: Berries and Cream. I tried out the diet version, and although it tastes ok, I don't like it as much as the cherry vanilla. It tastes like something that I have had before, but can't place my memory on what that would be!

Here is what the official website says:
"New Dr Pepper Berries & Cream combines the one of a kind flavor of Dr Pepper with the smooth indulgent taste of cream and a refreshing hint of berry. Get lost in the flavor. Get berried in cream."

The Secret Message, Part One

Have really been enjoying Brian McLaren's newest book lately. Here are a few excerpts:

"What if Jesus of Nazareth was right--more right, and right in different ways, than we have ever realized?  What if we have developed a religion that makes reverent and honoring statements about Jesus but doesn't teach what Jesus taught in the manner he taught in?  What if the religion generally associated with Jesus neither expects nor trains its adherents to actually live in the way of Jesus?

What if the message of Jesus was good news--not just for Christians but also for Jews, Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus, New Agers, agnostics, and athesists?  Wouldn't it be interesting if the people who started discovering and believing the hidden message of Jesus were people who aren't even identified as Christians, and wouldn't it be tragic if people like myself, identified as Christians, were unwilling to consider the possibility that that have more to learn about the message of Jesus?"

Pages 3, 8

Rent

Took a few friends to go see a live, touring production of Rent yesterday in Vegas. It's the 10 year anniversary since it first opened on Broadway. We were a little disappointed b.c we were hoping to see the original cast, many of who are in the movie. Yet the performance was still amazing, you would be surprised by what they can do with such a small and simple set.

Rent is a modern musical which takes place in New York and follows a group of young adults as they protest consumerism and homelessness, and struggle with many of their peers dying from AIDS. Jonathan Larson, the creator, lived for Rent for several years, making several rewrites and changes and writing hundreds of songs for the show- 44 are in the final version. Even as the show solidified, it proved insanely popular. Unfortunately, Larson would not live to see its true success: he died from an undiagnosed aortic dissection, just a few hours after the musical had its final dress rehearsal.

Go to hell ?

Gotta give a huge shout out and thanks so much to one of my mentors from afar and good friend Mike DeVries , who posted the link for this article.

"Eternal misery is a horrifying possibility.  But it won't be a fiery cavern where demons poke you with pitchforks--or is it?  Hell has never been a fashionable destination, but in recent years it’s met a fate that even the most passé hotspots don’t endure; people suspect it doesn’t exist. Or, if it does exist, it attracts no customers; "we are permitted to hope that hell is empty" is how this is sometimes phrased. Even the most conservative Christians have a hard time putting a positive spin on a wrathful God who flings evildoers into flaming torment.


 

  

It is tragic that some Christians have been so battered with stories of a prideful, vindictive God that they have fled from Jesus’ fold. No wonder some become atheists; who would want to spend eternity with such a tyrant?

Yet I’m going to make a case for hell, though not the one you see in cartoons, a fiery cavern where demons poke you with pitchforks. Dante made that kind of thing look pretty exciting, but "The Inferno" was written almost 1,300 years after the gospels. When you strip away European and medieval assumptions, and look at the writings of Christians in lands and cultures closer to Jesus’ time, you get a different picture."

Make sure you check out the rest of the article on beliefnet, I assure you it's worth the time.

Hell by Frederica Mathewes-Green

Daily Show Theology, Part 2

Jim Wallis was on the Daily Show last year, promoting his book God's politics. Jim, and his organization Sojourners are really picking up momentum. Their website finally has the video clip, which is pretty amazing. "Jim joins Jon in the tradition of Hebrew prophets who use humor and truth-telling to make their point."  You can also listen to and download 3 free samples from the audio book.

Jim Wallis and the Daily Show Clip

Soprano Spirituality

If you are a Sopranos fan like I am, and watched the last 2 episodes of the new season, then you will like this article that I came across on beliefnet. If you haven't seen any of the new season, then be warned: spoilers alert below.

"The metaphysical motif of the final “Sopranos” season rolled on last night, as a comatose Tony, shot by his Uncle Junior, chose not to “walk into the light,” even as he was driven toward it by Paulie Walnuts’s yammering at his bedside.

As revealed during last week’s episode, Tony's mind, in his coma, is replaying his life, though this version is far different than what actually happened. In his reverie, Tony, some sort of salesman, is in possession of a briefcase belonging to a Kevin Finnerty. Checking into a hotel, he is asked to present ID, and having no other ID, he uses Finnerty’s. At that point, a group of Buddhist monks accost him, demanding accountability for a bum heating system Finnerty sold their monastery.

Forward to this week’s episode, and Tony finds himself served with papers by the Crystal Monastery. Hoping to uncover the true identity of Kevin Finnerty, he seeks out the monks, who chuckle each time he tells them that he isn’t Finnerty. If you haven’t gotten it by now, Tony’s new name is a thinly veiled reference to the concept of infinity. One of the merry monks explains that, in the end, everything is one, but for now, someone needs to be responsible--for the heating system, in this case. Tony has also been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and therefore, isn’t sure whether or not he really isn’t Finnerty, so he heads to a Finnerty family reunion in search of more answers."

Near Death in Newark

The Atonement?

a·tone·ment  (-tnmnt)
n.

1. Amends or reparation made for an injury or wrong; expiation.
2. 1. Reconciliation or an instance of reconciliation between God and humans.
   2. Atonement Christianity. The reconciliation of God and humans brought about by the redemptive life and death of Jesus.

For over a year now, I, along with many others, have been reconsidering our view of the atonement of Christ. Long prominent in western Christianity is the concept of the substitutionary atonement, i.e. namely that Christ died in our place. But it seems that the release of The Passion of the Christ has awakend our postmodern sensibilities.  Feminist theologians have especially brought this issue for many evangelicals: if God wanted to forgive us, why didn't God just forgive us?  Why did God need something bad (the murder of an innocent) to occur before God did something good?  Why did Jesus need to die a violent death, and doesn't the cross promote redemptive violence?  I am sure you can see the timeliness of this question in light of the terrorism we face in our world today.

Two books that have really helped shape my thinking in this regard have been The Nonviolent Atonement  and Recovering the Scandal of the Cross.  So did Brian McLaren's The Last Word, even though the main premise of the book is hell, not the atonement.

I was thinking about this recently b/c of a few blog posts and articles that I came across online, and know that a lot of people don't know anything about this. I think it's a great topic for both Christians and non-Christians and that it's really important and timely. As we are in Lent and approaching Holy Week soon, I invite you into the conversation of what really happenned when Jesus went to the cross, and why.

"I will lay it down as a premise for theological thinking about the atonement that one’s theory of sin shapes (even to the point of determining) one’s theory of the atonement. I will also agree with many scholars who point out that males have shaped the discussion of the atonement. Let’s just name the major influences: Irenaeus and the recapitulation theory, the Cappadocian fathers and the ransom theory, Anselm and the satisfaction theory, Abelard and the moral influence theory, the Reformers and the penal substitution theory, Hugo Grotius and the government theory. Each theory is connected to a male. Has their “maleness” intruded into the theory of the atonement? Feminists think so. What do you think?

Rita Finger argued that the penal substitution and moral influence theories encouraged women into patterns of submission, while the ransom (Christus Victor) theory encouraged liberation. Some feminists have repudiated the cross as an instrument of powerful violence against the oppressed and powerless, and have therefore sought out a theory of atonement that is virtually cross-less (Ruether). The cross, so they are arguing, justifies violence against the weak.

Now if the premise above be accepted, we are in need of examining our understanding of sin, and we have to ask if males have shaped the discussion in light of male-ish sins and therefore male-ish atonement. Do the theories of atonement above mostly focus on the “curse” of God against Adam in Genesis 3 and do they incorporate enough the “curse” against women in Genesis 3?"

Feminism and Atonement

"Chalke opened the evening by emphasizing that The Lost Message of Jesus was not just about atonement, the issue that his critics have most seized on, but also about rediscovering Jesus' call to radical discipleship and peace. He admitted that his book had gaps as it was not meant to be an academic or even theological book. “I wrote this book for those who don't know Christ yet,” he said, “We [Christians] are considered to be guilt-inducing and judgemental.” Our focus on penal substitution is part of that problem, he said.

By focusing simply on God's wrath and appeasement through the cross we paint a distorted picture of Gods character. We portray him as a someone bent on retribution rather than someone who loves us deeply but who is upset by our actions. Furthermore, Chalke said, penal substitution perpetuates the myth of redemptive violence.

Chalke clarified that he does believe in substitutionary atonement on the cross but not penal substitution. He also outlined the notion of Christus Victor which sees Christ's life, death and resurrection all together as victory over the powers of evil, both spiritual and earthly.

Gathercol responded with an assessment of a number of areas. First he felt that the book was too one sided and needed more balanced discussion. He said that Chalke's renderings of the Gospel made the future life a pale second best to now. “My concern with Steve's view is that it has very little to do with saving us for eternity,” said Gathercol, “[Jesus] does talk a heck of a lot about the final judgement.”

Responding to Chalke's critique of penal substitution, Gathercol made the point that it was Father and Son working in unison undertaking to bear weight of sin that we alone cannot. He suggested that it was not a unilateral decision on God's part to have Jesus go to the cross. He quoted on Mark 10:45 and said that the story of Jesus and the cross are biblical and inspiring and that Jesus is paying a ransom for us, arguing that you cannot simply get rid of a doctrine just because it was badly treated by some.

Gathercol echoed the concerns of many Evangelicals when he suggested that Chalke relativizes Jesus' message too much. “Steve has gone to town on what sounds good in our context,” he said. “Jesus anticipated that people weren't always going to lap up the message.” He went on to argue that the book is a serious revision of Jesus' message that does not fit with the picture of the “rescue mission” that is portrayed in John 3:16.

Chalke responded to Gathercol's criticism by saying that his message was not simpy “God loves you so take it easy.” However, at the other extreme he called on the church not to reduce Jesus' message to the “sinner's prayer” as a key to heaven. “In the end, if you believe in penal substitution, the cross is not primarily about God's love, but about God's anger,” he said."

The Lost Message of Jesus

Are kids too plugged in?

"It's become routine for kids to conduct IM conversations, watch TV and do Google searches at the same time.Today 82 percent of kids are online by the seventh grade, according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project.

The big finding of a 2005 survey of Americans ages 8 to 18 by the Kaiser Family Foundation is not that kids were spending a larger chunk of time using electronic media -- that was holding steady at 6.5 hours a day (could it possibly get any bigger?) -- but that they were packing more media exposure into that time: 8.5 hours' worth, thanks to "media multitasking" -- listening to iTunes, watching a DVD and IMing friends all at the same time.

Human beings have always had a capacity to attend to several things at once. Mothers have done it since the hunter-gatherer era -- picking berries while suckling an infant, stirring the pot with one eye on the toddler.

Nor is electronic multitasking entirely new: We've been driving while listening to car radios since they became popular in the 1930s.

But there is no doubt that the phenomenon has reached a kind of warp speed in the era of Web-enabled computers, when it has become routine to conduct six IM conversations, watch American Idol on TV and Google the names of last season's finalists all at once.

But what's the impact of this media consumption? And how are these multitasking devices changing how kids learn, reason and interact with one another?"

CNN Summary of Time's Cover story

Think about it

"I’m realizing that the Bible has a dangerous sort of power. It’s not unlike anything with power really. Anything as explosive and influential as the Bible should be expected to be dangerous in some ways. It’s like “the force” in Star Wars. If you use it right you can be in touch with and then able to protect the whole galaxy. If you use it wrong you might just turn into Darth Vader.

I heard once (probably in history class) that dynamite was not originally invented to kill. Dynamite, which has arguably led all the way to nuclear weapons, was originally created for mining. It was originally intended to benefit the world, a very practical and powerful invention. But just like anything with great power it is dangerous. Handled wrongly or stored incorrectly it can become unmanageable and unpredictable, it is very dangerous. And, just like anything with power, it can be used for things as productive as mining to things as destructive as war. It can help people and it can destroy them.

The Bible has an uncanny brand of power, a mysterious and mystical power. It has the power to bring down great rulers from their thrones and lift up humble people (Luke 1:52). The gospel can bring great joy, abundant life, restoration, healing, and renewal but if it has this kind of power shouldn’t we be careful with how we handle it?

I hear a lot of pastors and speakers quote the bible and sometimes it just breaks my heart what they do with it. They carelessly toss verses around to prove their point, taking it out of context, out of its real definitive framework and they defile it. The Bible has been used by some to do good things but by many others it has been nauseatingly misused. It has been used to marginalize women, segregate races, institutionalize Christianity, label and categorize people, justify murder, rationalize apathy, keep people in poverty, keep people away from education, away from thinking freely, away from love. The Bible has been used to destroy the very message it wants to bring. As dynamite was brought into the world to bring prosperity and has been used to destroy prosperity, the Bible was brought to bring peace and acceptance yet has been used to destroy the very things it stands for."

Thanks to my friend Wes Ellis for these insights !

"I’m realizing that the Bible has a dangerous sort of power. It’s not unlike anything with power really. Anything as explosive and influential as the Bible should be expected to be dangerous in some ways. It’s like “the force” in Star Wars. If you use it right you can be in touch with and then able to protect the whole galaxy. If you use it wrong you might just turn into Darth Vader.

I heard once (probably in history class) that dynamite was not originally invented to kill. Dynamite, which has arguably led all the way to nuclear weapons, was originally created for mining. It was originally intended to benefit the world, a very practical and powerful invention. But just like anything with great power it is dangerous. Handled wrongly or stored incorrectly it can become unmanageable and unpredictable, it is very dangerous. And, just like anything with power, it can be used for things as productive as mining to things as destructive as war. It can help people and it can destroy them.

The Bible has an uncanny brand of power, a mysterious and mystical power. It has the power to bring down great rulers from their thrones and lift up humble people (Luke 1:52). The gospel can bring great joy, abundant life, restoration, healing, and renewal but if it has this kind of power shouldn’t we be careful with how we handle it?

I hear a lot of pastors and speakers quote the bible and sometimes it just breaks my heart what they do with it. They carelessly toss verses around to prove their point, taking it out of context, out of its real definitive framework and they defile it. The Bible has been used by some to do good things but by many others it has been nauseatingly misused. It has been used to marginalize women, segregate races, institutionalize Christianity, label and categorize people, justify murder, rationalize apathy, keep people in poverty, keep people away from education, away from thinking freely, away from love. The Bible has been used to destroy the very message it wants to bring. As dynamite was brought into the world to bring prosperity and has been used to destroy prosperity, the Bible was brought to bring peace and acceptance yet has been used to destroy the very things it stands for."

Thanks to my friend Wes Ellis for these insights !