Blessed are...

I just finished listening to the Mars Hill series on the Beatitudes. Here's a summary of what I learned:

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."
 - Being poor in spirit is not a good condition.  It basically means the people who there is no reason for them to be blessed. We always think that the good people, the righteous people get blessed by God, but the poor in spirit is the opposite of that.

"Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted."
- This includes when we mourn for those who have died, but it also included when we mourn the state of our spirit.  Being poor in spirit can cause us to mourn our condition.

"Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth."
- The meek are the overlooked, the ones who aren't getting their fair share.  The world says the earth belongs to the powerful, but Jesus says it belongs to the meek.

"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled."
- When we feel like the world is just not right, when we long for God's peace and justice to fill the world, we are blessed.

"Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy."
-The Samaritan in Jesus' parable was the one who had mercy on his enemy. Mercy is more than just feeling sorry for people, it is doing something about it. It includes loving everyone, even our enemies.

"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God."
-The opposite of pure in heart is hypocrisy.  Being pure in heart has everything to do with how we are on the inside.  Hypocrisy is when our inside doesn't match our outside.  Hypocrite has a very negative meaning in our culture, but in Jesus' time, it meant something closer to "actor."  When we are hypocrites, we are acting on the outside, we are putting on a show of rightness or purity that isn't really us.  It reminds me of the Casting Crowns song "Stained Glass Masquerade." Stained Glass Masquerade lyrics

"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God."
- The world wants to divide everyone into sides - are you with them, or with them?  Joshua 5:13-14.  "Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand.  Joshua went up to him and asked, "Are you for us or for our enemies?" "Neither," he replied, "but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come."  When we are peacemakers, we don't take sides.  The world doesn't like this, they want everyone to take sides.  In a sort of trivial example, no one in Columbus wants to hear my answer when they ask if I am an Ohio State or Michigan fan.  They want me to pick a side.  They would rather I be a Michigan fan than just not care about which side I'm on.  I think this extends to all issues with sides.  Choosing "None of the above" is not a choice with most people.

"Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you."
- Because the world doesn't want to hear I'm on no one's side, because I'm on everyone's side, it can lead to being persecuted.  Jesus says that when others misunderstand our motives and start to persecute us, we are blessed.

The first four are about our condition.  God blesses us when we are poor in spirit, mourning, meek, hungry for righteousness.  The other four are about our relation to other people.  God blesses us when we are merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers, persecuted.

Rob Bell said that the Beatitudes are an announcement of how the world really is.  Ed Dobson said they are an invitation to change.  Kent Dobson said they are both.  I especially think this is true of the last four. True, they are an announcement of what the world is like, a reminder that God blesses us in the struggle, not just when we have it all together.  But, I also found those to be challenging to me. If this is what Jesus said his followers should be like shouldn't I want to be like that?  Is the desire to be a peacemaker, more merciful, pure in heart, and so on, a hunger and thirst for righteousness?

One more point was very interesting to me.  The first and the last have the same blessing: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  That's for the poor in spirit and the persecuted.  Is the whole thing a cycle?  Does God allow us to be persecuted so that we revisit our helplessness and "loserness"?  It does seem that the others kind of grow out of that one.  It's when we realize that we don't have it all together, that there's really no reason for God to bless us, that we're being left out, then we begin to hunger for something better.  Then we start to show more mercy to others, we are more pure in heart toward them, we start to see both sides and stop creating divisions.  Then that can lead to persecution from the people who don't understand Jesus' way.  And then it starts again.  But the good news is that God is with us the whole time.  He blesses us in the whole process.

This has certainly been the most interesting and challenging sermons series I've heard in a while!

Blessed are the Merciful/Peacemakers

As I was driving today, I listened to two Mars Hill sermons - "Blessed are the merciful" (Ed Dobson) and "Blessed are the peacemakers" (Rob Bell.)

I was surprised at how similar these were, or maybe just my reaction to them.  Ed used the story of the Samaritan to illustrate his point.  When the teacher of the law asked Jesus, "Who is my neighbor?," he answered with the story of the Samaritan.  Jesus asked the teacher who was a neighbor to the man caught by thieves and, of course, the answer was the "one who had mercy on him," the Samaritan.  I think most people have heard this story so often that we think of the "good Samaritan" and we forget that in Jesus' time, the Samaritans were the bad guys, the enemy.  Samaritans and Jews hated each other, so for the Samaritan to show mercy to a Jew was just unheard of.   Showing mercy was more than just feeling sorry for the man, but actually doing something to help.  Ed said we need to love our enemies, to try to understand them, to "get inside their skin."  This has really hit home for me, because lately, the group I have felt like were my enemies are tradition evangelical Christians. This reminded me that I need to have compassion and mercy for them as well.

Rob basically defined peacemakers as people who don't create divisions.  It seems natural in this world to split everyone into groups.  Are you with them, or with them?  Whose side are you on?  He talked about the part in Joshua where Joshua meets the angel of the Lord and asks him, "Are you for us, or our enemies?" and the angel answers "neither." That should be our attitude as well.  As God transforms us, we will start to love the people who are oppressed and the people who are oppressing.  The people who are being pointed out AND the people doing the pointing.  I find this very hard.  It's not so hard to love the people who are being oppressed or picked on, but it's a lot harder to love the ones doing the oppressing or the picking.  Again, it made me think of the traditional evangelical Christians.  Although I am often disgusted by the things they do, I still need to love them as well.  It doesn't mean I have to agree with them, but I do need to love them. This seems especially hard because they are the ones persecuting so many groups, including other Christians who don't agree with them.  I'm looking forward to the sermon on that!  Maybe it will give me some ideas on just how to do that!

Salt and Cotton

I just finished reading How (Not) to Speak of God by Peter Rollins (on the second try!).  It is not an easy read - I think a lot of it went right over my head, but the parts I did understand were very interesting.

It seems to be mostly rejecting the binary thinking of modernism.  In Chapter 2, he talks about how God is both transcendent and immanent. Instead of treating them as opposites, he compares transcendence to the sun. You can't really look at the sun without being overwhelmed by its light. In the same way, God is so present that we are overwhelmed by his presence.  Okay, so I didn't explain that very well - this is the part I am having trouble understanding!

In Chapter 3, he discusses apologetics.  He says there are two main types of apologetics.  Both try to compel people to believe "regardless of their motives or the nature of their desire." (p. 36)  Rather than trying to have all the answers, he says the job of the Church is to help people ask the questions that will lead them to seek God, and have faith that those who seek will find. 

Throughout the book, he talks about interpreting the Bible.  We are naturally interpretive. When I look at something, I don't see it just as shapes and colors, but my brain tells me what it is. It interprets the data provided by my eyes and other senses. In the same way, we cannot read the Bible in a neutral, bias-free way.  We always bring our background, experiences, church traditions, etc.  But if that's true, does that mean that there are infinite ways to interpret the Bible?  He says no and explains it with math. :)  Infinity describes the endless set of numbers.  Transfinite is the infinite set of numbers between two numbers (like between 1 and 2, there is 1.2, 1.3. 1.31, etc.)  So while there are many ways we can understand something in the Bible, there are limits on it.  While people may disagree on exactly what "God is love" means, it can't mean to hate others.

In the last chapter, Rollins uses an illustration to explain how different denominations can both be "correct."  Two camels are both traveling to market.  One is carrying salt and the other is carrying cotton.  On the way, they have to cross a river. On reaching the opposite bank, the camel carrying the salt finds new strength and increases its pace (since the river dissolved part of the salt). The camel carrying the cotton, on the other hand, quickly collapses under its burden of soaking wet cotton. He compares different churches and denominations to the river.  It affected the camels differently because of what they were carrying. Churches can be the same.  A church may help one person grow while burdening or oppressing someone else. This is something I really need to remember - just because a church isn't a good place for me doesn't mean it isn't a good place for anybody.

This book has certainly given me a lot to think about.  Some things in the book seem to be things I was already thinking about.  Some are completely new and I'm not even sure I understand them yet.

Sabbath

Last week, I listened to a sermon by Ruth Haley Barton called "Longing for Rest." It has really given me a lot to think about this week. She talks about how God made us to need a Sabbath, but in today's world, we don't often slow down even for one evening, let alone a whole day. It runs seriously counter to our culture to take a day where I can say "I didn't do anything today," and not feel guilty about that.

She gave some guidelines for keeping the Sabbath. She said the day is for rest, worship, and delight. I found that interesting. She basically said that defining "work" is really up to each individual or family. The example she gave is yard work. Some people find that to be work and shouldn't do it on the Sabbath. Other people find that digging in the dirt and working with plants feeds their soul and so it is a form of rest and connecting with God's creation.

I have spent the week thinking about what that means for me. I'm still not sure. I think starting to keep the Sabbath will be a very hard thing to do. For me, I like to spend Saturday resting since I am so tired from teaching all week. However, I have found that when I have papers to grade over the weekend, it kind of feels like they are hanging over my head all weekend, and I really can't stop thinking about them. Perhaps a better plan would be to spend Friday night finishing up my work from the week, Saturday doing the "work" that is different from my weekday work, and then have Sunday to devote to rest, worship, and delight. 

Evangelism

Okay, so I was listening to another Mars Hill sermon yesterday (The Importance of Beginning at the Beginning) and it got me thinking about evangelism. I always approach evangelism with all the enthusiasm that I give to cleaning the toilet.  "Aw, man, I REALLY don't want to do this, but I guess it needs to be done."  Actually, it might even be less enthusiasm because at least when I clean the toilet I get the feeling that I accomplished something.  So, I started wondering why I've felt this way.  In the sermon, Rob Bell says that where you begin a story affects what the story even is.  The story I had always heard in the church basically started in Genesis 3 with the fall.  We all have fallen short of the glory of God and need to be "saved."  That's true, but it seems to me that the story is bigger than that.  Is that all Jesus can do?  Get rid of sin? If you start the story of God in Genesis 1, it becomes the story of how God created the world and it was good.  And he wants it to still be good, so he is in the process of renewing it, restoring it.  That includes me and you. It includes getting rid of sin, but it's so much bigger than that.  It's God restoring the whole world back to the way he wants it to be.  Now, that seems like a story worth telling!!!

Eating and Drinking

Over the past year or so, I have been listening to the sermons from Mars Hill Bible Church, Rob Bell's church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I am amazed week after week at what the speakers have to say (Rob Bell, Ed Dobson, Kent Dobson, and many guest speakers). Every time, they seem to bring up things in a way I have never thought of before!  Today, I listened to a sermon by Ed Dobson from August (I'm a few months behind!) called The Sacred Obligation of Eating. It was the sermon for their communion Sunday. He raised some interesting ideas, although I'm not sure I understand what the main point was. In Genesis, he pointed out that sin came into the world through eating. Then he showed in Matthew how Jesus asked his disciples to remember him through eating. And the Tree of Life from Genesis shows up again in Revelation. I thought that was very interesting. He said in Genesis we have "paradise lost" and in Revelation "paradise regained."  And in the middle is Jesus and what he did to restore the world. And we are supposed to remember what he did by eating and drinking.  Here is something I have been wondering about since I started looking into first century Jewish culture: They all ate bread and drank wine. That was a normal meal. So when Jesus asked his disciples to "do this in remembrance of me," did he mean a special meal like the Passover, or did he mean every time they ate?

Another topic in the sermon is giving thanks for our food. He points out that from a Jewish point of view, asking God to bless the food is absurd, since God has already blessed the food when he sent the rain and caused it to grow. Instead, they bless the God who has already provided the blessing of food. It reminds me of The Fiddler on the Roof when they ask the rabbi if there is a blessing for a sewing machine and he answers that there is a blessing for everything! If we remember the source of all good things, of course, there is a blessing for everything!

Blessed is he who gave humans the intelligence to invent computers and the internet.

A New Kind of Christian

A couple of week ago, I read Brian McLaren's book "A New Kind of Christian." In his introduction, he shares the conclusion he has reached after many years as a pastor and seeing so many things:

Enough of this evidence accumulates (my list could go on and on) ... and a pattern becomes perceptible, and a realization comes like a good cry:  Either Christianity itself is flawed, failing, untrue, or our modern, Western, commercialized, industrial-strength version of it is in need of a fresh look, a serious revision.

When I read that, I realized that is how I have been feeling. I look at Jesus and the early church and I look at the modern evangelical church and I can't believe they are part of the same religion.  McLaren also says this:

You can't talk about this sort of thing with just anybody. People worry about you. They may thing you're changing sides, turning traitor. They may talk about you as if you came down with some communicable disease. So you keep this thing like a dirty secret, this doubt that is not really a doubt about God or Jesus or faith, but about our take on God, our version of Jesus, our way of faith. You let it out only when you feel you have found someone you can trust.

When I read that, it was as if he was reading my mind. Wow, it is so true. The few people I have talked to about this reacted just this way.

Where do I start?

For quite some time now, I have been struggling with a question - What does it look like to be a Christian today? I think this has been a question for me since I became a Christian at age 18. I have never been satisfied with the answer I get from the "Church." Go to church, read your Bible, pray, and don't sin.  Not that those are bad things, but is that all there is? When I see the results of living that kind of life, is it really so different from everyone else?

So, that's where I am.  I'm trying to learn what it mean to follow Jesus in today's world. The only thing I feel sure about is that it doesn't look like the traditional church.