God Can't: God Feels OUr Pain

Before we jump further into Thomas Oord’s book, God Can’t, let’s review just a bit from last week. The principle he put forth last week was that God can’t prevent evil singlehandedly.  This is in part because God is Spirit – God doesn’t have literal hands to intervene.  In addition to that, we are not created as robots, and God does not temporarily roboticize us – we are truly beings with free will.  This does not mean God is inactive or indifferent, which leads us to the next chapter’s principle.

This week’s thesis: God feels our pain.

Does God empathize with us?  Does God show compassion – to suffer with us?  God’s love is assumed in a lot of churches – what do you think?  Psychologist Carl Rogers defines empathy as entering the “perceptual world of the other and becoming thoroughly at home in it, [which] involves being sensitive, moment by moment, to the changing felt meanings that flow in the other person.”  Compassion means to suffer with someone.  Have you ever pictured God like that?  Why or why not?

As Jesus followers, we look to Jesus for a clue on this.  He was connected to God in a way I don’t think has been replicated before or after.  So much so that others referred to him as the Son of God.  While there is ongoing debate as to what that means exactly, suffice it to say we believe that when we see Jesus walking around, we are seeing the face of God.  Jesus was one who was born into poverty and knew what it was like to live on the bottom rung of the social ladder.  Yet he became the embodiment of love and grace, being empathic with those who struggled, and offering compassionate help where he could.

One of his greatest parables gives us an example of what compassion looks like.  The Good Samaritan had every reason to pass by a beaten up, half-dead Jewish guy on the side of the road heading down to Jericho.  But he didn’t.  He stopped (unlike the lip-service religious folks who reasoned their way out of helping).  The thrust of the story is about generously loving and caring for another – even if that “another” is a loathed enemy.  This brilliant parable was a real stretch for Jewish audience, and continues to be for us as we are given a model for generosity expressed, and also a glimpse of how, when we are beaten down by life, are loved by God.  The good, loving, generous servant in the story chose to enter the beaten man’s pain and suffering and take it on himself.  Empathy led to compassionate service: “An empathetic God not only feels our suffering but also prompts others to love in specific ways.” (Oord, God Can’t, 41)

Oord recommends we consider what he calls the Crimson Rule.  We are familiar with the Golden Rule that calls for people to do unto others as they would want for themselves.  The Crimson Rule invites us to suffer with our neighbor as an act of empathetic compassion.  One the greatest examples from Jesus’ life was his horrific execution:

“In his painful death on a splintered cross, Jesus points to a God who suffers with us. In Jesus, God identifies with those gashed and feeling godforsaken, the homeless and the hurting, the depressed and destroyed. In Jesus’ crucifixion, God shares in the suffering of the world and thereby shows solidarity with victims. Jesus reveals a God who empathizes.” (Oord, God Can’t, 43)

 

 

He goes on to note that God, who is the source of such love and empathy, is witnessed by others as being fully capable to be with us, to hear our hearts cry, and will never grow weary or run out of love:

 “God’s heart breaks by what breaks us. But this heartbrokenness does not lead God to despair. The God of perfect empathy never gets depressed to the point of immobility. The God of all consolation never suffers empathy fatigue. God’s sensitivity and emotion never lead to evil, because God’s nature is love…  God responds to all that is negative, frustrating, and painful with resilient hope. Pain, suffering, and agony never alter God’s everlasting love... God feels our pain… and can handle it.” (Oord, God Can’t, 39)

If God truly feels our pain and joins us in it, is this something we can experience?  How can we feel God feeling with us?  Before Oord offers half a dozen tips that might make feeling God feeling with us an experiential reality, he calls to our attention a handful of theological perspectives that may get in our way of such a dynamic.  Some have adopted a God-is-a-Brick-Wall orientation whereby God is around but completely impersonal.  Others have an Eye-in-the-Sky view, which is actually a functional Deism that keeps God in heaven without much involvement on earth.  The CEO-of-the-Universe paradigm has God only caring about the biggest picture possible, without concern for how related large-scale decisions might impact those on the ground.  The opposite of that would be the Micro-Manager view of God that portrays God as one primarily interested in the minutia of our lives.  This can lead into the Clean-Freak view that makes God so holy and pure that God doesn’t want anything to do with our dirty selves.  Finally, Oord noted that some can hold a Mob-Boss view, where it’s really good to be faithful family and friends of God, but woe to you if you are not!  Which views have you held?  How have they helped as well as limited your relationship with God?

God’s loving empathy can be experienced.  There are some time-honored practices and perspectives that seem to foster such experiences, as Oord notes.

·       Ministry of Human Presence: Counselor.  Sometimes it is a professional counselor or pastor whose role it is to listen deeply and reflectively and speak back into your life. I have had paradigms shift radically because I sense a word or phrase from a “pro” that seems to be coming directly from the heart of God.

·       Community of Care: Church at its best.  In this space we come together as people who want to seek and be sensitive to the Spirit’s guidance in our lives.  Odds are better this kind of community will conduit the presence of God than many other types of communities. “We all need community. Unswerving solitude stunts growth; those who persist alone perish alone. We need relational arks that promote health and healing. We need places and people who express God’s empathetic love (Oord, God Can’t, 48).

·       Mindfulness/Meditation/Prayer: “Prayer unmasks our false selves, and we encounter God as we really are. We are people loved by God, in need of transforming grace. We can engage others who face the same internal challenges” (Oord, God Can’t, 49).

·       Experiences in Nature. John Muir in Yosemite: “The place seemed holy, where one might hope to see God.  So after dark, when camp was at rest, I groped my way back to that altar boulder and passed the night on it – above the water, beneath the leaves and stars – everything still more impressive than by day, the falls seem dimly white, singing Nature’s old love song with solemn enthusiasm, while the stars peering through the leaf roof seemed to join in the whit water’s song… Thanks be to God for this immortal gift.” – My First Summer in the Sierra in The Wilderness World of John Muir, Edwin Way Teale, ed. (Mariner Books, 2001 [1911]).  Many people experience the presence of our Ground of Being when in the heart of nature.  This makes sense – why wouldn’t we expect to more likely experience the Creator when we immerse ourselves in creation?

·       Visual Arts, Music, and Movies.  Art in general is one human’s expression of their experience offered to the world.  In my experience, the arts need not to be overtly “Christian” or “religious” to be used of God to communicate empathy and compassion.  Sometimes instrumental music (no lyrics) is able to convey and draw such great emotion that it seems as if the music is itself a form of prayer to God, an act of sighing and groaning that Paul referenced in his letter to the Roman church.

·       Love of a Child.  Jesus gave us the right to think of God as a loving daddy that is engaged with his kids.  Children can serve as meaning-makers for parents.  Understanding God’s love for us both in the inherent love one’s children have for their parents, and the immediate, unconditional love parents often feel for their kids grounds our faith in loving trust.  I would include furry kids as well (as well as other types of pets that show devotion to their owners).  In my experience, dogs seem to love their “people” unconditionally, giving us love as well as providing an object for our affection.  Cats, on the other hand, serve to remind us of our selfish propensities…

Last week, we engaged the idea that there are simply some things God cannot do – driven from internal dynamics (not external).  Now we add to that a character trait of God – that this Higher Power truly feels our pain and joins us in it. 

How does this resonate with you?  What new way of engaging God might you adopt to help you move forward in faith and life?

Questions to Consider

1.       Why do you think some people believe God is unaffected and unemotional?

2.       How have bad views of God led you away from affirming God’s loving empathy?

3.       What’s the problem with saying a loving God who could prevent evil singlehandedly would choose instead to suffer with us?

4.       How does thinking of Jesus’ love help us believe God is loving?

5.       When have you felt God’s love, and what sparked that feeling?

6.       What obstacles hinder us from feeling God’s love?

7.       Which of the six practices mentioned near the chapter’s end do you want or need?

God Can't Singlehandedly Prevent Evil

It’s Just Chocolate Chip Cookies.  My parents are good people who did what they thought best in raising their four children.  We were solidly Middle Class, living in a suburban home in Overland Park, Kansas in the 1970’s.  Our basement floor was covered in carpet samples my dad got super cheap.  The orange shag was my favorite – an allusion to my future love of the San Francisco Giants, perhaps?  We grew up with good boundaries and were taught by example, mostly, what being a good person looked like.  We all turned out to be pretty decent people trying to do some good in the world.  And we all love food.  Especially sweets. Probably because we didn’t get sweets very often in the Overland Park years. 

Usually we got to have ice cream on special occasions like birthdays or if grandpa and grandma were in town and we got some vanilla to make our apple pie a la mode – a double treat.  On July 4th we would make home-made ice cream.  What better way to celebrate our nation’s independence than make the creamy stuff of the gods independent of Zarda’s Dairy.  Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day also brought with it some delicious tooth-decaying creations.  Beyond special occasions, we didn’t eat sweets.  My parents didn’t have us eating sweets often for a handful of reasons which included cost, health, tooth decay, weight, and that my mom had a tendency to hide the sweets and forget where she hid them, or eat the sweets before they made it to the table!  We did have a cookie jar which was rarely filled.  When it was, we knew it was essentially off limits.  Mom patrolled the jar and also performed quality control as needed – somebody had to!

I was taught from an early age to respect sweets.  To cherish them. To not over-indulge.  To not take other people’s sweets.  To even share sweets with others.  Good, wholesome Kansas sensibilities, all born out of my parents’ love for their children, wanting them to become healthy, wise, responsible adults.  When we were young, mom was there to determine how many sweets were appropriate.  She put the cookies or pie on our plate, scooped the ice cream, and also took things off if we took too much.  If we got sick on sweets as young kids, she would share the blame since she was right there to do something about it.  Mom could not be everywhere, of course, so there were times when things went awry.  One day not long after Halloween, I was left alone in our basement for a period of time.  Alone with my thoughts, my Halloween candy haul, and my brother’s bag of future dental bills as well. I always knew my brother to be generous, so I knew he wouldn’t mind sharing his candy with me.  Boy, was he generous!  He gave be two pieces of candy for every one of his!  Very Jesus like.  Except that he wasn’t around, which made it a clear case of theft.  I literally got caught holding the bag and had to give him back all the candy that I did not Trick-or-Treat for, plus some sort of punishment that I do not recall.  Had my mom been there, she would have prevented me from stealing in the first place and would have used physical action to wrest the bag from my death grip.  Even more, if she were present and I took candy from my brother’s bag, she would then be an accomplice, and in some way responsible for my brother’s candy deficit.  But she wasn’t there physically, so she wasn’t complicit in any way – this was all on me.  She reportedly loves my brother just as much as me (somehow), and wasn’t there to protect him, either.  He was hemorrhaging calories unawares.

I am now a grown man, and my mother is no longer in close enough proximity to monitor my sugar intake.  She still loves me and is in the Top Five list of people who care about my health the most.  She can only hope that I will remember the good lessons I learned growing up, and that I will grow in wisdom as I reflect on who I am and who I want to be as I face the choices that come my way.  The wisdom she gave resides in me, and she loves to hear from me.  And, I might add, she knows that now and then it is right and good to eat sweets in abundance for the simple pleasure of eating sweets!  Anyone who knows her knows she’s no cookie Nazi…

In his book, God Can’t, Tom Oord makes the case that God can’t prevent evil singlehandedly.  He notes that the word “can’t” is not the same as “won’t”, which assumes that God could if God wanted to thwart evil.  “Won’t” means God would then choose to allow evil to take place that God could keep from happening.  Our small human brains have collectively determined that such behavior makes a person an accomplice on some level to the evil performed.  “Can’t”, however, means that God is not able to prevent evil for some reason.  This is much more than semantics.  This is a very substantive difference he is noting. Oord notes, “Because God’s love self-gives and others-empowers, and because God loves all creatures from the most complex to the least, God cannot control. God loves everyone and everything, so God cannot control anyone or anything. This means a God of uncontrolling love cannot control evildoers to prevent their dastardly deeds” (God Can’t, 24).   “Can’t” means God’s hands are tied in some way. 

One way in which God’s hands are tied is the fact that God doesn’t have hands to tie!  God cannot physically constrain anyone to do anything because God is Spirit, as Jesus himself noted (John 4:24). “A bodiless, universal spirit cannot do what embodied creatures sometimes can. Despite having no body, God is present and active in all situations. Divine power is direct but persuasive, widespread but wooing, causal but uncontrolling. God’s loving activity makes a difference without imposing control or using a divine body” (Oord, God Can’t, 27).  Another reason God cannot prevent evil singlehandedly has to do with God’s character of love.  The constraints on God’s capacity are not external, but internally derived.  Love does note demand its own way (1 Cor. 13:5), as seen in Jesus throughout his ministry – he honored people’s freedom to choose as an act of love.   And another reason God cannot prevent evil singlehandedly is because God created everyone and everything with true freedom in mind: free will for us and a version of it for every aspect of creation.  Like my mom not being in the basement when I was ravaging my brother’s Trick-or-Treat bag, she could not prevent what was happening, and we all became aware (soon enough) that I had the capacity to freely act according to my own sweet-tooth-driven, greedy, self-centered will.

Are we without help in a world where evil seems to run rampant?  Not at all.  God can’t prevent evil singlehandedly, which implies that cooperating with others might make a difference.  Like my mother who did her best to influence me, in effect, to become like her, so God desires that we grow into God’s image – our True Self and greatest potential.  I am sure my mother at times hopes that I remember the good things she taught me.  Paul noted that the law of God is written on all people’s hearts – the goodness of God is part of us whether or not we know it.  And, anytime I want to connect with my mom – for help on something or to simply stay connected, my mom is more than happy to be available.  This is true of God as well.  When we call out to God, I believe God woos us toward love at its depths.  God can’t prevent evil singlehandedly, but that does not mean that God is uncaring or inactive.  Quite the contrary.  God is the very source of love and care, and God’s activity as Spirit can influence us and others greatly if we’ll have it.  Oord puts it beautifully here: “When complex creatures cooperate with God, good things happen. Love flourishes. Peace blossoms. Astonishing miracles can occur. When complex creatures fail to cooperate with God, evil happens. Unnecessary pain and pointless suffering occur.  The demons dance. Because a loving God did not make us and others robots, good and bad are possible” (God Can’t, 28).

What is your relationship with sweets?  How do you determine how many sweets you might enjoy?  You are free to choose, of course, and you are free to steal others’ cookies (although there will be consequences). You can also choose to drill deeper into your being and wonder what is aligned with your True Self as God’s reflected image.  You can go further and ask God to give you insight and strength regarding your cookies.  All of these behaviors apply if you eat too many cookies that you bought or made honorably or even if you steal them – seeking your True Self and God’s Spirit to guide you makes a difference.  And if someone steals your cookies, God is with you to pick up your crumbs, remind you of who you are, helping you become your True Self and giving you strength and direction as Spirit. 

There is great freedom in this way of thinking.  Freedom to stop blaming God for what God can’t do.  Freedom to take responsibility for our actions.  Freedom to understand others’ actions as their own.  Freedom to draw near to God for insight, support, and strength to move forward in our becoming.  The Spirit of God is active and present with us all: “God acts like a loving suitor.  Nothing can stop God from inviting us, moment-by-moment, to a loving relationship. God’s uncontrolling love is uncontrollable! But we can choose not to cooperate. We can fail to say, “Yes!” When we do not respond appropriately, the mutual relationship of love God desired is thwarted. God’s will is not done on earth as it is in heaven. But “Yes!” leads to abundant life” (God Can’t, 33).

The invitation toward love and life is constant.  How are you hearing it?  What does “Yes!” mean to you beyond simple emotional assent? What does “Yes!” look like played out in your life?  What are you going to do with this now?

God Can't: Introduction

Before I talk about some of the areas we will delve into in the God Can’t series based on the book by Thomas Jay Oord of the same name, I need you to do some preparatory work.  I will explain why after you take the following two assessments. *

What are your thoughts about free will? 

Circle your answer for each statement.

Strongly Agree <-> Strongly Disagree

1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9

1.       My exercise of free will is limited by my upbringing.

1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9

2.       Because of my background influences, I have no real free will.

1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9

3.       I will have free will all of my life.

1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9

4.       I have free will in life, regardless of group expectations or pressures.

1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9

5.       My behaviors are determined by conditioning and life experiences.

1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9

6.       My choices are limited by God’s plan for my life.

1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9

7.       My wealth, class, race, and gender determine my decisions and behavior.

1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9

8.       My choices are constrained by God.

1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9

9.       I am free to make choices in my life regardless of social conditions.

1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9

10.    I have total free will.

1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9

11.    My free will is limited by such social conditions as wealth, career, and class.

1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9

12.    My decisions fit into and thus are limited by a larger plan.

1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9

13.    My present behavior is totally a result of my childhood experiences.

1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9

14.    God’s will determines the choices I make.

1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9

15.    God has my life planned out.

1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9

16.    My behaviors are limited by my background.

1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9

17.    When things are going well for me, I consider it die to a run of good luck.

1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9

 

What words describe God?

 

Rate each word using the following valuations:

1: The word does not describe God.

2: The word describes God.

3: The word describes God particularly well.


1.       ___ Absolute

2.       ___ Active

3.       ___ All-wise

4.       ___ Avenging

5.       ___ Blessed

6.       ___ Blunt

7.       ___ Charitable

8.       ___ Comforting

9.       ___ Considerate

10.    ___ Controlling

11.    ___ Creative

12.    ___ Critical

13.    ___ Cruel

14.    ___ Damning

15.    ___ Dangerous

16.    ___ Demanding

17.    ___ Democratic

18.    ___ Distant

19.    ___ Divine

20.    ___ Eternal

21.    ___ Everlasting

22.    ___ Fair

23.    ___ Faithful

24.    ___ False

25.    ___ Fast

26.    ___ Fatherly

27.    ___ Fearful

28.    ___ Feeble

29.    ___ Firm

30.    ___ Forgiving

31.    ___ Formal

32.    ___ Gentle

33.    ___ Glorious

34.    ___ Gracious

35.    ___ Guiding

36.    ___ Hard

37.    ___ Helpful

38.    ___ Holy

39.    ___ Impersonal

40.    ___ Important

41.    ___ Inaccessible

42.    ___ Infinite

43.    ___ Jealous

44.    ___ Just

45.    ___ Kind

46.    ___ Kingly

47.    ___ Lenient

48.    ___ Loving

49.    ___ Majestic

50.    ___ Matchless

51.    ___ Meaningful

52.    ___ Meek

53.    ___ Merciful

54.    ___ Moving

55.    ___ Mythical

56.    ___ Omnipotent

57.    ___ Omnipresent

58.    ___ Omniscient

59.    ___ Patient

60.    ___ Passive

61.    ___ Permissive

62.    ___ Powerful

63.    ___ Protective

64.    ___ Punishing

65.    ___ Real

66.    ___ Redeeming

67.    ___ Restrictive

68.    ___ Righteous

69.    ___ Safe

70.    ___ Severe

71.    ___ Sharp

72.    ___ Slow

73.    ___ Soft

74.    ___ Sovereign

75.    ___ Steadfast

76.    ___ Stern

77.    ___ Still

78.    ___ Strong

79.    ___ Supporting

80.    ___ Timely

81.    ___ Tough

82.    ___ True

83.    ___ Unchanging

84.    ___ Unyielding

85.    ___ Valuable

86.    ___ Vigorous

87.    ___ Weak

88.    ___ Warm

89.    ___ Worthless

90.    ___ Wrathful

91.    ___ Yielding

 

Reviewing these two assessments – even without knowing quite how to score them – will give you a rough idea where you land on two areas of interest: your take on free will versus determinism and what adjectives you use to describe the nature of God.  Knowing these before we launch into thoughtful consideration of some deep theological weeds is critical if you want to be helped by this series.  If you don’t do this preliminary step, this series over time will be largely forgettable.  I mean that quite literally.  Because until we know what we believe, we really can’t believe otherwise.

From the moment we are born we take in loads of information and organize it into complex construct.  Since we are raised by human beings, we are naturally influenced by them – our eyes are radically shaped by their perspective, and so, therefore, are our constructs.  When we entertain new information that doesn’t fit into our constructs, we first engage it with curiosity.  However, if the new information cannot fit within our existing conceptual framework, we will reject the new information as absurd, and may even forget we ever heard about it.  When we first identify our construct so that we can compare and contrast the new construct with our existing one, we have the opportunity to truly compare them to one another and allow the new construct the capacity to transform or even replace our existing one (especially if that new concept is affirmed by supportive community over time).  Until we know what we believe, it is highly unlikely that we will believe otherwise, even to our detriment.

The new bus terminal in San Francisco provides a good example of this phenomenon in action.  The beautiful, new $2.2 billion terminal that was supposed to be a model for the future for other large cities trying to encourage mass transportation usage opened with great fanfare about a year ago, and then closed six weeks later after a maintenance worker noticed a massive crack running through a girder that was holding up a ceiling/parking garage as well as a deck for buses.  Luckily, the problem was caught before any large structural failure took place.  After expert evaluation, all involved recognized that the problem had to do with what the construction workers (or their supervisors) believed about the welding and cutting holes in steel.  They believed it didn’t make any difference which came first.  It turns out, however, that it made the difference between success and failure.  The information was likely available, and the engineers likely made a notation about how important it was that the welding preceded the hole cutting.  But if you have in your mind that it doesn’t make any difference, will you believe it does?  In this case, nope.  You can read the article here.

Until you are aware of what you believe, you will not likely believe anything else.  There is just not any room for it.

Most of us only acknowledge a problem when we can no longer ignore it.  Our drinking has caused too many problems.  Our anger is destroying relationships.  Or the realization is so profound that we cannot see the world the same again. This was the case for Jesus.  We’re not sure about all that went into the transformation, but his message was profoundly different from that which was being peddled around him.  So different that the system he was challenging killed him.  For a taste of his new ideas, read his famous Sermon on the Mount, where nearly everything he said challenged the status quo.  Jesus was a radical with radically different thoughts about God and life.  So was Paul.  As was the disciple, Peter.  Each of whom had their worlds turned upside down after they saw something they couldn’t unsee.  Unfortunately, it is often only when we are brought to our knees that we are humble enough to finally see, finally listen, finally change. 

Taking the above assessments is a proactive way to get into a mental space where you can think through what you believe so that when you hear something different, you can truly engage it and consider new constructs that will be helpful in your life and faith.  If you don’t bother with such a waste of time and energy, don’t worry: the human experience brings crises in abundance that will strain your construct like a parking deck and bus platform on a transportation hub in San Francisco.  Hopefully you will recognize the crack and fix it before the whole thing collapses…

 *The first test is the Free Will-Determinism Scale (Stroessner & Green, 1990), and the second is Adjective Ratings of God (Gorsuch, 1968).

2019 Ask Anything

The Process Behind the Answers

In the Christian tradition, Jesus is our role model for understanding what it means to live a faithful life that is full of meaning, purpose, fruitfulness, and of course, God.  He was referred to as a Rabbi, and based on his teachings, we can clearly identify that he employed a process espoused by the rabbinical tradition of his day.  In short, this would mean that he placed value in the scripture as a time-tested-and-honored remembrance of how the Jewish people were experiencing God.  The writers were surely humble and prayerful in their recording, and God surely was moving through them in the writing.  The text is about God – God is the story – and therefore it is sacred text.  And yet all of the fingerprints were left on the pages – all of the context was left there for all to see, which is a very good thing.  The ancient rabbis believed there was as much Spirit flowing in the writers of the text as in the readers and interpreters of the text.  God gives the interpreter insight as to understanding the meaning and how to apply the text as we carefully appreciate the original fingerprints/context and our own paradigms that filter everything we see and think about.  The text was not to be worshiped, but rather worked over and worked into our lives.  This is why Jesus felt free to offer new interpretations of scripture and its application – much to the chagrin of the leaders who had been teaching otherwise!  It’s partly why he got killed.

My approach to the Bible is in line with Jesus.  I treat it as incredibly informative and authoritative, but only when understood with context in mind, which sometimes makes an enormous difference.  The rabbis felt free to disagree with each other, to completely ignore passages they couldn’t make out, and to value multiple conclusions and applications regarding specific texts.  When I think about the issues of life and faith, I factor in what the Bible says in context, the character and nature of God (as best as I can), what I am sensing the Spirit saying to me in my context, and what other voices are saying in their context (scholars and colleagues).  Sometimes that leads me to very unorthodox conclusions, which I think is warranted at times, since orthodoxy itself originated hundreds of years after Jesus’ ministry, within a context that surely influenced the outcome (as is the case for every “amendment” to orthodoxy ever since).  My answers, therefore, are not proof-texted, but rather a reflection of what I believe to be responsible Christian praxis – and application of what I sense to be the Way of Jesus.

 

 

Ask Anything Answers

 

1.       Angels appeared in scripture. Do you believe angels intercede in healing or situations to help people?

a.       I believe God is actively engaged in the world toward redemptive ends which include bringing healing in many forms to a wide range of personal, community, and global concerns.  Some people may experience that activity as the presence of an angel(s) for whatever reasons.  Belief in angels or not does not, in my opinion, matter a whole lot because the end is the same: God is active.

2.       Is it the devil/Satan working in people that creates evil deeds, or people who propitiate evil ideas themselves? Some evil deeds are explained by mental illness, but what about people who plan and propitiate evil?

a.       There is no doubt that evil exists in the world.  Those who were living in Jesus’ era had developed a way of explaining evil by personifying it with the Satan figure (whose character and role evolved throughout scripture).  I don’t resonate with such personification, mainly because I believe it severely limits our understanding of the roots of evil and therefore may hinder our ability to address them.  There are lots of reasons people carry out evil in small and large ways.  Selfishness seems to be a common theme, which makes sense because the Spirit of God invites us to always be mindful of others as much as ourselves.

3.       What is the definition of heaven?  If there is no hell but separation from God, what is heaven?

a.       There are a range of images for what heaven may be like.  All metaphors describing what it might be like to be in the full presence of God.  The idea of a literal hell needs to be revisited in light of biblical research chronicling the motivation and development of the concept beginning a few centuries before Jesus was born.

4.       Some people believe in being reunited with loved ones or others from their lifetime in heaven. If that is so, what about those of us who don’t want to be reunited with family or other people who harmed us, such as pedophiles?  Are pedophiles ever forgiven?  Does Matthew 18:6 apply to any harm to children? What assurance do we have of peaceful eternal life without those people?

a.       The Apostle Paul uses a metaphor of a refiner’s fire to describe what happens at the end of our lives which reveals what we’ve made of our lives.  I like it.  There is room for the most broken person who is left with only their soul, yet for those who build their lives with the Spirit’s lead, there is great beauty revealed.  Our “family reunion” views are metaphor depicting a happy, hopeful future, but it remains a metaphor.  For those longing for the reunion, there is good news – it will be better than that.  For those who cannot fathom heaven like that, there is good news – it will be better than that.  In the Christian tradition, we trust the teaching and modeling of Jesus.  We place ourselves and our hope in his care.  What more graceful hope could we possibly have?

5.       How am I to understand other religion’s “God” when our God loves us all. Is their God real?

a.       Every religion is trying to make sense of the world, life, faith, the future, etc.  When we get stuck on the details of the specific doctrines, we see great separation.  When we listen to the mystics from those same traditions, we get unity: God is love, peace, joy, life – we are tapping into the same Ground of Being.  When we worship religion, we’re in trouble.  When we worship what religions are trying to help us seek, we worship the same Greater Other. Aside: When you’re hearing hatred, you are not likely hearing God.

6.       Pastor Pete, you’ve said in a YouTube video that Jesus can be viewed as a demigod, rather than THE GOD incarnate. How is that reconciled with John 1:1? And would you say the same thing about other gods throughout history – that they were “with God in the beginning?”

a.       What I was highlighting was something we very easily overlook as Christians 2,000 years removed from Jesus’ birth.  As Matthew and Luke tell the Jesus story, God in some fashion got Mary pregnant, making it a divine-human baby.  This was welcome news to a non-Jewish audience who were accustomed to such beliefs from their Roman and Greek mythology.  It added to Jesus’ credibility in their eyes.  BUT! The idea of a Jewish-demigod-Messiah was appalling – they would never believe such a thing.  I mentioned it to encourage a bit more roominess in our thinking about the mystery surrounding what was going on in Jesus.  As for John 1:1, scholars understand that the Word refers more to the anointing Spirit rather than Jesus’ physical person.  The Word is that agency of God that comes. Inhabits, and speaks to the world.

7.       Is there any sin that is unforgivable? If so, what are the unforgivable sins? Whose sin was worse, Peter’s denial or Judas’ betrayal?

a.       The Bible speaks of denying the Spirit as an unforgivable sin.  I think forgiveness is a bigger deal for us than God.  We can’t really “own” forgiveness until we are on the other side of sin where we recognize what we’ve been up to and seek to turn it around (the meaning of repent). It’s not that God is unwilling to forgive – it’s that we are still messing things up willfully and therefore unable to see what we’re doing and be open to reconciliation.  In that sense, God’s hands are tied – God is waiting with grace once we come to our senses.  Hard to know which sin was worse – both suck.  Both are reminders of what well-meaning, Jesus-loving people are capable of.

8.       Why does the Church focus so much on original sin from Genesis?

a.       Because Paul created the idea to provide a biblical/theological rational for Gentile inclusion.  Original Sin is a Christian concept, not Jewish.  We shouldn’t be focusing so much on it, frankly – it was derived for a purpose that we have coopted for our own theology.  I think Paul is rolling in his grave about this.

9.       Why did Jesus have to die on the cross? What if he didn’t?

a.       The classic answer rooted in orthodoxy is that he had to die so that a final sacrifice could be made on our behalf – he became the substitutionary atonement that satisfied God’s need for justice to keep heaven holy, pure, sin-free, etc.  This idea did not come readily to the disciples.  It took years for them to figure out what to do with Jesus’ crucifixion.  Substitutionary atone and paying the ransom was the answer that made sense to them.  However, the Bible is ultra clear that God in no way shape or form desired or ever dictated human sacrifice to be made to atone for sin.  Soooooooo, that makes the idea of Jesus’ death-as-God’s-means-of-atonement troubling, at best. Jesus’ whole life and teaching was about the grace of God in its beautiful depths.  If he would have died at a very old age after a long life of ministry, and then appeared in resurrected form to his disciples, my guess is that we would be talking about the beauty and depth of God’s grace just like we are now, but without the need for substitutionary atonement.  Shocker: God was gracious and forgiving before the cross.  The cross became a new symbol for grace – but it did not change God’s level of graciousness. 

10.    What’s CrossWalk’s position on divorce?

a.       Divorce is an extremely excruciating experience that nobody signs up for on their wedding day.  It signals the brokenness of covenant, trust, shared dreams, and much more – which is why God hates it.  We should be compassionate with those who are involved in divorce at all levels instead of legalistic.  People need love here, not a spanking.

11.    Does God laugh?

a.       Of course!  What other explanation could there be for thunder?

12.    What is the good history of the Baptist Church?

a.       We started out as people who read their bibles freely and interpreted it as they saw fit, which led them to believer’s baptism.  Baptists have also at times been instrumental in the work toward freedom from slavery and for civil rights.  Martin Luther King, Jr. was a Baptist preacher.  Recently, however, as conservative dogmatism has increased, Baptists are more associated with being judgmental jerks that only care about abortion and gay marriage, and who is going to hell.

13.    What is the point of life given its brevity, followed by a never-ending eternity?

a.       The point of life is to experience the gift of life to its fullest potential with the hope that when this life gives out (we die), we will return to the very source of life (God).  The Good News is that no matter what cards we are dealt, God is with us, loving and leading us toward that greatest experience of life that ultimately has absolutely nothing to do with how much money we make or how we look or how much we weigh or how many Facebook friends we have or…  In the Christian tradition, we believe that way of life was modeled by Jesus, who was all about stretching, kneeling, gracing, incarnating, connecting with God, choosing God over self, all for the purpose of new life, restoration, resurrection here and now for everybody, always.  Pretty compelling.

14.    What are your views on the death penalty?

a.       I think it’s a bad idea for a number of reasons.  First and foremost, dehumanizing one person allows us to dehumanize many, many more, which is an afront to the core idea that we are all created in the image of God.  Second, there is no evidence that the death penalty reduces violent crime.  Third, there have been cases when the wrong person was put to death. Fourth, it is an unbelievable waste of money.  Nobody sentenced to death in our country dies next week – maybe next decade after appeal after appeal is attempted.  Life in prison without parole is a much more fitting sentence that saves a lot of money.

15.    How does this church guard against “giving/serving burnout”?

a.       Some ministries are more prone to this than others.  Children’s ministry, in particular, is very prone to burnout.  So, we try to limit how often our volunteers and staff serve, and try to keep tabs on their health.  We also try hard not to impose guilt or shame on anybody who needs to step away. As a pastor in a field where burnout is really high, I try to build balance into my life with regular days off and vacation.  If I am modeling balance, there is a better chance we will not overly celebrate workaholism in the church.  There are no bonus points for ruining our lives and families in the name of the Lord…

16.    What’s the best approach to reading the Bible?

a.       Slowly, thoughtfully, and methodically.  There is value in reading the whole thing so that you have a clue what’s in there.  But, in case you haven’t noticed, it’s a pretty big book – a collection of 66 books.  I would start with one of the Gospels and simply read it through slowly – stopping often to reflect on what is being said.  Journal about it.  Getting a good commentary can be very helpful in uncovering the context and nuances that would otherwise be missed.  I think The New Interpreters One Volume Bible Commentary and the Harper Collins Commentary are great additions to anyone’s library.  Making Sense of the Bible by Adam Hamilton is a book we sell here – it’s a very good guide.  Pete Enns also has a book on the Bible that we will sell in 2020 when the paperback comes out.  Read it as if you are reading someone else’s mail.

17.    What role does the Eucharist play here at CrossWalk?

a.       An infrequent one, unfortunately…  If you are coming from a Catholic or Episcopal background, the infrequency of communion may be startling.  I’d like to change that, but need some help to make that happen.  The Baptist tradition generally offers communion once a month.  The reason for the difference has much to do with where emphasis is placed on worship elements.  In the aforementioned traditions, communion is really central, where in most Protestant traditions, the teaching of the Bible is most central.  If you love communion, let me know so I can recruit you to a team to make it happen!

18.    How can CrossWalk embrace mysticism and the Divine Feminine?

a.       We’re certainly open to it and working on it.  The upcoming class on meditation will certainly help.  I’m a mystic myself, and love Richard Rohr – so there is plenty of motivation coming from my office. 

19.    Best way to deal with difficult people?

a.       Really good boundaries and a lot of prayer.  Get the book, Boundaries, by Townsend and Cloud.

20.    What’s a good ten minutes to start my day?

a.       I think it is very wise to incorporate into the beginning of the day solitude/silence/stillness, sacred input (devotional, scripture, listening to spiritual’ish music), reflection, and resolve to be your healthiest self.  This centers us, grounds us in God, and reminds us of who we are capable of becoming.

 

Everybody Always: Love Even the Difficult People

We come up with all sorts of reasons to limit the love we give to others. There is wisdom in caution, and yet we are simultaneously invited to go deep with love in our pursuit of becoming love. Bob Goff shares just how far he went in his belief in the power of love and how it worked out.

This video includes some meditative thoughts at the front in that was used for a communion service before the Bob Goff portion, and concludes with some final thoughts from Pete.

Everybody Always: Immigrants

Today we welcomed Karla Marquez for an interview with Pete. She has done extensive work with undocumented immigrants in Napa, and shared some of what they are going through. Her experience helps us better understand what this segment of our population faces as our US immigration policies have shifted over the years.

Everybody Always: Liberty and Justice for All?

What do you recall being the primary reasons motivating the United State’s Declaration of Independence?  These were deep political issues of the day that moved the leaders of our colonies to put their lives on the line for what they deemed a better future.

What do you imagine will be among the most important issues debated in the 2020 Presidential Election?  If you were running for president, how would you land on the key issues?  What is the reasoning behind your position?

My stomach turned as I watched a high profile pastor tell his congregation who to vote for in 2012, especially since I knew that a number of years before he would have singled that same candidate out as apostate, who could not be trusted given the faith tradition of which he was a significant leader.  Other churches have invited politicians onto their stages to promote their flavor of partisan politics – both on the red and blue side of the aisle.  I gladly join the chorus who want politics out of the church.  In an eye-opening book entitled To Change the World, author James Hunter notes that religious groups have become the useful idiots of political parties: Evangelicals in service of the Republican party, and more progressive churches for Democrats.  Recent polls regarding support of President Trump and Republicans in general certainly affirm his assertions.  Wouldn’t it be great if we could just stick to the Gospel like Jesus did?

In Luke’s remembrance, Jesus taught from the Prophet Isaiah to set the tone for his forthcoming ministry:

Then Jesus returned to Galilee, filled with the Holy Spirit’s power. Reports about him spread quickly through the whole region. He taught regularly in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.
     When he came to the village of Nazareth, his boyhood home, he went as usual to the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read the Scriptures. The scroll of Isaiah the prophet was handed to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where this was written:
     “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
     for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor.
     He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released,
     that the blind will see,
     that the oppressed will be set free,
     and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.”
     He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the attendant, and sat down. All eyes in the synagogue looked at him intently. Then he began to speak to them. “The Scripture you’ve just heard has been fulfilled this very day!”
     Everyone spoke well of him and was amazed by the gracious words that came from his lips. “How can this be?” they asked. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” – Luke 4:14-22 NLT

In Matthew’s account of Jesus’ life and ministry, we read the following:

Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. – Matthew 4:23

And then a little later, basically the same thing:

Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. – Matthew 9:35

But then, at some point, John the Baptist – the guy who baptized Jesus and told everybody he was the guy to follow, began to wonder if he made the right choice, as the following verses display:

     When Jesus had finished giving these instructions to his twelve disciples, he went out to teach and preach in towns throughout the region.
     John the Baptist, who was in prison, heard about all the things the Messiah was doing. So he sent his disciples to ask Jesus, “Are you the Messiah we’ve been expecting, or should we keep looking for someone else?”
     Jesus told them, “Go back to John and tell him what you have heard and seen— the blind see, the lame walk, those with leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, and the Good News is being preached to the poor.” And he added, “God blesses those who do not fall away because of me.” – Matthew 11:1-6 NLT

What would prompt one like John the Baptist to question Jesus’ role?  In a word, politics.  What Jesus was doing and saying conflicted with John’s way of seeing the world politically.  In fact, he probably thought Jesus was way too political, period.  If we walked in his shoes, we probably would, too.

When we hear words like Gospel, Good News, and Evangelism, we might naturally think first of Jesus and the movement he started.  In fact, however, he was stealing terms that already flooded the market.  There was another group that used these same words when they rolled into town: the Roman Empire.  What was their Gospel (which means Good News)?  The Pax Romana.  Want peace and prosperity? Put your trust in the Empire and in its Emperor (who liked to be called Lord and God). When Jesus’ audience heard him use phrases which included “Good News”, they immediately knew he was challenging Rome.  Not only that, when he was calling himself the one anointed by God to bring the Good News, he was essentially calling the Emperor himself a fraud.  When he invited people to follow him, he was in effect guilty of insurrection.

What would it look like if Jesus was engaged in his ministry years today, in Napa, CA?  You might hear him say something like this:

     I have been anointed to Make America Great Again!  The Kingdom of God is here to bring liberty and justice for all.

Anyone who heard what he said would immediately recognize that he was challenging President Trump, and the United States of America.  Any fans of President Trump and the United States would be immediately on edge, because Jesus’ words were unequivocally politically challenging and unsettling.  If Jesus then went on to heal people – making it obvious that God was working in him – it made his threat legitimate.

But the Roman Empire and her emperor were not the only powerful presence to be challenged in word and deed.  In what is considered his great sermon – the Sermon on the Mount – Jesus said some challenging things that don’t ping our radar: But I warn you – unless your righteousness is better than the righteousness of the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven! (Matthew 5:20 NLT). And then he went on, using the phrase in different ways, “You have heard it said, but I say…”  Do you know what Jesus was doing here?  He was saying that he had a new interpretation of the faith.  Do you know where he was saying this?  In Galilee.  Do you know who was ultimately in charge of interpreting the faith for Jewish people everywhere?  The High Priest and his “court”. Do you know where they resided?  Jerusalem.  With his words, Jesus was directly challenging the authority of another political group: the Jewish leadership, who were given authority by the Romans over the people of Israel to carry out the religion and keep people in line.  They even had their own courts and military-type presence. 

Think about how it would fly if a catholic priest began gaining notoriety as a teacher, and then began boldly saying, I know the Pope said women couldn’t be priests, but I’m here to tell you God thinks it is fine.  So is marriage for clergy.  God has anointed me to tell you this.  You might think he was nuts, of course, but then what if he follows his words with miracles – pulling off healing that only the Spirit of God could bring about.  Now he has your attention.  Returning to Jesus’ ministry, what if you were in love with the Temple and its traditional way of thinking and being?  You would feel challenged, and maybe even threatened by Jesus’ politics.  And the fact that God was obviously with him only made his presence even more troubling.

Political powers eventually killed Jesus.  They saw Jesus as a threat, and they took care of business. If only Jesus hadn’t been so political…  Why did he touch that third rail?  Didn’t his mom and dad teach him never to talk about politics or religion? Or was Jesus’ death the cautionary tale that gave rise to the social-setting advice?

Jesus wasn’t trying to play politics.  He wouldn’t sink that low.  While he surely used words in his teachings that were provocative, he wasn’t interested in playing on the field of the Roman Empire or even the Temple.  He had a higher source that guided his steps, what he called the Kingdom of God (or Kingdom of Heaven).  Whenever he spoke of it, he was referring to what things were really like in God’s mind – what really mattered, what values were most important, etc.  In one passage he said, “I only do what I see my Father doing” (John5:19). If he were here in the flesh among us today, he would be the same.  At times both political parties would cheer him on, until he pointed out the corruption in both.  He would not endorse a candidate either, because his allegiance is to something and someone much more important than the President of the United States, the Pope, the American Flag or the Christian flag.  It is the Kingdom of God that drives him, and always will, which at times will lead to new interpretations of long-held, time-honored traditions, and including people who once were excluded.  The Spirit of God flows from the Kingdom of God.  Jesus didn’t worry a lot about Rome or Jerusalem because neither were his home or goal.  He really did march to the beat of a different drummer, playing a totally different rhythm that Rome and Jerusalem couldn’t pick up.

This, my friends, has implications for any of us who dare call ourselves followers of Jesus.

The first implication has to do with our primary allegiance.  The Temple fell at the hands of the Roman Empire in 70 C.E.  Eventually the Roman Empire fell, too.  We don’t have those two powers in our face these days.  But we do have our country, the United States, and we do have the Christian religion.  Both are modern day empires in their own rite, wielding power for good and ill all over the world.  Do you love your country?  Do you love your religion?  I bet you do if you’re reading this.  Do you love the Way of Jesus?  Which is primary for you?  One quick way you can know is whether you’ve seriously asked yourself where Jesus is at odds with your political party, faith tradition, or its leaders.  If you’ve never asked, you have, by default, made something else primary.

The second implication I want to have us consider has to do with the “So what?” factor.  Is it possible that we have been on auto pilot regarding our primary allegiances, and on what Jesus’ Way is all about?  If we have been, my call to us is to WAKE UP!  Discover what the Way of Jesus entails and follow.  This will require curiosity on our parts.  If you don’t know whether the Way of Jesus conflicts with your political views or religious views, this simply means you are asleep at the wheel.  So, again, WAKE UP!  Jesus didn’t do everything he did so we could nap our lives away – he did it all so that we would experience the transformation that the Spirit of God brings to our lives, and that we would get further transformed by helping others experience restoration individually and collectively.

You probably know your party’s and religion’s position on a range of issues.  What does your thoughtful, prayerful study of Jesus’ Way lead you to believe would be the Kingdom of God position on the critical issues of our day, which may or may not include the key election issues undergoing debate?  Surely the following would be on the list (and I encourage you to add more):

·       Immigration of refugees, asylum seekers, and hopeful workers.

·       Nationalism, capitalism, globalism, and the US’ role in each.

·       Climate change.

·       Military: defense spending and our international involvement.

·       Denuclearization of North Korea and Iran

·       Gun control and violence.

·       Equality and equity for all people regardless of race, gender, and sexual orientation.

·       Income inequality and disparity.

·       Healthcare.

·       Foreign influence regarding US intelligence and elections.

·       Transparency and freedom of the press.

·       Character and demeanor of our highest elected officials.

·       Taxation: who gets breaks and for what purpose?

When we begin to discover where Jesus departs from our chosen political and religious leanings, it is at that point that we have a choice to make about who and what claims our highest allegiance.  And once we have a picture of that – and if we choose the Way of Jesus – it will necessarily lead to appropriate attitudes and behaviors that will conflict with your religious and political parties.  Faith isn’t simply about inner peace.  Our spiritual practices are meant to renew our minds, transform our hearts, and give us vision from the heart and mind of God so that we what we do with our lives is rooted in the same way as it was for Jesus.  Discover anew the Way of Jesus.  Prayerfully process the important issues of our day.  Then, taking the lead from Jesus, do something with your new understanding.  May you be a voice, a presence, for the things that mattered to Jesus and God.  May your hands and feet go places and do things like Jesus did.  May you be known for your deep and abiding love that permeates everything you do and guides your thoughtful steps.

Everybody Always: Catch People on the Bounce

This week we tuned in to Bob Goff via video for his insights into how we become love with those a few rungs out on our sphere of influence. For your benefit, below are some quotes and “homework” we provided during our service. If you’d like to listen to what Bob Goff said, click play to the right or subscribe to our podcast.

Quotables from Bob Goff’s Video Teaching

•       Instead of telling people what they want, tell them who they are.

•       Recognize that God made people just like God made you – and God made you to know others.

•       The best way you can express your faith to people is to tell them who they are becoming.

•       God found you right where you are, and you can find other people the same way.

•       The story of the Gospel is that [in] Jesus [God] jumped out of heaven to be with us.

•       Talk about the right stuff behind people’s backs: who they’re turning into, not who they used to be.

•       Don’t let shame distance you from God, and don’t let it distance you from others.

•       Follow Jesus to people who are hurting – who have hit the ground hard – and catch them on the bounce.

Which of the above quotes is especially relevant to you today? Why?

 

 

 

What do you feel compelled to do in response to today’s teaching?


During the week…

Read the Parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32)

There is a whole lot in this story to chew on.  The father in the story is a metaphor for God, and the two sons sure seem to reflect our human tendencies.  In a world that was hyper focused on keeping score, the father chose to focus on mercy instead.  The younger brother came to his senses, came home and received it.  The older brother never left the property yet was never really home, and never really embraced the love that the father had for him all along.  God’s love is truly unconditional and unlimited in breadth and depth.  Will we come home to receive it?

Questions to think about…

1.       In what ways can you relate to the “score keeping” nature of the older brother?

2.       In what ways has God shown you mercy like the younger son?

3.       How do you respond to the idea that God threw a party for the younger son?

4.       How does this parable challenge your vision of others?

5.       Do you think the older brother ever joined the party?  What would you do if you were in his place?

Questions for chapters four through six of Everybody, Always…

1.       Does your Christian practice feel more like “faith” or compliance?

2.       Is there a relationship where you’ve let shame create a barrier between you and someone else? What would it look like to heal that divide?

3.       What does it mean to build a “kingdom” rather than a “castle” when it comes to accepting others who are different from you?

4.       What are some ways to love the difficult people in your life “thirty seconds at a time”?

5.       Why is it so important to react to those who have failed with compassion and understanding instead of disapproval or indifference?

Everybody Always: Daddy

When we come to a place where we realize that God is truly loving in the deepest possible way, it makes it a lot easier to open up to God. (Versus a fear-based religious perspective – the parable of the talents).

Jesus did a lot of his teaching using parables, short stories that carried great meaning and inherent challenges.  One of his parables has a major point that has been largely missed, perhaps especially by “can-do” Americans.  Here is the Parable of the Talents from Matthew 25:14-30 (NLT):

     “Again, the Kingdom of Heaven can be illustrated by the story of a man going on a long trip. He called together his servants and entrusted his money to them while he was gone. He gave five bags of silver to one, two bags of silver to another, and one bag of silver to the last—dividing it in proportion to their abilities. He then left on his trip.
     “The servant who received the five bags of silver began to invest the money and earned five more. The servant with two bags of silver also went to work and earned two more. But the servant who received the one bag of silver dug a hole in the ground and hid the master’s money.
     “After a long time their master returned from his trip and called them to give an account of how they had used his money. The servant to whom he had entrusted the five bags of silver came forward with five more and said, ‘Master, you gave me five bags of silver to invest, and I have earned five more.’
     “The master was full of praise. ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let’s celebrate together!’
     “The servant who had received the two bags of silver came forward and said, ‘Master, you gave me two bags of silver to invest, and I have earned two more.’
     “The master said, ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let’s celebrate together!’
     “Then the servant with the one bag of silver came and said, ‘Master, I knew you were a harsh man, harvesting crops you didn’t plant and gathering crops you didn’t cultivate. I was afraid I would lose your money, so I hid it in the earth. Look, here is your money back.’
     “But the master replied, ‘You wicked and lazy servant! If you knew I harvested crops I didn’t plant and gathered crops I didn’t cultivate, why didn’t you deposit my money in the bank? At least I could have gotten some interest on it.’
     “Then he ordered, ‘Take the money from this servant, and give it to the one with the ten bags of silver. To those who use well what they are given, even more will be given, and they will have an abundance. But from those who do nothing, even what little they have will be taken away. Now throw this useless servant into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

We read this and freak out, wondering if we’re doing enough to warrant a high five from Jesus.  Freaking out, however, means we’ve already missed the point, and actually serves to make the point Jesus was making about the character and nature of God and about how God longs to interact with us.  The thrust of the story is that we, as the servants, have been entrusted and encouraged by the Master – a great honor that we miss in our fear of underperformance.  The problem with the servant who blew it was that he never really understood what had really been given him – trust and support.  Because he missed that memo, he lived his life way below his capacity. 

Bob Goff shared an interesting insight in his book: Don’t tell people what they want; tell people who they are.  He says that we are constantly told what we should want – by our parents, friends, church, employers, marketers.  But we become who we are told we are.  Jesus was doing that sort of thing with this parable, telling his followers who they are: beloved and entrusted servants who are encouraged to risk on that love and trust.  If somewhere in the recesses of your mind you are living your life and faith afraid of God’s wrath, you’ve probably missed Jesus’ memo (and the primary thrust of his life and teaching).  God is love, and God loves you.  Once we get that, it makes it a whole lot more likely to fulfill the first and greatest commandment to love God with everything we’ve got.

When we know we are inherently and unconditionally loved by the very source of life, it makes loving ourselves and feeling loved a whole lot easier.  The Apostle Paul was writing to a church that was caught up in performance and comparison, and had gotten away from the whole point about love.  His “Love Chapter” (1 Corinthians 13 - MSG) is quoted often at wedding ceremonies:

     If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.
     If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing.
If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love.
     Love never gives up.
     Love cares more for others than for self.
     Love doesn't want what it doesn't have.
     Love doesn't strut,
     Doesn't have a swelled head,
     Doesn't force itself on others,
     Isn't always "me first,"
     Doesn't fly off the handle,
     Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,
     Doesn't revel when others grovel,
     Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
     Puts up with anything,
     Trusts God always,
     Always looks for the best,
     Never looks back,
     But keeps going to the end.
     Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.
     When I was an infant at my mother's breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant. When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good.
     We don't yet see things clearly. We're squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won't be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We'll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!
     But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.

In my personal experience, when I am in touch with how much I am loved, I seem to be able to reflect Paul’s sentiments much more naturally than if I’m not in touch with love.  When I feel unloved – mostly because I’m not paying attention or distracted by pain – I really struggle to love myself and others as Paul describes.  Being in touch with how much we are loved is essential if we want to live into the second greatest commandment to love our neighbors as ourselves.  I wonder if one of the reasons we sometimes suck at loving our neighbors is because we don’t love ourselves?

Do you remember how Jesus referred to God?  He often spoke of God as his father.  But he also did an audacious thing: he called God “Daddy”.  Nobody called God that.  It was nearly heretical to use a term of such familiarity for God.  Yet Jesus did.  I think he believed it for himself, which gave him the confidence to do a lot of bold stuff – a lot of high-risk investments, reinterpretation of scriptures, and hanging out with “questionable” people.  He knew the love was there.  The love informed how he thought.  As he no doubt reflected deeply on God’s love, he surely realized that God felt this way about everybody, always, which made it so much easier to love people.  Jesus became love incarnate because he heard the words from God that he was loved.  He became love.  So can we.

I want to invite you to consider using a different name for God as you pray this week: Daddy.  Just see what happens.  Who knows, maybe using such a familiar term will help you realize how safe and loved you are, and maybe that will lead you to love yourself as you should, and maybe that will lead you to see everybody, always, as brother and sister, and maybe that will lead you to love them as your heavenly Daddy has loved you.  May it be so.

Everybody Always: Introduction

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but it appears as if we live in a country that is somewhat divided.  Okay, that may be an understatement.  Upon reflection, I think our country has always been divided over one thing or another yet comes together’ish in unity – albeit brief – when we must.  Perhaps division is inevitable in such a diverse country as ours, when different people and groups broker for power in every sector. 

I love our country, but we suck at how we talk about our differences.  We have surely made progress in so many ways, but I have to think it could have been less bloody (literally in some cases) if we took a different tactic.  The different approach I think has everything to do with how we think about ourselves and everybody else.  Perhaps if we took an approach to people like that modeled by Jesus, we would see a lot more love in a world where hate seems to show up all too regularly.

Everybody Always, by Bob Goff, is all about helping us become more lovely in all we do to make the world a better place by following Jesus’ lead.  The book is filled with really great stories from Bob’s life experience and adventures, all tied together with quick wit and poignant observations.  I found myself laughing out loud, tearing up, on the edge of my seat with some stories, and even filled with righteous anger as I read through the work.  And I highlighted a lot of great insights, too, thanks to Goff’s ability to turn a phrase.

I really appreciate the gracious view of the human experience that Goff brings.  He is realistic while remaining hopeful, understanding the we are all in process.  Using this book – his 2nd or 3rd depending on your perspective – he writes about our lives: God continues to rewrite our lives the way I rewrote my book – in beautiful and unexpected ways, knowing the next version of us will usually be better than the previous one.  Here are some other notable quotes I highlighted:

Whenever I make my opinions more important than the difficult people God made, I turn wine back to water. I’m trying to resist the bait that darkness offers me every day to trade kindness for rightness.

Only Jesus has the power to change people, and it will be harder for them to see Jesus if their view of Him is blocked by our big opinions.

While we might be known for our opinions, we’ll be remembered for our love.

Love isn’t something we fall into; love is someone we become.

Burning down others’ opinions doesn’t make us right. It makes us arsonists.

If you really want one statement that gets at Goff’s goal for the living in the Way of Jesus, it might be this: God wants us to grow love in our hearts and then cultivate it by the acre in the world. We’ll become in our lives what we do with our love.  And to encourage us on our way:

Loving each other is what we were meant to do and how we were made to roll.  It’s not where we start when we begin following Jesus; it’s the beautiful path we travel the rest of our lives.  Will it be messy and ambiguous and uncomfortable when we love people the way Jesus said to love them? You bet it will. Will we be misunderstood? Constantly. But extravagant love often means coloring outside the lines and going beyond the norms. Loving the neighbors we don’t understand takes work and humility and patience and guts. It means leaving the security of our easy relationships to engage in some tremendously awkward ones.

We will be playing with the theme of this book all summer long.  On weeks when we hear from Bob Goff via video, I will give some highlights.  Some weeks I will offer a related teaching and will do my normal summary in this blog.  Some weeks we will hear from community members who have something to share with us about certain aspects of our collective “everybody” who may get overlooked.  I will hope to provide some questions to help you take the series a few steps further.  Enjoy!

Stuff that was on this week’s insert:

Quotables from Bob Goff

•       Let the people in your life know that they are not only invited but welcome.

•       You do business with buyers, but you do life with neighbors.

•       Loving your neighbors is woven into your DNA and your faith.

•       God’s message to you is that you don’t have to be afraid anymore.

•       We are given a peek at what God is doing in the world through the people around us.

•       Part of finding your joy in life is helping others find their joy.

•       God wants you to love everyone, but what you need to do is start across the street.

 

Which of the above quotes is especially relevant to you today? Why?

 

How might you get to know your least known neighbor better this week?  What questions can you ask to get to know their story?

During the week…

Matthew 18:1-5 (MSG)

At about the same time, the disciples came to Jesus asking, "Who gets the highest rank in God's kingdom?"
     For an answer Jesus called over a child, whom he stood in the middle of the room, and said, "I'm telling you, once and for all, that unless you return to square one and start over like children, you're not even going to get a look at the kingdom, let alone get in. Whoever becomes simple and elemental again, like this child, will rank high in God's kingdom. What's more, when you receive the childlike on my account, it's the same as receiving me.”

There is a lot in Jesus’ statement here to chew on.  Children in antiquity were to maybe be seen, yet definitely not heard.  They did not have a voice, and their rights were limited.  They could not survive on their own – they were dependent on their caregivers.  They also had a lot to learn – and they knew it!  In addition, they had to learn to trust those looking after them, taking their advice and direction. 

Questions to think about…

1.     What else might this metaphor communicate?

2.     What aspect of being childlike in your faith comes easiest to you?

3.     What aspect of being childlike in your faith is more difficult?  Why?

4.     How does being childlike differ from our cultural view of success?

5.     How/why does welcoming a child translate into welcoming Jesus?

6.     How is all of this related to living in the Spirit of God?

Questions about loving your neighbor…

1.     Who do you know that loves their neighbor well?

2.     What barriers do you encounter when trying to love difficult people?  How might you learn from Jesus about how to deal with them?

3.     What does extravagant love look like in your life?

4.     What are some ways that you are actively loving your neighbors? How has this involved more than just speaking with them occasionally?

The Stuff of Life: Getting Real

I really don’t like talking about money.  Mostly because I know it is a sensitive subject for people to talk about.  Finances command a lot of our attention.  Money is one of the most common topics for conflict in marriages.  Then add faith into the mix, and an ugly history of the church using all sorts of measures to squeeze contributions out of their members and, well, is it any wonder I wouldn’t like talking about this?

Today I want to bring this series on The Stuff of Life together, and even add to it some other dimensions of giving – like our time and talent.  But before I do, I want to get some things off my chest and hopefully put you (and me) more at ease.  First off, I hate guilt trips, and have no desire to use guilt or shame to motivate generosity.  The Church has used shame and guilt (as well as coercion) which is just simply counter to the Way of Jesus.  Sometimes the story of the Widow’s Mite is used for this purpose.:

Jesus sat down near the collection box in the Temple and watched as the crowds dropped in their money. Many rich people put in large amounts. Then a poor widow came and dropped in two small coins.

Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I tell you the truth, this poor widow has given more than all the others who are making contributions. For they gave a tiny part of their surplus, but she, poor as she is, has given everything she had to live on.” – Luke 21:1-4 (NLT)

This text has been used inappropriately to make those of us who don’t follow suit all feel like selfish losers!  In truth, while the widow deserves honor for her faithfulness, Jesus was not happy about the situation.  The fact that she had to give anything at all was abhorrent to him.  Taking what little this poor woman had to help fund a Temple that at that time was being run by leadership who lived lavishly on such offerings was – and is – disgusting.  If Jesus were in charge at that moment, he would not only tell the vulnerable widow to keep her pennies but would likely pull out a few bucks of his own to give her and advise the rich bystanders to do the same.  If you are like the widow, having barely enough to get food on the table and pay for the most basic expenses – keep your money!  Let us help you if we can with our Food Pantry.  Again, I am instructing you as your Pastor: don’t go hungry because you feel obligated to contribute a few of your limited shekels to CrossWalk – keep it!

Another thing I want you to know is that I think the whole notion of a transactional faith whereby we do our part to get God to do God’s part is false.  I know this challenges part of the heart of Christian orthodoxy, but that’s okay – it needs to be challenged and updated!  The following passage has been used for such coercive thinking:

Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple. If you do,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, “I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won’t have enough room to take it in! Try it! Put me to the test! – Malachi 3:10 (NLT)

Is it a good idea to support the Temple/Church?  Yes!  Is the point of this text in its full context to do your part of the transaction?  No!  The context of the text is about fostering a healthy relationship with God.  A relationship that has as its foundation a contract of sorts is doomed to be shallow and cold.  No heart, no love required.  That kind of thinking lends itself to a poor relational paradigm for faith – you will always wonder if you’ve done enough to encourage God to do enough for you in return. 

So, where does that lead us, if coercion and guilt and transactional faith are off the table?

I think the whole point of the Good News Jesus came to share was that resurrection now and post-death are a reality.  We can experience a renewed life infused and empowered and directed by the very Spirit of God that is everywhere, all the time.  This invitation to new life is all a gift of grace. All of it.  It is already at work in our lives even if we don’t know it, and it is available in much greater ways if we learn to walk in it.  When we really begin to wake up to this and embrace it, we get a new lease on life.  It is truly transformative.  So much so that Jesus said it is like being born again.  This isn’t meant to be a once-and-done type of experience, either.  I have had many, many milestone moments in my life when I’ve had my eyes opened to new insights about the Way of Jesus.  When that happens, it is a day of renewal, and yet also a deepening of my roots and convictions that this God thing is real.  Living in that Spirit of God, walking to the beat of that Drummer is the point of everything.  Both of which are sometimes very different than that of the world in which we live and the systems that formed us.  As we experience ongoing renewal we realize with greater appreciation, as Paul noted,

…that God will empower you with inner strength through God’s Spirit. Then Christ will make God’s home in your hearts as you trust in God. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep God’s love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God. – Ephesians 3:16-19 (NLT)

When we are immersed in that way of life, in that growing insight, all forms of transaction and legalism simply melt away and are replaced by a living relationship with the Divine.  Our motive and logic shifts from wondering what we have to do to what we get to do, from asking what is required to how can we best express our gratitude, from a minimal, guarded offering of select parts of our lives to wondering how we might entrust all of ourselves to God and see where that might lead.  We entrust everything to God and God’s Way of being.  We hold nothing back, confident that the Way of Love works, even if it is counterintuitive.

I honestly think that the more we meditate on the love of God for us that in time our ethics will change as we are changed.  But I think we can also speed up that process by studying the life of Jesus and learning the ethic he embraced, which was, of course, motivated from the same ethos we’re growing into.  Meditating on the love of God is a choice to not meditate on other things.  People worry a lot about money.  Lower-income people, middle income people, and wealthy people all worry.  Lower-income folks worry about having enough.  Wealthy people worry about losing it.  Middle income people worry about making it to the next level.  Worry is a form of meditation.  When we focus our attention on something, that’s a form of meditation.  You may not have realized it, but you meditate a lot, don’t you?  Jesus invited his followers to meditate differently:

I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food to eat or enough clothes to wear. For life is more than food, and your body more than clothing. Look at the ravens. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for God feeds them. And you are far more valuable to him than any birds! Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? And if worry can’t accomplish a little thing like that, what’s the use of worrying over bigger things?

“Look at the lilies and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. And if God cares so wonderfully for flowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith?

“And don’t be concerned about what to eat and what to drink. Don’t worry about such things. These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers all over the world, but your Father already knows your needs. Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and he will give you everything you need.

“So don’t be afraid, little flock. For it gives your Father great happiness to give you the Kingdom.

“Sell your possessions and give to those in need. This will store up treasure for you in heaven! And the purses of heaven never get old or develop holes. Your treasure will be safe; no thief can steal it and no moth can destroy it. Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be. – Luke 12:22-34 (NLT)

Trust that the Way of God works.  Trust in it.  And, very practically and in response to our holding on so tight, Jesus tells his followers to give to those in need.  We trust and we offer our whole selves to be used in response to the love of God.

So, brass tacks time: if we are in the flow, grateful for the love of God and wanting to express it tangibly through giving, what does that look like?  How much?  There is no one definitive answer that fits every situation.  You are going to have to pray and dream this up for your life.  Here are some ways that have been helpful to people in the past.  I hope they help you.

“Fair” share.  This, in my opinion, is the worst way to think about this subject for a range of reasons.  The idea here is that we take the total budget and divide it by the number of member households to determine what everyone’s fair share should be.  Some of us cannot afford the fair share – it’s not fair at all.  For some of us, the Fair Share is chump change – making that our number surely cannot adequately express generosity.  Besides, it doesn’t account for folks newer to the faith verses longer termers – maturity and generosity likely go hand in hand.  I think the only thing it might be good for is as a mere point of reference to break down a big number and help it become more relatable.

Baseball Diamond.  I learned this metaphor a few years ago.  It’s not too bad.  Think about hitting a single, double, triple, and a home run – what might that look like in terms of financial generosity?  A single is simply getting on base – you’re helping the team in the smallest way possible.  Think of this as just simply giving something.  Very helpful!  But likely not where you might like to be.  A double might be like covering our Fair Share for ourselves.  A triple might be covering Fair Share for our household.  A home run is when we think way beyond ourselves and contribute with people in mind that we don’t even know yet.  If you’re not in the game, you might consider starting with just getting on base.

Percentages.  The biblical percentage that gets tossed around a lot is 10%, which is what the word tithe literally means.  It refers to giving 10% off the top of your earnings to the Temple, which would then use those funds to serve those in need.  Later, the early church adopted the same percentage for the same purpose, except instead of the Temple, it was the community of Jesus followers.  Ten percent for most people seems like way too big a number for their budget.  Especially in the Napa area where housing costs command between 40%-50% of earnings, there isn’t a lot of margin.  I think there is genius in a bigger percentage than we would feel initially comfortable with, however.  For you, the stretch might be 5%.  Do you know what you would do if you decided to contribute that much?  You would watch your money like a hawk because you would be worried about not making it!  Do you know happens when we watch our money closely?  We are usually much better stewards.  We save more, spend less, and spend more wisely.  We feel blessed all around because we’re being smarter with our money because we sort of must.  A challenge for you might be to step up a percentage point or two.  And for some of you, 10% is a cake walk.  Maybe doubling or tripling that makes more sense?  Rick Warren, who was the founding pastor of a mega church in Orange County, had a best-selling book that made him a lot of royalties.  With his new wealth, he paid back the church his salary – for the entire duration he had been serving there!  His goal was to live on 10% and give 90% away.  Be aware that we usually think too low, not too high.  Work hard to stay focused on your ethos – your motive – and see what makes sense.

All In.  We have been focused on financial contributions, but we are not simply ATM’s for God.  While money will always fight to be priority in our culture and is very important to get in line, it’s just a part of us.  You also have time, talents, and prayer to offer.  All of them matter.  I hope you’ll pray a lot for CrossWalk.  Everybody can do that, and it makes a difference.  Some of your time and talent may be suited for some role at CrossWalk.  Very likely your time, talent and prayers can be used outside of CrossWalk to serve your neighbors in the fullest sense of the word.  Sometimes we tell ourselves that since we give time and talent, we can drop treasure off the list.  In most cases I think this is a bad idea.  Because money is such an alluring false God, giving financially is really important to keep its position in check.  And, CrossWalk needs financial support.  But the biggest reason is that when we compartmentalize our lives – allowing God access to some parts but not others – we are choosing to close off a huge part of our lives to the Spirit of God.  The hope is that as we are awakened, we will find ways to open ourselves evermore, not silo certain parts of ourselves off to God.  When we hold that piece back, we hurt ourselves, the church, and the people we are trying to serve.  Your offering matters to you!

Legacy Giving.  Not to be morbid, but we are all going to die someday.  When we do, we will truly discover that “you can’t take it with you.”  Will what you leave behind at death go toward the things you valued in life?  A tragic reality for many faithful people is that they give generously in life, but their kids never really got it for one reason or another.  The faithful folk naturally leave their estate to their kids, who are their top priority (which is wonderful).  But if the kids don’t give a rip about the faith, the faithful giving ends with you.  Why not set aside some portion of your estate to make a final or perpetual gift that embodies your values?  We’ve had this happen in different ways over the years.  Sometimes we get stock before a person dies – you get the full tax credit without taking the capital gains hit because you transfer the stock to us – win-win!  Sometimes we honor a loved one who has passed by making a significant donation toward a need in the church.  Our remodeled Kitchenette was funded in memory of Jay Corley, who founded Monticello Winery.  Our Youth Lounge and Rec Room were remodeled when a woman came into some unexpected money from an estate.  What might you consider dreaming about that could outlive you?

Consistency.  A great gift you can give to CrossWalk is to automate your giving.  I used to set this up on my bank’s side through their bill paying feature.  My bank would send checks every month.  I recently switched over to using the online Realm program we’ve been promoting.  It is really easy to set up.  I can dictate which funds I want to support, and I can use my credit card and build up points for a future vacation.  When you do this, you can rest assured that your values are taken care of – you are supporting your church even if you are not able to be here physically.  It also provides great stability for CrossWalk.  Our contributions can vary significantly month to month – automation helps the cause that helps so many!

I hope this has been helpful – I really want it to be.  Yes, CrossWalk needs support.  As the Pastor, that matters to me very personally (!) and because I am charged with keeping this place vital.  But way more than that, I hope I have helped you recognize that this is a really, really important faith issue.  This presents an opportunity to offer your whole self – and for many of us the most focused-on part – to God as an act of gratitude and faith.  May you get to that space in life where you can echo the Apostle Paul:

I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength…

At the moment I have all I need—and more! I am generously supplied with the gifts you sent me… They are a sweet-smelling sacrifice that is acceptable and pleasing to God. And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus. – Philippians 4:10ff (NLT)

LGBTQ and the Church: WT*?! Why Most Churches Are NOT LGBTQ Friendly

CrossWalk is a Welcoming and Affirming church.  Recently I saw a Facebook post about a church that refused to baptize a woman unless she renounced her lesbianism and her marriage to her wife.  For the woman to get that far into engaging the church says that she felt pretty welcome, but when push came to shove, she definitely did not feel affirmed regarding her sexual orientation.  Why?  Why are most churches NOT LGBTQ friendly while others are?

Here are three reasons that I believe top the list.

Biblical Inspiration and Interpretation.  Most churches in the United States believe that the writing of the Bible was so inspired by God that it must be viewed as without error and incapable of being incorrect.  The related fancy words to look for in a church’s Belief Statement include plenary inspiration, inerrant, and infallible.  The words appear to make the Bible seem super-duper holy and final.  I do not believe that is how the Bible was viewed by the earliest rabbis (remember that Christianity comes from Jewish roots – Jesus was not a Christian, but rather a Jew).  The original handlers of the text viewed it as a living, breathing document that was meant to be wrestled with and interpreted in light of its original context as well as the context in which is was read, with all the available information from both contexts on the table to help in its interpretation.  Jesus and Paul, I am quite certain, would not sign off on the view held by the loudest churches and traditions that hold to the position formally adopted by Fundamentalist Christians in the late 1800’s (!) whereby literalism was affirmed as the only valid approach to the Bible and its interpretation.  In fact, if you did not adhere to this doctrinal position, your very Christianity was placed in doubt.  If a church hails from an Evangelical camp, this view of the Bible is baked into their cake, making it extremely challenging for them to be truly affirming of the LGBTQ community because there are a few texts – very few! – that condemn homosexuality.  For them, the original context is moot.  Their motto is: “God said it, I believe it, and that settles it.”  There is another way of approaching the Bible which I believe is more faithful to the approach Jesus and the Apostle Paul took, as did the scholars before them.  See the resources below.

Denominational Constraints.  Most Evangelical traditions will not allow their churches or pastors to affirm the LGBTQ community, which in many cases means that membership is off the table, as is becoming a leader at any significant level.  Forget about marriage.  In their view, homosexuality is a sin, and therefore must be renounced as such before being truly welcomed.  Baptists comprise the largest swath of Evangelicals in the United States, but Assembly of God and most “Independent” churches are not going to be open.  Some “Mainline” denominations make room for the LGBTQ community.  United Church of Christ (UCC) are boldly open and affirming (not to be confused with the very conservative Church of Christ). United Methodists are struggling with this as you’ve seen in the news.  Some Presbyterians are cool with this.  CrossWalk is an American Baptist Church (ABC-USA) which is divided on this issue.  So long as we have a place at the table, we will remain at the table and offer our perspective and encouragement to become increasingly inclusive.  Heads up on this: the constraints are real. Because CrossWalk’s tribe does not dictate what we do locally, we can do whatever we please.  Other traditions are not in the same boat, and their LGBTQ-affirming pastors are caught in a very tough spot.  Another heads up: nearly all churches that are attractional (often large with really impressive production value in their services – great band, staging, multimedia) are Evangelical and therefore not LGBTQ affirming.  Catholics as a whole are not affirming of LGBTQ or gender equality.

Homophobia.  Let’s not underestimate prejudice.  What we don’t know or understand scares us.  That’s operating here.  I do have a few friends who hold to their Evangelical position who I believe are not homophobic.  But most of my Evangelical friends have not spent much time getting to the know people behind the label.  The Bible, in their view, supports their prejudice and the discrimination it fosters and therefore justifies their attitudes and behaviors that hurt so many.  It sucks.

To the LGBTQ community at large: I am so sorry if you have been hurt by the church in some way.  It is almost certain that you have on some level.  This does not reflect the heart of Jesus who was a rebellious reformer in his day (which got him killed).  Coming to new ways of thinking – changing our paradigms – is a very difficult process.  Throw deeply-entrenched faith perspectives into the mix and it only gets harder.  I know – I shifted.  There was a time when I did not approach the Bible in the same way I do now.  Expect the process to be clunky at best.

In spite of the hatred (which is real), know that there is cause for hope.  We live in a time when the conversation can be had in the daylight, and the law of the land allows for marriage!  What a time to be alive!  And there are churches right here in Napa that will truly welcome you and affirm who you are as created in the image of God.  CrossWalk is one of them, and I am proud to be her pastor.

Resources:

Making Sense of the Bible by Adam Hamilton

How the Bible Actually Works by Pete Enns

Jesus and Homosexuality, a teaching by Pete Shaw at CrossWalk

 

The Stuff of Life: Working What Works

First, read the context for the Jesus’ Good Samaritan parable from Luke 10:25ff (The Message):

An Excellent Question on Stewardship

Just then a religion scholar stood up with a question to test Jesus. "Teacher, what do I need to do to get eternal life?"
     He answered, "What's written in God's Law? How do you interpret it?"
     He said, "That you love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and muscle and intelligence—and that you love your neighbor as well as you do yourself."
     "Good answer!" said Jesus. "Do it and you'll live."
     Looking for a loophole, he asked, "And just how would you define 'neighbor'?"

The religious man here was someone of significance and power as one of the “elite” working for the Temple.  He was surely one of the most educated people in Israel.  He knew the law and worked to interpret it for the Temple priests – think Supreme Court Justice.  Hear the tone of a lawyer asking about who qualifies as “neighbor”.  Given what we know about the tone of the Temple leadership at that time (early First Century C.E.), he is trying to get as narrow a focus as possible.  Perhaps he is hoping to only need to consider well qualified, practicing faithful Jews?

This raises an interesting question or two.  Are we any different than this religious lawyer?  How do we qualify who we choose to help and who we don’t?  What is our decision-making process on whether or not to help?  We can easily judge this guy because we know he’s about to get schooled by Jesus.  But we might want to slow down on that front, because he is no more or less human than any one of us.

The Good Samaritan Parable…

     Jesus answered by telling a story. "There was once a man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho. On the way he was attacked by robbers. They took his clothes, beat him up, and went off leaving him half-dead. Luckily, a priest was on his way down the same road, but when he saw him he angled across to the other side. Then a Levite religious man showed up; he also avoided the injured man.
     "A Samaritan traveling the road came on him. When he saw the man's condition, his heart went out to him. He gave him first aid, disinfecting and bandaging his wounds. Then he lifted him onto his donkey, led him to an inn, and made him comfortable. In the morning he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, 'Take good care of him. If it costs any more, put it on my bill—I'll pay you on my way back.'
     "What do you think? Which of the three became a neighbor to the man attacked by robbers?"
     "The one who treated him kindly," the religion scholar responded.
     Jesus said, "Go and do the same."

Jesus turned everything on its head with this parable, which is why it has been a subject of dialogue ever since.  Below are some things happening for the original audience that might be worth having conversation about.

Jews hated Samaritans.  The origins of the hatred between the two groups (both of which hailed from early Judaism) went back centuries.  The Samaritans first thought the rest of the Jews were a bunch of liberals who wanted to add to the sacred scriptures texts that were not suitable.  Generations later, Jews hated Samaritans for intermarrying with people from other cultures which opened the door to new influences that infiltrated the Jewish faith.  Samaritans refused to honor the Temple as the true residence of the Presence of God – because it was on the wrong mountain (of course).  Every Jewish person hearing this story would have assumed that the Samaritan may have been the robber – not the hero!  Furthermore, Jewish people would be very uncomfortable with the idea of a Samaritan tending to their needs and being dependent upon them for survival.

Questions. In our personal life, who would we imagine to be the most likely person to be the thug, and the least likely to be the hero?  How would we feel about that person taking care of us?

Samaritans hated Jews.  We usually make a good case for why we hate other people, yet I wonder if we are open to hearing about the case made against us by those who hate us?  In my experience, for instance, I have heard people make strong cases for their prejudice against people of color, other religions, other nations, and the LGBTQ community.  They feel justified.  Yet when we/they begin to hear about how these same group members feel about us, we get really indignant and defensive.  Because we look down on others, there may even be a part of us who, like some in the original Jewish audience, would almost think it a privilege for the Samaritan to serve the Jew.  But I doubt that’s how the Samaritan felt (or the POC, non-Christian, non-US, LGBTQ person about doing anything lovely for us).

Questions.  Think of people who feel oppressed in our culture today.  How do you suppose they feel about feeling oppressed?  How interested do you suppose they might be in generously providing for our needs?  What do you think must have gone through the Samaritan’s head and heart that led him to serve a Jew so prodigiously?

One commentator summed Jesus’ point very succinctly regarding the question of who we help:

Do not think as much about who THEY are; focus on who YOU are.

Being a giving person is deeper than simply following a rule or law or ethic.  It is driven by something deep within us – an identity, a way of being, an ethos – that guides our heads, hearts, and hands.   Long before we begin deciding where we choose to be helpful, we need to check our motive.  I believe that if we are doing things mostly out of fear of retribution or as part of a transaction to get God to do God’s part of the deal, we’ve missed Jesus’ message entirely.  It seems to me that Jesus’ Way was altogether differently.  Jesus’ Way – which was driven by the Spirit of God – was one of being at complete home in the grace and love of God for ourselves and everyone else, and living as if both were true.  We give generously because it’s who we are not because of who they are.  Once we’ve settled that, we can move to questions of stewardship – how will our generosity make the most difference with those ventures with which we are most aligned?  How do we prioritize the causes we believe in?

A glimpse into my thought process.  This will come as no surprise, but CrossWalk is – by far – the largest recipient of Lynne and I’s charitable giving.  The reason is simple: it is most aligned with what is most core for us.  We are Jesus followers, and want to support a church that promotes the Jesus Way well.  We think CrossWalk does this in so many ways.  Also, there are national and global projects that CrossWalk supports.  For instance, we give to Furaha and Deborah’s House through CrossWalk instead of directly, since there is no extra administrative cost to do so.  We know that supporting CrossWalk supports all who CrossWalk supports with her campus and voice – not just paying the bills.  We are proud of CrossWalk and are proud to contribute.  After that, there are a range of things we contribute to, but it’s pretty sporadic and usually tied to relationship with friends who have invited us to a fund raiser.  I like doing this because it supports our friendship and the cause all at the same time.  One other thing to mention has to do with prioritization.  There are a very limited number of people who help support CrossWalk financially compared to much larger causes.  Your generosity is really, truly felt at CrossWalk because there just aren’t that many people supporting us.  Also, CrossWalk is, by comparison, crazy efficient.  The number of people we serve is staggering given how little we bring in.  Sometimes we are so close to it we can’t appreciate it.  But having been up close and personal with other non-profits and congregations has helped me see ourselves for the incredibly potent group we are.  I can feel really good about supporting CrossWalk because we get a ton done on a dime. 

As Pastor of CrossWalk, and as a contributing fan, I invite you to support her, too. If you’ve never supported CrossWalk, I invite you to begin. For those of you who already support, I thank you and applaud you.  And I ask you to consider increasing what you are giving so that CrossWalk can confidently move forward with bolder strides instead of being held back by limited funds.  There are areas we must improve – brick and mortar as well as helpful support – and we need funds to do it.  Out of a place of generosity, will you consider being a Good Samaritan for CrossWalk?

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