The Antithesis of The Centrality of War And Violence In Culture

I had to bite my tongue in class when the topic of war came up.

I find that my views on war and violence are often quite controversial. I suspect that it is because they are controversial, that people are not always willing to hear them. Furthermore, people seem to not like opinions which span more than one sentence. They like black and white views on life–I am a Democrat, I am a Calvinist, I am a Cessationalist, I am a capitalist etc. More often than not, people don’t have the patience or time to hear a full exposition of how my view of war has been formed and evolved through time to arrive at what I believe in this. With this in mind, I think with any opinion there is a time to voice them, and there is a time to be silent. I also think there are clear opinions on war, that are reflected in our society.

It is unfortunate, because I would argue that the evolution in the history of someone’s thought is immeasurably more interesting than the final opinion that one finally arrives at. John Piper in Bloodlines: Race, Cross, and the Christian talks about how his initial views on race were shaped and influenced by growing up in a conservative culture in the South. As he grew up, he began to realize and change how he saw the world in a profound manner.

The Status Quo  

Comprehending Short Term Missions

In many things, I have learnt not to be too caustic towards other people. I often adopt this tone when I really dislike something–under the guise of sarcasm, I make very disparaging remarks, and the lines between where I’m being serious and joking blur. Unfortunately people get offended easily, especially when something as sacred as the modern pilgrimage to overseas countries, is questioned. It is certainly something that is important as being born again for many Christians today.

A lot time has to be spent at the beginning of any conversation exerting that I was generalising. I wasn’t talking about all missions trips, and I wasn’t judging any specific one. It was a general trend that I’ve been assessing and thinking about, not any specific trip I was thinking about.

Charles Spurgeon on Pride

An excerpt from a sermon delivered on August 17, 1856 by Charles Spurgeon at New Park Street Chapel, Southwark on the topic of “Pride and Humility”. I find paraphrasing a useful exercise for me, so I have done some editing, removing “thy” and “thou”s from the text, as well as some liberty in the substitution of archaic words and phrases. Nevertheless:

“In the first place, pride is a groundless thing. It stands on the sands; or worse than that, it puts its foot on the billows which yield beneath its tread; or worse still, it stands on bubbles, which soon must burst beneath its feet. Of all things pride has the worst foothold; it has no solid rock on earth on which to place itself. We have reasons for almost everything, but we have no reasons for pride. 

Defining Life In Amongst The Chaos

Life is chaos.

We began in chaos. If we were to subscribe to evolutionary theory, we were a few atoms forced together by chance from a million others emanating from a cosmic bang producing hydrogen atoms. From the combinations forming from the random contact of atoms, compounds happened. These compounds multiplied, and continuously bumping around, mistakes happened, and mostly, we reached a dead end and most compounds decayed away. But some flaws worked in our favour and we changed somewhat to slightly different structures and the better compounds overtook and dominated over the older versions of the compounds. From the diversity of compounds became life. Life started off as simple, then complex life forms. Life is merely bumping into each other, and making more offspring, and moving further and further along the evolutionary cycle.

If we were to subscribe to creationism, we were conceived as very good beings from the dust of the earth. Yet, we are fundamentally tainted by the chaos, that is, power and the ability to sin against one another and against a Holy God. Through the fruit eaten in the Garden of Eden we have been forced to live a life without the direct providential care of God, and we are returned to working the earth for little fruit. It is the chaos we find, when we find our relationships strained because we have rejected the life of God for much less.

We are highly flawed beings, whatever theory we subscribe to.

Christians Voting In Government Elections

Recently, I voted in the New Zealand elections.

…reluctantly, I might add. My parents had to drag me to the voting booth, kicking and screaming. I don’t even think I filled out the form correctly. I only read later that you were strictly supposed to tick the box, not colour it in–I will never know if my vote was valid or not. The whole idea seems ridiculous to me, that my vote could be opposed by someone else who had no idea and choose the funniest name.

Keeping Christmas in Perspective

I feel sometimes people fight all the wrong battles. 

People arguing about Happy Holidays over Merry Christmas especially. They have grown so overblown that it become irrelevant from its true rooting in Christ’s birth. Merry Christmas is in the larger scheme of things only a small part of what Christmas is. Is Christ diminished if we do not wish people Merry Christmas, or is Christ more manifested in other places? In other words, is this the Gospel? I am convinced if we continue to fight these meaningless battles, and all we are seen fighting is over these things, it begins to define us. And I am sure the Devil would be glad to see us fight over these little things instead of fighting for the sake of the Gospel.

People often say that the Devil is so successful because people don’t believe he exists, but equally dangerous is to believe he exists but not to destroy the work of the Gospel.

I think people fight for too little if they are fighting to maintain a Christmas story, without looking at the larger picture. The Christmas story  can sometimes be so deeply entrenched in tradition that we can almost become lethargic in how we carry it on. Then perhaps, it becomes almost acceptable for non-believers to treat Christianity as nothing more than tradition of a time long ago. People often complain that Christianity is not relevant enough, and this is true because we aren’t living and engaging actively with the complete story of Christmas.

Christmas is more than just a merry time and a feel-good nativity story, it is more than a woman giving birth to a child in a manger.

 

“If you pour yourself out for the hungry
and satisfy the desire of the afflicted,
then shall your light rise in the darkness
and your gloom be as the noonday.
” Isaiah 58:10 (English Standard Version)

Have been diminished the power of Christmas that it is merely a time of the year, but a daily reality and sanctification?

Building Contentedness Every Day

“This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.”

These words came from King David in the Psalms, it speaks of the thankfulness he has toward God, because He is the source of all things (Psalms 118:24). And whether, this thankfulness is arising from the circumstances at the time that he found himself in, or in the greater goodness and grace that God bestows on us continually. David shows how there are a great many things we can be thankful for. It is this thankfulness that arises from answered prayers and knowledge of the saving hand of God.

Through the notion that God is the source of all things, he proclaims that we should rejoice. The context speaks of a cornerstone that was rejected and the builder tossed aside. While this could apply to his own situation, that it seemed to him that he was the stone that was ignored and set for destruction, God saw him and lifted him out of his sin.

Steve Jobs’ Death: How Not To React.

Brought to you by none other than Westboro Church:

I’m surprised they continue to breathe air, or live on this earth because everyone else does the same as them. I am convinced there should be a multitude of different things to be doing, than trying to . I become terrified when Christians turns from being the persecuted to the persecutor–it’s something that I don’t feeling Christians to be in position to be doing. Certainly in the next world we shall be judging angels, but on this earth, I think it is too easy to judge others without knowledge.

The irony is found in a tweet by Margie Phelps:

3 hours ago via “Twitter for iPhone

Shane Claiborne Post-9/11

I thought in the weeks following 9/11 this quote was especially relevant about the world we live in.

“I saw a banner hanging next to city hall in downtown Philadelphia that read, “Kill them all, and let God sort them out”.

A bumper sticker read, “God will judge evildoers, we just have to get them to him.”

I saw a T-shirts on a soldier that said, “US Air Force…we don’t die; we just go to hell to regroup.”

Others were less dramatic–red, white, and blue billboards saying,”God bless our troops.” “God bless America” became a marketing strategy. One store hung an ad in their window that said, “God bless America–one dollar burgers.” 

Patriotism was everywhere, including in our altars and church buildings. In the aftermath of September 11th, most Christian bookstores had a section with books on the event, calendars, devotionals, buttons, all decorated in the colors of America, draped in stars and stripes, and sprinkled with golden eagles.

This burst of nationlism reveals the deep longing we all have for community, a natural thrist for intimacy that liberals and progressive Christians would have done much better to acknowledge. September 11th shattered the self-sufficient, autonomous individual. and we saw a country of broken fragile people who longed for community–for people to cry with, be angry with, to suffer with. People did not want to alone in their sorrow, rage, fear.

But what happened after September 11th broke my heart. Conservative Christians rallied around the drums of war. Liberal Christians took to the streets. The cross was smothered by the flag and trampled under the feet of angry protesters. The church community was lost, so the many hungry seekers found community in the civic religion of American patriotism. People were hurting and crying out for healing, for salvation in the best sense of the word, as in the salve with which you would dress a wound. A people longing for a saviour placed their faith in the fragile hands of human logic and military strength which have always let us down. They have always fallen short of the glory of God.” [1]

[1] Page 198. Claiborne, Shane. The Irresistible Revolution. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan.

Talking About The Cross

There seems to be two differing extremes when people talk about the cross.

There are some who speak nothing of the cross. Granted, it is something of an oxymoron to be a Christian and to say nothing about the cross. It is something of a misnomer to assign the title of Christian to someone not be totally constantly in awe of the cross.

Yet, some people exist that are of that disposition, entrenched in either emotionalism or knowledge-ism. A lot of them are so far entrenched in this cross-less Christianity because I believe that they have not experienced what true love and regeneration there is in the cross and how it impacts us daily. Through this ignorance, there is no growth, but further and further retreat away from Christ. The reality is, if really Jesus did die on the cross for the world, then surely we would be changed. Moreover, if Christ did rise again from the dead, this is surely a hope that one day we would all be rescued from the ultimate death.

Charles Spurgeon says of Christ:

The motto of all true servants of God must be, “We preach Christ; and him crucified.” A sermon without Christ in it is like a loaf of bread without any flour in it. No Christ in your sermon, sir? Then go home, and never preach again until you have something worth preaching. [1]

We are preaching nothing if it is not of Christ. We are living for nothing, if it is not for Christ.

On the other hand, some people can totally over-emphasize it in a way that the cross is cheapened. I find that the idea of the cross is cheapened when people use it merely as a word, not as a invasive, weighty act that is concurrent with all of your life. People throw around the words “cross” and the “resurrection” with much too ease and care, that it loses its sharpness and offense after a time. Perhaps, it is intentional to not make the Gospel a less painful cross to bear, but it is avoiding the basic commands of Christ. Moreover, what comfort there is in the burdens we carry daily is lost, because we forget that Christ would carry his own cross to death. I think we can speak so much about the cross that we make it something taken lightly–there is a certain flippancy about the way some people would use the word, as if they were not addressing the Most High constantly with every word.

“So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” 1 Corinthians 10:31 (English Standard Version)

The song that comes to mind is one by a certain Jeremy Camp, where the chorus goes:

“Sing it out to let all the world know
That Jesus saves
Raise a shout to let all the world know
That Jesus saves” (youtube)

The lyrics are undeniably correct, but the song comes across as just repetitive–how, I think Bob DeWaay termed a “7-11″ song, with a chorus of eleven words repeated eleven times. Now that I think of it, the two extremes are somewhat two sides of the same coin. If the cross does not drive us to reverential awe everytime we are speaking of it, then we have failed in our understanding of it. The comprehension of the cross escapes me constantly as I try to contain how much love there is within this act that Jesus accomplished. It is that lack of knowledge of Jesus that leads to these two extremes. The failure to realise that He is neither a weightless Jesus, nor a weighty Jesus that our sins, His love could never cover. It says in Eccelesiates to us:

“Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore let your words be few.” Ecclesiastes 5:2

I think there is some great truth in those words. People often ask, if we were to meet God today, “What question would we ask?”. I am not so sure if we would ever be able to stop being in awe to have time to take out our notebooks from our back pockets and ask questions about creation/evolution. How purely idiotic, I would imagine us to be, to be asking things that utterly pale in comparison to what worship the cross deserves.

I cannot imagine a life without the cross, and though the memory is constantly embedded within our souls, how we show this love is more embodied within what we would do, instead of what we would say. Our life with the cross is marked by the meaningfulness of our worship, not our frequency with which we would proclaim it. 

[1] Spurgeon, Charles. Exposition of Acts 13:13-49. 1904.

[2] I struggle with not pointing fingers at exactly who I’m talking about.