church and the kingdom of god

Alfred Loisy the 19th century historian was right in saying that Jesus came proclaiming the Kingdom of God but what appeared was the Church.  The disappointment was and continues to be severe.  But the great irony is that today we alleviate our disappointment with the contemporary Church by pointing back to the New Testament Church --which was the great disappointment to begin with!  Our restless discontent should not be over the distance between ourselves and the first century Church but over the distance between ourselves and the Kingdom of God to which the Church then and now is the witness. - -- R.J. Neuhaus, Freedom for Ministry, 33.

borderlands: church in emerging culture

This link is to video from a class taught by Adam Barr, a friend of mine from my growing up days.  He provides a look at the emerging church movement, referenced in my last post on sola scriptura.  If you're looking to explore this topic more, this is a great place to start:

The Church in Emerging Culture

I have not watched every session in this series.  I have watched enough to know that Adam treats this issue/topic sensitively, practically, and faithfully.  By recommending this resource, I am not suggesting that I agree with everything included in these sessions.  As with any book or resource, watch, engage, think, and converse.  If you have questions, thoughts, or opinions, post them here.  Let's learn together.

what happens after sola scriptura?

I am interested to hear your thoughts, comments, and questions regarding the Bible and our interpretation of it.  Do we look to the Bible alone?  Is the Bible the sole authority for our faith and practice?  If so, whose interpretation of the Bible is authoritative (i.e. - Catholics, United Methodists, Presbyterians, Lutherans, Wesleyans, etc.)?  This article by Blake Huggins offers one option.  Check it out and chime in on the discussion.

By Blake Huggins (Posted Originally on Emergent Village):

“You emergent-y, postmodern-ish types just want to do away with Scripture! You don’t want to take the time to seriously wrestle with the Bible!”

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard those lines or something similar. You would think I developed a good answer a long, long time ago but I didn’t. For far too long I only spoke about the ways I didn’t want to view Scripture, which really only exacerbated the problem. Too many of us do that. I would like to suggest an alternative descriptive to our view of Scripture, something that is both positive and constructive.

Phyllis Tickle has suggested that it’s not if Sola Scripturaends, but when. So what comes next? As much as I love to tag the “p word” before words, I’m not so sure it is sufficient for us to simply say we are post-Sola Scriptura. The Bible is too important for us to only strike-through the “sola.” And I think that many of us who resonate very deeply with Tickle’s sentiment take Scripture too seriously to only be reactionary. Frankly, we can’t afford to.

We might as well deal with the Elephant in the room first. For many people, admitting that Sola Scriptura is not longer viable is roughly equivalent to saying we are throwing out the Bible altogether and opting for some sort of slippery relativism. But a rejection of Sola Scriptura is not a rejection of Scripture! Which is why it is important to provide an alternative to the “sola” — because we’re not rejecting Scripture wholesale, in fact I can say without reservation that my respect and love for the Bible is deeper and more unwavering now than it ever was.

But here’s the thing. Whether we realized it in the past or not Sola Scriptura has never been possible. It just can’t work. Because the moment I say that all I need is Scripture alone, I’ve assumed that I occupy some sort of void space, when in fact neither I nor Scripture exist vacuum. I can’t simply read Scripture (or anything for that matter) for what it is without biases or lenses. My position as an urban, white, American, male influences my reading more than I will ever know. The same could be said of the writers of Scripture. Even the notion of Sola Scriptura itself is conditioned by a cultural lens and a certain interpretation albeit an increasingly outmoded one. To read is to interpret; all our readings are always already interpretations and all our interpretations are always already situational. To me, that is inescapable.

So, admitting the immanent end of Sola Scriptura is not a categorical rejection of Scripture as much; rather, it is a coming to terms with our own limitations and finitude as human beings and adopting a certain humility about our readings. I seriously doubt whether the Bible is infallible since it was written by pre-modern men (yes, they were men). But that doesn’t mean I don’t think the Bible is authoritative or instructional. It merely means that I believe our ability as humans to fully understand the Bible is severely limited. The history of hermeneutics is indicative of this. We can very quickly identify points today where we believe our theological ancestors were absolutely wrong in their interpretation of Scripture (slavery, subjugation of women, etc.). I’m sure 50-100 years from now our grandchildren will say the same about us. We know things today that we didn’t know in the past and we don’t know things now that we will in the future. That deeply affects out readings. We are fallible, broken people. We need to hold our hemeneutical lenses loosely.

But how do we avoid simply throwing out the baby with the bathwater? Here is what I propose: let’s use a new word, a word that still retains a deep sense of respect and affection for the Scriptures and the history of God’s salvific action in history with God’s people. A word that doesn’t allow the spirit of the Reformation (and the Enlightenment) to crust over into static dogma. I like the word prima. Prima Scriptura. Scripture is without a doubt our primary authority and primary source for theological reflection, but is not and cannot be our sole source. We are more complex than that. Scripture is our prime witness to God’s interaction with God’s people, beckoning them/us to join in God’s divine endeavor of restoration and renewal. It seems to me that opting for a phrase such as this preserves our identity as Christians whose story and history is told in the Bible, but at the same admits our limitations, approaching divine revelation with deep humility, and understanding that we get it wrong all the time so we mustn’t hold our readings so tightly because they are fallible. What better way to remain open and attentive to the movement and dynamism of the Spirit? A Spirit that no matter how limited and broken we have become, meets us exactly where we are pushes us — and our readings of Scripture — toward continual transformation and revision.

Let us celebrate the end of Sola Scriptura. But let’s not stop there. Let’s provide a healthy alternative, something that still places its trust in the Holy Writ as the primary source for revelation and yet is still open to continual revision and divine redaction. Let us embrace Prima Scriptura.

bride trafficking

North Korean Bride Trafficking: When Escape Becomes Bondage

Kristin Butler, Crosswalk.com Contributing Writer

The translator could never capture the experience behind Young-Ae Kim’s emotional words, but he tried.

“She was raised with the idea that you have one lasting marriage – never did she imagine that she would be married three times by the age of 30, and treated like an animal.”

North Korean defector Young-Ae Kim told her story publically on April 29, along with Mi-Sun Bang, another woman whose account bears tragic resemblance to hers. Both women told reporters at the National Press Club a story that is becoming all too common among North Korean women. Both women were victims of “Bride Trafficking” – being bought and sold as wives for single Chinese men along the border between North Korea and China.

Mark Lagon, former U.S. Ambassador at Large for Combating Trafficking and now executive director of the Polaris Project on Human Trafficking, says that these women are “thrice victimized” – starved in North Korea, sexually exploited once they escape to China and tortured if they are repatriated to their home country.

Brides for Sale

Human trafficking “the fastest growing criminal industry in the world,” according to the Polaris Project. In China, years of the one child policy combined with centuries of disregard for girl-children has led to a literal market for refugee women.

Back in the mid-nineties, Tom Hilditch’s article, “A Holocaust of Little Girls,” captured the essence of a country where girls don’t matter.

“The birth of a girl has never been a cause for celebration in China,” he wrote, “and stories of peasant farmers drowning new born girls in buckets of water have been commonplace for centuries. Now, however, as a direct result of the one-child policy, the number of baby girls being abandoned, aborted, or dumped on orphanage steps is unprecedented.”

It’s not hard to connect the dots to where all of this has ended. The shortage of women in China is nothing less than a national disaster – in some rural areas Chinese men outnumber women by a 14 to 1 ratio, according to the U.S. Committee on Human Rights in North Korea. It is into these rural border areas that North Korean women, desperate to escape the starvation in their homeland, are arriving. For human traffickers, the situation could not be more ideal.

Translating Tears

Mi-Sun Bang cries as she tells of the day that she and her son and daughter attempted an escape from North Korea. The Tumen River ends the lives of many refugees – numerous bodies have been found along the shore. But for Mi-Sun Bang, there was no choice. Her husband had starved to death in 2002, and making the river escape to China was her only hope for survival. “We entered holding hands,” she recalls, “but we were all separated.” Miraculously, they survived the crossing.

But her troubles were far from over. Upon entry into China, Mi-Sun Bang fell prey to human traffickers operating on the border. She was sold for $585 to an older, disabled Chinese man, the first of several “husbands” that she would be sold to. The string of abuses and heartache that followed would be enough to crush anyone’s spirit. Her final husband, fourteen years her junior, demanded that she bear him a son. Soon afterwards, Mi-Sun Bang was turned into the authorities and arrested. She was sent back to North Korea, to the horrors of a labor camp.

Mi-Sun pauses at this point in her story, reflecting, trying to restrain her emotions. “There, people gave up on being human,” she says finally. She was beaten severely. She asks through her translator, “Would anyone like to see my wounds?” Small person that she is, Mi-Sun stands on a chair in the front of the room. She pulls up her skirt, revealing where literal chunks of flesh have been ripped from her leg. She walks with a limp today.

Driven by Desperation

A new report released by the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea captures the firsthand accounts of over 70 trafficking victims. “The women who cross the border, more often than male refugees, tend to do so in the company of others,” the Lives for Sale report states, “Eighteen percent of those interviewed crossed the border with people whom they later came to realize were traffickers.”

But what about the women who made their escape without the “aid” of a trafficker? The Committee’s report emphasizes the likelihood that these women will be solicited immediately. “Almost from the moment they cross the border – and sometimes beginning in North Korea – refugee women are targeted by marriage brokers and pimps.”

The report concludes with a host of recommendations for China, North Korea, the United States and the international community. While calling on China to cease the repatriation of North Korean refugees, and North Korea to “undertake economic and agricultural reforms” and “decriminalize movement across the border,” the report urges the United States to “launch new initiatives to provide protection and assistance to North Korean women” along the border.

The plight of North Korean women sheds light on the larger issue of trafficking around the world. According to the U.S. Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, over 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders every year. Trafficking occurs in 170 countries, all of which are profiled and ranked in the Office’s annual report. And in many cases, the victims themselves have recommendations. Mi-Sun Bang pleads for President Obama to ensure that no more North Korean women are sold like she was, “sold like livestock in China.”

With trafficking – modern day slavery – claiming nearly a million victims a year, each woman, man, and child has a story to tell. And the plight of North Korean brides-for-sale is no different. Each one has a unique and tragic tale of enslavement.

“They would not allow me to leave the house,” recounts one North Korean woman, “then someone from Yanji came to take me to Heilongjiange Province by train. Only when we arrived in a village in Heilongjiang did I hear I was going to be married.”

indifference to injustice

Quote from Cornel West:

Indifference to injustice is more insidious than the injustice itself. 

an army of life

Yesterday I spoke at a platform service for "I Am My Brother's Keeper," a local motorcycle ministry.  Several of us spoke on the the 12 tribes of Jacob.  I was asked to speak on Gad.  Here's what I said...

Gad.  His name means “a troop is coming.”  Gad’s destiny is to be attacked and to attack.  Gad was a military man.

Did you know that God is creating an army?  Most armies are instruments of death.  That is the nature of warfare as we know it.  But the army God is putting together is an army of life…bringing life to a world that is dead.

Ezekiel 37 is one of my favorite passages of Scripture.  Listen to these words:

The hand of the LORD was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. ² He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. ³ He asked me, "Son of man, can these bones live?"  I said, "Sovereign LORD, you alone know."

⁴ Then he said to me, "Prophesy to these bones and say to them, 'Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! ⁵ This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. ⁶ I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the LORD.' "

⁷ So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. ⁸ I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.

⁹ Then he said to me, "Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.' " ¹⁰ So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.

Notice the current situation that Ezekiel enters into: It is full of death.  And not just death, but death plus time.  There were lots of bone…and they were very dry.

Then God commands Ezekiel to speak the Word of the Lord to this valley of death.  No matter how dead the world is, and no matter how long death has been there, the Word of God can change the situation.  In order to bring life to a dead world, we must know God’s Word.  His Word must live in us.  And we must share that Word with the world.  That’s the only way our world can live again. 

Ezekiel was responsible to speak the Word of God; it was God’s Spirit who was responsible to bring life.  Ezekiel had to do his part of prophesying; God had to do his part of breathing life into these bones.  This is important for us to understand because we cannot change our world in our own strength or wisdom or power.  We are incapable, no matter how smart we are or powerful we can become, of changing human hearts.  Only God can do that.

But if we do our part – share God’s Word with our world – I believe God will do his part of breathing life into those people who hear and receive our message.  And as we partner with God, the world can become different and better as more and more hearts are changed by God and more and more people come to life in him.

A troop is coming.  Join up with the God’s army of life and be all you can be for him!

mining in arizona

I just contacted U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and asked him to protect the Grand Canyon. I coordinated my message with Environmental Work Group (EWG) to maximize the impact.

Did you know that recently the Department of the Interior approved new mining operations near the Colorado River and Grand Canyon?

The U.S. Department of the Interior authorized a Canadian mining company to drill for uranium near the Grand Canyon. This approval may only be the beginning. Since 2003, the number of mining claims within five miles of Grand Canyon National Park has increased from 10 to more than 1,100. Increased mining will likely send more toxins into the waterway. And into the water supply of over 25 million Americans.

Join me in protecting this national treasure:
Contact Secretary Salazar here.

Poll: Majority of Americans Are Pro-Life for the First Time - Presidential Politics | Political News - FOXNews.com

Poll: Majority of Americans Are Pro-Life for the First Time - Presidential Politics | Political News - FOXNews.com

Interested to hear what you think of this in light of all the controversy surrounding President Obama's visit to Notre Dame.

Posted using ShareThis

light and darkness.

Ever noticed the theme of light and dark that shows up all throughout Scripture? The last few days (sparked by a discussion with my awesome small group on Tuesday night) I have been thinking about light and darkness.  I have been gravitating toward three passages:

Isaiah 9:2 - "The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned."

Matthew 5:14-16 - "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden.  Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.  In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven."

Philippians 2:14-16 - "Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, "children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation." Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life. And then I will be able to boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor in vain."

It is easy to look at the world around us and see the darkness - global poverty, genocide, ethnic cleansing, war, human trafficking, violence.  On and on the list of atrocities goes.  There is a lot of brokenness around us...a lot of darkness.  The temptation is to say that the world is without hope.  It's dark and getting darker.

But I refuse to say that, and for good reason, I think.  God sent his Son - the light of the world - into the world.  Those living in darkness have hope because of him.  Either Jesus is the light or his is not.  Either he can change lives or he can't.  We cannot have it both ways.  

Tom, one of our group members, made a good point the other night.  He said, "Just because Jesus can change the world does not mean the world will be changed."  Very true, Tom!  So how can the hope that Jesus offers to the world be realized?  Only when followers of Jesus let their light shine!  That's how light fills a dark world.

The only way for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.  The only way for darkness to win is for the light to be hidden or extinguished because those who have the light didn't let it shine for the world to see.

Christ followers let their light shine by doing good to those around them.  Whether that comes in the form of helping a neighbor with a project or providing a listening ear to a hurting friend or helping a village in East Africa get clean drinking water or rescuing girls from from the horror of sex slavery in Cambodia or a host of other good things, the good deeds we do are the practical ways we let the light of Jesus shine.  

And Jesus gives a promise...when we do those good deeds people will glorify our father in heaven.  When I hear that I hear hope.  It sounds to me like good deeds done in the name of Christ could change our world.  It sounds like light could win over darkness!

one day's wages

Introducing: One Day's Wages from One Day's Wages on Vimeo.

Mar and I have eagerly awaiting the introduction of this organization for the last few months.  Their vision is exciting and it is the stuff the making the world different and better is made of.  Take some time to watch this video from Quest pastor and One Day's Wages founder Eugene Cho.  Then get connected and involved.  

Check out the full article from Eugene's blog here.

prom...a tool of the devil.

I first saw this story on CNN.  It amazed me.  You can read the article here.  It's about a high school senior who attends Heritage Christian School.  He elected to go to prom with his girlfriend.  Proms and dancing are against the school rules.  As a result of his actions, he has been suspended for the remainder of the school year, and will have to miss his high school graduation.  After the school year concludes, he will be allowed to take his finals and if he passes, he will receive his diploma.

Let's be clear.  If the school's rules, policies, and consequences were made clear, and he decided to break the rules, I do not feel sorry for him.  He got what he deserved and he knew what he could get if he went through with his choice.

I do, however, feel sorry for the school.  They have a rule that calls on them to suspend a teen for going to high school prom with his girlfriend.  It seems a shame to me that a school would waste its time policing the actions of students, especially when those actions are not illegal, nor do they reflect poorly on the reputation of the school, and in and of themselves are not even immoral actions.

They have decided to take a stand against something which, at the end of the day, has no bearing on eternity.  And have once again demonstrated to the world that Christians are people who are against things (some of which aren't bad), instead of being people who stand for something.

Maybe I am coming on too strong.  Perhaps it is because I grew up going to a Christian school that had similar rules (which I abided by).  But here's why I get so agitated with issues like this...schools make these rules and think they are sheltering their students, keeping them from the evil influences of the world.  All the while these kids are sleeping around, drinking, doing drugs, and partying.  And most importantly their hearts are far from God.  

Christianity cannot be legislated - by the government or schools.  It is never a top-down movement.  It starts from the grass roots and works its way through society.  And it starts in the heart of a person and works it way into thier lives; not from the outside in.  The sooner we learn this the more effective we'll be. 

What do you think?

tribes

megachurches.

Check out this post from Eugene Cho about MEGACHURCHES.  

A good reminder that the church is alive and well wherever you find it.

validation

this video is a little longer, but it tells a great story about how we all need validation.

inspired bicycles - danny macaskill april 2009

Amazing video. Great reminder that things that seem impossible might be possible if we put our minds and bodies into doing them!