tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-254173852024-03-07T15:23:43.879-06:00CollideOScopeThe Kaleidoscopic collision of the colors of my faith, life, culture, and Christ.Joe Bumbulishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15904792190842701390noreply@blogger.comBlogger381125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25417385.post-74697555350450118322012-04-05T14:31:00.002-05:002012-04-05T14:33:57.495-05:00A Noon Day, Maundy Thursday Sermon<style> <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:Cambria; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;} @font-face {font-family:"Lucida Grande"; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin-top:0in; margin-right:0in; margin-bottom:10.0pt; margin-left:0in; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Reflection on Psalm 116<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">“I love the Lord <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal">BECAUSE</b> he has heard me…”</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The Church Calendar marks today as Maundy Thursday. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>“The day of new covenant,” when during the Passover meal, Jesus took bread and broke it, “Take and eat, this is my body. Do this in remembrance of me.” Then Jesus took a cup, possibly the Passover cup known as the “cup of salvation” and gave it to the disciples saying, “Drink from it, all of you, for this my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></p> <div style="mso-element:para-border-div;border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.5pt; padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; border: medium none; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">And shortly before heading out to the Mount of Olives after the meal, they sang a hymn.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;border:none; mso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext 1.5pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><br /></span></p> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Today’s Psalm, Psalm 116, comes from the Egyptian Hallel, otherwise known as the praise songs centering on Israel’s deliverance from Egypt. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Psalms 113 through 118 compose this collection, with Ps. 114 as the centerpiece as a report of the events of the Exodus. Today’s Psalm in particular, Ps. 116, recounts an individual’s deliverance from death. The delivering hand of God that brings about exodus from death on the macro, works to bring about deliverance on the micro. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">And so, it is this collection of Exodus psalms that is traditionally sung at Passover. It might not have been the final hymn, but sometime during that night before the crucifixion, Jesus and his disciples probably prayed and sang Psalm 116.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">And I wonder if these words haunted Jesus as he prayed in Gethsemane:</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in; margin-left:1.0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span style="font-family:"Lucida Grande";color:black">I will lift up the cup of salvation</span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in; margin-left:1.0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span style="font-family:"Lucida Grande";color:black"> </span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in; margin-left:1.0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">“Father, is you are willing remove this cup…”</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in; margin-left:1.0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in; margin-left:1.0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">“Because, he has inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on his name…”</span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in; margin-left:1.0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in; margin-left:1.0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">“Why are you sleeping, get up and pray with me..”</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in; margin-left:1.0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;color:black">“For you have delivered my soul from death,</span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in; margin-left:1.0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;color:black"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>my eyes from tears,</span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in; margin-left:1.0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;color:black"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>my feet from stumbling.”</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in; margin-left:1.0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in; margin-left:1.0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">“In anguish he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling on the ground…”</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in; margin-left:1.0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in; margin-left:1.0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">““I love the Lord BECAUSE he has heard me…”</span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in; margin-left:1.0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in; margin-left:1.0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">“Judas, is it with a kiss that you are betraying me?”</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in; margin-left:1.0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in; margin-left:1.0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in; margin-left:1.0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">““I love the Lord BECAUSE he has heard me…”</span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Does prayer work? How does prayer work? How should I pray so that it works? </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">We’ve all asked these questions. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Example:</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Use of Self Help Books & the corporate mandated moments for meditation…instead of questioning the 80 work week that causes the need for breaks for meditation.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></p> <div style="mso-element:para-border-div;border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.5pt; padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;border:none; mso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext 1.5pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></p> </div> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">While facing execution in a Nazi concentration camp, theologian and pastor Dietrich Bonheoffer became concerned that the Christian understanding of God had been reduced to a mere psychological crutch. Bonhoeffer describes this understanding of God as the dues ex machina. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Literally translated, Deus Ex Machina means “god out of the machine,” which originally refers to a technique used by the ancient Greek playwrights to lower a person (representing a god or goddess) onto the stage of a play to interrupt the plotline. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Eventually this plot device became so overused by lazy and second rate playwrights, that unsolvable problems were solved by introducing the dues ex machina, and it became known as a clumsy plot device for interjecting an unexpected solution to the internal logic of the narrative.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Of course this plot device is common in today’s literature and tv, especially soap operas. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">If you are familiar with the hit 80’s TV show, Dallas, then you probably know of one of the most famous modern day examples of dues ex machina. At the end of season 6, Patrick Duffy who played Bobby Ewing wanted to leave the show. So of course, the writers killed him off.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">After his death, it became obvious from the huge drop in ratings that Bobby was one of the most popular characters on the show. After convincing Patrick Duffy to come back to the show, they ended season seven with one of the most surreal cliffhangers in TV history. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Just moments before the credits roll, we see Bobby Ewing’s widow wake up and approach the bathroom. She is shocked, as are the viewers, to find her husband standing in the shower, safe and sound.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The reason? The entire 7<sup>th</sup> season had been nothing but his wife’s dream. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The church in the West and especially those of us who consider ourselves religious often, unwittingly approach God as dues ex machina. God is merely an idea dropped clumsily into our world in order to fulfill a task. Or to put it in more modern terms, God is a vending machine, if I push the right buttons and do the right things I’ll be given what I need.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Instead of expressing a lived reality, God has merely become a solution to our problems. We broach prayer only or mostly when we are in need. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Thus, the result is a neutered God who simply justifies our beliefs and practices without questioning the status quo. A status quo that allowed the german church during the time of Bonhoeffer to be complicit in the murder of millions of Jews, </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">A status quo that today allows Christian churches to hide behind security, wealth, and psychological projections of who we wish God to be. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The same status quo that allows:</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">“A florida boy to be chased down and shot for wearing a hoodie,”</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">“A San Deigo Mom to be beaten to death in her own home for wearing the traditional Muslim garb, the hijab.”</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The status quo that allows CEO’s to make 315% more than the average employee.”</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">“the USA to incarcerate more of its population than any country, and incarcerate minorities at alarmingly disproportionate rates”</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">A status quo that creates </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">“a world with more slaves than ever before.”</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">“where the world’s wealthiest 16% consume over 80% of the world’s resources.” </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">A status quo that calls for peace by means of violence, security by means of fences, and wealth by means of injustice.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">As Martin Luther King taught us, "Injustice anywhere, is a threat to justice everywhere." </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">What we must realize is that as long as some are dehumanized in this world, all are dehumanized. Or until we are all set free to live fully, we are all held in captivity. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Does prayer work? At this point I’m not ready to answer this question, but I do know that prayer and God can be used to simply uphold our dehumanize and dehumanizing lifestyles when God becomes an empty vessel we dump all of our fears, desires, and wishes. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">When we stop at letting God work to bring about new reality, or God’s kingdom as Jesus called it, </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">and we settle into the status quo as our home, </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">then God becomes merely a legitimating force, </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">so prayer becomes nothing more than the human psychological tendency for wish fulfillment, to help us cope with our own dehumanized lives. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">What does it mean that Jesus, moments before his betrayal, trial, and murder prayed this prayer of deliverance in Ps. 116? </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></p> <div style="mso-element:para-border-div;border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.5pt; padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;border:none; mso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext 1.5pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">“I love the Lord <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal">BECAUSE</b> he has heard me…”</span></p> </div> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Jesus bends down in the garden, brow dripping with sweat, heart pounding with anxiety and prays, “Father, if you are willing, let this cup pass from me, yet, not my will but yours be done.”</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The Psalmist empowered Jesus to trust that it is not prayer that works, but rather it is God who is at work.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">God is at work in the world, and to be honest, I need Jesus to help me embrace God’s will:</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">the will that calls into question the dehumanizing status quo of violence, security, and unchecked wealth, that calls into question my need and desire to only have a little bit of God, to approach God as my vending machine.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Alive with the hope and imagination of the Psalter, Jesus is able to give up his own needs and wants and give into God’s will, God’s work. Alive with this beautifully rich prayer from Ps. 116, </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Jesus can trust that God delivers both on the micro and macro level.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">So, Jesus doesn’t allow God to merely be an empty vessel for us to dump our fears and wishes into like a vending machine for our happiness. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Rather, like Bonhoeffer, Martin Luther King, and Jesus we must trust this new reality even to the point of giving up what we think we most need. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">And with the Psalter and Jesus we wait for the day when “we will walk in the presence of the Lord, in the land of the living,” where none are dehumanized, oppressed, or put to death unjustly. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Until then, </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">“I love the Lord, …”</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">I love the Lord. </span></p>Joe Bumbulishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15904792190842701390noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25417385.post-42071560975203328312012-02-22T14:46:00.005-06:002012-02-22T15:59:04.457-06:00Lent for Everyday Life<a href="http://nicosteyn.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/roots.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 267px; height: 205px;" src="http://nicosteyn.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/roots.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />Ash Wednesday and Lent haven't grown old, but they have lost their personal novelty. Having come from a tradition that was more perplexed than pious about people walking around with dirt of their foreheads, I came to Ash Wednesday a few years back for the first time at a <a href="http://www.thefellowship.info/churchworks">retreat</a> and have thus experienced it the last two years in my <a href="http://fbcaustin.org/">church community</a>. But this year, while I'm excited about this season for our church life, I'm approaching Lent differently.<br /><br />Maybe this perspective comes with growing in experiences and while I'm admittedly young, I'm beginning to realize that most of life with God is made up by the quotidian, everyday, common, boring stuff. And it's in the common, familiar, boring, and comforting places that God waits for us. It's also in our common, familiar, everyday routines where we grow casual, tired, and blind to how God plays in our living rooms, laughs over our experiences, graces our dinners, suffers in our pain, and plays house with us in brokenness. It's there in the boring, old parts of life God's Spirit is waiting to dance with us or just sit with us.<br /><br />With the thought that God is in the boring routines of my life, this year I'm only adding a simple practice to Lent. Knowing that I have a penchant for novelty, the temptation for me is to only search for God in new and often temporary ways. It's a lot easier to find God in a stranger for some reason than the homeless man I see everyday waiting outside our church. It's easier to be hear God speak through a friend than it is to hear God speak through my wife. It's easier to worship with new music at a retreat than with familiar hymns with our church week in and week out. It's easier to find God in someone else's teenager or youth group than my own.<br /><br />The reality is that God is there in our boring routines, we're just blinded by our familiarity.<br /><br />So not only am I adding a simple practice, but I'm adding something I had given up since shedding my fundamentalist garb. Not only is this practice old and familiar, it is mixed with odd and uncertain feelings from a legalistic past. This year for Lent, I will be simply praying over my meals. That's it. And in this practice I hope to settle more into life as it presents itself through typical routines and find that God has been with me in all these places I've overlooked.Joe Bumbulishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15904792190842701390noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25417385.post-62365481068312608262011-12-31T19:00:00.003-06:002011-12-31T19:11:29.973-06:00Books Read in 2011At the end of the year for the last few years, I've recapped the books I've read in the past year. Mostly this is one way for me to keep track of what I've read. This may be the most fiction (I know, it's embarrassing) I've read in a year, which was one of my goals. Not only did I finish the Harry Potter series before the final movie came out I also really enjoyed the Hunger Games. I'd really love to create a youth ministry curriculum exploring empire, consumerism, and faith utilizing the Hunger Games.<br /><br />This past year in theology was really a discovering and delving into process and weak theology which has been very intriguing and helpful for me. I kept putting off reading Barth's Dogmatics, one of my resolutions from last year, until I didn't read them at all. I may find a resource to read the more important and interesting parts.<br /><br />Anyways here's my list of books that I finished in 2011. If you have any recommendations or comments I'd love to hear them.<br /><br />1. Sustainable Youth Ministry- Mark Devries. 1/1<br />2. Practicing Passion: Youth & the Quest for a Passionate Church - Kenda Creasy Dean 1/6<br />3. Out Of Babylon - Walter Brueggemann 1/19<br />4. Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream - David Platt 1/23<br />5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - J.K. Rowling 1/25<br />6. The Next Christians- Gabe Lyons<br />7. The Spirit of Life: A Universal Affirmation- Jurgen Moltmann 2/2<br />8. Fall to Grace- Jay Bakker 2/9<br />9. When Helping Hurts- Steve Corbett & Brian Fikkert 2/17<br />10. The Nature of Love: A Theology- Thomas Jay Oord- 3/22<br />11. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince- Rowling 3/27<br />12. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Rowling 4/6<br />13. Velvet Elvis- Rob Bell 4/11<br />14. The New Christians- Tony Jones 4/12<br />15. Transforming Christian Theology - Phillip Clayton 4/25<br />16. Ishmael- Daniel Quinn 4/28<br />17. After You Believe: Why Christian Character Matters- NT Wright 5/15<br />18. One Fine Potion- The Literary Magic of Harry Potter- Greg Garrett 5/25<br />19. The Weakness of God: A Theology of the Event- John Caputo 5/24<br />20. Almost Christian: What the Faith of our Teenagers is Telling the American Church- Kenda Creasy Dean 5/25<br />21. Christ of the Celts: the Healing of Creation - Philip Newell 5/25<br />22. The Knight & The Gardener: Worldview makes worlds- Cassidy Dale 5/26<br />23. Welcoming Justice: God's Movement Toward Beloved community - John Perkins 5/30<br />24. Quantum Physics and Theology - John Polkinghorne 6/10<br />25. Presence Centered Youth Ministry: Guiding Students into Spiritual Formation- Mike King 6/17<br />26. The Teaching of the Twelve: Believing and Practicing the Primitive Christianity of The Ancient Didache Community - Tony Jones 6/22<br />27. Gilead. Marilynn Robinson 6/22<br />28. Migrations of the Holy: God, State, and the Political meaning of the church- William T. Cavanaugh 7/5<br />29. Cat's Cradle- Kurt Vonnegut 7/15<br />30. On the Mystery: Discerning God in Process- Catherine Keller 8/29<br />31. Invitation to the Great Experiment: Exploring the possibility that God cam be known- Thomas E. Powers 9/2<br />32. Christ the Key - Kathryn Tanner 10/17<br />33. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell - Susanna Clarke 10/17<br />34. missional youth ministry: moving from gathering teenagers to scattering disciples - Brian Kirk & Jacob Thorne 10/30/11<br />35. Love Wins- Rob Bell 11/07/11<br />36. King Jesus Gospel: The Original Gospel Revisited- Scot McKinght 11/10/11<br />37. Difference Heaven Makes: Rehearing the Gospel as News- Christopher Morse 11/16/11<br />38. Disgrace: A Novel- J.M. Coetzee 11/17/11<br />39. Hunger Games- Suzann Collins 11/26/11<br />40. Catching Fire- Suzanne Collins 11/29/11<br />41. Mockingjay- Suzanne Collins 12/05/11<br />42. The Wisdom of Stability: Rooting Faith in a Mobile Culture- Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove 12/23/11<br />43. Exiles:Living Missionally in a Post-Christian Culture- Michael Frost 12/27/11<br />44. Insurrection: To Believe is Human, To Doubt is Divine- Peter Rollins 12/31/11Joe Bumbulishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15904792190842701390noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25417385.post-41415248174805220412011-12-07T16:49:00.005-06:002011-12-10T11:41:27.505-06:00Advent and ZombiesWhat do you call it when a person dies right before they become a zombie? You know, that part right after they've breathed their last (human) breath and before they resuscitate and you have to take a pitch fork or shot gun to them. For one brief moment the (bitten or scratched) pre-zombie corpse is allowed rest, to die, and be dead. Is there a word for that moment?<br /><br />Strange question for a post about Advent? We'll see.<br /><br />Zombies are all the rage. If you have a Netflix account you can stream limitless hours of zombie movies and shows, many of which are made in garages but others made with esteemed <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1156398/">actors</a> or <a href="http://www.imdb.com/find?s=all&q=walking+dead">networks</a> known for good writing.<br /><br />If you're a Jane Austen fan you may be completely dissatisfied or (maybe) elated to know that Pride and Prejudice was given new life (pun intended) when in 2009 Seth Grahame-Smith interwove zombies into the Bennett family's story. Continuing with the Lit nerd theme, maybe you'd enjoy a zombie <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Zombie-Haiku-Good-Poetry-Your-Brains/dp/1600610706">Haiku</a>:<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;" class="st">My rigor mortis<br />is mainly why I'm slower<br />and the severed foot.</span><br /><br />Needless to say, the zombie craze is an epidemic (so punny) of vast proportions, but mostly in 1st world countries like the USA, Europe, & Japan. Why?<br /><br />Like all monsters, zombies reveal our culture's deepest fears. And what do 1st world countries have to be afraid of? Do you think it's a coincidence that people often <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077402/">hide out in malls</a> in zombie movies and throngs of zombies push through the glass doors to wade through merchandise to get to their prey?<br /><br />On the-day-after-the-day we celebrate being thankful and content with what we have, Thanksgiving, we celebrate another holiday known as Black Friday. Of course Thanksgiving is a holiday, while Black Friday more akin to a religious experience.<br /><br />Religion comes from a word that originally meant "binding" which brings to mind practices of discipline. Like all religions, a good "Black Fridayist" must have disciplines which shape people's imaginations (thus making them spiritual disciplines akin). Beginning weeks in advance as well throughout the evening of Thanksgiving (I'm thinking we should rename this day to Black Friday Eve), families spend hours reading the holy scripture: ads. Then they must expose themselves to the bitter cold elements, stand in long lines, and prioritize possessions more than people (sometimes to the point of pepper spraying or stepping on someone's face).<br /><br />Of course there are other people, who turn a smug nose to those that participate in the holy feast day that pushes the market into the black. But they (me?) are no different than the shoppers. Sure one is up at the crack of dawn (or midnight) shopping while the other remains in the warmth of their bed, nevertheless they/we are the same. We are all trapped (possessed?) in this economic system of consumption. No one's more guilty then another, it's just some have the comfort of being able to afford what they want with or without Black Friday sales.<br /><br />Much like a zombie stuck in a catatonic state of unquenchable hunger for flesh, we are raised by our televisions and omnipresent ad agencies to consume mindlessly with a never ending hunger for more: more stuff, more bandwidth, more entertainment, more gadgets, more cars, more houses, more decorations and lights, more of just about everything.<br /><br />I'm as guilty as the person who slept outside Best Buy for 30 hours to get a deal. We all are for no one can escape the ubiquity of consumer culture.<br /><br />Advent is a reminder that our hope in God's-coming-to-us isn't hope simply for the afterlife, an escape to heaven. Advent hope recognizes that in Jesus heaven is breaking into earth. In God's incarnation these two realities, heaven and earth coalesce or collide.<br /><br />These two infinitely-apart spaces are being intimately intertwined. Never the same, never separate. <span style="font-style: italic;"><br /><br />At</span> hand, but not <span style="font-style: italic;">in</span> hand.<br /><br />The good news of Jesus is more than "getting to heaven when we die," it's "getting heaven into us" before we die...heaven, the place where God's will is done on earth and in us. With God's reign or will or heaven breaking into our midst, the "schemas/forms' of the world are passing away" as Paul states in 1 Cor. 7:31. Passing away. Fading.<br /><br />Maybe this is what that moment in zombie movies is called when one moves or passes or fades into the walking dead. But in Jesus we find the exact inverse, so that it is us who is awakening from our media induced sleep (another word used for death) into life lived in the fullness.<br /><br />May we find in this Advent season our stress fading and our hunger for more passing while we ourselves become signs of heaven on earth.Joe Bumbulishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15904792190842701390noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25417385.post-27833547615417601262011-04-19T11:43:00.003-05:002011-04-19T13:05:16.775-05:00Traders for or Traitors of the Kingdom, A Sermon<style>@font-face { font-family: "Cambria"; }@font-face { font-family: "Lucida Grande"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 10pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }p.MsoFooter, li.MsoFooter, div.MsoFooter { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }p.MsoListParagraph, li.MsoListParagraph, div.MsoListParagraph { margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }p.MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst, li.MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst, div.MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }p.MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle, li.MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle, div.MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }p.MsoListParagraphCxSpLast, li.MsoListParagraphCxSpLast, div.MsoListParagraphCxSpLast { margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }span.FooterChar { }div.Section1 { page: Section1; }ol { margin-bottom: 0in; }ul { margin-bottom: 0in; }</style> <div style="border-width: medium medium 1.5pt; border-style: none none solid; border-color: -moz-use-text-color -moz-use-text-color windowtext; padding: 0in 0in 1pt;"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; border: medium none; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Here's a sermon I preached during <a href="http://fbcaustin.org/">FBC</a>'s noon day Holy Week services, reflecting on the <a href="http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=170231501">"Parable of the Talents."</a><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; border: medium none; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; border: medium none; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">As we explore the theme this week, , “Give Me Jesus [Question Mark],” I’m reminded that we needed to be unsettled in our faith journey, in order to ask hard questions.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; border: medium none; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; border: medium none; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Is it Jesus that I really want or do I prefer the Jesus who helps me feel self-fulfilled, the Jesus I use to make me feel good.”</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; border: medium none; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; border: medium none; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">And in order to unsettle us this afternoon, I want to offer up, what some may consider to be an uncommon reading of this common parable about talents. I want to explore a different interpretation that steers us directly into the heart of: “Give Me Jesus?”</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; border: medium none; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; border: medium none; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Just in case you’re unfamiliar with the common interpretation of this parable, it goes something like this. Everyone has God-given talents or abilities, and what this parable teaches us is that God wants us to use our “spiritual gifts” or talent to grow his kingdom while we wait for Christ to return. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; border: medium none; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; border: medium none; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">But the more I studied this parable, the more I became uncomfortable with this way of reading it. And so, I ask you to listen again as I offer up a modern reading that I hope will make the meaning plain. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; border: medium none; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; border: medium none; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p> </div> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">He stumbled into the room, resting on the door frame in his usual drunken stupor. The Owner of the land, or Lord has he liked to be called, eyed his workers with hopeful greed and piercing hate. It had been several months since the Owner left, leaving these three day-laborers in charge of his estate. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">As migrant workers with no papers, and thus no rights, these three men were no better than slaves to their Lord. They were hostages to this life now. If they’d known what kind of man he was, maybe they wouldn’t have jumped into his truck to work for him. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">He is known among many of the migrant workers for his cruel spirit. On several occasions he has been known to deliver his workers to the border patrol if they anger him or try to leave.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Among the day laborers, who live in daily fear, the border patrol is commonly referred to as the dark place, or the “place of weeping and gnashing of teeth,” because it is there families are torn apart, forced from the country, forced from their wives and children. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Yet, the Owner was very wealthy and could offer work, which was hard to come by these days as families grew hungrier. So, these three men remained, unable to leave because of their own need for work, and their fear of the Owner. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Disappearing for months was a common affair for their Master. They had grown used to being left to manage the fields and estate while he lived a life they couldn’t imagine, one of luxury and extravagance.<span style=""> </span>But this time was different. Before wandering off, the Owner, probably as a cruel trick, left each of the workers an inexplicably large amount of money.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">To one worker, he gave five talents, to another two talents and to the third he gave one talent. One talent. These men knew, a single talent was enough to feed one of their family’s for 20 years. It represented lavish wealth, almost an entire life’s worth of work balled up into one, large piece of metal. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Familiar with their Lord’s avarice, they inferred his intent. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">It was his common practice, without a blink of an eye, for the Owner to cheat people. Anyone. Everyone. His singular goal was to build his wealth, and of course that meant building on the backs of others. His practices were harsh, always reaping where he did not sow, making money off of his neighbor’s crops, and gathering where he did not scatter seed. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Uncertain what the reward would be, if there would even be a reward, these three men knew the Master would arrive expecting a plentiful return, reaping where he had not sown. It was a perfect plan, for the Master at least. Go on vacation, live it up, and come back to an even larger amount of money or talents. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">With the fear of their Master’s cruelness haunting them in his absence, two of the workers fought diligently to make his money grow, allowing theirs hearts to grow cold long enough, hopefully just long enough, to make it past this malicious ordeal. They only wanted to work. Their families needed them to work. What choice did they have? And so, for week after tireless week, they scraped, stole, created false investments schemes, ponzi schemes, triangle schemes, whatever it would take to make the money grow. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">But the third, who was given 20 years worth of wages instead of 40 years or 100 years like the other two, went off early one morning and found a safe place in a field and buried the talent. He was there to live and help his family live. But he knew, life could not be found in this injustice. There was simply no excuse to do his living off the backs of others, and so he buried the treacherous demand of the Master. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Holding himself up on the doorframe, the drunken Master waited perversely to hear the news of how the workers had carried out his longing for gain. When the first two told him how they’d made to make his money expand, he grew elated. No longer needing the door frame to hold himself up, he declared just how much Joy they had given him and they would both be given even more responsibility than they already had, of course, more responsibility, but not more pay.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Then he noticed the third worker, sitting in silence. He demanded to know how he made the Owner richer. The meek man rose to his feet and clearly said, “I know you reap where you do not sow. You take from the poor and live like you’re the only one that matters. You cheat, you steal, and you harvest where you don’t plant seeds. I was afraid of losing the talent due to your harshness, but I was more afraid of becoming like you because of your harshness. So, I didn’t steal or cheat, but merely hid the money.”</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Don’t you understand boy,” raged the Owner, “this is how the world works. Those that have will be given more, even in abundance. But the “have-nots,” like you, they’ll be stripped what little they do have, because they’re not even worthy of that tiny amount. You’re type don’t deserve the scraps from my table.”</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p> <div style="border-width: medium medium 1.5pt; border-style: none none solid; border-color: -moz-use-text-color -moz-use-text-color windowtext; padding: 0in 0in 1pt;"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; border: medium none; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">With vile, the Master loaded the single, resolute worker in his truck and drove to the place of “weeping and gnashing of teeth,” sending him away from his loved ones and their only source of life and income. </span></p> </div> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Well, I’ll be the first to admit this reading of the parable isn’t very warm or fuzzy, but it is certainly more unsettling.<span style=""> </span>And it needs to be unsettling, because the older, more common interpretation, for me at least, is too comfortable, too self-fulfilling. “God gives to those that help themselves.” But As Walter Wink and other Biblical scholars have noted, this way of thinking, this older interpretation, goes against the social conventions of Jesus’ time.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Jesus’ audience in the Gospel of Matthew was comprised mostly of those at the margins of society. They were familiar with the practices that profited the prosperous, as they were the victim’s of fraud, exorbitant rates with ambiguous contracts (much akin to predatory lending in our time), and sidebar taxes that allowed the collector to skim off the top.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Moreover, in first century Jewish culture, individual pursuit of wealth, especially at the cost of others members of society, was looked down upon as a violating communal and religious loyalty. Therefore, to even be able to own a single talent, much less several, was seen as anathema, a sinful cheat among Jesus’ audience. Thus, for the villain in this story to represent God, wouldn’t have made any sense to the first century listener.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Besides the common interpretation being nonsensical to its audience, another reason I think we should read this parable in this new way is that it fits with the larger picture of Jesus’ agenda. Unlike some theologians who would have us believe that God sent Jesus to earth for the sole purpose of being a divine punching bag, or the only reason Jesus was sent to earth was to die, we must remember that Jesus had an agenda, in other words, Jesus had a mission.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Sewn throughout the Garment of Matthew’s Gospel is Jesus’ mission. And this thread of mission is that Jesus is bringing about a movement of God’s justice and love here among us now through costly follower-ship.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Jesus came proclaiming the good news, “the Kingdom of God is near, repent and come join the movement.”</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">And the readers of Matthew knew that Jesus’ kingdom proclamation was being united with a very powerful, hebrew concept: <i style="">tsedawkaw<span style=""> </span></i>translated to greek, <i style="">dikaiosune</i>. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-style: italic;">Dikaios</span> and <span style="font-style: italic;">dikaiosune</span> are the Jewish and Christian answer to the perennial human question, “what does it mean to live a full, and good, and righteous life before one dies? What does it mean to live life eternally beginning now? What does it mean to be truly human?”</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">If there was ever a word appropriate enough for something as mysterious and beautiful as God’s kingdom, <span style="font-style: italic;">Dikaiosune</span> is that word.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">In the greek, <span style="font-style: italic;">dikaios</span> or <span style="font-style: italic;">dikaiosune</span> is a word so pregnant with meaning that if it were to inhabit the heart, it would birth God’s kingdom. You see, <span style="font-style: italic;">dikaios</span> is one of those words that’s hard to render into English because it’s so full of meaning.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Often interpreted in the New Testament as “Righteousness”, <span style="font-style: italic;">Dikaiosune</span> means three things all at once, never mutually exclusive: justification, righteousness, and justice. In Jesus’ <span style="font-style: italic;">dikaiosune</span> movement, we find that God is restoring our relationship with him (justification), restoring our inner selves as God’s image bearers (righteousness), and the restoring human relationships/community through equity (justice).</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">So we see in Jesus, that God is setting and restoring our humanity in righteousness in order that humanity can be restored to itself through justice. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">In the Septuagint, the Greek Old Testament, we read in Genesis that “Abraham </span><span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; color: black;">believed the LORD; and the LORD reckoned it to him as <i style="">dikiaosune</i>.” </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; color: black;"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; color: black;">In Isaiah we find that “all our <i style="">dikiaosune </i>is like filthy rags.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; color: black;"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; color: black;"><span style=""> </span>And in Amos, the verse forever heard in my head through the voice of Martin Luther King Jr, “</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">But let our justice roll down as water, and <i style="">dikaisune </i>as an ever flowing stream.”</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Thus, Jesus’ mission was to establish God’s <i style="">dikaiosune </i>among us now. And he expected this endeavor to be costly.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">In the beatitudes Jesus declared, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for <i style=""><span style="color: red;">dikaiosune</span> </i>for the will be filled.”</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; color: black;">“Blessed are those who are </span><b style=""><span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande";">persecuted<span style="color: rgb(221, 8, 6);"> </span></span></b><span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; color: black;">for </span><i style=""><span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; color: red;">dikaiosune’s</span></i><span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; color: black;"> sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. <span style=""> </span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The kingdom belongs to those who like the third servant in the parable object to unjust practices that destroy justice even to the point of being persecuted or cast from society. And certainly the persecution Jesus is talking about here isn’t when we don’t get along with go workers or when we suffer some illness, but persecution is being marginalized and force to live uncomfortably because of our faith in this Jesus way of restoration. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">But of course we shouldn’t seek out suffering for suffering’s sake, but rather we should seek out life and justice for God’s sake.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">In the parable directly following this one in Matt 25, we learn that God hides himself among the poor and the forgotten, those who will never make history books. Thus we must stand for <i style="">dikaiosune’s </i>sake and resist evil practices that misuse and abuse God’s very self found in the thirsty and oppressed.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">This week we need to be unsettled, because the injustices born on the backs of the poor are unsettling. And what is even more unsettling is these injustices are born on the back of God’s very self.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Jesus was and is the embodiment of God’s kingdom come. To meet Jesus, means to bump into God’s Kingdom. Thus, we have to remember that the cross wasn’t God’s sadistic torturing of his Son, but it was the ultimate cost of Jesus’ mission. Jesus was crucified for bringing a new way, God’s way of life on earth, because when God’s kingdom of <i style="">dikaiosune </i>confronts the evils and injustices of our world, the world convulses and pushes it out to the margins, even to death.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">But as Jesus said, “</span><span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; color: black;">Those who find their </span><b style=""><span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; color: rgb(221, 8, 6);">life </span></b><span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; color: black;">will lose it, and those who lose their </span><b style=""><span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; color: rgb(221, 8, 6);">life </span></b><span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; color: black;">for my sake will find it.” </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">So, <i style="">Dikaiosune </i>is the unsettling vision that all might not be well with the way the world works, the way we live, the lives we exploit, the poor we neglect, the voiceless we hush, the enemies we murder, and the pain we hide our faces from. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><i style=""><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Dikaiosune </span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">is the unsettling vision that all are created equal and deserve a chance to live while we go on living lavishly and not just beyond our own means, but the very means of the our earth. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><i style=""><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Dikaisune</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> is the unsettling vision that we may stand alone, and be cast aside, we may be put to death, but at the core of following Jesus is a vision for restoring the world until <i style="">dikaiosune </i>flows down as an ever flowing stream.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The answer to the perennial question for all of humanity, “what must I do to be good and live the fullest possible life now,” is found in Jesus’ Kingdom of<i style=""> dikaiosune </i>and a life devoted to bringing it about no matter the cost.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">So may today be about coming to Jesus in a new way, and giving up our pretenses, declaring our desire for him not because of what he can give us, whether earthly or heavenly rewards; but rather may we learn to desire Jesus in our lives for our own restoration as well as the restoration of the world. May we desire Jesus, because this <i style="">dikaiosune </i>vision is the hope of the world, and there is nothing, not even death that can conquer this Kingdom.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">May we be like the third servant, knowing this is a kingdom worth being put to shame for, worth being marginalized for, and worth being persecuted for, knowing that in the end it is not death that prevails, but life everlasting.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> <br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Benediction:</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Here these words from Jesus,</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><u><span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; color: black;">Matt. 6:25</span></u><span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; color: black;"> “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?<span style=""> </span><u>26</u> Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?<span style=""> </span><u></u></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; color: black;">Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin,<span style=""> </span><u>29</u> yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these.<span style=""> </span><u>30</u> But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?<span style=""> </span><u>31</u> Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; color: black;">But strive first for the kingdom of God and his </span><b style=""><span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; color: rgb(221, 8, 6);">dikaiosune</span></b><span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; color: black;">, and all these things will be given to you as well. </span></p>Joe Bumbulishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15904792190842701390noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25417385.post-493141415512769712011-03-09T11:23:00.002-06:002011-03-09T11:50:41.351-06:00Lent PracticeToday is my first blog post in a long time. This is my Lent commitment, to write more. First my plan is to journal for myself 2-3 times a week. Second, I'm going to be posting here once a week. I find writing a good enterprise for myself. I can't say I love it. It takes a lot of work, especially when I know someone might read it. My brains doesn't work in such a way that I can just sit down and spew out my thoughts in order and have them make sense much less sound a bit better than elementary or grating to the learned reader. But I still enjoy the practice. I enjoy working through my thoughts, intentionally forcing myself to reflect and think through problems, and having a focused conversation.<br /><br />Tonight, at a worship gathering among some of my community we'll be marked by Ashes. So I'm working on what I'll say tonight. Once that's done, I'll post that reflection. As I'm preparing my thoughts for tonight's Ash Wednesday service, I've discovered a community online talking about this season of Ash. I thought about tweeting each link, but I try my best not to utilize my social tools to annoy folks. So here's a <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sister-joan-chittister-osb/beginning-again-always_b_830218.html">link</a> from Joan Chittester, a <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rev-dr-james-a-kowalski/ash-wednesday-mortality-h_b_832584.html">reflection</a> on Ash Wed, one from an <a href="http://networkedblogs.com/fdeGn">anglobaptist</a>, another <a href="http://onthebema.com/2011/03/09/prayer-for-ash-wednesday/">baptist</a>,a reading <a href="http://erb.kingdomnow.org/reading-list-for-lent-2010-vol-3-6/">list</a> for Lent, <a href="http://www.redletterchristians.org/more-than-caffeine-workout-routines-or/">thoughts</a> from Tony Campolo, a great <a href="http://eugenecho.wordpress.com/2011/03/09/lent-giving-up-coffee-or-my-life/">reflection</a> from pastor Eugene Cho, giving up social <a href="http://pomomusings.com/2011/03/09/social-networking-lent/">networking</a>, and a beautiful <a href="http://www.episcopalcafe.com/daily/church_year/ash_wednesday_in_the_streets_1.php">post</a> from Sarah Miles.Joe Bumbulishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15904792190842701390noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25417385.post-86091162252567677342011-01-01T22:30:00.003-06:002011-01-01T22:55:45.313-06:002010 in Books, What I read last yearThough 2010 only consisted of 11 blog posts, I find posting up what I've read the past year a good practice for myself to look over what I've read, reflected upon, and found new friends among. So, in order to continue this practice, here's my "books read" list from 2010. <br /><br />The Myth of Religious Violence, William Cavanuagh<br /><br />In the Name of Jesus, Henry Nouwen<br /><br />Christianity and Capitalism, American Style, William Connolly<br /><br />Turtles all the Way Down, Gordon Atkinson RLP<br /><br />Can these Bones Live? A Catholic Baptist Engagement with Ecclesiology, Hermeneutics, and Social Theory- Barry Harvey<br /><br />A New Kind of Christianity, Bryan McLaren<br /><br />An Unsettling God: The Heart of the Hebrew Bible, Walter Brueggemann<br /><br />The Puppet and the Dwarf: The Perverse Core of Christianity, Slavoj Zizek<br /><br />On Theology, John Caputo<br /><br />Deep Church, Jim Belcher<br /><br />Flawed Families of the Bible, the Garland's<br /><br />Better Hope, A Resource for a Church Confronting Capitalism, Democracy and Postmodernity, Stanley Hauerwas<br /><br />What Would Jesus Deconstruct, John Caputo<br /><br />Practicing Discernment with Youtht: A Transformative Youth Ministry Approach, David White<br /><br />All the Pretty Horses, Cormac McCarthy<br /><br />Transforming Bible Study, Walter Wink<br /><br />Moral Vision of the New Testament, Richard Hays<br /><br />Introduction to the Missional Church, Alan Roxburough<br /><br />For the Nations: Essays Evangelical and Public, John Howard Yoder<br /><br />OMG: A Youth Ministry Handbook, Kenda Creasy Dean<br /><br />Priestly Kingdom: Social Ethics as Gospel, John Howard Yoder<br /><br />Outliers: the Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell<br /><br />Sun of Righteousness, Arise! God's future Humanity and the Earth, Jurgen Moltmann<br /><br />Revisiting Relational Youth Ministry, Andrew Root<br /><br />Signs of Emergence, Kester Brewin<br /><br />On Monsters: An Unnatural History of our Worst Fears, Stephen T. Asma<br /><br />The Great Giveaway: Reclaiming the Mission of the Church from Big Business, Para church Organizations, Psychotherapy, Consumer Capitalism, and other Modern Maladies, David Fitch<br /><br />The Christian Imagination: Theology and the Origins of Race, Willie James Jennings<br /><br />A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, Donald Miller<br /><br />Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, J.K. Rowling<br /><br />Death by Meeting: A Leadership Fable, Patrick Lencioni<br /><br />Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, J.K. Rowling<br /><br />Messy Spirituality, Mark Yaconelli<br /><br />Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, R.K. RowlingJoe Bumbulishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15904792190842701390noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25417385.post-33398362236560800832010-07-06T14:52:00.004-05:002010-07-06T15:02:55.169-05:00Atheism is therapeuticThe church in the West is raising functional atheists (those who confess with their mouths but live as if there is no God) because they have capitulated to late capitalism. Thus, we're impotent to engage the material world in meaningful ways. So what is the church ministry about if we're raising functional atheists? "Therapeutic, consumer deism." Ministry tends to imbibe (especially liberal Christianity) therapy, consolation (to the point that suffering from illness or grief is picking up and carrying one's cross), and maybe even passion for "issues" with no depth of engaging those issues. We love the idea of love, but do not actually love. We think that reading a book in a class means having done what the book talks about (whether contemplative prayer, social justice, or living simply). Thus, our essential action is apathy produced by consumerism that pacifies us and aids in the essential goal of self-actualization: the realization that the individual is all that matters. Atheism declares there is no god. So does the church if the church will not begin to live alternatively in dominant story of late capitalism.Joe Bumbulishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15904792190842701390noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25417385.post-77607764166493552502010-04-19T10:53:00.003-05:002010-04-19T11:04:47.846-05:00Consuming Jesus: A Sermon on Being ChurchWell, here is my first consecutive sermon, or first sermon to have preached directly <a href="http://joebumblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/get-lost-sermon-on-finding-way.html">after</a> preaching another. This last Sunday the <a href="http://www.fbcaustin.org/content.cfm?id=2015">student</a> ministry at First led us in worship and we ended in Communion. You can <a href="http://www.fbcaustin.org/content.cfm?id=2023">listen</a> to the <a href="http://www.fbcaustin.org/content.cfm?id=2023">sermon</a> from last week or yesterday on our <a href="http://www.fbcaustin.org/content.cfm?id=2023">website</a> or download fbcaustin's podcast.Joe Bumbulishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15904792190842701390noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25417385.post-52450713813733566932010-04-13T10:56:00.003-05:002010-04-13T11:16:17.526-05:00Get Lost: A Sermon on Finding the WayWell, here's the <a href="http://www.fbcaustin.org/content.cfm?id=2023">sermon</a> I preached last Sunday. I think it's also available in iTunes as a podcast under First Baptist Austin. Give it a listen, let me know what you think.Joe Bumbulishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15904792190842701390noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25417385.post-63789355062370050872010-03-06T10:49:00.004-06:002010-03-06T11:08:33.996-06:00"Knowing God" - the Problem of HumanityWell in answering one of my <a href="http://fatwhitepreacher.blogspot.com/">good friend'</a>s questions to my <a href="http://joebumblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/new-kind-of-christianity-too-far-not.html">post below</a> on <a href="http://brianmclaren.net/">Brian McLaren's</a> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0061853984?ie=UTF8&ref_=sr_1_1&s=books&qid=1265317343&sr=8-1&linkCode=shr&camp=213733&creative=393181&tag=malesurvival">book</a> and doctrine I basically wrote a long enough answer to put it up as a new post. So here's the context. In the <a href="http://joebumblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/new-kind-of-christianity-too-far-not.html">review</a> I wrote:<br /><blockquote><a href="http://www.bonhoeffer.com/">Bonhoeffer</a> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Christ-Harpers-Ministers-Paperback-Library/dp/0060608110/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1267894650&sr=1-1">wrote</a>, “it is only when one knows the unutterability of the name of God that one can utter the name of Jesus Christ” Thus what we DO know about God is that ultimately God is unknowable. So doctrine is not an end in itself, thus <a href="http://viralbloggers.com/2010/01/a-new-kind-of-christianity-by-brian-mclaren/">aNKoC</a> is not an end in itself.</blockquote><br />Seth has some other good questions which you can read in the post below, but here's the heart of what he's saying:<br /><blockquote>But I don't get from that quote (and again I don't know the whole context behind the quote from Bonhoeffer) is that God is unknowable. Jesus seems to say the exact opposite. He identifies himself with the Father, and says several times that if you know me, you know the Father; if you see me, you have seen the Father, etc. It seems that God is knowable, but ultimately he is known through the incarnation of Jesus Christ.</blockquote><br />Here's my response:<br />Well, I want to be careful because there's this strange dialectic I'm trying to walk here (creating a both/and or neither/nor category). In some ways I want to say what you are saying about Jesus, but in a more or differently nuanced way.<br /><br />First, in regards to JC's words about knowing the Father. Thomas asks Jesus to show them the Father and the way to get where JC is going. I think we can agree that this passage isn't about doctrine (as if Thomas is saying, so is God eternal or everlasting?), knowing God categorically, conceptually, or perceptually. Instead, what Jesus is talking about is "the Way," the life and person that best reflects God on earth (himself). These verses in Jn 14 seem to point more toward relationships, allegiances, and ways of life (or mission) more than doctrinal statements about God.<br /><br />There are many different ways of "knowing" in the Bible, but I think of the most metaphorical, physical way..."knowing" as sex. This knowing is about something deeper and more personal then concepts. It seems that "knowing" in the Scripture is almost always a deeply human, physical, and relational term as opposed to abstract, categorical.<br /><br />Second, and ultimately I believe the greater truth is that God is unknowable. What I mean (not sure about Bonhof) is that we cannot use scientific reasoning and the 5 senses to create concepts that tell us "what" God is, God is neither provable or disprovable. We cannot point to God and say, "see God suffers or no God is immutable."<br /><br />Language about God is tricky, but I don't think our words or categories ever fully satisfy the reality of what God is in his being. It's very important to say, or maybe admit (since there have been many abuses) that what we can know about God is that God is unknowable, un"what"able. But while our language, concepts, and perceptions of God always fall short of his Being that doesn't mean they aren't important. While we cannot say "what" God is, we can say "that" God is...that God is loving, good, infinite, simple, just, faithful, unified, etc. Now do these words describe God metaphysically, ontologically? No, but they do give us categories to understand how God can be the way he is, and relate the way he does (and possibly just as important it helps us understand how we should relate to God and each other).<br /><br />Since we cannot claim what God is, but only what God is not (Bonhof's Christology) we can speak doctrines without fear of logical incoherence...like the idea that Christ is fully God and fully human (real logical right?). And that bring us back to Bonhoeffer, where he is saying that this way of talking about God (the "that," not "what") allows us to speak logically and coherently about the existence of God while being able to make statements about the incarnation.<br /><br />I agree that we do know God through Christ, but I cannot say that doctrinally speaking I better understand God's being because of Jesus. Actually, because of Jesus I am a little more confused about God's existence. Did God die on the cross? Does he suffer? 3 and 1, 3 in 1, 3 = 1?<br /><br />God is knowable, as in we can relate to and be in relationship to God. God is unknowable as in, I cannot point to and make conceptual statements that exactly describe the reality of God's being. Jesus leads us to what is really important, a life giving relationship with God; but after that we are stuck in our limited human categories to think about ways of describing conceptually and perceptually this reality. And that is theology in a nutshell, the aftermath of being swoon by God.Joe Bumbulishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15904792190842701390noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25417385.post-51447490156649743242010-03-04T14:41:00.002-06:002010-03-04T14:47:21.073-06:00Not an acceptable Christ<blockquote>It is not that a "Christian culture" must make the name of Jesus Christ acceptable to the world; but the crucified Christ has become the refuge and the justification, the protection and the claim for the higher values and their defenders that have fallen victim to suffering. It is with Christ who is persecuted and who suffers in his Church that justice, truth, humanity, and freedom now seek refuge; it is with the Christ who found no shelter in the world, the Christ who was cast out from the world, the Christ of the crib and of the cross, under whose protection they now seek sanctuary, and who thereby for the first time displays the full extent of his power. The cross of Christ makes both sayings true: "He that is not with me is against me" and "He that is not against us is for us."</blockquote><br />-Bonhoeffer, Ethics.Joe Bumbulishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15904792190842701390noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25417385.post-74058915039765711122010-02-24T12:28:00.000-06:002010-02-24T12:30:09.475-06:00A New Kind of Christianity: Too far, not far enough...or is that even the point? a book reviewStones have been cast. “Too far!” “Not far enough!” Love him or hate him, Brian McLaren shows in his newest book that he is willing to be a prophetic pastor, a figure representative of a conversation and movement (which means people are way too harsh and unloving to him). Book reviews are floating all over the internet dealing explicitly and directly with A New Kind of Christianity’s (aNKoC) content. For years as most know, McLaren has been in the messiest and necessary business of asking hard questions of the church, Christianity, and cultural changes. But aNKoC deals with creating and coming to answers to ten of the most important questions being asked within and of Christianity worldwide according to McLaren:<br /><br />• The Narrative Question: What Is the Overarching Storyline of the Bible?<br />• The Authority Question: How Should the Bible Be Understood?<br />• The God Question: Is God Violent?<br />• The Jesus Question: Who is Jesus and Why is He Important?<br />• The Gospel Question: What Is the Gospel?<br />• The Church Question: What Do We Do About the Church?<br />• The Sex Question: Can We Find a Way to Address Sexuality Without Fighting About It?<br />• The Future Question: Can We Find a Better Way of View the Future?<br />• The Pluralism Question: How Should Followers of Jesus Relate to People of Other Religions?<br />• The What Do We Do Now Question: How Can We Translate Our Quest into Action?<br /><br />You can read the book or the reviews to find out the “what” that Brian is trying to say, but aNKoC’s true importance lies not in what Brian is saying but what he is doing with aNKoC. The real point of this book is to (1) recognize the real need to find language that is contextual yet faithful to Scripture & our deeper Christian tradition and (2) to guide actions into the kingdom/ethics/mission. <br /><br />So what is Brian doing in aNKoC? He is giving Christians permission to reformulate doctrines in light of recent scholarship, conversations, cultural changes and most importantly mission. This book is both emergent and doctrinally focused (insert gasps here). And now more then ever with the growth of world Christianity and emerging, late capitalistic culture the church must learn to talk about doctrine in a healthy and humble way. <br /><br />Bonhoeffer wrote, “it is only when one knows the unutterability of the name of God that one can utter the name of Jesus Christ” Thus what we DO know about God is that ultimately God is unknowable. So doctrine is not an end in itself, thus aNKoC is not an end in itself. <br /><br />But the reaction and conversation on the blogosphere revolving around this emergent book of somewhat systematized theology of doctrines is symptomatic of the state of the church. First, these reactions reveal that doctrine is very important (it has fallen on hard times with all this pomo talk). In WWII, the Barmen declaration which deeply affirmed Trinitarian and Christological doctrines were used to attack the Nazi funded state church. Embedded in Walter Rauschenbusch’s theology are manifest destiny and nationalism. More recently, John Stackhouse has (wrongly) affirmed that God is in globalization. Doctrines are necessary for they reveal our convictions and ethics.<br /><br />Second, doctrine is very important but we don’t know why. Liberals focus on the experiential kernel of doctrine, that we form beliefs off of hidden individual experiences. Conservatives focus on propositional, abstract truths that correlate to our doctrines, thus they believe what we say equals what is real. Both are wrong. <br /><br />Doctrine is not an end in itself, but always exists to serve the mission of God. As Robert Louis Wilken writes, “Doctrines or theoretical concepts are never ends in themselves but always at service of a deeper immersion in the res, the thing itself, the mystery of Christ and of the practice of the Christian life.”<br /><br />This week while at ChurchWorks (or does it? as Bass reflected), Diana Butler Bass spoke to a group of Cooperative Baptists and said “Historians know that people only argue about something when it’s going away,” in reference to the national debate around the identity of the USA as a Christian nation. We argue about being a “Christian nation” exactly because we are no longer a Christian nation (as if we ever were…thanks Rauschenbusch). In this same way, we argue about doctrine because as McLaren writes, “the bad news: the Christian faith in all its forms is in trouble. The good news: the Christian faith in all its forms is pregnant with new possibilities (aNKoC, xi). “<br /><br />The “doctrine police” would do well to hear Martin Kähler, “Mission is the mother of theology.” Why did Peter find transformation and new doctrine at Cornelius’ house? Mission. Why did Nicaea, Gregory, and the early church struggle with Christology and the Trinity? Mission. Why is the church in the Western context finding new doctrine? Mission. Why is world Christianity growing and creating new doctrine? Mission. Why is Brian McLaren writing a book called A New Kind of Christianity? Mission. <br /><br />Mission serves the kingdom of God that Jesus was crucified for proclaiming and doctrine serves mission and the one who was crucified by pointing toward the significance of Jesus’ life, not the life itself. It is the Scripture and Holy Spirit’s work in community to reveal the life of Christ and doctrine’s work to witness to that significance.<br /><br />Our cultural context is one of great upheaval and change for several reasons. Not least of these are the effects of globalized late consumer capitalism creating a homogenous experience of liberal individuals who simply do not experience the world the same way people did 100, 50, or even 10 years ago did. In this globalized world the church, especially in the West, must be faithful to God’s mission by allowing the gospel to sprout new life, language, and doctrine in its new setting. The church exists not for itself (just like doctrine), but must exist for the other, for mission encapsulated by hope, justice, and love. <br /><br />Language is a tricky thing, but best understand by its performative intent. Does this statement mean you are grieving, want me to do something, rejoicing, sarcasm, asking for help, etc? In understanding what you mean by your words’ performative function, I can truly grasp what you are saying, what you mean. <br /><br />Doctrine’s performative action is witness. It exists to point to God, the unknowable.<br /><br />While I do not agree with many of Brian’s methods or assumptions behind the doctrine’s formulated in aNKoC like the recasting of church history as negative (Augustine, Aquinas, Luther, Calvin, the Pope, etc) or his simplistic “bad guy:” the “Greco-Roman” reading of the Bible; I do find great hope in aNKoC. Let us remember that Brian IS NOT seminary trained. Brian is a Jesus follower with a heart for God’s mission and in wrestling with this mission he is forming doctrines in service of the church…not vice versa. The world will not be saved by the few elite, seminary trained professionals for God’s mission is too vast, wide, and deep to be limited to experts. <br /><br />In the West, atheism is growing in interest, pluralism and “therapeutic, consumer deism” is on the rise. The church in the West is in decline. Doctrines serve mission and right now that mission is failing because we are not believing rightly. <br /><br />As Catholic Baptist theologian Barry Harvey of Baylor says, “doctrines order our transactions.” People are turning away from the church because our actions and transaction are not rightly ordered. We need new doctrines birthed out of the deep and rich traditions of Christianity. We are wealthy with theological reflection, but we must mine the wells and give to those who are willing to give their life to God’s mission the freedom and space to create new doctrines, just as Peter did, just as Paul did, and as Brian is doing (hey, it’s a biblical idea). <br /><br />In so doing the church will find the “crucial difference…between telling us a story differently and telling a different story.” (Nicholas Lash). <br /><br />I highly praise Brian as a brother in Christ willing to be a scapegoat for many and a refreshing voice for others. A New Kind of Christianity only deepens my belief and hope for giving people the space to discover new language and ways of putting together our story of God’s great redemption of the world in Jesus Christ. Brian is a mentor and friend to those who are tired of the conversation and Christianity as only thoughts/ideals/belief, old doing things the way they’ve always been done (badly and often without civility), and ready to give their life to a Kingdom come, but not yet. aNKoC is not the last word or the word after that, but gives permission to live into Christ and rethink that which is trying to be born. So quit throwing stones and go do it, be it, live it, and order yourself and God’s people back into love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control so that God may be in all and known by all.Joe Bumbulishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15904792190842701390noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25417385.post-23520158920638121782010-02-18T13:45:00.002-06:002010-02-18T13:57:26.474-06:00Preparation for Ash Wed & PrayerLast night at<a href="http://www.fbcaustin.org/"> First Baptist Austin,</a> we inaugurated the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liturgical_year">Christian season</a> of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lent">Lent</a> with an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ash_wednesday">Ash Wednesday</a> service. I had the opportunity to open the <a href="http://fbcaustin.blogspot.com/">service</a> with these words and prayer:<br /><br />As we all know, tonight is not our common Wednesday night Midweek Mooring service, but like Advent, Christmas, Pentecost, Lent, Good Friday, and Easter…today is a note worthy day in the Christian calendar: Ash Wednesday.<span style=""> </span>For myself, having grown up outside of the church, spending much of my time as an atheist, and then becoming a Christian in a very fundamental Baptist church, most of these words: Advent, Lent; much less Ash Wed. were and are still somewhat foreign and mysterious to me. <p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">If you’d ask me five years ago, I would have said “I have no idea what Ash wed is about, but its probably heretical.”<span style=""> </span>My reasoning: it’s a Catholic thing.<span style=""> </span>I mean, didn’t the Reformation save us from all this Catholic ritualism, salvation by works stuff.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">If you’d ask me about 3 years ago, I still would have said I don’t really know what Ash Wed is, but I would like to know.<span style=""> </span>For what I had learned, is that of all the good things that came out of the Reformation, many good things were lost too.<span style=""> </span>As the saying goes: the baby was tossed with the bath water.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">If you’d ask me today, I’d say something like this.<span style=""> </span>I’ve only experienced Ash Wed once, last year at a Baptist Retreat.<span style=""> </span>In the past, for the most part the only preparation I made for Easter was to buy new clothes.<span style=""> </span>In the last few years I’ve taken to this time called Lent to prepare myself for Resurrection. I mean, shouldn’t’ something as awe-inspiring and somewhat terrifying as Resurrection be prepared for.<i style=""><o:p></o:p></i></p> <p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">And we begin this journey of new life by making room, getting rid of distractions and sins and awakening to our own mortality.<span style=""> </span>I’ve learned a lot in my time with you here at First Baptist, but one of the things I’ve seen time after time is how alive some people become when they are close to death.<span style=""> </span>Ash Wed. marks the first day of this season of drawing near to death, giving us permission to grieve our weakness and sin; and instead of buying more clutter for our lives we are invited to toss some of the mess. So you and I are invited tonight to reflect on what keeps us from living close to our mortality, our fragility of life so that we may live every day fully alive as if it’s our last. </p> <p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">You are invited to identify yourself with Christ who was given the marks of suffering in his body, by receiving the sign of mortality on yours in the form of ashes.<span style=""> </span>So that is Ash wed, not some rote ritual to gain God’s favor, but an invitation to God’s faithfulness by physically identifying yourself with his gift.</p> <p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Prayer</p> <p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><i style="">Faithful, life-giving Creator, there is nothing and no one you have made that you despise.<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p><br /></i></p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><i style="">And though, you call us to life, we close our ears.<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></i></p> <p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><i style="">You welcome us home, and we desert your hospitality.<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></i></p> <p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><i style="">You breath on us Spirit, and we prefer the stench of sin.<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></i></p> <p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><i style="">From your never ending, loving faithfulness, we ask for sorrow for our individual and collective brokenness, isolation, hate, and neglect; to make us new in your mercy; and to bring us to death so we may find life.<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></i></p> <p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><i style="">We desire and ask these things in the creative energies of your Spirit, the faithful suffering of your Son, and the nurturing guidance of the one God, forever and ever. Amen.<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></i></p> <!--EndFragment-->Joe Bumbulishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15904792190842701390noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25417385.post-7046320519373244792010-02-10T11:04:00.002-06:002010-02-10T11:10:11.649-06:00He doesn't like it...So, I'm almost done with <a href="http://brianmclaren.net/">Brian McLaren</a>'s newest <a href="http://www.amazon.com/New-Kind-Christianity-Questions-Transforming/dp/0061853984/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1265821687&sr=8-1">book</a> and will have my thoughts on it up soon. But I thought I'd post this <a href="http://www.dashhouse.com/">guy</a>'s review, because it is very different from what mine will be. I mean, I do not agree with McLaren 100% and think "A New Kind of Christianity" leads to a dangerous place at times, but I'm generally sympathetic to the project. Also, I like a lot of what he says thus far. So, before I get my thoughts up here's a tidbit from someone who wouldn't agree with my take on McLaren:<br /><strong></strong><blockquote><strong>Finally – and most importantly – this is not a minor tweak of Christianity. It is a repudiation of the church’s understanding of God and the gospel.</strong> It really is tearing up the contract and starting all over again. McLaren says we’ve got the whole Biblical storyline, as well as our ideas of God and Scripture, all wrong. He’d rather be an atheist, he says, than believe in the God that many of us think is found in the Bible. You don’t get any more basic. We are talking about two fundamentally different versions of Christianity and the gospel.</blockquote>and you can read the rest <a href="http://www.dashhouse.com/2010/02/review-a-new-kind-of-christianity/">here</a>.Joe Bumbulishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15904792190842701390noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25417385.post-76276346090890350232010-02-04T20:18:00.003-06:002010-02-04T21:47:28.680-06:00A New Kind Of Christianity, McLaren's Newest Book<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0061853984?ie=UTF8&ref_=sr_1_1&s=books&qid=1265317343&sr=8-1&linkCode=shr&camp=213733&creative=393181&tag=malesurvival"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 240px;" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51woXR7jlFL._SL500_AA240_.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />As part of the ViralBloggers network, I have the honor of being one of the few (elite?) people to receive author, speaker, pastor, and networker <a href="http://brianmclaren.net/">Brian McLaren</a>'s newest book <a href="http://www.harpercollins.com/book/index.aspx?isbn=9780061853982">"A New Kind of Christianity</a> (<a href="http://browseinside.harpercollins.com/index.aspx?isbn13=9780061853982">browse</a> inside it)," which hits the store shelves, as well as virtual shelves on Feb. 9th. <a href="http://www.harpercollinscatalogs.com/harper/517_1050.htm">HarperCollins </a>is publishing Brian's newest quest<br /><br />Brian has been a faithful friend, I mean that's what books are written to be right, along my pilgrimage. I haven't read much by him but in seminary I read <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Generous-Orthodoxy-conservative-contemplative-fundamentalist/dp/0310258030/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1265337615&sr=1-3">A Generous Orthodoxy</a> after reading Richard Foster's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Streams-Living-Water-Celebrating-Traditions/dp/0060628227/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1265338123&sr=1-1">Streams of Living Water</a>. These two pilgrims helped me move away from the strictness of fundamentalism wrapped tightly in denominationalism and see truth in the many doctrines, dogmas, and denom's of Christianity. Needless to say when I was deconstructing and struggling to find words and new ways of viewing the church, God, and my own faith McLaren gave me the gift of perspective. Later in seminary one of my night stand books became <a href="http://www.amazon.com/More-Ready-Than-You-Realize/dp/0310239648/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1265337615&sr=1-10">More Ready Than You Realize</a> in which again Brian aided my perspective in reinventing evangelism away from the evange-cube/tract/guilt tactics toward befriending those were are different from me. Thus, began my conversation. These two themes play strongly in my faith still: the necessity of bearing and seeking truth in its many forms as well as the need (for myself) to be converted (continually) as well as love others toward Christ.<br /><br />Then last year at <a href="http://fbcaustin.blogspot.com/">First</a> <a href="http://www.fbcaustin.org/">Baptist</a> Austin, our Easter Tide (that's the time after Easter before Pentecost on the church calendar that lasts about 7 or 8 Sundays) we studied in small groups <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Everything-Must-Change-Biggest-Problems/dp/140028029X/ref=pd_sim_b_4">Everything Must Change</a>. For myself, while not groundbreaking or even really new, this book guided me in leading "real" people, nonseminarians in the conversations that I found so important and true. Moreover, before leading these groups my wife and I as well as a bunch of other CBF baptists heard McLaren speak at Current retreat. So, in ways I feel like Brian and I are friends. We talked...at the conference...in his books...on the web...blogs...facebook...I'm not sure he'd know who I am, but way I feel towards my friends is the way I feel toward this newest book by McLaren.<br /><br />I get excited about my friend's stuff, tweets, etc; but I'm also familiar with them. It's not that I'm bored, complacent, or even contempt (familiarity breeds what?) with Brian's work, but more...familiar...comfortable...I don't know how to describe it. But the reason I enjoy genuine friends so much is the same reason I'm looking forward to breaking open "<a href="http://www.harpercollins.com/book/index.aspx?isbn=9780061853982">A New Kind of Christianity</a>," friends make you remember: remember who you are, where you came from, what the questions are, what makes life worth the living. While I'm not expecting to have my mind blown away in amazing revelations (though it could happen), I'm expecting to be reminded. Was it Augustine who said prayer is learning deep memory? <br /><br />If you are still reading and haven't perused the book yet, here are the ten questions Brian seeks to answer in this newest book. These ten questions seek to unite our inner lives with our outer lives in a search for a "faith for tomorrow:" <br /><ul><li>The Authority Question: How Should the Bible Be Understood?</li><li>The God Question: Is God Violent?</li><li>The Jesus Question: Who is Jesus and Why is He Important?</li><li>The Gospel Question: What Is the Gospel?</li><li>The Church Question: What Do We Do About the Church?</li><li>The Sex Question: Can We Find a Way to Address Sexuality Without Fighting About It?</li><li>The Future Question: Can We Find a Better Way of View the Future?</li><li>The Pluralism Question: How Should Followers of Jesus Relate to People of Other Religions?</li><li>The What Do We Do Now Question: How Can We Translate Our Quest into Action?</li></ul>As you can see, these questions are seemingly perennial questions to confront in our context. Hope you find room on your <a href="http://www.amazon.com/New-Kind-Christianity-Questions-Transforming/dp/0061853984/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1265341626&sr=8-1">shelf</a> or IPad or <a href="http://www.amazon.com/New-Kind-Christianity-ebook/dp/B0035D9UVO/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=digital-text&qid=1265341423&sr=8-2">Kindle</a> for<br /><br />Also, check out the video (and <a href="http://theooze.tv/">all</a> of Ooze.Tv's stuff) below of Spencer Burke driving Brian McLaren around talking about the power of questions to produce a new journey, a conversation driven by questions asked all around the world of people seeking to follow Jesus.<br /><br /><br /><br /><object id="cf6d67foi" name="cf6d67fon" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" height="400" width="640"><param name="movie" value="http://p.castfire.com/t75iH/video/230617/230617_2010-01-18-181622.flv"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://p.castfire.com/t75iH/video/230617/230617_2010-01-18-181622.flv" id="cf6d67fei" name="cf6d67fen" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" height="400" width="640"></embed></object>Joe Bumbulishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15904792190842701390noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25417385.post-60261177888762927192010-01-29T11:41:00.000-06:002010-01-29T11:42:18.790-06:00Unbelievable<object width="560" height="340"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/HHRKkXtxDRA&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/HHRKkXtxDRA&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object>Joe Bumbulishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15904792190842701390noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25417385.post-75399740423539242022010-01-25T11:43:00.005-06:002010-01-25T12:07:43.717-06:00A (Half) Year in Books: 2009ishHere's a look at some books I read last year. I only posted the ones I finished starting in June or July, I can't remember. The only book I read last summer was Dostoevsky's beautiful (and thick) Brothers Karamazov. I definitely slacked off in posting up what I was reading throughout the year and giving feedback, reviews, and thoughts...but I'm hoping to do more of that this year. There were several books I didn't finish, read in a group, or am not remembering right now, but we won't count those. So starting with the most recently finished, here's a look at the book I've read this month and the second half of 2009. <br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41ZSGSbdIkL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 240px;" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41ZSGSbdIkL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51iHtj%2BV%2B-L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 240px;" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51iHtj%2BV%2B-L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51gcXrkResL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 240px;" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51gcXrkResL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51c-hWQI8xL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 240px;" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51c-hWQI8xL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51E1-NqMK3L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 240px;" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51E1-NqMK3L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/519AqZYNVPL._SL500_AA240_.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 240px;" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/519AqZYNVPL._SL500_AA240_.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51qVr6kB6TL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 240px;" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51qVr6kB6TL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51D4ZJpl9BL._SL500_AA240_.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 240px;" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51D4ZJpl9BL._SL500_AA240_.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51PvTDATdzL._SL500_AA240_.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 240px;" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51PvTDATdzL._SL500_AA240_.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41LzjXgOwkL._SL500_AA240_.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 240px;" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41LzjXgOwkL._SL500_AA240_.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51HqC5wUY3L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 240px;" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51HqC5wUY3L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41aY%2BiOl2hL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 240px;" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41aY%2BiOl2hL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/419GT2eOoAL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 240px;" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/419GT2eOoAL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51YEdtdoivL._SL500_AA246_PIkin2,BottomRight,-14,34_AA280_SH20_OU01_.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 280px; height: 280px;" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51YEdtdoivL._SL500_AA246_PIkin2,BottomRight,-14,34_AA280_SH20_OU01_.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/518rh6YkedL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 240px;" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/518rh6YkedL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>Joe Bumbulishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15904792190842701390noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25417385.post-36607976092979446182009-12-31T17:26:00.001-06:002009-12-31T17:28:01.420-06:00Desiring the Kingdom, James K.A. Smith - A Book ReviewWhy is it that the everydayness of many Western Christians' lifestyles often reflect the values of their culture instead of Christ? How do our ways of engaging and teaching discipleship often leave our actions thin but our heads heavy? What is it that our actions betray our words or beliefs so that we proclaim God as highest but pay homage to the other gods of entertainment, consumerism, or nationalism? James K.A. Smith's newest reflection on education at its core is a reflection on discipleship. In this quest, he gives a fuller and more correct understanding of humans as affective, desiring animals in able to work towards a deeper discipleship, but fails to go beyond classical liturgical practices. This book is valuable to many: students, teachers, Sunday Schools, professors, preachers, and academics.<br /><br />While I'll hold off on a full review I will say that he takes off better than he lands. Part I of the book is devoted to constructing a deeper philosophical anthropology than the anthropology modernity or romanticism. The core argument of Desiring the Kingdom is that humans at their core are not thinking or even believing animals, but rather are precognitive, pre-rationalist lovers. We are what we love, we are what we worship. Furthermore, the first part of the book reflects upon the power of "secular" liturgies that form and shape human desire and love, so that our love is misdirected. Much of my aggravation from my own as well the discipleship of the Western church, is that the true formative practices of our daily lives come less from the church than the mall, White House, flag, Jerry World (the newest Mecca of entertainment and competition: the Dallas Cowboys Stadium). While these things are not evil in themselves, they should not be the focus of our desire as they tend to claim.<br /><br />Overall, the power of Part I is Smith's aim is to unveil the truth that behind every pedagogy or practice for teaching is a philosophical anthropology, or understanding of human existence. I fully appreciate Smith's understanding of human anthropology: "loving, desiring, affective, liturgical animals who, for the most part, don't inhabit the world as thinkers or cognitive machines."<br />So, instead of being pushed by our beliefs, we are "pulled by a telos that we desire."<br /><br />Part II builds off of the anthropology of humans as "fundamentally and primordially- lovers," to instill worship as the creation of habits that "constitute the fulcrum of our desires." Smith claims rightly that instead of focusing on changing beliefs or worldviews, the church or particularly the Christian university must inculcate habits that counter the cultural practices that are "thick"- or powerful enough to (mis)guide human desire. The final section of Desiring the Kingdom reflects on the worship practices in the Christian tradition that are "formative for identity, that inculcate particular visions of the good life." Possibly the most important piece in this section for myself is Smith's argument that the imago die is basically the participation of humans in the missio dei, but not in those words.<br /><br />This is where Smith gets closest to being right. The practices that will ultimately guide human desire lie with and beyond the Sunday morning worship service. "[T]he image of God is a task, a mission," writes Smith. Thus, beyond classical liturgical practices found in "worship," the church must create an ethos and ethic of participation in the mission of God. It is only by moving from doing mission and worship, to being mission and worship through ministering, living among, and fighting for caught up in God's mission of redemptive love that the church will claim once again the hearts of the church with "thick" practices. Counter-formation must occur beyond the walls of Sunday morning.Joe Bumbulishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15904792190842701390noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25417385.post-43070277744404507242009-12-10T21:18:00.001-06:002009-12-10T21:21:04.199-06:00Sermon: Hope and AdventHope: <br />Text:Revelation 21:22-22:5<br /><br />If you had asked me when I first became a Christian, moving from atheism to Christianity, what THE Christian hope was…I’d probably have said something along the lines of “heaven.” Jesus died on the cross for me, so that when I die I’ll go to heaven. As Charlotte my wife likes to recount, when we first started dating, I was often quoted as saying such things as “I think only the right Baptists are going to heaven” and other things like “this world is not my home.” <br /><br />See, I had met the grace of God in the muck of a legalistic tradition, a tradition that taught me all the right words and gave me all the right answers. <br /> <br />So at odds with my introduction to faith, a few summers back I went on a pilgrimage to India…the land of openness and difference. Landing first in the Western capitalist landscape of Hong Kong, I decided everything was up for grabs. The question I needed answered for myself was…<br /><br /> so what am I hoping for, what do I place my hope in? Do I believe in Jesus so I can go to heaven? So I can be a nice or good person? Do I believe in Jesus because I was born in the USA had no other choice? <br /><br />Certainly my earlier faith had outlined it simply enough: Believe in Jesus, get to heaven. My hope was not of this world. But this was no longer enough. <br /><br />The final book in our sacred Scriptures, the Book of Revelation may be the most popular book in all of the Bible…at least, the most popular to misinterpret and misread. Certainly much of my own shortsighted hope, my fire insurance Jesus, came from a different emphases found in Revelation. <br /><br />Revelation I was taught, gives us a picture of what the last days, the end times will be like. Ultimately the picture I was given was one of separation: people like me and with my beliefs on the inside, those without my beliefs on the outside.<br /><br />Here is where hope is often confused. We oftentimes confuse hope, with anticipation. We’ve all anticipated something: anticipation means an expectation within the realm of possibilities, anticipating what we can already see and know, what we can enact and bring about. Anticipation- centers on our human activity, and because of that anticipation often reflects human belief. <br /><br />“God created man in his image and then man returned the favor.” Reflected Voltaire.<br /><br />Anticipation is the creation of God in our own image, created by our own expectations and wishes. Even in my early stages of faith, my anticipation of the afterlife was a wish to be free from the cares of this world and to be separated from all those I disliked: all the sinners, drinkers, smokers, etc. <br /><br />But the Christian hope weaved throughout the narrative of Genesis to Revelation, is a radically different hope: the hope of resurrection.<br /><br />Unlike expecting something within the realm of possibilities, within what I can do as a human…hope is something new, hope creates new possibilities within my realm because it relies on God’s coming to us.<br /><br />Many have written off the historical possibility of Christ’s Resurrection or the idea that God came down as a baby as ill-logical…not fitting within the realm of rational possibilities. <br /><br />But this misses the point of resurrection and incarnation: this is God’s action toward us, this is a new possibility in the realm of possibilities. And so we see in this final picture of Revelation, a restored creation, everything resurrected and made new. The hope laying not in some ethereal heaven, but the hope laying in God’s newly created world, where those whom Christ has died for gather to worship. <br /><br /><br />To be honest, I still struggle with this idea of hope at times. I remember standing in the halls of an amazing Hindu temple, irreverently gawking at statue after statue of Krishna, Ganesh, Ram, and many more in the form of their avatars: elephants, turtles, boars, and many more. <br /><br />And while as an outsider I cannot pretend to value or understand the truth of Hinduism or any other culture or religion, I encountered God in the streets of India more than it’s majestic temples. I experienced God more in the lives of men and women who devoted their lives to serving the HIV positive, considered dalits and untouchables in that culture, and in the lives of the sisters at Mother Teresa’s home of the dying. <br /><br />And the place I learned to see God among the untouchables, the experience that gave me eyes to see and ears to hear God among the cast out and nameless, was in the unique person of Jesus Christ. And while I consider the conversation of world religions, universalism, pluralism, truth, and God in many forms valuable, and there’s certainly not sufficient time to cover that subject tonight, I walked away from the land of difference and otherness with a fresh grasp on Resurrection: hope: the person of Jesus Christ. <br /><br />So what I learned from the sisters who served the poor in the streets of Calcutta, what I’ve learned from people in our church that adopt and work with the homeless in our own city is that Christ died, as NT Wright likes to say:<br /><br />To give - Hope for life before death, not life after death.<br />And this for me is what changes. What is Christian hope, what does it mean to put your hope in Christ.<br /><br />It is significant that the author of revelation ties the new creation to the city of Jerusalem, and certainly this a metaphorical city pertaining not to the actual city, but rather it could be any city where God resides. <br /><br />Aristotle once wrote that “people come together in the city to live; they remain there in order to live the good life.”<br /><br />Hope is a learned activity, and the question is, who is teaching us? We find throughout the world cities that capture the imagination in their ability to transcend time and space, their ability to be more than national, but international. Cities like Hong Kong, London, New York, and possibly even Austin. <br /><br />It’s now the cities that are informing rural youth how to live and dress, college students what to dream for and where to live. Billboards, flashing lights, and larger than life ads distract us into what to hope for…the good life. <br /><br />Thus, we are taught the good life, lies in the realm of human possibilities, that we can act and achieve happiness if we live right, get the best education, reside in the best part of town, drive the newest car, own the newest device, wear the hippest clothes…hope becomes the anticipation of the good life.<br /><br /><br />The Christian season of Advent is a season pregnant with hope, as sacred and sacred as the virgin Mary. The Incarnation, God with us points us to the reality that God is active and working in the world and the Resurrection is teaching hope for the good life. <br /><br />What will give the church, Christians the ability to resist the manipulation by the international city, in hopes of God’s resurrected city? The same thing that gave Mother Teresa and the many nameless sisters serving the nameless the ability to live in poverty, the same thing that gave Martin Luther King strength and endurance as he nonviolently worked toward racial reconciliation, and the same thing that gives people all throughout the world the ability to suffer for another’s sake: the hope of the good life. <br /><br />To be able to dream and end when all will gather and worship God, when every person, no matter of color or creed will have enough to eat, have choices beyond menial tasks, and been given a place at the table of dignity- the good life of resurrection, the good life found in the counter-cultural Resurrection and Incarnation of God. <br /><br />So while our cities of glitz and glamor, celebrity and wealth may capture our eyes…it’s the hope of new life for all, worshiping the true God that gives us the ability to here and now embrace an alternative future. For what we do now, whether painting, preaching, singing, sewing, praying, teaching, building hospitals, digging wells, caring for the earth, campaigning for justice, writing poems, caring for the needy, loving your neighbor as yourself- will last into God’s future. <br /><br />So the invitation this Advent is to reflect resurrection, to work alongside God who is here and now in the midst of our busy lives, and bring the future hope into the present.Joe Bumbulishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15904792190842701390noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25417385.post-91610486698625633972009-12-07T16:43:00.002-06:002009-12-07T16:53:36.180-06:00My Second Sunday AM to PreachWell, I recently had the opportunity to preach my 2nd Sunday morning worship service at First Baptist. While I definitely felt more comfortable in the pulpit, I wasn't overly excited about the sermon itself. If you want, here's a link to listen to it <a href="http://www.fbcaustin.org/content.cfm?id=2023#">here</a> and click on 2009-11-29 or click <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?i=78873414&id=295901153">here</a> for the Itunes link.<br /><br />Here's the sermon:<br /><br /><o:p> </o:p></p>I’m very fortunate in that my sister and I have almost always had a good relationship.<span style=""> </span>Separated by 3 years in age, and probably 6 years in maturity levels we hardly ever fought, only because I knew who would win…and I hated to lose.<span style=""> </span>The only fight I may have ever won was well, do you remember the hot-wheels airplanes?<span style=""> </span>Unlike the hot-wheels cars, these little planes were akin to weapons, in that their wings were very pointy.<span style=""> </span>And in the intensity of an argument, I chunked one at her face.<span style=""> </span>She still wears the scars of that battle. <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">Besides those few fights, we mostly played, colored, and laughed together.<span style=""> </span>Certainly one of our favorite times of the year was Christmas.<span style=""> </span>Not having a grown up in the church, this time of the year held a certain mysticism, it was a magical time.<span style=""> </span>Every December, we’d load up as a family in my dad’s old, Ford pickup and drive down to the Rotary Club Tree Lot and spend about hour finding the right tree.<span style=""> </span>Then we’d toss it in the back of the yellow truck, drive home, and with Alvin and the Chipmunks playing on 13” vinyl, we’d adorn the house and tree in glitter and gold…all in anticipation of Christmas morning.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">Slowly over the next few weeks, we’d watch as the Christmas tree’s skirt filled with gifts of all shapes and sizes, waiting for mom and dad to leave the room so we could shake and hold the wrapped gifts guessing and hoping for what lay inside.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">But one year, I noticed that the house adorned and lit, filled with a decorated tree …was missing on element: gifts.<span style=""> </span>Unlike all my previous experience with Christmas, no presents magically appeared under the tree, the few gifts were to be found were for aunts and uncles, but where were my family’s gifts? more importantly, where were my gifts?<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">Unbeknownst to me, my parents decided to hide them a few weeks longer seeing that my sister and I..mostly me…would shake and really try to figure out all the presents.<span style=""> </span>By the time the last week before Christmas came, I was getting nervous.<span style=""> </span>How would I celebrate Christmas morning with nothing under the tree f<i style="">or me?</i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">Distinctly I remember one night my father had returned from work and all of us were sitting in the living room, I began to inquire about the lack of what obviously we all had known.<span style=""> </span>And so I just asked, innocently and nicely, “But where are my gifts?”</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">You have to understand, my dad has always been a bit of a prankster, so his quip back to us was, “well, this year things are different.<span style=""> </span>Since you’re sister got braces just a few months ago, we weren’t able to get you anything.<span style=""> </span>Maybe next year.”<span style=""> </span>I forgot to mention, but sister had just gotten braces.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">I didn’t know what to think…“Maybe next year…nothing”<span style=""> </span>I remember being dumbfounded, certainly my dad was mistaken…could we get a refund on all that metal in my sisters mouth…my sister…it’s her fault.<span style=""> </span>So I turned to my sister, who to this day says that was the meanest look she has ever received from anyone, even more than the time she had a toy airplane thrown at her face and scowled.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">Once my dad realized how well I was taking to this joke, he sprung up and left the room into the garage.<span style=""> </span>I was sure we had checked all the hiding places in the house, but I guess we hadn’t discovered the garage.<span style=""> </span>And within seconds, there standing in the living room was my dad with a big box of presents with my sister’s and my name on them.<span style=""><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style=""><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">Well, we are once again into this time of year we call Christmas.<span style=""> </span>Unlike my childhood anxiety and angst over what I would or wouldn’t get under the tree, my anticipation of this Holiday has greatly changed in the last 5 years or so.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">This morning is the first morning in something I never knew existed growing up: the Christian season of Advent: the intentional weeks leading up to and preparing us for the most radical interruption in human life and history: the Incarnation: God with us.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">The Gospel reading from Luke paints for us a picture.<span style=""> </span>He begins with a name, Herod, King of Judea, or Herod, King of the Jews.<span style=""> </span>It’s easy to overlook this name and go straight into the story, but Luke makes sure Herod’s name stands at the top of story, as his name often stood at the top of Jewish life.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">Herod’s job, procured at the hands of Roman authority was first and foremost to keep the peace for Rome.<span style=""> </span>Thus, for 34 years he ruled Israel, manipulating everyone from Rome, to the many Jewish insurrectionists.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">Everyone in Israel knew the name, and many shuttered with detest for his unscrupulous ways, murdering his favorite wife, his uncle, mother-in-law, and at least 3 of his sons as well as countless slaves.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">Yet many in the area couldn’t help but be in awe.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="color:red;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">For Herod’s way of creating and sustaining peace occurred through captivating the imagination with large building projects, structures strewn throughout major cities-amphitheaters, hippodromes, palaces, shrines, fortifications, aqueducts, forums, roads, new and restored cities, foundations, and of course his pinnacle of success…the rebuilt Jerusalem temple. It was as if Herod was trying to out-Rome, Rome. At every turn in Israel, one found reminders of the “King of the Jews.”</span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">What captures our imaginations as a collective group of people, as Americans, as Christians, as mothers, fathers, daughters, and sons?<span style=""> </span>As the church?<span style=""> </span>Certainly as a church in downtown it’s not hard to see the pinnacles of architecture meant to grab at our attention and inform us who’s in charge or who really matters.<span style=""> </span>We know what matters according to our culture: it’s easy to label those things: money, power, sex, influence, and fame.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">But what is your imagination held captive to, what does your life reflect?<span style=""> </span>This may be as simple as looking into your checkbooks…looking at your computer’s history or bookmarks…reflecting upon time spent or not spent with loved ones, hurting ones, and forgotten ones.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">What is holding your imagination captive as to prevent you from asking those around you hard questions, or keeping your children or spouse accountable?<span style=""> </span>What’s keeping you from having deep and meaningful relationships?<span style=""> </span>Where do you spend your life?</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">Ivan Illich was once asked, how do you change the world?<span style=""> </span>Revolution or gradual reform? </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">After thinking for a few seconds, he replied neither, you must change the world by telling a alternative story.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">At face value this story of Zachariah and Elizabeth’s visitation and pregnancy seems simple enough, but Luke is a master storyteller, interweaving the thick narrative of God’s history found in the Jewish Scriptures.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">Luke writing to a predominantly gentile, non-Jewish audience, and probably a gentile himself sets out to write a history of Jesus’ birth…therefore he makes the story very Jewish.<span style=""> </span>I’m not sure if he expected his audience to know the history and stories from the Law, the Prophets, and Apocalyptic literature, but we see in this story several flashbacks to these things.<span style=""> </span>Did you catch them all?</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">There’s the obvious illusion to the elderly barren couple: Abraham and Sarah.<span style=""> </span>The couple that God gave the promise to bless the entire world through.<span style=""> </span>The couple with whom God’s mission of love and movement toward humanity found its inception. </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">Then there’s a hint in Luke’s writing to another couple: Elkanah and Hannah- parents of Samuel, the last judge, the pre-cursor to Saul, the King. Samuel, debatably the best ruler and judge of the OT.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">And finally, with the appearance of the angel Gabriel, Luke’s technique becomes more dominant.<span style=""> </span>He not only ties the story he is writing to the Law and Prophets represented by Abraham and Samuel, he’s ties it to the last part of the Jewish Scriptures: the writings.<span style=""> </span>The book of Daniel mentions Gabriel, the angel of the end times.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">So as you can see, Luke is very purposefully writing in such a way to say that God is once again acting in continuation this story, but at the same time this is new and unique.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="color:red;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">For every good Jew knew what the end times in biblical history meant, and it’s not the oft-portrayed destruction of apocalyptic movies like 2012 or the Day after Tomorrow. Rather, the eschatological end time meant that God would act in a new way, and this new age would be an age of mission, where every nation would gather in praise to God’s kingdom. Where the promise conceived in Abraham would be born into the world. </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">Thus for Luke, this age of mission began long ago with God’s promise to Abraham, but would be enacted in a promise to this elderly, barren couple: righteous before God, but without child…a curse in that culture.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">__</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="color:blue;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">And so I hope the foolishness of the story is obvious: on one hand there is this very powerful and fertile man who holds everyone in Israel captive with pomp: Herod who has built the magnificent temple, the place where God dwells. And instead of talking to Herod, God’s messenger comes down and gives a promise to Zachariah and Elizabeth, nobody’s in the grand scheme of things: righteous and holy, but impotent and barren.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">__</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">From my understanding, the church is this couple.<span style=""> </span>We stand before God’s promise, chosen to be the parents of the one who prepares the way for God Incarnate.<span style=""> </span>Not the hope itself, but to be witnesses to the Hope of the world. </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">But like Zachariah and Elizabeth, we must learn to listen in silence and wait until our hope is born.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="color:red;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">This Advent, as we move toward Christ’s coming to us to redeem and make the entire creation new; let us wait and listen. In these two practices we will find that God equips us to Incarnate Hope in the midst of alternative stories, even in the Temple itself.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">As Zachariah’s ourselves, it’s important to see that God placed a silence over him, so he wasn’t able to speak until he worshipped God at the birth of his Son, John.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style=""> </span>The study of linguistics, how we communicate, reveals that we communicate more in silence than we do in words.<span style=""> </span>Confucious says language is like a wheel: spokes centralize it, but the spaces make the wheel.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">Anyone who has ever learned to speak a foreign language knows that it takes much more delicate understanding and listening to learn the silence of a language than its words. </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">First, we must become silenced in order to open ourselves to God’s conception of hope.<span style=""> </span>We must be deep listener’s of God’s movement in us and around us.<span style=""> </span>It’s easy to allow ourselves to get caught up in the Herodian structures and influences surrounding us, so we laugh at God’s way of working: coming down in human flesh, among the weak and forgotten, using the barren and impotent.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">Of course, There is a silence that threatens true listening: this is a silence of apathy.<span style=""> </span>The silence of a wife who tunes out her husband, the silence of a father who would prefer not intervene and correct his child, the silence of a friend who would rather let you hurt then hear the truth. This is the silence of someone who comes to church week in and week out, never committing to anything, as if perfection or conversion has been reached.<span style=""> </span>This is the silence that allows for anger in the home to dwell, giving importance to the trivial matters of this world.<span style=""> </span>This is the silence that moves people toward isolation and loneliness. </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">True silence, silence that opens one person to another for listening is never easy.<span style=""> </span>It’s even harder when a greater difference in relationship exists: such as between a busy working father and a homeless mother, or a confused parent and hurting child.<span style=""> </span>–but the greater the distance, the greater the sign of love and opportunity for God to work… for it’s much more difficult to listen someone’s deep passions than to talk about football or TV, or whatever we are comfortable talking about.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">This silent listening must not only be practiced among those whom we are different from and called to love; but must also occur in prayer for no greater difference occurs than in the relationship between a person and God.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">Only in silence is Zachariah prepared to make the faithful proclamation, and in silence we will learn to listen to and prepare ourselves to Incarnate hope.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">__</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">After the silence of conception, allowing ourselves to become aware of others’ needs and God’s action; comes the silence of nurture.<span style=""> </span>This is silently waiting for the right moment for hope to be born into the word; not forcing ourselves into situations, but working with God.<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">But this silence of acting in the right moment is threatened by our busy lives.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">It’s ironic that there may not be a harder time in the year to make room for others and act patiently then the Christmas time.<span style=""> </span>We run about shopping, cooking, decorating, working longer hours to pay for things unneeded, filling our hours with busyness. </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">We also jump past this prudence of acting with God, by short-circuiting his ways for the sake of our own efficiency, and speed.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">G.k. Chesterton, one of the most influential writers of the 20<sup>th</sup> century wrote this about our his time, which is a greater reflection upon our own:</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="color:red;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">“the chief mark of our </span><i style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">time</i><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> is a profound laziness and fatigue; and the fact is that the real laziness is the cause of the apparent bustle. Take one quite external case; the streets are noisy with taxicabs and motorcars; but this is not due to human activity but to human repose…Our world would be more silent if it were more strenuous.” </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><o:p><br /></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">All those years ago, God acted in one of the most strenuous of human activities to bring hope ..real hope ..the very definition of hope:<span style=""> </span><b style="">new life</b>…into the world not by acting according to the measures and expectations laid out by Rome or Herod; but rather by giving new life to an old, barren couple.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><i style="">The church in the United States, Texas, and Austin is in the midst of change, we are finding ourselves less and less relevant or important to the pomp and power of our culture.<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><i style=""><o:p> </o:p></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">Much like this couple, the church, we at FBC have been given a promise and mission: to give our lives to the service of God acting in the world. </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">God is acting in the streets of Austin…are you listening?</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">God is alive in the conversations with your children…are you listening?</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">God is working on the hearts of your neighbors, coworkers, and family…are you listening?</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">God is calling you to listen…are you listening?</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">This Advent, make room for God in the world by setting aside time and energy to be silent and listen, nurturing the hard labor of hope, and getting out of the way, so God can get in the way. </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><o:p> </o:p></p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Pastoral Blessing:</span><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0in; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10pt;" >May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half truths, and superficial relationships, <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0in; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10pt;" >so that you may live deep within your heart.</span><span style=";font-family:Times;font-size:10pt;" ><o:p></o:p></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10pt;" > </span><span style=";font-family:Times;font-size:10pt;" ><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0in; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10pt;" >May God bless you with anger at injustice, oppression and exploitation of people, <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0in; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10pt;" >so that you may work for justice, freedom and peace.</span><span style=";font-family:Times;font-size:10pt;" ><o:p></o:p></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10pt;" > </span><span style=";font-family:Times;font-size:10pt;" ><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0in; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10pt;" >May God bless you with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation and war,<o:p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0in; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10pt;" ><span style=""> </span>so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and to turn their pain into joy.</span><span style=";font-family:Times;font-size:10pt;" ><o:p></o:p></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10pt;" > </span><span style=";font-family:Times;font-size:10pt;" ><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0in; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10pt;" >And may God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in this world, <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:Arial;font-size:10pt;" >so that you can do what others claim cannot be done.</span><span style=";font-family:Times;font-size:10pt;" ><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <!--EndFragment-->Joe Bumbulishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15904792190842701390noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25417385.post-46397209938929913142009-11-06T12:33:00.001-06:002009-11-06T12:34:59.353-06:00I should like to make a remark to him...<p class="p5"><b><span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1257531960_1">Soren Kierkegaard</span></b></p> <p class="p7">One sticks one's finger into the soil to tell by the smell in what land one is: I stick my finger in existence---it smells of nothing.<br /><br />Where am I?<br />Who am I?<br />How came I here?<br />What is this thing called the world?<br />What does this world mean?<br />Who is it that has lured me into the world?<br />Why was I not consulted, why not made acquainted with its manners and customs instead of throwing me into the ranks, as if I had been bought by a kidnapper, a dealer in souls?<br />How did I obtain an interest in this big enterprise they call reality?<br />Why should I have an interest in it?<br />Is it not a voluntary concern?<br />And if I am to be compelled to take part in it, where is the director?<br />I should like to make a remark to him.</p><p class="p7"><a href="http://www.inwardoutward.org/">via</a>.<br /></p>Joe Bumbulishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15904792190842701390noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25417385.post-91814974420668256422009-10-27T18:13:00.002-05:002009-10-27T18:23:26.461-05:00The Long SilenceIt's been mighty silent over here, I know. I have some many thoughts rolling around in my head I'd love to write about and talk about even more. But, as some of you know, I preparing to transition into a new phase of life. My residency at First Baptist Austin ends this May and so deadlines are rearing their ugly heads. Immediate goals are two fold and coalesce into what I'd love to do next. The most time consuming suck on my life right as of the last month and will continue until Nov. 23rd at 8am is preparation for the GRE. The reason...well, to apply to doctoral programs at various schools focusing mostly on political theology, ethics, missional theology, ecclesiology, economics, and the like. PhD app's to the schools I'm looking at are Dec. 15 and Jan. 15. Thus, trying to prepare for the GRE as well as research the schools and applications, has taken most of my blogging time.<br /><br />Also, some exciting opportunities are happening around my residency come November. Besides the loathed aforementioned test, I am sharing my formation story with my church community Nov. 8th Agape meal, where we gather to eat together and worship Christ in our presence. Also, on the first Sunday of Advent, Nov. 29 I am preaching. The lectionary Gospel text is apocalyptic, and since I like a good challenge, I think I'm sticking with it, Luke 21:25-36. If I can manage to make the sermon accessible, I'll title it, "Living Violently in a Peaceful World," but we'll see.<br /><br />So, I promise I'll return to this place for some rejoinder on the relationship to faith and science, on epistemological humility, Zizek, Bonhoeffer, politics, and maybe even why I'd title a sermon, "Living Violently in a Peaceful World."Joe Bumbulishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15904792190842701390noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25417385.post-26946840551484452672009-10-27T15:02:00.002-05:002009-10-27T15:05:02.262-05:00Religious Flowchart<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://cruciality.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/religion-flowchart_1.jpg?w=500&h=767"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: left; cursor: pointer; width: 377px; height: 577px;" src="http://cruciality.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/religion-flowchart_1.jpg?w=500&h=767" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />I thought this was too good not to share. Enjoy:<br /><br /><a href="http://cruciality.wordpress.com/2009/10/24/what-religion-should-you-follow/">via.</a>Joe Bumbulishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15904792190842701390noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25417385.post-53358537538775376552009-10-21T00:12:00.003-05:002009-10-21T00:17:17.718-05:00The World Exhausts its Rage<blockquote>This love of God for the world does not withdraw from reality into noble souls detached from the world, but experiences and suffers the reality of the world at its worst. The world exhausts its rage on the body of Jesus Christ.<br /></blockquote><br />-Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Ethics.Joe Bumbulishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15904792190842701390noreply@blogger.com0