Hang In There (Stay Tuned)

I like this loaded statement because it is loaded. Regard this as teaser and read my next post. Coming soon. "A multi-parter" on art and God. It is not as big as it sounds. Dum da dum dum.

Faith Like a Child

When I was a kid, I was selfish, and to make it worse, entitled. It's one thing to always want to get your way, but its worse when you believe you always deserve it. And then the worse kind of entitlement complex is the kind in which one is not aware of his entitlement complex, because that one is of course always entitled. And these are our children. Not only our children, but all children. Children learn quickly within the first months of their existence, that if they cry they will get what they want. It's funny to think that it may take a lifetime to beat out of them what we conditioned in them within the first few months of their life. As parents, we (we being human beings, not me and you, for I am not a parent, and this is not about parenting)spend 18 years (or more)unspoiling the child. Of course, the diaper must be changed, naps must be taken, food distributed, and of course babies have no other way to communicate to us their helplessness except to cry, but it does not take a way from the fact that babies learn to get what they want by crying and usually they get it, and once they're old enough we then have to deprogram of this. What a strange inconsistency this must seem to be to the toddler, who has heretofore, always been supplied his basic needs by employing the tool of crying, now he gets scolded for doing so, and is suddenly made to "go potty" on his own. We allow our kids to be selfish because they're helpless and clearly we have no choice, but we mistake the helplessness for innocence and the crying for polite requests instead of calling it (the crying) what it is; selfishness. Almost all kids struggle to share their toys, learn the word "mine" very quickly, and spend most of their first 3 years thinking the world revolves around them. And if we do nothing to discourage this behavior, they grow up to be entitled, winey, selfish adults. I always laugh when people talk about children as if they are saints. If kids were saints, you wouldn't need recess ladies, paddles, or bubble baths. When I was a child, I got kicked out of class my first day of Kindergarten for publicly making fun of another kid who peed his pants. In fourth grade, my first day at a new school, I was kicked out of class for laughing at a kid name Morgan. He was a boy. He had what I thought was a girl's name. You get the picture. These were not the worst things I ever did. The other things I did might put my pastoral position on the line if I mentioned them. The thing is, I wasn't the worst kid either. Some of you with children are thinking; "Yeah, tell me about it".
But children however have two redeeming qualities. They are worth emulating. These are the qualities of sincerity and faith. When a child says something, he means it. If he lies, its because he going to get in trouble. But if he tells you that you look ugly, its because you do. And if you tell a kid that the sky is pink, that elephants fly but only on Tuesday, and that the Cleveland Browns are going to win the Super Bowl she will without question believe you. So when Jesus takes a child and puts him on his knee, and tells the disciples that in order to receive the kingdom of God they must become "like one of these" He is obviously not telling them to be good. He is telling them to believe God, without doubting, the way that children believe everything their parents tell them. No matter how ridiculous something may seem to a skeptical adult, a child will never fail to believe it. No matter how ridiculous the thing is that God is asking us to do seems, the kind of person who will receive the kingdom of God is the kind of person who doesn't even give a thought to the ridiculous nature of the thing. In fact the thing is never ridiculous because in the mind of a "child" God would never ask us to do something ridiculous. If God says "I am for you", a child thinks, "He is for me".
Also, a child always means what they say. In may be inappropriate, but it is always sincere, without pretense or any impulse to manipulate. Sarcasm is not a vehicle employed by a child. Wittiness is not a virtue.
In conclusion, children are not innocent, but they are sincere, and they have tremendous faith. Therefore when Jesus tell us and His disciples that we must become like a child in order to inherit the Kingdom of God, he is not telling us to be innocent, but to be sincere, to mean what we say and to have tremendous faith.

Vomiting an Opinion on the State of a Once Glorious Enterprise.

Pre- Garth Brooks country (including Garth) is good music. The first "crossover" artist is Hank Williams Sr. who is today considered to be country, and if you listen to his music today, it is unmistakeably country, at least to our millenial ears. But back then, it was pop, and it was really good. Popular music has no doubt advanced in creativity, but the simple country/rock rhythms and bluesy moans of ole' Hank Sr. are magical and legendary. He is the father of modern country music for sure, and arguably a pioneer of rock n' roll. After Hank came Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, David Allen Coe, Merle Haggard, Charlie Pride, Conway Twitty, Loretta Lynn, George Jones, Tammy Wynette, Randy Travis, Kenny Rogers, Dolly Parton,Swight Yoakum,George Straight, Chris Ledou, and other legends who could write music. Among the last country stars to be worthy of listening are Alan Jackson, Garth Brooks, and maybe a few others. I don't know when Country music started being horrible, maybe it was a gradual slide, but I was forced to listen to it on the radio yesterday, and it was terrible. It was all annoying melodies, uninspired chords, and the subject matter was either sentimental bull from an artist whose last single was about badonkadonks, (what is that?), or it was about cliche' country matters like loving America, hating the Northeast, or checking for ticks, or something equally as disgusting or degrading to women. Women who dig rednecks are rednecks, and being from the country, enjoying a simple kind of life is okay, but being a disgusting beer drinking, tobacco chewing, redneck who thinks it romantic to take your girl frog giggin', and make love in the bed of your truck, or in your algae ridden pond, or tick ridden forest, or on the jukebox in the "honkey tonk" is not okay, never has been, and never will be, and if you're joking, it's still not funny, because I know people who do that kind of stuff, and they are not happy nor are they proud to be rednecks until they hear these guys, glorifying their lives. Its the same thing that gangsta rap does for gangs. It's just not okay, mostly because its not true. I also knew a kid in the crips. He was a servant to the destructive system. The gang life is nothing to glorify, and and neither is the trailer trash lifestyle. In fact most lifestyles are not anything to glorify. Let's be honest about life, not make excuses for its shortcomings. And it really just isn't good music anymore. I don't have the time or energy to go into all that, but listen to Hank, or Johnny, and then listen to Taylor Swift, especially live, and you'll understand immediately my point.
I realize I sound like an angry jerk. When I was in undergrad my English Comp professor called writings like these "vomitous mass" I admit that's what this is. It's also pretentious, pompous, angry, and true. Enjoy.

High School

I find it difficult to be nostalgic about High School. I'm not bitter. I wasn't the loser kid, but I was definitely not the cool kid, not even close. Besides, all the kids who got made fun of the most in my school have turned out to be the most successful. Nerds really do rule the world. (Admit it jocko). Anyways, it just wasn't a great time for me. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't good. Not that I didn't like my friends, I did, and I do, but are they really my friends anymore. I guess once a friend always a friend, but... you all know what I'm saying.
I'm really into my friends right now, and have no way of knowing if I'll still be really into them in ten years. I know I will be into at least one. I don't know, I just feel like every person I haven't talked to in years and didn't even talk to in high school, wants to be my facebook friend. This is really strange to me. I guess going to the same High School qualifies for a friendship. To those who were the guys I hung out with in High School. I am gladly your friend on facebook. I'm mainly talking about those who I never ever talked to. Weird phenomenon.

The False Dichotomy of Reality or (What I Thought About Today)

Today is Monday. I spent the hours of 7am-9am in staff meeting. (For Steamtown Church) Then I went home and prayed for two hours. It was refreshing. I read the story of the fall of Jerusalem in the book of Jeremiah and it was moving. Then I continued my singing (yes I sing to myself) and praying through the Psalms. The Psalms are divided into several books. Right now I am going through Book One. Most of the Psalms are written by David, King of Israel. And the Psalms are composed in such way as to function collectively. Each Psalms plays off the themes of the preceding Psalms. It's like a huge concept album, the individual psalms functioning like songs in an album, but also with a holistic form. It's quite the spiritual experience.
I got on the bus when I was finished with my spiritual exercise. All that I experienced was negativity and complaining. This attitude pervades the social atmosphere of Scranton, where I reside, a town which I love, a town which I serve in the name of redemption. The contrast was stark between my past spiritual exercise and this 10 minute bus ride. By the time I got off the bus, nearly all of the positivity was sucked out of me. All this to say that an atmosphere is a powerful thing.
I find that human beings are embarrassingly susceptible to becoming their culture. Loaded statement I know, but think about how hard it is to "be yourself" (whatever that means.) In fact some people are so inundated into the culture or subculture they find themselves in that they do not know and cannot know their identity outside of the culture. However, I am not so sure that letting culture define us is so wrong. I am not even sure that's its possible to know yourself outside of the culture. Is there really a person in there, who is pure and untouched by experiences, or people, or worldview? Really I mean, who is the real you? And what makes you think that you are at any point, not the real you? If you do not know who you really are, at what point do you know when you're being real? Is the real me, the one who thinks life is great and God is good , or is the real me the one who thinks life stinks and God doesn't care. I suppose it depends on whether I'm at home or on a bus. Of course the real me doesn't depend on my context. The thing is there is no such thing as the fake me, just the real me, who is always whatever I am. In certain situations, the right attitude is difficult to maintain, but never impossible. I could be at home with a crappy attitude, and on that bus with an understanding that God is in control.
But at atmosphere is powerful. If one does not understand this, that one is susceptible to thinking however they feel is however it is. The key is not figuring out the real you, but what the "real" person would do in your situation. I will explain later. Keep it real.

Idealism and Realism

I am an idealist. To me that means that I try to make my life fit my values. A realist is somebody who tries make their values fit their life. Those of you reading this who are idealists are saying: "Yeah so?" those of you are realists are saying the same thing. If you're a realist, if you're consistent you're also immoral. If you have a moral base, you are inconsistent. We idealists, may be depressed all the time being discontent with how things are, knowing the way that they should be. But at least we're not in denial.
This is a rant.

Salvation and Suffering Part Two

The idea that I am about to write about has been written about well in many books. One of the more popular books being "Jesus Wants to Save Christians" by Rob Bell. This is the idea that throughout the Bible and Judeo-Christian history the people of God have been persecuted and rescued from persecution on such a regular basis that one can reasonably believe that persecution is a distinctive of being "the people of God"as well as a major theme of the Bible. From Egypt to Babylon; Persia to Rome; the Crusades to the Holocaust, to the present day persecutions of almost epidemic proportions, the "people of God" have suffered at the hands of the unjust. Indeed the symbol of our faith is the innocent Jesus, blessing His persecutors. Jesus' type is David who wrote a seemingly unending amount of Psalms asking God to deliver Him from his enemies. The Bible begins to come alive and really make sense when we put ourselves in the place of a persecuted people. With the lens of persecution on, books like
1 Peter, Philippians, 2 Timothy, James, and Revelation become surprisingly clear. Persecution is the world that the Biblical writers lived in. It's the framework from which Jewish people understand who they are. They see themselves as the persecuted people of God, awaiting their deliverer, Messiah. Paul, James, Peter and John were of course Jewish people operating in a Jewish framework. And we are part of the Jewish heritage. I assert that, given everything I have written so far, that we would be seriously lacking in our understanding of our faith, if we are lacking in our understanding of persecution, not only cognitively, but also experientially. Persecution is to the people of God what the Big Mac is to McDonald's. The New Testament is essentially the Apostles trying to understand and explain their Jewish religion in light of Jesus' being the crucified and Resurrected Messiah. Considering that suffering and persecution was the standard of their lives, (they all were martyred, with the possible exception of John) a suffering Messiah was perfectly in line with their experience. The New Testament is a rearticulation of the Jewish faith in light of Jesus' Messiahship, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, and imminent return.
We claim that in Jesus we are the people of God, the church. I don't know if the Bible teaches that persecution is a prerequisite for Christianity. I would doubt that because faith is the first prerequisite on our part. But if we find ourselves avoiding persecution at all costs, it is reasonable to check our faith. If we are in the world so much that we are actually of the world, the world will not hate us, and we will have no way to identify with our leader. (Jesus) The people of God have always been a threat to society, not in a violent or manipulative way, but society is threatened by a group of people committed to justice, righteousness, and Jesus. True dialogue must begin on what this looks like. For we cannot force persecution. As Peter says our suffering is not godly suffering if it is not "as a Christian". In other words, there is basic suffering that everyone experiences, and then there is persecution that comes from the hands of the same unjust opposition that crucified our Savior. We're not looking for it, or avoiding it. One is simply left to wonder: If I never suffer persecution, am I really a Christian? Am I really one of the people of God?