Easter is about resurrection, and no matter what your "evangecube" tells you, the central moment in all of Christianity occurred on Sunday, not Friday. Most Christians believe that the only reason Jesus rose from the dead was to prove that He was not a wimp. Because you know, "You can't keep a good man down!" They make no real connection between the resurrection of Christ and their own postmortem fate. The real issue, they think, is that "He died for my personal sins."
It's high time that Easter become a little less "personal" and a little more "public." Jesus' resurrection means "life after, life after death" for everyone, no exceptions. There is only one who currently exists in a resurrected state... Jesus. Even Lazarus, who also was raised from the dead, died a second time and now awaits the resurrection just like all the saints.
Modern western Christianity has for some time depicted the "the dead in Christ" as somehow already having arrived at a "final destination." The idea is that Grandma is in heaven and that her journey has ended. The only thing she has to look forward to is being reunited with family and friends through their own deaths.
Believing in resurrection means living in hope. But not a dualistic false hope that welcomes death because of the prospect of seeing Grandma again. The hope of resurrection is not found in the personalized moment of each individual's death. The hope of resurrection is placed in a future moment awaited by all, the living and the dead, a moment that every Easter ever celebrated has anticipated.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Relational Posture
Until I can realign my communal spine and shift my relational focus away from virtual egotism, I will be abstaining from networking sites such as myspace and facebook. For a few years now, I have done very little pure networking and a ton of self promotion. In fact, I am rather infamous for refusing to network.
I think that for a long time I tried to make me about everyone else and everyone else about me. I am still lost somewhere between the way of Jesus and the American Dream.
I think that for a long time I tried to make me about everyone else and everyone else about me. I am still lost somewhere between the way of Jesus and the American Dream.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Do Your Best
I recently made my contribution to PepsiCo by patronizing a local KFC. What can I say? I'm a sucker for over-sized and over-greased poultry. My service was far less than desirable and irrefutably less than the best that the crew could offer. By the time I successfully procured my essential condiments, I was on the very edge of racial profiling. As I sat down to clog my arteries, however, I began to examine the details of the my frustrating experience and arrived at a few unexpected observations.
1. Employees at KFC and other comparable establishments do not, in fact, typically do their best. But why should they? There is very little demand for their jobs. The current economic crisis, with its unemployment highs, is evidently not bad enough to create a line outside KFC waiting for a chance to work the fryer. What incentive do they have? Their effort is like their pay, "minimum".
2. "The customer is always right" is a modern capitalistic concept not to be appealed to as a timeless principle. We must at least entertain the idea that the death of "customer service" merely marks a transition in our economic structures rather than signaling the end of all civility.
3. I may, in fact, not be doing my best by participating in the big business fast food industry. When did we become so accustomed to expecting so much out of $7? How many people, animals, and systems of decency have to be mistreated and disregarded in order for me fill my American appetite at that price? Oh, and by the way, I expect to get it quicker than fast and with a smile!
1. Employees at KFC and other comparable establishments do not, in fact, typically do their best. But why should they? There is very little demand for their jobs. The current economic crisis, with its unemployment highs, is evidently not bad enough to create a line outside KFC waiting for a chance to work the fryer. What incentive do they have? Their effort is like their pay, "minimum".
2. "The customer is always right" is a modern capitalistic concept not to be appealed to as a timeless principle. We must at least entertain the idea that the death of "customer service" merely marks a transition in our economic structures rather than signaling the end of all civility.
3. I may, in fact, not be doing my best by participating in the big business fast food industry. When did we become so accustomed to expecting so much out of $7? How many people, animals, and systems of decency have to be mistreated and disregarded in order for me fill my American appetite at that price? Oh, and by the way, I expect to get it quicker than fast and with a smile!
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Hate
Theologically speaking, the verb “hate” never takes the subject “God.” Hate is not an attribute of God. Despite the best/worst campaign efforts of Fred Phelps and the misguided folks at Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas, God does not hate anyone.
How could He? Humanity is God’s crowning achievement of creation. How could He hate what He took so much pride in creating? The Bible paints a consistent picture of God’s love for and patience with His creation. Even the flood is a testimony to God’s overwhelming desire to preserve creation through love, rather than destroy it through hate. The activity of God in scripture displays the perfect relationship between judgment resulting from the righteousness of God and mercy resulting from the longsuffering of God.
Some people seem to feel as though they need compensate for God’s apparent silence on particular moral issues of society. With their actions they say, “God, if you’re not going to do something about this, then I will!” But God is not silent! Romans 1:18-20 makes it clear with these words,
“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.”
God has given us the unique ability to innately know our failures. No need to tell the pregnant teenager of the difficulty of her situation. She knows! No need to lecture the drug addict over his poor life choices. He knows! No need to accentuate the negative influence of a fallen leader. He knows!
And what of those who knowingly practice unrighteousness? It’s not your problem! Your problem is your problem! “You have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things.” Romans 2:1
God would have us live lives that display the beauty of who He is, “the righteousness of God revealed in the gospel.” Romans 1:17 He would have us speak out on behalf of humanity rather than against. He would have us speak of hatred toward things like injustice, poverty, hunger, and disease.
How could He? Humanity is God’s crowning achievement of creation. How could He hate what He took so much pride in creating? The Bible paints a consistent picture of God’s love for and patience with His creation. Even the flood is a testimony to God’s overwhelming desire to preserve creation through love, rather than destroy it through hate. The activity of God in scripture displays the perfect relationship between judgment resulting from the righteousness of God and mercy resulting from the longsuffering of God.
Some people seem to feel as though they need compensate for God’s apparent silence on particular moral issues of society. With their actions they say, “God, if you’re not going to do something about this, then I will!” But God is not silent! Romans 1:18-20 makes it clear with these words,
“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.”
God has given us the unique ability to innately know our failures. No need to tell the pregnant teenager of the difficulty of her situation. She knows! No need to lecture the drug addict over his poor life choices. He knows! No need to accentuate the negative influence of a fallen leader. He knows!
And what of those who knowingly practice unrighteousness? It’s not your problem! Your problem is your problem! “You have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things.” Romans 2:1
God would have us live lives that display the beauty of who He is, “the righteousness of God revealed in the gospel.” Romans 1:17 He would have us speak out on behalf of humanity rather than against. He would have us speak of hatred toward things like injustice, poverty, hunger, and disease.
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