forgiveness

blog

Podcast: Living Life at the Kids Table

Living Life at the Kid’s Table

As adults, we don’t want to be at the “kids table” – do we?

Have you ever went to a wedding reception or a fundraiser dinner only to find that your seats are way in the back away from the head table? You can’t really see or hear what’s going on at the head table and you miss all “the action” of what the important people are doing. Maybe you get your food last! You don’t get to brush shoulders with the hosts or people you’d really like to interact with. Jesus once addressed this type of situation: when you are invited to a big dinner, don’t go out of your way to get the best seats. In fact, when you host a banquet, don’t invite the upstanding important people who are the “in-crowd”, instead invite the lowly. To Jesus, this makes God’s kingdom real and visible – but why? Why do this? Why should we be eating at the reception equivalent of the kid’s table at Thanksgiving?

blog, Christianity

Stormy Daniels, Donald Trump, and the King David Defense

The bad jokes about Stormy Daniels and Donald Trump have started: “There’s a storm a-brewin’.” Evangelicals, who voted for Trump at around 80 percent, face their own storm and continue to stand by their candidate despite the recent growing allegations that Trump had an extramarital relationship with the pornographic film star. Trump has largely been silent on the issue despite proclaiming his innocence in the Russian election meddling investigation on Twitter. To add fuel to the fire, Daniels (her real name is Stephanie Clifford) passed a lie detector test regarding her sexual relationship with Trump. A recent poll revealed that 40 percent of Evangelicals believe the stories about Trump’s infidelities. The share of Evangelicals who believe Trump’s claim is fake news? Continue Reading…

confession

Confession gone wrong?

As a non-Catholic, going to confession is not within my religious framework. Richard Foster reminds us that confession has spiritual and cathartic value. This weekend I stumbled on a confession note that just didn’t seem right. Instead of commenting on the note, I did the most ecumenical thing possible: I shared the note with the monks of Unvirtuous Abbey. The results were… well, expected:

blog, Christianity

Social media reaction to World Vision controversy

This week World Vision, the para-church organization that fights hunger, announced that they ended their ban on hiring people in a same sex marriage. After considerable blow back from supporters and Christians, World Vision reversed its policy. Some supporters said that they would stop funding World Vision and end sponsorship of children in need. World Vision president Richard Stearns and board chairman Jim Bere wrote,

We have listened to you and want to say thank you and to humbly ask for your forgiveness.

People took to Twitter to express their frustration in this story. Here are a few that are notable:

Christianity

Coalesce lava lamp Christianity

I am not a word smith. A friend of mine who helps me write better blogs reminds me often, less is more. In other words, my writing is too wordy and too long. Authors and poets have a great gift for using just the right combination of words to create powerful images. And they do so with very few words. The trick is using words powerful enough to convey large concepts.

I like words that can do that. Words like; love, redemption, restoration, forgiveness, and Red Sox. Each word carries with it weight and meaning, history and hope. I came across a couple words recently that I am working on making into a concept for ministry.

Coalesce and disperse.

Coalesce means to come together to form one group or mass or to unite for a common end. Disperse means to spread out over a wide area. I like this idea for ministry. The body of Christ comes together for a time to do a specific task with Christ, we serve, then we disperse to coalesce elsewhere and continue the work of Christ.

I like to use the image of a lava lamp for this. Lava lamps work through the Archimedes principle. Basically lava lamps are made with water and wax (lava). Both have very similar densities, but the wax is more dense. As a rule it should always sink. However, when heated by the lamp or coil at the bottom, the wax’s molecules speed up and become less dense and become more buoyant and float to the top of the lamp. Once there it cools and sinks again. The cycle repeats itself over and over.

What does this have to do with coalesce and disperse?

blog, Christianity, peace

Be a peace-wager like Nelson Mandela

As the world reacts to the death of Nelson Mandela, we cannot help but read and understand his amazing history of peace. Fighting against injustice and apartheid in South Africa were his notable achievements, but Mandela did so much more.

Mandela spent 27 years in prison for fighting for his beliefs and for justice. Emerging for oppressive imprisonment, Mandela spoke about peace, reconciliation, and forgiveness. How can someone emerge from such hate, injustice, and pain to take about reconciliation? He became a symbol of truth, reconciliation, grace and peace.

Many talk about peace, but few understand what it takes. It’s easy to speak about peace but if one truly wants to achieve peace, one must “wage peace”. Nelson Mandela died in the midst of Advent, the precursor to Christmas. The story of Christmas is the story of God waging peace with the world. Making peace is not an easy business. Mandela was a peace-wager.

Peace amid tragedy is challenging. Mandela was one who could find peace in tragedy.

The message of Christmas is this: Christ was born to all the world for the redemption of the world. However, as Christians, we often believe that peace is to be something to pray for yet it is never accomplished. It is common for Christians to think that peace is to be prayed for and never acting on.

Jesus said,

faith

How N.T. Wright changed my faith

Greg Mamula is an ordained minister and the Associate Executive Minister of American Baptist Churches of Nebraska.

“Despite what many people think, within the Christian family and outside it, the point of Christianity isn’t ‘to go to heaven when you die.'”

–Simply Christian, N.T. Wright

I did not grow up going to church on a regular basis, but went often enough to catch the same glimpses of faith many people see with only a cursory glance at Christianity. Like many people I was taught that Jesus was my personal helper in time of need and the gate keeper into heaven. So when I prayed for something like my dad not to leave for months on end for work or to not have to move over and over again and God didn’t deliver I questioned his power and existence.

I believed that the Christian faith was ultimately about going to some ethereal heaven someday. I believed I had to intellectually assent to the reality that Jesus died only for my individual sins, and simply admit that I was a worthless sinner and ask for forgiveness. I struggled with the purpose of Christianity even as I felt a call into vocational ministry. What is the point of belief in God if he seems to be a failed helper? Is the only purpose of Christ to get us into heaven so I don’t burn in hell? That seemed like a very unfulfilling and vindictive God.

blog, Culture, prayer

New York Times gets Senate prayer wrong

Unless you have been sleeping under a rock, our government is at a budget impasse and everyone is mad as hell. Senate Chaplain Rev. Barry Black, a retired Navy rear admiral, gave a Senate prayer that the New York Times reported as “scolding”:

The disapproval comes from angry constituents, baffled party elders and colleagues on the other side of the Capitol. But nowhere have senators found criticism more personal or immediate than right inside their own chamber every morning when the chaplain delivers the opening prayer.

The New York Times entitled the article, “Give Us This Day, Our Daily Senate Scolding” – written by Jeremy W. Peters – highlighted Rev. Black’s prayer as some sort of religious finger shaking. When you read and watch the prayer, one immediately can connect to the honesty of the situation:

social media

Social media atonement and confession?

Would you ever tweet, blog, or Facebook your sins? Is social media the place for confession and atonement?

Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement for Jews, occurred last week. Yom Kippur is the day of repentance for past sins, to seek forgiveness, and to make amends. NPR featured a fascinating twist on this holy day. A synagogue in Miramar, Florida invited congregants to use social media sites like Facebook and Twitter to share their wrongs. Cantor Debbi Ballard explains how social media can connect her congregation to confession and restoration:

…let’s use the technology and have it enhance our atonement today by tweeting or texting our sins away, and looking at those sins on a big movie screen. And then letting them roll past us so that we can let them go, so that we can live a more powerful life this year. I think that’s what Yom Kippur and atonement is about.

It may seem odd for some to share their “sins” on social media. Who wants to leave their confession in a world that caches and stores your information for the world to see? Ballard explains the value of interactive and communal confession: Continue Reading…

Ash Wednesday, Lent

Ashy Baptists

Ash Wednesday is an occasion to mark the beginning of Lent and be marked by ashes. To receive ashes on our forehead and hear the words, ‘You are dust and to dust you shall return’ can be a powerful reminder of our life and hope in Jesus Christ.

Baptists have traditionally have a rejectionist approach to anything in church life that is not found in the Bible. Ashes on foreheads, responsive prayers, a liturgical calendar, and the like are things not prescribed in the Bible. Thus, Baptists often choose to make worship much more about a conversion event rather than expressions of lament, sadness, contemplation, reconciliation and forgiveness.

For those of us Baptists who do participate in the more liturgical practice of imposition of ashes, I shall deem us “Ashy Baptists”. Some Baptists may think ashes and Lent are more Catholic things, but they are not. However, the marking of ashes are Biblical, as a sign of mourning and repentance. There is nothing magical about the ashes. We are not more holy for participating in Ash Wednesday, but it is another way to experience the presence of God in our lives in a symbolic way.

Christians from many denominations have rediscovered the value that Lent and Ash Wednesday can provide. The liturgical worship movement is a movement of compassion, experiential and participatory worship, image based, and connective community. Every church has a liturgy, no matter “high” or “low” the church is. A liturgy is a set order or worship, whether printed or spoken.

For us “Ashy Baptists” we find company in the likes of Christians who want to make a public statement about their belief and comfort and Jesus Christ. But, ashes on our foreheads go beyond being public about our convictions. The symbolic nature of being marked by ashes serves as a tangible expression of one’s commitment and acceptance in the Kingdom of God.

In a world were many churches offer an over load of visually and auditory stimulation, we need more physically experiential expressions of our faith. Ashes on Ash Wednesday, for Baptist, can be a meaningful expression and opportunity.

afeature, Lance Armstrong

Lance Armstrong and confession

After years of doping allegations, Lance Armstrong finally came clean… or mostly.

After denying that he cheated, the famed cyclist admitted to using blood transfusions and a cocktail of drugs to cheat. Armstrong admitted to lying as millions tuned in to watch Oprah asked all the questions we wanted to ask. For months, shock and anger have been the reaction of choice to the man who founded an organization to “Live Strong” but cheated. In the end, Armstrong paid a price by losing endorsement deals, stepping down from his charity, and facing humiliation.

Coming clean with a confession is no easy task. Especially when you are a celebrity and you do it on national television. Or, is it?

Armstrong told Oprah things like:

I didn’t invent the culture, but I didn’t try to stop the culture.

I will spend the rest of my life trying to earn back trust and apologize to people.

I lied.

With critics saying that this interview was not enough, how does one really confess wrong doing? With news media asking if Armstrong is the “biggest liar”, how does one go about sharing the truth?

In a world where CEOs who wrongly milked millions out of companies only to retire comfortable while workers lose their 401k’s, the public’s strong reaction against people like Armstrong is reasonable. Celebrities, politicians, and the wealthy seem to get a break that most of us don’t receive.

When most people confess, it is hard and ugly. They have to face the people who they have wronged. When Lance Armstrong wants to confess, he goes on Oprah. He doesn’t face his fans, teammates, or those who he lied to. Instead, he gets a mega celebrity who wants to ride on the notoriety.

Is that a real confession?

I serve in a Christian tradition where there isn’t a standard of private confession to a priest. However, wrong doers must face the people that they have wronged and there must be an effort for reconciliation by both parties (James 5:16). If we want to be forgiven of any wrong we have done, then we must forgive others (John 20:23). Forgiveness is a two way street.

Confession of wrong doing isn’t only about coming clean. It is about restoration. It looks something like this:

Wrong doing -> Confessing of wrong doing -> Forgiveness -> Restoration of relationship -> Healing

Let’s be real about this. This process doesn’t happen in an instant. It may take days, weeks, months, and maybe years. God forgives easily but humans take longer.

For most of us, we can’t go on television and confess. We can’t have a one sided conversation of confession. We face the ugly and messy task of owning up to our mistakes and facing those who we have wrong. That’s not easy but it is the right thing to do.

John Edwards

John Edwards’ sins: can you forgive?

Which of these news stories is unbelievable: A cannibal zombie high on bath salts killed a man in Miami, Mayor Bloomberg wants to ban large sugary drinks, and a politician admitted to his ‘sins’? If you said politician admitting to ‘sins’, you are correct!

On Thursday, former Senator John Edwards was acquitted on one federal charge and a mistrial was declared. Edwards has been through a tabloid scandal of cheating on his wife while she had cancer, fathered a child with his mistress, and proved to be an all around creep of a guy. Upon the mistrial, the former vice-presidential candidate declared:

I did an awful, awful lot that was wrong, and there is no one else responsible for my sins. None of the people who came to court and testified are responsible. Nobody working for the government is responsible. I am responsible, and if I want to find the person who should be held accountable for my sins, honestly, I don’t have to go any further than the mirror.

The trial proved everything we know about Edwards. He did some horrible things and unfortunately, based on legal scholars, he did not break any federal election laws. However, he did break some major moral laws. He committed an affair and lied to the world about his affair. He tried to cover it all up with money and the truth came out.

In his speech to the public after his mistrial he said, “I don’t think God is through with me…” That sounded disingenuous. If you watch his speech he starts to confess and seem contrite, and as his parents look on with an exhausted look on their faces, Edwards turns his confession into a public relations campaign to prove he is a good guy. Yuck.

Based on his “confession” can you forgive Edwards? Continue Reading…

Older Posts

On Facebook