Advent Conspiracy

Advent Conspiracy

A Case For Utopia

The world would be better off
if people tried to become better.
And people would become better
if they stopped trying to become better off.
For when everybody tries to become
better off,
nobody is better off.
But when everybody tries to become better,
everybody is better off.
Everybody would be rich
if nobody tried to become richer.
And nobody would be poor
if everybody tried to be the poorest.
And everybody would be what he ought
to be
if everybody tried to be
what be wants the other fellow to be.

-from A Case For Utopia by Peter Maurin

Possession of The Heart

Persons that are well affected to religion, that receive instructions of piety with pleasure and satisfaction, often wonder how it comes to pass that they make no greater progress in that religion which they so admire.

Now the reason of it is this: it is because religion lives only in their head, but something else has possession of their heart; and therefore they continue from year to year mere admirers and praisers of piety, without ever coming up to the reality and perfection of its precepts.

If it be asked why religion does not get possession of their hearts, the reason is this; it is not because they live in gross sins or debaucheries, for their regard to religion preserves them from such disorders; but it is because their hearts are constantly employed, perverted, and kept in a wrong state by the indiscreet use of such things as are lawful to be used.

The use and enjoyment of their estate is lawful and therefore it never comes into their heads to imagine any great danger from that quarter. They never reflect that there is a vain and imprudent use of their estate, which, though it does not destroy like gross sins, yet so disorders the heart and supports it in such sensuality and dullness, such pride and vanity, as makes it incapable of receiving the life and spirit of piety.

For our souls may receive an infinite hurt and be rendered incapable of all virtue, merely by the use of innocent and lawful things.

[We] may live free from debaucheries, [we] may be friends of religion so far as to praise and speak well of it and admire it in [our] imaginations; but it cannot govern [our] hearts and be the spirit of [our] actions till [we] change [our] way of life and let religion give laws to the use and spending of [our] estate.

More people are kept from a true sense and taste of religion by a regular kind of sensuality and indulgence than by gross drunkenness. More men live regardless of the great duties of piety through too great a concern for worldly goods than through direct injustice.

Would we therefore make a real progress in religion, we must not only abhor gross and notorious sins, but we must regulate the innocent and lawful parts of our behavior and put the most common and allowed actions of life under the rules of discretion and piety.

-from A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life by William Law

The True Meaning of Black Friday

This is from Black Friday 2005.

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

OK Consumer

Barack Obama Interview
John McCain Interview

Sarah Palin Video
Funny Election Video

This is from Black Friday today.

NEW YORK – A worker died after being trampled by a throng of unruly shoppers when a suburban Wal-Mart opened for the holiday sales rush Friday, authorities said. READ FULL ARTICLE.

Once again, great satire reminds us that there is something seriously wrong with us.

One Thought, One Poem

The great illusion of leadership is to think that man can be led out of the desert by someone who has never been there.  

-Henri Nouwen, The Wounded Healer

Holy One,

there is something I wanted to tell you

but there have been errands to run,

bills to pay,

arrangements to make,

meetings to attend,

friends to entertain,

washing to do...

and I forget what it is I wanted to say to you,

and mostly I forget what I'm about,

or why.

O God,

don't let me forget, please

for the sake of Jesus Christ...

O Father in Heaven,

perhaps you've already heard what I wanted to tell you.

What I wanted to ask is

forgive me,

heal me,

increase my courage, please.

Renew in me a little of love and faith,

and a sense of confidence,

and a vision of what it might mean

to live as though you were real,

and I mattered,

and everyone was sister and brother.

What I wanted to ask in my blundering way is

don't give up on me,

don't become too sad about me,

but laugh with me,

and try again with me,

and I will with you, too.

-Ted Loder, Guerrillas of Grace

Every Great Success Story

I've been thinking a lot lately about the future and risk and was reminded, this morning, of an exchange at the end of one of my favorite films, Say Anything:

"Nobody really thinks it will work, do they?"
"No...you just described every great success story."

Missional Living

Check out this article from my buddy Bob on being mission minded.

The Life That God Gave Us

There is the now famous anecdote that when Steve Jobs, chairman of Apple Computer, recruited John Sculley, the then CEO of Pepsi, he asked this question that finally convinced Sculley to join Apple: Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water or do you want a chance to change the world?

And yet, in a recent article on Steve Jobs, Kirk McElhearn made the following observation:
Jobs certainly changed the world: with Macs, the iMac, the iPod, and even the iPhone, he has brought us brilliant, innovative products. But now, touting YouTube and prompting people to put ads on their web pages is nothing more than selling sugar water. As Apple's share price has skyrocketed, Jobs is clearly under pressure to maintain both the company's growth and its market value. But has he finally sold out, giving up "changing the world" to simply sell sugar water?

This is an easy trap to fall into. You set out on one course and settle for another. You begin with a specific vision, and then lose sight of the vision. You say you’re going to change the world and settle for something that tastes great, but is less filling.

This is what is happening to the people of Israel when the prophets arrive on the scene. A people chosen to be a blessing to the world have instead used their special status as an excuse for laziness and greed and injustice. What may sometimes seem like angry ranting is, in fact, the prophet’s attempt to remind the people of their true purpose and true calling.

The prophets play out a conversation that has been happening since God created humanity, one that took place in the garden and with Abraham and with Israel. A conversation that continues between God and humanity through Jesus Christ who says “Come, follow me.” It is a conversation in which God says, “I am with you” and asks, “Will you be with me?”

In Isaiah 43:2, God promises that “when you pass through the waters and walk through the fire, I will be with you.” It is the same as when Moses is commanded to lead the Israelites out of Egypt and asks, “Who am I to do this great thing?” and God answers, “I will be with you.”

Do as I command and I will be with you. Go where I’m going and I will be with you.

But what if we don’t?

Do you suppose God says, “even if you are unwilling to pass through the water and walk through the fire, I will be with you?” Is God saying to Moses, “even if you decide to keep leading sheep instead of people, I will be with you?” What God is saying is “I am going to lead the people out of Egypt. If you will be with me, I will be with you.”

This is the conversation that our church, Immanuel, has explored over the past 6 weeks: God’s judgment, mercy, and faithfulness is the promise that “I will be with you.” His command to “Do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly” asks the question “will you be with me?”

It is a call and response. It is the reason the church exists.

Because God’s people are always called to be a blessing to the world. The church is irrelevant unless it offers people a way out of hell.

And not just an eternal hell, but the hell of poverty and oppression and loneliness and desperation and conformity and injustice and slavery. If the church isn’t a community that does justly, loves mercy, and walks humbly with God, it has ceased to serve its purpose and should cease to exist.

Why do the prophets preach these things to Israel? Because they claim to be God’s people.

Why do I preach this to our church? Because we claim to be Immanuel.

But the warning of the prophets is that if they will not be God’s people, He will not be their God.

We see it in Isaiah 43:2. We see it with Moses in Exodus 3:11-12a. We see it in Matthew 28:19-20.

“Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. And surely, I am with you.”

Do we think that Jesus is saying, “And if you decide to just go back to fishing and not to make disciples and not to teach, I will still be with you?”

Christ promises to be with us as we answer the call of the great commission.

Just calling ourselves Immanuel doesn’t make it so. We must be with God if we’re going to call ourselves Immanuel. We must be going where He is leading.

And the story of Immanuel is one where God is consistently calling us into deeper water, consistently leading us in over our heads.

The temptation is always to listen to the voices that ask “Aren’t you tired? Aren’t you scared? Isn’t this too difficult? Wouldn’t life be easier if you’d just go where it’s shallow?”

But we will not go into shallow water. We will not turn back. We’ve been there.

Christ calls us to go deeper. Not just to think deeper, but go deeper; deeper in our commitment and in our love for God and for each other and for the people living in the city of Austin.

My friend Erica and I recently had a conversation about the book “The Same Kind of Different As Me.” It is the true story of a couple who were called to engage with the poor in a more meaningful and sacrificial way and how answering God’s call changed their lives forever. During that conversation with Erica, it was pointed out that you hear all the time of people who just showed up to church and did church and got bored and fed up and left. But you never heard of someone who gave themselves over to walking in the Way and regretted it. You never hear of someone who really followed Christ and, at the end of their life, wished they hadn’t, even if their life ended as a result of following Christ.

I would rather go deeper than stay shallow. I’d rather risk safety than live with regret. Two things I know about the shallow end, you may not drown there, but you will never learn to swim. As we go out into deeper water, we need not fear. We worship a Lord who walks on water and He will not let us drown.

He will be with us, if we will be with Him.

During our Immanuel family meeting this past Sunday night, we ended by talking about how we need to come to church gatherings the way addicts go to AA meetings. We need to cling to God the way an alcoholic does to a higher power. And one of the things they say in AA is:

“If you want what we have, and are ready to go to any length to get it, then you are ready to take certain steps.”

Some of us get overly concerned with talent and ability, when it comes to taking these steps. We say, “so and so can do that, but it isn’t really my thing, my talent, my gift.”

But the story of God’s people, the promise of “God with us” is that you don’t have to be willing and able. You just have to be willing and God will be able.

I recently came across this quote from Shun Fong Lee:

I believe that we were each created to live an adventure, to live beyond those things that are merely handed to us on a day-to-day basis…A man much wiser than me once said, "Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point." If my life is to be a work of art, and if yours is too, we can't allow ourselves to remain untested. We can't stay in a place that requires no risk, no danger, no passion, no faith, no vision. To do so would be to live something less than the life that God gave us.

I’m not interested in finding out a way to market sugar water. I’m not interested in doing something hip and calling it meaningful. 

What I am interested in is changing the world.

What I am interested in, what I am called to and what I am recommitting myself to:
Is to go into all the world, making and teaching disciples
It is to go out into Austin and to set people free
It is to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with God

Recently, my friend Dallas and I were standing outside the Green Muse coffee shop at 3a.m. and imagining together what the Kingdom of God could look like in Austin. We were sharing what it could mean if we knew our neighbors better and loved them more, if we were more patient and generous and kind, if we brought the promise of resurrection and reconciliation into the lives of those living in Austin. As we were doing this, a woman leaving the Green Muse stopped and asked what we were talking about. I apologized for being too loud and she said there was no need to apologize, but that she really wanted to know. We began to explain what it was we thought God was calling us to do and to be in Austin. Her response was this: “It sounds amazing. You should do it. And when you do, you should let people know.”

As Immanuel begins a new year together I am committed that we, as a church, are going to pass through the waters. That we, as Immanuel, are going to walk through the fire. 

Because only when we go where God is leading, do we experience the truth of “God with us.”

From Shun Lee Fong

If my life is to be a work of art, and if yours is too, we can't allow ourselves to remain untested. We can't stay in a place that requires no risk, no danger, no passion, no faith, no vision. To do so would be to live something less than the life that God gave us.

Focus

Swiped this from a friend's blog:

"We need a focus. A main thing. Something bigger than skin cream or tennis shoes that reminds us of the purpose of it all. If we expect to regain a more simple heart, a more centered pace for our day, we need to order our lives in specific ways."

God Grant Me Derring-Do

"Yet for all the depression no one ever quit. When someone quit, we couldn't believe it. 'I'm becoming a rafting instructor on the Colorado River,' they said. 'I'm touring college towns with my garage band.' We were dumbfounded. It was like they were from another planet. Where had they found the derring-do? What would they do about car payments? We got together for going away drinks on their final day and tried to hide our envy while reminding ourselves that we still had the freedom and luxury to shop indiscriminately." 

-from Then We Came To The End by Joshua Ferris

Tremendous Internal Discipline

Just got done listening to one of my favorite radio shows appearance at my alma mater. This past month the Prairie Home Companion visited ACU and Garrison Keillor took some time to interview the Dean of the College of Biblical Studies. Jack Reese. Keillor tried to get to the heart of what binds the churches of Christ together other than attributes that they share with, say, Episcopalians. As Jack attempted to explain an increasingly complex confederation (what Keillor described as "loose"), and explain practices like strict a capella worship, Keillor ended with this comment:

"Well, it must take tremendous internal discipline and commitment for all you people to stay together when there's nothing keeping you together other than just the fact that you're together."

Priceless.

A Great Verse

Harry is a random kid.

Lately, he's been into memorizing verses from the Bible. He picked it up in a BSF class and we encourage it at home. Yesterday, while he and I were playing, he looked at me and said, "I bet John 1:5 is a good verse."

Somewhat startled, I said we should look it up and see. I handed him the Bible and he read: The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.

He then looked at me and said, "That is a good verse."

He's right. That really is a good verse. And a good reminder.

Walk Humbly

What does it look like, in our day to day, to walk humbly with God? Isn't this more than simply acknowledging that God knows best and actually living according to that belief?

What's Your Response?

Recently, a documentary film titled Call + Response was released that addresses the injustice of the slave trade at work in the U.S. and around the world today. I have plugged the film on my blog as well as helped to form an official Austin response to the film (and the issue) called What's Your Response?

Yesterday, I was wearing my What's Your Response? t-shirt and Harry asked me what it meant. Without getting into all the sordid details of slavery (Harry is 4) I explained that there were adults and kids in the world that people locked up and hurt and weren't nice to. I said that we should be praying for them and doing whatever we could to help them. That is our response.

Harry blew me away when he said, "My response is I can be nice to kids and to my friends and share toys with them and not hit them."

Too often, we look at the injustice in the world and, overcome by the magnitude of it, do nothing. While I believe we can and should effect change on a massive and global scale, it is essential to remember that justice begins by sharing what we have and by not hurting other people. This is something we can all do. Even my 4 year old son.

Donald Miller on Fear

Last year I vowed I wouldn't make decisions out of fear.  And because of that I've had one of the greatest years of my life.  I went to Uganda and got to meet with the man who helped write their constitution.  I wrapped up an evangelism project I believe will introduce more than a million people to the gospel.  I rode my bike across America.  All of this stuff took some degree of risk.  But when calculating those risks, I realized the only reason not to try was fear.  What if I was wrong, what if I couldn't make it, what if the project didn't work?  But none of my heroes are controlled by fear.  The commandment most often repeated in scripture, in fact, is "do not fear."  Fear is often something unrighteous trying to keep you from doing something good.  They will never write stories about people controlled by fear.

From Donald Miller

When we've never met people, we are easily manipulated into demonizing them. We are easily made to fear.

A King and A Kingdom and 44

Looking back on my last two posts, I see a potential irony. My allegiance to God followed by 44 things on the President-elect.

So, I won't set a number on it, but here's a few things about my King:

He was born in a manger

Strangers came to worship him

Kings tried to kill him

The world ignored him

He was raised by a carpenter

Rabbis were amazed by him

His mother treasured him

The world ignored him

He was proclaimed by prophets

He was baptized by John

His Father was pleased

He went into the desert

He was tempted by Satan

He began His mission

He preached good news

He drove out demons

He healed the sick

The people could no longer ignore Him

The people rejected Him

The people followed Him

He called disciples

He healed lepers

He healed the paralyzed

The religious questioned Him

The sinners followed Him

He broke the law

He fulfilled the law

He blessed the poor

He blessed the hungry

He blessed the mournful

He blessed the hated

He preached judgment on the rich

He preached judgment on the well fed

He preached judgment on the well regarded

He preached love for enemies

He called for fruitful life

He said we must build a foundation on His teaching

He honored the faith of outsiders

He was honored by outsiders

He preached in parables

He rebuked His family

He calmed the storm

He sent out the twelve

He fed the five thousand

He drew followers to the mountaintop

He drew followers back down the mountain

He said the greatest must be like a little child

He said the greatest must be a servant

He said the cost of discipleship was everything we have and are

He corrected Martha

He honored Mary

He loved them both

He taught us to pray

He preached woes to the religious and self-righteous

He preached warnings and encouragements

He told us not to be anxious

He told us to be alert

He brought us together

He divided us

He said, "repent or perish"

He said, "enter through the narrow door"

He said, "how often I have longed to gather you together, as a hen gathers her chicks, but you would not allow it"

He ate with Pharisees

He ate with sinners

He warned us to count the cost

He told us to hear

He rejoiced in finding what was lost

He rejoiced in the dead being alive again

He called the rich man simply "the rich man"

He gave the poor man a name

He preached on sin and faith and duty

He preached the coming of the Kingdom of God

He preached justice

He preached mercy

He preached love of children

He said, "You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give it to the poor."

He predicted His death

He healed the blind

He went home with Zacchaeus and brought salvation to his house

He rode on a donkey

He was worshipped by the people

He said the temple was a den of thieves

His authority was questioned

His loyalties were questioned

His theology was questioned

He said that in this world we would have trouble

He said that He had overcome the world

He was betrayed by Judas

He was disowned by Peter

He washed both their feet

He said, "take and eat, this is my body"

He said, "take and drink, this is the new covenant in my blood"

He prayed, "may this cup pass"

He prayed, "Thy will be done"

He was arrested

He was mocked

He was crucified

He was dead

He was buried

He was raised again

He appeared to His disciples

He ascended into heaven

He sent His Spirit

He created a community

He saved the world

44

I was tagged by my friend Carl for a project that goes like this:

*each blogger posts 44 things about the 44th President of the USA

*somewhere in the post, the tag #44:44 is included, so all the posts are more easily tracked

*each blogger then tags 4 other bloggers to invite them to post their own 44 things about the 44th President on their blog

Here are mine:

1. He is 47 years old

2. He is not too young to be President

3. He is African-American

4. He is white

5. He is Hawaiian

6. He is Indonesian

7. He is L.A.

7. He is New York

8. He is Chicago

9. He is Harvard

10. He is Illinois

11. He is shaped by his history, but not defined by it

12. He is a Senator

13. He is an author

14. He can do two things at once

15. He is a father

16. He is a son

17. He is a husband

18. He knows what matters

19. He is an American

20. He is a Christian

21. He understands these words don't mean the same thing

22. He understands the complexities of trying to be both

23. He is a former drug user

24. He is open about that fact

25. He calls that his greatest moral failure

26. He understands that past failures don't define us if we're willing to change

27. He likes change

28. He makes change

29. He calls us to make change

30. He calls us to make sacrifices

31. He makes decisions

32. He does not always make the right decisions

33. He will not always make the right decisions

34. He knows this

35. He does not expect us to always agree with him

36. He does not want us to always agree with him

37. We will not always agree with him

38. He is not a communist

39. He is not a socialist

40. He encourages us to share

41. He encourages us to hope

42. He is not our hope 

43. He is not the anti-Christ

44. He is not Jesus Christ

I tag: Joe Hays, Jason Middlekauff, Dean Smith, and Julie Clawson

A King and A Kingdom

A good reminder to Christians, whether your guy won or not.

My first allegiance is not to a flag, a country, or a man

My first allegiance is not to democracy or blood

It's to a King and a Kingdom

                                                      -Derek Webb

What Is Good

No matter what happens on election day, our task remains the same; to do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly.

Also, you should check out Derek Webb's article on voting.

Going All In

I once said of Immanuel that it was the first church that I would be willing to go broke working for. That statement has certainly been (and continues to be) tested (in that going broke is a real possibility), but one that I would still make. Immanuel has been the most challenging and rewarding church experience that I have ever had, and much, if not most, of that has been tied to the degree of expectation attached to it.

That degree of expectation hasn't just been something Rachel and I have experienced as pastors, but something at the heart of the Immanuel vision. As it says on our website, "No promises of an easy road...just people to walk it with you."

But as a church grows it gets easier to begin to compromise that vision. It gets easier to fall into routines. It gets easier to expect less of ourselves and of being the church.

So, my question is, how much should we expect of each other when it comes to being the church? Jesus' call to discipleship is nothing less than a "going all in." Is that what we should expect of Christian community?

Heroes

I'm out. This past week's Heroes episode was my last. 

This show started out in Season One as if it had been written with me in mind. I love a good superhero story. I loved that Twilight Zone, "something weird is happening, but we don't know why" element of super power discovery. I loved that the show understood that good superhero stories are always about the people and not the powers. Season One focused on a few fascinating characters and the intriguing plot behind their newfound powers.

Season Two was a mess. Blame the writers' strike if you like, but other shows seemed to do just fine in spite of it.

Regardless, Season Three has had ample opportunity to make up for whatever went wrong in Season Two and it hasn't. And while a lot has gone wrong with this show, it's what (or who) was at the heart of this show that serves as a metaphor for all that's gone wrong. The hero at the heart of Heroes is Hiro.

Hiro was the best part of Season One, a guy who had grown up on the stories of heroes and knew, when his powers began to develop, that it meant something big was coming. No one had to explain to him that "with great power comes great responsibility."

Season Three finds Hiro without any big problem to solve. So, instead of doing what any hero (and, for that matter what Hiro) would do and train patiently for whatever is coming next, Hiro creates an unnecessary problem in order to have something to solve. This problem begins (and continues to be) the main conflict of Season Three. 

So, I'm done. I don't like the characters I used to like nor any of the new ones I've met. I hate the meandering purposelessness of these heroes every bit as much as I loved the resolve and purpose of the first season ones. I don't mind when Zach Braff's characters don't know how to move forward or serve as their own worst enemies, but Zach Braff's characters were never billed as heroes (and they tend to be funnier). This thing has gotten convoluted and frustrating and boring. I'm out. I'm done.