It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love.

As we consider the greatness of Jesus’ love so perfectly displayed during this Holy Week let us turn our hearts to the words and actions of Jesus at that Last Supper. Here we are told by John, Jesus showed his disciples the full extent of his love. That verse is one I have read countless time but never paid attention to before. Here on the night before the crucifixion Jesus displayed the full extent of his love. He showed his disciples all the love he had for them that night as he washed their feet, shared a meal with them, and told them of what was about to happen.

Central to understanding the extent of Jesus’ love is this act of Jesus washing the disciples feet. This action, while not an atoning action like the cross, does display for us the best of Jesus’ love for his people. As Jesus, through whom all things were created, knelt on a floor with a bowl of water and a towel we see the full extent of God’s love. This moment of being served by God is so crucial to our understanding of God’s love that Jesus tells Peter, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”

Unless we are washed by Christ, we have not part with him. That is a thought to carry us through the day. What does it mean for us to be washed by Christ? There is a clear element of cleansing from being washed by Christ. We will naturally jump to ceremonial washing, baptism and the forgiveness of sins. From the context that is definitely part of what Jesus is saying here. But maybe there is another element too. Maybe it is the element of being served by God. If we are unwilling to recognize the humility and grace of God at work in Jesus’ desire to wash our cracked, mud caked, stinky feet then we have no part in being his children.

We have no part because without a clear understanding of the grace of God at work in the actions of Christ we will never understand our salvation. The washing of the disciples feet removes any consideration of having earned the grace of God. It is inconceivable for us to earn the right for our creator to serve us in this way. Our submission to this act of mercy then teaches us about the grace necessary for our salvation and the grace we are expected to exhibit as the children of God. We must be washed in order to become washers of others feet.

This is why we have Maundy Thursday, so named for the command Jesus gives. “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” This command is fully represented in the washing of the disciples feet. It also fully represents our mission in this world. We will be know as the followers of the God who humbled himself to come and live among us, as one of us, serving us in love to the extent that he washed his disciples feet and died on the cross for the sins of the world when we too exhibit this type of merciful love in the lives we lead.

Thanks be to God for his grace that has washed me clean. Thanks be to Jesus who has cleansed my very soul through his love. Thanks be to the Spirit that enables me to wash feet every day in His great name. Amen.

Palm Sunday is Glorious

There is a part of me that love Palm Sunday more than Easter. Maybe it is because we weren’t competing with chocolate bunnies and eggs yesterday, but I just find Palm Sunday so powerful. The tension between the coming king and his sacrificial death that awaits is a beautiful glimpse into the tension of our salvation. Our Lord is come, he is mighty to save, but he has suffered because of my sins. Palm Sunday highlights that tension in a unique way within the church calendar.

Yesterday, as we finished up our series on Ephesians we focused on spiritual warfare and Ephesians 6. When we planned out this series I didn’t grasp how well this passage would fit Palm Sunday. Holy Week is the lens through which we must view spiritual warfare. The death blow against the evil of this world was struck on Good Friday and Easter morning. That sacrifice of Christ, a willingness to give himself for others is the most powerful act of warfare ever undertaken. God in his wisdom chose sacrifice, not redemptive violence or force, to defeat the powers of this world. We too must then take on the battle in the same way. What a glorious Palm Sunday reflection.

Looking Back on Ephesians

Having just concluded six weeks of living inside of the book of Ephesians I am a bit amazed at the experience. Ephesians has long been one of my favorite books of scripture and yet I feel, if it is possible, that I undervalued it before this series. The big picture of Ephesians and its role for describing our role as the children of God was largely absent from my appreciation of it. I found parts of Ephesians practical. I found parts of Ephesians beautiful theologically. But never was my identity in Christ  so powerfully transformed and renewed by its message before.

Ephesians is a radical book. It fills us with a new identity in Christ that demands access to and transformation of our entire lives. What a gift it is. The joy I discovered in Ephesians almost saddened me because I had been missing this part of my identity all along. It has also led me to wonder what other parts of scripture do I unintendedly undervalue? Any suggestions for books or sections of scripture that you have discovered new power within?

It’s All About the Playoffs

I love the NBA Playoffs. For the next 6 weeks the best basketball on the planet will be played by the greatest players on the planet. That gets me excited. This weekend showed the incredible nature of the playoffs. I watched a number of games and caught the highlights from the rest. Here are some quick thoughts.

- Dwight Howard is the most physically impressive specimen in the NBA since David Robinson. Shaq had just as imposing a presence but not nearly the physique. Seeing Dwight decimate the Hawks (although in a losing effort) makes me wonder honestly why he isn’t better than he is. He is the best center on the planet right now, but Robinson, Olajuwon, and Shaq all seemed to have a higher ceiling than Dwight has experienced. Maybe the best is yet to come from him.

- The Lakers still haven’t found their extra gear yet. Kobe is going full bore but the rest of the team just appears sluggish. Watching Chris Paul dissect that Lakers was amazing. The Hornets had only 3 turnovers all game. That is amazing. I had three turnovers in about 30 seconds today at the Y. If only Paul’s knee were ever going to rebound.

- The best series of this round is going to be the Nuggets and Thunder. That first game was awesome to watch. But as good as my boy KD and Westbrook are if they don’t get a third piece like James Harden to step up and top notch ball, they aren’t going anywhere this year. They look like they are a piece away still.

- Derrick Rose is awesome. Who thought he could be so good so soon? He stole that game from Indiana. That was a moment of greatness.

- Dallas, even if they survive the first round, has no shot of winning anything. They look like a team a year away from being bad. After Dirk what long term answers do they have on their roster? Answer is 0.

- This could very well be the greatest playoffs in NBA history because of the incredible stars aligned, some amazing matchups and a wide open feel. I am so thankful I figured out a way to watch games and do P90X at the same time.

It happened today

Avoidance was defeated, truth set in

The reflection said everything

Pictures may be worth a thousand words but the reflection I saw spoke volumes

I saw myself for the first time in a long while today

I really saw myself, the truth, the naked reality of who I am

Comprehension was slow in coming though, that the person staring back at me in the mirror was me

Where did those lines come from?

How did that happen to my skin?

Have youth and vitality left my face forever?

Scabs

Open wounds

Jagged scars

Grime

Filth

All along a part of me knew what must be there

Knowing and wanting to know are so different though

The strength to stand in front of that mirror escaped me

Until today, and now that I know I can’t stand knowing

There it is; this is who I really am.

How could the image in my mind be so different from the reflection staring back at me?

I don’t know, don’t want to know this person

Me

But the hands of time aren’t going to start turning backwards

The damage is done, written in the filth on my face

What could heal these wounds?

How can something so soiled ever again be clean?

It happened today, I saw the truth.

Now what am I to do?

O Lord, what am I to do?

Good thing I got an MDIV that featured a contractors license

Much of the crazy from the past week has been from completely overhauling our stage at the church. In the past work I installed a new screen, a new projector, and new banners. We also moved the stage, reorganized a ton of storage and did some serious detail work. The results are awesome. We are ready for Lent with a startlingly different worship environment and one that has less distractions. Plus I got to spend the majority of three days using the scissor lift again. That makes me happy.  I am so thankful for our creative people and dedicated workers who made all of this possible. I spent a lot of hours and made a lot of trips to Menards but all of it would be for naught if it weren’t for Dawn, Roberta, Tom, Gretchen, and some generous givers.

Preparing for Lent

With the season of Lent starting so late this year it feels as if there has been quite a build up between Advent and Ash Wednesday. For my spirit this time has been really important. It has been a time of reflection, answered prayer, and listening to God’s voice. Even with that there is a part of me that always feels unprepared for Lent. Always ready, never prepared. So my spirit is excited for tomorrow and what this season will bring. How will God expand our prophetic imagination during Lent? What will he call us to do or become? What unconfessed and unrecognized sin lingers within my heart? These are the questions I am ready to explore even if I feel somewhat unprepared for the answers. Are you ready for Lent? What does it hold for you?

Randomness

Am I the only one who is happy that Charlie Sheen, he of the most ridiculous behavior ever, got fired? This is a good thing isn’t it?

When am I going to blog about Rob Bell and all the controversy surrounding him? I’m not, at least until I read his book. Calm the hysteria people, you are acting nuts. You are not honoring God, even though you think you are.

Here are some great books I read this month.

A Charitable Discourse by Dan Boone. Dan has some great insights into difficult issues and how we address them within the church.

Spousonmics – I know I have recommended this already, but I found it so helpful and will incorporate it into my counseling.

Dead Zero – Stephen Hunter does it again with a fantastic Bob Lee Swagger novel. So good that I made myself put it down so I wouldn’t finish it too quickly.

One of the most helpful things in my reading journey was using a version put out by IBS a couple of years ago they entitled The Books of the Bible. It is the Bible presented without chapters and verses and rearranged chronologically. It was unbelievably helpful, especially in really placing the story together in order of events and hearing the work of an authors voice coherently. Unfortunately I checked and I can’t find it in print anywhere. I will go back and pull the table of contents and share with you the order of how they arranged the books for reading. If nothing else, this might be helpful if you want to try to read scripture through.

**** Update, David found a link to the Books of the Bible through IBS. Here it is, at a great price****

The Discipline of Reading

Looking back I am a little shocked I persevered enough to do it, but I am far more surprised by how little it cost me.

Instead of fasting for Lent, I felt compelled to read the whole of scripture. I figured the time required to do all the reading would force me to fast from TV and blogs and such anyways. But during these 60 days, while I was reading about 30 pages of scripture a day (usually about an hour and a half of time) I also read at least 6 fiction novels, 5 non-fiction theology books, managed to preach well prepared sermons every week, watched a number of movies, still kept up with many of my TV shows, read a decent number of blogs, kept blogging myself, managed to spend plenty of time with my family, went away for Spring Break, played basketball three days a week, and watched a lot of the NCAA tournament. The only thing that suffered was my reading of magazines, of which there is a large stack in my house I will probably never bother to read. (My wife cringed when she read that part)

The point of that list being that it cost me very little read the entire Bible in 60 days. It took time, certainly, but mainly what I learned is that I evidently waste a ton of time every day. And that is time that can be filled with God.

Surprises in Scripture

6 weeks, 1400 pages, and I was still reading the OT. That was a surprise. I know the OT is the majority of scripture, I usually talk about it being 2/3 of the Bible, but it is really almost 3/4.

That being said, we know so pathetically little about 3/4 of the Bible.

Somehow I never realized the Chronicles was a retelling of the whole history of Israel for those returning from exile, so they would have a proper identity and know why they were returning. It reads very differently with that perspective.

Most underrated prophet? (As if there are people out there rating prophets) For me it was Ezekiel. I found Ezekiel the most compelling of all the prophetic works. The imagery in Ezekiel is simply astounding. There are passages in Ezekiel that are down right shocking and I dug that.

God would not fit in very well in many of the church I grew up around. He is far too coarse and uses sexual imagery more than would be acceptable in many Christian circles. God has a bit of a potty mouth.

The last time I read all of Paul in a short period of time was in college. Since then my understanding of his theology has shifted significantly and it really changed the voice of Paul for me this time around. I think we Wesleyans shy away from Paul too often for fear that his election language will somehow negatively affect us. But when you read the breadth of Paul’s work, especially in a short time period, you learn to hear his voice a little differently.

Revelation is far more beautiful that we want to admit, has far less to say about what is going to happen than we assume, and far more to say about things that have already happened than we realize.

The most consistent ethical themes in scripture are take care of the poor, look out for orphans and widows, help the stranger in your midst, stop oppressing those with less power than you, share your money, be hospitable, don’t be fooled God is very concerned about who we have sex with, and character is the heart of every matter with God. God doesn’t want us to follow rules for rules sake, God wants us to actually be better people who make better choices regardless of the rules. All ethics must be rooted in a love of God.

The Western value of family (mom-dad- two or three kids the traditional picture of the past 60 years) is really not supported by scripture at all. We have assumed that our understanding of family is the same as God’s. If we want to have a Biblical family model it can’t be a model of these isolated family units living disconnected from extended family, neighbors and the church. It  is a model of community, not just nuclear families. Single parent families, divorce, living together outside of marriage, orphans and those who are alone are far outside of the Biblical idea of family. We have a long way to go to understand community in our culture.

In the end I am left with a far greater understanding of scripture, more love for God’s Word than ever, and a feeling of sadness that it took me till this year to finally do this. So let me just leave you with the encouragement to pick up your Bible, suck it up, spend some time in the Word, and turn off the TV. You may just find your life has far more room for God than you think.

There has been lots of good discussion on this post and on plenty of other blogs regarding the statement released by the Board of General Superintendents on the Emerging Church. Having had some time to really reflect on the statement and to read so many different comments on it, I have just a couple of more thoughts to share.

First, I am more excited than ever to be a Nazarene pastor. There are so many great things happening among the Nazarenes and there are so many changes taking place. There are strong grass roots changes of ecclesiology, missiology, and even our understanding of the fullness of the Gospel that are going to transform lives and lead people to lives of discipleship.

Second, I am glad that the BOGS are just now making a statement on the Emerging Church. This conversation/movement/whatever has needed time to sort itself out and there are some clear pieces to it now. There is a division that is taking place along theological lines even within the emerging church. It is important to realize that 3-5 well known speakers and writers in no way define the work that has been done in the emerging church, nor do they predict the outcomes for those in the conversation. What we are actually seeing is that those particular writers are not at all defining for the movement itself.That makes sense since the power of what has been taking place has always been very open source and grass roots, it would be completely counter intuitive for it to ever be top down and organized.

Third, even with differences becoming very clear within the emerging church, the way that those within the conversation treat each other and talk about each other around these issues is a great lesson to many within the church. One constant for those who have criticized the emerging church has been anger, divisiveness, and frankly a witch hunt like feeling. I will never understand why it has to be that way, but it consistently is. I had a professor in seminary give us a strong piece of advice as young pastors. He said, “I would always be very hesitant to speak critically about another Christian leader.” That has always stuck with me is a good piece of advice for us all. It is not that we shouldn’t be discerning, or that we should disagree with one another. But Jesus, in his prayer for his disciples in John 17 makes our ultimate calling clear – unity. It is through our unity and love of one another in the church that the world will see clearly the truth of Christ. If we can’t find loving ways to disagree or to grapple with differing view of our faith how will the world ever see the truth of Christ in us?

When reading the Bible gets really hard

This week, for the first time since I started on my 60 day journey to read all of scripture, I hit the proverbial wall. I was just finishing up Psalms and moving to Proverbs and I just couldn’t do it. It was tough. I realized that I still had another 7-8 days of OT reading before I got the NT and I didn’t want to do it anymore. I always reach that point during Lent, but usually it comes earlier. Regardless I pressed on and put my spirit to the task of absorbing the wisdom of the proverbs.

Here are some of my favorites.

Prov. 10:10 – Whoever winks maliciously causes grief, and a chattering fool comes to ruin. (So watch all that winking!)

Prov. 7:22-23 (Words warning against an adulterous woman) All at once he followed her like and ox going to the slaughter like a deer stepping into a noose till an arrow pierces his liver, like a bird darting into a snare, little knowing it will cost him his life.

Prov. 16:19 – Better to be lowly in spirit along with the oppressed than to share plunder with the proud

Prov. 22:24-25 – Do not make friends with the hot tempered, do not associate with those who are easily angered or you may learn their ways and get yourself ensnared.

Prov. 23:4-5  – Do not wear yourself out to get rich; do not trust your own cleverness. Cast but a glace at riches, and they are gone, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle.

In Case You are Trying to Find Me This Weekend

The madness begins on Thursday and I can hardly wait! This should be an interesting tournament. It feels really top heavy to me and I wouldn’t be surprised if 1 seeds and 2 seeds make up the whole final four. Not sure if there are any Cinderellas out there this year. But here are some tips for filling out your bracket.

- This was not a great year for mid-majors. Don’t expect to see Davidson or Gonzaga in the Final Four

- MD will win there first round game (Gary’s teams almost always do), but if they face MSU in the second round they will struggle. MSU is a bad matchup for them.

- Don’t sleep on Baylor they are good

- Don’t overvalue Texas they have been terrible since they were #1 in the country

- Trust teams with veteran backcourts like Villanova.

- Trust talent, no matter how old it is. Kentucky’s freshman are the real deal

- Don’t trust any PAC-10 teams, that league was pathetic this year

- The Big East was tough this year, expect their teams to do well

- My  first round upset picks are UTEP over Butler, Minnesota over Xavier and St. Marys over Richmond

Olympic Thoughts

For an Olympics that was supposed to be devoid of stars, this has been a thoroughly entertaining and exciting Olympics.

My favorite storyline is that of Bode Miller. For as long as he had been on the ski scene Bode has seemed like a selfish jerk, there really isn’t another way to say it. At least not a nice way. But the maturity of having a family and the seeming peace that he has discovered this year are an awesome story of redemption. I just love seeing someone finally get it and make good choices with their life. Good for Bode, 3 medals and counting.

The startling silence of the Canadian crowd at the end of the US vs. Canada hockey match was amazing. That place was so electric throughout the contest and there was just stunned silence at the end. Silencing an absolutely insane fan base with a shocking win has to be an incredible feeling. I don’t know if this team has the firepower to win a gold, but they are playing great.

Ice dancing is silly and ridiculous. That being said it was nice to have an Olympic event that featured a Johnny Cash song.

I need to turn down my Olympic passion, I have been walking around all week feeling angry towards Germans and Koreans.

Have you noticed that for all of us Cold War kids, any Russian or Eastern European sounding name seems menacing or dangerous. I am trying hard to leave this behind.

Lent is Awesome

We had such an awesome worship service at DCC yesterday. The music was really uplifting and fit perfectly with the Spirit. Anytime you start off the day with a breakfast potluck it is bound to add some comfort and enjoyment to worship. Beyond that, even though I was feeling miserable yesterday with an upper respiratory infection, there was a great connection between our Lenten theme and the spirit of our people. Sometimes God just lines these pieces up and it all works. When it does I simply say, thanks be to God and remind myself that none of it is because of me. God is good. There has been a great response from our people to take a step towards Christ during Lent. I can think of nothing more exciting to be a part of.

Reading the Bible in 60 days

I am continuing to make my way through the whole Bible in 60 days. After three weeks I am now over a third of the way through and it has been very formative. Sitting down to read Isaiah straight through is a wonderful discipline. Especially with the stories of Samuel and Kings fresh in my soul, the prophecies have such a beautiful rhythm to them. My spirit continues to move back and forth between acknowledging my own Israelite like sinfulness and the immense mercy of a God who will not abandon his people. There are some beautiful images of God in Isaiah that provide a foundation for understanding his faithfulness. I don’t know why, but I am surprised I am enjoying Isaiah as much as I am.

Here are the surprises I have found three weeks into this reading.

- Reading thirty pages of scripture a day hasn’t hampered any part of my life. I have discovered all the time to do the reading without giving up anything major in my life. It is a great reminder that we have way more time than we think we do.

- My spirit is simply different. Bathing in scripture each day fills my soul. Typically I have a passage every week that I live in and exegete and really try to dig through in sermon preparation. That activity is so different from simply trying to live in God’s word however. No matter how many times I learn this lesson, eventually I have to learn it again.

- Most people I preach to will never come close to reading all of scripture. The consistent themes of our story with God are hidden from them. Every sermon I preach needs to place people inside the story of God and unpack the beauty of his faithfulness.

- There is far more violence, sex, sarcasm, darkness, sin, and tragedy in scripture than pretty much any other book I have ever read. What are we doing to our faith when we never point our people to the harsh realities of scripture and simply stay in parts we find easily digestible.

- I am even further convinced that there is no passage of scripture that can’t be preached on. I may need to do a sermon series with the hardest passages I can think of just to prove this to people.

- My pace of reading and the amount I am reading is increasing as I go, I am going to finish probably a week before Easter. If I do I may have to try and read the NT twice.

Big love to the city of New Orleans who are having the biggest and longest Mardi Gras ever after the Saints Super Bowl victory. Sometimes the part just needs to start early and go late.

I have the same feeling about Lent this year. I can’t wait for Lent to begin and I haven’t. In spending a lot of time preparing my worship services and sermons for Lent I realized how much I have craved a sense of renewed spiritual discipline and intimacy. No matter how hard I try throughout Advent I always seem to find the by the end of January I am so spiritually thirsty.

That being said, I have specifically felt compelled by the Spirit that during Lent I need to read the entire Bible as an act of submission, discipline, and full immersion into God. Reading the entire Bible is pretty ambitious in 46 days so I decided to extend my Lenten discipline to entire month of February and to give myself about 60 days to read all of scripture. It has equaled out, in my Bible, to around 30 pages of scripture a day. That is no small amount of scripture. Carving out time to read that much scripture has required less TV, less blogging, less reading other blogs, time at work, time at home, and a tremendous amount of intentionality, and it has only been one week! Of course that is a major of point of this exercise anyways, to reorient my life in a more Godly fashion, so it has been successful thus far.

I am finishing up Deuteronomy today, and I wanted to offer some random notes and thoughts from my reading of the Books of Law.

Random Reflections from the Genesis-Deuteronomy

It seems strange to me that Cain created the first city. Who was he building the city for?

We don’t really hear about another city until Babel and we know how that turned out. What theological lessons do we learn about cities in the OT? Wickedness seems to flow out of consolidation of human achievement and power, especially in cities, it is very interesting.

I never really thought about Abram as a warrior king but his rescue of Lot and other adventures make him out as Braveheart.

There is something beautiful about the reality that Leah, not Rachel is buried in the tomb with Jacob.

After God said he would limit humanities days to a 120 years several people who live longer than that, up into their 130′s, but Isaac lives to 180. That is cool.

I love the consistent witness of scripture at providing hospitality and spiritual opportunity for the foreigner and stranger in our midst.

Is there any better advice for a leader than the words that Jethro offers his son-in law Moses? Delegate, trust your people, do what is most important, do what God has specifically gifted and called you to do. Don’t get distracted by people’s petty problems. That is a beautiful chapter.

I have read Leviticus several times but somehow I missed the wave offering. God keeps telling the people to take their offering and wave it in front of the altar as a wave offering. I keep trying to find a modern equivalent for this.

God doesn’t want a sacrifice that has crushed, bruised or cut off testicles. I just thought you needed the reminder.

I never paid attention to the connection between the Passover and the Levitical Priesthood. Go with me for a minute. On the Passover God spared the first-born of the Israelites. In response to his mercy he then demanded the firstborn be brought and consecrated to him. But instead of keeping the firstborn God chose the tribe of Levi to become his priests and be the sacrifice of the firstborn for all the people. If you connect this to the new covenant in Christ, Jesus was the ultimate passover sacrifice, and all redeemed  by his blood are then also set aside as a royal priesthood (1 Peter 2). So in many ways the church today is the fully realized Levitical Priesthood that the Passover created. That is awesome.

After the first ten chapters Numbers is an amazing book. The passage that I had to reread multiple times is in Numbers 20. This is the place where God tells Moses and Aaron they will not enter the Promise Land. In my mind they were not allowed to enter because they sided with the report of the 10 spies instead of the two faithful ones. But that isn’t correct. Moses and Aaron are excluded here in Numbers 20 when they dishonor God before the people when the people are nagging once again and complaining that they have no water. The thing is, I can’t quite understand how they dishonored God. It must be something in their attitudes, or because Moses struck the rock twice, but it is not clear to me after multiple readings. I will keep chewing on that one.

Anyways, this has been an awesome week in scripture and I can feel the difference in my Spirit from letting it wash over me. I hope you are preparing yourselves for the start of Lent next week. I will keep offering Biblical reflections throughout Lent as I make my way through all of scripture.

Peace-
Greg

Amazingly January and December are behind us and shortly we are on to Lent! Only 16 days till Ash Wednesday, have you started thinking about Lent yet? I am prayerfully considering how I will seek God’s voice during Lent. There will no doubt be fasting of some sort and I want to make sure that I find a way to open my life up even wider to allow God’s voice in. So this is your two week warning, lent is coming and without an opportunity to give your life over to God in a new way.

People Magazine Sermon Illustrations

I did something I had never done before yesterday, I used an illustration from People magazine. I never read People (I hear people say that all the time because they are embarrassed about their love of People, but I say it simply because I have too many magazines delivered to my house each week and I am always way behind in my reading) but my wife is a fan. This week, however, with the cover story of Jon and Elizabeth Edwards I had to read it. I have been fascinated with the Edwards ever since they moved to Chapel Hill. Anyone who lives in Southern Village or attends Christ Church knew they were around because their family was really involved in the community and the campaign office was visible from the front door of the church. (Did anyone else see the 20/20 footage with them walking around Southern Village? That was just bizarre.)

That being said, all of my curiosity aside, I was deeply moved by the way Elizabeth Edwards has chosen to embrace the child her husband had with his mistress. She has taken a terrible situation and poured as much of God’s mercy and grace into it as I can imagine someone doing. Her example to her children, and because of their celebrity to many others, of using a painful moment in her life to demonstrate God’s love is pretty amazing. It just surprised me and it made it into my sermon. I balanced the touchy feeliness of People magazine with the story of Grizzly Man Timothy Treadwell who was eaten by a grizzly bear, so all is well in the world.

Best Superbowl Food

With only a week left till the Superbowl the burning question of the day is, “What is the best Superbowl Food?”

For my money I have a deep abiding love for Chili Con Queso dip with some chips, that is just a family tradition. But I would love to hear your thoughts.

Does Easter Really Need a Sermon?

Getting a chance to preach on Easter Sunday for the second year in a row I was struck by a truth that preachers for centuries I am sure have noted: Easter doesn’t really need a sermon. How can you punctuate the resurrection? What can you really add to the story of Jesus walking out of the tomb? What witty stories can I add to a moment whose immensity defies description? Easter doesn’t need a sermon, it simply requires full throttled celebration and worship.

Yet, I did preach to help people see the immensity of an empty tomb and its ramifications for all of our lives. I am not sure I did anything to add to an event that goes beyond our ability to understand it, but I certainly tried. In many ways that is simply what preaching is, trying to add our words and thoughts to Gods. It is as ridiculous as it sounds, but it sure is an invigorating challenge.

Easter is Weird

The more I think about it, I can not think of anything more terrifying than coming down the stairs the night before Easter and finding a giant rabbit in my house trying to leave candy

How did we start with an empty tomb (ridiculous in its own way) and end up with a giant rabbit that brings treats to kids? Has anyone written the authoritative history of the Easter bunny yet?

There is an entire cottage industry that makes plastic eggs and spring-esque decorations for people to put up on a day when we celebrate the triumph of God’s grace over evil, forever. Shouldn’t we have symbols of God’s power, symbols of love, and images of prisoners set free instead of a pastel colors and eggs?

Why do so many people come to church on Easter who wouldn’t otherwise find themselves in worship on a Sunday morning? I understand it is a big day and historically a day of celebration that crowds have flocked to, but it is kind of like showing up for a cast party when you weren’t in a play, or coming to a funeral when you never met the person, or going to a victory parade for a team you don’t support. I am glad so many do, but I am not sure if they even know why they come on Easter. An average Sunday in June would probably make more sense for just checking out what is going on.

The Cross and Orthodoxy

Within the emerging church conversation and the realm of New Calvinism, there is much focus on the work Jesus did on the cross. Tony Jones offered his reflections on it the other day and threw a little more gasoline on the fire that is burning around the specific issue of atonement. What exactly happened on the cross?

For many, especially within the reformed tradition, and particularly widespread throughout evangelicalism, the atonement is best described by the Penal Substitution Theory of Atonement. This theory is based on a theology that sees Jesus as the sacrificial lamb who died in the place of our sins. His life satisfied the debt of sin that God demanded and God’s wrath was poured out on Jesus on the cross rather than on us at judgment. There is great value and merit to understanding the cross in this way and it does seem to fit much of what Paul’s writings and Hebrews point to as the work of Christ.

Another great theory in the church is Christus Victor which looks to the cross as the moment of Christ’s victory over evil. This is the moment when Christ freed us from slavery to sin and death. This takes the cross and makes it not just a moment of sacrifice to satisfy a debt but a moment when God triumphs over evil completely.

The question that many continue to as is this, “Is there more that happened on the cross?” Is Jesus death understandable in any other light? If so, what other theories are worthwhile. I have been deeply moved by a theory of atonement I first encountered from Miroslav Volf. It is called the Participatory Subistutionary Theory. This theory acknowledges not just Jesus’ death to sin and death for our sins, but our calling to participate with him in this death to sin. Building of imagery from Paul about being baptized into Christ’s death and resurrection, this theory places not just Jesus, but all of us who are made one with Christ, on that cross. We are not a sufficient sacrifce for any sin, but we are enabled to die to sin by our participation with Christ, our oneness with Jesus in his sacrifice.

There are, I am sure, other great metaphors and understandings of the atonement waiting to be articulated. My hope is that we can continue to be mesmerized by the cross and the death of our Lord for our sakes. There are a multitude of lifetimes to be lived wondering about the beauty of the cross. May we use our Easter lives to embrace our Risen Lord and explore the depths of his love for us.