Packing Away The Baby

After Christmas Thoughts on Christmas:

"Jesus is the reason for the season"

"We must fight this war on Christmas"

"Keep Christ in Christmas"

These are just a few of the things that I hear each year during the holiday season. They get tiresome and old to me, and the whole "war on Christmas" seems more than a bit over dramatic. Yet as we were packing away our nativity sets this week, I thought about how much I love the nativity image and the Advent season, and wondered why we couldn't just leave it up year round. I mean, Christ wasn't born on Dec. 25th... that's just the date the Church set to commemorate his birth. Ironically enough, I am worried less about people forgetting the Christ-child during Christmas than I am about them forgetting the child the remainder of the year. Shouldn't we be celebrating his birth ALL YEAR LONG?

Some would say, "but, now that Christmas is over we must look to Lent and Easter!" I would say that Christ's birth is always overshadowed by his death. Many Christians fight so hard for Baby Jesus from the day after Thanksgiving to Dec. 25th, and then by the new year are already ushering Christ to the cross. It made me think of many parent's saying, "they grow up so fast!"

But in this in-between time (between Christmas and Easter), let's think a second about "packing away the baby". I think that there is much that we need to leave unpacked for the entire year!
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The Christmas story sets the overture for the life and death of Jesus in both Matthew and Luke. You can read more about it in The First Christmas, and there's a good podcast with my man, Tripp, here (interviewing the author; Crossan). This overture sets the themes of what Jesus would teach, live, and give his life for in the gospel narratives. Those themes are set up so beautifully, and placed purposefully by the authors so that when you open the gospel narratives you are faced with these vital themes up front.

Think about the themes we celebrate during Advent and Christmas:

Peace on earth

goodwill to all men (humanity)

Freedom from bondage

equality

humility

servant-hood

and much more!

Take a verse to O Holy Night:

Truly He taught us to love one another;
His law is love and His gospel is
peace.
Chains shall He break for the slave is our brother;
And in His name
all oppression shall cease.
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise
we,
Let all within us praise His holy name.

We see the themes of peace, love, equality, brotherhood, etc... in there. It was hard to sing this verse for me this Christmas season after the 2008 events of war, politics, racism, and bigotry that drove the years biggest headlines. I watched as people sang it at the top of their lungs and wondered who they place in bondage each day; who they stole joy and peace from all of the other 364 days of the year. I am not placing myself above them, I too am guilty, but this is what I'm taking from Christmas this year!

I then thought, what if Christ had waited to be born this year? Would it be so different? I know a lot has changed since the 1st century, but then again perhaps not...
Christ was born into:

An empire

Abuse of power

Wars

greed

Poverty

Hunger

Religious piety

Religious feuds

Those that have vs. those that have not

These are some of the themes of the Christmas overture. Now, here we are over 2000 years later, and, as big an impact as Christ has supposedly made in our lives, he still would be born into many of the same circumstances. When will we be able to say that, "Christ, if born today, would be born in a better world"?

How long?
How long will we sing this song?
When will we do more than simply sing?

Maybe this year, we shouldn't pack away the baby....

O Little Town of Bedlam

An Advent thought:
Advent: Attempting to relive the expectation of the future birth of the child that has already come each and every year. And who says that Christians aren't mystics?

art from ASBO Jesus.

2008 Book Superlatives

Last year I started my fav. books that I've read in the past year. I had many people comment (more in person than on here) on how much they liked that post. I don't have time to review each and every book that I read throughout the year, so this is a good time to at least let people see what some of my favorites have been, and also to give me feedback about books they have read and perhaps suggest I read. I am only counting books in here that I completed (there are many that I have started that came out this year and I have not gotten all of the way through (I'm too eager when I receive new books sometimes), so some that came out this year will prob. make next year's list! Enjoy!!!
___________________

Most Challenging Book
Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand.

I listened to this book for over 4 months (it's long, but I was also that involved with it). I read essays on the book, and almost nightly, would go back and reread sections of the book that I had listened to that caught my attention. This was a book that has a great plot, but is philosophically motivated. Rand is quite blatant about her love for Capitalism, but it is an idealistic form of Capitalism. However, in the year that has transpired economically, this book is a huge challenge to our current philosophy of consumerist theory. Not just that, but from someone who believes in the driving power of the middle class, and doesn't believe that poverty is always a result of lack of effort and drive in America, this book challenged me on a philosophical, political, and spiritual level. It was my favorite fiction book of this year, and will continue to challenge me in years to come. If you have not read this book, PICK IT UP!

Best Book Involving War, Alien Abduction, and Becoming Unstuck in Time
Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut
Vonnegut was another author (like Rand) that I was not exposed to in HS or College yet should have been. I read this book in one sitting and then turned around and read it again. I've had some great conversations with others who love this book, and have recommended it to many people. This was my gateway into what I refer to now as the "Vonnegut drug". His dark humor came to me at a time where pessimism ran rampant in my life, and rather than bring me down further it actually lifted me up. His plots are ridiculous, yet so enticing and insightful that they become a window into our very souls. Vonnegut can pull out the worst of humanity and show us how ridiculous we can be. Another must-read for anyone who can read!

Most Refreshing Book
The Scandalous Gospel of Jesus: What's So Good About the Good News?, by Peter J. Gomes
This book is a no-nonsense book where the author (Harvard Divinity School and Harvard University's Memorial Church) speaks about how the Church has devolved itself into a place of fear and control. He compares his arguments about what the Church is to the subversive ministry and message of Christ. He proclaims, in short, that the Church today (not all churches, just the Church universal in general), like the religious institution in Christ's time, would be the very thing that his message and ministry opposed. This book is a gut-check to any minister, and a wake-up call to the Church proper. Gomes has put in the time and notoriety to be able to call it like he sees it. A challenging book that tops my favorite "spiritual books" of this year!

Most Scandalous Book
The Shack, by William P. Young
Yes, the most "scandalous" book this year did not have the word in the title. In fact, it was not meant to be scandalous at all, just an honest work of fiction that expressed the authors new understanding of God based on his own experiences (that are not represented in the plot of the book). This book has caused a LOT of controversy in the Church world this year. Just last week a family member was telling me that his pastor (who had not read the book, but seemed to have purchased it simply to wave it about on stage) spoke of the "evils" the book held. Even the most hit Christian reviewer, Tim Challies, has tried to turn Christians away from the "heretical theology"

With that being said, this book, for many others, has been a breath of fresh air. My Bible Study group spent 3 weeks discussing the book (and could have spent many more) and it has been some of the best discussion our group has had. We challenged the book and allowed it to challenge us. I think that this book is great for all Christians, and agree with it or not, it can challenge your beliefs as well as make many feel like they're finally not alone in some of the understandings of God that they have. Best Read and Discussed in a small group or with friends!

Best Use of Words/Coolest Cover
Jesus Wants to Save Christians: A Manifesto for the Church in Exile , By Rob Bell
Bell uses his gift at word-crafting to bring together several approaches to the Bible and Christianity that have been around for a while in the academic world. This in and of itself is great, but he does what he does best: makes them applicable to everyone in some of the most beautiful prose on the shelves. This book will not be anything new to some people, and to others it will be very eye-opening. It levels the playing field, so to say, between these academic understandings and the mission and ministry of the laity. We lack people in the Christian faith that can bridge that gap, and Bell is one of the best. The last part of the book is beautifully written, and can take your breath away. Inspiring, encouraging, and informative. very different from his other books, but still worth the read! Oh, and the cover is clever and gets everyone!

Best Series I Just Discovered
A Song Of Fire And Ice (Starting with book 1: A Game of Thrones), by George R. R. Martin
I began this series after several friends told me to pick it up. Now, I'm not one that spends much time in the Fantasy Genera, although I do like Tolkien. However, after much pestering I picked up A Game of Thrones and couldn't put it down. It has very little of what is usually thought of in the Fantasy isle, but is more of a book of medieval life, war, and the most brutal politics I've read.

Martin is famous for penning the TV series Beauty and the Beast, and returned to novels in this on-going series. Beyond the very complex storyline, he has a huge cast of characters that are unforgettable. You learn to both love and loathe his characters, and each are believably flawed individuals. I've read the first 3 of 4 books available (I think there will eventually be 7) in the series, and can't wait to pick it up again. Give this a chance, you won't be disappointed.

Best Book About Building a Cathedral
The Pillars of the Earth, by Ken Follett
I know, that superlative title doesn't sound interesting. Well it is! The Cathedral they are building actually becomes one of the characters in the book as alive and challenging as any of the ones made of flesh and bone. Spanning 3 generations in time, the struggles for the main characters to see the dream of the Cathedral being built and the life that it would bring to the monetary is epic. A historical fiction Chronicles the tough decisions that 12th century people have to make and the hard lives they had to face. This is all made tougher by the political and Ecclesial power struggles that persist. The characters are beautifully crafted and believable, and I truly see some parallels between then and today. This was on Oprah's book club for a reason. A fantastic book, and I can't wait to read the sequel.

Most Soul-Searching Book
Prayers for a Privileged People, by Walter Brueggemann
This book is beautifully crafted with some of the best written prayers I've ever seen. My on-going struggle with being a "have" while there are so many "have-nots" in the world was brought up-close and personal in this book. Although not by any means wealthy, I still live a life of greater wealth than much of the worlds population. These are truly prayers for privileged, and in no way diminishes or makes you feel bad about that. These prayers are earnest, yet still challenging in asking "what would you, God, have me do as a privileged individual?" Prayers for almost any situation and occasion, one of my favorite authors has crafted a book that I will continue to return to the rest of my life. Powerful, prophetic, and poetic... One of the most awe-inspiring books this year!

Favorite New Bible
The Voice, Thomas Nelson (Pub.)
Though only the New Testament at this point (oh please release a full OT and NT of this), the voice is a beautiful composition and compilation. By merging gifted writers in various media with the academic translators, what has been produced is what I consider to be the most beautiful and engaging translation of the NT to date. A dynamic translation, I like this far better than The Message and the NLT which are paraphrases. I promote this translation here and here (for more info). I know that the big Bible that many are drooling over this year is the new ESV Study Bible. However, after reading through it I find it slanted and still stiff in it's translation. The Voice is a new approach and tries to maintain the integrity of the translational process. This is the Bible that you will actually want to read with insightful commentary and creative approaches to reading the Bible. This Bible attempts to be balanced theologically (and succeeds well I think), while being an exciting and fresh new entry into the massive amounts of Bibles available today!

Best Book Filling The Harry Potter Hole In My Life
or Best Young Adult Read
Brisingr (Inheritance, Book 3), by Christopher Paolini
Book 3 of the Inheritance Cycle turned out to be a great book. The first book, Eragon, was great. The Second book, Eldest, drug a bit. But Brisinger was back to what made Eragon such a good read. Paolini began this series when he was only 15, and although it sometimes feels like it's ripping straight out of Star Wars or Lord of the Rings, Paolini is becoming quite an author with a great imagination. As mentioned above, not a huge fan of this genera, this series is proving to be enticing and epic. Written and marketed for young adults, like Harry Potter, this series is smart and can appeal to older crowds who simply want a good adventure story to grab on to!

Most Likely To Make You Uncomfortable
Pagan Christianity?: Exploring the Roots of Our Church Practices, by Frank Viola and George Barna
Like the subtitle says, this book is about exploring all of the Christian "traditions" most of us face every Sunday. From Steeple, to sermons, this book explores where these things come from that we claim are "rooted in scripture", as well as our tendency to habitualize them and raise them up to some sort of "sacred" level. But deeper still is something else entirely. It is a book that attempts to "unplug" Christians from these things that we get hung up on in our Christianity and to take a step back to see the bigger picture. One step further; to get involved with the bigger picture. A great book that can unsteady you, make you ask some good questions, wear flip-flops to church, and engage others in your faith community about why we do some of the things we do, and what should we be doing instead that is rooted in scripture, and thus, truly more "sacred".

Other Notables
Below are other books that have made a great impact on me this year, and I'm just running out of space. I promise, all of these books are worth your time.
In the Beginning: A New Interpretation of Genesis, by Karen Armstrong
Everything Must Change: Jesus, Global Crises, and a Revolution of Hope, by Brian D. McLaren
Amazing Spider-Man: Brand New Day

Hope you enjoy, leave me some of your fav. '08 books, or your feedback on any of these you've read

A Hypothetical Faith-Based Brain Teaser

Brittian Bullock over at Sensual Jesus has asked a hypothetical question:

Imagine that God speaks to you—we’re not talking about general revelation here,
this is specific divine interruption. He lets you know that he desires to
give you a Gift, but because of “free will” it will need to be one of your own
choosing. Having said that you’re given two options:

1.) You
can spend the rest of your life being absolutely certain about God, there will
be no questions of faith or doubt. There will be an abiding sense of God’s
presence and smile in all your ways…but everyone you meet will instantly begin
to doubt the certainty of their own faith. They may or may not ever recover from
that crisis.
OR

2). through you many of the wrongs in the world
will be righted, justice and mercy and grace will be exhibited, the blind will
see, the deaf will hear and the lame will walk…but you will cease to believe in
God at all. You will even forget this conservation between yourself and the Most
High…it will have been all in your imagination.

Which do you choose and why?

This has manifest into a great discussion you might want to check out and join in. Here's my initial response:

Yes these questions are unfair, but alas, so is life and even more-so
faith. However, I don’t believe that these hypothetical ponderings are all that
obscure. There are many times in the Bible that what God does or does not do
seems unfair to us. Jesus+cross still= unfair, no matter what your
interpretation of that is.

When speaking of such celestial matters, I don’t think #1 would be
advisable at all. As a matter of fact (and yes your assumed outcome is biased,
although I tend to agree), I think that choosing the first option would be
downright catastrophic. I think the only way to have certainty is to “see the
face of God”. Last time I checked, that was still considered taboo. I think that
there’s a reason for that (literally or metaphorically).

I say catastrophic both to the world/people around you as well as to
self. I have a feeling that it would be catastrophic to self because you would
find that there is no certainty in God. Only depth, creativity, and mystery. I
know we speak more of the Holy Spirit in this language than we do God, but I
think the Trinity is still an acceptable doctrine all-around. I think we would
find that God is like the wind, not static, always in motion. There is no
grasping the wind. The spirit goes where it is needed and is always changing
form to make differing impacts. Just think, a wind can be a gentle breeze in the
summer, a bitter chill in the winter, a tornado or hurricane, or so light its
only evidence is a slight movement in the leaves.

One might would get so lost in this depth and wonder that is God and
would lose all sense of self. The world would vanish from the conscience, as
well as all relationships. Like Peter Pan in Hook, Peter would forget that his
life actually existed.

This would be catastrophic to the world because, lost in another
reality, that is one less person doing the kingdom’s work on earth. It would be
one less person fighting against injustice, greed, war, death…. it would be one
less person giving hope to all of those that once knew him or her.
Certainty
as we know it is an illusion. To me, it’s what the tree of Knowledge represents.
Nothing good can come from it, and everything horrible comes flooding out with
one bite into that enticing fruit.

the interesting thing to me about these questions is that Christ never
calls anyone to number one, but calls everyone to number two. Perhaps he didn’t
word it quite like that (and I know people will quote some guard dog scriptures
of classical discernment at me), but when Christ called us into faith…into
belief, that seems to be, by very definition, non-certainty. I mean he even left
without properly outlining and blueprinting what he meant by “Church”. He left
his followers in a lot of confusion over that (which I argue we still haven’t
figured that one out). But I’m sure he had his reasons. Perhaps it is something
about questions and uncertainty fueling faith and action; pursuit and passion.
But I guess I can’t be certain on that. I’ll just take it on faith.

Feel free to jump over there and join in on the discussion. There are some really good thoughts up there!

Searching for a Better God-- A Review

I approached Wade Bradshaw's new book "Searching for a Better God", knowing that he comes from the Reformed tradition. I am usually turned off by this tradition because most of those that I have conversed with (along with the more visible mouthpieces) from the Reformed tradition spend more of their time fighting against the culture-shift (reality) than they do trying to engage it. However, in reading the back of his book I became excited when Bradshaw acknowledges that the past/present caricatures of God are misunderstood and in need of examination. I began to have high hopes for this book wanting to see how he reimagined the questions. However, don't be fooled into thinking that he is reimagining anything...in fact, he argues against that "impulse".

Bradshaw does indeed explore questions about God. The three questions Bradshaw chooses to focus on are:
Is God Angry?
Is God Distant?
Is God A Bully?

Bradshaw constructs his book to make it look as though he is taking the questions as serious as they are (and indeed he may think he is, each question is multiple chapters long), but then in the end can "answer" these tough questions in a short neat paragraph. I enjoy exploring the questions with him, but his round-up seems to then belittle the questions, leaving me to wonder why he wasted so much paper examining them in the first place. To add to that, his answers are both shocking and expected. "Is God Angry? Yes, but it's ok, God is good and it is for our best interest." After almost 20 pages of exploring that question (in two parts), this comes across as kind-of a flippant "answer".

Bradshaw's book hinges on the idea that there are two stories in play. The "Old Story" centers around the question, "does God exist?" while the "New Story" has moved to (and I'm summarizing his definition here), "Who is God, and why should He be trusted". His definition is a little more complex than that, but in reading through, that's a good summary. What is great about this, is that in his tradition, there are few who are exploring the "New Story". I think Bradshaw's understanding of the "New Story" is a little simplistic, but at least it is being recognized.

So Bradshaw is less engaging with his 3 questions than I would like... but at least he is engaging them and, better still, acknowledging them as real. Other things that bother me are his analogies and examples. His favorite source for these are movies. Now I'm a movie buff, but sometimes if you haven't seen the movie, his analogy is lost on you. As many movies as I've seen, I still added a couple to my netflix queue just to satisfy my curiosity. Simply stated, his analogies and examples are weak or forced most of the time, and unfortunately he's at his best when using personal experiences. However, he forgoes this strength by using movies 90% of the time.

However, there are several good parts to this book. Although I question the structure, the book is still an easy read. By that, I mean it is accessible to anyone. What most makes the book worth picking up to me is his chapter on Ethos and Wisdom. I think this is the best written and most challenging part of the book. Unfortunately, this chapter is not split into parts and I would like to have seen more on this subject. For me, this chapter by itself was worth the read. Most intriguing are the parts where he challenges doctrine and morality in the way that it has been used in modern Christianity. The conclusion of the book comes for me when he says,

In other words, the New Story is a quest for wisdom, an attempt to find the good
God--but it can also be a tragic tale of folly if the goodness of God is
mistaken for evil and left behind as the search moves on.

Here he draws his understanding of wisdom back to the fact that the "New Story" sees ourselves morally superior to God. This comes, according to Bradshaw, when we see an antiquated God who's morality is less than our own "common sense morality" (like when we perceive that God doesn't care about poverty, AIDS, genocide, etc...). It also appears when we
don't interpret God's anger, distance, and "bullying" correctly. He argues that our tendency is to replace the "true God" with a made-up version. Or we simply leave the God of Christianity behind and proclaim him evil. I don't think this is an accurate portrayal of the reality of "New Story". I'm sure that some people come to this conclusion, but I have yet to encounter it among anyone I know. In my experience it isn't God who is truly being questioned, but the PRESENTATION and UNDERSTANDING of God that is receiving scrutiny.

Searching for a Better God can be a challenging read. I wish Bradshaw would have played to his strengths better, defined "true" as he is using it, and had not flippantly ended his discussion on the three main questions. Yet, this book is still worth the read for anyone who wants to delve into these questions, or questions Christianity in general. This book has sparked some fantastic discussions between my wife and myself, as well as filtered into a previous post. Bradshaw has the ability to make you think, even if you don't agree with his outcome.

Other links/reviews:

Ongoing Discussion Boards-Derek Webb's website
zoecarnate- review
Capturing the Low Ground-Wade Bradshaw Article
Apologizing for God-review
My Friend Amy (Blog)- read the first chapter

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