But, I read this about his mythical athletic prowess, and it is of course laughable. Many North Koreans cite these stats!  Certainly it is impossible to know if they truly believe his monikers are accurate – “Best Leader Who Realized Human Wisdom,” “Master of Literature, Arts, and Architecture,” “Humankind’s Greatest Musical Genius,” “World’s Greatest Writer,” and “Greatest Man Who Ever Lived.” – or they were just coerced.  Few really know, as informational transfer is so restricted.

We at least know that the Humankind’s Greatest Musical Genius is wrong.  Nickleback gets that one.

No?  Who then, Creed?

Sorry, back on track here… It is so easy to look into another culture and see how they misconstrue reality…how they miss the point.  It made me stop and reflect a bit about how we do the same.  Things that seem self-evident to us can be very easily seen through by others.  Cultural nuances that we are blind to.  It makes me want to be very deeply rooted and carefully reflective.  It makes me want to be sure that I am among people who will help me to make sure I see myself and the world the way that God would have me.

Sure, I would never say I shot 5 (or 11) holes in one in a single day.  But what other lies might I be very willing to tell myself? Makes me think of a Proverb that says, “Wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses.”  

Let’s pray, for the sake of the South Korean people, that Kim Jong Un will do better.

This is an article by Elizabeth Hunter, from CNN’s belief blog section.

While I don’t resonate with all of her thoughts, my question is…      What are your thoughts on her thoughts?

This will likely be the last posting for the year as I am taking a few days off and then will be going to IGNITE 2011!

In the name of our Messiah whose birth I celebrate,

Jim

A bully in middle school taught me why.

There was a kid who lived near me (I won’t name a name as I am always surprised to see who reads this)  who loved to mess with me.  It kind of became his thing.  I was a small kid with… ladies prepare yourselves…  a bad haircut, bifocals, braces with headgear…  That’s right.  Add to that an almost complete lack of coordination, and a very smart mouth that often moved a bit faster than my brain.

Needless to say, I talked myself into a lot of situations.

This guy, who was much bigger, decided I would be his bullying muse for the year.  I tried to fight back – verbally, physically. I tried being nice.  Nothing would work.

Then I decided to simply render his insults irrelevant.  He would make a comment and I’d say “not bad.”  He would shove me when he walked by and I would say “nice form.”  The first thing that did is it calmed me down.  The next thing it did was it removed the audience he loved to get by messing with me.

I took his audience away.

In Proverbs 16 we are told that a wise persons’s heart makes their speech wise and more persuasive.  I have learned over the years to tame my mouth -most of the time.  Sometimes that means overlooking a wrong, other times to speak against it.  Both of those pieces of wisdom are given to us in Proverbs and both are right.

But I think of this response as neither overlooking or speaking against.

I think Proverbs 26.4,5 shares the tension we walk in…

4 When arguing with fools, don’t answer their foolish arguments, or you will become as foolish as they are. 5 When arguing with fools, be sure to answer their foolish arguments, or they will become wise in their own estimation.

Both are true.  When you understand the proverbial wisdom nature of, well, Proverbs, then you see these aren’t in contradiction. They are both right.  Wisdom therefore, needs to guide us into which one we invoke.  I think, today, verse four.

People have tried for years to speak wisdom and truth into these folks’ lives.  I tried when they last came to Tech.  I spoke with Shirley Phelps-Roper, unsurprisingly to no avail.  They want the audience, they are somehow energized by the counter-protests.  Their revenue stream is dependent on getting big numbers of web-hits, drawing big crowds.   So, now, like my middle school bully, let’s move past them.

Let them come.

Ignore them.

With the prayer-filled hope that they will just fade away.

So we walk today in the tension of relief and sadness.  The awareness that things aren’t as bad as they could be and still not as good we wish.

Jesus told us this was the case.  That the reality of God’s presence in our world doesn’t mean that evil isn’t also here.  And the fact that evil remains (for now) doesn’t mean God is sitting idly by.  He is active and reminds us to be active as well.

Peter said it like this, “God isn’t late with his promise as some measure lateness.  He is restraining himself on account of you, holding back the End because he doesn’t want anyone lost.”  2 Peter 3.9 The Message

And it is Jesus’ example of unfair suffering that inspires me to action.  He died for a purpose, for the Kingdom.  For us.  Now he calls on me to lay down my life as he did.

Yesterday reminds me this life isn’t a game.

I can understand the frustration that many feel when they think about our current political system.  I feel that pursuit of power and lack of willingness to serve is not connected with any political party.  It is a part of who we are as people.  So, I get the idea that “Just vote them out,” only replaces one problem with another.  We are almost always in campaign mode and the problems of our country and world require more focus than they receive.

I can also understand the frustration of those who look at the ways the OWS movement is getting in the way of the commerce of the regular working class people they are claiming to represent.  The excesses, the question of whether it will ever really amount to anything.  Who are the 99%, do they really represent me, and what is it that they would suggest that is better?

This article certainly isn’t the first to handle that dilemma, but I like it and wanted to pass it along.  Thoughts?

Here is the story from Tamara Gignac of the Calgary Herald.  Please know, it isn’t the heart of what Paul Ade is doing that is the problem as much as the cheese factor of the naming.

CALGARY — Tiny ghosts and goblins hoping for sugary snacks may find something odd in their loot bags this Halloween: a bible.

A Calgary pastor is promoting Jesus Ween, a faith-based alternative to the traditional holiday fare of candy and spooky garb.

Instead of chocolate bars and gummy bears, he’s asking people to shun demonic costumes and instead dole out pocket-sized bibles or other “Christian gifts.”

The idea has caught on in communities across North America, according to Jesus Ween creator Paul Ade. He’s hoping it will bring a new perspective to an otherwise pagan festival, he said.

“I do not associate myself with ghosts, demons, Satan and witches. These are things I want to get rid of,” he said.

“If it’s OK for a child to know about demons, it should also be OK for a child to know about Jesus.”

Jesus Ween has attracted international attention, with media reports circulating as far away as Britain.

The Calgary man’s efforts to reinvent Halloween even prompted parody south of the border, with recent gags from U.S. pop culture satirist Stephen Colbert and late-night television host Jimmy Kimmel.

Ade admits he was surprised by some of the negative reaction from the media, but insists he doesn’t take the criticism personally. “I can take a joke. I can laugh. This is not about saying, ‘Jesus for everybody and nothing else,’” he said.

As of Thursday, Jesus Ween had more than 4,000 supporters on Facebook. Fans of the movement have erected billboards in Toronto and some people have put bumper stickers on vehicles.

The pastor has 200 “kid-friendly” bibles ready to distribute to Calgary children on Monday. “I don’t think we’re ruining anybody’s fun. Getting a bible is not getting a bomb. It’s nothing really bad,” Ade said.

But some local Christians say they see nothing pious about Jesus Ween and wonder why the anti-Halloween movement has attracted followers at all.

The insertion of Jesus into a harmless holiday reserved for treats and spooky pumpkins is a turnoff, argues John Van Sloten, the pastor of New Hope Church.

“I think it’s awful. It feeds into the stereotype that to be a person who follows Christ is to be against everything outside of the church,” said Van Sloten.

“I’m kind of appalled by someone doing this.”

Paul Verhoef, a Christian chaplain at the University of Calgary, isn’t a fan of the idea either. If people feel compelled to put a religious twist on the day, he’d rather they perform simple acts of kindness on Oct. 31.

For instance, students at the university are dressing up in costume and asking for food donations to give to the Interfaith Foodbank, an event dubbed Trick or Eat.

“If you want to respond to Halloween in a way that says, ‘Let’s live our lives more deeply in a particular faith,’ Jesus Ween seems on the lower end of a thousand possibilities,” said Verhoef.

Nevertheless, Ade says he has the support of much of the city’s evangelical community, to say nothing of the scores of supporters in other parts of Canada and the United States.

He’s optimistic Oct. 31 will soon be associated with Jesus, not bloody zombies and evil spirits. “Those that love the idea have not been as vocal as those who don’t,” he said. “Most of the Christian pastors we’ve talked to personally believe this is a great deal.”

Like many holidays celebrated in North America, Halloween — which means All Hallows Eve — has both pagan and Christian roots.

© Copyright (c) The Calgary Herald

What is clear here is that the church leadership is trying to blend two things that I feel are not good to blend.  1) the scriptural challenge to help one another out – this one I like; and then 2) the cultural value of keeping others away from us – this one I don’t.

It would seem that the church is so comfortable maintaining distance between the leadership and the members that they don’t see the disconnect.  So you get “Please help out by sending over meals – but give them to the limo drivers, please don’t come by our home.”

Am I the only one who is bothered by this?

If you want a brief rundown of the ensuing years, hit this.

And so began the Protestant movement, even though it wasn’t called that until a number of years later.

I am a product of that, especially now that I am a pastor of a non-denominational church near Va. Tech.  My question is, “do we as Protestants, or better yet, do I as a Protestant, protest too much?”  This question comes up as we as a church are in the midst of a series on the Lord’s Prayer.  A prayer that many recite weekly in church’s all over the world.

We as a church don’t.

And my question is, is that good?  Is it good to include in the general flow of a Sunday gathering time something that can easily become rote and mundane?  Or the counter, is it wise to not regularly participate in one of the traditions the church has widely participated in over the centuries?

My concern with the former is that we can easily mishandle very sacred things.  A bit like eating on the good china everyday somehow reduces the specialness of it.  But my concern with not engaging in its reading and reciting is that I am pushing away something very valuable just to show that we are different.

To be fair, to me and the elder team I lead with, we have thought about this a great deal.  We aren’t just pushing away tradition for the sake of pushing away tradition.  But, on the anniversary of this moment in time that truly created a fork in the road, I do wonder if there are areas I simply protest for reasons less well thought out.  How much of my decision making is influenced by the fact I am a Protestant, who is in ministry primarily among generations that are much more comfortable determining what they are against than what they are for.

So… thoughts?

Peace, Jim

And I remember his friends.

11 “Three of Job’s friends were Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. When they heard of the tragedy he had suffered, they got together and traveled from their homes to comfort and console him. 12 When they saw Job from a distance, they scarcely recognized him. Wailing loudly, they tore their robes and threw dust into the air over their heads to demonstrate their grief. 13 Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and nights. And no one said a word, for they saw that his suffering was too great for words.”  Job 2.11,12

So, Job’s friends hear that he is suffering and decide to come and comfort him.  When they got there, his pain is so overwhelming they just sit with him for a week.  Just spend that time with him.  Amazing.

Then they started to talk.

1 Then Bildad the Shuhite replied to Job: 2 ”How long will you go on like this? Your words are a blustering wind. 3 Does God twist justice? Does the Almighty twist what is right? 4 Your children obviously sinned against him, so their punishment was well deserved. 5 But if you pray to God and seek the favor of the Almighty, 6 if you are pure and live with complete integrity, he will rise up and restore your happy home. 7 And though you started with little, you will end with much. 8″Just ask the former generation. Pay attention to the experience of our ancestors. 9 For we were born but yesterday and know so little. Our days on earth are as transient as a shadow. 10 But those who came before us will teach you. They will teach you from the wisdom of former generations. 11 ”Can papyrus reeds grow where there is no marsh? Can bulrushes flourish where there is no water? 12 While they are still flowering, not ready to be cut, they begin to wither. 13 Such is the fate of all who forget God. The hope of the godless comes to nothing. 14Everything they count on will collapse. They are leaning on a spiderweb. 15 They cling to their home for security, but it won’t last. They try to hold it fast, but it will not endure. 16 The godless seem so strong, like a lush plant growing in the sunshine, its branches spreading across the garden. 17 Its roots grow down through a pile of rocks to hold it firm. 18 But when it is uprooted, it isn’t even missed! 19 That is the end of its life, and others spring up from the earth to replace it.20 ”But look! God will not reject a person of integrity, nor will he make evildoers prosper. 21 He will yet fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouts of joy. 22 Those who hate you will be clothed with shame, and the tent of the wicked will be destroyed.”

I remember the first time I read this I almost yelled at the page.  ”You are wrong Bildad!  Watch what God is going to do”  I thought this about all Job’s friends.

But as I have read this account over the years, I don’t know, I think I’m starting to see the wisdom in what they were saying. Basically Bildad was saying that our actions impact how God responds.  He talked about how reeds cannot grow where there is no marsh.  He cautioned Job not to trust his own wisdom too much, to learn from the wisdom of others.

How is any of that bad?

I have started to realize that I kind of like Bildad.  Sometimes I wonder if I am a bit like Bildad.

The more I read the account of Job the more I wonder if it wasn’t that what Bildad said was wrong, as much as it was that he was overly confident that he was right.   Bildad was taking the information that was available to him and was simply coming to a conclusion that made sense.

One of the many wild parts about the account of Job is that we the reader got to see behind the curtain a little bit.  Certainly that was part of the reason it was written the way it was.  The Holy Spirit wanted us to see the reality of Satan, the fact that he really does accuse us and cause us great harm, and the fact that while God doesn’t stop him completely, he does keep him bound within certain restraints.

What we see that Bildad didn’t, was that there was much more going on than he was seeing.  What we see that Bildad didn’t was that Bildad himself, in his assessment of what was happening, hadn’t left room for God to do things that none of them expected.  That yes, God was going to allow Job to walk through true horror.  And at the end of it that God would restore everything.  That yes, God wasn’t going to fully restrain Satan (as we have talked about many times before) but that Satan was still subject to God.  And that yes, because Job went through what he did, we gain a great deal of information about the reality of the world we exist in.

Bildad hadn’t left room for God to be unexpected.  I wonder how often I am the same way?

Too often I fear I simply take the data, run it through the algorithm I have developed, then watch the answer spit out the other side.  As my sabbatical progresses I am wondering if God is wanting me to give him more room to be unexpected.  I am wondering if he wants me to be slower to draw my conclusions and quicker to engage him through the Spirit.

We will have to see how that goes, eh?

Peace, Jim

Harold Camping, founder of the Christian station Family Radio, also known as the man who sounded the May 21 Doomsday alarm, warned the world will start falling apart as each time zone reached the six oclock hour.  First we would experience an earthquake that “would put what Japan experienced to shame,” we would experience the Rapture, followed by five months of suffering for those who remained on earth.    The 89 year old Camping has predicted the end of the world before.  On Sunday he was quoted by the San Franciso Chronicle as being “flabbergasted his calculation was off.”  Again.

Oh Harold.

But I don’t get angry at people like this anymore.  I do get angry at the problems they cause.  The followers of his highly obscure teachings, his weird numbering of the 3,000th anniversary of the flood of Noah, a thirty three year season of tribulation of the church, and a level of certainty of the year of the death of Jesus that few share, have been devastated.  Their faith is understandibly shaken.  Life savings’ have been spent on getting the word out about what was to happen on Saturday.  Even Camping’s own family has been torn apart by all this.

I do get angry at that.

For me, I try to look at what is going on in the world around me and look for what God is trying to say to me through it.  What I noticed is that I really don’t think about Jesus’ return very much.  With so many challenges in my life now, Jesus’ second coming rarely comes to mind.  That is not a good thing to me.

Now hear me on this, I didn’t think for a second it would be last Saturday.  Personally I doubt that it will ever be the way that Camping suggests, with followers of Jesus just disappearing, leaving a pool of their clothes behind, just being zapped out of their cars at highway speeds, leaving dogs in mid-walk.  But I do believe Jesus will return.

You honestly believe that stuff?

I get that question a lot.  Typically accompanied by an expression of incredulousness.  “He seemed so sane.”  :) Let me be clear here.  I don’t believe Camping’s stuff.  I believe different stuff.  Clear?

As it relates to the possibility that Jesus will return, either you fall into a camp that says he won’t or one that believes he will. Pretty simple, eh?  Both camps are influenced by what you believe to be true about the world, and the expectations you have based on those understandings.  My world view is guided by the scriptures and the experience of the church over the centuries. Two things are clear:  1) followers of Jesus took his words that he would return to heart; and 2) they have often been wrong about when that return would occur.  This isn’t surprising as Jesus told his followers that  he would return, but they wouldn’t be able to predict when.    If you are interested in my further views on that, just comment back and I’ll be a bit more clear (and verbose)

My presumption is that Camping really thought it would happen that way. So I don’t revel in his mistake or the embarrassment that has followed.  To feel that you are a voice for God is pretty heady stuff.  To feel that you were called by God to tell the world (and the church) something it didn’t want to hear and didn’t agree with would be a challenge.  Then, to see that you were wrong, that the naysayers (all of us) were right, could be crushing.

So, there is no question that Camping was wrong.  Almost all of us knew it before Saturday ever rolled around.  Even those that believe Jesus will return one day knew he was wrong.  Many of us, including myself, enjoyed and participated in the jokes at his expense.  My favorite still is the rapture hatch above.  But as I reflect on the whole thing, I wish I hadn’t been so quick to jump on his clear mistake.

My hope for Harold is that he comes out today, as he said he would, and seeks forgiveness for misleading so many.  I also pray that he will take whatever funds exist in his Family Radio network and in his own accounts and seek to repay what his followers have lost due to wrong teaching. In doing this he will have the opportunity to show he was trying to do a kingdom of God thing and he was just wrong about it.  If he doesn’t, if he tries to spin this, “provide clarity” as to how he will be right the next time, or try to distance himself from it, then I suspect everyone will see it wasn’t a kingdom of God thing he was doing over the past several years, if it ever was.

People will see the kingdom of Harold Camping flag waving proudly and then move right past him, as they should.

Am I missing something, wrong about something?  Help me out.

Peace, Jim