This week I am participating in a Spanish Immersion Course sponsored by the North Texas Conference. We have 2 amazing teachers and 4 students. We are having a lot of fun and I think I am actually learning something this time. I took 2 semesters of Spanish in college and have tried for years to learn. I can understand a fair amount of Spanish, but I have never been able to speak it - mainly because of my own perfectionism. I hate to make a mistake; thus I refuse to speak if I am not absolutely certain that I am speaking correctly. This class is helping me to get over that.
The class came about because last year at conference we passed a resolution saying that 20% of the pastors in the conference should be conversational in Spanish by a certain year (2020 maybe?). However, there was no provision in the resolution for helping to meet that goal. Some leaders in the conference heard the problem and decided to help meet the need. They created this course for pastors and church leaders. Evidently it has been difficult for pastors to find the time to do this, but I highly recommend this program. This is the jump-start that I needed.
Tonight we attended a Spanish-language prayer service in Dallas. It was simple, beautiful, and powerful. The faith of those attending and their commitment to serving God and sharing the kingdom was awesome. This is a new Spanish-language congregation and they are seeking God's will and way in all they do. We had the privilege of praying with them and praying for those that had asked for intercession. I didn't understand all the words they used, but I understood the spirit and that was sufficient for now.
Learning enough Spanish to minister to people has been a dream for a long time. I pray that God will enable me to make full use of this opportunity.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
The Rivals of Jesus
This is a show that was made by National Geographic. I found this show particularly funny in some places, mainly because of the contradictions. So here are a few of those contradictions:
• According to the show, a fellow named Apollonius was not successful because he appealed to the upper classes. Evidently the peasants that followed Jesus had better marketing skills than the upper classes. Those peasants really knew how to organize! On the other hand, Christianity was evidently not successful until, you guessed it, Christianity made it to the upper classes with Constantine. OK, guys, can’t have it both ways. Does appealing to the upper classes make you successful or unsuccessful?
• According to the show, Simon Magus is virtually unknown today because he “lost the debate.” Evidently “history is written by the winners.” Well, that may be true, but it could also be true that Simon Magus was simply a guy who had some good magic tricks but didn’t change people’s lives.
• The narrator claims that Jesus’ crucifixion becomes a “rallying point” for his followers. Hmm, I thought that his resurrection became the rallying point!
• Simon bar Kochba is a rival of Jesus? The narrator claims that “like Jesus, [Simon bar Kochba] speaks out against Rome.” I was under the impression that Jesus spoke out against the Jewish leaders, you know, the scribes and the Pharisees! As far as I can tell Jesus never said anything about Rome, except , "Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor's,” Matthew 22:21. They do finally get to that, in the show, but never do explain what they mean by saying “Jesus speaks out against Rome.”
• It’s not really a contradiction but I love the part where Jonathan Reed says he would have put money on Mithraism becoming the official religion of the Roman empire rather than Christianity. I’m not sure how Mithras slitting the throat of a bull is equivalent to Jesus shedding his own blood.
• The comparison with Isis is pretty funny also. The claim is that the pictures of Isis and Mary show a “stunning” similarity because both show mothers holding a child. Maybe both Isis and Mary are shown as mothers holding their child because they are both mothers with a child. Duh. And though the claim is that Isis worship offered a personal relationship with Isis just as Christianity offered a personal relationship with Jesus, how can this be a significant rival to Jesus when even Carole Fontaine admits that “one scholar has said that people adhere to the Isis cult but they are converted to the religion of Jesus.” She also notes that Isis worship didn’t require a person to change their way of life, whereas Christianity had specific rules about how one should live. Don’t these seem like pretty major differences?
• The biggest ‘rival’ to the “Jesus of the New Testament” is—wait for it—Jesus from the Nag Hamadi texts! In other words, the Gnostic Jesus. And I particularly like the part where they first say that the Gnostic Jesus was “less god-like and more human” and then proceed to relate the story about how Jesus comes out of his body and watches his crucifixion from the sidelines, mocking the Roman soldiers’ attempt to kill the immortal Son of God. How exactly does this portray Jesus’ “humanity” as “more appealing to the common man?”
These are just a few of the things I found odd and funny. Probably the biggest laugh was Peter with a Scottish accent, but I guess that isn’t really any funnier than Peter speaking English in the first place.
• According to the show, a fellow named Apollonius was not successful because he appealed to the upper classes. Evidently the peasants that followed Jesus had better marketing skills than the upper classes. Those peasants really knew how to organize! On the other hand, Christianity was evidently not successful until, you guessed it, Christianity made it to the upper classes with Constantine. OK, guys, can’t have it both ways. Does appealing to the upper classes make you successful or unsuccessful?
• According to the show, Simon Magus is virtually unknown today because he “lost the debate.” Evidently “history is written by the winners.” Well, that may be true, but it could also be true that Simon Magus was simply a guy who had some good magic tricks but didn’t change people’s lives.
• The narrator claims that Jesus’ crucifixion becomes a “rallying point” for his followers. Hmm, I thought that his resurrection became the rallying point!
• Simon bar Kochba is a rival of Jesus? The narrator claims that “like Jesus, [Simon bar Kochba] speaks out against Rome.” I was under the impression that Jesus spoke out against the Jewish leaders, you know, the scribes and the Pharisees! As far as I can tell Jesus never said anything about Rome, except , "Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor's,” Matthew 22:21. They do finally get to that, in the show, but never do explain what they mean by saying “Jesus speaks out against Rome.”
• It’s not really a contradiction but I love the part where Jonathan Reed says he would have put money on Mithraism becoming the official religion of the Roman empire rather than Christianity. I’m not sure how Mithras slitting the throat of a bull is equivalent to Jesus shedding his own blood.
• The comparison with Isis is pretty funny also. The claim is that the pictures of Isis and Mary show a “stunning” similarity because both show mothers holding a child. Maybe both Isis and Mary are shown as mothers holding their child because they are both mothers with a child. Duh. And though the claim is that Isis worship offered a personal relationship with Isis just as Christianity offered a personal relationship with Jesus, how can this be a significant rival to Jesus when even Carole Fontaine admits that “one scholar has said that people adhere to the Isis cult but they are converted to the religion of Jesus.” She also notes that Isis worship didn’t require a person to change their way of life, whereas Christianity had specific rules about how one should live. Don’t these seem like pretty major differences?
• The biggest ‘rival’ to the “Jesus of the New Testament” is—wait for it—Jesus from the Nag Hamadi texts! In other words, the Gnostic Jesus. And I particularly like the part where they first say that the Gnostic Jesus was “less god-like and more human” and then proceed to relate the story about how Jesus comes out of his body and watches his crucifixion from the sidelines, mocking the Roman soldiers’ attempt to kill the immortal Son of God. How exactly does this portray Jesus’ “humanity” as “more appealing to the common man?”
These are just a few of the things I found odd and funny. Probably the biggest laugh was Peter with a Scottish accent, but I guess that isn’t really any funnier than Peter speaking English in the first place.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Good Friday
Good Friday is always a moving experience for me. Whether I am the one presenting a service for just a few, or participate in a Tenebrae service of darkness such as we had on Thursday or am part of an incredible experience like the one last night of singing The Seven Last Words by Dubois, I need this time to prepare for Easter. When I celebrate Communion on Maundy Thursday I feel the presence of Jesus as the real host at the table. And I realize how much each of the persons I serve is beloved of God. It helps me to love them too; even the ones I don't really know, even the ones I do know and don't really like!
I need to be reminded that I am a part of the crowd that cries "He is death guilty, Let us crucify him!" But I also need to remember that no matter what I have done, I can come to the point of praising, "Christ we do all adore thee."
These last two days have made the sacrifice of God in Jesus real for me once more. I am looking forward to Easter. We may live in a Good Friday world, as someone has said, but Easter's coming! Praise the Lord!
I need to be reminded that I am a part of the crowd that cries "He is death guilty, Let us crucify him!" But I also need to remember that no matter what I have done, I can come to the point of praising, "Christ we do all adore thee."
These last two days have made the sacrifice of God in Jesus real for me once more. I am looking forward to Easter. We may live in a Good Friday world, as someone has said, but Easter's coming! Praise the Lord!
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Bad TV and Good Books
Every year before Easter on the History Channel we are subjected to a wide variety of programming that focuses around “religious” topics. This year some of the offerings were: Jesus’ Arrest, The Devil’s Bible, a series on the Seven Deadly Sins, Banned from the Bible I and II, Bible Battles, God vs. Satan, The Quest for the Lost Ark, The Exodus Decoded, Crucifixion, and, my personal favorite—UFO’s of the Bible. I will admit to watching these shows; they hold a strange fascination for me. But often I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. Does a program like UFO’s of the Bible show that people have an avid interest in all things religious and biblical? Or does it show that people have an easier time believing in alien abductions than in miracles or true experiences of God?
To be fair, some of the shows do present some interesting information and occasionally even accurate information. But I am not sure that I like the attempts, in so many programs, to ‘prove’ various parts of the Bible. One example of this is the Exodus Decoded which tries to show the physical basis for the plagues in Egypt. If you want to read an excellent review of this particular show go to a blog by Professor Christopher Heard at http://www.heardworld.com/higgaion/.
I would love to study the Seven Deadly Sins, the apocryphal books (which were “banned from the Bible), the Exodus, the details of Jesus last days, the miracles and God visitations in the Bible, etc. with folks. So if you are in my congregation, let’s chat. If you aren’t, then we might find a way to chat anyway!
On another topic: if you are looking for a good book try out Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt and Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana, both by Anne Rice. Yes, the same woman who wrote the Vampire books. She had a conversion and has written these incredible books about Jesus. The first takes place when Jesus is a young child of 6 or 7, the second when he is about to begin his ministry. They are fiction, but they use excellent historical research and take an orthodox view of Jesus as the Christ. They are also very well written; they do not present a boring and pious view of Jesus, but a portrait that is believable and deals with what it would be like to be “fully human” and “fully divine.” And, yes, I have both books if you want to borrow.
To be fair, some of the shows do present some interesting information and occasionally even accurate information. But I am not sure that I like the attempts, in so many programs, to ‘prove’ various parts of the Bible. One example of this is the Exodus Decoded which tries to show the physical basis for the plagues in Egypt. If you want to read an excellent review of this particular show go to a blog by Professor Christopher Heard at http://www.heardworld.com/higgaion/.
I would love to study the Seven Deadly Sins, the apocryphal books (which were “banned from the Bible), the Exodus, the details of Jesus last days, the miracles and God visitations in the Bible, etc. with folks. So if you are in my congregation, let’s chat. If you aren’t, then we might find a way to chat anyway!
On another topic: if you are looking for a good book try out Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt and Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana, both by Anne Rice. Yes, the same woman who wrote the Vampire books. She had a conversion and has written these incredible books about Jesus. The first takes place when Jesus is a young child of 6 or 7, the second when he is about to begin his ministry. They are fiction, but they use excellent historical research and take an orthodox view of Jesus as the Christ. They are also very well written; they do not present a boring and pious view of Jesus, but a portrait that is believable and deals with what it would be like to be “fully human” and “fully divine.” And, yes, I have both books if you want to borrow.
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Easter eggs, Easter bunnies and Easter crosses.
We had the Easter egg hunt and festival today at church. You know the drill: plastic eggs stuffed with melting chocolate eggs inside, go-fish games in little vinyl pools of water, ring-toss, face-painting, the space-alien bounce house, and wafting over all of it the smell of freshly popped popcorn and new-spun cotton candy.
As I was watching the kids bouncing and squealing, I realized what picture was presented to those driving by on the main road in front of the church: There was the bounce-house, but in front of it were the three large wooden crosses that we put out for Holy Week. For a moment I had a theological crisis. What does it mean to juxtapose eggs, bunnies, bouncing and crosses? What does it mean to have laughing children in the shadow of the cross?
I will admit that I was a bit uncomfortable. And maybe the conclusion I came to is simply justifying my own discomfort; but I think that the joy of the day in the shadow of the crosses reflects hope. Don't get me wrong: I want those children and their parents to understand what it means to put empty crosses (symbols of Roman execution) in the front yard of the church. I want them to understand how it was that Jesus turned the sign of despair and death into a sign of life and hope. But that understanding will only come if those who attend Easter Egg hunts and play in bounce houses feel for themselves the joy of the family of faith. It will only come if those young (and sometimes not-so-young) parents recognize that they are important to us. They won't know right away that it is obedience to the Lord who died on the cross that drives us to reach out and share joy with them, but they will feel the joy and the love.
Tomorrow is Palm Sunday and we start into Holy Week. The Easter eggs will be put aside and we will turn to the deeper things of God. But even as we contemplate the betrayal, arrest, and execution of Jesus, I pray we remember that it is precisely joy and love that are the deeper things of God.
As I was watching the kids bouncing and squealing, I realized what picture was presented to those driving by on the main road in front of the church: There was the bounce-house, but in front of it were the three large wooden crosses that we put out for Holy Week. For a moment I had a theological crisis. What does it mean to juxtapose eggs, bunnies, bouncing and crosses? What does it mean to have laughing children in the shadow of the cross?
I will admit that I was a bit uncomfortable. And maybe the conclusion I came to is simply justifying my own discomfort; but I think that the joy of the day in the shadow of the crosses reflects hope. Don't get me wrong: I want those children and their parents to understand what it means to put empty crosses (symbols of Roman execution) in the front yard of the church. I want them to understand how it was that Jesus turned the sign of despair and death into a sign of life and hope. But that understanding will only come if those who attend Easter Egg hunts and play in bounce houses feel for themselves the joy of the family of faith. It will only come if those young (and sometimes not-so-young) parents recognize that they are important to us. They won't know right away that it is obedience to the Lord who died on the cross that drives us to reach out and share joy with them, but they will feel the joy and the love.
Tomorrow is Palm Sunday and we start into Holy Week. The Easter eggs will be put aside and we will turn to the deeper things of God. But even as we contemplate the betrayal, arrest, and execution of Jesus, I pray we remember that it is precisely joy and love that are the deeper things of God.
Friday, April 3, 2009
When Easter Became Real
I remember Easters from my childhood: gooey candy eggs hiding in the yard, dyeing hard-boiled eggs in the kitchen, shopping for the perfect new Easter dress, putting on the white patent-leather shoes for the first time. I remember church parts too: Easter lilies filling the altar area, glorious music, church full of families and friends. We went home to Easter dinner and a lazy afternoon. I always loved Easter, but one year Easter became more than just a day of beauty and celebration, and became real and powerful.
In 1973, my youngest sister Nancy came down with the chicken pox. She had a condition (unrecognized at the time) that made her unable to fight such infections. The chicken pox progressed to a massive staff infection and she died on April 6 at the age of 5. I was 15 at the time. I had lost another sister 12 years previously from measles and the same condition, but I had not been affected as much when I was a 3-year-old. This time, my sister's death hit hard. We were surrounded by the love and care of our church family, and yet I heard comments like: "God needed another angel." Well, I wasn't impressed by a God who thought he needed my sister more than I did. I was angry and I was sick at heart.
I don't remember much about the next few weeks, except that I was trying to remain strong for my parents, and trying to get through my own grieving process without much help.
What made a difference was Easter Sunday. It came on April 22nd that year and we went to church as usual. If I am remembering correctly, we were actually in San Francisco taking a vacation from the sorrow and the memories in our home. But because it was Easter and because that is just what we did on Easter, we found a church and showed up on Easter morning. I don't remember the service, or the music, or the sermon. What I remember is this: Easter became real that day. I needed the resurrection in a way that I never had. I needed to hear that death and sorrow and suffering had been overcome and that day I knew that the story I had known since my earliest childhood was true. I can't explain how I knew, just that I did; that God revealed Godself to me in a special way on that Easter Sunday.
Easter is my favorite "holiday" because for me it truly is a "Holy day." It isn't just a nice story, but the reality upon which I base my life. One of the prayers in the Service of Death and Resurrection (in the UM Worship Book) says, "Help us to live as those who are prepared to die and when our days here are accomplished, enable us to die as those who go forth to live, so that living or dying, our life may be in you, and that nothing in life or in death will be able to separate us from your great love in Christ Jesus our Lord." Amen. Have a blessed Easter!
In 1973, my youngest sister Nancy came down with the chicken pox. She had a condition (unrecognized at the time) that made her unable to fight such infections. The chicken pox progressed to a massive staff infection and she died on April 6 at the age of 5. I was 15 at the time. I had lost another sister 12 years previously from measles and the same condition, but I had not been affected as much when I was a 3-year-old. This time, my sister's death hit hard. We were surrounded by the love and care of our church family, and yet I heard comments like: "God needed another angel." Well, I wasn't impressed by a God who thought he needed my sister more than I did. I was angry and I was sick at heart.
I don't remember much about the next few weeks, except that I was trying to remain strong for my parents, and trying to get through my own grieving process without much help.
What made a difference was Easter Sunday. It came on April 22nd that year and we went to church as usual. If I am remembering correctly, we were actually in San Francisco taking a vacation from the sorrow and the memories in our home. But because it was Easter and because that is just what we did on Easter, we found a church and showed up on Easter morning. I don't remember the service, or the music, or the sermon. What I remember is this: Easter became real that day. I needed the resurrection in a way that I never had. I needed to hear that death and sorrow and suffering had been overcome and that day I knew that the story I had known since my earliest childhood was true. I can't explain how I knew, just that I did; that God revealed Godself to me in a special way on that Easter Sunday.
Easter is my favorite "holiday" because for me it truly is a "Holy day." It isn't just a nice story, but the reality upon which I base my life. One of the prayers in the Service of Death and Resurrection (in the UM Worship Book) says, "Help us to live as those who are prepared to die and when our days here are accomplished, enable us to die as those who go forth to live, so that living or dying, our life may be in you, and that nothing in life or in death will be able to separate us from your great love in Christ Jesus our Lord." Amen. Have a blessed Easter!
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