Easter: bunnies and eggs or death and resurrection?

I had a chance to talk to a young man this morning about the meaning of Easter. When I told him that Easter was about Jesus’ death and resurrection, he said he had always thought Easter was about candy and the Easter bunny. He had never heard that Easter had anything to do with Jesus. We assume that everyone in Mississippi knows about Jesus but has just chosen to reject him, but that was not the case for this man. He had heard the name of Jesus, but he had never been told who Jesus was.

I tried to talk with him more about the meaning of Easter, but he quickly left to get on to some errands he had to run. Before he left, he did say that he would come to our church’s presentation of the Living Last Supper on Good Friday (Living Last Supper Poster). The Living Last Supper portrays the disciples at the Last Supper just after Jesus predicted that someone would betray him. They ask themselves the question, “Is it I” who will betray Jesus? This young man needs to know that Jesus died to free us from slavery to sin, and that apart from Christ that he is dead in his sins. Join me in praying that he will come, that God will convict him of his sinfulness, and that the truth of the gospel message will bear fruit in his life. Pray that he will move from being an enemy and betrayer of Christ to one who can stand holy, blameless, and without accusation before God because of Christ’s death in his place (Colossians 1:21-22).

This brief encounter reminded me of two things. First, Easter is such an easy time of the year to share the gospel. People have Easter on their minds, whether they know what Easter means or not. Churches have plenty of events and gospel presentations to which members can invite their friends. We would be remiss to pass through this Easter season without findings ways to bring those who don’t know the Lord to hear the gospel message presented. Second, it’s not enough to invite people to church meetings or church events. This man could benefit greatly from seeing the gospel message depicted on a stage, but he needs believers who will speak the truth into his life as well. I pray that I will have further opportunities to talk to him and to share with him about who Jesus really is. May we all do more than just invite this Easter, but may we speak the truth in love to those who desperately need to hear.

Topics I like to avoid… the American flag and the church

Many churches take the presence of an American flag for granted, and these churches often fly a Christian flag as well, usually with the American flag in the position of prominence. When people argue for the American flag in church worship spaces, the arguments usually revolve around thankfulness for the freedom to worship America provides, loyalty to country, or a general sense of patriotism. Some might say that time spent on topics like this is a waste of time, but I would suggest a few reasons why this conversation matters.

First, symbols matter. If you don’t believe me, think of placing a swastika in a Jewish synagogue. While we can get caught up in fighting over meaningless symbols, we care about symbols because they mean something to us. And if they mean something to us, we need to think about what these symbols mean, and we should ask if we are attaching the right meaning to the right symbols.

Since symbols matter, flying the American flag in a church building means something. We may not intend what the symbols communicate, but the American flag over the Christian flag implies allegiance to country over allegiance to God. The U.S. flag code states that no other flag should be “in a position of superior prominence or honor to, or in place of, the flag of the United States.” As Christians, we believe that Christ is supreme over all creation, including the United States of America (Colossians 1:15-20), and to imply that we give prominence to any entity over Christ borders dangerously on heresy.

So perhaps the solution is to remove the Christian flag from our worship spaces, leaving just the American flag. After all, the Christian flag is a relatively recent innovation and is certainly not central to who we are as believers. However, leaving the American flag in our worship spaces still poses some problems for me. As Christians, we are members of a church that extends far beyond the bounds of the U.S. We are citizens of a kingdom of people from all tribes and all nations. When we gather for worship, we gather to proclaim the name of the Savior of people from all across the globe. While patriotism has its place, when we worship we should be more focused on the Lord over all nations than on the nation in which we live.

The sad reality is that for some of us, though we may not even realize it, our primary devotion is to country, not to Christ. However, most churches (like mine) that display American flags do so with the best of intentions, and some would be upset at me for even suggesting that the American flag should not be in our sanctuary. But my reading of the Bible, my understanding of the nature of the church, and my reflection on the purpose of worship leave little room for exalting anything or anyone other than Christ and Him crucified.

Why I’m a Foster Parent (Part 4)

I assume that many if not most people begin the process of adopting or fostering   because they are unable to have biological children (or more biological children). I have had to admit over the last few weeks that if God had given us children in my timing, we most likely would not have become foster parents. Almost certainly the children who have been in our home the past six months would never have come into our lives.

Most of us have a desire to have children, to care for children, and frankly to have someone who will care for us when we get old. At my age, having children in the home seems to be the natural thing to do (that’s what all our friends are doing!). While that desire for children is natural, and divine, I am learning that a simple desire for kids is hardly an adequate reason for becoming a foster parent. Instead, I have come to view fostering both as a biblical mandate and a divine calling.

God demands that his people care for those who cannot care for themselves. Throughout the Old Testament, God set the example for his people by caring for foreigners in the land, the fatherless, and widows (Deuteronomy 10:18). Perhaps more famously, James told his readers that pure and undefiled religion involves caring for orphans and widows (James 1:27) While you might say that foster children are not technically orphans because they have parents or guardians, I think they are exactly the kind of people that God demanded we support. Every child in foster care has been ripped out of their homes, torn away from their loved ones, and sometimes separated from their siblings. They are, even if just for a time, both homeless and fatherless, and God demands that we care for people like them.

So biblically, I think we as the church have a mandate to be involved in caring for children in the foster care system, but I have also begun to view fostering as a calling. I don’t mean a calling in the sense that I am called to this church or this job, but calling in the sense that we are all called to be a part of caring for the fatherless. God has called me and my wife to be foster parents right now, but our calling is simply a small part of the call on Christ’s church to care for the fatherless. We are all called as believers to be involved in this process, whether as foster parents, adoptive parents, supporters of children in foster care, advocates for adoption, financial supporters of adoption, etc. Caring for the fatherless is one way that we as Christians and we as churches show the love of a heavenly Father and demonstrate the truth of the gospel message in which God adopted us as his children. What role has God given you to play in following his example by caring for the fatherless?

Are we living out tradition or God’s Word?

Certain topics seem easier to ignore than to address, particularly in the church. When you know most people around you will disagree with you, the easiest thing to do is keep your mouth shut. But I have been convicted recently of how much I try to please people as opposed to living out my convictions before God in a way that is pleasing to him, so I thought I would write about a few topics that I often try to avoid (although you could argue that posting on my blog is still avoiding the issue since so few people will actually read my thoughts).

One problem I find in addressing controversial issues in churches is that we often end up arguing about tradition instead of about what the Bible says on an issue. The sad fact is that too often we really don’t care what the Bible says, at least not enough to do what it says. To use one example from my own life, I have tried to emphasize confession of sins in our church family, and one passage of Scripture that speaks of confession is James 5:16. James encouraged his readers to confess their sins to one another and to pray for one another. When we use this passage today, my temptation is to read the words about confessing to one another and then encourage people to confess their sins privately to God, “right where you are.”

But why do we do this? Is it because we have developed extensive contextual arguments about why James’s readers needed to confess their sins to one another, but our context is so different that we shouldn’t follow this passage literally? I doubt it. We really just don’t want to do what James told his readers to do. We are uncomfortable with being that open with other people, so we do what we do with so much of the rest of the Bible. We spiritualize the text, and we “obey” the text “in our hearts,” which in many cases is simply disobedience wrapped in the aura of spirituality.

Sadly we have often elevated our traditions, our desires, and our comfort levels above the Word of God. I am certainly not prefect in this area, I have my own biases and blind spots, but the only way to move forward is to dialogue with one another in open and honest ways, so that we can help each other overcome our own shortfalls. So if anyone is out there, I would love to hear your thoughts on where you agree and where you think I am wrong, as I give my opinions, hopefully based on God’s Word, on issues like the American flag and the church, church membership, church discipline, conflict in the church, etc.

Somebody’s watching…

I used to judge parents I saw in stores who yelled at their kids to be quiet and stop screaming. They seemed to be so surprised when their kids had anger issues, when all the kids were doing was copying how their parents behaved. I was reminded of this lesson today, when I may have ever so slightly hurried through a yellow light. A four-year-old quickly told me that I went fast when the yellow light meant I was supposed to go slow. I tried to explain myself, but she responded that “God said to go slow.”

Clearly she has been listening to what we have been teaching her (though I don’t think we said that the traffic laws came from God), but the problem is that she is watching very closely what I do. The scary part is that she is learning more from what I do, than from what I say. I was reminded that everything I do is important, because every action is a potential learning moment for young, curious eyes to see.

But all this got me to thinking about the church. We talk a good game, and we say all the right things. But what do people see? I think if we really examined ourselves, we would find that people are paying closer attention to what we do than to what we say. We talk about how much we love God, but we neglect his church, or we support the church when doing so is convenient for our schedules. We talk about how God loves all people, and then we spend ridiculous amounts of money on ourselves while people down the street and across the world are starving. We talk about how everyone needs to know God, but most of us haven’t told anyone about God in a long time. We talk about serving one God, but we can’t stop fighting over things that must seem trivial to the rest of the world. We talk about wanting prayer back in the schools, but we spend so little time praying.

So what are people supposed to believe? Jesus said that all people would know that we are his disciples if we love one another (John 13:35). John reminded his readers to love not with words or with our tongues, but with actions and in truth. This kind of love would reassure us that we belong to the truth (1 John 3:18-19). I was reminded today that four little kids are always watching what I do, but perhaps we as the church need to be reminded that the world is watching. Is all they see talk, or do they see the love of God in us?

 

The whole truth and nothing but the truth…

We teach kids that the gospel is as easy as ABC. Admit to God that you are a sinner, believe that Jesus is God’s Son, and confess Jesus as your Savior and your Lord. In some ways it is that easy. At the heart of the gospel is the truth that we are sinners, and the only way for our sin to be wiped away is through Jesus Christ. But when we talk of salvation, we often focus solely on an initial moment of conversion (pray this prayer, walk the aisle, or raise your hand while no one is looking) that we neglect to teach people what having Jesus as our Savior and our Lord really means.

When we speak to the crowds about the gospel, we usually emphasize forgiveness and heaven and joy, but we rarely talk of counting the cost. When Jesus spoke to the crowds, he said things like, “Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you and say all kinds of evil things about you falsely on account of me. Rejoice and be glad because great is your reward in heaven” (Matthew 5:11-12a). Jesus spoke of counting the cost before following Him, going so far as to say that anyone who does not give up everything they have cannot be His disciple (Luke 14:33).

As we care for the four foster kids in our home right now, we have the opportunity to share the gospel with them. Their parents profess to be Christians and are excited for their kids to learn about the Bible. But to teach them simply that they need to pray a prayer and walk an aisle seems such a cheap version of the gospel. They are with us because their lives have been hard. So am I supposed to tell them, “Just accept God and everything will be ok!” Or should I tell them that life will always be hard. If they follow Christ they will suffer, but God will carry them through the suffering and reward them in the future. One option sounds more appealing, but the other reflects the truth of the Scripture.

I fear that we are so concerned with getting people “saved” that we don’t teach them what life in Christ is all about. Maybe we’re so concerned with numbers that we’ll say anything to get people to walk the aisle. Perhaps we’re more genuine and we really don’t want to turn people away from God, but we want them to experience eternity with Him. But do we border dangerously on teaching people half-truths, which are not truth at all? Or are we teaching people the whole truth of Scripture and trusting that when we do, God’s Spirit will work in their hearts to convict them of the truth? Are we asking people to follow Christ because it will make their lives easier, happier, and more convenient, or are we asking them to follow Him because He is Truth, and He is worth the cost?

Let’s go to church?

One of my biggest pet peeves is people calling a building “God’s house.” Sometimes it’s done rather inconspicuously, as in, “God, we thank you for allowing us to gather in your house.” Sometimes it’s done much more overtly, as in, “We need to keep up our building; after all, it is God’s house.” The problem is that the building where a church meets is not God’s house. In the Old Testament, the temple was God’s dwelling place, a place where He chose for His presence to dwell. But the New Testament teaches something quite about God’s dwelling place.

Ephesians 2:19-22 teaches as clearly as anywhere else that God dwells in believers, and that we are the temple of God. We are members of God’s household (2:19), a holy temple in the Lord (2:21), and a dwelling place for God by the Spirit (2:22). As Paul said in Acts, God does not live in temples made by human hands (Acts 17:24). God lives in us, both individually as believers (1 Corinthians 6:19), and collectively as the church. So on Sunday mornings we do not go to God’s house or gather in God’s house as though God’s house were a location, but we gather with God’s house as His temple.

But who really cares right? What harm is there if we continue to pray and thank God for allowing us to gather in His house? Am I just playing with words, or does this really matter? The real danger is not in playing word games, but in what we actually believe God’s house to be. Let me give you two examples. First, some of us willfully tear down God’s temple, His church, over what a building looks like. We have been fighting for years over physical space, whether our buildings should look a certain way, welcoming enough, or reverent enough, or whatever enough. Or perhaps we will yell at someone for bringing food and drink into the “church,” and so tear down a brother or sister over potential stains on the carpet. If we are not careful, we will find that we have slandered and defamed Christ’s eternal church because we were worried about the upkeep of a temporary building.

Second, we are in danger of worrying far too much about what happens in a building. So much of what we do as churches is confined to the building in which we meet, and if the world will not come to us to hear the gospel, we are unlikely to go and tell them. After all, we’ve been to “church” 3 times this week. But have we been the church? Church is not showing up at a certain place, but church is being God’s people together every moment of every day. May we be the church of God.