Liminality

At Christmas time it is hard even for doubters and unbelievers to not believe in something, if not everything. Peace on earth, good will towards all people, an innocence that truly exists, love that can inevitably be held, a dream coming true, the mystery of childlike faith, and the potentiality of hope – not even the canned carols piped over the shopping center parking plaza from Thanksgiving on can drown it out entirely. Christmas carries with it hallowedness, holiness, a time in which life grows still like the surface of a river so that when we look down upon it we see not the reflection of time, but the reflection of gracious presence. Frederick Buechner says, For a moment or two, the darkness of disenchantment, cynicism, and doubt draw back, at least a little, and all the usual worldly witcheries lose something of their power to charm. But my cynicism says, “No moment lasts forever.” It is only one day out of a year that the bird of dawning sings to us his tune. Darkne

This week’s Advent theme is joy. I’ve been at Union Baptist Church over a year and I realized I preached an Advent sermon on joy last year. So, I went to the archives, pulled out my text and read it. Here is how I defined joy in 2008: Joy is a lot like faith; it is a choice. It is having the faith to step into and hold on to the light. Joy is the light that shines when all other lights fail. Eh, not bad. I don’t hate it. I used a lightness and darkness theme throughout the sermon and said joy is, “choosing the light.” I still think this is a good word. It preaches. It puts the responsibility of joy in our hands. But I can’t help but think, “Yeah, God’s light is a light that darkness can’t overcome, but how big is God’s light? Sometimes I feel like I’m in the dark all the time.” So my 2008 definition seems a little weak. It’s comforting to a point, but I think it also overlooks a very real truth for us: When we find ourselves in dark places of the soul, the light

Colossians 3:15 tells us to let the peace of Christ rule in our hearts. There was a time when farmers on the Great Plains would tie a rope from their porch to their barn on the first sign of a blizzard. They all knew the horror stories of friends and loved ones who froze to death after loosing sight of their barn or home and never left their backyard. Parker Palmer says, “Today we still live in blizzard in which people are dying in their backyards. The blizzard hits us with economic injustice, ecological ruin, physical and spiritual violence, and their inevitable outcome, war. It swirls within us as fear and frenzy, greed and deceit, and indifference to the suffering of others.” Truthfully, we all know people who have wandered off into this maddening world and have been separated from their own souls, they lose their moral bearing and sometimes their mortal lives. What these people share in common is they attempt to leave home to find fulfillment but they get caught in

Our hope is in Christ. Hope that despite the fact that sin and death still rule the world, Jesus somehow conquers them. Hope that in him and through him all of us stand a chance of somehow conquering them too. Hope that at some unforeseeable time and in some unimaginable way Jesus will return with healing in his wings. C.S. Lewis in his book, Mere Christianity says, “We as humans carry a need that can’t be met in this world . . . me must therefore be made for another world." I love this quote because it captures all that Advent and Christianity stands for. Christians’ hope is in a Christ that returns with heaven and healing in his wings. But this is very hard for us because we are not trained to think of heaven as our ultimate resting place. We think of Sunday afternoon naps, the Tennessee Titans winning five games in a row, buying new electronics, watching the sunrise with a blanket and a cup of Joe, or eating ice cream on the beach. But heaven, well that is stra

Since the earliest days of church history, people have had different answers to the question, “When is the true ‘Advent’ going to take place?” Advent means ‘coming.’ This question is asking when Jesus will return to reign. Here is list of significant minds and their thoughts: • 2nd century church historians Justin Martyr and Irenaeus both believed the events in Revelation are real and will happen in their lifetime. • Late in the 2nd century comes Montanus, “The Mouthpiece of the Holy Spirit.” He starts a strand of Christianity that proclaims the world would end in a few months. • In the 1200s Joachim of Fiore, an Italian monk who received a vision from God about the meanings of the visions in Revelation, found historical people to represent the monsters and demons in Revelation and put together a proposal that Jesus Christ would be returning in 1260. • American 18th century Evangelist Jonathan Edwards believed humans were the hands and feet of Jesus, but Jesus would not

In Mark 13 an unnamed disciple looks up at the Temple’s enormous stone wall and gasps, “This is huge!” We can relate to this can’t we? Admiring humanity's dominance over it's environment. Alan Culpepper says, It is the essence of humanism to look at the flowering of our God-given potential and artistry and think that it is the highest good. We may easily look at our great cities and pride ourselves on our conquest of the environment. We may easily look at our technology and medical advances and think that we can now control our destinies. And we may look to our prosperity and material comforts and think that we can provide for our needs. Yet in humanity’s great narrative Empires have come and gone. Every century presents a new world power and a new world order. Change is marked by war, laws, and architecture. And in every case – the present power falls. Even though we have gone from the country to the city, from tents to buildings, from camels to cars, from ro

Frederick Buechner says, The word blessing has come to mean more often than not a pious formality such as ministers are continually being roped into giving at dinner parties. But in the biblical sense, if you give me your blessing, you irreversibly convey into my life not just something of the beneficent power and vitality of who you are but something also of the life-giving power of God in whose name the blessing is given. Yet the word blessing still falls deaf on most ears. It carries little to no depth or meaning. I would argue “luck,” of all words, hits closer to home because when you have “luck” you really have something. Everybody knows about the magical nature of luck. It wins ballgames, escapes hard times, and jumps from one person to the next. A blessing, on the other hand, has come to sound like a Hallmark imitation. But what if your luck was God actually blessing you? I think of, in this instance, Ruth – a Gentile, Moabite woman whose Israelite husband died.

November 1 is All Saints Day in the Christian calendar. This day is the day we (the Church) remember all the saints throughout church history. Frederick Buechner says, “It’s in God’s holy flirtation with the world where we occasionally see God drop a pocket handkerchief. These handkerchiefs are called saints.” Many people think of saints as plaster saints or moral exemplars, men and women of such paralyzing virtue that they never thought a nasty thought or did an evil deed their whole lives long. As far as I know, real saints never even come close to characterizing themselves that way. On the contrary, no less a saint than Saint Paul wrote to Timothy, “I am foremost among sinners.” In other words, the feet of saints are as much of clay as everybody else’s, and their sainthood consists less of what they have done than of what God has for some reason chosen to do through them. Did you know Saint Mary Magdalene was possessed by seven demons at one point (so says Catholic t

And in a soft whisper and almost tired breath, the preacher looks out from her notes and says – Here is what I am trying to say . . . From a seminary preaching professor's standpoint, this phrase may get you an C+. But I've learned over the years this phrase can be the best part of the sermon for the listener. “Now that I have said all that – here is what I am trying to say!” It’s like a trigger. The sermon is almost over. She’s making her last point! It may or may not be a good one but it is almost over. I have a memory of when I preached for one of the first times in a church that was not my home church. They were really sweet and they knew my New Testament professor and asked him to send someone good. Well, instead, he asked me to go. At twenty years old having the holy task of bringing forth a word from God that intervenes and intercepts the lives of believers and offers hope for a future is more or less missed. Instead, at twenty I saw this as an opportun

Hopelessness rationalizes and adapts to ‘what is.’ A mother who lost her child has to adapt to a world without her son. A teenage pregnancy has to adapt to a world in which dreams are slowing down. A man laid off from work has to adapt to the precariousness of the economy. All of these situations sometimes feel like hope is gone and God is not responding. Personally, I have never felt more hopeless in my life than the day after my college graduation party. I stopped the night before at a gas station to fill my car up with gas and placed my wallet on top of the car. Sure enough – I filled up with gas and drove away never realizing my wallet, full of hundreds of dollars, was missing. It dawned on me the next day what had happened. I was forced to adapt to the situation. I was forced to rationalize it. I felt hopeless; I felt as if I messed up; I felt guilty. Sometimes when we need Christ the most – it just seems like a fool’s hope that he will be there to respond.

Moses descends from the back of Mt. Sinai to bring two tablets that outline the rules in which life will be governed. On that list is “honor” your father and mother. I have to be honest; it is extremely hard for me to believe such a commandment should be so universal. I agree with Frederick Buechner in his book Wishful Thinking when he says, “How do you honor them when, well-intentioned as they may be, they make terrible mistakes with you that have shadowed your life ever since?” Or how about when they abandon you? Or they abuse you, either sexually, emotionally, or physically? Or what about the people who left home, went off to college and formed a faith that radically opposed that of their parents? These people find themselves disenchanted after questioning the faith that ‘mom and them’ gave ‘em. Or what about the females who accepted a call from God to go to seminary despite their parents said they were forbidden? What about the young men who discover they are homos

God speaks. But God is not an all-night radio talk show of unbroken chatter. God, rather, speaks in episodes that punctuate seasons of silence. Think about the story of Samuel in the temple – he spoke to God but God is said to have spoken -- rarely. Or how about the Canaanite woman who asked Jesus to heal her dying daughter. Jesus seemed to include unnecessary moments of silence in the healing of the little girl. There is no reason that we can see that explains why God speaks episodically. I too wonder why in some instances we hear God crystal clear and in other instances God is as opaque as the Hebrew alphabet. We only know that there is a mysterious rhythm to the speech and silence of God that uncoils from the wild and wise freedom of God. If you are in period of your life where you are dying to hear the voice of God but you can’t seem to do it, I implore you – hold on – God does speak. It just comes in fragments. Martin Luther King, Jr. tells a story in one of his

When they stopped in Capernaum for a night’s rest Jesus asked them for their thoughts. Strangely the disciples were silent. They had nothing to say because they were arguing about whom among them was the greatest? Of course Peter thinks he is the favorite, but James and John vouch for themselves since they too got to go up on the mountain of Transfiguration. Yet Andrew chimes in saying, “You know I was the first one of us he called to follow. Surely I am the greatest!” It’s typical isn’t it? Jesus is trying to prepare the disciples for the future yet they are too distracted by their own ego. They want to know who among them is the greatest. They ask, “Where do I rank? Where am I in this picture?” If I’m truthful with you about myself, I have to admit that I’ve had similar thoughts. I’ve asked the question, “Am I the greatest here?” I tell my birth story as if it gives me credibility over anyone. Sure my mother’s tubes were tied before she conceived me and they mira

In Mark 8 we are introduced to a blind man in Bethsaida. Jesus attempts to heal him, but it doesn’t work. People look like trees. I believe the author of Mark strategically places this story right before Peter's announcement 'Jesus is the Messiah' to connect the literary theme “people can see but no clearly." This theme is true for Peter for immediately following his announcement of who Jesus is he rebukes Jesus for predicting the Passion. Just like the blind man in Bethsaida, Peter can see -- but not clearly. So Jesus turns to the crowd and announces, “If any want to become my follower, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, save it.” If you want to save your life then you must choose to lose it. It means the Kingdom of God becomes more important than careers and vacations. It means you become centered a

Biblical Proverbs are so overlooked that when you Google Famous Proverbs, click on the first link that appears, the first Bible reference you get comes in as the 45th most popular slot. This is probably because people think they are largely devoid of theological content. Take Proverbs 26:11 for instance, “As a dog returns to his vomit, a fool returns to his folly.” This is not the most poetic line ever written. Most of the proverbs are pithy sayings that put in a nutshell the sort of common sense that people cross-stitch, frame, and hang on their kitchen walls. Moreover, some of the biblical proverbs appear to be contradictory or even downright untrue. Proverbs 26:4 advises, “Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest you be like him yourself.” Fair enough, except the very next verse says, “Answer a fool according to his folly lest he be wise in his own eyes.” Which shall it be? Answer a fool or not? So it’s no wonder people shy away from such texts. But I think it i

In Mark 7 when asked why they eat with defiled hands Jesus says to the Pharisees: “You hypocrites . . . Listen to me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.” (Mark 7:7,15) In other words, what defiles a person is not the cleanliness of their food but rather the inner workings of their heart. Within the human heart there resides all manner of evil. Jesus lists twelve in Mark. They are: Fornication, Theft, Murder, Adultery, Avarice, Wickedness, Deceit, Licentiousness, Envy, Slander, Pride, and Folly. (Mark 7:21-23) All of these vices derive from an inflated sense of one’s own importance. They list humanity’s inability to become self-restrained. They invoke a ‘haughtiness’ and an arrogance one can have. This list is what humanity uses to hold itself over and above the spiritual and to say its way is better than God’s. But the sad part is we as humans have the capacity to

Ephesians 6 talks about the Armor of God. We, like the Christians in Ephesus, are in a battle. But the battle, if we are honest, is against ourselves. When I started out my time in college I wanted to change the world. I envisioned leading a multimillion dollar corporation that was completely nonprofit and totally run by volunteers to give homeless people a place to come for psychiatric, physical, emotional, and spiritual treatment. I envisioned a homeless hospital. I got into class at Belmont and decided I wanted to learn everything in its original language. I wanted to read books in Latin. I wanted to study everything from Genesis to Revelation. I wanted to come up with the new system and new thought that would revolutionize Christianity forever. I knew I could crack the case on who the Historical Jesus was and I knew I could even understand Freud if I just spent enough time thinking. I was eager and I was ready. But the classes got hard. Languages are tough. Li

I honestly believe our marriage mandate is to love our spouse as Christ loved the world. We are to be subject to one another. We are to love one another. No one person has dominion, domination, or final say-so in a marriage relationship. The roles are equal. The functions (who washes and who cooks) are for each couple to decide. The Bible is quite unclear about the roles for spouses. On first glance Ephesians 5:21-33 seems to be saying women are not as good as men. Women are unequal. They are beneath and below the role and function of men. But the Bible is written from a 98% (purely a guess) patriarchal worldview. We, post-Easter, post-Enlightenment, post-modern people must attempt to read scripture through the idioms of our generation so we can communicate the majesty and message of scripture with startling freshness of the original text. What does this mean? It means we must take what we know about first century living and juxtapose it to our worldview and then plac

Last week I performed a wedding for a cute couple in my church. During the festivities I managed to speak to several friends of the couple that I had never met before. In our conversations I was asked a question in which I had no ‘on the spot’ answer. The question was, Why do we need to become members of a church? In other words, why do I have to make an official commitment? How official is the commitment to joining a church? Why isn’t it obvious that me showing up each week means I’m devoted? I thought about this question and this was my immediate response. I know for some people salvation only comes through the church and I respect that opinion. Baptist Heritage seems to carry more of a soul freedom response that suggests salvation is not through the church but through the individual. The church is the housing place for those individual souls. It is a place for souls to work together to become the hands and feet of Christ, to partner with God in the ‘ongoing creati

“For this reason I now bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. I pray that, according the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit . . .” Ephesians 3:14-15 I love this phrase, “strengthened in your inner being.” The author of Ephesians is tapping into something I believe in wholeheartedly. For so long we as people, especially Baptists, have neglected an intricate part of life – our inner being. I feel like it was lost or overlooked during the Revivalistic Era in America which put so much energy into saving souls and getting people into Heaven. This is an important time period in Baptist History but we overlooked what to do with the people who claim Jesus as the Lord and haven’t died yet. What do the Christians do after they accept Jesus and aren't dead yet? My answers are: Become more like Christ. Learn to commune with our Creator. Join in t

Studying theology forces me to come to grips with who I am and why I believe the way I believe. For instance, I am a pacifist, male feminist, and one who thinks the world is not necessarily evil. It has taken me seven years of theological reflection to discover these things about myself and twenty-four years to develop them. Let me explain. Where you are from, the culture you are raised in, the parental situation you had, the number of siblings you have, the demographics of the community you grew up in, the amount of students in your classroom, the type of lady/man who taught you Sunday School all play a part in who you are today. I am most noticeably a Caucasian, middle class, American raised in the South, liberal arts educated male who happens to be the youngest of three boys whose parents are still married and who grew up in a neighborhood where race and color did not affect the make-up of the small town chemistry. These are the facts about my social location and they say

In Mark 6 Jesus was rejected in Nazareth and he delivered the line, “A prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown.” Jesus was never seen more than the stereotype of his family. He was never given the chance to become more than what he seemed to be. Judgment was not suspended for him but rather decreed. He was Mary and Joseph’s son. He was a carpenter. He was not fit to do miracles or to teach. He needed to learn his place. He needed to step in line. Jesus felt the wrath of his hometown turning their back on him and he had to live with that regret forever. I honestly believe the central message of this story is showing us how sad it looks when a community disenfranchises someone. There is not one sin too great (in my opinion) to put someone outside the bonds of a church fellowship – unless it’s the sin of the church being blinded by their own ideals. A healthy church must never stop growing and seeing growth in the people around them. The best metaphor

During the three weeks in the Middle East we as a group got extremely close to one another and really enjoyed a sense of community. You would have never thought on Day 1 that all of us by the end of the trip would be overly concerned with each other’s bowel movements – but we were! The five other seminaries that traveled with us were similar yet different when it comes to theological leanings. We had two Methodist groups (Emory and Duke), a Presbyterian school (Columbia), a Christian Church school (Emmanuel), and two Baptists schools (Southern and McAfee). I, of course, go to McAfee. The differing backgrounds made for healthy and lively theological debates. Some of us baptize infants and others do not. Some of us believe women can be equal to men in authority and others do not. Some believe homosexuality should not keep someone from being a minister and others do not. These theological biases splintered us early in the trip but really made for healthy community by the end of t

One of the most striking scenes of the Middle East is the Separation Barrier between Israel and Palestine. This wall separates Israeli Proper from what is known as the West Bank. It is four times as long as the Berlin Wall and in places it stretches twice as high. It was built to maintain control, power, and order. It was built to keep the Palestinians out and to create a safe haven for what Israel believes to be their rightful land. In all five countries we stayed in we saw one thing that remained consistent from city to city – walls. As a matter of fact, the only thing left standing after centuries and even millenniums in some places were walls. That’s right, the remains we got to examine were the leftovers of somebody’s attempt to separate themselves from another group. In my opinion, the Middle East looks like an ancient, giant, strategic game of RISK. What is our infatuation with keeping others out? Some months ago I wrote a blog on exocentricity. I said all hum

Ruins are nothing special to look at — until you hear their story. In the Middle East we traveled from city to city staring at rocks that had fallen up to 5000 years ago in some places. Each city had its own oddity. There was either a stable, temple, well, or some other major artifact uncovered that made this particular city worth visiting. Everywhere we went we looked and observed fallen rock. We talked about broken pieces of ground and empty spaces where something somewhere might have existed at some point. Speculation was our forte and criticism was the one commodity that was not diminished when shared – it rather increased. But through our skeptical, critical minds sat the beauty of broken rocks. Each visit to a Tel (ancient ruin site) offered a new history lesson, a new appreciation for life, and a new piece to the puzzle of scripture. Over time it was quite easy to become emotionally connected to these cities and to feel the power of God in their brokenness.

How do I even begin to deconstruct touring the Middle East? I touched ruins from the Bronze Age (Exodus, Egyptian Empires), the Iron Age (Israel, Judah, Persian, Greek), the Classical Times (Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine), the Medieval Times (Crusades, Mongols, Ottoman Empire), and Modern Times (WWII, Palestine). I walked the road to Damascus, kneeled at the cross on Golgotha, prayed in the empty tomb, swam in the Dead Sea, boat-rode the Sea of Galilee, preached on the Mount of Beatitudes, stormed a Crusader Fortress, worshiped God in the Temple of Baal, stared at John the Baptist’s beheaded head, peered the Promise Land on Mt. Nebo, filmed the sunrise from the tip of Mt. Sinai, hiked Petra, walked shoeless in the Great Mosque, baptized in the Jordan, read the Dead Sea Scrolls, smoked a cigar in the Parthenon in Greece, and sang ‘Away in a Manger’ in Bethlehem. Needless to say, the past three weeks have impacted my ministry, life, and spirituality - forever. The entire

This week I will be flying to the Middle East with about 30 seminary students to tour and explore the Holy Lands. The trip is designed for second year seminary students who are seeking parish ministries. The group is comprised of several seminaries that cover the theological spectrum. There will be men and women who are either conservative, liberal, moderate or anything else not mentioned. The thesis behind the trip is to get next generation leaders together in the Holy Lands to have an ecumenical experience. If we leaders share this experience together, it will make doing life and denominationalism a lot easier later in life. I covet your prayers and can’t wait to blog about it when I get back. Due to traveling and limited time to blog, I will be taking a short hiatus from my weekly blogs but promise for more insightful reflection upon my return. God bless to you and in your endeavors. Here is our Itinerary. May 18 Depart Atlanta at 5:20 p.m. (Delta 122)

I know what it is like to deny Christ as my leader, Savior and friend. I know what’s like to have my faith squashed by fears – fears of the unknown and fears of the predicted. I have been down the road that chooses cursing over blessing, sinner over saint, and worldly over Christ-likeness. I know what it is like to follow Christ but see no eternal value in my praying and choosing to sleep instead. My life is just as broken, dirty, foolish, and unkempt as the next. But that’s the beauty of our faith. We take our brokenness, anguish and despair into the pulpit with us. We own it. We use it to preach. God is not asking us to be perfect – but rather to live life fully alive. To go through our day knowing we have messed up, failed, and fallen short of the glory of God but also to know that we are forgiven by a God who is all loving, all powerful, and always present. God is not telling us to preach from our perfection, “Look at me, look what God has done for me my whole life