Face the Music by Brady

Last night Becca and I rented a movie called ‘August Rush’ which stars Freddie Highmore, Keri Russell, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Terrence Howard, and Robin Williams. It is a modern fairy tale movie about a kid who is following music that only he hears to find his birth parents. I am not usually a huge fan of sappy flicks, but this one is really good. This movie is a great testament to faith and the way a fundamental belief in something can change the world. It epitomizes the life of a Christ-follower in a modern context because Evan Taylor (played by Highmore) is a child prodigy who is constantly “hearing music” and chasing dreams which are not altogether realistic. He is a little odd and is always picked on by kids in his half-way house. In fact, I must admit I would have probably wanted to beat up a kid like him during my younger years.

Evan says at one point about the music he hears, “It's like someone's calling out to me, only some of us can hear it.” Wizard (played by Williams) replies, “Only some of us are listening.” Those of us that live the life of faith in Christ are constantly faced with realists who claim they found the tomb of Christ or that a biblical worldview is not relevant today. We feel something calling out to us, but it is like we are the only ones who can hear it. We also have this deep desire to be found and known by something too. Later in the movie, Wizard is trying to give Evan a new stage name and asks for his input. He says, “If you could choose any name in the world. Any! What would you want to be? Come on, kid. Any.” Evan says, “Found.”

This Easter season, I challenge you to turn (another word for repent) and face the music. Think about the possibilities if Christ did in fact rise from the dead. Think about how much this would change the world you live in, the shift that would break your current tunnel vision and expand your possibilities. Think about the deep reality you could live within even though those around you can’t hear the music. It’s as Evan says, “The music is all around you, all you have to do is listen.” The music is calling out to you and me on Resurrection Sunday, will you turn and face it and choose to chase it no matter the cost? This is important because “You got to love music more than you love food. More than life. More than yourself.”

Do You Like What You Worship? by Brady

Last week I was given some “constructive criticism” by one of my leaders at church about the way I preach and how it is perceived. Apparently something I said in the last couple of months struck a chord with a student or two, and they think my teaching is too much of hell, fire, and brimstone. A secret about all pastors and preachers is that we all want to be liked, and liked by everyone. So I won’t pretend this just rolled off of me, but I really am content with this kid’s analysis after reflecting on the last few months.

One thing I realized is that I have yet to use the word hell, Satan, or preach a sermon on judgment to the youth group. If you were to sum up my messages in the first few weeks, they could be categorized as messages of change more than anything. I believe it is time that Christians actually practice their faith, realize their spiritual life is more than a church service once or twice a week, and truly attempt to follow Jesus of Nazareth. But that just might be the problem with my message.

This may sound harsh, but I truly believe that many Christians today would not even like Jesus if they actually met him, much less choose to follow and worship him. Jesus to most people is nothing more than a teddy bear who is incapable of saving them from much of anything aside from a stock market crash or having to park further away in the parking lot. I believe Jesus came preaching a message of change which led him to ultimately get crucified.

David Kinnaman has authored a book that every Christian should read called unChristian. After 3 years of careful analysis of the culture today, Kinnaman and the Barna Group draw many conclusions about the state of the Church in America. One part of the book talks about the culture today creating God in their own image rather than vice versa. He says, “Some Christians respond to outsiders’ negativity by promoting a less offensive faith. The unpopular parts of Christian teaching are omitted or deemphasized. They hijack the image of Jesus by portraying him as an open-minded, big-hearted, and never-offended-anyone moral teacher. That is an entirely wrong idea of Jesus.” (Pg. 32-33)

This comes from a man who is hardly a fundamentalist. In fact, the entire book is about the failures of the church today and how we need to reform the church structure so that we can reach a new generation which is influenced by relativism and pluralism. The main problem is, we are more in the business of self-help, feel good messages than truthful teachings these days. I am sure I sound like a black and white fundamentalist, but if you cannot preach about living a life worthy of the call of Christ, then we live in a watered down Christian society. Kinnaman even goes onto to say, “The church desperately needs more people who facilitate a deeper, more authentic vision of the Christian faith in our pluralistic, sophisticated culture.” (pg. 16)

The truth is, I am not sure if I would have liked Jesus’ teachings, personality, or demands all of the time if I lived in the 1st Century. I am sure he would have stepped on my toes many times, and would have made me angry with his words at times. After sorting through some of this, I still boil down my faith to the core belief that my only hope lies in a 1st Century Galilean carpenter. For better or worse, I’m with the guy who told his followers they must eat his flesh and was perfectly secure with his message that he even challenged the 12 disciples to leave with the crowd (John 6). I’m with the guy who brought a whip into the biggest church around and caused chaos (John 2). I’m with the guy who referred to a Gentile woman as a dog (Matthew 15). In fact, I actually like Jesus more because of these stories, because he challenges me to decide who really is Lord in my life. What I’m not sure about is if this is the same Jesus most Christians would say they like, much less admit they worship.

Glad You're Back by Clint

In preparing for the Easter season services for the church where I pastor, I came upon an interesting text that I had forgotten about. It happened as I was re-reading through the accounts leading up to Jesus’ crucifixion and the accounts of his resurrection in the Gospels. At the very end of Matthew, chapter 28, verse 17 says, “When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted.” Wow. The very ones that saw Jesus crucified and then saw him raised from the dead are looking right at him but still doubting! They got to see, talk to, touch, and eat with the resurrected Lord, and yet some of them doubt. Do you think they expressed their doubt to Jesus’ face? Or, did they wait and discuss their skepticism after being alone with the other disciples? And how many doubted? The text doesn’t tell us. Faith is not easy, and the resurrection is a difficult concept. I was having lunch with Brady, and we were talking about the story of Lazarus being raised from the dead by Jesus. This happened as a sign of Jesus’ power and coming resurrection. Our conversation turned to the response of those who knew Lazarus before he had died. They probably were a little scared of post-death Lazarus and maybe even a little reluctant to be alone with the guy. After all, he had been dead. Where do you even start in conversation? “Hey man, glad you’re back.” And there is no way that Lazarus was the same person after coming back. “Lazarus, ever since you died and came back, you haven’t been the same guy we used to know.” Surely they were frightened by Lazarus’ return, and Jesus’ return must have had the same affect. If the very disciples that saw him raised from the dead doubted, then we can be sure that even for them the idea of someone defeating death is hard to grasp. Often times, faith is expected to be easy. It’s not. Many would like to believe it is, but the disciples are there watching these events, struggling with the meaning of it all. But the importance of Jesus’ resurrection cannot be ignored or taken for granted. The Apostle Paul says in I Corinthians 15:14, “and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain.” Our faith in God hinges on this belief in the resurrection. Believing resurrection is difficult and faith is difficult, but this is a good thing. Do you really want to put your faith and life and belief into a God that only does regular, everyday, boring things? Do you really want to follow and worship a Savior that made everything easy and overly predictable? The fact is that in Christ’s resurrection, we see that there is eternal life. In this, there is glory and perfect truth. The challenge of faith is the beauty of faith. The difficulty of these things is where its substance resides. Our finite minds are so programmed to stop at death. We are so limited to thinking in the realm of mortality; we must be reminded that what God has prepared beyond death will truly be glorious beyond measure.

Pray For Their Troops by Brady

How Christianity relates to matters of the “state” has been a longstanding debate within the church. I would hope you have suffered long and hard over the idea of what it means to be a citizen of Heaven and an American citizen. The earliest Christians certainly struggled over this same topic. You have Jesus’ famous phrase saying “Give Caesar what is Caesar’s and God what is God’s.” You also have Paul who says we should subject ourselves to the laws of the land. N.T. Wright has actually done a lot of work to show how the Gospels may actually have been extremely subversive towards the Roman Empire. You even have Revelation which when reading it in its proper context appears to be against Rome as well. So overall, how we live in the world while not becoming consumed by the world is not new in any way, shape or form.

The more I think about the direction of the church lately, I think we are having an identity crisis and are trying to figure out who we actually are as the Body of Christ. We had a pastor running for president and a debate on whether it would be ok to vote for a Mormon. We also hear that if (fill in the blank) gets elected, the whole world is going to end. The overwhelming state of mind in America is fear when it comes to politics today. Commercials prey on our fears (side note: this goes way beyond politics, just see any insurance commercial) and exploit our doubt.

But even beyond the presidential primary race, I have been thinking about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the popular slogan “pray for our troops.” Now, let me be clear. I am not an anti-patriot. I actually think it is extremely noble and worthwhile to pray for the troops in the war. But what I am confused about as my Christ-following life clashes with my American mindset is, shouldn’t our slogan also include “pray for their troops, too.” In Matthew 5:44-45, Jesus says, “But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven.” He goes on to say that even the most conniving people pray for those they love and care about the people on their own team. Why wouldn’t they?

I would argue that this statement by Jesus could really sum up the Gospel in its entirety. You may disagree, but this is the most typical thing that Jesus consistently did during his time on earth, and it is the most atypical thing usually taught by other faiths or value systems. Jesus completely revolutionized the way we see the world, and this is one of the main ways he turned our world upside down. This statement is, in fact, distinctly tied to Jesus Christ and what it means to be his disciple.

So, there is where the head-on collision takes place: is a catchy American slogan or an ancient teaching of Christ more important to follow? A couple of weeks ago, I said in one of my sermons that America is not the savior of the world, Jesus is. Barack, Hilary, McCain, Bush, or anyone else you can think of is not going to save you from much of anything. Somewhere we have got to start thinking outside of our normal mode of American orthodoxy and get closer to the actual teachings of Christ. The truth is that it is biblical to pray for Al Qaeda or Iraqi soldiers (and praying that they die doesn’t count either). They are the very definition of our enemy today, and Jesus told us to not only pray for them, but also love them. Now that’s tough teaching in light of the times. And that is exactly the kind of teaching that got Jesus nailed to the cross. Do you still want to follow him? I hope so…