You've got to be kidding me!

Its been a crazy couple weeks at church, in a good way. I can't complain about long hours, because we've got plenty of volunteers putting in as many; and sometimes more!

But tonight it was about 8, and it was time to go home. Time to go, enjoy some beverages, play some xbox, and not think about anything important. So I stopped to drop off a laptop my friend had left at church.

I pull in.

Turn off my car. Leave the keys in the ignition, no big deal right? In and out.

Grab the computer.

Walk to the door. Give him the computer.

THEN MY CAR SPONTANEOUSLY HONKS AND LOCKS ITSELF.

Here's a picture taken in context, to give you an idea of my mood:


After sighing multiple times, cursing only a couple times, and resolving that the Malibu's days are numbered; my friend Steve and I weighed the options. He then proceeds to successfully pry open the door with a screwdriver just enough to slip in a coathanger he fashioned into this apparatus:

The fact that he successfully snagged the power lock latch turns this shameful event into a pretty cool story. But, c'mon, your car randomly locking itself?

I'm screwed

Well, Tennessee was my darkhorse pick. Guess not.

Nerd Alert

95 words

Speedtest

Video from Good Friday

I've gotten lots of comments about the video from Good Friday, which was very powerful. A clip from YouTube is below, and you can get more from the artists website here

Book Review>Vintage Jesus

This is the other book I finished Saturday, also a pretty quick read.

I first encountered Mark Driscoll (Pastor at Mars Hill Church, Seattle) in the book "Listening to the Beliefs of Emerging Churches" and was less than impressed. He was so mean! But I've heard some of his messages online, and I'm glad to say he was much more "civil" in his treatment of the subjects in Vintage Jesus.

In short, this is a book I'm planning on taking some friends through. This is a book that answers basic questions about Jesus in a very down to Earth manor, and with enough humor to really keep you goin. I really like the dedication: "To anyone who takes Jesus seriously, but not themselves".

I hope this doesn't sound arrogant, but being raised by an "evangelical" Pastor, a lot of the material was review for me. I also could tell the influence of Francis A. Schaeffer in some of the chapters, particularly in viewing Jesus as Prophet, Priest, and King. This is material I have used in teaching Middle School Sunday School, so I was all over it.

One thing I did find funny was that Driscoll calls out Rob Bell (from similarly named Mars Hill Church in Michigan) out about his treatment of the Virgin Birth, but then practically clones Bell's treatment of the grand story of scripture going from the Garden of Eden to the City of God.

Only a couple of freaky things for me. The notion that there will be a sliding scale of rewards and punishments:

Furthermore, because Jesus is just, he will distribute varying degrees of rewards for each Christian in correlation to their faithfulness, just as he will punish non-Christians in varying degrees according to the wickedness they have committed. (page 223-244)

If you look up Revelation 20: 12-15 which is footnoted, I'm not sure everyone will draw the exact same conclusion. I don't see where "each will be judged according to what they have done" means 'some will have a better equipped room that Jesus is preparing' or 'Satan will go easy on the ones that did almost good enough'. Yikes!

The other freaky thing was when Driscoll was describing how Jesus is our savior, and how different people are looking for different saviors. He does this by comparing magazines targeted to different age groups, a brilliant illustration. But in describing what "mothers of mothers of jr. high girls" want, Driscoll includes this on the list of saviors according to what he sees in Redbook magazine:

"a husband who likes to snuggle and listen attentively while somehow remaining heterosexual. (page 191)"

To me, this is just dumb. When people are already itching to accuse "conservative" Christians men of being homophobes and chauvinists, why would you make a flippant comment like this? The implication is that if a husband "cuddles" or is a good listener; than he must really be gay. C'mon. That comment was completely unnecessary.

There are a couple of other "could've done without that" sentances, but for the most part this is an excellent book that I plan on using as a resource in our congregation.

Book Review>Pagan Christianity

Last Saturday I truly experienced Sabbath. 11am-11pm doing one of the following (mostly the first two) watching the tourney, reading, sleeping. It was glorious.

If anyone cares at all (and I don't think you do or should) you'll notice that I've had the same several books on the "current reading" list for a while. Well, I knocked off one and finished another I never put up there. Since people get turned away from blogs if they have to scroll to read a long post, I'll give you the short review and the "extended edition" (something I think I've tried to do before).

Quick synopsis: Highly recommend this book. Very thought provoking, extremely informing. The authors make a strong thesis and do not attempt to keep everyone happy. They draw the lines in the sand, and force you to do a lot of examination- personally and corporately. Ultimately, I disagree with the authors over-simplification in making sweeping, universal claims. I also find fault in the author's view of the early church's character. Pagan Christianity is a quick read, and again, recommend this book highly.

Extended Edition: Pagan Christianity. Dan Kimball had this up on his blog, and it piqued my interest. So, call me a tool if you want, but I read the trendy book and really enjoyed it. Apparently this book has been around for a little while, but the orignal author Frank Viola teamed up with "the most quoted man in Christianity" George Barna. The thesis for the book is simple: the modern church looks nothing like the early church. Pagan Christianity "explore(s) the roots of our church practices" (the subtitle). I must say, it was fascinating. The book concisely funnels lots of well-researched* information. Even if you don't "agree" with the author's conclusions (a return to new testament church) reading this book may be worth it for what I call, the "o'reily factor factor". This is when you tune in to some talk show, just to get pissed off. This book could have that effect on just about every Christian I know. The authors make well supported claims, and one must concede that on a number of levels, they're right. In short, the book says: don't defend our church practices as being biblical. You can still support them, just not biblically.

Many of the things we do are not derived from scripture, but rather from tradition as a result of synthesis from other cultures. Again, the authors make a strong case for at least examining why the things we hold important are important, and then examining how we can make that assessment scripturally. They also are not willy-nilly in making broad claims, so there's plenty to disagree with. Example:

Nevertheless, despite the fact that the contemporary sermon does not have a shred of biblical merit to support its existence, it continues to be uncritically admired in the eyes of most present-day Christians. It has become so entrenched in the Christian mind that most Bible-believing pastors and laymen fail to see that they are affirming and perpetuating an unscriptural practice out of sheer tradition. (page 101)

There's a great example of a strong statement being made, which I appreciate. However, can you really say that there is "not a shred of biblical merit" to support the sermon? Not one shred? I would disagree.

The other big place of disagreement for me is the way the author views the early church's character. Viola asserts that the modern church's headship is in the hands of people, not Jesus Christ. He says the early church had no hierarchy, and that our current structures are unbiblical and a hindrance to the priesthood of all believers. Now, is there much to be said for this? Sure! But let's not pretend the early church was some utopia:

...The dominating aim of (God's) nature is to put you and me at the center of the beating heart of God. To put you and me in the core of His eternal purpose- a purpose for which everything was created. The early church understood that purpose. They not only understood God's passion for His church, they lived it out. And what did such body life look like? Consider the brief glimpse below: The early Christians were intensely Christ-centered. Jesus Christ was their pulse beat. He was their life, their breath, and their central point of reference. He was the object of their worship, the subject of their songs, and the content of their discussion and vocabulary. The New Testament church made the Lord Jesus Christ central and supreme in all things. (page 246-247)

Now, I could be wrong here. But it is my understanding that many of the Epistles were written to guide and correctthe church's the apostles started. I'm sure the early church experienced the same problems that we face, in principal anyway. Maybe people didn't complain about the color of the carpet in the sanctuary, but I find it hard to imagine that no one ever bickered about the quality of food served at somebody's house.

Later, Viola says:

The New Testament church was organic, not organizational. It was not welded together by putting people into offices, creating programs, constructing rituals, and developing a top-down hierarchy or chain-of-command structure.

Hhhmmm...In Acts 6: 1-6 we read about the Apostles choosing seven men to distribute food to widows:

1In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Grecian Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. 2So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, "It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. 3Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them 4and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word."

5This proposal pleased the whole group. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit; also Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas from Antioch, a convert to Judaism. 6They presented these men to the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them.

So, the Apostles made a judgement call on how to most effectively spend their time, and addressed a need by coming up with a job description then finding qualified people to perform that duty. Sounds like a hierarchy to me! Did they have an organized way to distribute food to widows? Sounds like a program to me! I'm exaggerating a little bit here, but my point is structure is not inherently evil, and its not entirely unbiblical.

So, there you have it. I agree with the author's that tradition many times exists for traditions sake, and not the Kingdom's sake. I just don't want to "throw the baby out with the bathwater" in thinking that the first century church didn't experience the same problems the modern church faces, and that if we only would embrace the original practices that we would see the same explosive, powerful results as we saw in the early church.


*and expansively footnoted

Best 2 Days in Sports

I love the NCAA tournament. I think it's really the best sporting event in existance. College Basketball has close finishes constantly. I won't be catching too much of the action with Maunday Thursday and Good Friday services. Here's my final four:
Keep in mind the Georgetown pick was mostly to stick it to my friend Lee the KU fan. More on the tourney later, back to work!

Quick Movie Recomendation

So I know I'm a little late to the party with this one, but I love the movie Once.

It's great. Good to watch alone, good to watch with a special someone, good to show to someone who disdains musicals (as I do). This is a "modern musical" almost anyone should be able to appreciate.

I won't give away the ending. Or how I felt about it. Ok, maybe a little. I was disappointed at first; but I came around

Once. See it. Buy the soundtrack.

A Brief Word

From Michael McIntyre in his message on Sunday:

Christians should either make people want to imitate them, or eliminate them.

Genius.

Shocking Article

Here is an article I saw on Yahoo a day or two ago. The headline: Study finds 1 in 4 US teens has a STD

Wow.
Some of the article talked about how we educate young students in America, and I know this opens up a whole can of worms over abstinence based curriculum, whether condoms should be available at school, etc. Check out the following:

"Those numbers are certainly alarming," said sex education expert Nora Gelperin, who works with a teen-written Web site called sexetc.org. She said they reflect "the sad state of sex education in our country."

"Sexuality is still a very taboo subject in our society," she said. "Teens tell us that they can't make decisions in the dark and that adults aren't properly preparing them to make responsible decisions."

Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said the study shows that "the national policy of promoting abstinence-only programs is a $1.5 billion failure, and teenage girls are paying the real price."

The article says that of the approximately 26% of the adolescents 18% of that was HPV. Now, this is a new thing since I was educated in high school. We didn't learn about HPV, so I'm going to do a little research. But this article makes me so sad for the following reasons:

-First and foremost, for all those young women.
-I am not doing enough to help equip the students and parents in the church community to deal with the issues of sexuality. I must stare this fact in the face.
-We cannot depend on the public school systems to educate our kids in areas of moral decisions. The schools can give them information, but they can't teach them what is right. We must also stare this fact in the face.
-When students are making poor choices, Planned Parenthood does a better job at being accessible to students than the church.
-To me this article points to the human condition that makes us feel entitled to choose our course of action without the reality of consequences.

After reading this article the other day, I get in my car on the way home and turn on the radio. What do I hear? "Love in this Club" by Usher and Young Jeezy. Which is currently #1 after only 3 weeks on the Hot 100 charts. Lets sample the chorus shall we? As with most modern hip hop songs, it drones on "I wanna make love in this club". Hhhmmm...So the gest of the song is, Usher arrives at a evening hours establishment, sees "miss shorty" on the otherside of the club, finds her most desirable, and then the verse rapped by Young Jeezy confesses to want to "bag her like some groceries". If you're really interested, and don't mind some vulgar words, you can read the lyrics in their entirety here.

Now, am I saying that music is to blame? No, not yet. Although the older I get the more I am tempted to jump on that wagon with the rest of the Focus of the Family folks. But we have to let students know that the messages they are hearing from Z107-7, reading in Cosmo, and seeing on The Girls Next Doorare bankrupt and that is not how life works. Man, I feel old.

Forgiveness and Reconciliation

Here is a great article.

Trouble Makers

Acts 17: 6-7: But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some other brothers before the city officials, shouting: "These men who have caused trouble all over the world have now come here, 7and Jason has welcomed them into his house. They are all defying Caesar's decrees, saying that there is another king, one called Jesus.

I think this is so cool. The early Christians, causing a ruckus wherever they went because of what they were claiming. I know it is a big thing right now to talk about "vintage" Christianity, but that's because it's true! I mean, when was the last time we were infamous because of the "trouble" they were causing by proclaiming God's Kingdom over the ways of the world?

Quick Update

What up!?

I was on a good roll there with the posts for a while, but the streak was interrputed by my church moving facilities (!)

So I'm currently typing this from my new office (!)

More soon, hopefully. Pics too!

WalChurch or ChurchGreens, neither is very catchy

My church is on the virge of completing our new facility. We'll be moving next week, and indeed, already are to some degree.

Across the street from our current building, there's all sorts of new construction, and in passing by I asked my friend what was going in: "A Walgreens from what I understand."

My scoffing reation was that we already had 7 Walgreens around, see:


View Larger Map


Wikipedia says this:

"There are 6,179 Walgreens (as of January 31, 2008[2]) in operation with a current goal to have 7,000 stores by 2010...In its current business model, new Walgreens locations are most commonly set up as freestanding locations at the corners of busy, intersecting streets -- literally making it a "corner drugstore"

Well that is exactly what they're doing. In fact two of the Walgreens very close to me are actually replacing existing walgreens that were located in a strip mall. Walgreens has bought property literally a stone's throw away from the current store, demolished an older building, and built a new store.

To me this seems sort of silly, especially when you see the big mess being made and the sign hanging up in the store window that says "We're moving" and they're really only moving about 70 yards.

So it got me thinking: I wonder if this is how some people feel about my church moving?

Is "Do we really need another Walgreens?" equivalent to "Do we really need another church?"

Sharks With Freaking Laser Beams Attached to Their Heads!

So, this article came across google today:

"Material Could Repel Laser Attacks"

From the article:

"If you have a ship being hit by a laser, and it was made of this metamaterial, you could reflect the laser beam," said Simin Feng, one of the study co-authors and a researcher at China Lake.

Whoa whoa whoa, WE HAVE LASER GUNS!!?!?!?!? WHY DIDN'T ANYONE TELL ME

The Kingdomf of God > Post 5 (Last one Daniel, I promise)

8. The Kingdom of God is a Mystery

Luke 17: 20 & 21: Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, "The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, 'Here it is,' or 'There it is,' because the kingdom of God is within you."

Here we see Jesus being asked a very specific, concrete question by the Pharisees, and Jesus answers their question on a higher level. Perhaps the Pharisees were trying to trap Jesus into saying something they could convict him with. We need to keep in mind that the first century Jewish expectation of the Messiah was a very literal Kingdom. The Jews were expecting governance: a social, economic, and political delivery from their enemies and for the once mighty nation-state of Israel under King David to physically become a Kingdom again. But that is not what Jesus delivered. He came to announce a Kingdom bubbling up from the past, available now, and extending into the future. A Kingdom “not of this world” a Kingdom that somehow is within those who follow him and love his Father.

It is towards this end that we pray as Jesus taught us: Your Kingdom come, your will be done, on Earth as it is in heaven. I have done my best to discuss the many facets of this one small part of the Lord’s prayer that:
• The Kingdom is born out of love
• The Kingdom is essential
• The Kingdom is counter-intuitive
• The Kingdom is at once past, present, and future
• The Kingdom is total
• The Church must embody the Kingdom, and Christianity can actually oppose the work on the Kingdom

But all my words and quotes from other authors are but a drop in the bucket. The Kingdom of God as revealed by scripture and through the holy spirit to us personally is something that cannot be summed up by a single sermon or even a lifetime of searching. The Kingdom of God defies a singular classification, it is very much a mystery- we don’t exactly know how it works; yet we can feel its impact in every aspect of life. I don’t think it is a coincidence that Jesus talks so much about seeds or plants or things that grow. Consider the parable of the sower:

Mark 4: 1-8: Again Jesus began to teach by the lake. The crowd that gathered around him was so large that he got into a boat and sat in it out on the lake, while all the people were along the shore at the water's edge. He taught them many things by parables, and in his teaching said: "Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, multiplying thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times."

The seed growing into a plant is something that on the surface is so familiar to us- if you haven’t personally then maybe you can remember your kids coming home with a Styrofoam cup full of dirt with a seed in it. We see the diagrams in our science textbooks and we think we get it. But do we really? Do we really know what makes the seed grow? It is like this with the Kingdom of God- all we can do is try our best to make ourselves and our church “good soil” and keep sowing the seed of the Kingdom to the world around us. But the growing of that seed is still very much a mystery. I pray that this weekend tills the soil of your heart. I pray that we can all work together to better understand and more faithfully pray and live the Lord’s prayer. I pray for God’s will to be done through our church for our immediate community and beyond. I pray for God to reveal to us the mysteries of his love as he sees fit. Lord, your Kingdom come, your will be done, on Earth as it is in heaven. Amen.

Well, there it is. I hopefully said some things not all of you agree with, so lemme hear what you got!

05.02.08

The Kingdom of God > Post 5

7. The Kingdom of God must be embodied by the church; but Christianity can also oppose the work of The Kingdom.

We then embody this Kingdom as a collection of individuals- the Church as Christ’s body here on Earth. Pastor Michael talked about this just last Sunday, using Paul’s beautiful description from 1 Corinthians. We as a church must stand in opposition to the ways of the world as we ask God’s will to be done and his Kingdom to come. Let me again quote from Schaeffer’s “How Shall We Then Live?” In this chapter he is discussing the decline of the influence (and even commitment) of the church in society:

“As the more Christian-dominated consensus weakened, the majority of people adopted two impoverished values: personal peace and affluence. Personal peace means just to be let alone, not to be troubled by the troubles of other people, whether across the world or across the city- to live one’s life with minimal possibilities of being personally disturbed. Personal peace means wanting to have my personal life pattern undisturbed in my lifetime, regardless of what the result will be in the lifetimes of my children and grandchildren. Affluence means an overwhelming and ever-increasing prosperity- a life made up of things, things, and more things- a success judged by an ever-higher level of material abundance.” (Schaeffer, How Shall We Then Live?, Chapter 11)

Schaeffer wrote this in 1976. This amazes me in part, but I’m also not too surprised because these are not “new” problems. I believe he’s hit the nail on the head. In our American culture, especially in West County, personal peace and affluence are the idols our culture worships. Again, as the church we are to embody the alternative to this way of the world with the Kingdom of God. Personal peace- we don’t want to be troubled by the troubles of other people, whether across the world or across the city. Think about what sets us off- famines and AIDS in Africa, oh that’s sad. Gas at $3 per gallon, that’s an outrage! Do you think it’s any coincidence that Metro Link doesn’t run out further west? We don’t want “those people” out here! Our children attend some of the best schools in the state, meanwhile only 17 miles away the St. Louis school district is in such a sad state it has been taken over by the state of Missouri and is currently considering closing some schools. The Kingdom of God beckons us not to just ignore these problems, or merely be thankful that we’re not facing them; we’re called to be agents of change, to see God’s will being done SPECIFICALLY outside of our church community.

The other idol Schaeffer describes is affluence. I know everyone’s most hated sermon topic is money, but Jesus sure talks a lot about it. Again, this is not a new problem: Mark 10: 23: Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!" Ouch! Jesus teaches us that we should not run after material things as the pagans do, and that ultimately we cannot claim to be in the Kingdom of God yet still have a foot in the world: Luke 16: 13: “No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money." So we as the church cannot measure “success” on purely economic terms as the world does. We must reject the notion that things bring happiness. Now, understand that I typed this sermon on a laptop and I listen to iPods and just registered at target and bed bath & beyond. However, I must refuse to allow myself to be deluded into thinking that the stuff is where life’s worth is found. I registered for kitchen items- but it’s the meals I share and relationships forged in my kitchen that matter, not what brand of knives I’m using.

The problem is not that comfort and possessions are problems in and of themselves, but that excessive desires of personal peace and affluence come at the expense of others. The problem is with putting your will above God’s. Our culture teaches us that we are somehow entitled to whatever we decide we want- like the child who learned the concept of “mine” only now that child has an American Express card and a resume. So the church has to stand and proclaim that we seek first the Kingdom of God, and that means our personal peace and affluence will be most certainly be disturbed in challenging to the ways of the world.

However, there are many streams of Christianity who have become strange bedfellows with the ways of the world. Try this sometime. Go to Borders or Barnes and Noble. Get a Tony Robbins or Donald Trump book about self-motivation. Then go get one of Joel Osteen’s books, or another big Christian author, and try and determine any real difference. There isn’t one. My friends Christianity as an “organized religion” can actually oppose the work of the Kingdom of God. One of these manifestations is called the Prosperity Gospel. The prosperity gospel says that Jesus wants you to have everything you could ever dream of- a big ol house, a boat, and even a benz! It equates happiness to material comforts: Name it and claim it, health and wealth. They have hijacked the gospel and made it just another means of telling people what they want to hear with a little Jesus for good measure. Book titles like “Your Best Life Now” or “Become a Better You” give us a clue to the prosperity gospel- it’s all about you. If nothing else, we have gone to great lengths to show that the Lord’s prayer orientates us as secondary to God, the focus is definitely not on us!

The church must be different from the way of the world around it. How are we to witness to an alternative way of life in the Kingdom of God if our lives our no different? If it is impossible to tell any real difference in the lives of two neighbors one Christian, one not, what’s the point?

In the same way the church cannot simply exist for itself. The whole point of the Kingdom of God is to advance, Jesus tells parables about servants being entrusted with the master’s property, and the master expects them to be used shrewdly:

Matthew 25: 14-30: "Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. To one he gave five talents[a] of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. The man who had received the five talents went at once and put his money to work and gained five more. So also, the one with the two talents gained two more. But the man who had received the one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money."After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. The man who had received the five talents brought the other five. 'Master,' he said, 'you entrusted me with five talents. See, I have gained five more.'
"His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!' "The man with the two talents also came. 'Master,' he said, 'you entrusted me with two talents; see, I have gained two more.' "His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!' "Then the man who had received the one talent came. 'Master,' he said, 'I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.' "His master replied, 'You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest. "'Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents. For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'

The church must be instrumental in advancing the Kingdom of God in the face of personal peace and affluence, and sometimes this will mean righting itself and its members for the sake of the call of Jesus to share the good news.

Genius!

The Kingdomf of God > Post 4

6. The Kingdom is total.

In praying “Thy Kingdom Come thy will by will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven” we are asking God to do a profound thing. Thus, the Kingdom of God should invade every area of our lives- “a personal and social obligation: make thy kingdom come through me.”
We already heard Jesus telling us to seek first the Kingdom, again he tells us that it is worth forsaking all else:

Matthew 13: 44: "The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.”

The Kingdom of God then becomes the lens through which we view everything else. It is a complete vision for life. We can re-orientate ourselves socially, spiritually, economically, and politically. As Americans we are taught that we can separate our lives in to different sections, a compartmentalization of the different arenas of life. A presidential race illustrates this issue of privatizing and divorcing faith as it’s played out in the public eye. In a recent msnbc.com article, the faith of different presidential candidates was discussed with Mitt Romney being the focus as a Mormon. The article stated: “Religion has not played so prominent a role in a U.S. national election since 1960, when John F. Kennedy became the first Catholic to be elected president. And it’s not only Romney under scrutiny. All the Democratic and Republican presidential hopefuls have been grilled on their religious beliefs.” Now, the article is obviously a couple months old as Romney has dropped out of the race. But a little further into it Rudi Guiliani’s Catholic upbringing was brought up, and it was noted that the former Mayor claimed “one’s relationship with God is a private matter.” I believe Mr. Guiliani is mistaken, and I think it’s odd that this issue of faith lived out in public is highlighted almost exclusively in election years.

Your faith should give shape to everything else- your priorities, your decisions, the way you participate in the relationships; everything in total. When we chop up our lives into unrelated pieces, we’re left without a consistent way to allow God to shape us in all the different aspects of life, since we limit his presence to just a private faith or just a couple hours on Sunday. If you’re beliefs ARE NOT driving your work life, family life, financial life, and political life then I’m afraid you have are the product of a shallow understanding of what it means to fully be in the Kingdom of God. Now consider that sentence a case in point. Did you find it odd that the word “life” followed so many sectors of existence? I do. We even talk like this at church sometimes- with our prayer life, devotional life, or our spiritual life. The problem is we’ve got ourselves living so many lives! The Kingdom of God is the foundation for our whole LIFE; singular, not plural. Professor of Philosophy at USC and acclaimed author Dallas Willard says this in his book “The Divine Conspiracy”:

“(the) Kingdom is not something confined to (our) hearts or to the “inner” world of human consciousness. It is not some matter of inner attitude or faith that might be totally disconnected from the public, behavioral, visible world. It always pervades and governs the whole of the physical universe…So when Jesus directs us to pray, “Thy Kingdom come,” he does not mean we should pray for it to come into existence. Rather, we pray for it to take over at all points in the personal, social, and political order where it is now excluded: “On earth as it is in heaven.” With this prayer we are invoking it, as in faith we are acting it, into the real world of our daily existence.” (Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy, Chapter 1)”

Now it’s easy for me to sit up here and quote these books most of you would never want to read, and we can all nod while I try to impress you with some big word or thick theological concept. But what am I trying to say? What does this REALLY look like? What do I REALLY mean? We’ve discussed how the Kingdom is counterintuitive to us and opposed to the ways of the world. To illustrate how the Kingdom of God is total let me again use an experience with my wonderful bride-to-be.

When it came time to look for engagement rings, it was quite exciting. But as a young man fresh out of school with some debt; a brotha was on a budget. Well, to be honest if I would have been on a budget I would have been in much better shape, but the point is I didn’t have a ton of money to spend on a fat rock to put on Sarah’s finger. The pressure on young men to buy their ladies an elaborate ring is tremendous. Some of you may feel the same pressure in buying jewelry for other occasions; the expectations don’t get any easier! You guys know the slogans- “every kiss begins with Kay”, the Shane Co. commercials on the Radio (“now you have a friend in the diamond business”), the old DeBeers theme song, I could go on. Also, you need to know that thanks to the magic of the Internet many girls have been designing their dream rings online since high school! Ultimately, the message that is communicated is that your love for your bride is directly proportional to the amount of money you spend on the ring, because after all, a diamond is forever. You see the world wants you to literally buy in to the idea that your fiscal investment is equivalent to your commitment. Well, this is complete and utter crap. My financial investment is not equivalent to my investing in a relationship with Sarah, because I’m not “investing” in Sarah. You “invest” in something to get something in return at a higher rate! We do see Jesus using this imagery in parables, but I don’t view Sarah and I’s relationship in economic terms, and this is what I mean: My sole reason for being with Sarah is not for what is in it for me. My motivation is to love her for her sake, not because I secretly just want attention from a beautiful woman. Now, do I get that anyway? Of course! But my primary motivation is love, not investment. You see as a part of the Kingdom of God, I understand that the amount of money I spend on Sarah’s ring does not determine the worth of our relationship. I am not validated by how much money I spend. I am validated by being created in the image of God and by Jesus Christ dying for me so I can live for him and his Kingdom. Luckily I have been blessed to be in a life-altering relationship with a woman who believes the same- neither of us could be with the other unless they believed that. Almost as luckily, I’m blessed with a beautiful and dainty woman- who has small fingers so even a small rock looks big!

My friends we have to let the Kingdom of God inform our understanding of what is important and what is worthwhile. Anything outside of the Kingdom of God will only lead to despair. We must give our total selves over to living and serving in the Kingdom of God, in all aspects of our life- when we seek first the Kingdom of God, all the other things will take care of themselves. Let me close with the words of one of my favorite authors Francis A. Schaeffer from his book “How Shall We Then Live?”:

“As Christians, we are not only to know the right world view, the world view that tells us the truth of what is, but consciously to act upon that world view so as to influence society in all its parts and facets across the whole spectrum of life, as much as we can to the extent of our individual and collective ability.” (Francis A. Schaeffer, How Shall We Then Live?, pg 256)