The View from the West Mesa

This is the fourth Sunday in Advent, a period when the Christian world anticipates the coming of our God in human flesh as a child. It is important to remember that if we claim to embrace this child, we must also prepare to embrace his cross. The reading for today is John 15.9-14: Even as the Father hath loved me, I also have loved you: abide ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full. This is my commandment, that ye love one another, even as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do the things which I command you. This passage has been somewhat challenging for me as I am not sure that people can be commanded to love. We can command behaviors, and so I can command you take out the trash, or wash the car, ...

Advent is that season marked by the four Sundays prior to Christmas (in the Western tradition). Normally associated with the coming of Christmas, the season can quickly lose its significance amidst the hubbub of the holiday season. Just as our larger society – and we too – allow the glitter, social, and commercial aspects of Christmas to overshadow the central spiritual aspects of the holy day, Advent has itself become more of a festive season, looking to a naturally exuberant birth of a new child. Advent though isn't all anticipatory of a celebratory birth but has mixed with it both the anticipation of the Second Coming, and somber reflection and self examination. Only the first reading (Jeremiah 33:14-16) for the First Sunday of Advent (Revised Common Lectionary, Year C) speaks to the birth of Jesus, doing so as the familiar Branch of David. Even this reading expands the purpose of this birth to include justice and righteousness and the enduring provision of someone to sit on th...

This Youtube video entitled "Encouragement" for obvious reasons. Published by the Foundation for Better Life, the idea is that we should encourage others so that we can all have better lives. So far so good, but there are other nuances in this commercial that may be more instructive for believers. The video shows a small boy plunking out "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" on a concert grand piano. Clearly, he isn't supposed to be on stage in front of this black-tie crowd. The crowd is nonplussed and somewhat incredulous that this kid would have dared to do this. After all, this isn't what they've paid to see and hear. Perhaps they have been hoodwinked and they don't like it. The kid's parents want to get him off that stage as soon as they can. The maestro strides on stage, coming up behind the kid who is still plunking. Reaching around the boy, the maestro says "keeping playing" and takes up the tune. The maestro's hands embellish a...

In most Evangelical circles, I suspect the initial answer to the question in the title would be “preach the Gospel.” After that though, we might hear someone offer the alternative of “relieve suffering.” While I suspect that the real answer is somewhere in the middle where both the spreading (not necessarily preaching as we understand it) of the Gospel, and relief of suffering together make up the mission – or the purpose of the church. It is true that the disciples were told to preach the Gospel, and Paul was specifically selected as the Apostle to the Gentiles. Paul, and either congregations or other Apostles sent other men to preach and establish the church throughout the known world. Preaching then is clearly a part of the church’s purpose. Preaching though is only a part, and cannot be said to be the primary purpose of the church. When Jesus told us what his mission was, he said it was to “proclaim the good news of the Kingdom of God, preaching relief to people.” After convincing ...

...continued.... This leads us to a second instructive aspect of this text. Jesus urges the disciples to stay awake and pray that they not fall into temptation. Then he moves away from them, leaving them to pray. What happens when the physical Jesus leaves their presence? When they lose sight of him, and they can no longer hear his voice, the disciples fall asleep. Rather than praying that God keep them from temptation, they succumb to it. Apparently they have full stomachs and they are tired and so taking a short nap while Jesus is off doing whatever it is he’s doing makes sense. The problem is that napping is not what Jesus had asked them to do, and it isn’t what he asks us to do. The disciples are to remain in prayer even when it is not apparent that Jesus is around. So are we. Scripture asks us in another place, “will God find faith on the earth when he returns,” asked in the context of prayer. Separate from whether prayer “works,” prayer is an indicator of our faith. If we believe...

This passage recounts our Lord’s agony in the garden. Having left his disciples in the garden with instructions to pray, he has moved away from them to speak with his Father. He returns at one point to find the disciples sleeping rather than praying, and he urges them to pray that they not fall into temptation. His own prayer takes the form of pleading, of searching, that there could be found some way that he would not need to endure the crucifixion. His last comment on the topic though, is that it should be the Father’s will that takes precedence rather than his own. There are two aspects of this passage which are instructive for us. The first is Jesus’ agony over the Father’s will. It is clear that Jesus does not want to go through being scourged and killed, and he is in agony or distress over his immediate future. Despite having come to this world knowing this was intended, despite sharing in the divine essence and will, despite knowing he would return to the Father, Jesus asks that...

Albuquerque's 2009 Balloon Fiesta came to an end this morning with winds too high for the mass ascension. Last evening's winds were also too high to conduct the Glow, but there were about twenty balloons that inflated before the winds proved too much. Here are some of the brave balloons being inflated. Had a good time with Ann, Cindy and Malia, Zach, Misty, and Sharon.

This past Sunday there occurred in Albuquerque a historic event. Oh, not quite as historic as putting people on the moon, or even overhauling the medical system in the most prosperous country on the planet, but historic in a minor sort of way. At three o'clock in the afternoon, and in loose cooperation with multiple other venues around the world, there was assembled members of three of the denominations originating in the American Restoration Movement. This is not the first time various members have "crossed the aisle" to worship with others, but it was the first worldwide intentional such undertaking. At the Montgomery Church of Christ, members and clergy of the Disciples of Christ, Independent Christian Churches, and Churches of Christ assembled for the express purpose of sharing communion with one another. The auditorium was comfortably full (estimates range from low-500s to about 600 attendees) when the service began with a review of Restoration Movement history by t...

On the same page (180) of The Spirit of Early Christian Thought, the author illustrates his earlier point by stating "In Christian speech a witness is not a reporter. The mother who talks to her child of Christ does not simply pass on what she has heard, she speaks about what she knows, the Word of Life." This statement has a myriad of implications for faith and for faith communities. We can only get one another to this point if we move beyond the expectation of learning objective facts of Scripture, and into the pursuit of knowing God; of experiencing and seeing His working in the world. If the church is losing members, it isn't because we can't teach facts, it isn't because we can't create ministry opportunities, it isn't because people can't connect with others. It is because we do not encourage and expect one another to know God past the objective events of history. I am not talking about emotional stories in sermons, or even well-crafted worship s...

Am reading "The Spirit of Early Christian Thought" by Wilken. This is a very enjoyable read that seeks to describe the development of Christian dogmatic belief. There are two valuable passages on page 180. This post refers to the first, which reads ""It is...the things believed, not the act of believing them, which is peculiar to religion...." (quoting John Henry Newman). Faith isn't simply believing that something happened; that someone lived. Rather faith is believing the precepts, the implications, the values of the thing believed in . That last word is critical in understanding faith. We don't simply believe Jesus lived; we believe in the life He lived, the message he brought. We don't simply believe that we have memorized the message He brought - we actually believe it, we own it, it transforms us, it becomes us. In this way, the Christian faith is not a thing to be learned from a distance, but a way of life to be entered. Faith isn't the r...

Listening to Heard on Campus (available through iTunes) this week, the concept of convicted civility was mentioned to characterize the way in which committed Christians are supposed to view people of other faiths or no faith. As part of a discussion about Christian cross-denominational engagement of culture, the idea in such dialogue is not to abandon – or to ask others to abandon – the central tenets of yours or their faith. Rather, Christians are encouraged to own their faith and yet engage in dialogue with others without condemning or castigating others. It seems convicted civility is an excellent way to characterize the way Christians are called to engage non-Christians in discussions of faith, culture, and policy. This stands in stark contrast to some “calls to arms” we often hear from folks that often demonstrate textual knowledge but precious little understanding of the Faith as we are called to live it. While it is true that we can find such street corner haranguing in Scriptur...

We have just returned from Pepperdine where one of the treats is the few thousand folks singing a capella in the fieldhouse at the evening keynote. The fieldhouse at Pepperdine is a standard college gym with wooden bleachers on two sides and a wide main floor. During the evening events, it is common for folks to come in at various times between the hour-long pre-keynote singing session, or during the keynote hour, while the crowd continues to sing much like a church service. It was during this period of singing that a few middle-aged and older women came in, and having decided where they were going to sit, turned into the bleachers below me and headed up. One of these ladies had some not inconsiderable trouble with one of her legs - it just didn't seem to want to lift her foot over the next higher bleacher level. Her foot would hit the seat and she would resort to climbing the bleachers on all fours. It didn't take her long to reach my fourth or fifth-level and I reached out m...

I have come to enjoy APM's Speaking of Faith series. Here's another little gem from another of their podcasts... We all know the story of the Exodus, the crossing of the split-apart Red Sea on dry ground. The climax of that story comes when the Egyptian Army is engulfed and destroyed by the sea being released to collapse back upon itself. There is apparently a Midrashic story that says at the moment the Egyptian army was engulfed and it was clearly to be destroyed, that the angels in Heaven began singing and praising God for His deliverance of Israel. But God, instead of letting the praise continue, held up His hand and stopped the angels' singing. Why would He do that? The reason, given in the Midrash, is that God does not want rejoicing when creatures, made by His hands and at His command, suffer as did the Egyptians. I don't know if the Midrash says God sorrowed over their deaths, but He did not rejoice over it. God's value, God's care for the Creation is not...

Listiening to a Speaking of Faith podcast on Rumi, the following story was told: There is a statement in the Quran that goes something like this: "I have given you the reminder, and I will protect it." Spoken by God, this statement is routinely applied to the Quran itself. God has given us the Quran, and He will protect the Quran. One day, Rumi was sitting with his students/friends, and he recited this standard interpretation of the Quran statement. Then he said, while that is all well and good, there is another way to understand the phrase. The Reminder in Rumi's version is the desire to know God.   In Rumi's thinking apparently, there is no Original Sin, but rather a humanity that forgets who they and God are. Rumi's explanation of this Quranic passage addresses that theological point by tying together our forgetfulness, and God's implanting in us a drive, an urge that He will ensure remains, to remember. Hebrew Scripture tells us that we are ma...

My wife and I were lying in bed the other night when she commented that the brightness of the moon coming through the window was a wonderful Spring event and provided a pleasant calming effect at bedtime. As the window through which the light was coming was on my side of the bed, I observed that it wasn’t the moon, but a neighbor’s security light that was casting the radiance across our floor. At that, my wife said, “then close the blind; it’s too bright and will keep me awake.” There’s a saying in my profession and shared by many others that asserts “perception is reality.” There are even people who specialize in perception management. This is the idea that what others think about you becomes true in their minds, and we are able to modify their behaviors toward us by adjusting the perceptions they have of us. My wife’s mood and attitude changed solely on the basis of her perception of the source of the light. For the few minutes that the light was caused by a Spring moon, she e...

The following is (most of) a comment I received in response to the last post on Perception. I expected that the expression of the concept in such an open manner would cause some folks to think that reality is whatever I happen to think it is at the moment, I elected to post my comments without explanatory notes. Well, one of my friends from another site makes that very observation. That's a good thing because it prompts me to address some of the limits of perception in response to his comment. Below in standard font are his comments, and in italics are my responses. This gentleman is kind and knowledgeable in Scripture; I have no reason to question his faith, salvation, or commitment to God or Scripture. It is apparent though, that we do see things a bit differently perhaps. Of course, regular readers of this blog won't find that surprising.  “It appears that your "perception" of God and scripture is no different than many others. It may be different in wording or act...

Isaiah speaks of one who is a man of sorrows, and who is acquainted with grief. This phrase is often tied to Jesus' scourging and crucifixion. In fact, the notes in one of my study Bibles limit their commentary to these two closely-linked periods in the last days of Jesus' physical life. It seems though, that this phrase likely has a broader meaning including at least the disappointment and frustration experienced by Him as he moved to Jerusalem and lamented her reluctance to accept His welcome, shelter, and life. I suspect we could also extend the thought to Jesus' reaction to Martha and Mary after the death of Lazarus. Or perhaps when we're told that the people wander like sheep without a shepherd, we get a glimpse of the sorrow of God. It also occurs to me that if we follow our God as we say we do, we also should be people of sorrow, and acquainted with grief. If not our own, surely that of others. I speak here not of the mourning with others or of sharing sorrows wi...

Lauren Winner has written an appealing little book about how Judaism can influence Christian practice. Brought up Jewish, Winner has converted to Christianity. Her conversion though, hasn't wiped her memory of her Jewish background, or prevented her from determining where Jewish practice might well inform and deepen Christian practice. Written as a first-person account, the book isn't really biography as much as personal observation. One of her observations involves the Jewish use of a Mezuzah to mark a house or room as that of an observant Jew. She parlays that into re-using a junk sign affixed to her door to indicate to all passers-by that in her house lives a Christian. What might happen if believers took their faith from inside their homes to the trim of their homes? Might it embolden us to live lives outside that are more Christ like? Might it help us to become less afraid or self-conscious about our faith when speaking in public - assuming we could do so without being bel...