October 16th 2008

I heard a great sermon last Sunday preached by Jack Wisdom.  Essentially he was reminding people of Jesus' most famous sermon, the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7).  About midway through the sermon (as Matthew recounts it), Jesus' thoughts turn to money and wealth. 

I don't recall how Jack translated it--he was working from the Greek--but let me approximate it. 

 "Don't treasure up for yourselves treasure on earth, where moths consume, rust corrodes, and thieves can break in and steal what you have.  Instead treasure up for yourselves treasure in heaven, where moths can't consume, rust can't corrode, and thieves can't break in and steal.  For where your treasure is, there is your heart." (Matthew 6:19-21)

Now that the stock market has lost about 40% of its value--a value that amounts to about twice the GDP of China--a lot of Americans are learning this lesson again.  Our trust has been in our 401Ks.  Our future has been in annuities and the government.   Now millions are much poorer.  Here on earth, Jesus said, whatever we treasure can vanish without warning. 

Notice that Jesus didn't say don't treasure up FOR YOURSELVES.  There's no moral problem with treasuring up for yourselves.  It's expected and accepted by God that we will do that.  There may a moral problem if that is our ultimate and only concern.  The problem Jesus identifies is more practical.  If you treaure up here on earth, you can be left with nothing.  You can work all of your lives and be left with nothing.  But, if you treasure up in heaven, no value is ever lost.  God's economy is always sound. 

So where is your hope portfolio invested?  As Jack said, the bottom line is this.  When it comes to hope, you don't need a diversified hope portfolio.

By the way, if you want to know how to invest in heaven, read the rest of the Sermon on the Mount.  It's a lot more exciting than any prospectus I've ever seen!

October 11th 2008

My last post consisted of some of my own frustrations and reflections on an email I received asking whether Sarah Palin is qualified to be Vice President.  The email was sent to me by a person on the left.  I noted I had received the same message from someone on the right.  Both had urged me to go to PBS and express my opinion.

I was amazed at the responses I received.  I decided to approve just about every comment that came in because they demonstrated the point I was trying to make. 

The level of anger, hatred and disrespect currently on view in blogs and on talk radio (conservative and liberal) demonstrates that we are at a dangerous place in our history.  Jesus said that a house divided cannot stand.  I believe him.   Jesus urged his followers to love their enemies (political and otherwise) and to pray for their opponents.  I'd like to see more praying, more loving and less loathing and criticizing.  If you truly consider yourself a follower of Jesus, you must take seriously his teachings whether you are from a red state or a blue state.  America is a great nation but it cannot stand if we continue this mutual loathing. 

October 8th 2008

I received an email from an acquaintance I made a few years ago.  (The names are changed to protect the innocent!)  He/she is forwarding an email and website and urging his/her co-religionists to vote on whether Sarah Palin is qualified or not to be Vice President?

I have received this same email from friends on the right and on the left.  Both urging me to action.  But I've done nothing. 

I find the whole thing irrelevant and illogical. 

Sarah Palin is the Republican vice-presidential candidate whether people like it or not.  She is deemed qualified by her party and the Constitution (I wonder whether that matters).  I received a similar email from a conservative friend questioning whether Obama is qualified noting that PBS is not asking us to vote on that.  He certainly would say "not at all!"

We can vote, indeed we will vote on that in November when hopefully everyone--not just those on someone's email list--go to the polls. 

Ultimately, what people who go to PBS sites (whether right- or left-wing) think is irrelevant to what will happen on election day.  The fact that it is reported by PBS will be suspect with nearly half of the electorate who voted George Bush as president.  So no one will be convinced.  No one will be surprised.  Rather than spending our time doing this can we not think of something helpful?

The whole thing demonstrates how poorly we understand our common life, how much we loathe others who think differently, and how we think our side is the right side.  God help us!

You can go to the website and vote "yes" or "no."  It does not ultimately matter.  What matters is what you and I and about 150 million other Americans vote on election day.

The last thing we need is PBS saying their viewers think Sarah Palin is qualified.

Remington Steele

October 1st 2008

 

The Bible may be one of the most read and least understood books in the world.  One of the writers least understood is Saul of Tarsus, whom most of us know as Paul the apostle to the Gentiles.  On a regular basis people come up to me and ask me a question about Paul.  Most of those questions--though not all--are based on certain misconceptions or misreadings of his letters.  

A decade ago I spoke for a seminar here in Houston on Paul.  Before I spoke, one of the gentlemen at table with me said: "I hope you get Paul, that SOB ruined the Christian faith."   I tried to listen to his concerns but found that he, like a lot of people, had been fed a lot of bad information.  In the few minutes I had I couldn't undo the damage.  I don't think he liked what I had to say. 

The problem is not with Paul but with Paul's interpreters who have read him against the backdrop of their own guilt, their own introspective consciences (Krister Stendahl), and their own culture. They couldn't grasp the world in which Paul lived, the problems he faced, the ecstacies he experienced.  They insisted, wrongly I believe, that Paul answer to us and speak to us on our terms. 

In a few weeks I'm headed to a conference entitled Reclaiming Paul.  It will be held at a seminary in Kansas City.  The website, if you're interested is www.reclaimingpaul.org.  It's billed as "a conversation among emerging church leaders & biblical scholars, pastors & educators."  Michael Gorman, Andy Johnson, Tim Keel, Doug Pagitt will be some of the speakers.  The paper I'll present will be on my work for THE VOICE New Testament (published by Thomas Nelson) on the book of Romans. 

So far I've written three books on Paul.  I know a good bit about him, I suppose, but there is still much for me to learn.  So I'm going to listen, hopefully with humility.  I expect to agree with some and disagree with others.  But I want to insist that we all listen to Paul on his own terms and not on ours. 

If you know of others interested in Paul, please tell them about the conference.  I hope to see some of you there. 

September 26th 2008

I met an artist right before Hurricane Ike waylaid Houston.   He had a home on Galveston.  His studio was there too along with about 30 years of paintings he has done (except for those he had sold or given away).  As he went back to Galveston, he discovered it was all gone.  Every stick of furniture.  Every canvas.  Gone.  Washed out to sea. 

We've seen it before on television.  People who have lost so much being interviewed and saying, "well, at least we are OK, at least we have our health" or something like that.  Still there is a look of deep pain and loss.  We know intuitively what is going on though we may deny it.  Denial, of course, is a part of grief.

From the biblical point of view it's not just stuff.  It is a piece of our lives.  Our homes, our possessions, our art.  These represent our skill, our choices, our hard work.  They are a piece of us.  That's why it hurts so much.

An older generation of biblical scholars talked about a concept known as "corporate personality."  It is an important concept in the Hebrew Bible especially.  In fact, I'd argue that if you don't understand it you won't be able to understand much of what is going on in the text. Corporate personality is the notion that a person's life or vitality extends beyond themselves to include the people and things they possess.  In this sense, your stuff is a part of you.  Consider a artist who spends 3-4 weeks on a painting.  His ideas, his skill, his time have gone into this painting, time that he can never have back.  Consider a couple who love to work on their house.  Every month they have a different project.  They rip up carpet, install tile.  They renovate the kitchen.  They redo the bath.  They add a deck in the backyard.  Their money (earned by their skills and time), their effort, and their taste are reflected in the decor.  Soon this house is more than stuff, it is a piece of their lives . . . together. 

Denial may be a stage of grief that we must all go through.  You may say that all you lost is stuff and you'll be OK.   We may agree with that at some level.  But let's help one another move on to a deeper reality that understands that we are connected with our things, our families, our friends, our communities in beautiful and sometimes painful ways.  

For those who lost so much of yourselves in IKE I pray that God will help to restore you. 

May your kingdom come.