Nothing in Common

Posted on January 11, 2010 by Robert Franklin

[picapp align=”left” wrap=”true” link=”term=ghandi&iid=3283145″ src=”c/0/b/8/A_fun_runner_2526.jpg?adImageId=8924575&imageId=3283145″ width=”380″ height=”583″ /]The power of religion makes Jesus about as accessible as an alien from another galaxy. In fact, most “Christian” religions teach Jesus in such a manner as to make him into “a little green man.” Jesus made water into wine, walked on water, calmed the raging waters; who can relate to that? The religions that don’t at least lean toward “E.T.” strip Jesus of his Diety of completely, recreating him in the image of Mahatma Gandhi.

The gospel writers, and subsequently the early church Fathers, fought ferociously for the teaching of the tension of a man with whom every human could relate and the God who loved us so much “he gave.” Fully God, fully man. Fully vulnerable, fully sovereign. Fully obedient, fully self-determined. This foundational assertion is a great challenge to perpetuate because it makes no sense. How can Jesus be just like me and do all the things he did?

The oft taught story of the “temptation of the Christ” is one of many examples in the gospels of this unvarnished contradiction of terms: God-man. Jesus, creator of all humans may discover as life-sustaining, became hungry. Jesus, the authority by which the universe came into existence through the spoken word, became powerless. Jesus, the “insider” of souls, looked at the mirror into his own heart.

His hunger satisfied by God’s word, his authority submitted to his Father, his heart bowed in worship to the Sovereign of the Universe, Jesus was fully us and fully what we must be.

This life is mystical, spiritual, practical, difficult, empowering, subservient, much more and entirely real.

My friends at Main Street will be talking about this on Sunday.

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Feeling Worthless

Posted on January 8, 2010 by Robert Franklin

[picapp align=”right” wrap=”true” link=”term=worth&iid=175814″ src=”0172/f1c91276-dabb-4ad6-a689-f468004e4013.jpg?adImageId=8861712&imageId=175814″ width=”234″ height=”156″ /]Whatever the future holds, it is likely to prove impossible to restore in full the sanctity of life view. The philosophical foundations of this view have been knocked asunder. We can no longer base our ethics on the idea that human beings are a special form of creation, made in the image of God, singled out from all other animals, and alone possessing an immortal soul. Homo sapiens endows its life with some unique, almost infinite value? Dr. Peter Singer, PhD. In Pediatrics, ‘Sanctity of life or quality of life?’, 72(1):128–9, July, 1983

I remember when this article first was published. I ran across it again this morning. The content of Dr. Singer’s assertion has been reprinted again and again in the past quarter century. We may not be “progressing” as quickly as the Princeton professor predicted, but we are continuing the slog toward deciding that humanity is nothing really special after all. Homo sapiens is just one grouping of many biological anomalies, an expression of the infinite possibilities of an arbitrary combination of “animate” elements.

American culture makes a show of continuing to argue the philosophical merits of Dr. Singer’s statement while simultaneously behaving as if it believes every word. While we decry the senseless loss of life due to military and terrorist activities, our country terminates somewhere between 1,300,000 and 1,400,000 pregnancies each year through surgical and chemical abortion. (The estimate is somewhere between 30,000,000 and 50,000,000 abortion terminated pregnancies worldwide.)  Abortion is among the most common surgical procedures practiced in the United States and termination of a potential person may described in the same terms as the removal of intestinal polyp.

From my office window I can see the sun reflect off the crystalline blanket the clouds pulled over the ground last night and I wonder if my ability to feel something we call appreciation and wonder is worthwhile at all. If all I am is a piece of livestock, consuming the resources available to me and producing waste byproducts then what? Furthermore, why should I care what Dr. Singer or anyone else says? We are all just heads of wheat readying for the death of the harvest.

“I am nothing—how could I ever find the answers? I will cover my mouth with my hand. I have said too much already. I have nothing more to say.” (Job 40:4-5, NLT)

“He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying, “As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.” I will tell of the decree: The Lord said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you.“ (Psalm 2:4-7, ESV)


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To Give an Offense

Posted on January 6, 2010 by Robert Franklin

[picapp align=”left” wrap=”true” link=”term=eating&iid=7386012″ src=”9/b/0/a/Indonesian_Tree_Man_50bd.jpg?adImageId=8819663&imageId=7386012″ width=”234″ height=”156″ /]Grace that reflects the power and presence of the Holy Spirit is simultaneously strong and sensitive.  Long before “political correctness” became a catch phrase, there stood a Biblical command to exercise freedom in love.

The particular issue was what was religiously ok to eat.  Jesus had been clear in his teaching, “It is not what enters into the mouth that defiles the man, but what proceeds out of the mouth…”  Some in the early church, however, thought it best to keep the extreme letter of the Jewish dietary laws. Some thought it best to keep the spirit of the Jewish dietary law.  Some thought it best to eat whatever so long as it had not be slaughtered as an offering at the pagan temples.  Some thought that if a Christian were hungry and food was available, “Eat.”

Naturally conflict ensued as to who was “right.”  The solution offered, “The fellowship of grace.”  According to Paul, grace is sufficient for the brother who would eat whatever to abstain, even go hungry, so as to not cause a family member to stumble.  Grace is sufficient for an abstainer to refrain from judging the food libertarian even if the abstainer would rather go hungry than be satisfied by unclean foods. 

Grace allowed both extremes and the “moderates” in between to keep their focus on what is important: righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit toward the end of serving Jesus through fellowship with those he was crucified to save.

This kind of grace effort is lacking in the church today.  It would be wise for us to seek to do our best to obediently implement grace back into our everyday practice.

Therefore do not let what is for you a good thing be spoken of as evil; for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.  For he who in this way serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. (Romans 14.16-18, NASB95)

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Avatar: Thoughts on a Movie

Posted on January 5, 2010 by Robert Franklin

[picapp align=”center” wrap=”false” link=”term=avatar&iid=7401526″ src=”5/0/1/a/Premiere_Of_20th_8908.jpg?adImageId=8800732&imageId=7401526″ width=”380″ height=”253″ /]

Every so often a movie is released that has such a force behind it that it is readily apparent that the entire Western culture will be significantly impacted as a result. Avatar is one such movie. I witnessed the digitally projected 3D version and can honestly say it was the most visually stunning film I have ever seen. Avatar will, of course, set the new standard for the 3D experience and for computer generated image filmmaking. It was impossible to separate the computer generated image from the traditionally filmed image. During scenes generated completely from a desk in a studio, my mind still had difficulty discerning experienced landscapes from imagined ones. It was like travelling to another planet.

Avatar was also one of the most offensive movies I have seen in a while. I have long been a fan and consumer of science fiction and understand the genre well enough. Social commentary from science fiction writers is not only to be expected, but perhaps it should even be encouraged. A science fiction writer has unique freedoms to express a viewpoint or an agenda by placing current or historical social problems or situations in an imaginary culture or in an imaginary galaxy or in an imaginary time. That freedom is utilized in nearly all science fiction. James Cameron seems to have combined his quarter billion dollar (+) budget to a hyperactive desire to have his say about what is going on in the world. Much of what was proclaimed from his cinematic soapbox I found disturbing or (in the end) mundane even in the cases where I agreed or could concede his point.

The procurement and use of natural resources, justification for terrorism, the use of the military and military mercenaries, the status of the health care system, the use of cloning technology, the treatment of indigenous peoples, the arrogance of the “culture conquerors,” the spiritual value of nature, the efficacy of prayer, life after death, the limitations of scientific knowledge versus the experience of faith, the interests of the corporate giant profit hungry shareholders, Vietnam, ancestor worship, ecstatic-communal worship, goddess worship, and marriage plus whatever I couldn’t catch because I was on “agenda overload” were all addressed in Avatar in a little under three hours.

With so much social commentary flying by so quickly, I really expected to see some sort of novel conclusion to the storyline, but it was the same old end: violence. The hero of the story with the help of Pandora’s nature goddess (who finally steps in to protect the “balance of life”) is able to exert more violent force than the blue-eyed fair-skinned aggressor.

Bummer.

Since the hero is presented as a messianic type, I half-hoped that he would complete his quest by sacrificing himself for the salvation of those he learned to love and respect. It didn’t happen, but “hero” did experience resurrection (by transference) and he did get the girl in the end which is much more emotionally satisfying than what happened in the last Cameron epic.

People will be talking about this movie for years to come. I just pray that the conversation will be substantive because the issues Cameron tackles in the movie are issues deserving of careful consideration and wise action and definitely not the musings of a much too easily entertained populace.

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Taking a Bath with My Clothes On

Posted on January 4, 2010 by Robert Franklin

[picapp align=”center” wrap=”false” link=”term=baptism&iid=2569318″ src=”9/0/1/e/Mexico_Prison_Wedding_ced5.jpg?adImageId=8796130&imageId=2569318″ width=”380″ height=”261″ /]

Why we continue the silly practice of adult baptism is one of the most common questions I deal with as a pastor.
“Gather ’round we are going celebrate getting this individual wet, and I mean all wet.” It would be a semi-tragedy to immerse a fully clothed individual pool-side in the depths of summer. How about January 3rd, 23 degrees Fahrenheit?

I have been told by more than one person that being a follower of Jesus is just fine but there is no way that baptism is going to be part of that “followship.” After all, whose idea was this anyway?

It appears the practice of baptism originates sometime near the day when humans discovered that water washes dirt off. Practical cleansing soon became metaphorical and adherents of many different religious constructs incorporated some type of baptismal practice into their orthodoxy. Washing with water became a symbol for inner cleansing of all sort of ills.

Such was the case during Jesus’ life. His cousin, John (“the Baptist”), preached the need for repentance; a turning from self-will and submission to the rule of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. When the hearts of the hearers were convinced of the need to make a change, they publicly “cleansed themselves” using whatever body of water John preached near. The action was an outward confession of an inward resolution.

Jesus was baptized. The Bible says that he had nothing to repent, but he did have righteousness to fulfill. Jesus publicly identified himself not only as a follower of the God his cousin preached but also identified himself with the sinners who came to confess. Powerful!

To his followers Jesus said to continue this baptism practice. As with everything else, Jesus infused a deeper meaning to the experience. Rather than be a confession of a desire to repent or to change, baptism now is a testimony of death to a person’s self-will, burial of all the world holds dear and the resurrection of a new person created anew by the resurrected Christ. It is an outward confession of an inward reality.

My friends at Main Street will be considering this idea this upcoming Sunday.

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Joy Above, Below and In-between

Posted on December 30, 2009 by Robert Franklin

“Pay attention, O Jacob, for you are my servant, O Israel. I, the Lord, made you, and I will not forget you. I have swept away your sins like a cloud. I have scattered your offenses like the morning mist. Oh, return to me, for I have paid the price to set you free.” Sing, O heavens, for the Lord has done this wondrous thing. Shout for joy, O depths of the earth! Break into song, O mountains and forests and every tree! For the Lord has redeemed Jacob and is glorified in Israel.” (Isaiah 44:21-23, NLT)

[picapp align=”right” wrap=”true” link=”term=joy&iid=5244646″ src=”a/5/4/d/two_young_children_b396.jpg?adImageId=8730976&imageId=5244646″ width=”234″ height=”234″ /]Jesus tells his followers that heaven rejoices over one sinner who repents.  This should not have been news to the Jew of Jesus’ day.  Hundreds of years before, the prophet Isaiah records the melody of joy over God’s redemptive work in Israel.

The whole forty-fourth chapter of Isaiah is worth reading again and again.  This portion is particularly mind-boggling.  God declares what he will do before Israel responds to him.  Creation is called upon to sing loudly “Joy” in the heavens, under the land and in all the geography in-between.

If the earth does indeed groan under the weight of our sin as the apostle Paul wrote, how much more does it rejoice at the grace and mercy of God applied to an undeserving people?

Joy for difficult days, thanks be to God! 

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