Monthly Archives: June 2011

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Rings and things with James and Nowitzki

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I sat mesmerized last night while I watched the Dallas Mavericks take down the Miami Heat in Game 6. Aside from the fact that Lebron James confidently claimed not not one, not two, but 8 future championships, I actually thought fielding (or maybe “courting” is a better word) a team comprising arguably the best (if not better when it comes to Chris Bosh) players in the NBA would serve as a recipe for success. And they achieved some success in some sense: getting to the Finals. However they, but primarily James, fell short of getting that elusive championship ring upon which athletes center their effort, as well as their hopes and dreams.
And on the other side of the court sat someone else-though Mav’s owner Mark Cuban hardly sits still during games-vying for that elusive ring as well. In addition, Dirk Nowitzki, spent his whole career trying to win a championship. And each will finally will get his ring. 
I wonder what it’s like for both parties today, the morning after.
For the losers: Sometimes in God’s grace he will not allow you to get something which has become an idol. Sometimes the Lord actually withholds things which seem so good to us (whether it be an NBA championship ring or wedding ring) because to give us something which seems good-but it has become an idol, the reason we live or die-may not be loving. Sometimes he wants to spare us from the inevitable result of making something or someone else an idol: divorce, depression, anger, disappointment, emptiness, etc….He doesn’t withhold anything good from those who walk with Him (Psalm 84:11). While I often fail to  believe this, God nevertheless proves this to me over and over.
For the winners: On the other hand, sometimes God may actually grant us the idol out of love. This sounds strange, but it can also be an act of love for the Lord to give us the desire of our hearts even when that desire is not healthy. For instance, if my main reason for living has become an NBA ring, wedding ring, or ring like Gollum’s, then God may in His goodness grant that. Yet I will then soon be sorely disappointed that the ring didn’t fill the God-shaped hole in my heart. I will eventually turn back to him for the first or the hundredth time.
How many of us have thought if I could just be married (I did), if I could just have a kid (I did), if I could just get a job (I did) that it would be well with our souls? Then we got those things, and those things left us empty, only to pursue something, although ideally Someone else. In love, I think God may sometimes grant us those things, in order for us to see the true emptiness in those things, and run to Him instead. 
Unfortunately many of the things/people we’ve sought and found have become to us empty wells. But instead of turning to Jesus, we turn to someone/something else. That’s often why folks want to divorce: the other person, as advertised in scripture, has become an empty well no longer producing the respect, love, importance, power which we demanded. But in God’s grace we’ve received that idol, so that we can see the emptiness, and return to the spring of living water. 

I do hope that Lebron either never gets that ring, or that he does (although not 8 times over!), and he realizes how the hole in his heart is not ring-shaped but God-shaped.

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Baptism thoughts

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This past Sunday, my 8 month old Cade, now free of chicken pox, received the covenant sign of baptism. We took my three year old boy Connar out of the nursery so that he could be a part of it. During the prayer he asked if he could put water on Cade’s head too. Nice.
He expressed a desire to be a part of Cade’s baptism from the get-go, even telling random people Cade would be getting baptized. His desire to play an active role in Cade’s baptism is admirable. And playing in active role after baptism is quite attainable, yet often over-looked.
One of my favorite parts of the baptism is the question asked of the covenant community. Do you promise to assist the parents in the raising of this child? Sometimes I wonder if people really believe what they say.
I have no reason to believe my current church Redeemer’s members are anything but sincere. Each month we have to use nearly 50-60 adults for the two nurseries, Sunday School, children’s church, and youth groups. That’s probably even a conservative estimate. When people promise to help the parents, that doesn’t mean ONLY serving an existing children’s ministry, but I think it would be disingenuous to quickly rule out serving in an existing children’s ministry. Such are opportunities designed not to replace parents, but to assist them. And we all need assistance.
But formal existing ministries like programs are only part of the picture. In their book Essential Church, Thom and Sam Rainer claim one of the few consistent factors present in the youth who continued their faith in college was adult relationships. Most had a number of them. The more the merrier. A youth pastor and parents are not enough. Our youth need more than that, and that’s why I try to include a team of adults and parents as often as possible in youth ministry.
I wonder how seriously I, and other parents take their children’s baptism. It’s not just a “precious” time (though it was quite moving to watch the video). You are vowing before God and others to raise the child in a Christian home, dedicating him to the Lord. That’s pretty serious stuff.  I play baseball with Connar in the front yard on my lunch break and before/after dinner about every day. But I think baptism reminds me of something more important: that God will be faithful in my “informal” ministry times (which definitely outweigh the number of “formal” times like Jesus Story Book Bible reading), so I should take advantage of every available “teaching” moment.
Finally, I also wonder why Presbyterian parents sometimes don’t take advantage of, or want any covenant community involvement in raising their children. Over the years I’ve seen folks who just don’t want any help, and I can’t figure that out. I’ve seen folks agonize about whether or not their children will attend their own church’s VBS. Still, other folks just don’t care about discipleship of their children and so don’t make the necessary lifestyle adjustments. Both seem to goes against the flow of the covenant community structure called the church with which we’ve been so blessed. 
I’m thankful to have (and have had at my previous church) a covenant community who has shown love to my two baptized boys and assisted Amy and I in training and raising them. I hope the same is true for you, both in serving or being served by your local covenant community: the church.

Anyhow, these are my baptism thoughts for the day.

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Should sports be a platform for Jesus?

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With the Jim Tressel debacle behind us for a few moments, a CNN beliefnet blogger had a take on Evangelism and Sports. He questions whether or not sports and Christianity really do go together as “peanut butter and jelly” as Deon Sanders once put it. He quotes another athlete, former Houston Astros 3rd Basemen Morgan Ensberg: “The entire reason I play baseball is so that I get a chance to speak about Christ.” The question he raises is fairly simple and straightforward: is big time spectator sports really the best venue for the promotion of Christianity.
I can’t say that I totally agree with his take, but I think he does bring up some valid concerns. 
1.) The number of Christian athletes who profess Christ, but fall into some serious public sins. Eugene Robinson soliciting a prostitute the night before the Super Bowl is sadly only one example of many. Some folks, for some time, might do better at just (said tongue in cheek of course as all work can still glorify God) being a Christian ball player: not speaker, not writer. Their teammates will know, even if the media doesn’t. And that’s OK. It might not be a bad idea for some players to turn down speaking engagements. Perhaps for a season, perhaps longer. I don’t think its a bad idea to wait some time (and mature) before you publicly promote your faith and join the “circuit.” We’ve seen how easy it is for folks to fall. 
2.) Perhaps Christian athletic promoters have borrowed a bit too much for the marketing of this world. If someone is promotable, go and promote them. Make money off them. Or get them in front to tell people about Jesus. Sounds good on the front end, but what about the back side? Perhaps those promoting athletes like publishers need to offer or require more discipleship, accountability, fellowship? Or perhaps those promoting Christian athletes need to be choosier? It’s tough to argue against his penultimate paragraph: 
The ability to draw a huge audience does not make a given cultural venue an appropriate platform for promoting Christian faith — not if that venue promotes win-at-all-costs behavior and values that are in such deep tension with the central message of the religious “product” being sold.
3.) Skeptics will be present regardless, and “fallen” Christian athletes probably don’t necessarily hurt the spread of the gospel. While one hostile to Christianity may point to Tressel as an example for why he or she doesn’t believe, or why he or she doesn’t think Christianity belongs in sports,  the same person will overlook the Dungy’s and Tebow’s. There will always be “haters,” and people will always blame their lack of belief on something other than their own hardness of heart.
4.) This lad seems optimistic about the future of sports and Christianity, citing Athletes in Action as a positive example that winds of change are blowing.
The new currents are tugging sports ministry toward a model where it’s not about exploiting sports as part of a marketing strategy, but about serving them as a prophetic force for their moral betterment.
I just don’t know what this looks like, but I would definitely be interested in hearing it explained. Maybe I’ll email this lad. 

Just how to practice and express one’s Christian faith in sports may not be as simple as I once thought. I appreciate this lad’s thoughts even though I’m still chewing on some of them, and may spit one or two out.

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Tim Tebow, Jon Stewart, and Extreme

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Last week Tim Tebow continued to promote his new book Through My Eyes on “The Daily Show” with Jon Stewart. While Stewart takes shots at the left and the right, his atheism clearly comes out from time to time. So Tebow seemed to take a big risk even going on the show.
I think most folks would be afraid to do so. But in basketball, sometimes the best thing you can do to a shot blocker is to take it right to him. Challenge him. But for the Christian, this challenging looks quite a bit different. 
Here’s an excerpt from Tebow’s dialog with Stewart, borrowed from this article
For example, Stewart asked Tebow how old he is.

“Twenty-three,” Tebow said.

“A lot of people might say you want to wait until you’re 24 to write an autobiography,” Stewart said.

Tebow then talked about his parents’ background as missionaries, and his support of an orphanage in the Phillipines.

“Wow.  You seem like a real a#@hole,” Stewart said.

Replied Tebow without hesitation, “I mean, but that’s how I try to come across.”

When Stewart raised the topic of the struggles of “Ohio State University,” Tebow was quick to correct him.  “The Ohio State University,” Tebow said.
Mike Florio of profootballtalk.com was quite impressed. In addition, one of the comments on the article included this response: “No matter how hard I try to not like this guy, I can’t.” 
That’s kind of the picture we get of evangelism in I Peter. Our C.D. (community/discipleship) group has been working our way through this very challenging book and has seen that the importance of our actions, particularly suffering, and how such actions can display the gospel. While I Peter 3:15 has often, and I think rightly, been quoted as a reason why apologetics (defending the faith) is important, evangelism in the book of I Peter is primarily done through actions and attitudes, not words. In fact, it is through a submissive life that wives may “save” their husbands (I Peter 3:1). And our conduct-particularly as we suffer and not retaliate-before non-believing officials and bosses may cause them to “glorify God on the day of visitation (I Peter 2:12).”

Sometimes folks will hate Christians when they try to honor God and not submit to the cultural idols. But often, if Christians are truly following Christ, they can gain respect from the same folks.

Your life before others matters. Your words before others matter. Both are evangelistic in some sense. Athletes don’t have to mention the name of Jesus every time they get in front of a camera to honor Him. Neither do you. Your words, even when the gospel isn’t mentioned or brought up, can be pre-evangelistic. When your words and your life garner respect, you may gain some eager listeners. 

This doesn’t negate the need for a verbal proclamation of the gospel. Our sharing the gospel cannot be less than words. There is a message of reconciliation which has to be communicated. But while sharing the gospel cannot be less than words, it cannot only be words. Like the band Extreme’s once famous power ballad reminds us, it has to be “more than words.”

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The Bad Samaritan

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One regularly sees on the news a story of a “Good Samaritan,” a innocent bystander who risks harm to himself/herself to rescue a person in need. The parable of the Good Samaritan comprises more theology and application than this, but certainly not less than less. 
Here is a story of some “Bad Samaritans.” A man decides to kill himself by jumping into San Francisco Bay. His mother, who for some reason was near, calls 911 and fire fighters show up immediately. But the problem is that they don’t do anything. For an hour. And then the lad drowns. 
If you watch the video you’ll see that policy and funding purportedly prevented firefighters and policemen from jumping in to help him. 
This is truly a bizarre and sad story where God’s image bearers display scars as well as small cracks where God’s image the light of his image breaks through.
1.) Policy and rules trumped life. Regardless of whether or not such men were allowed to jump in the water to save this drowning man, life always trumps policy. When two commands bump up against each other, the weightier one prevails. Saving life is more important than policy. The Pharisees blasted Jesus for breaking the Sabbath when he healed folks, but Jesus emphasized that life was more important. Even the life of an animal took precedent (Lk 14:5).
2.) The outrage. The anchor man asks the reporter, “Isn’t this a human being?” He has a right to life. You don’t have to be a Christian to believe this. In fact, most non-Christian Atheists believe this as well. They just have no real reason to believe it. In fact they have a reason not to believe it, as it goes against everything Darwinian. Regardless, the image of God shines through the cracks even when people suppress the truth. 
3.) Do we get to choose who has the right to be saved and who doesn’t? If you watch the video, one of the excuses is, “This man was trying to kill himself.” That issue is irrelevant. He is still worth saving. In addition, people sing different songs when they are gargling water and vying for their last breaths. He could have had a different outlook on life as he witnessed people risking their lives to save someone who actually tried to end his. All people are worth saving not because of what they contribute but because of their bearing God’s image.
4.) Excuses. Supposedly this won’t happen again because there will be new funding and new policy. In the end though, it might have been more self-preservation than policy. Statements like “he could have been armed” and “he was so big, that we could have drowned as well” started bobbing to the surface.
 
5.) Judgment. People are rightly angered by this incident, since you can argue that public servants like fire fighters and police officers have a higher civic responsibility. With such authority (guns, sirens, freedom to speed and go through lights), comes a responsibility to sacrifice. But on the other end, none of us know exactly what we would have done put in their shoes. We can certainly pronounce an action (or in-action in this case) to be wrong without pridefully saying “that could never happen to me.” Many times we are spared falling into sin simply because we’ve not had the opportunity.
In the end, this tragic incident serves as a good reminder that this kind of thing happens spiritually in the church all the time. It is always safer and easier to let someone drown in their own sin, even when they are clearly content in doing so. To go in after them can cost pain and time. I personally hate doing it. But perhaps if we considered the mess Jesus took on for us, we’d more regularly enter into the mess of others. Ultimately neither their mess nor ours can hold us under water for long.
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Oprah, Clout, and Us

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Oprah will finally vacate the daily afternoon TV landscape but her presence will certainly not be lost. Her goal of success was never JUST about  money; it was about much more than that. It was  about clout. Clout, clout, let it all out in a Tears for Fears sort of way. That’s what she did. 
Clout can be used for good. And in a common grace (she’s made in the image of God and will do some culturally good things because of that) sort of way, she did. She had wells dug in Africa, she gave away cars to people in her audience. She did some nice things.
Clout can be used to make others’ famous. Oprah brought us Dr. Phil, and I can’t imagine where our world would be without Dr. Phil. Or Rachel Ray. Or Dr. Oz. Although I think we would be just fine without their celebrity.
Clout can also be used for personal gain (the aforementioned probably had some of this mixed in as well) in promoting propaganda. Oprah could arguably-and I don’t even know it is arguable-be the most influential person in America, and perhaps that may be one of her goals. She describes herself as “messenger” with a “message.” And that she is indeed. Below is an article snippet where she discusses her spiritual quest.
What I believe is that Jesus came to show us Christ consciousness. That Jesus came to show us the way of the heart and that what Jesus was saying that to show us the higher consciousness that we’re all talking about here…”
The content of her spirituality remains largely gnostic (though she has obviously spruced it up with other bits and pieces of existential philosophy, religions, opinions), a heresy which popped in the church not too long after Jesus folded his own crucifixion clothing. If general history doesn’t repeat itself, church history sure does.
Some folks want to rule the world with nuclear power. Some folks want to rule the world with their false spirituality. Regardless, the motive is still the same. Oprah and Kim Jong Il aren’t all that different. And honestly, sometimes Christians need to recognize that the same tendencies “freely” dwelling in these folks also dwell in us. They are not our masters, but they often do become counselors.
When we have been given clout or any kind of social influence, we need to take pains that in the end, our goal is that Christ rule in our hearts (Col 3:15) and rule in the world. It would be foolish to think that just because you are a Christian and want to teach, or have any sort of influence in the church, that your motives are pure. Mine definitely aren’t. Here are some questions which might prove helpful in your areas of influence, particularly within the local church setting.
Is your desire to rule or control (Col 3:15)? Is your goal that everyone would have the same convictions you do (Rom 14)? Is your ultimate goal that folks would follow you or follow Jesus (I Cor 1). How angry do you get when someone doesn’t believe something you teach or take the advice you’ve given them? The amount of anger can sometimes indicate you’re mad because you “lost” more so than righteously frustrated over someone else seeking a beverage from a broken well.
Like all idols, power is fleeting and is ultimately an allusion. Looking to Jesus and pointing them to Jesus and His gospel is not only freeing, but it is effectual. If you look to Him, you’ll change. If you point people to Him, and they look, they will change. They may look different than you expected, but ultimately Jesus is molding them in HIS image, not ours. And that’s good thing.

Never forget that you’re more like Oprah than you think, but Jesus loves us more than Oprah thinks. And that too is a comforting thought.