Lost in Translation

I believe a major task for us as Christians is translation. No, I'm not talking about the rote translation exercises you had to do in Spanish class in high school. I'm talking about translating our faith.

Now I'm not scared of words like righteousness, sin, salvation and justification. They're good words, full of meaning for me.

But I also know I come from a generation (some call it Generation X) that doesn't hear these words the same way I hear them. For most of my generation, the church is no longer taken for granted, instead it is seen along side things like the Crusades, the Inquisition and our shameful complicity in Nazi Germany. Generation X generally questions all authority, and there's no easier authority to question than the church.

Now this is all over-generalization, but I say it to make a point. When we use words like righteousness, sin, salvation and justification, it's not enough to consider what it means to us. We have to consider what it means to our neighbor. And so I believe if the church is going to thrive and not just survive, we have to translate the rich meaning of our faith into a language that someone else can understand.

Jesus talked about old wineskins and new wineskins. When Zaccheus was hiding in a tree, Jesus walked right up to him and met him there. The early church struggled on whether or not they should even accept the newcomers -- the Gentiles. Does everyone have to be circumcised? St. Augustine's message has reached millions throughout the years because he saw how Christian faith intersected with secular philosophy.

There's one easy way to do this act of translation: tell someone your story.

Hidden Blessings

As I've been preparing and reflecting before my ordination Saturday, I've been thinking a lot about hidden blessings. It's been 8 years since I regularly attended my home church, Woodmont Christian Church in Nashville. And yet as I get ready to be ordained there on Saturday, I am discovering so many blessings hidden in my past, like Easter eggs that God placed in my memories, knowing all along that I wouldn't discover them for years.

I think back on the music I sang in the youth choir there. Songs I thought were boring at the time, now when I hear them are overflowing with meaning, enough to make me tear up.

I think back on all the "uncool" adults who came to youth group. I realized that lessons I now take for granted -- the importance of prayer, our need to serve others, a willingness to engage the world around us -- I first learned from them. Now those faithful souls seems so cool to me.

I think back to the stained glass window in the church. It has a beautiful cross that was the tallest thing I could think of for many years of my life. I can remember doodling at school and drawing that cross. How can you estimate the value of such hidden blessings?

Let's all look back and find those hidden blessings. We shouldn't have to wait for a special occasion to thank those who planted them.

Let's also remember that we have the opportunity to plant seeds just like the seeds planted in us. Our hidden blessings were someone else's hidden ministries. We are all ministering at all times. Our words and our actions become Easter eggs placed in someone's memories.

As I head to Nashville, know that I am taking you with me. As I have hands laid on me, ordaining me for God's ministry, know that I will feel your touch in that moment as well.

Faith vs. Science?

For some reason today I was thinking about Faith and Science and Art.

A lot has been said about Faith vs. Science. A lot of people feel very strongly one way or the other. The Scopes "Monkey" trial was probably the biggest display, but we're still arguing these things today.

I feel like folks on both the faith and the science side of things are missing the boat. It's not faith vs. science, it's faith and science, or faith with science and vice-versa.

It's about truth. Pontius Pilate asked Jesus "What is Truth?" and we're right there with him, asking the same question in our day and time. What is truth? What is the truth about life, in general? And the truth about my life, right here right now?

Jesus doesn't answer him in words but if we look at his life and ministry, we can see a much bigger answer in his actions and his teachings.

In his life I see a person who broke the laws of phyics and medicine, but also broke the rules of society and culture.

In his teachings I see truth that is much bigger than either a scientific equation or a confession of faith. Is a parable true? Well, the story of the Good Samaritan never really happened, but does that make it any less true?

Or the Creation story in Genesis. Is it true? Well it may have physically happened that way, but I don't think it really matters one way or another. When I read the story, I find truth, not about geology, astronomy, biology and evolution, but a story (a poem!) about a beautiful creation that was done entirely from scratch by a powerful and loving God. To make it say something about evolution is like asking an eagle to dig into the ground - that's just not what it's meant to do.

In my life, I feel like I have moments when the beauty of life really strikes me, "thin moments" where the veil between Creature and Creation seems to disappear. And I've found that these moments come in all different situations. It can be reading scripture for sure. But it can also be reading a story of pure fiction, watching a movie, gazing at a painting or a sculpture, or seeing someone else do what they are meant to do. I've even had such an experiment when studying math or seeing the amazing, elegant beauty of science at its best.

Truth is a multi-faceted, shape-shifting thing. There's no one statement that can define all truth. I think that's probably why Jesus didn't answer Pilate. What could he say? Suffice it to say, for us, that Jesus was and still is the truth. In all its complexity, in all its many forms. With that in place, there is no particular type of truth that we should ever be afraid of.

Upside Down and Inside Out

(Originally posted August 7, 2008)

I'm always amazed at how God works upside-down and inside out. Trials turn into blessings. I think God gets a huge kick out of taking a struggle or a trying situation and pouring grace and hope into it only like he can.

I ran across a quote that expresses God's upside-downness better than I ever could:

When Jesus says, "Come unto me all ye who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28), the poor stand a better chance than most of knowing what he's talking about and knowing that he's talking to them. In desperation they may even be willing to consider the possibility of accepting his offer. ~ Frederick Buechner

We all suffer from a delusion of comfort and satisfaction apart from God. This is the biggest hindrance to us following God: the thought that we're alright on our own. It's not our brokenness that keeps us from him -- actually that's the key to the whole transaction. We have to accept our brokenness, our sin, our heavy burden so that we can give it to God.

I think that's somehow close to what Jesus means when he says "Blessed are the poor in spirit." It's upside-down and inside-out, but that's the way God's grace and love work.

What is Faith?

(Originally posted July 28, 2008)

What is faith? We put a lot of stock in it, without talking about it very much.

It's not always what we think it is.
Faith is NOT knowing everything there is to know about God (impossible)
Faith is NOT coming to church on Sunday mornings (it's so much more...)
Faith is NOT just saying you believe in something you can't see (though, most times it will include that)

Here's a good quote I read this morning on faith:

We always see through a glass darkly, and that is what faith is about. I will live by the best I can discern today. Tomorrow I may find out I was wrong. The God revealed in Jesus whom I call the Christ is a God whose forgiveness goes ahead of me, and whose love sustains me and the whole created world. That God bursts all the definitions of our small minds, all the limitations of our timid efforts, all the boundaries of our institutions. ~ Verna Dozier

She also says, and this is the part I really like, "Biblical faith is not intellectual assent to a proposition. It is risking that God is worthy of trust."

We don't have God all figured out, never will. So instead, faith is about trusting that God's ways are good ways (the best ways), that God is for us and not against us, even when all evidence is to the contrary, even when everything is on the line... especially when everything is on the line.

Faith is risky business, by its very nature. We take the risk that today, based on who I understand God to be, God is calling me to do X (and let me tell you, "X" is very rarely the easiest or most fun thing to do). Take a risk today.

The Check Engine Light (or How God really feels about us)

(Originally posted July 16, 2008)

The church and religious people in general have long been in the business of convincing us of just how bad we really are. "Guilting" people into the faith is an age-old practice.

I don't know about you, but I really don't think we need any help in figuring out that we're messed up. Know that "Check Engine" light in the car? I think we all feel like we have a "check engine" light in our lives at all times. We know something isn't quite right, that there's got to be something more. So I don't think the church needs to focus on making us that much more aware of it, or worse, making us feel guilty about it. We're already well aware.

Have we messed up?? Sure.
Have we fallen short of what God wants?? Absolutely.
Is sin a real, serious thing?? Most definitely.
Is that what God's focus is on??? No way, Jose.

Scripture has some good words to remind us just what God thinks of us. It tells us that we are "fearfully and wonderfully made"(Psalm 139) "in the image of God"(Genesis 1:27). Instead of making us feel guilty, God's got plans for us, great plans, "plans to prosper us and not to harm us, plans to give us a hope and a future"(Jeremiah 29:11). How intensely is God focused on this? "God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us"(Romans 5:8)

That's the part that gets me, every time. God's not naive. God knows about sin, knows how serious it is. But God just looks at us and says "Yeah, but I just love you so darned much!" and went so far as to become a human and endure all our pains and troubles, even worse, dying on a cross. Out of love. That's some serious love for us.

Someone called me out this week and said "Brad, you got to stop beating yourself up all the time" You know, what he was right. If I read over those scriptures above again, I realize that when I beat myself up over and over again, I'm calling God a liar.
I am fearfully and wonderfully made!
In the image of God!
God's got plans for me!
God loves me more than I can ever know!

Tell yourself that today. And if it means something to you, tell someone else as well.

Does anyone hear me?

(Originally posted on July 7, 2008)

"Record my lament; list my tears on your scroll -- are they in your record?" Psalm 56:8

The Bible doesn't just offer clean, easy advice for rosy situations. It speaks to the most difficult and trying times of our lives. David cries out to God in a time of pain and just asks "Do you hear me? Do you notice my pain?"

Somehow in the mystery of God's providence over the world, pain and struggle still persists. Some of it is God testing us, but not nearly all of it. Some of it is just the result of how messed up and twisted the world is. God has chosen for us to be free beings with free choices and real consequences. So we go through hard times.

But what this verse says to me is that especially in the midst of our deepest pain, God feels every bit of it. Our tears are recorded in God's eternal scroll. Where is God in all the hard times? Right there with us, every step of the way. Sometimes what we need most immediately in those times is not an end to the pain but the knowledge that we are not alone or abandoned.

What does God want?

(Originally Posted June 26, 2008)

What does God want? God definitely does not want empty outward motions. God cares about what's on the inside.

“Surely you desire truth in the inner parts” so says David (Psalm 51)

Truth in the inner parts is not about being perfect or pure. It's all about honesty.

Later David says, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise”

So what does God want? A Broken Spirit, and a broken heart. Sounds tough, huh? But the truth is, we're already broken, God just wants us to be honest about it.

This is good news!!
God is not waiting for us to be perfect,
God does not leave us to do it all on our own.
God just wants us to be honest about our brokenness, and lay it at his feet.

I am broken. God has shown me this week how desperately I look for approval from places other than Him. This can lead to a lot of bad stuff. I am broken, but God doesn't get upset or disappointed. God does not say “Brad, that's pretty bad. You need to work on that.” God just says “Brad, I know that you struggle with this. Everybody has their struggles. But you have recognized that you're broken, and you've come to me about it. That makes me so proud.” And then together we can work through it.