Archive for category Theology
Having heard the voice of God…
I was cut to the core this evening by a sermon from Erwin McManus called ‘Prayer: Spiritual Activism.‘ He tells of his 13 year old son who was continually asking Erwin how you could hear from God, or what it was like to hear God’s voice. During the summer, Erwin’s son went to camp and got in trouble for threatening to beat up another camper. His son refused to acknowledge that he was wrong and seek the other boy’s forgiveness. The camp called Erwin to come take his son home.
When Erwin arrived, he asked his son if he would ask the other boy for forgiveness. His son said no. He asked his son why and he said “Dad, you said I never had to do this Christian stuff if I didn’t want to and I don’t want to. I want to go home.” Erwin told his son that if he wanted to go home he should go pack his bags, hoping the boy would relent. His son went and packed. When he was done, he came back with the bags. Erwin told him to load them in the car if he wanted to leave, hoping again that he would relent. He didn’t.
After the car was loaded he took his son to a place in the trees and sat down with him. He told his son, ‘You know you should really stay here and work this out.” His son said “I don’t want to stay. I’m not going to.” Erwin asked, “Is there any voice inside of you telling you what to do?” “Yes,” his son said. “What is it telling you to do?” Erwin asked. His son said, “It’s telling me to stay here and work it out.” Erwin asked him, “Can you tell what that voice is?” And his son said, “Yes it’s God, but I’m still not going.”
Is this not us? What is God’s will we ask? And yet we are unwilling to obey. When we have not honored the gift of hearing from God we wonder why He will not continue to speak. As it says in Hebrews our disobedience causes our heart to grow hard and our ears to grow dull. We continue in this process until we are living as if we were deaf and God were silent. Then we curse Him for His silence.
As G. K. Chesterson says, obedience is the opener of eyes.
Another thought on ‘Reviving the Tribe’
A follow up on my last post, ‘Reviving the Tribe‘
Here’s another thought. Eric Rofes is saying that becoming infected with HIV is a decision that we must respect. People must decide for themselves whether receiving body fluids from potentially HIV positive partners is more valuable to them as a sexual or spiritual part of their life than remaining alive is. The question arises whether the larger society is then responsible to provide treatment for men who seroconvert as a result of this decision.
Put another way, having unprotected sex of the sort Rofes is discussing risks health and life and also a great deal of money. Is the community responsible to subsidize that risk? Can someone demand that their community pay whatever it costs for them to have the sex acts the person feels they need to be fulfilled?
In the end, I think the answer is that a community owes sick people treatment. We can’t watch folks suffer without mercy. We must provide treatment to people suffering from AIDS. If we as a community take responsibility to provide treatment for these HIV positive men, then even if their decision to risk infection is educated, it is not a decision that affects only them. Unless they are able and willing to take responsibility to provide their own medical care, then they are only taking partial responsibility for their decision.
If they expect their community to join them in assuming responsibility for the risks of their personal decisions, can the community not express a degree of risk it is willing to accept and a degree it is not willing to accept?
The personal is political.
Eric Rofes: Reviving the Tribe
So I’ve been reading Reviving the Tribe by Eric Rofes. He was an HSU professor who passed away last year. He’s a long time gay activist and thinker who used to head the Shanti Project, an organization responding to the AIDS crisis centered at the time in the Castro in San Francisco. Before that he headed a leading AIDS-response organization in L.A. These were some of the most turbulent years in the gay community and he discusses the community’s response to AIDS during this time, drawing parallels to the Holocaust and the Atomic bombing in Hiroshima.
He helped me understand how AIDS felt to members of the gay community in a way I never did before. He tells the story of that culture from the early ’70s through the outbreak of the epidemic and the early fallout; the initial response and then the evolution of response as it became clear that AIDS wasn’t going away, in fact was going strong through the ’90s. He discusses what it felt like when he first heard of ‘gay cancer’ and then GRID, he discusses the impact of Stonewall and so forth.
Finally, he tries to reconceive a means of addressing the epidemic. I’m really startled by his view of AIDS prevention. He is critical of an approach to prevention that emphasizes safe as opposed to unsafe behaviors. For example characterizing unprotected sex with an HIV positive partner as an ‘unsafe behavior’ is problematic for Rofes. That’s startling. I was startled by that anyhow.
He argues that exchanging body fluid is an act with more value for some gay men than staying alive. Read the rest of this entry »
Back with an update
So, I’ve been away for a while. Whatever. Life happens. Anyhow, I’m back with an update. An update to the latest version of WordPress to be precise. Hopefully I’ll be posting more frequently now.
By the way, I had a thought about my last post. See, I was talking to a buddy yesterday and he said he was feeling tension about the idea that God knows who He will save and does all that is required to save them Himself. My friend said it seemed like there was something he had done on his own to be saved.
I know what that feels like. I felt that very way the first time I encountered a person who believed that God does it all. Anyhow when I saw the title of my last post I thought of a little ditty.
What can wash away my sin?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
And something extra of my own
To complete the blood of Jesus.
Just a thought.
Nothing but the Blood
I’ve always thought it was cool that Paul told the Corinthians that he was determined to know nothing among them but Christ and Him crucified and he told the elders in Ephesus that he was innocent of their blood because he did not shrink from proclaiming to them the whole counsel of God. We must conclude that unless Paul is guilty of the blood of the Corinthians, it is possible to proclaim the whole council of God while knowing nothing but Christ and Him crucified. Think about it. It works out.
Pretty amazing if you think about it. These two passages taken together tell us that every page of the Bible is about Jesus. All good theology, if it is faithful to the message of the Bible is about Jesus. All good preaching comes back to Jesus. In the story of the Bible, in the story of the Church, in the story of our lives, there is Christ and there is the irrelevant.
One Ring to Bring Them All, And in the Darkness Bind Them?
Stumbled upon a cool quote the other day. Some fellow called Dawson Trotman. Apparently he founded the navigators. Bully. The quote is “Thoughts disentangle themselves when they pass through the lips and the fingertips.”
I really liked it because I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the relationship between our actions and our beliefs. The fact that our actions are shaped by our beliefs is sort of worn out and tired from its being much repeated, but what about the fact that our thoughts are shaped by our actions. Read the rest of this entry »
My Most Recent Sermon
Well, the audio software crashed 20 minute into my sermon, so all we have is the first third. I hope y’all enjoy it. I sound much more confident, although I was much more nervous about this sermon than any of my others. Money is always difficult to talk about.
The passage that fell to me was 1 Corinthians 9:1-18. Read the rest of this entry »
Seems pretty sunny in Scotia today…
So, I’ve been studying Greek. I was looking at verse 5 of John 1. The word σκοτια (skotia) appears in that verse and means ‘darkness.’ This really explains a lot about Pacific Lumber’s company town down in Southern Humboldt. :p
Hopefully there aren’t any Scotia locals in the audience today. But, seriously, I wonder where Scotia got it’s name. I think the Romans called the territories of Ireland and Scotland ‘Scotia.’ Maybe that’s where it came from?
Anyhow, it was a pretty amazing verse. It says the Life was the Light of men and in the darkness it is shining, but the darkness has not laid hold of it. The other interesting word is κατελαβεν (katelaben). This is to grasp or cling or lay hold. It’s interesting because it is the word at play in the famous kenosis passage in Philippians 2 that I’ve been writing about in other posts.
Jesus Didn’t Quit His Day Job
I was recently blown away by Hebrews 1.
Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.
There are a ton of amazing things in that passage. Two in particular jumped out. It said Jesus upholds the universe Read the rest of this entry »
35 Reasons Not to Sin
I read this the other day and it blessed me.
35 Reasons Not To Sin
1. Because a little sin leads to more sin.
2. Because my sin invites the discipline of God.
3. Because the time spent in sin is forever wasted.
4. Because my sin never pleases but always grieves God who loves me.
5. Because my sin places a greater burden on my spiritual leaders.
6. Because in time my sin always brings heaviness to my heart. Read the rest of this entry »