Letting my Leaves Fall: Israel Two

Continuing my thoughts on my trip to Israel. Part 2 here. 

This post will be simple, and therefore hopefully profound.

I'm going to tell a story, then put some of Jesus' words after it.  Read the story, then the words, mix them together in your head/heart and see if any relevant or meaningful conclusion comes from it.

First the story.

This is The Church of the Holy Sepulcher.

Sepulcher is a Latin word for "tomb".  This site is one of the possible places Jesus was killed.  It's so big it also encompasses one of the possible tombs he was laid in.

For a while the church had a huge problem.  There are six major forms of Christianity that all claim some sort of ownership of the church.  They each want the right to hold their own services inside, and they each want their own ownership of a specific part of the building.

Roman Catholic, Coptic, Ethiopian, Greek Orthodox, Armenian, and Eastern Orthodox, all lay claim to some part of the function of this building. Protestant forms of Christianity aren't represented in the church.

Naturally, none of the 6 denominations trust any of the other 5 denominations to effectively manage or run the place.

For many years, talk of back stabbing and ill management rang out between the different denominations.

Finally a solution was discovered.

None of the Christians trusted each other, so the keys to the church were given to, and reside with to this day, a Muslim family who unlocks the building every day at 5:30am.

20 “My prayer is not for these men alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— 23 I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

Letting my leaves fall: Israel One

In the next several days I'd love to chronicle my trip to Israel with some thoughts and ideas I hope solidify the experience and the place for people who haven't been yet.  

Maybe one day, in your half awake stupor, you sat clicking through thousands of channels at 4am.  You perchance happened to come across a C-SPAN type viewing of British Parliment.

It's actually kind of hilarious.

They yell their opinions of everything, no matter who's talking.  The Prime Minister could be giving his version of "The State of the Union" address and you'd hear dozens of old politicians mumbling and sometimes yelling at him.  The speaker usually raises his voice to talk over them, but occassionally the sassier ones will respond to the jeers in amazingly sarcastic dry British wit.

My first view of Israel

I put that idea in your head obviously for a reason.

It can be tough preaching a message to people who don't want to hear it.

I traveled to Israel with a number of pre-conceived notions and while I was there they one by one fell to the ground, like leaves from my tree of "Western thinking."

I grew up through the 90's watching "peace in the middle east" develop as sort of a catch phrase.  People would hold up their "peace" hand signals and we'd feel proud watching two enemies shake hands standing next to one of our more famous American politicians.

And then it all would fall to disaster.

Watching the same cycle repeat leads one to wonder, what the heck?  Why isn't anything working?

Here's where my thinking was flawed.  I believed, maybe like many others in the US, that peace is being fought for by something like 99% of the people.  We've got a radical 1% (on both sides) and a vast majority clamoring for all hostilities to cease.
That entire vision is entirely wrong, and that idea is one of the leaves that need to drop from my tree.

There are pro-Palestinians who are convicted to fight, and their are pro-Israelis who are convicted to fight, and neither one is interested in peace, if it means surrendering the core of their goals.

We are staring at a broken marriage saying "I'll do whatever I have to do to make sure you stay together." and both husband and wife are already sold on divorce.

To achieve peace you have to convince at least one side that peace is preferable to the alternative.

Right now, to both sides, peace means giving up something they're not willing to give up.

We've got a nastier version of British Parliment going on here, speaking a message to an audience who isn't interested in said message.

And when you think about it, Jesus had the same struggle.  His message of peace was spoken to Jews who were ready to take up torches and swords and overthrow Roman oppression.  I mean, imagine Jesus saying "blessed are the peacemakers" to a group of people who are hoping he's a military leader who's going to instigate the gorilla campaign that will win them back their land?

You can bet a bunch of them were kind of bummed to hear that phrase.

Jesus even says "My peace I give to you."  to his disciples in John 14.  He says "my peace" to indicate it's not an idea, "hey guys peace would be great" it's an essential part of living like him.  "I do peace, so you do peace"

Praying for peace in the middle east won't work because the people there don't want it.  Just my idea, but any prayers directed for that area, (and you should be praying for that part of the world) should be for transformation.

Transformation of hearts and minds, because "My peace I give to you" is the only peace that will survive, and thrive, in that land.

The Following is a True Story

On Sunday, I flew from LAX to ATL on a very cramped, very delayed, very annoying flight.  I remember vividly, walking up the aisle and realizing that I was in a row next to a blind man. For a moment I thought, "Ok, don't I have extra responsibilities or something, sitting next to a handicapped person on an airplane?  Don't I have to help him with his seat raft or something if we land in water?"  

To be clear, I don't have very good luck with chance encounters.  I probably have ten bad ones for every one good one.  I mean, some are so bad they're actually comedic, and for that I'm grateful, but most are just bad.

"Perfect" I thought, "This actually makes total sense.  The flights been delayed, the weather is bad, of course I get a blind person to sit by."  

You'll notice the obvious set up at this point, as in, this encounter was in the end very positive.  But it was more than positive, it was, a moment.  A place in time, in your life, that you wish you could stick a pin in.  If there's a long line on a piece of paper that represents your life, where would you stick your pins?

I'd stick one on Sunday, December 8th.

As we sit doing nothing, the man strikes up conversation.  I'm seething, that this company would board its passengers with no pilots there to fly the plane, and now, I have to engage with this single serving friend, for how long, five hours, ten hours, seventy years? 

Looking back, it's clear that at this point I'm the center of self-absorption.

His finger flies up and slides back and forth over the little fan thingy, he says he's looking for a call button.  The passenger behind him reaches over, takes his finger, and leads it to the call button for him.  

Well crap.  That was obviously my job I guess.  But I wasn't sure if I should just grab his hand and lead him, or if I should hit my own call button, then explain to the stewardess that this man needs help pushing his call button...  It already seems like a Python sketch.

We take off finally, I find that he is, despite my preconceived notions, a very pleasant conversationalist.  I notice his iPhone, because I can totally stare at his phone and he'll never know it.  He's got headphones plugged in, and his phone is reading to him from the book of Hebrews.  

That was probably the first time I've ever seen a blind person digging into scripture.  A strange thought: Do blind people ever get upset, reading about Jesus granting sight to the blind?  Clearly he can, yet they're still blind.

We work our way to talking about the Bible, and the man tells me he's memorized the entire book of Hebrews.  He picked one book to memorize, and decided that would be his book, he loves the message of it, and he knows it all the way through.  

Now, several people, including the man behind that helped him, are turning their ears to listen to him.  By the end of the flight he has a tiny little audience, and the funny thing is, he totally has no idea.

Since I also love Hebrews, we talk easily about it.  He tells me it's very accessible for the new seeking Christian, but also plenty of deep theology for the person interested in study.  

The exact reason I always tell people I love Hebrews.

I'm disarmed, this terrible horrible no good very bad flight has turned on its head.  

I've never had one of these "check out who I met on a plane" stories, so thanks for indulging me.

He says he's a bit worried about his connecting flight to Orlando.  It's due to take off three minutes after we land.  Before he's finished talking the stewardess, one of his recent fans, tells him they're going to hold the plane and she's going to lead him to it herself. 

As we exit, a few people around us introduce themselves to him, for no real apparent reason at all.  He holds out his hand indicating they can shake it, and they do.  

He stops the stewardess from leading him away so he can say goodbye to me.  He says he sings, and also says he'd love to listen to my books if I ever get them on audio format.... Yeah I need to do that.

Here he is, Neville Peter, the man who made my flight a bit better.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5g1EWML1tNo

The Horrible Hallowed Haunted House

How the "scare houses" put on by many churches are hurting everyone.  

Imagine an empty hospital.

Doctors and nurses wander the halls, looking everywhere for patients.  They shuffle their feet, twiddle their thumbs.  I dunno... Throw playing cards one at a time into an overturned hat?

Then one Doctor has a brilliant idea.

Let's run out into the masses, open fire on them, ya know, with guns.  That way we will literally fill up our hospital in minutes.

That's kind of what happens in many super-fundamentalist Pentecostal and Evangelical churches this time of year.

"Let's go out and create the kinds of issues that will get people to come in our doors."

They bear many different names, Hayride to Hell, Hike into Hell, The Lake of Fire Hay Maze, or "Look What Happens to you, you non-Jesus Loser"

This phenomenon has even become formulaic over the years.

1.  Scene with some teens dying.  You know, Johnny was a smoker, Billy was a gay with AIDS, Jimmy got shot up in a drug deal.  (This is where you utilize your theatre kids, Youth Ministers)

2.  We see the souls of the kiddos whisked away to some form of judgement scene.  Use lots of Gold spray paint, and a really sweet voice modulator for your God character.  After all, he's so angry!  Roar Kids!

3.  The kids are found guilty, and then taken to hell.  Usually dark, screams, plenty of smoke, and more often than not, strobe lights... Hell has strobe lights?

4.  Finally, your hay cart leaves hell, and takes you to a last scene, where a white robed, blue sash Jesus actor literally gets in your face, (occasionally only inches away) and scares you into "accepting Jesus".  Some guy says a prayer over the tour group.

Hey look! The final scene was nicely placed right next to the parking lot.

Excuse the crass spewing from my fingers.  It's hard to disguise my true hatred of these events.

In a few short, concise ideas, I'll try to encapsulate the major forces working directly against Christianity at these events.

SPECULATIVE NATURE:  We have to keep all theology within the realm of what's revealed to us mortals.  When it comes to "end of days" stuff basically 99% of it is hidden from us.  On purpose. What goes on at these events is taking huge leaps and filling in huge blanks that we're supposed to not be thinking, or indeed, worried about right now.  These events literally add to the gospel, (they talk about not doing that in Revelation actually ) and give non-believers the false idea that "this is what we KNOW will go down"

CONVERSION CENTERED DRAMA:  The goal here, with these churches, is conversion of mass groups all at once as they pass through this spectacle.  These poor kids walk away with the church investing nothing in them or in discipleship.  The pastors fist pump at the number of kids "saved" at their event, and then forget about them.  They went through and got their card punched.  Conversion without discipleship is buying the gym membership and never going.  It's worthless, you wasted time and money, and you probably smell a little weirder.

SALVATION SCARE TACTICS:  I'm assuming you know this one is literally insane already.  It may occasionally help with the conversion of someone prone to fear, but once we disciple them, and they get deep into the ideas of grace, they'll soon realize "hey, you kind of cheated to get me here."

I know the counter argument too, "What if one person is saved from all the thousand "Hell Nights" around the country?  I'd wager if one was saved, there's a dozen who will hate, reject, and cry out against churches because of events like these.

These events are built for "first timers" and are a terrible, false, and sinister introduction to the story.

But, I do so love autumn events...

What about a giant bonfire, bigger than you've ever seen, as in, the church had to get permits to build it.  A newcomer walks up, "Wow, is that what hell is supposed to look like?"

"No. that's what his love looks like."

I'm a "Millennial" and here's what I have to say about "Emerging Church"

As someone born in 1983, I exist in this strange realm on the cusp of 2 generations.  I can sort of pick which one I want to identify with.  I can either call myself, a very young "Gen Xer" or a very old "Millennial", depending on who's chart I'm looking at. 

At first I thought about being a Gen X.  I mean, I had a CD Walkman with "BASS BOOST" and "SKIP PROTECTION."  I did listen to "Smells Like Teen Spirit" a fair amount, but I wasn't even ten years old when it was released.  

In the end, I decided to be an "old soul" of the Millennials, and there's something about us that I'm finding off putting.  I read a statistic the other day that hit me pretty hard.  Apparently, I'm a member of 

"the least parented generation ever."  

Now, is this a statistic that's measurable or reliable? Is this a true "metric"?  

Not at all, obviously.  

But still, there's something about it that feels right isn't there?  When you read it you think, "yeah, probably."  

Which begs the question, 

If it's the job of the older generation to parent the younger, and the younger generation clearly hasn't "got it together", who's responsibility is that? ........ But I digress.  

I'm finding, as the millions of poorly-parented young adults begin to trek into the world, that all is, in fact, not lost.  

They're still learning the life lessons they need to, just in different ways, and a bit later than normal.  This is why Millennials are often called "Generation Y" as in "Generation Why"  

As someone with fairly amazing parents, I can't help but feel as if I stand as an outlier of my generation.  Though I'm still "plugged in" to how we're doing because we're about to inherit the earth and we need to be ready to take it.  

If nothing else, Millennials are master "customizers."  Everything about our life, world, intake, and relationships can be customized thanks to technology, millions of options, and the fact that our opinions run our lives down to the minute and most marketing firms know this.  So when anyone asks me to explain what the "Emerging Church" is, my best and most simple answer is something like, "Understand Millennials, and you'll understand Emerging Church."  

We are a "learn as you go" generation, because... well... no one really taught us. (Sorry Baby Boomers, this isn't really meant as harshly as it may sound)  

And so the church we're beginning to enter into is becoming a "learn as we go" church.  We grow together, as a community group, rather than a nuclear family, since so many of us lacked that.  We try things and decide to keep them, then try other things and decide to cut them.  We pry and ask and study and argue because we are more "Tabula Rasa" at age 30 then probably any generation before us.  

But here, at the heart of this, emerges the one awesomely powerful advantage of the Millennials.  

To us, the community is bigger, and more important, than the institution.

Millennials hate institutions.  We've seen too many of them become corrupt and crumble and fade.  This includes both secular (Wall Street, Bernie Madoff, American Baseball, Lance Armstrong) and spiritual (Catholic Priests, The 700 Club, Westboro Baptist) examples.  

We crave community because it's how we learn, and it's where we're safe.  We don't take rules spoon fed to us because we've been conditioned (at a frighteningly young age) to not trust all of them.  So we consider any church tradition we might want to use with essentially two rules. 

1.  If there's no one to tell you about it, then try it out and dive into it and see if it works, it's ok if it doesn't.  It's not the end of the world to try a tradition that has previously been thrown out.  It IS the end of the world to simply accept what the previous generations say about it.

2.  Keeping the church body full and healthy is ten times more important than any tradition, and anything in the way of that will be left behind.    

See the inherent trust issues there?  Yeah, millennials aren't awesome at trust, but we're awesome at seeking and probing, and once we give our loyalty to something we probably won't take it back.  

And so, the previous four of five generations before us practiced a more "Inherited Church" than we are, and that's not bad.  

But it's important to remember...  We're not the first "Emerging Church" and we won't be the last.  

This is a cycle, and we're playing our part of it.  

The most "emerging" of all the "Emerging Churches" is in the book of Acts.      

Actually there's several in Acts.  A group of people who literally start with nothing, no Inherited Church to speak of, and end up figuring it out as they go.  

If there's one passage of Jesus that Emerging Church folks love, it's probably John 17: 20-23, often called the Unity Prayer.  

Jesus says "Just as you are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me."  

Where does the belief come from?  The fact that all of Jesus' followers are united.  

Too much "Inherited Church" over too many generations leads to what we have now, a thousand different churches all worshiping Jesus and all saying the others aren't doing it right.  

The irony being that Jesus prayed for his followers to do the exact opposite.  

If "Emerging Church" (whatever that means) gets us closer to John 17 it will likely do so with some bumps and bruises and injuries along the way.  

But, bumps and bruises and injuries are part of the journey too.  

Just look in Acts. 

How to Starve Your Pride: It's Possible, Realistic, and Extremely Difficult.

     I've been feeling prideful lately.  Not in a "king on top of a mountain" sort of way, but maybe in a "smug old man sitting in first class with a blanket over his legs and a pair of very expensive headphones on."  Sort of way.  

     Writing sloppy disjointed metaphors, (see above) should be a great way to dismantle any man's pride, but I needed to really beat my pride back sufficiently, so I did what I do to everything I want to defeat, I study it.  

     Several theologians, preachers, and christian writers (including CS Lewis) have used the word "cancer" when talking about pride, and I like that. 

     Have you heard that saying, "If you can smell your own body odor it means you've been smelly for three days?"  Pride is like that, by the time you smell it on yourself it's probably been there for a while, and you're in dire need of a shower.  

     Body odor

     Pride

     Cancer 

     By the time you notice them they're so advanced, so deadly, and so overpowering, you'll need drastic measures to deal with them.

     Pride eats at your contentment, and it does it in such a way that you don't even realize what's happening.

     Now, before we move on, we need to make a distinction in the way of definition. 

     Pride is NOT, "I have much and you have little."  Pride is "I have much, you have little, and that is good, right, and means the world is just."  

     Ouch, you probably wouldn't want to have coffee with that person right?  But here we find the weakness in the armor.  There is a "comparison" element that feeds and grows pride.  

     It happens every day, in tiny little "pride" transactions as you go about your life and notice others.  Maybe they're not as "put together" as you are, maybe their taste in music, culture, fashion, anime, sandals, sports teams, chocolate, TV shows, politicians, isn't as refined as yours.  When you regard another person, or something about them, and feel a rush of satisfaction when you realize you are somehow superior, you've just fed your pride.  And feeding it doesn't just keep it around, feeding pride makes it grow.  Pride is never just existing because that's not it's nature.  Pride is either growing or dying, it does not ever live on a flatline.  

It's always going up, 

or down. 

     It eats at your contentment slowly, methodically, very like cancer, until you've got no contentment left.  Then it attacks more vital systems, namely love, or your capacity to love.  Finally in the later and most acute stages, pride eats away your common sense entirely.  

     When this happens, pride becomes a machine within you, helping you justify other sins.   Pride tells you the anger you had at that barista was totally ok.  Pride tells you writing that patronizing e-mail was perfectly fine.  

     Pride tells you that playing the victim card is always a great idea.  

     Eventually pride becomes the j

     Forcing yourself to stop the constant wheel of all day mini-comparisons is the first and most vital step to starving pride.  It's the chemo your system needs.  

     After that, I've found intentional solitude to be the dagger in pride's heart.

     Pride, being comparison fed, hates a solitary person.  Solitude leaves nothing and no one to compare with, and weakens pride.  A prideful person is always "looking out" solitude forces us to "look in."  While we're "looking in" we often notice the less than flattering parts of our personality and take steps to deal with them.  It's simply amazing what some solid alone time will do for someone fighting pride.    



     In Stephen King's "The Stand" one of the main characters, Mother Abigail, believes her self guilty of pride.  Her method of dealing with it is simply to get up and walk away, leave town and wander into the wilderness alone.  She does just that, (she's 108 years old) and the people in town who know and love her begin to scramble.  Upon her return she assures all of them that her sudden walkabout was not only good, it was essential.  I remember reading that and thinking, "wow, Stephen King gets it."  After all, when Jesus was being tempted in the desert, pride was one of the central subjects of that event.  And since "he was tempted in every way", we know he was tempted with pride.  He took it out to the wilderness and dealt with it.

    

Born to a Garden

I was born to a garden.  It was lush, wild, and held everything I needed.
You only gave me one rule, which I broke immediately.  And although I was invited to leave,
you still drove a path for me.

I grew and grew, and made my own rules.  After some time, you told me you were unhappy.
Not just with me, but also unhappy with yourself for ever putting me in the garden to begin with.
You said you were going to start over, but said your new plan still included me.  There was a boat,
and still you drove a path for me.

We started over, I got rich.  I had animals, money, children, once again, everything I needed.
One day I was attacked.  It was all gone in a moment.
My friends told me I had done something wrong, I assured them I hadn't.
I demanded that you show yourself, and you did.  I was humbled instantly, but still you showed me,
there was a path.

You brought me to the most powerful man in the world, and I impressed him.
He gave me a job, and I made him richer than he ever was before.
I too, grew and grew, until it frightened him.  He changed the rules, and put me in chains.
And suddenly the path was gone.
Then one day, in a fire, you showed me it was still there.

We left the oppression together, I saw we were in a dessert and you said you'd protect me
but I was afraid, and begged to go back.
Finally I saw the place you had in mind, for me to live and grow and thrive.
I prepared the place, though not how you wanted.  And began to live.

I followed you, left you, came back, argued with you, swore at you, left again.
I said I'd walk with you, I said I'd take your path, then I walked everywhere else. 
You told me that you would stop telling me how to do things, and instead come and show me.

You came to me in a way I didn't expect, so I thought that maybe it wasn't really you.
Then you healed me, you told me to walk with you again, you pulled me from water when I was drowning.
You game me food, told me stories, and said there were things you had to do, but I never really understood.
I asked you about the path, and you said there was a path, but that it wasn't for me.

I asked what you meant, and you said there was a path I couldn't walk with you.
I got nervous, and said I didn't know you.  I said I'd rather have a criminal than you, and then I ran.
I yelled at you, mocked you, beat you, telling you to over and over to escape, if you really could.

And then you were gone.

I laid low.  There wasn't much to do, just wonder if your grand experiment had failed.
Finally I went to see you, but you were gone.  I told people, who didn't believe me, and went to see.
Then you were walking right next me, and I didn't even know it was you.
You told me your path was now complete, but the story wasn't over.

The path that you walked I should now show others.

And they'll be afraid, just like I was with you.
And they'll swear and leave me, just like I did with you.
And they'll come with me, then leave me, then come back, and leave again, just like I did with you.

And I'll have to show them, not just tell them, just like you did with me.