HAPPY ZOMBIE JESUS DAY, OR...

How Atheists Celebrate Easter

I did not know that Easter had been given a new name by some atheists and agnostics.   I choose to think its funny.  The illustration I've added above isn't a representation of the real Jesus Christ, who is my savior.   I'm not offended that people who are not Christian treat Jesus this way.  Anyone who knows Jesus would never think of this kind of thing.  

Actually the whole zombie thing has some merit.  They just got the roles reversed.  From God's perspective it is the people of the world who are the walking dead, or zombies.   Jesus is the anti-zombie.  

See?  That really wasn't so bad, now was it??

FINAL THOUGHTS FROM SINNERS IN THE HANDS OF AN ANGRY CHURCH

What Should We Really Value?

"As Charles Colson puts it, "You don't change a culture by passing

laws.  You change a culture by changing people's habits.  

That's why the the Gospel is so central to the the 

possibilities of cultural reformation in American life."

Anything that gets in the way of someone truly understanding 

and evaluating the gospel of Jesus Christ deserves a serious 

review.  When Americans can't seem to hear the Good News

because of the Christian media's stream of bad news delivered

with acrimonious passion, something is terribly wrong." 

(Dean Merrill, Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry Church; Zondervann Publishing House, Grand Rapids, MI; 1997; pg. 162)

When I read this excerpt from Merrill's book I am brought back to Paul's words in Philippians 3:7-11

⁷ But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. ⁸ What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ ⁹ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. ¹⁰ I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, ¹¹ and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.

Look at the part of the verses I've made bold:  "I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ."  I believe the most faithful rendering of the word "garbage", in English is, in fact, "shit".   Paul is telling us that everything besides Jesus Christ is shit, and he's not making reference to natural fertilizer.
   

Paul is so funny, but we don't take him as being funny, do we?  Ask any theologian who the greatest theological writer in the Bible is, Old or New Testament, and Paul is always the first to come to mind.  Wesley, Calvin, Luther, and the majority of others would hold up Paul's writing's as the greatest in the Bible.   This is why Paul is so funny.  Paul says that he is the least of the apostles, because he persecuted Christ.   We think of Paul as the greatest, but we don't really know why.  Paul is the greatest, not for his great theology. (Paul is one of the greatest theologians, by the way.)  Paul is great because he threw his religious position away; he tossed away being "right"; he threw out all things kosher and Jewish.  Instead of being a hero of the Jews he is the hero of the Gentile believers.  Paul tells us in Romans that if he could save all the Jews through condemnation of himself, that he would make this sacrifice.   Paul was the Jew to end all Jews; the Big Kahuna Jewish theologian.  But Paul says, "I am the least of Christ's apostles..."

Everything Paul was he threw out of his life that he might have all that God gives through his only Son, Jesus.   He gave up all that he valued, all that he had earned.  Paul gave up everything he thought God is supposed to be, so that he could know all that God promised through Jesus.   He even rebuked the apostle Peter for acting "Jewish", because of some men James had sent to visit.   Paul empties himself of everything he could be in himself.   Paul isn't great because he's the best theologian.  Paul is the best, because he let go of himself, and grasped at all of Christ.   Jesus grabbed him, and Paul grabbed Jesus back. 
  

What makes Paul remarkable, memorable, right, good, brilliant, the greatest of Christ's apostles is the new life of Christ in him.   It is Jesus/Paul we can't help loving.  It is Christ Jesus in Paul, "the hope of glory," that we find great.  The secret is Christ.  Just Jesus Christ.  Paul is right...everything...EVERYTHING, which is not Christ is shit.  


This is what I believe:  Jesus is everything.  What is not Jesus is shit.  I am a believer in Jesus of Nazareth...God's answer to and for everything.

Any questions?   

I'M STRUGGLING....

PASSION PLAY??

Mom wanted the family to attend her church's version of The Passion Play.  They did an admirable job.  I liked the script, but the songs were all modern worship songs.  The characterizations were good enough.  The set was very good, and just the spectacle alone in this massive church was very impressive.  (This church building is so big critics call it "Six Flags Over Jesus", and they aren't far off).   

There were all the important scenes: Jesus defending an adulterous woman; Jesus confronting the religious leaders; Jesus healing the sick and raising the dead; Jesus arrested; and Jesus crucified.   Everything a good "Passion Play" must have it had in spades.   It tugged on the heart strings.

I guess my problem is I can't relate to any of the characters, or stories.  These days if I wanted to defend a woman caught in adultery I'd first have to find someone who cared about anyone committing adultery.   I watched Jesus confront the Pharisees and other religious leaders, but those Pharisees don't look a thing like me.  How am I supposed to know what my own religious peccadillos are?  I was moved by Jesus' crucifixion.  It was clever when they sent up a cloud of smoke and sprung Jesus up through the floor.  They even had  great way of flying Jesus out of the auditorium when he ascended.   My problem is still understanding what the Bible means when I'm told,  "...it is not I who live, but Christ who lives in me..."   Look I've been in a couple of "Passion Plays" myself.   Their fine, really.   I've watched many of them, including the one Mel Gibson did on film several years ago.    Passion Plays are great drama, and they pull the heart strings so hard they almost break.   What Passion Plays lack is the ability to produce the same passion in my own heart and actions.

The truth is the gospel stories aren't good material for stage or film productions.  What the gospels are great at is producing miraculous life changes.  Miraculous life changes produce incredible drama in our lives as we, through the Holy Spirit, live out the gospels in our own day to day sojourn.

Just Some Thoughts,

Lonnie

 

47 YEAR OLD AND A BIKE

Bike Shorts!

You've heard, "No pain no gain," and I'm good with that.  I have been riding every day, and I'm loving the pain in my legs.   Each day I'm building stamina, as I ride for longer amounts of time.  The problem is pain in another place...where the bike saddle and I meet.   That is not good pain, and I don't look forward to that, at all.   I know I said I wasn't going to get any of those "gross" bike shorts...ha ha ha...I didn't know what I needed when I bought the bike, but I know better now.  I quickly went to the guy who sold me the bike, and had him sell me some "gross" bike shorts.  

today for the first time I rode wearing my new shorts.  Oh! What a feeling some padding makes!   Oh, and I took care of the grossness of the shorts by wearing a pair of light weight basketball shorts over them.   No one watching would know I was wearing my bike underwear.

I'm back in love with my bike!

MORE SINNERS IN THE HANDS OF AN ANGRY CHURCH

America A Christian Nation?

"When American Christians today cry for a return to the founding principles, what they have in mind, without realizing it, is less the philosophy of Washington and Jefferson than that of the Pilgrim settlers 150 years earlier. There one finds the up-front, openly Christian proclamations:

"In you name of God Amen. We whose names are underwritten... doe by these presents solemnly & mutually in ye presence of God, and one of another covenant, & combine ourselves togeather into a civill body politick..."

~ The Mayflower Compact, 1620

"We shall find that God of Israel is among us when he shall make us a praise and glory that men shall say of succeeding plantation: "The Lord make it lie that of New England." For we must consider that we shall be a city on a hill."

~ John Winthrop, on board the Arbella, 1630,

en route to become the first governor of the

Massachusetts Bay Colony

Thus it was entirely logical, according to a 1641 Massachusetts law, that "if any man...shall have or worship any other god, but the Lord God, he shall be put to death" ...On a lesser scale, people also were expected to be diligent in educating their offspring. If they were not, "the selectmen [town councilmen], on finding children ignorant, may take them from their parents and put them into better hands, at the expense of their parents."

How would you like to put that power in the hands of big government today?"

(Dean Merrill, Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry Church; Zondervann Publishing House, Grand Rapids, MI; 1997; pg. 92-93)

Just some thoughts...

How bout it? Would you like the government under Obama, or for that matter Bush, to come take the kids, give 'em away, and force you to pay child support? And whose version of Christianity shall the government enforce? Shall we be Catholic (beer and gambling for all), Baptist (No beer or gambling at all), or how about whichever flavor the President prefers? Obama would be president and his pastor, Jeremiah Wright would be Lord High Poobah of the most holy American See.

Perhaps we should simply go back to the faith of our Puritan forefathers? They sacrificed all to find a place to practice their religion as they saw fit. Of course they didn't extend that freedom to the native Americans living on the land they stole. The very pious Pilgrims would never have stolen from one another, but they stole from the native people's whose empty Summer lodgings they found.

If Jesus were the kind of God who stole and oppressed, the way our forefathers did to the indigenous peoples, I'd kick him to the curb and get a new God.

THE 47 YEAR OLD AND A BIKE

I'm going to get this shirt!

I picked up the bike I bought this morning. It's a Trek 7000 17.5", and it weighs less than one of my legs. I strapped on my helmet, put my water bottle in the holder, and took off around the neighborhood. I haven't ridden a bike in about 20 years. I don't need to tell you where and how much I felt my first bike ride in two decades. I loved it, and that is the important thing.

As a young man I loved riding my bike. As an older man I will love riding my bike. The love affair didn't end it was postponed. The difficulty for me is the frustration with being out of shape. The desire to ride for miles is within, but the stamina isn't in my body yet.

Things to remember for my next ride:

• Get a water bottle with a flip cap.
• Do not take my sinus medication just before riding. It became a competition between breathing and swallowing large quantities of mucus. Somehow I think breathing is probably important.
  
• I can see the appeal of those padded bike shorts. But the horror/humor of seeing Buddha wearing those shorts riding a bike might cause some serious accidents for on lookers in cars.

I'm loving it! I'll keep you posted

A WONDERFUL BOOK!

In Dean Merrill's book, Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry Church: Finding A Better Way To Influence Our Culture, he relates a wonderful story about Abraham Lincoln's encounter at a wartime reception.

At a reception during the Civil War, President Lincoln made a passing reference
to Southerners as "erring human beings"--a much softer term than his
audience would have preferred. A woman quickly chastised him for his choice
of words. In her mind, they were enemies to be destroyed, and the sooner
the better.

"Why, Madam," replied Lincoln, "do I not destroy my enemies when I make
them my friends?"

Isn't President Lincoln's lesson the same lesson Christ teaches His Church? A man asks Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?” And Jesus teaches the parable of “The Good Samaritan”. Jews despised Samaritans, because Samaritans are half-breeds, and therefore did not hold to the whole truth of God, revealed to the Jews through Moses. If Jesus were to tell this parable today he might change it up a bit. Perhaps instead of “ The Good Samaritan” the story would be called, “The Good Homosexual”. In the modern parable the injured person could be a fundamentalist Christian, and his caretaker could be a drag queen(s), in full regalia and makeup. The story would most certainly produce the same response in Christians, that the original likely produced in the religious Jews of Jesus' day.

Just a thought...