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Tuesday, September 28, 2010
The American Dream
 As you may have heard, for the 34,784th time since I've been alive, a famous minister is in hot water following allegations
of sexual sin. I hate to admit it, but when I first heard about this story, I couldn't help but yawn. After all, it may or
may not be true, and even if it is, unfortunately, it's not altogether uncommon.
When I read this article about the scandal, however, I became much more interested in this story. After all, while it's still yet to be determined
whether Eddie Long is truly guilty of what he's been accused of, it's absolutely certain that he's guilty of something else.
From the article:
Bishop Long cuts a flashy figure in Lithonia, the Atlanta suburb where he lives and has
built his church. He is often seen in a Bentley attended by bodyguards... He favors Gucci sunglasses, gold necklaces, diamond
bracelets and Rolex watches. He lives in a 5,000-square-foot house with five bedrooms, which he bought for $1.1 million in
2005. His lavish display of wealth is in keeping with his theology. In his sermons, he often tells his congregation that God
wants them to be wealthy and asserts that Jesus was not a poor man...
...from 1997 to 2000 Bishop Long
had accepted $3 million in salary, housing, a car and other perks from a charity he controlled. “We’re not
just a church, we’re an international corporation,” he told the newspaper in justifying his compensation. “We’re
not just a bumbling bunch of preachers who can’t talk and all we’re doing is baptizing babies. I deal with the
White House. I deal with Tony Blair. I deal with presidents around this world. I pastor a multimillion-dollar congregation.”
In other words, according to the theology of Eddie Long, a minister whose church has a membership of 25,000 and
whose influence reaches 170 different countries through his television ministry, God wants you and I to have the American
Dream. God wants us follow Jesus, who was not a poor man, into prosperity, and He wants you and me to have big houses,
fancy cars and flashy bling, and if we don't, chances are good we're at 'just' a church, not an international corporation.
Of course, the Jesus Bishop Long believes is certainly not the Jesus of the New Testament. The Jesus of the New Testament
was a homeless drifter who taught his disciples to depend on the charity of other people. He cared little about money, other than to teach about its evils, declared that rich people would have a hard time making it in his kingdom, and threw a temper tantrum at the fact that people were profiting off of God. Jesus taught that we shouldn't worry about our physical well being, and the early church understood his advice to mean that we have freedom from the love of money.
Other than that, Bishop Long is right on the mark.
The point is simple: we
live in a nation that teaches that the ultimate goal is to work hard, make money and get stuff. And when we do that, we'll
be happy. This is, of course, wrong, and we have thousands of years of recorded human history to show us that wealth in no
way equal happiness. The problem isn't that this is the driving force in American economics, politics, and ethics; the problem
is that this philosophy has permeated the church, a kingdom of God that has nothing to do with this world.
This isn't intended to be an attack on the American Dream anymore than it's intended to rip Eddie Long. Instead, it's my
hope and prayer that the church will wake up and start standing for what it was always supposed to stand for - God's will
being done through his people in his world. We've been called to follow Jesus, not a corporation or a get rich quick
scheme. Doing what we've been called to do won't make us rich the way the world counts riches, and that's okay; after all,
as the writer of Hebrews notes, all of creation will be shaken and destroyed one day. God's kingdom, however, will never pass away.
Jesus was
not American, and he didn't work for the American Dream, focusing on all the things that so many people care so much about.
If we're going to to follow Jesus, then, perhaps we shouldn't either.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Where Love Begins
 It's a story that shouldn't be amazing. It shouldn't give you chills or remind you of something
in Hollywood or cause you to send an online link to your friends and family.
It's a story that should be normal.
After all, when Jesus taught his followers how they should pray, he taught them to focus on bringing God's kingdom to earth, and he taught them to ask God for the strength, focus, and motivation
to forgive those who would wrong them. When Jesus taught you and me how to communicate with our Father in Heaven, we were
supposed to do so with an eye on how we treat our brothers and sisters in the world, particularly the ones who hurt us.
But when I read this story, I'm amazed. And that's wrong.
In case you don't have the time, the story in question is one of a simple man from
the Bronx who was mugged a couple years ago. His mugger was a teenager who pulled a knife on him and demanded his wallet.
The man did more than give him money. He gave him his coat as well, because, as he said, the the boy looked cold.
He took him to a diner and fed him because, as he noticed, the boy looked hungry. He showed him an example of respect as he
talked to everyone he encountered, because, as he explained, everyone deserves kindness.
In the end, the boy's
life was changed, and instead of stealing from the man, he gave him a gift: the knife he used to mug him, as a pledge that
he would steal no more.
It's one thing to talk about love, comassion, mercy and forgiveness. But in the heat of
the moment, during the split seconds when you decide whether or not to emulate Jesus, the choice to love God by loving other
people is an incredibly difficult one to make. And whether or not you and I make it will depend largely on whether or not
we've prepared ourselves to love. It depends, more than anything, on whether or not we've chosen to forgive even before we're
wronged.
Jesus was always ready to forgive, even in the midst of bitter hatred and intense persecution from his
enemies. In doing so, he taught us how we can be just as ready.
And when we are, our stories shouldn't be amazing;
but to a broken and fallen world, they will be.
Thursday, September 9, 2010
10 million
 The statistic is 1 in 200.
Now, admittedly, those don't sound like very good odds. Heck,
most of the time, 1 in 12 bottles of soda win a prize of some sort, and I never seem to win those. So 1 in 200 sounds like
pretty long odds. And if I told you there was a 1 in 200 chance something terrible would happen to you, you probably wouldn't
lose much sleep over it. Yet, when you realize what the statistic actually is, the numbers become much more sobering:
Today, 1 in 200 Christians worldwide will die for their faith.
The math is staggering - depending on your source,
there are anywhere from 2.1 to 2.5 Billion Christians in the world today. For simplicity's sake, using the flat number of
2 Billion, that means that somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 million Christians who are alive right now will die as
martyrs.
Read that again: 10. Million. Christians.
This seems unthinkable to you and me, and that's
to be expected, since we've been blessed to live in a country with religious freedom our whole lives. But let's say that we
lose that freedom - what happens then? If the Old Testament is any indication, if that happens, Christians will suffer and die. And if Jesus told us the truth, that shouldn't surprise us.
So, what's a Christian to do? Most have chosen to fight
for self preservation, attempting to make sure we always have freedom in this country. The American Church, for the most
part, has made the decision to do everything it can to ensure that we always have the freedoms we've been blessed with. This
choice can be both noble and selfless, and I in no way shape or form mean to disrespect the sacrifice that's been
made on behalf of this country by so many to protect her people when I say this: fighting for self preservation won't work
forever. It's worked so far, since we've enjoyed freedom of religion for over 200 years, but history has taught us that
eventually, even the greatest nations on earth crumble and fall. And when that happens, it's the most basic and precious freedoms
that are lost first.
That's why the New Testament gives us a second option that we can choose: accept that the Christian life may mean that we suffer. This is, of course,
is much easier said by a Midwestern preacher sitting in an air conditioned office behind a computer screen than it is
done by Christians persecuted all around the world. But unless the American Church is the exception to the rule, following
God in this world has always, and will always mean living at odds with the cultures and people groups around us. And
no amount of legislation, rallies in Washington or book burnings by crazy people can change that fact. To follow Christ is
to open yourself up to suffering, persecution, and perhaps even death.
Accepting this fact doesn't mean that you're
not a good patriot. Nor does it mean you become a glutton for punishment, seeking out persuction everywhere
you go. Instead, the understanding that we may suffer should cause us to realize that no matter what freedoms we have or do
not have, our primary allegiance on earth is to the Kingdom of God. It's that Kingdom that we serve, that community
that we work to see flourish. This takes an understanding that in Christ, we've been called to lay down everything we have
for HIS sake, and that's a call that transcends nations and people groups. That's a call that exists whether we have religious
freedom or not.
The bottom line is that you and I need to make our choice now, to serve Christ no matter what government
we live under. For too long and for too many, living a life of faith has been conditioned on living under the blessings
of this nation. But the Christian life is not always a blessed life here on this earth, and the most faithful people
are very often the people who suffer the most.
And if you don't believe that, there are 10 Million you can
ask.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Jesus and Muslims
 I understand. Believe me, I do.
More importantly,
Jesus understands.
See, while Jesus was the Son of God, he was also completely human. And he was born a Jew, embracing
the Hebrew culture from a young age. Part of that Hebrew culture included an inherited rift with a neighboring people group:
the Samaritans. Owing their roots to a foreign invader, and eventually becoming a mixed breed of different people groups,
the Samaritans were seen as a traitorous enemy to the nation of Israel. Worst of all, they claimed to be more holy and righteous
than the Israelites, believing themselves to be the keepers of the true religion, and seeing the Jews as being renegades who
had perverted God’s word.
By the time Jesus was born, the hostility and hatred between the Israelites and
the Samaritans had boiled over, and in his world, it was absolutely unheard of to fraternize with the enemy. The Jews feared
the influence of the Samaritans over their world, and sought to shun them from their communities. Jesus, from an early age,
was taught that the Samaritans were people that were against God, against his family, and against his country.
And
yet, Jesus loved the Samaritans.
He healed Samaritans. He told parables where the Samaritans were the righteous figures. He revealed to a Samaritan that he was the
Messiah. And when he died on the cross, he gave his life as an atoning sacrifice for the sins of the Samaritans.
So today, in 2010, when you and I harbor hatred and hostility for our own Samaritans, not only do
I understand, but Jesus does. He’s been there, and he’s faced that temptation. But most importantly, he gave us
a blueprint for how to deal with that temptation: love.
It’s easy to look at Islam today with fear or
anger. It’s easy to be bitter and hostile. It’s natural to feel like everyone else should hate them, and that
they shouldn’t share the same rights that you and I do. It’s normal to want revenge for past offenses, and to
want to shield our families and nation from their influence. It’s exactly what our common sense tells us to do, just
as it was what the common sense of the Jews of Jesus’ day to feel and act the same way towards the Samaritans.
But
the truth is this: God loves Muslims. Jesus died for Mohammed, and each and every one of his followers. And as tempting as
it is to seek for the preservation of the ‘American way of life,’ we were never instructed by our God to seek
such self preservation. Instead, we were told to show love and forgiveness, without condition and without limit. That is how
the world will know we belong to a different kingdom; that is how the world will see Jesus.
I get it. I really,
truly do – this is, perhaps, the most difficult thing that could be asked of us, to love and forgive a people group
that has brought war and pain to our borders. But our Christianity MUST trump our patriotism, and the one doing the asking
is God himself. You and I, daily, must check our hearts and put to death the anger and resentment and bitterness that most people have,
and instead, seek out Christ’s love – even for those who are the very definition of ‘unlovable.’ I’m
not saying this is easy, and I’m not saying it’s something that will happen overnight. But if we are to emulate
Jesus, it will be our aim, no matter how hard it may be.
And remember – no one understands how hard it
truly is better than Jesus.
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