Waiting For Sunday

Move over, Philip Yancey and Donald Miller. I’ve found a new book to mention ad nauseam, and it’s The Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne. As I mentioned a few days ago, Claiborne is a 31-year-old Christian who founded The Simple Way, a faith community in Philadelphia that practices a truly different (and intriguing) way for people to live together.

The Irresistible Revolution is 358 pages of easy reading covering Claiborne’s ideas on community, poverty, war, social justice, wealth, the consumer culture, nationalism and the Christian faith. What’s new here? Nothing. And everything.

Nothing, in the sense that Claiborne’s thoughts and habits come from a long stream flowing back through Rich Mullins, Tony Campolo, Martin Luther King, the Catholic Worker Movement, Anabaptist traditions, monasticism, all the way back to Jesus of Nazareth. Everything, in that Claiborne lives in today’s world and confronts the problems we should be facing (though in general, we’re not) - including the Iraq war. Claiborne went to Baghdad early in 2003 to minister to and with the local Christians, and was there during “shock and awe”.

In a book loaded with great content, two things about Claiborne make him impressive to me:

First, he doesn’t just protest, he gives positive alternatives (and lives them). He writes: “Whether in church or in circles of social dissent, there are plenty of people who define themselves by what they are not, whose identity revolves around what they are against rather than what they are for…Most people are aware that something is wrong. The real question is, What are the alternatives?” (p. 309) The Irresistible Revolution is filled with alternatives - some are nutty, many are quite compelling.

Second, although Claiborne offers a strong critique of the megachurch movement, he also shows deep and love and respect for the ultimate megachurch, Willow Creek Community Church, and its pastor Bill Hybels. When Willow kicked off a multi-million dollar building campaign several years ago, Claiborne expressed grief that so much money would be spent on buildings when millions live in terrible poverty. Claiborne and Hybels wrote back and forth over this, but (according to Claiborne) without defensiveness and with “deep respect and gentleness”. Willow went ahead with the project, for which Claiborne expresses sadness “that we had settled for another building when God might have had so much else in mind”. But then he adds a paragraph praising Willow for its “remarkable strides toward justice and reconciliation”, its substantial financial gifts toward relief for people around the world, and its continuing emphasis that “90 percent discipleship is 10 percent short”. Claiborne completely won me over with that single paragraph. (All quotes from p. 328)

The biggest takeaway from The Irresistible Revolution and from Claiborne’s life is that it is the layers of separation - between rich and poor, white and black, Christians and non-Christians, and Americans and the rest of the world - that perpetuate injustice and poverty. Claiborne shows with his life that he has the guts to tear down those walls. As did Jesus.

As shall we.

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On Sunday, May 14 (which is Mother’s Day) we will begin a two-week series at church called “Escape the Debt Trap” based on a book of that name by Dr. Kregg Hood.
Since MHCC just signed for a large loan on our new building, you might wonder about the consistency of talking about debt as a trap from which we need to escape. Well, consider:

1. Borrowing money isn’t a sin. In the Old Testament, God allowed his people to loan money to one another as long as they charged no interest, and He allowed them to loan to foreigners with interest (see Deuteronomy 23:19-20). I would guess that 90% of us borrowed money to buy our homes. You can bet that our church wouldn’t stand still for this if lending and borrowing were sins. Still, even reasonable borrowing limits us, for: “The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender” (Proverbs 22:7). Now that MHCC has creditors, paying them is a moral and legal obligation, and they have a right to review our books.This is more than a little relevant to our personal finances too, because we participate in a market that encourages debt. We’re told: “If it’s OK to borrow for your house, why not for a car, and a computer, and for carpet and clothes? Why not use your credit card for groceries, utility bills and gas? And if you can’t pay it off at the end of the month, just extend it out as long as you need to (and pay the interest).” That leads to my second point:

2. MHCC is a reflection of her people, and so our church’s financial situation reflects the finances of the people who attend here. What I mean is that MHCC’s need to borrow may reveal that many of her people are trapped in personal debt.I think you will enjoy reading Dr. Hood’s short book (which we began handing out on Sunday, April 30 ). If you are completely out of debt, or you have your debt under control, you’ll find this study to be a rewarding review, and maybe it will inspire you to mentor others. If you have a debt problem (moderate or serious), you will find real help in this practical, Biblical study.

As a follow-up to this study, we will offer in June a four-week class on Biblical Financial Principles, and we will make available some personal financial counseling to those who will commit to it.

Since this is such an important issue, be sure to invite your friends to this special study on May 14 and 21.

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All About GOD is a website devoted to answering lots of questions about God, Jesus Christ, and Christianity. It’s a great place for seekers or for Christians who want to review the basis of their faith.

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Here’s a post I meant to make this past Saturday, the day that stands between Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Philip Yancey writes eloquently that we live in a Saturday world, a world that stands between the hope announced on Resurrection Day and the time of the end when Christ will return and reign victorious. He writes:

“What the disciples experienced in small scale - three days, in grief over one man who died on a cross - we now live through on a cosmic scale. Human history grinds on, between the time of promise and fulfillment…It’s Saturday on planet earth. Will Sunday ever come?”

Yancey, of course, believes that it will. Through the miracle of Amazon’s search-inside-a -book, you can view the page from The Jesus I Never Knew that contains this passage here.

Brett McCracken draws from this same idea in recent article at Relevant: “We exist in a Saturday world. Between Friday and Sunday, when the world was still, the tears fresh, the grave sealed—the darkest day past, a brighter morning imminent—but until then … waiting.”

Come Lord Jesus.

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If you’re up for some intellectual heavy-lifting, Mark Dever has a good article at Christianity Today called “Nothing But the Blood”. The article summary says:

“More and more evangelicals believe Christ’s atoning death is merely a grotesque creation of the medieval imagination.” Atonement is the word we use to indicate that Christ’s death paid for our sins - his blood in place of mine.

Dever opposes this view of course, and so do I. But the criticism he outlines in his article makes me wonder if we emphasize enough the other two explanations of the cross in Scripture besides atonement. Namely:

1. Ransom - “…humanity’s main problem is that we are trapped and oppressed by spiritual forces beyond our control. Christ’s death, then, is seen as a ransom that frees us from captivity.”
2. God’s love demonstrated - “Christ’s death on the Cross demonstrates God’s love so dramatically that we are convinced of his love and are now able to share it with others.”

In my own preaching, I probably tend to emphasize atonement and the demonstration of God’s love more than ransom. All three are Scriptural.

In listing the problems some people have with atonement theology, Dever hits on a valid concern - that focusing only on Christ’s payment for my sin often leads to a very individual Christianity that is only about personal guilt, ignoring social action. His article is worth reading just to see the other potential problems.

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I haven’t lost my mind, but nothing beats an eye-catching headline. Cindy and I recently did a workshop at Johnson Bible College called Pornography: Freeing the Victims of this Victimless Vice. This list is the resource page we handed out on paper, and it demonstrates the power of de.lico.us, which I blogged about earlier. I used it here to give everyone a clickable version of my bibliography. One day it might make sense to do the same with all of my church teaching. Or if someone asks you to recommend some articles or resources, tag the links in del.icio.us and send them the link. BTW, the best (anti) porn site is xxxchurch.com.

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Today I’ll point you to a few sites that help me dig into the Christian faith and get ready for Sunday. First, check out the Media Ministry at Watermark Community Church in Dallas, featuring Todd Wagner (who I like to call the OTHER preacher you really should listen to). We listened to his sermon on pornography here at MHCC on a Sunday night back in October. I especially recommend his series on possessions called Consumed and his message on The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. You can listen online or download his stuff to your music player (for free).I visit ChristianityToday.com every day for news and feature stories. I don’t really know how it makes financial sense for them to put everything from all their magazines online for free, but they do, and it’s good stuff.

I also like Relevant magazine’s site. It’s aimed at a younger crowd (Christians in their 20s), but the slices (in the middle of the main page) offer bits of cultural news you might want to know about, and they’re updated throughout the day.

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