State of Origin and the Gospel

Just to preempt those sermons being prepared for this Sunday: the State of Origin is not like the kingdom of heaven.

Over to you, commenters.

The Army

Imagine you have just completed training to be a lifesaver on QLD beaches. It comes to your first day on the job and you are looking forward to rescuing people who are struggling in the surf. But instead of supplying you with floatation devices and an inflatable rescue boat, your instructor gives you... a gun.

It seems to me this is close to the situation we have with our army, although vastly simplified. I've had many conversations about war and the defense force before, and often I've heard people say "but they're really doing aid work, rebuilding, protecting families, keeping the peace." To which I say "Brilliant, but if that's what they're doing, why all the weapons and military training?"

When that's your training and those are the resources most readily at your fingertips, peacemaking options and creative solutions also become very limited. Imagine if we only gave lifesavers a gun? I would guess that deaths on beaches would escalate and there would be a lot less rescues.

Now dream with me. What if all the money spent on our defense force was spent instead on nonviolent aid instead? What if all the time spent training these millions of people for the military was spent training them for humanitarian work? What if the brilliant minds at the top were enlisted to find creative nonviolent ways to organise nations, creative nonviolent ways to work through conflict and threat, and creative nonviolent ways to bring world peace?

I'm convinced we COULD have world peace if more nations started thinking like this. It wouldn't even need to be all of them.

Jesus' Dream Now on Amazon

Quick update. Pretty self-explanatory if you read the post title. The short course/discussion series on Jesus that I've written this year is now available on Amazon, for any Kindle devices.

Check it out here...

Jesus' Dream: an intro to Jesus in six sessions

Love to hear your thoughts! Thanks.

Ben

Jesus Dream Short Course

Why is Jesus so important? What on earth was he on about?

Last year I became friends with a guy who wanted to know more about Jesus. I didn't want to just give him a book about it, and I thought the best thing would be for us to lock in a time each week, have a coffee, and go through one of those new-Christian discussion guides. But when I looked at what was available, I didn't find any that I thought would work well for an everyday Aussie guy - especially someone who hasn't grown up in a church (which is most Aussies now).

The ones I found were either too long (who will commit to a 10week religious course?), too impractical (watching a 40min sermon is not a normal thing for non-church people), too advanced (using theological concepts that are only familiar to people who've grown up in church) or misrepresented Jesus or the gospel. Some I felt just started in entirely the wrong place for non- church people (like calling for a commitment in the first session or starting with "you're a sinner" - which Jesus never did).

In the end I thought I'd just start the conversations myself and see where it went. In the process, through the conversations, questions and inevitable extra research by me, I ended up discovering a lot more about Aussie culture and about Jesus and his way of life. Most of all, I've discovered that Jesus and his way of life fits our culture to a T. He's the kind of guy that Aussies - even Aussie males - really respect.

So this year I've put together my own short course on Jesus that aims to fit Aussie non-church culture better. It starts where Jesus himself started, by calling people to dream with him about a new world. A better world of beauty and colour, free of pain and disaster, full of hope and light, creativity and passion, food and fun. It was a brilliant place to start, by a brilliant, visionary, revolutionary leader. So I figured I couldn't do better than start there myself. Jesus' dream is something we can all relate to.

This short course looks at Jesus' dream, his inspiring way of life and his amazing story. It's in six sessions for small groups or individuals.

After months of writing, editing and formatting, it's finally available on the iTunes iBookstore. Here's the link to the ePub version (which will work on most devices). And there's also a version specially designed for iPads.

http://itunes.apple.com/au/book/jesus-dream/id565908659?mt=11

Please go and check it out! I'd love to hear your thoughts. There's even a sample chapter there for free. And if you're using it somewhere other than Australia, I'd be especially interested to know how it goes. Thanks!

Final Thoughts on Dawkins' "The God Delusion"

I’ve been reading Richard Dawkins’ book The God Delusion, and offering my thoughts on chapter three, where he looks at the arguments for God’s existence. Check out the earlier posts if you want to see what I’ve covered so far. Almost there now. Here are the last few “arguments” in the chapter.

The Argument from Admired Religious Scientists: e.g. "Newton was religious, so who are you to say different to him?" Really? Who is using this argument?

Pascal's Wager: "You're better off to choose to believe that God exists, because if you're wrong it won't matter anyway. If you choose not to believe in God and you're wrong, you might end up in hell." Dawkins has some good points to say about this one (which I'm sorry to say I've used before). Choosing God along the lines of this argument (because I'd be better off) is a selfish reason to choose God, and not very honest. Also, there are quite a lot of supposed "gods" out there. Which one are we supposed to choose in order to be safe? I remember a sketch by Rowan Atkinson that referred to this. "Oh I'm sorry Christians. The Jews were right." Not to mention the fact that many atheists have chosen not to believe because they see that religion has had a very bad (even evil) influence in the world's history.

The Bayesian Arguments, using probability, don't seem to work very well in my mind, so we may as well go with Dawkins on that one.

And then he concludes the chapter with The Argument from Improbability, which he says works in his favour. "A designer God cannot be used to explain organized complexity because any God capable of designing anything would have to be complex enough to demand the same kind of explanation in his own right." This sounds to me like "God can't have designed the universe because then someone would have to have designed God." Why does God have to be designed? God is God.

I think the bigger question is, "Why is that such a conclusive argument for Dawkins?" He comes back to it a lot in these chapters. I wonder if the argument behind this one is in reality more like this: "God can't exist because it's irrational to think that God exists."

The next chapter deals with improbability a bit more, but I'll leave that for another post.

So where does all that leave us? Obviously I haven’t been convinced, although it has been a very helpful book to read. It’s great to see things from the other side of the discussion for a change, and I can see how it all works for Richard Dawkins. He’s an intelligent guy, and I respect his thinking. He's got some important things to say about religion, and Christians would do well to listen a bit more.

Summing up...

My conclusion from all of it is this:You can't prove or disprove the existence of God using science, philosophy or logic. My advice is to stop trying. It's the wrong field altogether, although it makes for some interesting, important discussions.

Dawkins proposes that belief in God is the same as if someone postulates that there is a teapot orbiting Jupiter. And this highlights the problem. If you're an atheist, it is the same. God and an orbiting teapot may as well be the same thing. But if you're not an atheist, obviously it's vastly different.

For myself, I'm open to the scientific possibility that God exists. For Dawkins this is irrational. I think the fact that he is closed to that possibility is irrational and unscientific. And that's basically where it all ends up. For me it's God, but for him it's a teapot.

And for that reason, we can't really have a reasonable discussion on these lines.

Homosexuality and Heaven

Can homosexuals get to heaven? According to some so-called "Christians" (a frustratingly ill-used term), apparently not.

I just read an article from the New York Times about the values of Exodus International, an organization existing "to provide spiritual support for Christians who are struggling with homosexual attraction." Recently there has been some controversy surrounding statements made by the president, Mr Alan Chambers, in which he declared "that there was no cure for homosexuality and that 'reparative therapy' offered false hopes to gays and could even be harmful." Apparently for many years Exodus has operated under the idea that anyone can be cured of homosexuality through prayer and psychotherapy, and now Chambers is calling for people to be more realistic. According to the article, "he said that virtually every 'ex-gay' he has ever met still harbors homosexual cravings.... But those who fail should not be severely judged, he said, adding, 'We all struggle or fall in some way.'"

I won't go into the details of that debate (maybe another time), but I was struck by a statement made by one of the people who want Chambers to resign. From a man who is supposedly an associate professor at a US theological seminary: "My greatest concern has to do with Alan's repeated assurances to homosexually active 'gay Christians' that they will be with him in heaven..."

This brings to light quite clearly a view I've sadly heard before, that practicing homosexuals are somehow disqualified from God's grace. Let me say this as clearly as I can: this is not true, and grossly misrepresents God. The idea that ANYTHING can disqualify us from God's grace is utterly false.

If it were true, how would any of us be saved? To use a verse the conservative evangelicals love, "For all have sinned..."

The amazing beauty of the gospel is this: that ANYONE can turn to Jesus and be saved. It's not about what we've done, or (let's be honest) what we might yet do. It's about God's love. The thief on the cross turns to Jesus and says "Remember me when you come into your kingdom," and Jesus' immediate response is "Today you will be with me in paradise." This guy could have done anything. Murderer? Fraud? Terrorist? But it wouldn't have mattered. It doesn't matter because of God's love and grace. Anyone can go to heaven.

No one is disqualified, thank God. Anyone can turn to Jesus and be a part of his future kingdom.

Any other message is NOT Christianity.

The Stars

I wonder if we lost something when we discovered that the earth is round and God and heaven are not "up there." I can really see how it would be nice to look at the stars, or the clouds streaking across the sky at sunset, and think of it as God's home.

I guess we can still take our cues from the vastness, glory and beauty of the sky, but it does take a little more imagination now.

But maybe it is for the better. What do you think? Do you think we lost something?

Above All Else

"Seek the Kingdom of God above all else,
and he will give you everything you need." - Luke 12:31

"Our Father in heaven,
may your name be kept holy.
May your Kingdom come soon.
May your will be done on earth,
as it is in heaven." - Matthew 6:9-10

Good Friday: It Is Not About You

My family and I went to a church service on Good Friday that left me upset for the rest of the day, and not for the right reasons.

I was expecting to leave in some level of sadness because this Friday was a dark day in history. It's the day we reflect on Jesus' horrific death, crucified at the hands of the Romans, by his own people, though he did nothing to deserve it. I was expecting to feel some sense of connection with the evil in the world. We put him there, on that cross. Jesus' closest friends left him to die, and it would be arrogant of me to think that I would have done any different. As humans, this was our darkest hour.

But I was upset for much different reasons.

The message that came across over and over again in this service - through the words spoken, the reflective acts, the dramatic monologue, even the songs that were sung - was "It was all for you." Jesus died on the cross so he could be your personal saviour. It was your sin that put him there. Love for you that held him there. It was all about you. At one point we were left singing the refrain over and over again, "For me, for me, for me, for me..."

At this point, many of you are thinking, "So what? That's the truth isn't it?"

Many people won't see a problem with this message, because the same one is communicated every week. A bumper sticker I've seen lately (unfortunately my company sells it) reads, "Crown of thorns on his head, Cross of wood on his back, You on his mind."

Many Christians think the Gospel is: Jesus died so that we can have a personal relationship with God, and go to heaven when I die.

But that is the gospel isn't it?

To put it bluntly, no. That's not the gospel. There was a lot more going on that Friday than Jesus saving you - although that is a nice outcome.

Let me come at it from a different angle. I have three beautiful little daughters, and I love them dearly. But suppose I told my oldest daughter, "Lily, everything I do, I do it for you." Yes, there is some truth in that. I do love Lily, and there's a lot I would give for her. Much of what I do benefits Lily - working, praying, providing and so on. But to put it in those words - while there is some truth - is actually FALSE. There's a huge amount more going on, including my other kids, my wife, living for God and working to bring Jesus' kingdom to earth. To say something like this is just to pander to Lily's ego and make her feel good. Flattery, we call it.

The same thing was happening in that Good Friday service. Yes, you are saved because of Jesus' death on the cross, but to say that it was all for you is actually a long way off the truth.

Jesus didn't die JUST for your personal salvation. There's a MUCH bigger story than that. The crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus was the inauguration of a new kingdom, a new world which will lead to the restoration and renewal of the whole of creation. The cross of Christ drew all the streams of the old testament stories and prophecy together into one glorious climax. The cross of Jesus was the ultimate turning point in the whole of history. Jesus' death and resurrection changed EVERYTHING. There is a new king and this is how he's bringing his kingdom in: sacrifice and incomprehensible love. "There is no greater love than this: for a man to lay down his life for his friends." The king put himself last and gave everything for the sake of others. And then defeated death itself.

And it was all about you? Please. How can Good Friday, of all days, turn into a message about us?

Perhaps the thing that angered me most is that we hear the same message over and over again from our culture: "It's all about you. You deserve it. You are the most important person in the world." They flatter us because it works.

And then we go to church and hear the same message? Even on Good Friday? If a rock band does this - just giving the people whatever they want - we call them a sellout.

Wake up Christians! It's not about you. There's only one person worthy, and he gave it all up for the world.

Paradise

What would your paradise be like?
What paradise are you looking for?

What is it all about?

There's one verse in the Bible that's always made me a little worried when I've read it. Well, one particular verse, that is. If I thought about it there would be probably be quite a few worrying moments, but let's not do that now.

The verse is this one...

"And if someone asks about your Christian hope, always be ready to explain it." (1 Peter 3:15 NLT)

What is Christianity all about? It's kind of hard to explain for many people, even Christians. What is the gospel? I actually wonder if many Christians might be secretly hoping that nobody ever asks them this question. Maybe they've got some vague ideas - love, peace, something about Jesus? - and maybe they've picked up some other ones that somehow don't quite seem to fit, but if someone asked them to give an explanation...

I think on some level it shouldn't be an easy explanation, because the story and the person we're trying to describe is far more complex and wondrous for feeble human words (one of the reasons one of those 2-minute, 5-step gospel presentations will lead you down the wrong track)... It's like trying to describe a Mozart concert to a friend who didn't make the show ("Well, first the violins played an F, then dropped to an E, then did that again, then I think the clarinets might have done something - Oh it was magic!).

But that certainly doesn't mean there is nothing we can say. It just means we need to stop being lazy and trying to spit out other people's pithy descriptions. If you don't know what to say, put the work in and figure it out.

If you need some help, the best book I've read on the topic is Simply Christian, by Tom Wright. Or find a group of people and discuss it - see if you can come up with something together. Maybe read through one of the gospels together..

If you need somewhere I start, have a look into Jesus' phrase "The Kingdom of Heaven." That's what Jesus himself preached about whenever he spoke. What was he talking about? Or take Peter's verse and figure out what our hope is.

One final clue, just to clear away the most common misdirection: the answer is not "to go to heaven when I die."

The Overlap

"We are called to live at the overlap both of heaven and earth - the earth that has yet to be fully redeemed as one day it will be - and of God's future and this world's present. We are caught on a small island near the point where these tectonic plates, heaven and earth, future and present, are scrunching themselves together. Be ready for earthquakes."- Tom Wright, "Simply Christian"

Contentment

The Importance of the Ressurection

Here's a talk by Tom Wright, the Bishop of Durham, that's very much worth watching if you've got a spare 45 minutes.


Why Does Jesus' Resurrection Matter? Considering Its Relevance for Today Part 1 of 2 from The Veritas Forum on Vimeo.

Pleasures

"It isn't the big pleasures that count the most; it's making a great deal out of the little ones."
- Jean Webster

The Big Q: Heaven

What is one aspect of this world that you would like to see carry on in heaven?

Between

See if you can figure this one out, by Eugene Peterson....

"In matters of church, nothing of what we see apart from what we see is church. And nothing of what we don't see apart from what we see is church. There is no invisible church. There is no visible church. Invisibility and visibility coinhere in church. There is no church without God, whom 'no man has seen... at any time' (John 1:18 NAS). There is no church without the 'great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all the tribes and people and languages' (Rev. 7:9) that we can see.

"Church is a staging ground for what takes place between  heaven (invisible) and earth (visible)."

- from Practise Resurrection: A Conversation on Growing Up In Christ

I particularly like that last line. Church is a staging ground for what takes place between heaven and earth. Very nice.

God's New Project

"Jesus' resurrection is the beginning of God's new project, not to snatch people away from earth to heaven, but to colonize earth with the life of heaven. That, after all, is what the Lord's Prayer is about."

- from Surprised by Hope, by Tom Wright

Brisbane Floods, and Where is God?

A couple of weeks ago there was major flooding in my city and the surrounding areas, and in fact in an unbelievably large portion of the eastern states of Australia. Some towns are still waiting to see if their river banks will hold. The sheer amount of water is inconceivable, and the effects have been devastating. Many people have lost loved ones, and many more have lost their homes and businesses. And as if that wasn't enough, in the last few weeks a great number of these have since found out that their insurance doesn't cover this kind of flood.

If you entertain the notion of God (whether you believe there is one or not), it doesn't take long before the questions start rolling in...

If there is a God, why didn't he do something? Is he really all that powerful? And if he is powerful, is he really all that good? What kind of person would allow people to suffer like this?

I do believe that God is good and that he loves us immensely, and thankfully the Bible does have some answers for these questions.

First, the sad reality is that there is suffering in this world. Earthquakes, floods, tsunamis, bush fires, AIDS, SIDS and cancer are all part of the world we live in. Unfortunately, that's just how this world is. And it affects all of us, whether you believe in God or not.

This would be utterly demoralizing if that was the end of the story. But thankfully it isn't.

The incredible hope of the Bible is that one day God will restore this world. One day God will rebuild it and transform it into a more beautiful, more amazing, more life-giving universe. The Bible promises that in this new world there will be no more crying or pain, no more anguish, no more suffering, because the old world will have passed away. Not only that, but our own bodies (of those who belong to God) will also be restored and transformed - no longer subject to sickness, decay, cancer, or even death itself. One of the writers in the New Testament, Paul, describes this transformation as being something like that of a caterpillar to a butterfly. And those who have already died will be resurrected and given new life and a new body too. I can't wait for this new world, and new way to experience the depths and greatness of it. This is hope.

And what about in the meantime? Do we just wait it out, suck it up, and suffer through this world? Absolutely not. There's hope for right now too. Jesus' life and message when he was on earth was that this new world - which he called the kingdom of heaven - is even now breaking into our world. While the complete restoration is still in the future, the process has already started. It started with Jesus. Practically, he lived it out, and showed others how to live it. Things like love, grace, forgiveness, beauty, joy, mercy, compassion - heaven breaking in. And when we live like this, we're bringing light into the darkness.

But even more than that, Jesus' resurrection was the inauguration of this new kingdom of light. Easter Sunday was the start of an entirely new week. Yes, Jesus died, like we all do. But he then defeated death, and God resurrected him, wonderfully transformed. Now death means nothing to Jesus - it has no power whatsoever. He was the first to be resurrected - and all who believe and live this truth will follow later - and right now he is the reigning king of this world. Just think for a second about the implications.

And right now we can build for this kingdom, helping it break into this world. Jesus told us to pray for God's kingdom to come, on earth as it is in heaven, and now we can join with God to be the answer to that prayer. The restoration has begun. Yes, there is still darkness, tragedy and pain, but that's not all there is. Heaven is breaking in.

Many people who've lost homes in the last couple weeks have said while they were shocked by the damage, they were absolutely stunned by the generosity, compassion and selfless hearts of the thousands of people who came to help them get back on their feet again. Over 22,000 people flooded into Brisbane with mops, buckets and spades, from all over Australia and New Zealand - to help out their neighbours and friends - but more often to help complete strangers. Thousands of volunteers had to be turned away because there were just too many.

In the midst of pain, there can be breathtaking beauty, overwhelming love, inconceivable generosity. God is not absent, and he is not uncaring. He is building a new world, and it's already begun. Look for it, pray for it, see it breaking in, be a part of bringing heaven more fully into earth. And live in hope for that day when God will completely restore everything.

Good

I love the last chapter in Rob Bell's book, Velvet Elvis, about the restoration of the world, and how the church joins with Jesus in bringing this about. If you can get a hold of it, I encourage you to read the whole chapter. 

Here are some of his thoughts....

"To be a part of the church was to join a countercultural society that was partnering with God to create a new kind of culture, right under the nose of the caesars. These Christians made sure everybody in their midst had enough to eat. They made sure everybody was able to pay their bills. They made sure there was enough to go around. The resurrection for them was not an abstract spiritual concept; it was a concrete social and economic reality. God raised Jesus from the dead to show the world that Jesus is Lord, and it is through his power and his example and his Spirit that the world is restored...."

"...so many passages about the early church deal with possessions and meals and generosity. They understood that people are rarely persuaded by arguments, but more often by experiences. Living, breathing, flesh-and-blood experiences of the resurrection community.... To the outside world, it was less about proving and more about inviting people to experience this community of Jesus' followers for themselves...."

"It is when the church gives itself away in radical acts of service and compassion, expecting nothing in return, that the way of Jesus is most vividly put on display."

This is why generosity is such a big part of what we're doing in this community - whether or not people become Christians because of it. This is the heart of God and the way of Jesus, helping people to experience the kingdom of Heaven, right here, right now.

"I am learning that the church is at its best when it is underground, subversive, and countercultural. It is the quiet, humble, stealth acts that change things." I love this idea of the underground, subversive church.

"I am learning that the church has nothing to say to the world until it throws better parties. By this I don't necessarily mean balloons and confetti and clowns who paint faces. I mean backyards and basements and porches. It is in the places we live and move with the people we're on the journey with, that we are reminded it is God's world and we're going to be okay.... The images Jesus used were of banquets and feasts and celebrations. What do we do at parties such as these? We eat and talk and dance and enjoy each other and above all else, we take our time. What does Jesus do almost as much as he teaches and heals? He eats long meals. As Christians, it is our duty to master the art of the long meal."

Surprisingly, this subject of meals has been covered quite a bit in books I've been reading lately! - In Living the Resurrection, Eugene Peterson points out that enjoying meals with his disciples was one of the first things Jesus did after his resurrection - clearly showing that this is to remain a key part of the new community. And in Eats with Sinners, Arron Chambers speaks of it as one of the most important ways to share the heart of God with people outside the church. Eating with people is good for your health, in every possible way. We'd already decided that eating together was going to be a major part of our church, but it's sure nice to hear these thoughts echoes by theologians, and by Jesus himself. That's my kind of church!