Recovering Biblical Worship

Tonight, I listened to a talk N.T. Wright gave back in 2002 at Calvin College. Wright's take on life, theology, and spirituality have always challenged me to reevaluate whether I am living the Christ-life on God's terms or seeking to fabricate it on my own terms. Reading and hearing his perspective on Biblical worship in this setting was no different.

To hear the talk click Freedom and Framework, Spirit and Truth: Recovering Biblical Worship. To read the transcript, click here. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Blessings...

For the love… just don’t call the man black

With a title and picture like that I am pretty sure you can see where I am heading. I am even sure that you have read pieces with similar sentiments. But the fact is I think my journey there may be a little different than most.

Last week two seemingly unrelated things happened that somehow pushed me down a strange path that helped this man’s soul connect with a bigger picture. Check this.

First, I was driving to work listening to a local gospel station when a commercial started. There I heard a passionate argument for why I would “need” to buy commemorative coins (shown above) honoring our first African-American president. For some reason, I couldn’t get that out of my head all day. Something irked about that 30-second sound bite, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.

As I thought about it, I realized why I was annoyed. Since November the media has blitzed us with video & audio clips, stories, editorials, and pictures of our first “black” president. Don’t get me wrong; I get the historicity of the moment. As a man of non-white descent myself, I appreciate having a non-pigmently challenged man living in the White House. But the fact is and remains; he is not just African-American.

We (the media included) all understand the reality that Obama is half-white and half-Kenyan, raised for a time by an Indonesian step-father, and from then on reared by his white grandparents in Hawaii. But it doesn’t seem like the public wants to talk about or celebrate those facts. These facts reveal an incredible diversity that seem very reflective of today’s America. Yet, even with all this understanding we reduce a man because we are enamored with 50% of him.

A few days later the second event occurred and the gears in my mind shifted. One of my wife’s best friends went into premature labor. Their baby did not make it. Chloe Faith passed away 21 weeks into this thing called life.

As I have heard about how that family has tried to commemorate their daughter’s life and grieve their loss, I am humbled how little I understand. Death sobers one’s soul and forces you to look at life, whether you want to or not. So, even though I try to avoid totally getting lost in the self absorption of reflection, I fail miserably.

I begin to think through my kids and the time I have with them. I’ve tried to put myself in the place of that grieving family. As I do, I see that there are aspects of my children that I fail to recognize. One of them is reminiscent of the president’s plight.

You see my kids are like the president. They are bi-racial. Considering how they look, my daughter won’t ever be mistaken for a white girl, and my son may never be taken as an Indian. My wife can walk down the street with our daughter and people think she is the nanny not her mother. As humorous as that might be at times, when I think through the brevity of life this saddens me. The fact is even though our kids appear one way there is a whole aspect of their heritage that forms and shapes them that people may easily discard. I don’t want the beauty of my wife’s heritage to be slighted in my daughter’s eyes because people associate her with me simply due to the color of her skin. This also applies to my heritage in my son’s perspective.

Now I realize in light of the death of Chloe Faith, these simple thoughts seem trite. But I guess in some ways it feels safer for me right now to write about this than try and grapple more weighty things. So, thus I write all this to make one simple request. For the love, call the president something else. Call him bi-racial. Call him ethnically diverse. Call him pigmently well-endowed. But please, please, just don’t call the man black.

Just a Thought: An Election Reflection

I know it has been a while since the presidential election has taken place, but the fact is for many it is still a topic of discussion. (Actually, I think I have thought about it more now than I did prior, which I didn’t think was possible.) Talk-show pundits project/predict the ramifications the new regime will have on the economy. The public bickers and/or banters about how momentous a moment this is in our history because for the first time a non-white (ok, at least half non-white) male has been elected to be the leader of this country. I have even heard pastors/preachers proclaim from the pulpit that even though Obama is the “appointed” leader for the next season of our country’s history, he is not necessarily the “anointed” leader.

These are all interesting realities, but it is this last one that has caused me to reflect on this election. Because of this and similar perspectives I have noticed a chasm growing between people who call themselves followers of Christ. It seems that there has been a line drawn in the sand. I have seen notes posted on sites like Facebook entitled “to my Evangelical friends” or “to Christians”. Some of these writers seemed hurt and astonished by the attitudes displayed by those who follow Christ. Whereas others give off the vibe as though they were better than their readers; because they were too holy to vote for Obama or just “edgy” enough to vote for him. No matter which side of the line you choose to stand the fact is the line is still there.

I think this division haunts me and causes me to ask the question “where is a Christ follower supposed to stand?”

The more I look at the way I look at leaders I confess I am not sure I have the best perspective. I have enough baggage with past leaders to realize that my view has been tainted, sullied, and skewed. I do what is necessary to protect myself, and my interests, so that the least amount of damage is done to my situation as possible. But the fact is I don’t necessarily think that is the perspective I am supposed to have.

When I was trying to figure out what God expected of the kings of Israel in the Old Testament I was surprised to see how simple He made it. (I know that comparing the kings of Israel – including Judah – to the presidency doesn’t correlate perfectly, but the fact is this was the most suitable Biblical comparison I see. So, please keep this caveat in mind as I move forward.) Scholars much smarter than I have concluded that when God judged these kings He graded them based on two main criteria – the justice with which he ruled the people of the land and the righteousness with which he walked before God. (This “righteousness” included restoring the proper worship of Yahweh to the temple and destroying the “high places”). Even though this may seem like obvious criteria – this is very reminiscent of the love God/love people motif Jesus modeled - it seems the kings of Israel had issues making the grade. Only 8 kings after Solomon were deemed “good” in Judah and Israel when their lives were over. That’s 8 of 39 kings, and not all 8 of those were “fully” good kings. I’m not a math guy but I know enough to say that ratio doesn’t inspire any delusions of grandeur let alone much real hope.

With these basic criteria of justice for the people and righteousness with God established as the basis of my refined perspective, I have to say that I don’t know where Obama will rank in either. I know what he has said about a lot of things and how he has voted in the past. Actually, I dig some of his positions on social/economic issues; while some his of other positions I wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot pole. This is where conviction falls upon my head.

You see if this criteria is what matters, then it honestly doesn’t matter anymore whether I agree with him. It doesn’t matter whether I did or didn’t vote for him. It doesn’t matter that some may or may not like him solely because he’s not fully white. It doesn’t matter that you like or do not like him because you think he’s a closet socialist. It doesn’t matter whether we like or do not like him because of his stance on abortion. From this point on - for the sake of his own soul, the good of this nation, and the glory of God - what matters is that he leads in justice and with righteousness.

Don’t get me wrong, it mattered what we thought and felt about his leadership and track record during the season of voting. It mattered that we sought out and stood in accordance with God’s heart on the issues. But for us who are the Church to now stand on either side of this growing divide and ridicule each other and/or denigrate the president-elect is not an option that is beneficial.

So, in this moment my understanding of what matters deepens a bit more. The way God judged leadership is different than the way I have judged it in the past. The more I begin to see the weight of life, love, and leadership from the lens of justice for people and righteousness with God I stand undone. Who could stand?

In light of this I am seeing a response that I need to embrace for the sake of my soul, the good of this nation, and the glory of God. The only worthy response I see is prayer. I confess, I have not been one to pray for the president on a consistent basis. It was just never my bag. But now that I am accountable to what I see, I am compelled to commit to this response.

As I said the question before me is “where is a follower of Christ to stand?” Now the answer is clichéd but appropriate. I am to “stand on my knees.” So, this is my simple prayer for the president elect as he endeavors to lead this nation. “Lord have mercy on this man. Tutor his heart to walk in righteousness with You that Your justice may be known in our day. In our time make this known, in Jesus name…”