Truths learned from the life and death of JoPa

It’s been over 2 weeks since the passing of Joe Paterno and I wanted to offer some thoughts about his affect on my life and thoughts about his greater affect for our community.

Upon hearing of the death of Joe Paterno I was saddened to say the least. I began to listen and read different peoples opinions of the man, the myth, and the legend. Everything was customary and nice until I read this:

For 50 years, he was a god of college football. He may be the best college football coach of all time…. [h]e was so great that I think the ultimate story about him will eventually outshine the awful ugliness of a child molestation scandal that happened right under his nose, on his watch, by his coordinator, on his turf. You know why I’m OK with this?

We are all Joe Paterno.

Hundreds of thousands of children are molested right under our noses, on our watch, in our country, in other countries AND only a few people are out there fighting for them.

While I do not disagree with what this blog and it was not unique in its assertions, my mind began to race because of its opinions (especially by Christians) misses the point completely.

In Acts 19:21 – 41 we encounter a situation that is not all that different from the one we are seeing in Happy Valley. It’s not exactly the same but very similar. Paul and his disciples find themselves in the middle of a riot. The Spirit led Paul and his disciples to to the Ephesus to preach the Gospel and eventually plant a church. The Spirit moved and people were saved, because of this the idol makers in town began to lose money. The idol makers, angry about lost wages, spread the word and eventually raise up a crowd to protest and eventually it turned into a riot.

I am not saying that JoPa preached the Gospel, or that there was lost wages because of his firing. The similarities lie in what happens when we [humans] lose an idol. Read this definition and see if it applies:

idol |ˈīdl| noun an image or representation of a god used as an object of worship.• a person or thing that is greatly admired, loved, or revered.

The night that JoPa was fired and the riots began, the only thing i could think was, “this is what happens when we lose our idols, when we lose our object of worship.” Harold Best says explains this best in his book Continuous Worship:

We begin with one fundamental fact about worship: at this very moment, and for as long as this world endures, everybody inhabiting it is bowing down and serving something or someone—an artifact, a person, an institution, an idea, a spirit, or God through Christ.

The point here is that worship describes something that is bigger than singing a song, or any specifically “religious” action. When you take your first bite of an amazing meal, when you witness the phenomenal catch in a baseball game, when you hold your newborn child for the first time, you naturally and freely proclaim your wonder and joy to everyone without shouting/tweeting (new school) distance. These are not bad responses in and of themselves in the right context, but they help to illustrate that we can not help but worship, all the time. Worship involves our entire life. The problem is the opposite of worship is idolatry. Every human being, at every moment of their life, today and into eternity, is continuously doing either the former or the latter. On this point a scholar i read said (and I’m paraphrasing),

“People are not to be defined by skin color, gender, by geographical location, or even, shockingly, by their good behavior. Nor are they defined by the particular type of religious feelings they may have. They are defined in terms of the god they worship.

This brings us back to the first quote of this post.

For 50 years, he was a god of college football.

I know that I will be derided for this but it must be said this is the truest summation of the whole situation I have heard yet. Whether you consciously or sub-consciously worship him or anyother figure in your life (including yourself) as god then maybe we should all reevaluate our priorities and realize that the Bible is still true when God told Moses in Exodus 20:

“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.”

These are the first 2 of the 10 Commandments. I know that some of you will read this and hear me saying that I hate JoPa or Penn State or (fill in the blank), but this could not be further from the truth. What I did realize is in this moment an idol was exposed and I began to wonder exactly how many more idols there were in my life [specifically] and in others lives that we just do not identify. So I wanted to provide some practical steps from Pastor Mark Drisoll (Seattle) to help you avoid idolatry, in the hope that they might be helpful:

Be careful of making a good thing, such as marriage, sex, children, health, success, or financial stability, an ultimate thing, or what Jesus called our “treasure.”

Avoid participating in any religious community where the clear truth claims of Scripture are ignored while contemplative and mystical practices are favored simply for their spiritual experience.

Be careful of any church or ministry wherein acts of mercy and environmental stewardship are devoid of a theology of the cross and wind up being little more than the worship of created people and things.

And be careful not to worship a good thing as a god thing for that is a bad thing.

Well that is it, I would love to know your thoughts below…

4 World-views that rule our world

A few weeks ago I received a call out of the blue. Park Hill Baptist Church‘s pastor of 28 years had retired and was looking for some people to fill in there pulpit while they began the search for an Interim Pastor and eventually a new Senior Pastor. I was overwhelmed by the invite but I quickly obliged. Over the next week I did not feel comfortable with any of the subjects that came to mind for to preach. You see, for me, if I am going into an environment I have never been to before, and possibly will not return to, I try to prayerfully seek a subject that the Spirit leads me to say. This is NOT said in anyway as a swipe to those pastors who use the same or similar messages for different venues, in some ways I envy you. After a rather interesting conversation with a barista at Blackdog Coffee house (aka my place for sermon prep), I found myself framing a few basic world-views that most people fall into.

Religious world-view: Which says, that there is a god, whoever he or she is, that must be appeased through a series of actions. So there are things that we do and do not do in order to curry favor with that god and to somehow get eternal life when we die.

Secular world-view: says, that there is no god, there are no forces, there is no energy; there is simply us and what we make of it.

Spiritual world-view: Which is different from a religious world-view. The spiritual world-view says there’s probably not a god, but there are forces driving things. Maybe that force is karma, maybe the universe itself is driving, but we need to tap into those spiritual realities and be aware of them to milk out of life all that we want.

Gospel centered world-view: Is really simply living in such a way that this gospel is central. Thus when any kind of a situation arises we can say, “How does the gospel apply to this situation?” When I am dealing with a particular sin or temptation I can ask, “How can I apply the gospel to this sin?” When I am confused about parenting, how I am to raise my children, I can ask, “What does the gospel tell me about my task in parenting?” The primary reality of the Christian life is this one: Christ died for our sins and was raised. Thus everything else flows out of that gospel and every question is answered in reference to it.

I’ll be honest, after the conversation and as I looked back over my life the Gospel centered world-view has not dominated my thinking and movement through my life. This realization was humbling and encouraging and the sermon turned out to be more of a reminder of just how faithful our Father as been throughout my life. My prayer is that as you listen to this message you prayerfully apply what is said and examine yourself.

Below you will find both audio and video versions of the sermon, please enjoy!

How the Gospel saved my life!

Audio:

Romans 5:1 – 11

Video: Poor audio quality

[vimeo http://vimeo.com/36066256]

Man UP!!!

There’s an ongoing war within [our] culture. It’s the war for manhood. The older I become the harder it becomes to see a proper example of Biblical manhood. Much like the culture the chairs and pews are overwhelmingly filled with ‘boys who can shave’. Let me give you an example actually taken from the people I interact with daily.

What is the difference between a 16 year old that lives at home with his parents, plays Xbox 360 all day, doesn’t have a job, dates around without any form of commitment, and has little or no responsibility outside of which fast food joint he wants to take his date for dinner and a 25 year old that bunks with dudes, pays $100 in rent a month, works part-time, and doesn’t shower very often?

You’re exactly right; the answer: age.

I know what you’re thinking. The aforementioned descriptions might be a little extreme and probably not ‘completely’ accurate in most cases, but the picture painted here should be pretty clear.

Adolescence is often seen as the stages between puberty and legal adulthood. In our culture, this would be about 18 years old. When a young man turns 18 he can buy tobacco, vote, and purchase rated R movie tickets. Pretty sweet huh? Yep. Well, it seems that way.

In today’s culture, boys can become men without any ‘rite of passage,’ so to speak. All it takes is… well… age. I am seeing ‘men’ who are in their 20′s and 30’s reflect the lifestyle of 18 and 19 year olds. And we call it manhood. This is pathetic!

Confusion over what manhood is has plagued our cities, families and lives. The concept of a biblical man has been lost in our generation. Unfortunately, many churches struggle to provide for its members, much less those beyond their walls, with a tangible definition of a real man.

Mark Discoll, pastor of Mars Hill Church, gives some pretty good insight into this.

Historically, a guy would go through two life phases: boy, then man. The transition from boy to man was comprised of five sociological variables that happened almost simultaneously or in very close succession:

1. Leave your parents’ home (Gen. 2:24);
2. Finish your education or vocational training;
3. Start a career-track job, not a dead-end-Joe job;
4. Meet a woman, love her, honor her, court her, and marry her;
5. Have children with her.

But here’s what’s happened. Rather than moving from boy to man by this succession of sociological transitions, we’ve created something called adolescence. It’s a third life stage in the middle between boy and man. We don’t know what to call them so we just call them guys. These are boys who can shave.

Today, adolescence starts somewhere in the teen years and continues indefinitely. There is no foreseeable end. The problem with adolescence is guys don’t know when they’re ever going to grow up and be men, and no pressure is exerted on them to do so.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_K9sjB2pKM&feature=plcp&context=C3e679e9UDOEgsToPDskL7-M9Y0PM8UU5z0xQHxjc7]

Lyrics below…

[Lecrae]
Momma want some more Obama in me the hood want PAC hip hop wanna see the
Common in me. And since this a senseless contradiction I end up a misfit tryina fit In. This ends when I stand up and see the hands of the standard: holy is
The lamb huh(holy is the lamb) Now we holding you to man up cause we were made
In his image start looking at what you came from.[KB]
Right after Adam every atom in our anatomy had to make adamant after what
Adonai is against. Let me take you back to the tree in Eden, if you read it you’ll see that eve was deceived but Adam is the one who let it in.(Man up) Standing Leading no, we ain’t leading we (Bump that) Basically little boys with
Muscles and a mustache! The femininity, we need a remedy, the God-Man, a
100 percent (strength) masculinity

[Trip Lee]
Where the men at, seems like they all lost, none of them are on the scene,
Seems like they died off. They extinct but my dream is to rise up, we
Chasing the prize of the King the divine boss, but we fell away, now we
UnGodly we lose and we really got the blues like Navi, I wanna celebrate the dudes that’s beside me fellas lets elevate we through with the lobby

[Tedashii]
Go ahead I say boy Get your shine on. and if a sucker try to block you get your 9 home and
What I heard you gotta do to be a man now, stand up for yourself so I took
It in my hands now. And that’s the problem man we busy trying to solve it
All the while we walking dead man somebody bring the coffin, boy drop
Peach fuzz now you think that your a man cause you feeling yourself you
Need to man up!

[Sho Baraka]
Sex and models, and tipping bottles back a pile of excuses right next to
Your bottle caps. A rolodex filled with names that you aim to
Please next to the stack of money, building up a heart of greed. Ice on his
Neck give the jokers a cold shoulder, you drunk off pride plus you loving
The hangover. You gotta whole lotta stuff that won’t amount to gain life
Will never make sense cause you never made change

[PRo]
You got it Twisted sick like a fever, little man live to stack doe
Keebler. Man up! Get up out of the treehouse leave the cookies alone it’s
Time to eat meat now. Trying to show you a new way to live now, no charge
You can call it a freestyle. without Christ you know how your man is, was
A boy in a mans body like Tom Hanks in BIG.

[Andy Mineo]
Being a man got nothing to do with age. You can be a boy till the day you
Lay in your grave. None of us behave in the image of who were made, cause
We’ve fallen away it’s better known as depraved. Running from
Responsibility really we crave the easy way out of places that call us to
Pull our weight. Man there going through everyday decisions are made,
Responding to the call God’s giving em from the…

[All]
Man Up!
[Andy]
Let the process begin, separate the boys from the men
[All]
Man Up!
[Andy]
Doesn’t matter how you started, partner, it’s about how you end
[All]
Man Up!
[Andy]
Jesus is the model follow us we gon’ follow him
[All]
Man Up!
[Andy]
We-we the last of a dying breed it’s time that we

[All]
MAN UP!

Dear church people..I hate church

**I read this open letter a few years back and it recently crossed my desk again. So if you don’t go to church and are reading this, I’m curious to hear your thoughts. If you do go to church and are reading this, I’m curious to hear your thoughts, too.**

Don’t worry you won’t offend me I just would love to hear some honest opinions**

Dear church people,

I recently attended your church. I don’t know why I decided to get up early on a Sunday morning and I’m not sure why exactly I chose this church, but nonetheless, I went. I guess it was because I overheard someone talking about this man named Jesus and he seemed really edgy and from what I gathered, he seemed like a rebel like me. And then I heard that somehow he can help me get rid of all of this junk that is messing up my life. I’m not sure what you church people call it..i guess its “sin” or something. So anyways, yeah, I was compelled by what I overheard, and I didn’t quite hear everything that guy was saying, but he was telling the other person to check out their church. I didn’t catch what church name it was, so I wound up here.

But can I just say, I really hate church. I do. I mean, that Jesus guy sounded really intersting, but I just can’t do the church thing. The building looks nice and all, but when I got inside, I felt like a total outcast. People were just staring at me. I guess you guys don’t do lip rings and punk hair very often.

And those church program things, whatever you call them, they have a cool picture on the front…i guess…and your program thing makes me think that obviously you guys have lots to do around here….but how come I never see you guys around in my neighborhood? My neighbors just had a giant fight and the wife threw all of the husbands stuff out on the front lawn and then she drove off. I helped that guy pick up all of that stuff and we put a few beers back…i think he was trying to forget what happened. We could’ve used some extra help picking that stuff up. Where were you? And I always talk to that lady sitting outside my work building who is asking for food for her kids. Sometimes I try to get some MickeyD’s breakfast for them. Is that something you guys would be interested in helping with?

But anyways, I’m getting off track. So I go in and sit down and some guy mumbles to his wife about me sitting in their seat. I’m really sorry about that. I don’t know who the guy was, but if you know who it is, can you tell them I’m sorry. I really didn’t know. I didn’t see a name tag or anything…did I miss it on the chair somewhere? I’m really sorry, again.

And that music…well, I will say that the guitarist was totally killer and the drums were sweet. I didn’t really know what you guys were all singingabout, I didnt know those songs…but I did see that Jesus guys name a few times, so i tried paying attention. That leader seemed pretty pumped up and trying to get everyone to clap…but I think those people around me were bored with your songs. I dont know them, though, so maybe thats how you’re supposed to respond. Maybe there are rules I don’t know about. Im sure there are. I know that when Im at a concert and im really pumped up about the lyrics, i can’t contain myself. but i guess it is church..so..maybe thats why you stand so still and just stare at those jumbotrons with the words on it.

The speaker dude wasn’t too bad. He seemed like he really believed what he was talkin about. I heard that Jesus guys name again…i’m really curious about him. Do you know who I’m talkin about? Jesus somethin. I need to find out about that guy..do you know where I could find more out? Iknow the speaker guy could help me…he did say something about coming up front if I wanted to know more about Jesus…but no one else went up there..so i’m totally not going up there. are you kidding? those people were all looking around like they were gonna go attack the first person who stood up or somethin. Freaky.

Sorry, but i was just really bored, over all. I’ve gotta know more about this Jesus guy. I didn’t wanna go bug that speaker guy cuz there was a ton of people around him, so I just decided to leave. As I was walking out, I heard some ladies pointing at another lady and they were sayin some pretty rude things. Dude, if church is a place full of clicks and gossip and high school drama, I’m FOR SURE in the wrong place.

All this to say, I guess I’m sure there’s somethin I’m missin…there’s probably somethin I didn’t read somewhere…but I was really just hopin to find out about that Jesus guy. But, sorry, I just don’t do long boring program things around a bunch of people that stare at me and bash their so-called friends.

Maybe that lady asking for food for her kids outside of my work building knows about that Jesus guy. Yeah. Maybe I’ll go ask her tomorrow.

Sorry church people, I just can’t do that church thing you guys do. But hey, if thats your thing, more power to ya.”

Sincerely,

The guy/girl who doesn’t go to church

You are a Christian…right?

A friend from work texted this to me and I laughed immediately. He said that it reminded him of some of the conversations that we have had about Christ and His church. I would love know your reaction to this….

Why religion is silly (part 2)…

** From time to time I will come across an article that simply makes me think “Religion is so silly!” When that happens I will post it so you can see the destructive silliness of trying to achieve your own righteousness through [your] works and not grace… enjoy!**

“Religion is the default mode of the human heart”

– Martin Luther

An Islamic cleric living in Europe reportedly has warned Muslim women not to get too close to bananas, cucumbers or other produce — to avoid having “sexual thoughts.”

The unnamed cleric, whose directive was featured in an article in el-Senousa, a religious publication, purportedly said that if women wanted to eat these foods, a third party — preferably a male related to them, such as their father or husband — should cut the items into small pieces before serving, the Egyptian website Bikya Masr reported.

Carrots and zucchini also were added to the alleged cleric’s list of forbidden foods for women.

News of the statement quickly spread online, leaving many liberal Muslims embarrassed and angry, evoking a flurry of mockery in online forums.

“Many of the commentators are Muslims themselves, who have expressed their anger against the cleric for making Islamic religious practices appear unreasonable,” The International Business Times reported.

BikyaMasr.com said the cleric, identified only as a sheikh, was asked in the interview how to “control” women when they are shopping for groceries, and whether holding these items at the market would be bad, to which he replied that the matter was between them and God.

Questions also arose about the validity of the original published interview. An online search for the el-Senousa article, for instance, yields only results linking to the Bikya Masr report.

But the mere suggestion of a strict order for Muslim women handling food has been enough to send people to website forums and Twitter to air their indignation.

Danish/Lebanese journalist Helen Hajjij tweeted: “So if Muslim women should stay away from cucumbers and bananas, should men stay away from melons?”