::| Arriving |::

This lent season I have discovered something about arriving, or the desire to arrive. On Ash Wednesday, Gina and I went to an Ash Wednesday service. Near the end of the gathering they had us come to the front, kneel on a pillow, and someone else whispered “From dust you have come, and to dust you will return” while they marked ash on our forehead in the shape of a cross. This ancient tradition reminded me of my mortality and humanity, which is not a bad thing. It was a reminder of how far I need to go.

As we (Gina and I) celebrate Lent together this year, I have noticed a deep longing for arrival. For a lot of people arriving is getting that financial break, that new car, the desired weight, or beating the latest video game. For me, it is vocation. I long to be in an environment where my vocation and occupation are one.

Arriving for Jesus was arriving at his unbearable death. Arriving for Jesus was sacrificing himself, giving up rites as God and coming to earth as a human. And then, arriving for him was the arrival for us all, his resurrection. Ultimate redemption for all of humanity.

The way I see it, we all want redemption we just long for it in things like money, a job, a person, an ideal image. Paul said, “The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. ” (Rom 8.19). All creation groans in anticipation for the full arrival of God’s Kingdom. That is the arrival we truly want because we know it is through his resurrection and return that dust is not the end of the story for us.

God Bless You

Sneezing - A sternutation, sternutatory reflex or, more commonly known, sneeze is a semi-autonomous, convulsive expulsion of air from the nose and mouth. This air can reach speeds of 70 m/s (250 km/h or 155 MPH). Sneezes spread disease by producing infectious droplets that are 0.5 to 5 µm in diameter. About 40,000 such droplets can be produced by a single sneeze.[1]

This has been one of my soap boxes for some time now. Everyone that i talk to about it shows no interest or just thinks i am psycho.

We have developed a superstition with saying “God bless you!” or “Bless you!” after someone sneezes. Some would say it is manners to say it, but I say it is superstition. This is why...

- In the middle of class while the teacher is still conducting class - someone sneezes and then not one, but several people feel the need to have to say “Bless you” to the person who sneezes.

- Again in a classroom setting - One person is reading and while reading another person sneezes. The person reading stops the flow of his reading to say “Bless You!” to the person who sneezed.

It is a superstition for the blesser and not the sneezer. For some reason the blesser thinks that people’s perspective of them will be altered for the worse if they do not bless the sneezer. From what we have discovered from Wikipedia the sneezer should be the one saying bless you because they have just contaminated the surrounding air with thousands of spit particles that could contain threatening diseases.

So let us flip culture around and have the sneezer be the blesser and the blesser be the recipient of an authentic blessing that could potentially save them of getting sick. Let us put aside our worries of people thinking that we are rude for not blessing a sneezer, and be blessers for the sake of wanting shalom on earth as it is in heaven. Let us not be driven by the impulses of cultural mannerisms that deceivingly allow us to believe we are good.

Peace

what is the deal with X-mas music

I work in a large home improvement store that is very orange. I have to say that the holiday season was a nice adjustment on the eyes- not so much orange. It was funny because immediately following Halloween the mother ship of this company decided it was time to play Christmas music. Why not, it got people to think holidays = gifts = spend money at the orange store. However, everyone else thought differently. Just about every other customer, store associate, and vendors like myself complained about the fact that Thanksgiving had not come yet and Christmas music was playing. They were so adamant about it – Thanksgiving gets ripped off! To make a long story even longer, the orange store decided by the next day not to play Christmas music until after Thanksgiving. The outcry must have been so great they might have loss money.

Thanksgiving came and went. Christmas music started playing again.

So why aren’t people concerned about the overly Christian emphasis of 80% of all Christmas music. Saying “Merry Christmas” was an intolerant statement that limited the Holiday season to Christians, it made people think that Christmas originated b/c of Christians… imagine that. But in the orange store the little people in the small boxes in the ceiling keep sining and singing about a teenage virgin giving birth to the Savior of the world. No one has a problem with that? Is it because it is the holidays and we don’t want to be like Scrooge?

Then I wondered, is it significantly easier for the world to accept Jesus as a baby and not a man? Is it easier to see him cuddled up in a manger that marks a happy ending of a fairy tale like story? Do people realize that this same baby is the person who is completely intolerant because he said, “I am the way, the truth, the life, no one comes to the father but through me.” Do people know that this same person who got angry in the temple and drove people out by overturning tables and making whips. Do people know that this same baby was also the one who died and came back to life, and for some reason that story is a little more difficult to swallow than a teenage virgin? Instead of “Mary did you know…” I am working on a song “People do you know…”

I noticed not only for the majority of the world, but also for myself, that it is a whole lot easier to believe in Jesus when we can contain him in a manger, wrapped in swaddling clothes. Yes this was the incarnation, God becoming flesh, but the incarnation does not stop there. God continued to barge on to the scene to change people. His entrance was not obtrusive, but his life, teaching, death and resurrection sure were and are.

The Savior of the world as a baby is easy to believe in because at that point because he has not shattered our personal agendas of how we think we need to be rescued. Him being the Savior of the world probably lost its fairytaleness when he talked about a kingdom that you could not see or touch. Or, when he talked about being last, a child, or servant.

I don’t know why but, but believing in someone who only gives what I put on a Santa list – a better job, peace, comfort, world peace, a good government – does not interest me. In fact, it does not save me. It ruins me. Beleiving in someone who can offer me life that is beyond comfort, money, status, and world peace is the path I want to take.

A cool magazine

Charcoal Dust

There was a time in my life when I followed the foot prints of my rabbi (teacher) that were embossed in charcoal dust. Jason Mitchell, unlike many, was a charcoal grill man. We spent many nights grilling to the sounds of Blues Traveler playing from his garage that sits right off his patio - where it all began ( a couple of years ago).
Months later when we (Chad, Ryan, Jason, Buhr, PJ - in spirit) were having a good time at Chad's house grilling for my surprise bachelor party. The climax of the night was seeing my new CHARCOAL WEBBER GRILL resting nicely on Chad's bed. The boys got me a new charcoal grill to carry on the message of charcoal grilling. It was at this point I began to be proud of taking on the responsibility of being the grill-man of the house.

Charcoal grilling is worth it on so many levels.
1. A big fire when you first light the charcoals
2. The anticipation of the charcoals getting at the right temperature - it is like the anticipation of beer fermenting.
3. The unique taste that comes from charcoal cooking.
4. The History - you have a sense that using charcoals is an ancient practice... so it is like returning to the roots of humanity.
5. The social aspect. While those coals are burning there nothing else to do other than talk.

Just the other day I visited my rabbi. I walked out on to that patio where remnants of charcoal dust still remain from cook outs we had years ago, but the altar does not. It was replaced with a modern gas grill. However, Jason enlightened me and said that it is borrowed. Yet, he still followed that by saying he was thinking about getting a gas grill. I felt betrayed. So I began to think through the many reasons why Jason, my rabbi, has lost the message of charcoal grilling.

1. Charcoal grilling is not the same without Hoochie Koochie Hot Sauce (only accessible in Texas ).
2. He covets Chad's metro gas grill that gives false messages of simplicity, quickness, and beauty.
3. He has lost ears for the message. There are no more young followers to take on the charcoal dust of the rabbi.
4. It is possible he has lost touch with the art.
5. The lazy-as# American mentality has set in As it does with us all at times.
6. His blog has demanded more of his time - www.clearlyvague.blogspot.com - link is to the right "Mitchell's Blog"
7. It is possible that he has associated the simplicity and sleekness of the MAC computers in to his grilling preferences.
8. He just does not care anymore
9. He thinks having a tank of propane fuel is more manly than having a paper bag of rocks.
10. The presence of a massive, stainless steel, out door BBQ, in his head, does not compare to having a 36 in circle for grilling.

My only hope with this is that the message of Charcoal grilling will live on for all those charcoal grillers out there, and that people will laugh at this ridiculous blog.

Final portion on this book

The seeking has not stopped, questions still surface, and it seems that vagueness is the only consistency. This is good. Seeking to understand the times and to find God mingling in the midst of what we think is chaos is our ultimate hope. Therefore, the conversation will continue to progress as we observe culture to agree on conclusions of how postmoderns view the Gospel as text in a pluralistic, personal, and spiritual society.

There is no question that emerging generations have or will have a different framework form which one will understand religion, spirituality, and God. This new way of thinking is developed from the massive immigration of people, who have not left their faith behind. Rather than a “Melting Pot” approach where everything gets mixed together to produce something that resembled the majority, it is a mosaic. Each religion/people is its own piece that contributes to the bigger picture. Therefore, Christianity is not the big picture anymore (if it ever was), which leads us to conclude that the Gospels are not the main source for morality. In our marginal society this threatens many and creates a problem – “What it means to be an evangelical Protestant” (Wells, 2005, p, 96). Without the Bible as the rubric for what is right and wrong, many people from this generation and emerging generations will view the Gospels like everything else – only a piece of the bigger picture. The Gospels, the story of Jesus, put on the same level as the Koran, the story Muhammad, and many other spiritual texts.

Without the Gospels on top or as majority, it is threatening and frightening to many, yet enlightening to a few. Without the Jesus and the Gospels, foundational to Christianity, as the norm it lessens the popularity, which I refer to as the death of the Pop Jesus, however some scholars refer to it as Post-Christendom. As a result, it trims the crowds and leaves us to see who is in it for real. There was many times in the Gospels that Jesus taught extraordinary subjects that lightened the crowds. What was left, were those who were committed in were not in it for some religious sake. So, what does it mean to be an evangelical Protestant? Definitions are very restricting, but commitment never lies.

“Americans, especially in the second half of the last century, often gave full rein to their individualism, adapting beliefs to their own needs and missing-and-matching as they went along” (Wells, 2005, p, 104). Not only in our pursuit of the “American Dream” have cut off the rest of the world, but in our pursuit of God as well. More and more the myth is believed that it is essential that people have a “personal” relationship with Jesus Christ. This has influenced, greatly, how we interpret and apply the Gospels. We interpret the Gospels only in light of what is happening in our lives. It is not completely bad to interpret the Gospels locally, but as the only perspective from which we conclude meanings of texts is boxing God in. In addition, when do we ever interpret and agree on the Gospels meaning collectively? And, if we cannot agree collectively, how do we respond and act? It is normal to allow the Gospels only affect us in personal ways. We ask what does this mean to me? Or, how can I now live different in light of this message? Rather than, what does this mean to us? And, how can we now live different in light of this message? The result of this is spiritual isolation.

Spiritual isolation is now normal. Today, “Spirituality, by contrast, has come to stand for what is private and internal. What this typically means is that those who are spiritual accept no truth which not experientially grounded” (Wells, 2005, p, 110). Mysticism has replaced the Pop-Jesus, and now the Gospels are a mere tool for us becoming spiritually moved. When we are not experiencing some mystical experience that could or could not be in our soul, we respond in frustration by saying something, “I am not getting fed enough when I read the Bible on my own, or when Pastor so-and-so speaks.” We equate truth with experience. Thus, the Gospels have no meaning unless there is a feeling, tangible evidence, or list of rules that authenticate the written words. Without this type of feeling, whether admittedly or not conclude that the Holy Spirit/God was not present. So, now the church is competing with our experiential, high stimulated, and emotion based culture/media to entertain people into believing the Gospels. If the Gospels are not a stimulant they are not true.

With this ethos of reading and applying the Gospels it has its detriments, which are obviously stated above, and it has its blessings. Wells said, “Spirituality travels light. It needs no buildings, not rituals, no professionals, or even sacred books” (Wells, 2005, p, 111). For many, including myself, this is a great movement. This is a reminder of the early church. Following Jesus in its simplest form. It is hard to be involved with any form of Christianity today and not attach it to a building, system, hierarchy, money, and some kind of legalized way of living. Therefore, the reaction today for people to experience something authentic is a cry for redemption in every aspect of life, not just religion.

As usual, proceeding away from this conversation probably evokes more questions rather than answers as to how present and emerging modern generations view the Gospels as text in a pluralistic, personal, and spiritual society. Why is it necessary to think on such things? God is incarnate through Jesus, Jesus is incarnate through the Church, thus it is necessary to think on how we are going to help reveal Jesus to each culture.