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Strangers in a Familiar Land

Some folks have been asking about the sermon I preached last weekend. At this time our church doesn't record the sermons on a weekly basis but because of the interest expressed what follows is a close approximation to what I said. It differs in a couple of ways, I have expanded here on the Philippian church and removed a portion of what I said about us being ambassadors for Christ and the sanctuary being God's sovereign ground in the same way US embassies overseas are considered sovereign ground and guarded by Marines. I never follow a precise script when I am preaching so these are not my exact words but they do reflect the intent and passion of my thoughts on this subject.

Strangers in a Familiar Land

Once a year when the 4th of July rolls around I find myself in a slightly odd position. you see the front cover of my passport reads, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the flag of my country is, well, the Union Jack. So every fourth of July I am reminded once again that we lost the war! Come to think of it we didn't so well in 1812 either.

According to the United States government I am a permanent resident alien. What exactly does that mean? It means that I get to live and work here, it means that I can interact with people who live here, it means that I can travel freely around the country, it means that I have to pay taxes here in the same way that any American does. The one major difference between a citizen and a permanent resident is when it comes time to vote, I can't vote here. When I cast my ballot is in another kingdom, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

While I am a resident alien in the United States and have the accompanying documentation every one of us as followers of Jesus Christ is, as Peter states it, an alien and a stranger in this world.

The Apostle Paul in writing to the Philippians uses a different metaphor as he declares to them that their citizenship is in heaven. When Paul make this statement it is not simply a pleasant allusion to everlasting life in heaven. It is a radical declaration that their allegiances are shifting right here and now from an allegiance to the emperor and the Roman Empire to Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God. The power of this image would not have been lost on the Philippians.

Paul in writing to people of Philippi is writing to a people who were been very proud of their Roman citizenship. Citizenship was a much sought after privilege in the Empire. There were three ways you could become a citizen of Rome, you could receive it as a reward for the service you performed for Rome, you could buy for a large sum of money or you could be born a citizen. For the people of Philippi, a Roman Colony, they enjoyed all the rights and privileges that would come from being citizens of Rome.When we read in Acts of Paul and Silas' visit to the city of Philippi, we find that the accusation leveled against them by the Philippians (Roman Citizens) is that they were "advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept of practice." (Acts 16:21) As Fred Craddock notes in his commentary, "Proud of itself as a little Rome, official, patriotic, suspicious of any persons or movements not aligned or loyal to Caesar, probably quite anti-Semitic, this city could and did make it difficult for the disciples of Jesus."

Aliens, strangers, citizens of heaven, citizens of another place, as Jesus reminds us, "My kingdom," Jesus states before Pilate, "is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place."

Here's the rub for us, as citizens of God's kingdom we are called to be much more than merely good citizens of this world. We are called to be ambassadors, representatives of God's kingdom to this world.

We are "a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession." We are here for a purpose, "that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light."

I recently had lunch with the moderator of our presbytery, Jin Kim. Jin is the pastor of Church of All Nations in Columbia Heights. We met at their building and Jin gave me a tour to show me the work they have been doing in renovating the church. As you enter the sanctuary you can see flags of nations from around the world hanging the full length of the room on both sides. African nations, European nations, South American nations, Asian nations, Autralasian nations all hang, nations that are our allies and nations that our enemies hang there together. Jin pointed out to me that they had made a conscious decision to have the Korean and Japanese flags hanging side by side, as a reminder that old enemies can stand together in Christ because they now have a new identity, a new citizenship in the kingdom of God and that they now lived aliens and strangers in the nations of this world.

This stands in contrast to another story I heard about a large congregation in the Twin Cities that began their worship service by having an emotional video presentation on the Pledge of Allegiance and followed this in their worship service by playing the National Anthem and the congregation stood, placed there hands over their hearts (presumably in reverence) and sang pledged their allegiance to flag and country as they worshiped God. When I heard this story I was left wondering how the body of Christ around the world would fit in a service like that?

What I'm tying to get at here is the question of identity. Who are you? What defines you? What framework or paradigm do you see the world through?

You see as Christians we have to learn to see this world and our life in this world as if we are aliens and strangers in this land. This land we call the United States of America, this land that many of us love and have even served, this land that is part of the world that God loved so much "that He gave his one and only Son" to redeem it, is still a foreign land to those of us who are citizens of God's kingdom, for it is not the kingdom of God. It may be a great land by the world's standards, it may have one of the best forms of government and may offer greater freedom than other nations but we cannot and we must not mistake it for being a Christian land or in some way representative of the kingdom of God.

Perhaps you've never thought of it like this before but as followers of Jesus Christ we are called to adopt a way of looking at the world that is different from the way nations of the world see things.

Christian conversion, that is initiation into the kingdom of God brings with it a shift in perspective of the same magnitude that the shift from Ptolemy's view of a universe centered around the earth to the Copernican view that saw the sun at the center with the earth moving round it brought. It was a view that was met with great suspicion and would see Galileo accused by the church of heresy for supporting it.

Christian conversion, initiation into the kingdom of God requires a paradigm shift in how we view the world. It requires us to learn, as the title of the sermon states, to be strangers in a familiar land.

Paul is quite clear about this when he writes to the church in Rome and tells them, "Do not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind..."

"Do not conform to the pattern of this world." Don't conform to the way the world thinks. Don't conform to the way the world reacts and responds to various situations. Don't conform to the values of the world, materialism, prosperity, greed, selfishness, wealth etc.

"...but be transformed..." Be changed, this change is a process. Undergo a metamorphosis (this is the actual Greek word) in the same way a caterpillar undergoes a metamorphosis in becoming a butterfly. A caterpillar sees the world for a perspective that is locked into the gravitational forces of the world as it crawls its way over plants munching on leaves focused on nothing more than eating and having a very limited perspective. Yet that caterpillar is transformed into something completely different, a butterfly that can now throw off the forces of gravity and take to the air. moving through the world in a very different way it gains a whole new vantage point from which to see things. The butterfly can see the whole forest while the caterpillar only saw the tree it was on. The transformation brings with it a new paradigm.

How sad it would be if the butterfly never took the air and spent its entire life in the same tree it had been in while still a caterpillar. Yet so often I find that we, as Christ followers, remained stuck, trapped, in old patterns of thinking and we never stretch our wings and see the wonders of the world from a kingdom of God perspective.

"be transformed by the renewing of your mind." We are to learn to think in a new way, we are to learn to think from a new perspective. We are to have renewed minds, Godly minds, minds that learn to see the world as God sees the world. We are to develop Christ-like imaginations that allow us to dream and envision a different world, a world in which God's kingdom comes and God's will is done on earth in the same way it is in heaven.

This transformation begins with a wholehearted commitment to following Jesus Christ into the world. It's the kind of commitment that allowed Francis of Assisi to see things differently from others in his day and rather than support the crusades as much of the church did he crossed the front lines in 1219 to share the good news of God's love for us in Christ with the sultan.

It is the kind of simple commitment that Shane Claiborne had when he boarded a plane for Iraq in March 2003. Why did he go? In his own words he makes it clear, "I went to Iraq because I believe in a God of scandalous grace. I have pledged allegiance to a King who loved evildoers so much he died for them, teaching us that there is something worth dying for but nothing worth killing for.
    I went to Iraq in the footsteps of an executed and risen God. The Jesus of the margins suffered an imperial execution by an oppressive regime of wealthy and pious elites. And now he dares me and woos me to come and follow, to take up my cross, to lose my life to find it, with the promises that life is more powerful than death and that it is more courageous to love our enemies than to kill them.
    I went to Iraq to stop terrorism... I went to Iraq to stand in the way of war. Thousands of soldiers have gone to Iraq, willing to kill people they do not know because of a political allegiance. I went willing to die for people I do not know because of a spiritual allegiance.
    I went to Iraq as a missionary" (Taken from "The Irresistible Revolution.")

You may or may not agree with Shane's actions but can you see how Shane is living his life shaped by a different paradigm? Shane is living his life based on the premise that Jesus meant what he said in the Sermon on the Mount and that he meant it to be applied here and now.

Some people would accuse Shane of being naive, a fair accusation if you are looking at things from the perspective of the kingdoms of this world, in other words from a different paradigm. From the world's perspective it is most certainly naive to think that prayer and non-violence can impact the like of Saddam Hussein, Bin-Laden and other despots around the world. Others would accuse him of being idealistic, I have to say that I've usually found that accusation thrown out by people who simply don't have the courage to live out their beliefs in the world. It is an accusation that is often tainted with a hint of jealousy.

If we were to take the Sermon on the Mount or Luke's Sermon on the Plain and state that they were to normative for follower's of Jesus we would have to acknowledge that the systems of this world would not understand and may even oppose us for doing so. Following such radically subversive teaching may even get us crucified. Let's be honest, from the world's perspective, as Will Willimon and Stanley Hauerwas state in their book, Resident Aliens, "nothing in the Sermon on Mount suggests that the way of disciples is "rational.""

We are strangers in a familiar land.

While we are all works in progress I want to ask how is your transformation into a citizen of God's kingdom coming along. As you grow and mature in your faith are you able to more clearly see and live in this world in a new way, in God's way, from a new paradigm or are you still still trying to see and explain things the way the world does?

May we learn to live faithfully as strangers in a familiar land.

Paradigm Shifts...

I've been trying to figure out how to help people shift paradigms. No, I'm not talking about shifting from a modernist to post-modernist paradigm (although that might be helpful). What I'm trying to figure out is how to help God's people shift from a Christendom based view of the church and world to a post-Christendom / missional view.

Any thoughts on interim steps would be greatly appreciated.

A thought on American Religion

It's that time of year again when patriotic fervor spikes and I try to hide (not really) the fact that my passport reads "British" on the front cover! This Saturday there will be lots of bombs "bursting in air" as fireworks light up the sky in celebration of a war that took place some 200 years ago. It's a great celebration and people will have a lot of fun.

As a pastor I've been charged with thinking through events like these with a theological lens.To that end we have to remember, as Augustine taught us, that all nations of the earth no matter how great are still part of Babylon, that is they are kingdoms of this world. The kingdom of God is different and stands apart, over and at times against every kingdom of this world. That is why Scripture tells us that we are to think of ourselves as strangers, aliens in this world.

You see every kingdom also has its own religion, America is no different. As Greg Boyd notes concerning the "religion of American democracy."

"Like all religions, this religion has its own distinctive, theologized, revisionist history (for instance, the 'manifest destiny' doctrine whereby God destined Europeans to conquer the land). It has its own distinctive message of salvation (political freedom), its own 'set apart' people group (America and its allies), its own creed ('we hold these truths to be self-evident'), its own distinctive enemies (all who resist freedom and are against America), its own distinctive symbol (the flag), and its own distinctive god (the national deity we are 'under,' who favors our causes and helps us win our battles).

As Christians we need to be careful not to buy into this religion. Yes, we can and should celebrate all that is good and right in the nation but we must never lose the prophetic edge that allows us to stand up and speak of those things that are wrong.

Just a thought on the death of two celebrities

An actress and a singer died today. It's all over the news, Brian Williams had to bump his lead story on the actress to lead with the death of the singer. NBC did a special on the actress, CBS ran one on the singer. It will probably be front page news in tomorrows papers and the news magazines will have them on their covers next week.

While death is always a tragedy and our hearts go out to the families of Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett I can't help but think of how we have all been caught up in our celebrity culture. We live in a culture in which talent comes ahead of character and real heroes, people who are making a significant difference in the lives of others, are rarely recognized.

Actually I'm not convinced that its ever been any different but God is much more interested in us developing a Godly character than increasing our talent.

Church Music: Me, My Family, Tradition and the Future

I've been thinking a lot about church music recently. For the first time in my career I have found myself in the position of selecting the hymns for worship as our choir director takes the summer off.

I grew up in a traditional Presbyterian church in Ireland and we sang songs from the hymnal every week accompanied by the organ. The vast majority of those songs were over a hundred years old and represented a long tradition of Christian hymnody going back Isaac Watts, Martin Luther and others. I came to appreciate the best of these songs and dreaded the rest.

As I grew older (around 9 or 10) I came to understand there was a disconnect between the songs we sang on a Sunday and the music of the world in which I lived. This disconnect was heightened in my teenage years as I discovered the music of The Jam, Madness, AC/DC, Deep Purple, Duran Duran, U2, Bob Dylan, Van Morrison and many others. When I became a Christian I was introduced the world of contemporary Christian music, Petra, Stryper, The 77's, Altar Boys, Larry Norman etc. but even though this was "Christian" music it didn't seem to find a place in the worship services I attended.

By the mid-80's I was aware that some Pentecostal churches were now singing new songs in worship and a couple of other churches had started "contemporary" services, in which music born out of the folk tradition was sung.

Today the only place you hear a pipe organ is in a church. It is for me a nostalgic feeling singing with a pipe organ (real pipes or digitized) but it is nostalgia, it is like a comfortable old sweat-shirt that I like to wear once in a while. But it is not the world I live in and more importantly it is not the world my children live in or have any desire to enter. They were not raised in this environment and entering it is like visiting a foreign country in which the language and culture are alien.

Last Saturday our family visited a large church in our area with a very simple service of worship, singing, prayer, offering and sermon. The music was led by a worship leader (we used to call them cantors in the days before church choirs, we have come full circle) and played on guitar, drums and keyboard. The music, while being God honoring, reflected the music of the world in which we live. I believe, Luther, Watts and Wesley would be delighted by this. But more than that my daughter was delighted by this, she lifted her head high, as did Jenny and I, and following the lyrics on the screen we sang our hearts out.

I asked her what she thought of the service and she said she loved it. I realize my children will not end up in what I think of as a traditional church. There will be no hymnals in the church they raise their kids in as the print media gives way to digital media. Many of the classic hymns will be rewritten or consigned to a place in the history books and rightly so as the music of a new generation fills the air in praise of God.

I do pray my children will end up in a worshiping community that honors the tradition of the church to proclaim the gospel in a culturally appropriate manner.

Two quick questions on "classic" hymns...

1. All Hail the Power of Jesus Name - without resorting to a dictionary, what is a "diadem'?

2. All People That On Earth Do Dwell - what does "serve him with mirth" mean?

Hospitality

I've been thinking about hospitality... On Friday evening as I was attending the Manitou Day paraded in White Bear Lake I saw a man with t-shirt that read, "Welcome to America, now learn to speak English." I would call this conditional hospitality. You're welcome as long as you meet a certain set of criteria but if you fail to meet those criteria then you are no longer welcome and the outstretched hand will be withdrawn.

This is a far cry from Christian hospitality that arises out of the tradition of hospitality in the Middle-East. Christian hospitality welcomes both friends and strangers for who they are, not who we want them to be. Christian hospitality is based on a love for the stranger and extends the same love and grace to the stranger that God extended to us.

Unfortunately all to often people in our churches could wear t-shirts that read, "Welcome to our church, now learn to do things our way." We not not be brazen enough to put it quite like that but I've met many non-Christians who have quit looking at Christianity as a viable option because they were not welcomed by people in the church. A good dose of real hospitality would go a long way to promoting the gospel in our culture today.

Thought from Bryan Burton

Great thought from my friend Bryan Burton... here

Bryan challenges us to live for the kingdom of God.Publish

Getting Back to "WHY"

I have just finished reading Jim Collins new book, "How The Mighty Fall." It is a fascinating, albeit brief, look at why organizations that appear to be highly successful falter. It is well worth the read and church leaders need to take heed of the warning signs.

One of the first markers of decline (take note church folks) is when "what" replaces "why." As Collins notes, "the rhetoric of success ("We're successful because we do these specific things") replaces understanding and insight ("We're successful because we understand why we do these specific things and under what conditions they would no longer work"). I'm not sure that there's a greater issue than this in struggling mainline churches.

I've never been in a church that hasn't had a deeply rooted way of doing things and old-time leaders who staunchly defend them. Oftentimes we call them "traditions" and that somehow makes them sacred, but what happens when that tradition (the what) no longer conforms to the tradition (the why), which one wins out? In the church it's usually the tradition of what and not why that triumphs.

I believe that the church needs to once again get back to the "Why" of everything it does and make sure that the "What" and the "why" are aligned with one another. 

I should also add that churches need to honestly and candidly be clear about the "why not" as well. It's not enough to say, "we've never done it that way" or "some people won't like that." The "why not" answer needs to be that it doesn't serve God's purposes for the local church.

Constantly asking "why" while not a panacea for all church ailments will go a long way to helping the church connect in a relevant way with people of the twenty-first century (that's the present) rather than the mid-twentieth century or earlier (that's the past and no one lives there as time has progressed).

A thought on this weeks sermon

This week I'm preaching on the topic of justice. It is a wide topic and one that touches on a great many issues. So for those of you who read my blog and listen to my sermon (currently only available live and in person at First Presbyterian, White Bear Lake) know that the sermon will necessarily be limited in its scope. The justice issue that the sermon will touch on is extreme poverty and the call of God for us to live justly in the light of that issue.

Some of my favorite books on justice are...

The Irresistable Revolution - Shane Claiborne (easy to read and told as a story)

The Hole in Our Gospel - Rich Stearns (a challenge for the President of World Vision)

Just Courage - Gary Haugen (International Justice Mission)

Evil and the Justice of God - NT Wright (a theological but readable book on the subject)

Exclusion and Embrace - Miroslav Volf (theologically weighty, worth the read)

Websites I read...

World Vision

Amnesty International

Sojourners

International Justice Mission

As Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, "We are not simply to bandage the wounds of victims beneath the wheels of injustice, but we are to drive a spoke into the wheel itself."

Making people homesick

This morning as I was reading Oswald Chamber's devotional, "My Utmost For His Highest" I was struck by these words,

"You can never give another person that which you have found, but you can make him homesick for what you have."

I began thinking about evangelism and the proclamation of the gospel and wondered how well we were doing at making the world "homesick" for what we have? When I talk with people who do not know Jesus I often learn that Jesus's followers make them sick, rather than homesick, with their approach. 

Ever since the fall of humanity as recorded in Genesis the great story has been one of trying to get home. To get back to that harmonious relationship with God, creation and one another. We have been a people in exile searching for a way back home. Unfortunately many of us have settled for life on this planet as all there is, but we, Christ's followers, know better.

May we learn to live in this world in such a way as to make others homesick!