Sell me Jesus

Very interesting short article over on the CMS blog about church marketing. Well, actually it's a brief review of a new book called "Blue Like Jazz". I have no idea why his book is named that, and you'd certainly have no idea it had anything to do with Jesus from the title. But, there you go. Go read the blog entry anyways.

Get thee to a nunnery!

OK, so yesterday's front-page story in the SF Chronicle Sunday edition was an article about a woman who joined a convent 15 years ago...and is still there. Except unlike most women who join a convent when they are young, she didn't join until she was 60 years old (after being married and having 10 children and 18 grand-children). Her name is Ann Miller, and apparently she was a high-flying, high-society type person who knew all the right people and went to all the right parties. But she traded it all in on her 60th birthday for a life of extreme ascetism. Sounds very noble, right? I suppose so, but this paragraph made me wonder:

Then she threw herself a going-away bash at the Hilton hotel. "The first two-thirds of my life were devoted to the world," she told 800 friends as they enjoyed music from two orchestras and tucked into caviar, coquille of seafood and fine wines. "The last third will be devoted to my soul." It was Oct. 30, 1989, her 60th birthday.

The cynic in me can't help but wonder about someone who throws a big party to announce to everyone that they intend to spend their retirement years "devoted to their soul". She talks about it as if she were tending to a garden. I was expecting her to say something like "I spent the first two-thirds of my life devoted to myself, the last third will be devoted to God". But instead it sounds far more like the focus is on personal self-improvement.

Now, admittedly, 15 years in a strict convent is a pretty remarkable feat, and I would have thought that 15 years of focusing on God and being away from television, the internet, email and cell-phones etc. would enable anyone to really zero in on God in pretty profound and amazing ways. At least, that's what I hope. But, it still just kind of sounds odd. Like this was all just a pre-arranged thing that she could do to ensure her salvation.

And doesn't God call us to serve him for *all* our life, and not just part of it? I don't think the writer of the article particularly cares for her, or what she did, but I wonder how many people will read the article and marvel at her nobility for "sacrificing" everything for God? I worry that her actions perpetuate the myth that we should keep our spiritual lives and our day-to-day lives completely separate.

Bizarre.

A Good Friday Dream

Well, this kind of thing never usually happens to me, but I had a dream last night that was eerily appropriate considering today is Good Friday. So, here it is:

The beginning is a bit vague now, but I think I was travelling overseas somewhere - it wasn't San Jose, but wherever it was, it was near a river. I was walking along and came across a small sheepskin rug that was arranged in such a way that it looked like a nest, and inside was a container holding 12 tiny little eggs. I stopped and looked more closely and realized that the eggs were alive - that there were little baby birds inside. I reached out my hand and cupped the eggs - they were really really warm, as if they were generating heat, and I realized that they were about to hatch. There was nobody else around, and I knew that if I didn't do something the babies would die because it was too cold. So, I carefully cupped one little egg, just as it started to hatch. Sure enough, a tiny baby bird emerged, with dark brown feathers, it's eyes still sealed shut, and it's wings folded back from being curled up inside the egg. It squirmed around in my hand, but was obviously content. Then another one hatched, and then another. There were now three little birds, and as I tended to the second and third ones, the first slipped into some kind of puddle of water, but I rescued it. They didn't make any noise, but needed my warmth and protection. The other eggs didn't seem ready to hatch yet, but I could tell that these 3 (or 4 - thinking back, I think there might have been 4), desperately needed my help, and I realized I had to pick them up and take them with me.

We started to walk along the road. The sun was shining, everything was very clean and neat, but I could tell I needed to get the birds somewhere. I just didn't know where. They started to grow at an amazing rate. Already they were the size of small hens, but they were absolutely beautiful. It's strange to think of a chicken as being beautiful, but they really were. They had these wonderful dark brown feathers that were soft and smooth, and they cuddled close to me and needed me to protect them. (ie these were not the standard springtime little yellow baby chickens). Suddenly three men started to notice me, and I had this feeling that this was bad. I tried to walk in the other direction, and not look at them, but I could tell they were worked up about something, and were headed directly towards me. As they got close I could see that they were angry, yelling and screaming, and trying to get in a fight with me.

At first I couldn't understand the problem, but then I realized it was because I was a Christian. I don't think I've experienced persecution before, but in my dream it suddenly became very real. I had obviously done nothing wrong, and yet these people were crowding around me, yelling and kicking and trying to punch me. I kept saying I hadn't done anything wrong, and I didn't want a fight, and please leave me alone, but they were too worked up. Then someone picked up a stone and threw it at my head. I think the first time I managed to duck, but then another stone came flying in and smacked me hard, and then another, and another. These weren't giant rocks, just small pebbles, but big enough to really hurt. As I was trying to find a way out, another man came up with a big, 1 gallon, cardboard carton of milk, ripped open the top, and started dumping it over my head, while laughing and mocking me, which got the rest of the crowd laughing also.

All the time I was still holding these beautiful hens, and trying to keep them safe, but I was starting to realize that I couldn't protect them from the persecution, however hard I tried. At that moment somehow I suddenly found a way out and everybody disappeared. I barely had time to pause for breath before animal control suddenly appeared. There were two people driving in an old, beat-up, modified golf cart, like the ones you see in movies that they use for picking up the balls from driving ranges. There was a cage around the whole thing, to protect the people inside. They stopped, got out and came rushing over. They wrenched the hens from my hands and started to chastise me for having taken them away. I tried to explain that I wasn't taking them away, I was trying to protect them, but they wouldn't listen. They just kept accusing me of taking the hens away from their mother, and reiterating that the hens had to go home to be with their mother. "I *know* that" I repeated to them, getting more worked up, but they still didn't really listen, and simply bundled up the hens and drove off.

It wasn't too traumatic to see them go away - I knew that it was the right thing, and the best thing for them. But it was intensely frustrating that the animal control people didn't understand me, and didn't seem to want to try and understand me. It was very important to me that they recognize that I was actually trying to *help*. In fact, I went back to the nest and the other chicks had all died, because it was too cold. It was sad, but I realized that I had done all that I could. At this point I went to the animal control place and was able to visit the hens, and watch them through a window. They were in a room that was heated and protected. They were safe and sound, and playing happily.

Bizarre, huh? What do you think it means? Anything? Maybe I've just been eating too many Peeps. Actually, I really haven't eaten any Easter candy yet this year.

The part that really sticks out for me is that I was being persecuted and basically stoned for being a Christian. A weird dream to have right before waking up on Good Friday. After breakfast I was getting my things together to go to work and I sliced my thumb on a piece of paper. It kind of hurt at the time - it wasn't one of those little tiny papercut nicks, it was a real good, long papercut that drew blood and everything. But a split second later I just looked at my thumb and thought "you're complaining about that? Today? On Good Friday?" But you know what, we're obsessed with the physical aspects of this world. Go watch The Passion. Go listen to a Good Friday sermon. You'll hear and see plenty about the physical pain and suffering that Jesus endured for us.

But the Gospel accounts really don't focus that much on the physical aspects of his death. There are just enough details so we know what happened, but no more. Maybe it was too much to recount, maybe it was considered culturally inappropriate. Or maybe it's because the spiritual separation and pain was far more painful for Jesus than the physical pain. Abandoned by his friends, his followers, and finally, at the last moment, separated from God as he took on the full weight of our sins. That awful moment is what sticks with me and gives me chills as I write this.

"My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?"

I can't even bear to put myself in that position and consider what that would feel like. It is simply too horrible to imagine. In a bizarre way, the physical pain I can imagine, and I can sympathize with, and sort of understand. The spiritual pain and anguish, the separation from God - that's just too horrible to even imagine. I think there must be some connection to my dream, but I haven't figured it all out just yet.

Anon posts now allowed

I thought I had the site set up to allow anonymous comments, but apparently not. It's fixed now, so feel free to leave anonymous comments now.

Someone pointed me to this interesting and disturbing article on the foxnews website. It's an interview from the talkshow Hannity & Colmes. I have never seen these guys before because I don't watch Fox News, but they sound somewhat confrontational. Anyway, this doctor thinks that Terry is NOT in a PVS.

However, there are always two sides to the story. So, Hannity & Colmes interviewed a different doctor the next day.

So now we're back in the same situation as before - which doctor do we believe?

Well, to try and cut through the news-media rhetoric, I dug up Judge Greer's ruling from November 2002, which is pretty short, and pretty interesting. Take a read and see what you think.

While I Was Sleeping - Christianity Today Magazine

So, we still don't know what Terri Schiavo's actual mental state really is, but this article should certainly make anyone think twice about pulling the feeding tube. It's written by a woman named Lindsey O'Connor, who was in a coma for 47 days after complications relating to the birth of her fifth child. She recalls how bleak and hopeless things looked for so long, and how close her husband and family came to giving up on many occasions. However, they didn't give up, and despite all medical opinions to the contrary, she eventualy came out of the coma, and is alive to tell the story today.

Now, from everything that I have been able to read, I think that Terri Schiavo's medical condition is a bit different. So, I don't think we should read Lindsey's account and jump to the conclucsion that since she came out of a coma, so could Terri. I think it does show that doctors tend to see the glass as half-empty most of the time, and that God can and does work amazing miracles.

But really I think the bigger story within Lindsey's account is that God can work in amazing ways to impact huge numbers of people through traumatic circumstances. Lindsey recalls the amazing way that her tragedy affected those around her, including her eldest daughter, Jacquelyn, who dropped out of her freshman year of college to help care for her newborn sister. Lindsey says:

"One night, in her car in the hospital parking lot, she pictured her life two ways—with God and without. Was her faith in God just her parents' teaching to invoke good moral choices, or was it real, hers, and worth anything at all? She pondered that age-old question: How could God let something so terrible happen? She decided that as difficult as this was to get through with God, going it alone terrified her. Her faith became her own that night."


Sure, she could have come to this conclusion any number of different ways, and certainly God didn't *need* such a tragic situation to work so powerfully in Jacquelyn's life. But, God did use that opportunity to bring faith alive in her heart. And that's the real message behind Lindsey's story - that God works through and beyond suffering and tragedy and death in ways we can't even begin to imagine. As she says at the end of her article:

Would I want to live without cognitive awareness? Well, no. Wanting to avoid suffering is human. Even Christ asked if his suffering could be avoided. I believe there are times when it is acceptable and ethical to remove medical treatment from our loved ones. But in all cases, we should weigh our desire to be released from suffering against a greater desire to glorify God. If I had predetermined no life support (or only short-duration support), as some have in advance directives, I'd be dead. I'd also perhaps have missed the greatest opportunity of my life to bring God glory, because he can use us for his purposes in any bodily state—even while we're sleeping.

While I Was Sleeping - Christianity Today Magazine

Church Marketing Sucks: Church: Why Bother?

Stumbled across this blog entry from a year ago. The insights are really Yancey's, not the blogger's, but thought provoking nonetheless. My favorite quote is this:

"The church, he said, is like manure. Pile it together and it stinks up the neighborhood; spread it out and it enriches the world."

Funny...yet oddly profound also. Man, it's a hard job reforming churchs and people - it's a natural, normal tendency to want to clump together in groups or teams or cliques or whatever where everyone acts and thinks the same way. But Jesus calls on us to make church more than just an exclusive club.

Church Marketing Sucks: Church: Why Bother?

More on Schiavo

I guess everyone has an opinion of one sort or another about the Schiavo case, but I think that this guy has a decent point in his post "Culture of Stupidity". Sure, maybe Terri Schiavo does deserve to live, and sure, maybe Michael Schiavo should do the right thing and let her parents actually take over care for her. But, Christians getting into the political mix would be well-advised to remember that Jesus had a whole lot more to say about taking care of the poor and needy - something that the Republicans are generally not very good at doing.

Gain the world, forfeit your soul

It's almost impossible to cruise around the internet today without encountering some news story or commentary about Terry Schiavo. The bottom line is that you or I have no way to really know whether or not her brain is functioning. The lawyers and doctors for her husband say that she is in a persistent vegetative state, whereas the lawyers for her parents claim that she might be in a transitional state of some kind, with the possibility of recovery. How in the world am I supposed to figure this one out? I'm not a doctor or neurologist. All I have to go by are competing news stories, and eventually it seems to boil down to this - if you are a typical, run-of-the-mill, conservative republican, then you side with Terry's parents. If you are a typical, run-of-the-mill, liberal democrat, then you side with Terry's husband. So which team do you want to be on?

Personally I think that either solution is horrible and painful and sad. To let her die by removing her feeding tube is a very serious decision to make, and I would not want to be the person who ordered that, or did that, or had to watch her die as a result. I would not want to be directly responsible for the death of another human being. Then again, leaving her alive is not exactly the wonderful option that it has been made out to be. She has been in some sort of comatose state for 7-8 years now - how many more do we keep her body alive for? What does that achieve? Who, exactly, are we really keeping her alive for? For herself? For her own benefit? What does she gain by being kept alive in this condition? Or is it so that others can avoid dealing with the pain and agony of her death?


Either way around, this case is a reminder of our fantastic corporate denial of the reality of death. One day I will die. And so will you. That is an absolute certainty. Sooner or later it happens to everyone. However, we spend an enormous amount of time and energy trying to avoid that fate. We pop supplements and pills, exercise 24 hours a day at the gym, try to avoid bad foods, drive safe cars, and sanitize everything we can. Even air fresheners now contain anti-bacterial agents. Air fresheners! I mean, give me a break! Are you really telling me that a squirt of Glade is going to purge this entire room of all dangerous bacteria? It's obsessive-compulsive behavior, and it's because we fear death.

Now, fear of death is normal - it's hard-wired into us from day one. But the danger is that this leads us into an obsession with life. In averting our eyes from death, we forget why we are really here. In effect we are taking our eyes off the goal, looking away from the finish line. This is why I love the movie Gladiator. It shows a guy who has his eyes firmly fixed on the afterlife. Because he knows that there are some things more important than what we can see and hear and taste and touch and feel right now. Although they don't show it in the movie, I'm sure that deep down he still would have had some fear of death, but the point is that Maximus could see beyond death, and that profoundly impacted the way he lived.

When we live life thinking that death is to be avoided at all costs, we also start to think that suffering must also be avoided, since suffering is awfully close to death. And these are completely false worldviews. Contrast that with the Apostle Paul:

"And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me - the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace." (Acts 20:22-24)

God was telling him that he had to go to Jerusalem, and that he would encounter hardships and prison, and probably even death along the way. But he wasn't worried about that because his eyes were fixed on the goal. Paul's entire life was centered around this one thing, it was his life purpose, "to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me." And so, you might say, "well good for Paul! Thank goodness I haven't felt compelled by God to do the same thing."

Really?

In Matthew 16:22, Jesus has just told the disciples that he would be betrayed and killed in Jerusalem, and Peter, in a totally normal, avoid-death-and-suffering-at-all-costs sort of way, blurts out impulsively,

"Never Lord! This shall never happen to you!"

You can just feel Peter's pain and anguish at the prospect of Jesus dying. Jesus, the man that Peter loves so deeply. Jesus, the man that Peter always seem to be trying to look out for, as if Jesus was his little brother. And so here, his protective nature comes out and he leaps forward, as if to say,

"Don't mention the 'D-word'"

But Jesus has a completely different perspective for us. He rebukes Peter in the sternest possible terms, saying,

"...you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men."

I love how Jesus cuts straight to the heart of the matter here. He is telling Peter, "Hey, it's time to take this to the next level. Time to change your persective once and for all. Stop thinking like the world, and start thinking about God."

And then he goes on to say,

"If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father's glody with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done." (Matthew 16:24-27)

That seems pretty clear to me. Elevate the importance of the physical body, of life, of this corporal, tangible, material world, and you will lose sight of the things that really matter. Paul understood this clearly, and spent his entire life focused on serving Christ, even thought that meant all sorts of suffering and hardship. He understood that there was a bigger picture he was a part of, that there was more important things than living a long comfortable life. Paul was focused on the goal, and he never took his eyes off it.

And this is what bugs me most about the whole Terry Schiavo case. Sure, yes, there are all sorts of moral and ethical and legal and biological arguments to be made on both sides of the case. And as Christians we are called to be compassionate and loving, and we are also called to protect those who cannot protect themselves, and to preserve life and not to take life. I heard a commentator on the McNeil-Lehrer News Hour the other day who was lamenting the fact that our societal presumption appears to be towards death, and we have to fight to preserve life, whereas he wishes it was the other way around - that our presumption in all such cases should always be towards preserving life. As in a trial where the jury must find the accused guilty beyond a shadow of a doubt, the same should be true here - the husband should be forced to show beyond a shadow of a doubt that Terry's wishes were to have the plug pulled. Absent that, our presumption should be to preserve life.

However, let's not forget in all this that death is not the end. And ultimately what is far more important here is not Terry's physical body, her physical life, her physical death, but her spiritual life. Whether or not she is kept alive by a feeding tube is far less important than whether or not she will be kept alive eternally by the power of Jesus Christ. Christians should be far more focused on that aspect of this situation than anything else. Because ultimately Terry will die one day, and whether that is today, tomorrow, or 10 years from now, the question will still be the same - Do you know Christ?

For those of us not in a coma, Paul has a word for us in 1 Corinthians 6. His reminder is that our lives are not our own. We "were bought at a price." And as such our lives should be fully committed to God, not fully committed to avoiding death. Terry's case should be a wake up call to all Christians that God has important work for us to do, and time is running out.