Stay frosty.

Now perhaps you might be thinking, “Really? This idea isn’t unique, there are plenty of Christian forums, sites and communities online already…maybe even too many communities…why would you want to add another one to the chaotic flood?”

And in many ways, I would agree with you…in that, there are a ridiculous number of voices on the internet, all proclaiming an exponentially larger amount of ideas, opinions and irrelevant information.

But herein lies the purpose of Rogue Theo…what if it were possible to create a community that is more intentional than a trolled-up, Christian forum, where even in a community as concentrated as ‘Christian’, there’s still an overwhelming amount of purposeless tangential information? What if this community moved forward together on similar ideas and confessions? What if it were to actually become one voice, instead of many?

Thus is the purpose and blogging journey of Rogue Theo…I encourage you to check it often, as it will be updated at an exceedingly higher frequency than this here blog…

Spiritual…but not Religious

We have been placed during a time in which our present society finds increasing tension between themselves and ‘the church’, where one third of our nation is ‘spiritual’ but not ‘religious’, where these so-called Christian buildings are places more associated with fear, judgement and conflict than love, community and healing.  Is it really such a surprise that both those inside and outside the body of Christ feel so cut-off and distant?

Father Richard Rohr, a Franciscan priest says this of what we’re deeming ‘Paradise Lost’, “The first half of life is about light (order, meaning clarity, explanation). The second half of life is where God leads us into ‘darkness’ which is actually a much greater teacher than what seemed like light. Now we learn through waiting, trusting, praying and ‘through a glass darkly’”

It seems as though what we’re dealing with in this whole innocent vs. naked community, is an identity crisis of sorts.  We have a people, both Christian and non-Christian who can’t really come to grips with which half of life their dealing with.  We have Christian adults who desire to return to the first half of lighted life; and then we have Christian adults who have no idea as to what to do with this darkened second half of life they find themselves in.

Primarily, because what is so often pushed as ‘Christian living’ is this return to innocence.  Yet redemption has nothing to do with a return ‘to the way things were’, which I’ve written about before in ‘Redemptiphobia’.  The Christ of the scriptures is one who crashes fully into the darkness, so as to provide an exodus to an entirely different reality; not to return to the innocence that existed before darkness.

An identity crisis…this tension and confusion begs the question as to which half of life, we’re meant to live in as so-called Christians. Things then seem to become further complicated, as the darkness is most definitely dark, and we often doubt that our God and our faith can venture in and out of this darkness in one piece.

Bumper stickers and Biblical identity

In the end…whether you’d call yourself part of the ‘innocent’ or the ‘shattered’, we’d all like to return to the proverbial Eden…Which is what makes God’s promise of exodus that much more difficult to trust. In the end, we’d like to opt for an alternative escape route. Nonetheless, God’s got his own plan.

If you’re still reading at this point and haven’t gone for a smoke-break, I have a proposition…Sometime in the next week, ask one of your non-Christian friends (if you don’t have any friends, then try and get out more) what’s the first thing that pops into their head when they hear the word, ‘Christian’…then ask them the same question, but with the word, ‘Christ’, instead…I’m willing to bet a Chicago-priced pack of cigarettes (that’s how you know I’m serious) that the answers are contrastingly different from one another.

And so here’s where the rubber meets the road, or the contemporary inspiration, if you will.  With regards to our mid-life crisis as the body of Christ, we struggle with not only being Christ to the ‘world’, but even within our own communities in the bride of Christ.

Allow me some liberty for the moment, as I speak to the idea of ‘leading someone to Christ’.  For when it comes to this illusion of those ‘on the in and on the out’, the central issue is, “Are you leading people to Christ? Or are you actually just leading them to Christianity?” …or Christian culture more or less…

What concerns me most about Christianity, is that we have come to equate the ideas of Christ and the culture that is created by Christianity, so much so…that we no longer see a difference between the two.

Yet in reality, the Christ that is spoken of in Hebrews 5 is seemingly different than the Christianity that is pushed in the present time.  One rushes into the so-called ‘darkness’ with hope, trust and spleen-bursting compassion; the other with pseudo-innocence and bewilderment.

So where do we go from here?

Well, by now we’ve come to the end of this chaotic thought-train that’s bound for an off-the-rails disaster…

The funny thing is, I don’t really have a conclusion of sorts.  Instead, I invite you to wrestle with these tensions that seem to plague us in these days. As I’ve said before, the greatest danger of ‘Christian culture’ is that we expect people to conform to this identity of innocence…whereas if you’ve known the darkness, it’s a pretty complicated idea to just up and return to child-like innocence.  In fact, the return to innocence has nothing to do with Christ; it’s a denial of what Christ has already done.

Perhaps more to the point…

What kinds of people do you feel just ‘don’t get it’ the way you seem to? Is there tension here? How should we see each other?

How are we bridging a gap between the kingdom and the world? Can people see Christ? Or do they just see culture?

What kind of intentional community are we making time for within our own Christ-communities? Is it possible that some members of the ‘family’ are drifting off?

So may you continue to wrestle with this Christ who comes to bring redemption to those who have lost their innocence, may you also grow in compassion for the bride of Christ…even amidst an identity crisis…and at the end of the day, may we not grow weary in pointing to Christ, again and again…laying beside our own stories, so as to not further complicate our reality in him.

“Every high priest is selected from among men and is appointed to represent them in matters related to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. He is able to deal gently with those who are ignorant and are going astray, since he himself is subject to weakness. This is why he has to offer sacrifices for his own sins, as well as for the sins of the people.

No one takes this honor upon himself; he must be called by God, just as Aaron was. So Christ also did not take upon himself the glory of becoming a high priest…

During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him and was designated by God to be high priest in the order of Melchizedek”

Hebrews 5:1-10

Throughout the entire letter of Hebrews, the writer continuously points to the supremacy of Christ, being Lord of all, firstborn of creation, and in this case, the most tangible mediator between God and Man.

Bushes and Bare-chested Boastings

In the very beginning of the Bible there’s this garden, called Eden, where God puts both man and woman to take care of it, live with it and more or less enjoy the life that he himself sustains.  Then there’s this ‘fall’, where the man and woman decide that God’s reality isn’t really what they’d like to live by…in the end, they wished to place themselves permanently in his shoes…

And the scriptures say, that at the moment of this fall, “Their eyes were opened and they knew that they were naked”

…And then the man and the woman scurried off to the bushes to hide both from God and their nakedness…

Eyes opened. Nakedness. Shame.  In the narrative of the scriptures, this fall was the first experience of paradise lost and innocence shattered.

And it wasn’t the last, this shattering of innocence permeates both the ink of the scriptures and the lives of both you and I.

It seems as though, that from cradle to grave, this is what the human condition is all about.  Not simply the ‘loss of innocence’, but much more so, the process that follows thereafter.  As in, how do I now reconcile the reality that I used to know, with the present reality? How can darkness become light again? Something changes when paradise is lost.

It did for the man and the woman, and it does for you and I…

As we grow in this nakedness, two distinct reactions to it are ever present.  First, there’s the tendency to respond in isolation, the idea that ‘they’ just don’t understand anymore and could never relate…which leads us further and further into a loss of community and inwardness.  Then there’s also this response of sabotage, where we think that the rest of the world lives in naivete, as if ‘they’ need to experience what we’ve experienced so as to possess a more ‘realistic’ outlook on life.

The first reaction diminishes the individual to a state that is somehow ‘below’ the rest of humanity, whereas the second reaction, puffs up and elevates the individual ’above’ the rest of the community.

And it’s not just pseudo-philosophical verbage…we hear these reactions everyday…often spewing forth from our own oral cavities.

“Sure he’s enthusiastic and optimistic, but is he realistic? Does he actually think that people think that way?”

“So-and-so just needs to go get smashed a few times, and then they’ll know what ‘it’s’ like”

“Bob-what’s-his-face is living in the dark ages, he needs to come to grips with reality”

…Now my examples may seem a bit irrelevant or highly unlikely, but are you trackin’?  Something in our perspective seriously changes when paradise is lost and innocence is shattered.  In fact, so much so, that we begin to see everyone else as operating on a completely different playing field.

The man and the woman in the garden ran away and hid from God…in our context, we hide from both God and each other…

Curtains and Cataclysmic Incarnation

And yet, we can become so lost within the narrative of our own stories and despair…and so enters the writer of Hebrews and the High Priestly Christ that begins to take form in the fifth chapter.

He is able to deal gently with those who are ignorant and are going astray, since he himself is subject to weakness…

This is the Christ who came not only to die, but to scream beside us.  The Anointed One who walked upon the earth audibly crying out and suffering on behalf of humanity.  He is the perfection and the final form of all shadows that preceded him…He is the High Priest in the order of Melchizedek forever, one able to redeem with gentleness a whore of a bride, since he himself has been subject to weakness.  He is not merely the payment for sin, but the only mediator between God and man, the only one worthy to tear temple curtains in two…an identity that bears more weight than you or I could ever imagine.

Because of this…Christ is clearly not simply the God and advocate of the innocent, but he is the only advocate of those who wallow in despair, isolation, depravity and a darkness that not even the ‘Church’ seems able to fathom.

Either way, it seems that we often have ‘deer in the headlights’ experiences when this topic of discussion is brought up.  You’ve got the ‘learned theologian’ who is overly-enthusiastic about both ends of the spectrum and you can’t quite figure out which side he’s on.  Then there’s the individual you prefaces every statement with, ‘Well, I’m no Biblical scholar, but”…to which you wonder, if they’re so keen to point out their lack of scholarship, why are they adding their ‘two cents’ every 15 seconds?

…Just an observation…

Anyway, as I set aside my personal rants for a moment, let’s hop into this, alright?

The reason for my blogging about predestination, election, whatever you want to call it; is based in the reality that this issue is actually very simple…

That the underlying purpose of predestination/election language in the scriptures is to promote the grace of God, assure the believer in salvation and comfort the people of God in what he has already promised to them, not the other way around.  For when this topic becomes something of complexity, or when it starts to promote uncertainty in matters salvation…it is then that the conversation becomes unbiblical and truth can no longer be found in the discussion.

I consider my background in Calvinism to be really quite helpful when it comes to issues of the gospel and perhaps why it is that our biblical confession of what the gospel really is, is so unique to the whole of mankind.

The proverbial ‘weak link’ in Calvinism is that although it may seem that the idea of election is based in a comfort for the believer, it actually later becomes an obstacle and issue of uncertainty.  For as Calvin attempted to extrapolate on this idea of God’s election of mankind, he began to rationalize more and more as to how one would know for certain whether or not they were part of the ‘elect‘.  In other words, the so-called believer would then have to prove again and again of their membership in the body of Christ.  Depending on what tradition one might hail from, would then determine what kinds of ‘proofing’ they would then have to demonstrate.  Whether it was spiritual gifts (tongues, prophecy, etc.) or good works (social justice, service, catechesis), the individual would find themselves in a constant state of having to prove their election to both themselves and their community.

Is this biblical?

Does this match-up with the understanding of a God who has bound himself to us, rather than us to him?

This is where it gets complicated…and this is where we miss the point.

The gospel is simple in it’s application and message to all…that we serve and are bound to a God whose word is supreme and far above anything that we can ever mouth or promise back to him.

He has declared the bounds and limits of reality in Christ…and his declaration is simple…’You are mine, end of story’…

…This is the comfort of our God…this is the promise of election…

In other words, that our gospel paradigm is simply ‘In till you’re out’, not ‘Out till you’re in’…

Which means that the state of grace is not something that you and I need to perpetually be attempting to stay in for fear of damnation, but rather if we accept Christ’s declaration of grace as reality, then we must understand the gospel as something we must intentionally run away from in order to in any way, shape or form be found on the outskirts.

This is the promise of our God…he’s got you, and not letting go…and even if you run, he will pursue you with an undying passion…

As a ‘recovering Calvinist’ in my fourth stage of recovery (The whole process is known as ‘TURNIP’), I never really thought I’d be headed with glee to the humble Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, IN (where I’ll be ‘taking my talents to the non-existent South Beach).  Last winter I had made my peace with the ‘L’ man and decided to look in other directions, namely some non-denominational schools on the east and west coasts…and now we find ourselves in the same spot…once again…with the dirty ‘L’ word looming overhead.

But there’s a different sense about it now.  For years I’ve shirked the label ‘Lutheran’, as that of the worst of known STD’s.  And now, as pastoral formation is less than a year away, I’ve come to a much clearer sense of why it is that I would do something so rash as to call myself…ugh…a Lutheran…

It’s actually very simple, and probably doesn’t deserve a post at all…but keeping in mind the simplicity and clarity of thoughts in 21st century monasticism, here goes…

I would consider my religious heritage of sorts a generous orthodoxy to say the least….from Calvinism, to neo-orthodoxy, to post-Anabaptism, to emergent hibbity-jibbity…it’s been an interesting adventure.

In all of this, as I began with a desire to ‘make the gospel a tad bit more interesting’, the incarnation round-house kicked me in the face as it has brought me back to the simple reality of Christ in time and space.

The simplicity of my confession is that Christ is reality, and that any ‘leap of faith’ possible is simply found in the setting aside of my own reality and the acceptance of his.  That God has declared his people as pure, holy, righteous and without blemish through his son…and therefore, though I may not feel or think this to be true…it is.

This is faith…to die to my reality and sensation…and recognize Christ’s declaration of reality as the only source of truth.

So then there’s this gospel message…and this is where it’s at…this is the entire point…

And this is why I am a Lutheran…not because any other church body doesn’t speak the gospel in clarity…but in that it is in this dirty ‘L’ word of sorts, that we are charged with the task of fighting for every inch of purity in it’s declaration, every measure of universality in it’s application, and every ounce of understanding in the heart’s of God’s people; motivated solely by grace, truth, compassion and a deeply intimate understanding of how this reality permeates all else.

As of late, I’ve given a lot of thought to the ideas and implications surrounding Paul’s words in Romans 12 that state, “For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned”

More specifically, this idea of ‘the measure of faith that God has assigned’ to each member of his body.

So there’s this God, who then calls, redeems and grafts his people into the identity and reality of this Christ, and with all that redeeming, salvation magic; he also apportions a measure of ‘faith’ to each individual.

…Strange…

What does that mean? More so, what does that look like? And why does this God choose to make himself known this way?  That he would grant you and I a different measure of faith…

There are a few ways we can (and have) taken this idea.  One is similar to that of the early effects of monasticism from the early conception of the church and on.  In other words, that there are some in the body that are called to a for-lack of better words, ‘higher calling’.  These are those who are more than mere ‘common Christians’, but individuals who then somehow give up ‘more’ for the obedience commanded through Christ…but I’m not a huge fan of this understanding.

To paraphrase Bonhoeffer, the monastic movement was essentially more dangerous to the ‘common people’ than to the institution of the church in that it taught people that there were ‘levels of commitment’ in faith.  In other words, that it allowed people to observe monastic community and think, ‘Well, brother so-and-so has given his whole life to God, but I have no intention of being a monk, so I’ll just go ahead and fork over 50%’

And thus we inadvertently ushered in a brand new era of spiritual hierarchy…which in the end, didn’t so much ‘empower’ the ‘in-the-know’ crowd, as it did diminish and weaken the common crowd.

What’s more is that even though Bonhoeffer spoke these words 60 years ago, we hold many of the same misconceptions as true in our current cultural and spiritual context.

In our present context, we struggle day and night with apathy in the body of Christ…yet the root of this apathy is much more ancient than you or I might like to admit.

So allow me to give some context to this thought, so that your reading of this post is not entirely ambiguous.  Over Thanksgiving break, I got to spend a few days at home, both with my family and our extended family.  What changes most for me (and I would assume the same is true for the general population) between my ‘being’ at school and at home is that at school I am constantly surrounded by men entering the same field as myself…those who seek to become shepherds of the flocks of God; be they philosophers, counselors, theologians, or spiritual nomads (check all that apply). So it’s this environment that although it is real to me and those within the community; represents a rare reality in the world at large.

When I go home, that reality changes…no one wants to (or should) listen to my thoughts on the missional movement, absurdist Christianity or existential post-foundationalism.  Rather, home is a more common reality, where thoughts on Christ and culture aren’t normal dinner conversation.  I personally enjoy this balance as it grounds me in what true reality actually is.  But at the same time, I can’t help but wonder about what this means with regards to what I understand ‘to be true’ in Chicago.

For example, on my left forearm I have a tattoo in Greek that reads, ‘The God who wastes nothing’ (which is careful paraphrase of Paul’s letter to the Romans).  Where, while spending the weekend with my extended family, this inkage was a new reality for many, so they each asked me about it throughout the course of those few days.  And yet, as I prepared my explanation in my head for a few seconds, all I could really think about was, “Even if I explain this, are they going to get it? Will they care? Do they really want to know in the first place? Religion isn’t always the best small talk at family gatherings”

And so I find myself a slave to what I would consider our 21st century monasticism.  In that there is this idea so deeply ingrained to my thoughts that faith is somehow an entirely different reality for each person.  In other words, that there is a common spirituality and a higher spirituality at work in the body of Christ…to which this idea is both damaging to that of the so-called common spiritual people and that of the seemingly ‘higher’ spiritual people.

And how this then plays out in life isn’t much different than the effects that Bonhoeffer discusses…we’ve got a majority of Christians who think that they’ll never get the whole thing or that they’re not equipped or responsible for it, and on the other hand we have this subtle minority of ‘higher’ thinkers who feel as though they’re spiritual isolated as they call out from their ivory towers the next and greatest thought to have crossed their minds.

This is not Christianity…

21st century monasticism is fundamentally different in that it is a division of mindset as opposed to a physical lifestyle or choice. Which makes it much more subtle.  On my end of things, I might in theory subscribe to the belief in a ‘higher’ spirituality that is somehow different in nature to that of a common spirituality.

The reason for which is quite simple…I have an ego…

Instead of fixing our eyes upon the God who apportions faith according to his purposes, I am at many times (many times) guilty of looking to myself and wondering, “How did I get like this?”

There’s this idea floatin’ around my noggin’ that somehow I’ve been granted a spiritual understanding that is chiefly not that of my own.  In my selfish heart, I receive the affirmation offered to me by my surrounding communities as a validation of how ‘I’ somehow came to be like ‘this’.  I then further the lie that this apportionment of faith given is somehow for the building up of myself, rather than the body.

To put it simply…God indeed apportions faith as he sees fit.  But this apportionment isn’t really about you…to believe anything outside of this is to deny the very purpose of a body with many members and function.  So as I sit in my ‘tower’, I am humbled by the realization that any understanding or spiritual quirkiness given me, isn’t about me, it’s purpose is serve solely as a light for the nations…so that mankind is swiftly ushered in to the holy courts of this God…face to face…

To perceive this giving and allotment of spirituality with sobriety is to recognize that it is no longer I who live, but simply Christ in me…so that as the incarnation increases in the body of Christ, he might simply call his beloved directly to him…not to or detouring through me.

Albert Barnes, a 19th century Reformed theologian said of the universality of this gospel, “The idea of preaching the gospel to all nations alike, regardless of nationality, of internal divisions as to rank and color, complexion and religion, constituted the beginning of a new era in history. You cannot preach the gospel in its purity over the world, without proclaiming the doctrine of civil and religious liberty,— without overthrowing the barriers reared between nations and clans and classes of men,— without ultimately undermining the thrones of despots, and breaking off the shackles of slavery, — without making men everywhere free”

This is what the ‘priesthood of believers’ is all about…this is the mind of Christ…

So in the end…when all is stripped away…our mission is this; that the gospel is of such dire importance to the whole of humanity that it must be spoken about in the utmost clarity and simplicity…not a ‘dumbing down’ as some might like to believe, but a simple clarity…such that speaks to all men, regardless of so-called ‘spiritual aptitude’.

The gospel of this God as simple and clear is the responsibility of every Christ-follower, regardless of calling or biblical understanding.  Be it a mother, philosopher, pastor, priest or freelance urban nomad; the mission of the church is to proclaim from the very depths of the earth how wide, how deep, how far the city of God stretches in incarnational, reality-altering love.

I refuse to believe that this message of reconciliation needs any ‘dumbing down’; for to do so is to deny the creative design to which this God has apportioned faith to his people.

Although our content is surely rigid (You can’t really take the God-Man out of the picture…even if it adds a quick dose of flavor to your personal narrative), the form in which this message manifests itself is entirely flexible…which (for me) is one of the most beautiful aspects of the Christian reality.  And not simply because of the fact that we have this spectrum of ‘Hip-Hip-Hippopotamus’ to Irenaeus’ Christ hymn of the 2nd century, but that this flexibility of forms, if you will, demonstrates the utmost love, compassion and creativity of our maker.

Teen Angst…It’s everywhere…Each scene seems to be 5 minutes longer than they should be…dramatic and ‘knowing’ glances, long pauses, emotional departures, young people who so eloquently express their frustration and disillusionment, the oppressive parental generation that just ‘doesn’t get it’…

But let’s pause for a moment…

Because this thought-train isn’t really about my disappointments with Harry Potter, or any other Teen-directed flick that’s come out in the past 16 months.

Instead, I’d like to invite you to seriously consider how this ‘teen angst’ melodrama; its messages, banner-bearers and false perceptions of reality have come to embody certain ideas or movements within Christianity…in other words, how does a reality fueled by Twilight, high school sub-cultures, ‘sticking it to the man’, and ‘how you’ve been knocked down this whole time, but now are somehow going to show ‘them all’ that you’ve had it right all along’ affect the bride of Christ and her mission now…and later?

And don’t misunderstand my intentions here…

As I dig deep as to what it is to live and find definition in and amongst my generation and those coming after it…I’m met with some tough realities as well as some great challenges, and I realize in the end, that in every way and instance that I apply criticism; that I struggle and fail in the exact same ways and instances.

For it is here…in this flux of teen angst…this awkward moment of transition, from adolescence to adulthood…where we struggle with just what kind of identity it is that we will create for ourselves or subscribe to…and that hopefully, we’ll have made the right decision.

I find several paradoxes to be increasingly present in my generation and that of those that surround it.  First, although we constantly label and systematize the world around us, we often fear beyond anything else the price of being tied-down to those same labels.

So in other words, we’re really good at over-complicating reality as well as criticizing it from every direction, but really bad at applying that same critique to ourselves.

Self-entitlement…this one’s huge…and in the same breath, a major opposition to unity, community in Christ and maturity as the bride.  Instead of the coming-together as one body paradigm that Christ reinforces again and again throughout his ministry, we react in the opposite direction and seek identity for ourselves, first and foremost; often at the direct-expense of those in the fold.

We would rather prove to the world how ‘right’ we have it and how vindicated we now are through our painful journey of adolescence that has somehow exposed the superficial beauty of ‘those people’s’ experiences…for we have found depth, absurdity and meaning…’they’ are just lost in the dark…

For the Christian, self-entitlement can often appear or feel spiritual, in that our generation is already conditioned and comfortable with a reality that is self-absorbed and self-defined.  These are the ‘lone-wolf’ Christians who are set on reforming the bride and proving wrong the ‘conventional’ understanding of Christianity, as if it isn’t a fulfilling or complete picture.  The danger is that I then become my own point of reference and truth…that I begin to define truth based on my perception and life experience, and not on something absolute or beyond my condition.

Melodrama…or the excessive romanticization of reality…Face it, not everyone can afford 5 minutes of screen time with their soulmate as an inspiring soundtrack blares in the background…yet, we cling to that reality and expect it nonetheless.  One of the greatest injuries that we can afflict the bride of Christ with is to try and make the story ‘more epic’ than it is.

Which is not to say that the reality of being bound to Christ is not at all ‘epic’…but rather that often you and I have the tendency to want to paint a more sensual picture of Christian living than actually exists.

Are we always to feel full-blown passion in everything we set our heart to?  Are we to always be ‘revolutionaries’ for Christ?  Is there this perpetual awakening of bright lights and fully-realized purpose that we’re not tapping into, but that we could be?

No…this is not an honest testament to the down-to-earth reality of what it is to live in Christ.

Now remember what I said before…I fail in all of this…this spiritual teen angst flux seems to permeate the whole of reality, not just a portion of it.  So it’s not an ‘Us against them’ battle; instead it’s a ‘Let’s be honest, patient and compassionate with ourselves as we sort this out’ kind of thing.  I’m not worried that this too will somehow not pass…I’m sure that it will, but I am deeply concerned as to how long we’ll allow ourselves to live in the lie…

For the reality that you and I have been called to is a simple one…a simple life.  Paul puts it best in his letter to the church in Corinth when he says that, “I desire to know nothing but Christ and him crucified”

For Paul proclaims that his identity is simply and supremely found in that of Christ, and nothing else…This is the identity that is being carved out for you and I…nothing else…and this is the maturity and process that we have been called to die into, that all else is lost…that this sensationalism would also die…so that something far better would shine out the clearer in our flesh and blood.

Polycarp of Smyrna was an early church martyr, whose martyrdom tells a profound story and speaks into the reality of the identity that you and I have already been grafted into.  For as Polycarp was brought before his accusers and even the Roman government, his answer to any question asked, was always the same, “I am a Christian”

Whether it was, “What is your name” or “Where were you born”, Polycarp, in the face of imminent death and persecution answered simply, “I am a Christian”

…Not “I am Polycarp, and allow me to tell you the great things that I have experienced and how you’re all wrong and blah blah blah [insert long pause] [insert over-romanticized stare and short glance of anguish]“

No…the reality is simple…You are in Christ…end of story.

Today my first official post was approved and published, of which is actually a repost of a piece I did about 5 months ago called ‘Christian Nudist Colonies’.

I’ve discussed the ‘missional movement’ before on this blog and I’ve found the definitions given on ‘Missional Lutherans’ to be even more helpful in getting exactly to the point and to the purpose of missional resurgence in American Christianity.

As time and my semester allow, I hope to publish some to-the-point practical thoughts on Christian culture and a missional transition very soon.

If the verbage is driving you nuts right now, take a gander at this short film.

For the past few weeks many of my conversations have revolved around a never ending cynicism, frustration, anger and hopelessness concerning the individuals and communities that make up the body of Christ on this side of eternity.

In one such conversation, a brother and I went back and forth for over an hour about this and that…why so-called Christians just don’t seem to ‘get it’, how there’s seemingly no light at the end of the tunnel, how we wish we could just shake a few of those around us and get this Jesus movement on its way…and how in the end…nothing seems to work…the body, the bride is broken.

In the midst of this dialogue I finally said, “You know, here’s the reality…the bride of Christ is no runway model, no size 6, no perfect 10…the bride of Christ is a morbidly obese spinster in the process of shoveling 15 baconators down her throat…and yet at the same time, God declares in full confidence and spleen-bursting compassion for his bride that she is pure, righteous, holy and without blemish”

Offensive?…perhaps…but I’ll leave that up to your discretion…regardless…are you trackin’?

She’s Some Kind of Beautiful