Being Poured Out or Staying in the Bottle

In Paul's Second Letter to Timothy, he says that his life has been a libation. A libation in the ancient world was a ritual offering where a liquid was poured onto something, either a sacred object or the earth itself. Paul's life was poured out for the world itself. In giving his life for others, Paul mirrored Christ, the one who gave his life for the sins of the world.

We have lots of choices. When we take a particular path, it means that other paths become closed to us. Sometimes when we take a particular path, we look back and wonder whether it was the right one. In the Christian tradition, we have the option of allowing God to use us as a libation to become a servant for others, where our lives are poured out to the world itself. Or we can stay in the bottle.

On one hand, we like life in the bottle, because it is safe and we feel in control. But as persons created in God's image, it is our destiny to be a libation. Moreover, it is boring staying in the bottle.

Its a bit like being on a roller coaster at an amusement park. We can choose to ride the roller coaster, or we can choose to stay down on the ground where it is safe, eating nachos. We have paid our ticket, and no one is forcing us to ride the roller coaster. But then we get on. And we get to that moment when the roller coaster gets to the top of the first big hill and we know what is coming next. At that moment, God is holding the bottle that contains our lives and we are looking out. And then suddenly, we are poured out and as the roller coaster of our lives in service goes screaming down the hill, we realize that it was the only choice that made any sense. The life of those who choose to give themselves for others is a life of excitement and joy and glory.

Our lives are a choice. Let's make the right one.

Everyone Misunderstands Jesus Except You

Paul admonished Timothy and the early Church that someday something terrible was going to happen: those who once followed Jesus would decide instead to deliberately turn away from genuine discipleship. If that were not insidious enough, they would choose teachers who would validate their new theology and ideology, whatever it was. How hypocritical can you get?

Its happened. It must have. Because there are lots and lots of people that claim to be disciples of Christ, but who believe something different than you do. So they must be wayward. They are obviously following someone other than Jesus. If this were not the case, they would think like you and act like you. But rest assured--you are right and they are wrong. Now your job is to make sure that they know it. So start yelling at them a lot. If they start yelling back, yell louder. If you yell load enough, they will stop yelling and listen. Exhibit emotional abuse. Write lots of editorials that demonize them. Build lots and lots of walls. Objectify. Discriminate. Repeat. Don't bother to recycle. Did I mention yell a lot?

For those who do not have to listen to me every Sunday morning, you have just been victimized by my trademark irony.

Paul warned that one day followers of Jesus turn from following Jesus to following something else. What is worse, followers of Jesus would start finding teachers that mirrored their own theologies and ideologies, and would start calling it following Jesus. Its happening, and its been happening. I don't think its ever not been happening. And not to those people out there who believe different things than us. I mean you. Yes, you, Mr./Ms. Hip-Blogosphere Latte person. And I mean me. We all create Jesus in our own image and likeness. We all seek after the Jesus who already thinks like us and acts like us, and then we find him and are self assured in our discipleship.

So let's get over ourselves and let the Holy Spirit enter in. Lets be still and let God be God and transform us from the inside out. Lets be humble and let go of the blaming and the finger pointing and the yelling and seek Jesus, the real Jesus, the Jesus who is very much not like us and not in our image. The Jesus who won't fit into comfortable ideological categories. That Jesus. Because that Jesus can take the world with all its racism and poverty and injustice and can make it reflect the world that God wants.

The Still Excluded Marginalized Outcast Victimized Leper Gets Sozo

One of ancient Israel's central preoccupations was in deciding who was "in" and who was "out"--that is, to decide who mattered, who was valued, and then to make sure everyone knew the difference. In ancient Israel, this was defined in terms of ritual cleanliness and uncleanliness, by wealth, and by ethnicity. Here in Marshall County, Tennessee, we share this central preoccupation. Some of the ways that we define worth have changed, and some remain the same, but the preoccupation remains.

Ten lepers are healed by Jesus. The Israelite lepers are part of the "out" group. But now they are katharizo, made clean, and consequently, are now "in". The Samaritan leper is still "out" because of his ethnic group. And what do the Israelite lepers do? The first thing that is on their minds is to run to the priest to replace their "out" badge of uncleanliness with an "in" badge of "I'm in the in group now. "

The Samaritan leper, who is now still part of the "out" group, is the only one who returns to give thanks. The one who still has the most to be ungrateful about, to grip about, is the one who gives thanks. Because the Samaritan lives in gratitude, the Samaritan gets something more important than katharizo. He gets sozo--redemption.

Ironically, the more we obtain the trappings of the "in" group, the more we can potentially lose sight of the fact that all of us get sozo by grace. Sozo is a gift given to us. It is not obtained by our perfect attendance Sunday School pins or being the president of the noon rotary.

The Samaritan leper, who, as far as we know, remained part of the "out" group, was part of the only group that mattered, the redeemed, simply by his capacity to acknowledge that a gift had been given.

Where God's Vision Resides

I hate violence. I hate war. I hate injustice. I want people to stop hurting each other and to stop hating each other. I recently became aware of a non profit organization called Falling Whistles, which seeks to raise awareness of the plight of child soldiers in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Child soldiers who are too young/small to carry a gun are sent into battle armed with only a whistle. The description of the level of violence and mistreatment described on the organization's website is shocking, even to our Western violence saturated minds. If you want your mind blown, visit www.fallingwhistles.com.

Today I stood on my figurative watchtower and asked that Yahweh explain Himself for his failure to intervene to address violence and injustice both right here in Tennessee and abroad. Over 2500 years ago the prophet Habakkuk stood on his own watchtower and asked Yahweh to offer an explanation for His refusal to address the enormous injustice and violence in his own day--the violence of the Babylonians, and the violence within Israel itself.

Yahweh response to Habakkuk, and to us, is to first challenge the notion that God has not already intervened. God's intervention is by placing His vision of peace, forgiveness, and justice within our hearts. Habakkuk's question was the answer to Habakkuk's question. God intervened by instilling within Habakkuk a yearning for justice. God has intervened in the injustices of our world today by placing God's vision of the Kingdom within us. And then God responds by taking our place on our own watchtower and asking us the same question that we have directed to God--why have you not intervened?