The Bubble

These are some of Jesus' words on the challenge of being a light in the darkness, which he prayed to his Father for us in anticipation of the problems his streetlights would face:

"I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world." (John 17:14-18)

Have you ever noticed how Christians have their own little set of catchphrases that we throw around like so many theological frisbees? You know, those little buzzwords that we've used so much that we don't even quite think about their meaning anymore but just assume that other Christians will understand? The ones that make people who aren't Christians go "I'm sorry, what now?" Well, This passage is probably the origin of the Christianese saying that we should be "in the world, but not of it."

But, before I go any further, I henceforth move that people who are trying to be streetlights avoid speaking Christianese at all costs, because of two main problems with it:

1.) It makes non-Christians, the very people we want to serve, love and share truth with the most, think we're crazy and want nothing to do with us and our elitist lingo.

2.) These trite little sayings dramatically minimize the true power and worth of the Bible, and also of our calling. This passage is a prime example of that.

Take a look at it: our little catch phrase version of this passage can only tell us that we find ourselves in this place that we don't really belong, so we should live here without letting the sins and customs of the world stain us and hinder our purposes. Not only does this shallowness not even begin to cover the heart of the passage, it also perpetuates what is probably the single biggest shortcoming of the Christian church today, a phenomenon I like to call the Christian Bubble.

This bubble mentality comes, as far as I can tell, from a line of thinking something like this: Well, we aren't supposed to be of the world, but we can't get out of it. So, maybe the best way to do that is to insulate ourselves from it. We'll form a protective shell around ourselves made out of catchphrases and exclusively "Christian" products so that no one else can relate to us. That way, we can interact only with other Christians and not be somehow tainted by the affairs of the world.

As my sarcasm should surely indicate, I think this way of living is ridiculous and completely unscriptural (although, unfortunately, all too easy to fall into). Look again and see what the scripture above actually says for us to do. Jesus could easily have prayed for God to actually take Christians out of the world, but he specifically did NOT do that. He wants us here. Why? Because of the message of good news we're supposed to be bringing (which it says two verses later than where I stopped quoting in that passage above).

Further, who is supposed to be protecting us from the world? Not us, with our walls and insulatory bubble. Jesus prays that God the Father would do the protecting! Why fear being tainted? If we go with the right heart, the protection is already provided. I don't know exactly why Christians treat people who don't believe in Jesus like they're carrying some kind of deadly contagion, but it has to stop. How can we love people if we're afraid of them?

Speaking of love, how does that passage say that we are sent? Exactly like the Father sent Jesus! First off, that's really encouraging, that we're privileged to share his message. But, it's also quite the challenge, because how did Jesus relate with the world? If you're thinking he loved it and served it, you're right because Jesus loved to get in the middle of people's lives with his radical kindness and relate to them right where they were. Still, that doesn't quite cover it. To really be sent into the world like Jesus was, as this verse commands, means we lay down our lives for it in order to bring people to God. Jesus was completely spent on this mission, and that is our call as well. Sounds a little different than just "in, not of," no?

Side tangent: Unfortunately what the Christian community has been doing instead of spending itself in love and pursuit of the people God calls them to reach is insulating itself. Heaven forbid that we listen to and like the same music as people "of the world." Why do that when we can make a lower quality, dumbed down version of the same product and then market it only to ourselves, since there's so many of us? And why stop at music! We can do this with movies, books, toys, t-shirts, etc. etc.... the possibilities are endless. Why would we need to be conversant with the mainstream culture that is all people we need to love will know?

Funny thing about that way of thinking and marketing is, it takes the world's stuff, then modifies it (usually making it worse) and takes it away to its own little protected zone. That's being of the world, but not in it, the exact opposite of what the strategy is supposed to be doing!

This is the Christian Bubble. And as it relates to Cleveland specifically, its line of thinking continues by saying, "why live in the city where the actual problems are, when we can settle in the suburbs and fence ourselves into a gated community?" See how the insulation works? Now, I'm not saying everyone has to live within the city limits to serve God, just that suburbia provides a perfect layer of insulation from the world for people looking for one. In reality, the suburbs have plenty of problems that Christians living there could address too if they were living like Jesus sent them to live. I mean, where do you think city drug dealers make their biggest sales? (If you don't know, the answer is to rich kids from the suburbs.) The suburbs just hide their problems better.

Anyway, all of that was kind of an extended sidebar to the main point. I don't mean to be a downer, even though I am a touch cynical and angry about all this. The truth is, Jesus has promised us the most fulfilling life imaginable in taking his message to the world, not in avoiding it.

Incidentally, that's the reason I like Stavesacre, my favorite band in the world (http://www.stavesacre.com/). All the members of the band are Christians, but they rebel against the Christian bubble and take their music to secular locations and just rock it out. They make a quality product that offends some Christians, but they don't seem to care. They're calling people to more than the bubble. Their song "It's Beautiful Once You're Out Here" (video available on Youtube) is about this, as is another older song, "Sundown Motel." I'll quote from that one to finish off this entry:

I don't believe this is what God ever intended, so I think it's time to go... The sun is going down, I say we follow it out of town, We've been here for far too long... and in the morning, when it rises, maybe it will shine for us...

Turns out that the call of the streetlight is for Christians and non-Christians alike: "Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you." I mean, a streetlight, by definition, brings light where? Not in some little protective covering placed around it, but in the streets.

We've been in a bubble far too long. But some of us are starting to break out...

Constellations

The Bible is quite a big book. I've spent a lot of time studying it, but the funny thing about it is that there's always more to learn. It's almost like there's actually too much in there for our brains to actually keep hold of at once! This is really one of the amazing things about being a follower of Jesus, but I think that it can also lead to a problem that too many Christians fall into: compartmentalization. We study or hear a teaching about one specific topic or verse, and we can remember and hold onto that one for awhile. The next week, we get some other individual answer and we hold onto that. The week after that, a different one, and so on. Now, this seems like it would work out, the constant accumulation and stacking of knowledge in theory giving us an ever larger database of wisdom to consult as we face the issues of our lives.

Unfortunately, what I'm finding to be true for my life is that my capacity for successfully remembering and retaining the lessons I learn this way is much smaller than I would hope for. If I had to make a highly scientific and educated guess, I would say that my capacity level is approximately 3. That is, I can keep track of about three life lessons at a time. More than that, and some of them start getting pushed back into the dark recesses of my brain. This is not to say that they are forgotten, just that they're not at the forefront, not at the top of my mind bursting to be lived out.

Here's the thing, though: the problem I mentioned earlier is not a problem with me and my limited capacity. God knows I'm frail and he hasn't called me to more than he's given (or giving) me grace to do. The problem is with this weird system that we accidentally fall into as Christians where we compartmentalize our life lessons and try to apply them separately (and, all too often, one at a time). We study the Bible this way too, focusing on one verse or concept at the expense of the rest. It's kind of like going outside in Cleveland at night. We live our lives in such a polluted space with so many other things filling our vision that we can only see one or two stars at a time. They seem disconnected, individual points of light lost in swirling darkness.

Can you see where I'm headed with this analogy? The individual stars certainly aren't bad things. But, God has much more for us than just a couple stars here and there. He wants to give us the whole heaven, really. And he wants our lives to be more than just fragments and splintered efforts at holding onto a few lessons we've learned. Psalm 86:11 has to be our constant prayer: "Teach me Your way, O Lord; I will walk in Your truth; Unite my heart to fear Your name."

A united heart. Not some collection of insights, feelings, lessons, and whatever else we accumulate along the way, but one integrated whole, moving in one direction, only toward God.

God wants to give us this wholeness. I think that's why he made his book the way he did. 66 different books, one purpose. It's really incredible how the Bible is an integrated whole given its construction, but it is, and the more I read it, the more God connects the dots of the individual stars into the overarching master plan. I'm not claiming to see the whole sky or anything, mind you, but every now and then I think I at least see some constellations. So, from time to time I might use this space to diagram some of them and play some "connect the scriptures." In that spirit, here's what I would have to call the big dipper:

God has told us what we need to do to live an integrated life, to have a united heart. Remember how I was saying that we live with so much going on that we can only focus on one or two things at a time? Turns out I didn't come up with that idea, Jesus did. He told Martha in Luke 10:41-42, "You are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed." Funny, she was just like us. She was so worried about doing the right things for Jesus and getting her house in order that she totally missed the point. What was the one thing that was needed? What Mary was doing, sitting at Jesus' feet.

So, Biblical transitive property: A) Martha was a normal person like us. B) For her, God said only one thing was needed. Therefore C) For us also, only one thing is needed. We MUST sit at Jesus' feet. That's it. (By the way, some people might object to this by saying that nothing will ever get done if we all live this way. That, however, is ridiculous because if we spend all our time that close to God, when he moves we'll have to move as well. If he's doing something we'll have to do it too, just in order to stay close. And Jesus definitely didn't spend all his time sitting around. He also liked healing the sick, throwing tables, making the wise look foolish and hanging out with little kids, to name just a few. I think the real issue people have with living at his feet is that they don't really like the things he wants us to do.)

Parenthetical tangents aside then, all we need to do is sit at Jesus' feet. This is what Jude was talking about when he said to "Keep yourselves in God's love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life" (verse 21). It sounds so simple: keep yourselves in God's love. Live there. Soak in it. You don't have to earn it; it's a given, so just accept it. So why in the wonderful world of Disney do we have so much trouble doing this?

Short answer: because we have orphan hearts (see the previous entry for more on that). Two problems go into this. First, we all mess up sometimes (ok, a lot of times) and do things that aren't really worthy of love. Second, we all have been in situations where people in authority over us responded to our mistakes with anger and wrath instead of (or more stickily, mixed with) loving discipline. The end result that keeps us away from God is fear. Somehere inside we seem to be afraid that God is just gearing up to zap us for the wrong that we have so obviously committed. But, God is perfect by definition, so his love for us is perfect, and "Perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment" (1 John 4:18). The key word here is "because." It means that perfect love has to get rid of fear, because of fear's connection with punishment. By implication, there is no punishment in love.

To summarize, if we rest in God's love, we have no need of fear because there is no possibility of punishment. I know that this is dicey ground to walk, so hear me out. The important thing is the difference between punishment and discipline. Punishment is associated with the anger and wrath we have all felt from those above us that leaves us wounded. The truth is, though, that once we accept Jesus' sacrifice for us and his love, God has no more wrath for us, ever. The entire punishment for all our sins, past, present and future, has already been borne by Jesus on the cross. "He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed" (Isaiah 53:5). There is no leftover punishment that God reserves to pound us with as we mess up, since it is already used up.

Do sins still have negative consequences? Of course, but they do NOT change God's heart towards us in any way. He allows us to experience the troubles related to our mistakes "because the Lord disciplines those he loves" (Proverbs 3:12). He loves us enough to help us stop doing the things that are hurting us. This is love, not wrath; discipline, not punishment. Discipline is not punitive; it makes us disciples. See the linguistic connection? So, God uses our mistakes to draw us closer, not to push us away. We're the ones that push away from him because we think we aren't worthy of his unaccountable love.

But we are. Not through our own goodness or effort though, so don't get the wrong idea. The coolest thing of all is that, similarly to how Christ bore our sins and the punishment connected with them, he also has become "The LORD our righteousness" (Jeremiah 33:16). This was what Paul was talking about in Philippians 3:9 when he said that his one desire was to "be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ-- the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith."

Righteousness comes only from God. But, if we believe, he gives us credit for Jesus' righteousness, so we don't have to feel unworthy. That lets us, like Paul, be "found in him." Sounds an awful lot like sitting at his feet, no? I think that connects the last dot of this particular constellation. That's how we live with a united heart. The Bible is amazing.

So, now you know why it was so long between my updates. This entry has been stirring in me for quite awhile, and I just didn't feel like writing anything else in between. I plan to update a bit more frequently in the future, but I wanted to get this one out, because really everything else I say should be taken in light of this quest for a united heart and life. It's the redefinition I was talking about before. Just one thing to hold onto, and it's so simple. Whatever my situation, I will sit at Jesus' feet.






P.S. The whole time I was writing this, the other tab of my browser was on http://www.blueletterbible.org/ which is probably the best website on the internet. Yeah, you heard me, the whole internet. Any possible way you could really want to study or search the Bible is on there. Check it out! Oh, and on a slightly relevant note to that, all the Bible quotations in this post (and actually in this blog as a whole) are from the NIV unless I say otherwise because that's what I'm most familiar with and it's easily accessible. The only one in this post that isn't is Psalm 86:11 which is NKJV, which I used because occasionally the NIV doesn't accurately convey the force or meaning or just coolness that a scripture should have, and this verse is a prime example of that. If you compare them on Blue letter, you'll see why. OK, that's really the end now. Until next time...

A prayer for the orphans

As some of you may already know, one of my biggest interests in life is poetry, both reading and writing. My ongoing side project for the past couple of years has been working on an initial manuscript for a book of my poems, which I hope will someday be good enough to be published. Poetry is really one of the best ways that I'm able to express the deep things that get stirred around inside me from time to time, and just as with my more prosaic thoughts, I imagine that a lot of times people will be able to identify with them. So, every now and then when one of my poems seems appropriate to a subject that I want to talk about, I'll post it here.

By the way, I'm always open to comments and suggestions on my poetry (and my other postings too!). Just click on where it says comments below the post and tell me what you think. Fellow poets, feel free to use that forum to suggest possible edits as well, or to post your own poems if they relate to the subject. Just be nice :)

What follows is the first of my poem blogs (plogs?), which is a poem that I actually wrote a long time ago (a few of you may have already seen it) but seems more applicable than ever right now. Enjoy:


Redefinition

You are valuable in a way
that he never said
and your every smile stands
in cut glass defiance against

all the cries, not admissions
of anything or flags in the wind
but repairs that bring strength
in the gaps between

all you deserve diverging
from him to create
room for the incandescent
gift of heat instead

burning your new word
across the silent fields together
so you never are defined again
by what you never had.





Just so you know, that huge break means the poem is over. Anyway, recently at my church (check out http://www.vineyardcleveland.com/ for more info and to actually hear the sermons I'm just about to talk about) my pastor has been talking about something he calls the "orphan heart." People that have this heart live with feelings of abandonment and inadequacy because, in some area or another, they never received the love they needed to grow. Usually, it seems to me that this comes from being mistreated or neglected by a father, although I'm sure mothers and other influential figures can have the same effect. And because none of our parents are perfect, it really seems like all of us deal with this orphaned feeling in some way or another.

So, this poem is for the orphans. It's a fragile group of people, but one in which I have no choice but to include myself as well. And I guarantee you that Cleveland is full of them. The challenge for us, as streetlights, is to bring the Father's love to these people. A challenge, because a lot of them will run from us. A challenge, because our own brokenness wants to make us hide from them. And a challenge, more than anything else, because a lot of us are just too busy to notice how amazing God is and tap into his heart of love for us and for those we find ourselves in contact with.

That, though, is also the reason we have hope. If we pay attention, God's love is so big that it makes obstacles pale in comparison. He wants to redefine us, so that we can pass that gift along to others. We ARE his. We ARE loved. We ARE important. Who wouldn't want someone to tell them that?

So, I'm attempting to let God redefine me in this transitional season. That's the only way I'll have something to give to my city. But what I'll have... it'll be exactly what they need.