Lifeboats

My youngest son has his mother’s fascination for subsurface sunken treasures, stories of what lives in the abyss, sea monsters and pirates.Last year it was the 100 year anniversary of the Titanic sinking and so this became a big subject for my son’s growing fascination in the Titanic.We have countless books, Life magazines and National Geographics. He’s even asked if he can redecorate his room with the theme of the Titanic and started by taping  posters of the Titanics breaking and sinking to it’s demise at 12,000 feet (kinda morbid if you ask me!). We’ve watched the documentaries and the underwater exploration of the wreckage (thank you James Cameron). It’s eerily fascinating and yet scientists keep diving down to see what happened to cause such a massive watery grave. When James Cameron’s epic movie came out in 1997, it brought to light a spectacular reality of what luxury, wealth and status could buy for the aristocratic class at the turn of the century. I guess at this point I should point out the movie grossed more than the cost of building the actual ship!

Now because my son shares my fascination for the deep sea grave, and archeology, scuba diving and such I have sat through many hours of factual information on the Titanic. Most people would find it boring... I love it over and above popular sitcoms. So how in the world do I bring this whole Titanic thing into my blog because it’s been on my mind a lot more recently. Here’s why.

Though several theories of the how could the Titanic sink, it’s the “whys” that seem to increase my thoughts to a more comic idea. The more eerie lesser known fact is that upon the sailing across the Atlantic, an employee of White Star cruise lines said, “Not even God himself can sink this ship!”.  They never customarily prayed or blessed the ship. Another lesser known fact is that the ship was strong indeed with strong steel however,the weakness of the rivets that held the ship together have been found to contain too much “slag” in the metal that gave way to the iceberg when it hit. The final portion of the tragedy was death for the ship and it’s people, was that they hadn’t put enough lifeboats that would allow the ship to save each passenger should they come to disaster. They were so sure of themselves that the Titanic would never sink. One ponders this kind of thinking right? Too big to crumble, too strong to break, it will never happen and we are so right that God can’t even correct us. I am reminded of the tower of babel in this situation as ancient mankind built up, God stooped down and pretty much confused that corporate gathering with some strange new languages because it was not something He had commissioned. He actually said “go to the ends of the earth” not stay and build a tower to heaven.

Anytime there is a corporate building of any entity it’s only as strong as what it’s built on.
Have you ever found yourself depending a corporation that is so big and powerful that it surely couldn’t sink? Maybe retirement?  I think of several times when working in the fashion industry when big names fell like the tower, sank like a stone into bankruptcy. More recently, the World Trade towers actually were built very similarly to the Titanic in 1974. They were modern marvels of their time, build architecturally to withstand a hit from a plane and still stand. For thousands of years mankind has built pyramids, tombs, highways, coliseums, temples, sea faring ships, rockets, houses of worship, cities, countries, kingdoms. They all pass away eventually. In the climax of a country’s empire building it’s extremely blinding and deceptive to corporately think something would never allow such a large entity to crumble. Has there been any “empires” that has for the benefit of us all crumbled? I am thinking of a time in history when the church was forced to disperse throughout the nations, the Gospel was stuck in Jerusalem until the stoning of Stephen.

I’m reading an awesome book right now, Creature of the Word by Matt Chandler/Josh Patterson/Eric Geiger. It’s got some good juicy nuggets of truth in building a community of grace- a Jesus centered church. The fact is even any given church is only as strong as it’s rivets.If we see the Gospel as the rivets that hold the gathering of “the called out ones” or church being ekklesia than the foundational thread that holds a community together. If a church is full steam at 22 knots in an iceberg ridden sea it will soon enough be tested in it’s strength not because of it’s ability to go fast and make good time.

Just as the river forms the distributaries, the gospel forms the Church. The distributaries do not form the river, just as the Church does not form the gospel. When a church confuses the order, she loses her true effectiveness. When a church chooses something other than the river of the gospel as the driving force behind her teaching, programming, staffing and decisions, she empties herself of all power. Instead of becoming a distributor of life, she becomes a distributary of death. She doesn’t really have anything else to offer.

Can you imagine yourself bobbing along in a lifeboat watching the Titanic sink as a survivor? Almost 866 people were in that situation. I’ve stood in my office on 9/11 watching the twin towers smoke and billow then finally crumble to the ground under 40 minutes full well knowing it took an hour and a half to actually evacuate them because of the design of their structure. Trust me, I know I share that experience with many people and it’s not a good feeling in the moment. We now see Freedom tower being built, with added fire proofing and structures, although much of lower Manhattan was slammed by hurricane Sandy and flooded...again, never expected or built to accommodate a massive superstorm of Sandy’s size. Devastation affects an entire community, not just victims but survivors and spectators as well.

The gospel is not only the foundation for our service: it also radically purifies our motivation for service.

When we build something, we must be sure it’s not only built strong but the motivating purpose must be pure as well. We can count on God to purify those motivations when we find ourselves off kilter. The church is a great networking place, it’s a great place to be social, kids programs can be relevant and fun with parties and potlucks. But if the motivation and foundation of the community is not built on the foundational rivets of the Gospel and the motivation of our service isn’t out of a heart of the gospel’s commission we will find ourselves wishing we had jumped onto the lifeboat when we had the chance. God builds up the Church His way with His Word. His Word is the Gospel. Connectivity does not equate to community, nor the depth of the relationships guaranteed if they aren’t gospel centered. The survivors of the Titanic, many of them women and children share something in common in that they instantly were part of a survivors community: corporate experience. Some were rich, some were lower class, many were children now orphans and it was a tragedy that bound them together. That’s the story of the Gospel for all of us “called out ones” who believe, have faith in the grace of Jesus to save us from ourselves and our self deceit in thinking we are so strong that nothing can take us down.

Community is only as strong as what it’s built upon. And nothing is as strong as the gospel. 

All quotes are from Creature of the Word written by Matt Chandler/Josh Patterson/ Eric Greiger

The Revival that Never Comes

The Revival that Never Comes

Many people come to this area of the country, Northampton Massachusetts and the Connecticut River Valley because of it’s rich history, some of the oldest in our country. Church history on a more specific front because our green pastures of valleys, hills and mountains are speckled with the likes of DL Moody and Jonathan Edwards to name a few. Why do people find church history in this area so fascinating enough to want to visit Northampton? Many will explain that a Great Awakening happened here in the 1730s that was rooted in the preaching of several people like George Whitfield, but more importantly in Northampton was the ministry of Jonathan Edwards. This has fascinated me, as someone who loves history and theology all wrapped into one lovely morsel to study. Part of that fascination with the Puritan church is that my 10th great grandmother was martyred by her own church and community for being a “witch” in Salem Massachusetts. She was neither witch, nor heretic but a 70 year old bedridden woman, Rebecca Nurse who was wrongly accused by religious insanity. The puritan church in New England before our independence was a colony, and the church governed the land and our liberty looked very different than modern American context yet we look back to these same foundational fathers both in country and church desperately trying to hold a similar passion in patriotism and religious tradition. It still fascinates me that people within the church today look up to Jonathan Edwards, try to duplicate this supernatural happening that we know as the Great Awakening that reached as far as Scotland and the depth of our new country as New Jersey.

Many church planters and missionaries, come to Northampton inspired with what Jonathan Edwards did because since that Great Awakening Northampton but New England has succeeded in being the most “unchurched” area of our country, per capita over and beyond the Pacific Northwest. Why is this so? What happened in the last 200 or so years that this area has become dark, dim and ever so seemingly hopeless since that dawn of a great spiritual revival that sounded across our country?

In doing some research over the years of my residence here in the Pioneer Valley something that might be surprising is the fact in history that Jonathan Edwards preached on several very hardline subjects. For one, he preached on  the doctrine of Hell. Dare I mention Rob Bell here? For another he preached on Grace. See, during this time, many “denominations” were starting to take sides on doctrines and creeds within this country. Jonathan Edwards most likely got into deep doo doo when he attacked Arminianism first and claimed God’s Divine Sovereignty and choice. He was a Calvinist.

On July 7, 1731, Edwards preached in Boston the "Public Lecture" afterwards published under the title "God Glorified — in Man's Dependence," which was his first public attack on Arminianism. The emphasis of the lecture was on God's absolute sovereignty in the work of salvation: that while it behooved God to create man pure and without sin, it was of his "good pleasure" and "mere and arbitrary grace" for him to grant any person the faith necessary to incline him or her toward holiness, and that God might deny this grace without any disparagement to any of his character.

By 1735, revival spreading in Northampton was so severe that businesses were at stake. But we must note that 300 people were admitted into the church, not thousands as the population was quite low compared to Boston and New York. Many New Englanders also accused Edwards in leading his flock to fanaticism. From what the records show, there also were several suicides, 2 were from his church. This was not taken lightly, but pressed the local Congregationalist churches to put pressure on Edwards’. I personally think they got some bad rye, much like during the Salem witch trials. It was not uncommon for Puritans to flop about in the “spirit” to prove their “election”. While something we don’t think in context to the puritan church, in order to “prove” your salvation you had to have a personal “encounter” or divine revelation in order to become a full fledged “member” of the church and I would mention that this was heavily emphasised on “experience” not by simply stating “I am believer”. This gave you rights to vote in the congregation. When Jonathan Edwards preached his famous sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” this was in Enfield, CT the shock waves were felt as far as England and Scotland. Many historians “brand” this sermon as “fire and brimstone” but in actuality it had more theological content that was softly spoken and in emotive love than the Max Mclean CD I have seems to evoke. 

The fact is, Jonathan Edward preached on Grace and Predestination. This statement might make someone reading this a bit antsy, if they are on the Armenian side of theology. But I believe the reason the Great Awakening happened was Jonathan Edwards was anointed and gifted in the teaching and preaching of grace. And that rocked the boat to the point that it confronted their Congregationalist traditions. He wasn’t a screamer, a legalist, nor an uneducated man by any means.

“He moved his audience slowly from point to point, towards an inexorable conclusion: they were lost without the grace of God.”

The above description of Jonathan Edwards preaching “style” doesn’t sound fundamentalist even by today’s standards. He also was a postmillennialist, but a literal “millennialist” nonetheless. In today’s modern terms, he most likely was like a John Piper or a David Platt. Popular,  passionate, and Reformed, but maybe some Charismatic thrown in for good measure but literal in his prophetic view of the Kingdom of God to come. None of these “Calvinist” nor “literal millennial” doctrines were ever considered “weak or anemic” theologies, nor were they “fringe” teachings to the Puritans that saw the opportunity to spread the gospel to the native tribes their call and motivation over and above their escape from the royal crown. After all, the natives helped the first pioneers survive this bitter and harsh climate and didn’t demand cultural obedience in the depravity of winter when they were starving on the banks of Plymouth, MA. When your near death and starvation...you’ll eat anything. The natives taught them to till the ground, and the Puritans were grateful to God peacefully to commune with them and spread the gospel in peace, not demanding obedience to their puritan ways.

Northampton has given way since those days to many multicultural, polytheistic cultures like first century Israel’s existence. Many yoga studios, hip hemp stores, smokers, pot heads, homeless, caffeine addicts, and rainbow flags decorate this town and praise God they do! They would be the gentiles in relation to Israel, them... and us. Not much different than the tribes that once speckled the valley that lived here thousands of years before Christ came to earth. Does a rainbow make me less of a disciple that is willing to cross barriers to preach the gospel of grace? No less than my deep motivation to seek the Kingdom and to proclaim it’s coming! I believe we are required to have both in mind as we walk the streets in Northampton.

When I walk the streets of Northampton, for years I’ve asked myself, “what changed?” Or better yet, “..have we changed at all?” The fact is that Jonathan Edwards was in high demand as a preacher, but he also was rejected by his peers eventually because he became unpopular because he held tightly to his beliefs, and eventually was forced out by other Congregationalists because of the results in the awakening didn’t continue in their preconceived packaged expectations. In short, members declined, and things went back to "normal" whatever that is. His theological standing was not in Congregationalism as a governing force but in the Scriptures, rooted rather in Calvinism, and the Kingdom of God would be proclaimed by the Gospel would going forth to every tribe and tongue, a final regathering of Israel would occur and Christ would come to rule over the earth in a literal sense and reality. He had something to say about eschatology in his: Dissertation Concerning the End for which God created the World. He certainly didn’t remain quiet on his perspective and lived out of these systematical theological truths which were widely popular in the Puritan church. This fueled the Puritans in their worldview to spiritually claim the New World in a very literal sense forging towards a Golden Age before Christ returned. The problem with that, is that Christ never came after their great awakening or golden age and the members declined. God always has the bigger picture in mind!

Some of these theological terms might at this point be making your head spin, (see link below) but we can’t ask ourselves where is this Postmillennial “golden age” is or another last revival that many have been expecting for years since Jonathan Edwards long spoke his words at First Churches, or trying to duplicate this event without looking at our church history and facing facts. The fact is that Jonathan was booted out of his church by the governing forces at the time. He went the way of Luther, Calvin and others that were persecuted by their own brethren within the church. He was not scalped by the native pagans! The truth is, the same man that preached grace, and love of Christ as a pioneer in that great awakening was voted out of his church, not for his immorality or scandals. But because he simply held firm a faith in his systematic belief in these things, the doctrine of a literal hell, predestination, salvation by grace alone, and a literal return of Christ that he became an unpopular in the other side of the Great Awakening that also produced foreign doctrines that seeped into the church. He still held to the idea that the lost that lay but by the sovereign grace of God, they dangle by a thread over the fires of Hell. In fact, when he was completely tossed on his skids for preaching against the corrupt traditions of hierarchy of seating in the puritan church.  This still did not stop Edwards in his life's call, however and he went onto minister to the native Americans until his death. A tribute to his postmillennial eschatological view pushing forward the Gospel to every tribe and tongue. In the end, he was a faithful servant and held to his personal convictions of the Truth of God’s Word even to his last breath.

Many a church in this Valley have rich traditions and history, but no person in our history here is more notable than Jonathan Edwards because of that Great Awakening that occurred. But we need to be careful in thinking that Jonathan Edwards was received because he preached the “middle” road of interdenominationalism or post modernism that we have today. He was very well educated, his wife was his inspiration in being devoted to the Scriptures but the fact is he took a strong stand against the human “will” producing any obedience apart from God’s Sovereign grace. That grace was by God’s choosing and not any will of our own. He was very much Pauline and yet he preached to his own brethren, the Puritans who loved law and covenants. They eventually rejected him. I would venture to say, that it created a spiritual vacuum here in the Pioneer Valley that the church has never been able to fill that void with any new modern hip churchy program or outreach because they miss the point in doing so without knowing the facts. They also miss the point in thinking choosing a road somewhere in the middle or all inclusive will bring about any great revival to this area.

So, in a recent conversation with a person who is thinking of moving to Northampton to start a church, I was reminded of how caustic our environment is here, yet how high the expectation of church leaders view preachers even within themselves. “...looks like Northampton hasn’t changed.” he said. To which I say, “Don't look for Northampton to change, hearts change and lives are transformed when hear the message of Grace and His Sovereign choosing of them.”  

Who will wander the fields and speak Grace to  that depraved, lost sheep wandering the streets looking for fulfillment in self justification? We need more Jonathan Edwards in this town, but make no mistake...you can’t put new wine in old wineskins because they just might run you out of town into the rich harvest of the natives.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmillennialism

http://firstchurches.org/?page_id=5

Lucy of the Law

"Lucy comes from that part of me that’s capable of saying mean and sarcastic things, which is not a good trait to have, so Lucy gives me a good outlet. But each character has a weakness and Lucy’s weakness is Schroeder."

Charles M. Schulz on Lucy van Pelt

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h38srxvt6qE

In a recent sermon at Christmas time, a very famous Christmas special was mentioned at my church. A Charlie Brown’s Christmas. I think it must have been a theme this year, because I had bought the DVD of my favorite Christmas special to show at our church’s Christmas party to the kids. I bought a Blu-ray instead of the stock standard and wouldn’t you know it, I had to pick an alternative movie because I am in the techie world deemed “Amish” by my techie husband so go figure. Something very interesting about this Christmas was that one theme seemed to keep popping up everywhere was the comic, “Peanuts”. It is with no irony that my mom used to call me Lucy 2 Shoes, Lucy for short because...well...I was a lot like Lucy. I was the one who would yank the football from poor old Charlie Brown. I have a younger brother and I think I even tried this a couple times...it didn’t go over too well.

In this wonderful sermon, Lucy was mentioned as being “the epitome of the Law”. I can vouch for Lucy and yeah, boy she got such a bad rap in the Christmas sermon this year I almost blushed. I have a soft spot for Lucy, despite her bossy shortcomings but who really wants after this sermon to identify with Lucy? I mean yikes! She is so demanding, bossy and critical. She is portrayed as a great analyst sitting in her psychologist stand shaking her nickel in a can, relishing in her accomplishment of having a client in Charlie Brown. She’s prouder of having Charlie Brown come to her for help than she is of actually helping the depressed Chuck. She means well with her sense of purpose and speaking out for injustice but all she can do is tell people what their problems are and what do with their problems. She always seems to set poor Charlie Brown up for failure! Poor Chuck doesn’t even have a chance. I remember thinking, will he EVER kick that football? Not if Lucy keeps moving that ball the second Charlie goes to punt. I have always wondered why Lucy kept doing that to Charlie Brown. It seemed like a funny practical joke for a while, and even Lucy seriously thinks she is doing a great thing in presenting her suggestions of how to fix his failures. You really want to kick the habit of failure Charlie Brown? Just ONE more try! Until the pain of failure seeps so deep that Charlie Brown gives up because he realizes he is following Lucy’s demands for success to no avail. According to Lucy, all his failures are because he’s not seeing the world a certain way, his personality, his style...even his looks. Good grief!

Lucy isn’t without her own issues and internal conflict. She has massive crush on Schroder, a musician and artist who plays Beethoven and other classics all the time. She really goes out of her way to get his attention and to no avail he just keeps playing Beethoven, never giving her the time of day.  A love estranged is tragic theme! So what do we do with Lucy of the Law? Lucy’s weakness is Schroeder. She is obsessed with getting Schroeder’s attention because under all that bossy demand for perfection...is her absolute need for grace in love. This issue with Lucy and Charlie Brown’s relationship is that both of them are failures. Lucy in convincing Chuck can be successful and kick that ball, she keeps moving the ball...that is a wild expectation and hopes are always crushed. Charlie Brown  for giving into Lucy’s convincing that THIS one time will mark a new beginning of success! Satisfaction guaranteed! No one will ever be able to kick that ball for Lucy if she keeps moving it around. And poor Chuck, he is a sucker every time for her manipulative tricks. I wonder if she’d let Schroeder kick the ball, simply because her love for him is her weakness? Maybe if Schroeder initiated a love song to Lucy on his piano she’d stop moving that football for poor Charlie Brown because it would satisfy her need for perfection from others and scrutinizing of Chuck. The theology of Peanuts is deeper and more complex than we take for face value obviously, but a closer look will show us that we all have a little Lucy of the Law in us. Longing for love and grace to satisfy our needs we often think ourselves "righteous" to point out other people’s faults, when really...they are faults of our own making and a false image of who we are in Christ. 

If I could say one thing to my alter ego Lucy, I would give her some analytical psychological philosophical and theological advice. Stop moving the ball and let poor Charlie Brown kick the ball!