Christmas, Contractions, and Ignorance

Christmas = Christ Mass
Happy Holidays = Happy Holy Days
So what makes the Happy Days Holy?

Well, uh, that would be Christ.

Oh, the profound ignorance of political correctness.

Is there really a significant difference between someone who does not know that Christ has something to do with Christmas saying "Merry Christmas" and someone saying "Happy Holidays" without knowing they are wishing you Happy Holy Days?

What ifs and the Big WHAT IF?

I was unpacking some of my books the last couple of weeks in All Saints' new church building, and as I unpacked the books I would often pause and thumb through some of the more familiar and favorite titles. As I did so I was struck again by a question Dwight Smith once posed to me and a room full of church planters, “What if?” Now there are a lot of “what if” questions that are possible in this world. As the father of a near fourteen-year-old boy, I have heard a number of them over the years, and the rate at which they come seems to rise exponentially with his age. Parents are used to the compendium of “what if” questions. Sometimes they are verbal and sometimes they are the askance glance of a small child preparing to do that which they know is forbidden, as if to be asking the very cosmos, along with Mom and/or Dad, “What if I touch that which you have told me not to touch?” What if I had never met my wife Lee (not a good scenario), what if we had never had our son, E.J. ( I can't imagine the world without him), what if I had decided to be a golf rules official rather than attend seminary, or what if I had taken that one easier course instead of the Comparative European Politics course which caused my graduated GPA to drop to 3.74999 to just miss the 3.75 summa cum laude honor. Or how about a bigger what if? What if I had spent more time having fun in college and just a little less time worried about my GPA and still graduated with the same magna cum laude honor which, as it turns out, hasn't really made much of an impact on the rest of my life... go figure. Yeah what ifs are all around us... but the what if that Dwight was talking about was a much bigger one. It is the what if that is actually a great source of assurance for me in my walk with Christ.

What Dwight was asking was for us to simply stop for just a moment and think of the world we live in for just a moment through this single lens, “What if it's true.” “What if Jesus really is who He says He is?” “What if Jesus really has done what He says He has done.” “What IF Jesus can do what He says He can do?” Now before any of us answer any or all of these questions we need to be careful about our answer, because our answer ought to also be reflected in our lives. Because if we say that Jesus IS who he says He is, has DONE what He says He has done, and CAN DO what He says He can do, then the way we interact with the world around us should be characterized by that belief. If Jesus is who He says He is then He is the living Son of God, He is both God and Man, and He has loved humanity with such a love that to truly consider the breadth and depth of that love is to stand in awe. If Jesus really has done what He says He has done then He is THE Savior and there really is no other way to salvation, He really is the ONLY way to the Father. And if Jesus really can do what He says He can do, then even now He stands with outstretched arms for a lost and hurting world ready to receive all who turn to Him. If Dwight's “what if” is true, then there is hope without end, love without limits, grace and mercy and compassion in vast abundance waiting to be poured out if we will simply ask.

This is the big “what if,” because as a Christian I do believe that Jesus is all those things and because I do I face each day, even when I am down, with the knowledge that Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us. Which is important in general, but what really gets me is this: because Jesus IS who He says He is, HAS done what He says He has done and CAN DO what He says He can do, I know that He is Emmanuel--- GOD WITH ME. Jesus is with ME. And when I consider that all the what ifs pale in comparison. Because the final what if is this: what if His church started truly acting like we really believe these Jesus “what ifs?”

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9/11: Where Are the Flowers in Damascus?

I was wondering what I might say about today. And as I thought about it I thought I might simply share a couple of thoughts from a much longer piece I wrote, mostly for myself, shortly after the haunting events of September 11th, 2001. Below you will find a couple of excerpts from that piece that still characterize how I felt and feel about this day.

“Yesterday, I was reminded that the Islamic faith has no concept of the doctrine of vicarious Atonement and so they have no foundation for authentic forgiveness. As a result they are drawn into the equivalent of offering continuous bloody sacrifices to appease perceived wrongs: law codes that require the chopping off of hands and ears, beheadings, and canings for infractions of religious law take the place of a loving God with whom they can be in relationship. For this they deserve more than our anger: they need our pity and our prayers. As for those who would remind me that mosques are houses of prayer and have no altars, I am moved to point out that the altars that the worst of Islam has set up in the last thirty years have been in our airports and on our planes, on our buses and in our schools, in a Marine Barracks in Beirut and in the harbors where our ships are docked, and now in the World Trade Center towers. Every one of these terrible crimes was committed in the name of Allah under the deluded understanding that such acts would guarantee the perpetrator immediate entry into Paradise. Islam in its fundamental and steadfast refusal to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord has set itself up as the holder of the keys to the gates of paradise and salvation. It is being argued and I suspect that this will continue, that this act of terror is a perversion of Islam. Yet the very subject of whether it is permissible under Islamic law to be engaged in an act of suicide bombing is a subject for legitimate debate among Islamic scholars. I recognize that many may disagree with any characterization of Islam’s fundamental religious tenets as lending even tacit support for such acts of terror. Yet, I am moved in response to ask this question. Where are the flowers in Damascus? Where are the tears in Libya? I saw such tears in Paris, I have seen the flowers in Berlin and I have heard our national anthem played in front of Buckingham Palace. The silence of the Islamic world is almost deafening. At this moment in time those of the Islamic faith have an opportunity to recognize in this act the utter bankruptcy of a faith that cannot accept Jesus as Lord. This is an opportunity for repentance not only here at home where America has so drifted from the faith of our fathers but also for the whole of Islam. May God so grant such an outpouring of His grace.”


“Our struggle against terror and those who would wield it as a weapon of warfare against the innocent must be rooted in love for the liberty that Americans and Christians hold so dear. In the days ahead we will do well to remember that the liberty we have long enjoyed in America was not won on Bunker Hill but on Calvary’s hill. Not on the lofty heights overlooking Yorktown harbor but on the barren slopes above Jerusalem. The foundations for our understanding of Christian liberty were not hammered out in legislative halls of Virginia and Philadelphia but in the council halls of Chalcedon and Nicea. Those who founded this nation and hammered out the parameters of the liberty that we enjoy did not invent liberty, they were the beneficiaries of a liberty already won. Our true liberty, our true freedom, was bought with the highest price of all, with the blood of the very Son of God, the God that we worship, the Incarnate God of all creation in the person of Jesus Christ. Our true freedom is found in the saving knowledge of the one who says of Himself, “I am the Resurrection and the Life.” Our liberty is rooted in the Truth that sets men truly free: the truth of the Christian faith that stands in stark opposition to all of the world’s religions in the striking claim that Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life and the only way to the Father. This is the wellspring of true freedom for if the Son makes you free, you are free indeed. Only in the light and context of such freedom can humanity hope to do the will of God. May God so grant us the grace to know His will in the days that lie ahead that we may remain steadfast in love not hate, in determination not bitterness, and in resolve not bigotry. We are called to go forth to love and serve the Lord. I pray that we will be granted the strength so to do. It must now become our fervent prayer that He will make us instruments of His peace and His justice in the days that lie ahead and in the accomplishment of the terrible task that has been set before this nation. Let us go boldly forth but do so with the name of Jesus fresh upon our lips, singing:

Jesus! Name of wondrous love!
Name all other names above!
Unto which must every knee
bow in deep humility.
Jesus! Name of priceless worth
to the fallen of the earth,
for the promise that it gave,
“Jesus shall His people save.”
Jesus! Only Name that’s given,
under all the mighty heaven,
whereby those to sin enslaved,
burst their fetters and are saved."

Lord, Jesus Christ, let it be so.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.

As I said these are excerpts from a much longer piece penned some ten years ago and I find myself still asking, "Where are the flowers in Damascus?"

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SPINACH AND SCRIPTURE

I really like spinach...now. But there was a time when, like most kids, I wouldn't go near the stuff. In time things changed and I pretty much like spinach any way it is prepared. I never have to be cajoled or threatened into eating my spinach like when I was little. I remember one tactic that was often used (with limited success I must admit) was act like I wasn't allowed to eat the spinach on the notion that I would want more what I was told I cannot have. The theory's limited success (at least with me) with regards to increasing my childhood spinach intake not withstanding, the basis of the theory is a pretty good one. Most of us do want a little bit more what seems to be just out of reach or even forbidden.

I was reading a work on the theology of the English reformers (cleverly titled the same), the other day and was in chapter one on Scripture and was reminded that there was a time when people did not have access to Bibles. When they finally did begin to translate the Bible into English, the cost prohibited most folks from owning a copy so they had to go down to the local church and look at a copy there (often chained down to prevent its theft). And as I was reading and thinking about these things it occurred to me that when the Bible was not readily available men longed to read it in their own language. Now that you can find some translation of the Bible (many times multiple copies) in many many homes, the actual reading of the Scripture doesn't quite measure up to the levels of ownership of Bibles. There it is on the shelf waiting to be read – but...

So why? Is it because the Bible is so readily available and no longer denied to us? Perhaps. I notice that in those countries where it remains a crime, or when Bible ownership is at least very tightly controlled, the treasures of Holy Scripture seem to have much higher regard. I wonder if the day were to come for us though, here in America, when we would find it a crime to own a Bible, would we see the value of God's word and yearn for it once again. I pray that is not what it will take but wonder sometimes if it is.

I grew up and realized that not only was spinach good for me but that it tasted good as well. I also grew up and found out the same about the Scriptures: not only are they good for me but they taste good as well. God's Word is like manna, it makes the unholy lips of sinners clean. It does this because unlike spinach which can only nourish the body, the Word of God nourishes the soul and spirit of believers... and you don't even have to consume it with a cream sauce... its great right out of the package. So eat up!

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Are We There Yet?

The four worst words a parent is destined to hear on any journey. Not just particularly long journeys but pretty much any trip. The length of the journey only determines the rate at which the question will come. On a journey of any serious length the rapidity with which the inquiry is directed toward the parent or parents present increases over time until it finally reaches the maddening crescendo of about once every three or four minutes. Of course by that time the parents have been mentally reduced to mere mumbles interspersed with the occasional “give it a rest” (or something along those lines) in reply.

And though these four words are the bane of most parents' traveling adventures, it really is everyone's question. Phrased in a variety of ways it still comes down to “are we there yet?” We ask ourselves this question in ways like the following: Am I there yet in my career? Am I there yet in my desire to lose weight, get more fit, spend more time with my family, or watch less television and spend more time reading? Am I there yet in reading the Bible more, praying more regularly, or simply being with God? Am I there yet?... “There” is always out in front of us and because we are often so focused on “there” we never quite spend any time “here,” wherever “here” might happen to be.

I began to go through a season like that when All Saints was delayed in getting into the building we were trying to rent for use as a church. “When will we get in the building” was just another version of “Are we there yet?” that I was asking of God. But what I found, as God delayed that process, was to begin not so much looking to the “there” ahead of us but to the “here” where I was. Sure we had to make some adjustments and worship in homes for a season, but we grew closer as a result. Sure it was sometimes a frustrating season of digging through red tape and negotiating to work out the details so we could finally take occupancy of the building, but we learned so many valuable lessons about others and ourselves.

But the most important thing for me was that as the process unfolded it became increasingly less important to be “there” because I began to understand that wherever “there” was going to be, when we got “there” we would find that God had already been there. That He was, and is, always with us in our “here-s” and our “there-s”. Will we – will I – still ask from time to time, “Are we (am I) there yet?” I imagine so. But hopefully as I continue to walk with the Lord, I'll grow in my understanding and my faith that He is the one who is always there and here, and here will become the exact place I want to be because it's the here-s that will get me there. In the end what I came to understand was that when I was asking my heavenly Father: “Are we there yet?” His answer was always the same, “Of course we are there, because I am here.”


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Oh, well, now that you put it that way...

Oh well now that you put it that way...


This just in from a number of online sources: “Compared with a group of control adolescents born to heterosexual parents with similar educational and financial backgrounds, the children of lesbian couples scored better on academic and social tests and lower on measures of rule-breaking and aggression.”

You can read more here http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn19014-children-of-lesbian-parents-do-better-than-their-peers.html or here http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/06/07/lesbian.children.adjustment/?hpt=T2


Well that does it, doesn't it? Over 3,000 years of the moral teaching of Holy Scripture can now be set aside because a sociological study or two claims that children raised by same sex couples fare as well or better than children with hetero sexual parents. The rationale for this claim? Well, for me, the money quote behind this claim is this: “the children of lesbian couples scored better on academic and social tests and lower on measures of rule-breaking and aggression.” Especially ironic to me is the “rule-breaking” measurement. One wonders whose “rules” are being referenced in order to determine whether they are being broken. Clearly not God's rules. Just for a second let's consider who developed the standards for measuring the “academic” and “social” tests and “measures of rule breaking and aggression.”

But a few questions do come to mind. Were those standards, perhaps, developed by the same liberal sociologists, etc. that have been pushing for the normalization and acceptability of homosexuality for so long? Is it possible that there has been an intentional effort to redefine “faring as well” by controlling the means and standards of measuring sociological norms? Is it just possible that the norms and standards that define “better academics” (read: acceptance of a secular humanist educational agenda),”social tests (read: politically correct indoctrination), “rule-breaking, (read: submitting to a THX-1138 world view), and “aggression” (see politically correct behavior) are norms and standards formulated by those with a Neo-Marxist worldview and agenda and embraced by the government run education systems in America? The answer is yes. This is classic Marxist liberalism: redefine the good by controlling how it is measured.

Why would this be of concern to a Christian? Because it is a direct and intentional attack on the biblical worldview and the teaching of Holy Scripture with regards to sexual morality. It is part of the concerted efforts of those who wish to see the demise of the nuclear family and seek a redefinition of family to further their political agenda. This is not really about what a family is or is not. This is about using sexual perversion as a tool and children as pawns in the sordid effort to gain political power by those who are offended by the very idea of Christianity. This is so because Christianity and a biblical worldview are the most significant obstacles to the ongoing efforts to remake America's economic and political systems in the image of Stalinist communism complete to the subjugation and erosion of the historic teachings of the Christian Church.

Of course there is the additional problematic element regarding the legitimacy of the findings of the study altogether since, according to CNN, “Funding for the research came from several lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender advocacy groups, such as the Gill Foundation and the Lesbian Health Fund from the Gay Lesbian Medical Association.”

On the other hand if Dr. Nanette Gartrell, the author of the study, can be trusted that the the "funding sources played no role in the design or conduct of the study, " then there is nothing to worry about... so we can just keep on drinking the secular Kool Aid.

Counter to Gartrell's claim, “Wendy Wright, president of the Concerned Women for America, a group that supports biblical values, questioned the legitimacy of the findings from a study funded by gay advocacy groups. That proves the prejudice and bias of the study," she said. "This study was clearly designed to come out with one outcome -- to attempt to sway people that children are not detrimentally affected in a homosexual household.”” Of course Wright is – no pun intended – right. At least partially. I suspect that what we face is worse than simply fudging the results by deciding the outcome in advance from the data perspective alone. I suspect that what we are seeing is the result of decades of social re-engineering. The norms have been moved. I suspect that they measured exactly what they are reporting. And that is the really sad part of it all. What passes for well adjusted has been defined in such a way that children being raised in such a deviant environment can be measured as doing “better” than or as well as other children. Kyrie eleison.

So then what does this newest report, seeking to offer a thinly veiled effort legitimizing same sex parenting, really mean? It means that if I control the measurement then I control the results of any study. In other words, if I can redefine 70 out of 100 as an A, I can be a functional C student with a 4.0 GPA because I have adjusted the standard. Just so in sociology: First, I redefine what is socially acceptable to achieve the results I already desire and then, I measure the behavior based on the new standard. A child who would be considered well adjusted from a Christian point of view can now be judged, by the new sociological standards within the secular system, to be an irrational, paranoid, narrow minded, bigot with the potential to do great harm if left unrestrained. He who controls the rules controls the outcomes. So it is no real surprise that children being raised by proponents of the new sociological measurements for achievement would score well or better within their own system.

For those who still believe that our Christian faith can and even, in some cases, should be compartmentalized from other areas of social interaction, this report my cause only some minor discomfort. And that discomfort largely an aesthetic reaction. But for those of us who believe firmly that the call to discipleship and the walk of sanctification require that our faith in Christ must increasingly become a part of the very warp and woof of the fabric of our existence, it raises a stark alarm. And that is not an aesthetic-based alarm but an ethical and biblical alarm. Because this is yet another step in the left's long march toward pushing this country away from the Christian ethos that has so long under girded and sustained us as a nation in times of both prosperity and of challenge. The culture war that currently rages in America threatens to move us starkly away from the Christian ethos and toward an ethos that is antithetical to both the Holy Scriptures and the founding documents of this nation. So in considering the veracity of this study I do not so much doubt the findings, as I am deeply disturbed and concerned for what the findings say about what we, as a nation, are moving toward considering acceptable social behavior outcomes.


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