Blog 6: Nothing in a Name.

Hey and stuff.

Do you know what one of my favorite shows on tv is? Notice how I didn't say it was the best show on tv. Because really, there are better.

Eli Stone. Yep, that's what I said. Eli stone.

It's about a lawyer who gets a brain aneurism who starts hallucinating. It turns out his hallucinations are actually visions, and he has to follow them to help people.

I'm guessing right now that there are a couple of you thinking, "Well sure. You are a pastor, you would like that crap."

You would be wrong. I couldn't stand Touched By An Angel. I hated Seventh Heaven. I pretty much don't like any of those shows because they generally just suck. I'm more of a Battlestar Galactica kind of guy. Or Scrubs.

I really like Family Guy.

I don't usually like those because they are so ridiculously unrealistic that it's just laughable. They aren't even remotely believable.

Now, I'm not saying that Eli Stone is the epitome of believablility. But it brings up a concept that hits a defining point about God interacting with people.

This guy, Eli, isn't a christian. He didn't even think he believed in God. No surprise there. That makes for interesting writing. He's a greedy lawyer. And he's a very good greedy lawyer.

But now, he starts seeing that there is a pattern to his hallucinations. And he thinks that to ignore them would be ridiculous. And he starts helping people. It destroys his life. His mentor/boss now hates him. His engagement falls apart. He winds up alienating almost everyone in his life. But he keeps doing it because it's right. He's finally doing the right thing, and how can he not help these people when it's clear he's the only one who can, because he's the one put in their path?

The reason why I like this show is because, despite it's hollywood slant, it's frightenling accurate. All throughout the bible, God did exactly what is happening in the show.

In the show, the writers didn't set Eli up to be some good christian man who gladly takes on the role. Eli is the guy who wishes it would all go away so he can get his life back.

Us Christians have a very high opinion of ourselves. We look at our storied history. Our traditions and doctrines. We have built our lives around our orthodoxy. It is all in all to us.

Unfortunately, we forget the other part of our history. The part where whenever God really needed something done, He would often have to choose someone else to do the work, because His "faithful" were too busy either focusing on their beliefs and reveling in their namesake.

If we look at our spiritual ancestors, the Jews, the people of Israel, we see that we are just like them. They were so caught up in their name, their heritage, that they couldn't even see God when he stood among them. So, He took the message to other people who would listen.

I think one historical tidbit that gets ignored is a very telling one. Whether you are Jewish or Christian, we still look at God's chosen people, the Jews as an example. The people who had the rules and followed them. Well, followed them sometimes.

Except, Israel was called Israel because Jacob was renamed. But we know that. And really, Jacob wasn't that great of a guy. He was a liar and a cheater.

But go back to his Grandfather. Abraham. Abraham was from Ur. Ur is in Babylon. That made Abraham a Babylonian. So really, the Jews were Babylonians of a different path. This puts alot of history into perspective when you consider how much Israel despised the Babylonians. Especially after they conquered Israel. Which happened because God couldn't get Israel to clean up their act. When they wouldn't listen to His chosen righteous, God brought in someone who wasn't righteous. Someone who ultimately did what they were told, even though they weren't part of the "flock."

Like Eli Stone. Like Abraham, who's family, and likely even him, were polytheists. Like Ruth, chosen among idolaters to be in the line of Jesus. Like Rahab the pagan prostitute who was David's ancestor, and therefore Jesus ancestor. Like Paul, who was actually running around killing christians. Like Balam, who was a pagan prophet, and even though he wasn't an overly righteous man, knew that he could only do what God asked, nothing more, nothing less.

All the flawed and screwed up people. All the people who didn't carry the fancy title of Christian or pure Jew. God picked them to do some of his most important work because he couldn't count on the ones he already had.

Being a "christian" means nothing. Being a servant of others means everything. Just carrying around the title gets one nothing. The name is empty. It's the actions that matter. Not the rules, or the standards. Not the beliefs or the doctrines. But the service to the people around us. Yes, the bible says we must believe. But the James also said that even the devil believes in Jesus. Just saying that one believes and is there far part of the club means nothing. James said, "You say you have faith, and are a christian? Fine. But I'll show you that I am by my actions."

James understood that words mean nothing. It's not a works thing. It's a love thing. He said in that same letter that the only religion that God cares about is this: caring for orphans and widows and the needy.

That's not just a powerful statement, but it's a very telling and condemning statement. God only cares about helping people. This is the religion that matters. Therefore, any religion or belief system that does not produce, promote, teach or have at it's core and every other part this type of religion, is False.

Just believing the "right" thing, or having the "right" name, or being part of the "right" church, denomination, "religion" or group, means nothing. There is no power or meaning in it.

If we actually believe in God, then the thing that should matter most, the thing that should be the focus of everything we are, is the service of others that comes from our compassion for others which is the evidence of our love of God.
I believe that it is the missunderstanding of this point that has done the most damage to "religion" everywhere. This is why Christianity fails. This is why people don't like some christians. It's because many people recognize that most Christians spend all their time guarding the club, and no time actually living the love they profess to have.

And I believe that it is because of this, that God tends to find some poor shmuck who isn't inside the club, who hasn't bound himself up in the club mindset, to go and get things done.

God is no respector of persons, races, religions, sexes or creeds. There is only one thing God respects. The person who is willing to act out of love.

Anything else is usually just self serving. And if we as humans have little use for a self serving individual, why would we think that God would?

Choose to be selfless. Be the type of person that so many others claim to be.
Talk is cheap.

As a wise Jedi named Yoda once said, "Do, or do not."

Forget the names and titles and catagories. Just go and do.

Period.

Interlude: An added link.

Today is a day that will go down in... memory? Infamy? Colostomy?

Hmm.

The proper vocabulary seems to elude me...

At any rate, today I have added my very first blog link, oddly enough, linking me to another blog.

His name is Jeff. His blog is Pack Light. Check it out. Also check out his other blogs which are listed on the Pack Light site. To the right. (i'm not sure if I should stop there or keep going..."and we can fight, into the night, and it's tight...in your line of sight... and...")

As it turns out, I'm not a poet, and I won't be ending my day job anytime soon.

However, Jeff is a brilliant guy who coveres a broad range of subjects from the religious to the socially active to the political to the environmental. But most importantly, he is unswervingly loyal to Jesus.

So, whether or not you decide that you agree with his perspectives, he always does offer interesting perspectives to think about. Check it out.

Oh, and just incase you don't see the link to the right under "Other People Who Say Stuff", I'll put it here as well.

http://www.packlight.blogspot.com/

Alright folks, try not to burst into flame accidently, and have a great day.

Blog 5: Cultural Diversity = More Than 2 Ways To Skin A Cat.

OK, so last time I mentioned something about going to Puerto Rico in January. It turns out that I wasn't telling a fib. We were there.

And, our timing was good as well. We left Illinois right when the really bad wave of freezing death passed through town. Unfortunately, we came back again. We went from 90+ degrees on the beach in the morning, to 9 degrees in Chicago.

Unpleasant.

Besides the nice weather, we had a good time. I put this trip into two parts. The first half and the second half. The second half was a little more fun. We spent time at the beach, went to San Juan, visited El Moro and ate fish with the head still attached. Admittedly, that last one was a little gross, but the fish was tasty.

The first half was fine, but most of the time was spent at the Alumni weekend for Antilian College(Antilian University, now I think.) Nirma's parents graduated from there so we went to all the programs with them. Nirma's sister and husband came along as well. The programs were fine, but since I don't really speak spanish that well I mostly just sat there and people watched which brings us to the point of this blog.

During all this people watching that I noticed some things. Puerto Rico is a different place. With a different culture and people.

Yes, I know, you already knew that. Stay with me though.

While in many ways Puerto Rico is highly influenced by American culture, in most ways it's still distinctly different.

And, again, you say "duh."

They have McDonald's and Taco Bell. Mercedes Benz. All of the same conveniences exist there.

Except that at Taco Bell you can get french fries and at McDonald's you can get a burrito.

But that isn't what I'm talking about. The peopel all have jobs and are always on their cell phones, just like here. And yet, it's foreign. Completely foreign.

The pace is slower. But traffic is faster.

And the clothing style is different. Completely modern, but with it's own flare. Especially for the women. Everything is tighter and more revealing. So much so that you could immediately tell who was from there and who wasn't. Most "christians" wouldn't approve.

I won't lie. I didn't mind so much. I'm a guy with all the guy genetics. Sue me. And I rarely get uptight about such things.

But as I said, most "christians" wouldn't approve.

And there is the rub. Most christians in America wouldn't approve. But down there? No one seemed to care or even notice. That's just the way it is. No one thinks wrongly of it. It is just normal. Even in church. Even in the Adventist church.

(gasp!)

So, ya, funny story. We are sitting in Church. And everyone is piling in and everyone is friendly and everyone is dressed like, apparently, everyone dresses. I didn't care. But coming from Cornbread, Illinois, I noticed. And the church service shockingly normal. Almost painfully normal.

And as they called the children forward for a childrens story, they played a cute little cartoon up on the projector screen that contained a friendly train conductor calling all his child friends to get on board and come along for a wonderful journey. And all the friendly animals were their to greet them and they all sang songs together and, well, it was everything a kid could want to see as they are coming up front. It was great. Perfectly normal. If I had been a kid, I'd have been loving it. It was a little cheesy, but hey, when your 5 you don't notice cheese. Unless you're eating it.

So I never even thought twice about that cartoon.

Apparently, to of the locally stylish college girls came in and sat down behind Nirma's sister.

Right now, all the guys reading this just perked up. Shame on you.

Anyway, they sit down. And as this cartoon starts playing, these girls who wouldn't pass too many dress code standards here in the states, are horrified that such an inappropriate cartoon would be played in church. How could we let our standards fall so far?

So, if I understand them correctly, it's ok to dress like spring break in Daytona, but happy Jesus cartoons are bad.

This brings us to a little thing called culture.

If I walk into a church in Puerto Rico and start causing grief because they aren't doing things according to an American standard, who has the issue... them, or me?

Let me add another word to culture.

Context.

Everyone who picks up a bible and reads it interprets what it says. How we interpret it is largely dictated by how we were programmed from birth. This is also known as our Cultural Context. Everything we were ever taught, experienced, saw, heard, etc., it all forces us to think according to a specific set of perameters. And for some reason, we seem to think that everyone else was programmed according to those exact same perameters.

Well, except in Africa where there are tribes. But that's a different culture.

Oh... wait...

Except for certain middle east areas where women are seen as property. But that's a different culture.

Oh... umm...

Except for parts of America that is not surrounded by corn, but instead surrounded by skyscapers or neon lights or... or...

And once you start down that road one eventually asks, "So which culture is correct?"

Unfortuanately, that's the wrong question. Since there are no perfect people, there are probably no perfect cultures.

In Europe, they condemn America for how much violence we have on TV. Yet, they often have blatent sex and nudity all over their regular programming. There, violence is bad, but sex is good.

In America, believe it or not, we are all prudes. Even our TV. But we have no problem killing people ten at a time in horrible bloody ways. Apparently here, violence is good and sex is bad.

And while there is probably a third option that is more correct than either, the point is we are all shaped by these forces and we use them to interrept everything we see and do.

So, were the college girls out of line and crazy? Or was I the one who didn't understand what was going on?

We get ourselves into trouble when we start believing that everyone must conform with our own standard. When ever I say that I always get one person who says, "That's why we have the Christian standard."

Right. And which christian standard would that be? The American one? The European one? The Puerto Rican one?

It's different in every country. For that matter, it's different in every state. Go to church in Michigan and then go to church in California. As a matter of fact, take a Californian and put him/her in a Michigan church for day, and take a Michigander and put him/her in a Californian church for a day and see who has the heart attack first.

Illinois, being in the midwest is more on the "conservative" side. Not as much as Michigan, but not nearly as "liberal" as California. And I hear it all the time from people when this discussion comes up how those Californians are just letting Satan in on all sides. Californians, by contrast would consider all these midwesterners "legalists."

Clearly they can't both be right.

Or maybe that's the point. Maybe they are both right, because of the fact that they are both wrong.

There is no perfect culture. We are all screwed up. Everyone is just trying to figure it out. So when I, caucasian male American who doesn't know right from wrong, walk into a Hispanic church in on a Hispanic island full of Hispanic people who also don't know right from wrong... at what point do I presume to be the bearer of proper standards, of proper context for them?

This is why we have so much friction in christianity today in America and everywhere. So many christians worry about that which is on the outside, but the truth is we are doing more damage to ourselves than that of what anyone else is doing to us. Too busy are we trying to decide questions of "me vs. you", instead of focusing on "what did God ask me to do today, right now, right here?" Because the answer to THAT question is different for every single person in existance. And to subject someone else to a plan that God designed for me and not them is much like taking a fish out of water and trying to force it to breath air. It wasn't designed to, it wasn't meant to, and trying to make it do so will kill it.

And so it is with serving God. Being a Christian. Figuring out how to live that life. When we take a person and try to force them into a mold that wasn't shaped for them, we destroy them. Ask any random ex-christian why they left, and this will be at the core of that reason. Some person, or group of persons, treated them selfishly and without love by forcing them into a mold not made for them. Never bothering to find out what God was doing with them. Never bothering to find out what they actually needed and instead just assuming that what the person needed was what they needed.

We don't like to tolerate difference or diversity because if someone else acts differently than me, thats ok, therefore I must not be ok. I must be wrong. And we so hate being wrong. Therefore we are right and they are wrong.
And so the wheel turns and wars begin and people die.

Once we can accept that we don't have it all figured out, then we can accept that no one else does either. Understanding that scripture was written in a culture 2,000 years dead means we understand that interpreting through our own culture is a bad idea. Not that culture is bad. Just that our culture does not contain absolute truth. Only a version of truth. Good in some areas, not so good in others. Just like every other culture on the planet.

God gave us just enough information to find Jesus, gave us a couple warnings, but left out alot of everything knowing full well that we were just going to screw it up anyway.

He gave us leeway. He knows we don't have it all figured out, and He doesn't expect us to figure it all out. Therefore we shouldn't assume that we have. Or that we will.

Despite my overly curious nature, I find that very freeing. And I like freedom.

God bless America.

I mean, Puerto Rico.

Um... right.