2.9

This school year is over and my second year of full-time ministry is coming to a close. This year was drastically different from the first and I am eagerly anticipating the fall. I am on a 12 month calender so even though the students will not be walking the hallways this summer I will be. The past 2 weeks have been draining on me. I am mentally and physically exhausted. I stayed up way too late last night watching “Episode III” with some of my students and graduation is tomorrow. I have also spent the last few days fighting my insomnia so until Monday I am going to lay low. I’ll resume blogging on Monday afternoon. Until then enjoy today’s question from my Simpsons daily desk calendar:

In “This Little Wiggy” (5F13), at the science museum, Ralph says he found a Moon rock where?
a) In his nose
b) Deep in the Mooniverse
c) In the cheese section of Kwik-E-Mart
d) In his jammies

The answer (of couse) is: A

Put It Down!!!

I got a new cell phone yesterday. I spent most of the afternoon playing with the sounds, the pictures, the phonebook, everything. I personalized my phone my way by myself alone in my car or office.

While eating lunch today at my favorite resturant, I kept being taken out of my thoughts by cell phone rings. I thought, “Ok Micheal. It is the lunch hour. Many of these patrons are keeping in touch with their various places of buisness. Chill out. It is ok” Then I see it. The noises aren’t coming from a couple dozen cell phones. They were emanating from one nut job who was playing with his phone! A crowded resturant at the height of the lunch hour is not the place to choose between the nokia theme and the 78 other ringtones you have stored on you phone sir!!!! I was angry. This man was a grown man who had a junior high aged daughter. I noticed everyone around him cutting their eyes at him but he was oblivious.

If cell phones were a new novelty I would excuse this man’s social snafu. But guess what? Cell phones aren’t new. Put the phone down and back away slowly.

Always (Value Added Title)

This morning I was working on tying up some loose ends before the school year ends. Our students are taking exams today and tomorrow so I am confined to my closet trying to keep quiet. While I was working on turning in some recipts, I was listening to one of my auto playlist called “Never Played.” The list contains all the songs I haven’t listened to in my iTunes library. A U2 song came on that I had never heard before. The music caught my ear (It is the beta-“Beautiful Day”) so I checked out the lyrics. Great stuff! This b-side from the Beautiful Day single is a new favorite. Enjoy.

Always

Here today, gone tomorrow
Crack the bone, get to the marrow
To be a bee and the flower
Before the sweetness turns to sour

What we have we’re gonna keep, always
What we’ve lost we don’t need, always
What is it that won’t let you sleep, always

Be the arrow and the target
Put your head over the parapet
Be uncool, yes be awkward
Don’t look in the obvious place
The soul needs beauty for a soulmate

Get down off your holy cloud, always
God will not deal with the proud, always
Well if you dream then dream out loud, always
Eternally yours, always

I want you
I want you
I want you
Touch me now inside
I wanted to be a man
I wanted to call

You say you come to know yourself, always
Don’t find yourself in someone else, always
And always wear a safety belt, always
Wait for me I’m running late, always
This is the moment that we share for always
Turn each song into a prayer, always
Now and forever
For always

@U2

Next Year’s Theme

Each year we have a school wide theme. This year’s theme was “Lean On Me” (Hey, at least it wasn’t FROG: Fully Rely on God. I rescued the school from being egged or burned down by shooting that one down.) I created this mock up (below) for next year. We have had a real issue with unity. Our school is a Church of Christ affiliated institution. The ones who belong to conservative churches expect us to cater to them and those who go to progressive churches want us to favor them. Those who belong to other denominations feel (rightly?) they get mistreated or marginalized. I just want us to get along within the doors of the school. I believe that if we could just respect each other enough to care about one another Monday-Friday we could change the whole city. So, today, I floated this idea by the administration:

Army of ONE

I’m not one who loves to beat the Christian war drum. When I lead worship, I tend to shy (run) away from overtly patriotic songs and hymns like “Onward Christian Soldiers.” I just believe that UNITY is what we need at the school. Maybe that is what we will focus on next year. As long as we don’t choose DOG: Depend of God I’ll be fine.

Hell No? Hell Yes?

Rudy at Urban Onramps posted a story asking his readers if they are “linkers” or “thinkers.” I think I am a linker who longs to be thinker. Whaaa!??!?!

Anyway, a few weeks ago I finished reading Brian McLaren’s The Last Word and the Word After That“. On Monday, Brian did a few guest blogging sessions at various “emergent” blogs. On JordonCooper.com here is how Brian summed up the main thrust of his book:

For those of you who haven’t read the book, here are some of the main ideas:
A. Our view of hell has a lot to say about our view of God (and vice versa).
B. For many people, hell means that God torments or tortures people consciously and forever, with no possibility of repentance and no possibility for an end to the tortures.
C. This view of God, I believe, is unworthy of the God presented to us in Jesus Christ.
D. The conventional understanding of hell developed over a long period of time. It wasn’t revealed in the Old Testament, but arose in the period between Testaments. When Jesus speaks of it, he hasn’t invented it, but rather is responding to it as a controversial idea among the Jewish people of his day.
E. The Sadducees were the conservatives who held to the older view that there was no hell or no afterlife. The Pharisees were, in a sense, the liberals who accepted the idea of hell. Many believe that the idea of hell came into Judaism from Persian religion – and that the name Pharisee may be from Farsi, or Persian.
F. Jesus does not follow either the Sadducees (who reject any idea of afterlife), nor does he follow the teaching of the Pharisees and their view of hell. Rather, he charts a bold new path and uses the language of hell (“owned” by the Pharisees) to draw attention to his own message – centered in the kingdom of God, and the character of God.
G. “The kingdom of God” does not mean heaven. Being excluded from the kingdom does not necessarily mean eternal conscious torment after death in hell either.
H. All people will face judgment. God is always both just and merciful in judgment. Being judged does not necessarily mean “being sent to hell.” Nor does being condemned. These words mean being exposed for being disobedient to God, not pleasing God, not serving God.
I. Matthew speaks the most about hell, Mark and Luke, less, and John not at all. Paul speaks often of the reality of judgment, but he doesn’t talk about hell. The New Testament is not as clear about the subject as many people believe.
K. We need to rethink the message of Jesus and the apostles in terms of the kingdom of God – which is God’s will being done on earth, and not be so preoccupied with the issue of hell.

Pretty challenging. I can’t say that I agree 100% with everything here but I can tell you that I am 100% stretched and moved. Brian does such a wonderful job asking questions. The two points that poke at my heart are A and K. I will be wrestling with this for a while and I encourage you to as well. I just wanted to post this link here for us to think about.

Spielberg Wept. (Wookie 11:35)

I was already eagerly anticipating the opening of “Episode III: Revenge of the Sith” next week and now I’m even more intrigued. Apparently Steven Spielberg has been overcome. He burst into tears at the screening he was a part of last week. Spielberg should know that Jedi are supposed to keep a tight reign on their emotions but I guess he forgot. I don’t expect a unbalance in my force to cause the old water works to kick on during the movie but we shall have to see.

UPDATE: I purchased my tickets for the midnight showing last night. I’ll be going with a handful of my students. A couple of them said that they will be dressing up. Oh brother!

Link

KINGDOM OF HEAVEN

What man is a man who does not make the world better?

The wife and I went to see Ridley Scott’s “Kingdom of Heaven” last night. The movie is based on the siege of Jerusalem led by Saladin against the knight Balian and his forces. Although not entirely accurate (See Holy War by Karen Anderson), the film was engaging.

Over the past few months, my heart has been dogged by the question, “What does Jesus Christ mean when he talks about ‘the Kingdom of Heaven.” I know that I am certainly not the first person to ask this question. I just don’t have an answer. I do know that I am less and less inclined to believe that He speaking eschatologically. I also believe that in the USofA, we think more about the sweet by and by and less about the here and now. It seems that everything I read, every small conversation, every news report I see has been pushing me closer and closer to this question lately. Greg posted a heartbreaking thought on “the kingdom” this week. The question is driving me at the moment. Don’t be surprised if over the course of the next few weeks if this question spills a lot of digital ink here. Just a necessary part of “Kicking at the Darkness.”

The Goal Is Soul