Church History

Yesterday, I completed a rather lengthy survey of church history from the Apostles to the 1900s. I wrote a curriculum for teaching the basics of church history to teenagers over 7 one hour classes. Having completed this textbook, I have many observations about what I don’t know about Christianity.

1) I know very little about centuries of the church, namely in the Middle Ages. I went into the study of the period between Constantine (4th century) and Luther (16th century) expecting to find a nugget here and a story there. Something inside should have sounded alarms when 1200 years, or over 30 generations of people sat nestled in this period. The truth is, there are many people within this time period who contributed fascinating thought and effort to ensure a genuine faith arrived here for me. Chief among those who interested me were:

• Peter Waldo – 12th-13th century reformer who was excommunicated for his beliefs. Had he been born 300 years later, we would lump him with Calvin & Luther.
• Pope Gregory VII – monk who reluctantly became pope and ushered in many ideas and traditions that formed Christianity more than most would imagine

2) The Church is much bigger than I imagined. Having been more thoroughly introduced to the concept of the Greek Orthodox Church, its history, and its focus, I am floored that an entire worldview about Christianity exists without my knowledge. Whether or not its use of icons, the iconclast controversy, and the veneration of worship spaces is legitimate is not the point. Our American eyes present us with a lens than causes us to read and relate to the Hebrew and Greek Testaments in certain ways. For those in the Eastern/Orthodox Churches, the lenses are very different. Perhaps embracing a more global worldview isn’t such a bad idea. They definitely knew/know how to build a building.

3) Catholicism, while imperfect, has many elements today’s Protestant expressions are missing. There is something powerful about being able to convene a council of global church leaders to make a decision to thwart a heresy. As a result of schisms, protests, church splits, and more, we don’t have 1 pope – we have millions of popes (and a laity who progressively believe they are popes as well). It is unhealthy to assume we are all an authority about a faith with such a rich and critical heritage. At some point, to decrease the effects of the plethora of heresies floating around, some measure of authority or unity of authorities would do us a lot of good.

4) The Inquisition was worse than I thought. For those not up on this, the Inquisition was the Church’s response to heresies or those who refused to convert to Christianity. The sentence for the trials was eventually execution, a black eye for our history, to say the least. Its ugly twin, the Crusades, was also awful. The desire to execute Jews, Muslims, and even other Christians to politically take land is what I would call a great adventure in missing the point.

5) 19th Century theology was vast. I have been scarcely introduced to high criticism of Biblical text, though I am certain I will learn much about it. I will spare you the details about this, but just know that there is much more to the Holy Text than meets the eye.

Sandcastles

A popular children’s church rhyme trains kids to recite the basic details of a parable of Jesus with stanzas declaring:

The wise man built his house upon a rock (3x)
And the rain came tumbling down

The rains came down and the floods came up (3x)
And the wise man’s house stood firm

The foolish man built his house upon the sand (3x)
And the rain came tumbling down

And the foolish man’s house went crash!

So we quaintly say that the rock is the Bible and the sand is when we don’t base our lives on the Bible. This is easy and makes us feel safe, but is this really what this means? The context of the verse in Matthew 7 might indicate otherwise:

²¹ “Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter. ²² On judgment day many will say to me, ‘Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.’ ²³ But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws.’ ²⁴ “Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock.

As Christians, it is really easy to conclude that a person who has the most robust ministry, largest attendance, biggest crowds, most infamous miracles, most exciting delivery, and best expressions of spiritual gifts must be the person who knows God the best. This the person who has the strongest foundation. After all: why would God bless his or her ministry if they didn’t?

This notion, according to Jesus, is flawed. Instead, it is little more than a sandcastle, constructed of a substance that can easily be exposed or damaged.

It is the business of kings to convince us that their sandcastles will last forever. It is the business of prophets to introduce sandcastles to their biggest enemies: oceans of reality.

The reality is that Christians who devote their lives entirely to spritiual gifts are spending their lives chasing fruit. While fruit tastes good to others and can look delicious, fruit is not an end unto itself. Rather, fruit is intended to come as a result of constructing a more sure foundation for the house we are building.

It is easy to continue to build our sandcastles, impressing the multitudes that the beach is the safest place to dwell. Worse yet, we can fall into the trap of manipulating others to come dwell in the sandcastles as if we are not only good craftsmen, but shepherds. The person who delivers such promises faces three judgments for this herding:

1. The tree that bears this fruit will be chopped down (Matthew 7:19)
2. On judgment day, despite reminiscing about their many miracles, they will be told that Christ never knew them (Matthew 7:23)
3. Their sandcastle will crumble with a crash (Matthew 7:27)

Christians must first have a relationship with God. Not an objective relationship where they know of God, but a relationship that affects us. Christians who presume to understand God’s preferences, but have never been stunned by his preferences, are in danger of expanding a mansion with numerous bedrooms that will crumble when a wave of reality washes it away.

Agnosticism’s Questions

I have a lot of grace for those who are agnostic, that is, unable to commit to believing in a god. There are rational reasons to believe that life doesn’t amount to much other than life, itself. People are born, they live lives with more questions than answers, and they die. Some die of incurable diseases, some of old age, and some in wars that ultimately cause more problems than they fix. In the midst of humanity’s suffering and pain, how can there be something more spiritual than physical?

It doesn’t help that America’s de facto religion, Christianity, isn’t always as loving as advertised. Why would an agnostic look for answers to questions from people who claim to know everything? By nature, agnostics want people to not understand everything.

Fortunately, some Christians attempt to live lives that don’t default to this life of contradiction. Some even go so far as to attempt to respectfully find answers to some of these questions, in branches of Christian thinking like theodicy. The truth is, not all of the agnostic’s questions have flawless answers. Even more revealing is the truth that not all Christians’ questions have flawless answers. In fact, sometimes we have more questions having bought into the Bible’s life-narrative than one might expect.

Christians have answers to questions most questioners fail to ever question. In fact, the Bible takes time in what historians say is the very first portion written to introduce some of these questions. They are delivered by a man named איוב (Job) who was truly having the worst day of his life. In the midst of going crazy, he begins shouting questions about the injustice to God. In a surprising twist, a tornado shows up and begins asking Job questions. The Bible says God was highly involved in the tornadic activity and asked Job questions only God could probably answer like:

• Who set up systems of measure?
• Does rain have an origin?
• Who put the ability to have wisdom in minds?
• An ostrich has wings that she waves proudly, even though they have no purpose
• How do horses prance so powerfully?
• How did hawks first learn to fly?

The questions seemed endless. Perhaps we can think of some more.

• How is the sun exactly the right distance from Earth?
• Humans are self-aware but other animals are not. How?
• Dogs seem to naturally desire to serve humans
• The human blood stream is a very long and complex system
• Lightning is extremely amazing to watch
• The hummingbird’s wings are amazingly fast – its as if he can hover in place effortlessly

It is very difficult to consider all these intricate systems of color and sound and order without asking the question, “How?”

I would respectfully offer my answer – the Christian God is the God of wonders.

Lamentations

I recently listened to a speaker take several hours to relate how the book of Lamentations relates to everyday life today (this one message, for example). I could not help but nod my head at many points, but shake my head in dismay at others. Let’s be honest: Americans have lost the ability to grieve and weep. Let’s be more honest: We don’t usually like it when people grieve and weep.

Rembrant - Jeremiah Lamenting the Destruction of Jerusalem

Tradition says that several hundred years before the birth of Christ, a prophet named Jeremiah nestled into a cave to spend time alone. There, “The Weeping Prophet” spent an agonizing time sobbing with pen in hand, writing poetry to attempt to make sense of a disaster of earth-shattering and life-altering proportions. He begins:

Oh, oh, oh… How empty the city, once teeming with people.
A widow, this city, once in the front rank of nations,
once queen of the ball, she’s now a drudge in the kitchen.

And later:

Jerusalem remembers the day she lost everything,
when her people fell into enemy hands, and not a soul there to help.
Enemies looked on and laughed, laughed at her helpless silence.

Jerusalem, who outsinned the whole world, is an outcast.
All who admired her despise her now that they see beneath the surface.
Miserable, she groans and turns away in shame.

Jeremiah had easily one of the most difficult ministries of any person in history. He recognized a series of sins and faults of Israel and with groaning, put words to it.

Elsewhere in Scripture, we see other instances of people weeping and expressing their grief in outward ways. Ezra ripped his clothes. Jesus wept. Job went on a verbal tirade, then witnessed God, Himself, go on one of his own. Jeremiah’s entire book has several gut-wrenching prayers and muses about things not going well. Most of the lesser known books of prophecy are that way.

Fluoxetine, aka Prozac, aka Happy Pills

Americans have an addiction to happiness and entertainment, myself included. We must constantly have something to push, watch, or hear. Most Americans would rather take a happy pill to make them happy for the rest of their lives than know how to deal with human feelings. This makes for very productive lives, but lives of suppressed feelings. People can go decades without grieving major life changes like injuries, deaths, and shattered dreams without allowing their emotions to have their time to settle. Its much easier to watch a movie with someone grieving than to grieve ourselves.

What’s more damaging is our inability to help others to grieve. There is nothing worse than having someone there to listen to us grieve something that cannot be fixed, but they keep saying that “everything will be okay” or try to “fix it.“ I’m not going through anything right now, but if I were, that’d be the last thing I’d want to hear.

In a person’s darkest hour what they need more than answers is someone to help ask the questions. A person who will sit in silence and not feel the need to “move things along.” A person who promises to bring dinner every day to ease things. A person to babysit the kids. A friend who will cry, too. Weeping is not for girls – weeping is for humans.

When we encounter someone else in their darkest hour, we should shut off our cell phones, toss our watches, and pull up a chair. Jeremiah’s laments would have been a whole lot easier if it were a cave for two.

When we encounter the worst day of our lives, we should not be afraid to spend time alone sobbing. Its okay to ask a lot of questions and not have a lot of answers. Its okay to protest injustices. But we must remain steadfast with our convictions that God is a good God, who knows what it is to suffer both as a human and having created humans who derailed His plans through sin. God is acquainted with grief, for He has suffered.

Need a way to open up to God? Try brutal honesty – He likes it.

Deicide

The April 1966 edition of Time Magazine lives in infamy for its bold title: Is God Dead? The cover is on many lists of the best magazine covers of all-time, and for good reason. It pulls at the heartstrings of many and forces us to ask questions we’d rather not ask.

The truth is, at one point, He was. Dead.

It is hard to fathom just how twisted humanity must be to assassinate God, Himself. To think ourselves self-sufficient enough to eradicate the very God that gave breath to our lungs was the pinnacle of the pride of mankind being exposed in the most grotesque of displays.

Deity sprawled across a wooden beam as humanity challenges Him by mockingly saying God couldn’t even save Himself.

An ancient portion of the Jewish text called the Torah had a portion that read:

לֹא־תָלִין נִבְלָתֹו עַל־הָעֵץ כִּֽי־קָבֹור

תִּקְבְּרֶנּוּ בַּיֹּום הַהוּא כִּֽי־קִלְלַת אֱלֹהִים

תָּלוּי וְלֹא תְטַמֵּא אֶת־אַדְמָתְךָ אֲשֶׁר יְהוָה

אֱלֹהֶיךָ נֹתֵן לְךָ נַחֲלָֽה׃ ס

Ever so haunting are those letters. God’s own law used against Him by humanity, so that every person who is placed across a tree is cursed.

Make no mistake about it. Jesus was executed for political purposes. The idea that the Jews might have a new emperor was threatening to Romans. But the Jews were more haunted by the idea that a Messiah wouldn’t wipe out the Romans to set-up a political Kingdom so they could get revenge. They couldn’t wrap their mind around God not being their flavor of perfect. The Messiah they had spent years inventing wasn’t real.

God, Himself, had killed their idea of God, Himself.

It seemed an injustice and a fraud for this mere Nazarene born in rural Bethlehem to allow people to call Him King of the Jews. This wasn’t the king they’d craved. He had just let them beat Him with no measure of retaliation – what kind of a King does that?

God had a funeral. He was given burial spices even as a newborn. He was placed in a tomb with a boulder to seal to entryway. A soldier of the occupying political regime was placed before the tomb. They said it was to guard the tomb, but perhaps the imagery was the greater intention. The Romans had conquered another potential insurrection by slaughtering an innocent. Once again, the Pax Romana (Peace of Rome) remained. Peace through death. Yet another successful crucifixion.

The light of the world – blown out like a candle.

Empire (Part Four)

The Bible is a story with several smaller stories that tell the story of insignificant nations being conquered by large Empires, and God’s provision for groups of people who cry out in despair for His aid (see this book for more). The problem is, after several generations, people begin to accept Empire as a normal way of life.

At the arrival of Jesus, many of the Jewish people were on pins and needles for God to intervene on behalf of their Hebrew nation to rid them of the Roman Empire. The Disciples craved Jesus’ end to the Roman occupation of their borders, but Jesus rarely acknowledged the Romans explicitly (though he implied such in many encounters, including the Gadarene Demoniac). Jesus told his followers to pray for God’s Kingdom to come, which was a very political statement (just ask the Romans, who executed Him).

After Jesus’ resurrection, his followers began to build this Kingdom Jesus proposed, but it wasn’t built with bricks. Instead, it was built with people (or “living stones,” as Peter called it). With their swords beaten into plowshares and their spears traded for pruning hooks, this people, known as “The Way” began constructing a different kind of Empire – the Empire of Christ. It was a community that chose love, had respect for the dead, gave before it took, and would die for their cause. Borders meant nothing, for this was to be a global nation.

One of their leaders from Turkey named Saul (later Paul) wrote something interesting to a mega-church in Ephesus:

We don’t fight against people. We fight against the Kingdoms and Kings of spiritual wickedness, darkness, and blindness.

This letter-writer was advising his fellow builders of Jesus’ Empire to lay down their guns and recognize their real struggle. It wasn’t Nero on the throne of Rome, it was the systems and spiritual inflences that made Nero do what Nero did. It was the structures and sources of Anti-Kingdom.

Another of Jesus’ followers, John, got in so much trouble for spreading this Empire that he was sentenced to die on an island. While there, he wrote a letter to other Kingdom builders, giving them a different perspective for their journey. This was a Revelation from John that saw the Roman Empire as a giant beast that arose from the (Mediterranean) Sea to swallow up their movement and destroy them, but the bigger struggle wasn’t with the political Rome, but the system Rome brought with it.

Everything from buying and selling to safety and homeland security required those within the Roman Empire to pledge allegiance to Caesar Nero and take a mark on their head or hand on the way (known to prophecy gurus as 616, possibly the true rendering of the infamous “666″). Worse, though, was that Rome was part of the world system of vengence, revenge, war, violence, and power structures designed to dehumanize.

John was so worried about this that he called this system a prostitute and cautioned Kingdom builders about her temptation. All the other cultures had been “drinking the wine and wrath of her sexcapades, and the CEOs of the multinational corporations have propheted greatly through her endeavors. John warns (in Revelation 18), metaphorically:

Get your bodies out of that prostitute before she brings you sexual pleasure, too. You’ll become just like her if you don’t!

The Christians did build a great Kingdom, one we share in today. But what happens when that Kingdom, designed to be a spiritual Kingdom and an alternative community within society, is made to be a literal Empire with borders? And when it happens, and we live in the tension of these Kingdoms, how shall we live?

Stay tuned for the final installment of “Empire.”

Empire (Part Three)

Its not December. Its February (and 70 degrees in Missouri). Yet, the message of Christmas shouldn’t be confined to but a couple dozens squares on a calendar.

The angel said, “Don’t be afraid. I’m here to announce a great and joyful event that is meant for everybody, worldwide: A Savior has just been born in David’s town, a Savior who is Messiah and Master. This is what you’re to look for: a baby wrapped in a blanket and lying in a manger.”

In the cradle of the Roman Empire, we have an instant collision heralded by a messenger of God. Make no mistake – this was a political declaration.

Caesar Augustus, the emperor of those days, was supreme. The name, Augustus, meant respect, awe, or veneration. He was thought of as a savior to the world by bringing peace. Yet, we have an angel proclaiming that there’s a second Master, a Prince of Peace, Emperor of all the Emperors, President of Presidents born in the heart of Empire, a boats trip across the Mediterranean from Rome.

Countries cannot have two kings and have stability. We learned this a couple centuries later with the split of the Roman Empire. Global movements cannot withstand having two rulers. Hearing rumors of some other king being born, Augustus ordered male babies to be slaughtered to prevent this catastrophe.

Born of a virgin, cradled around animal dung in a crappy blanket, was the “Other Caesar.” A President announced to Adam and Eve in Genesis 3. He was the infant hundreds of years of prophets had craved. This was the Anti-Caesar. A nightmare for Empire. Without bombs bursting in air, shepherds scrammed from the scene to town, zealous to “make known the thing that has happened.” The first humans to herald the birth of Empire’s worst nightmare.

God was born.

He grew up in obscurity. So normal as an apprentice in his step-father’s carpentry business that his brother’s and sisters had no idea their big brother was actually the Son of the creator of the Universe. Contrary to a few gnostic gospels, He wasn’t doing some crazy tricks – this was just a boy. By age 12, he appears to have a clue about what’s going on, but must not have made the cut for Rabbinical training, as He wasn’t part of “the club” at the temple, later. He impressed the local religious gurus, but there must have been other kids his age who were better at being religious than a young God. Maybe there’s something to learn, there.

In adulthood, his cousin, John, went to a rural, swampy area and started baptizing people to “prepare the way.” John baptized God in a lake in a mind-boggling exchange. John had a band of followers, which wasn’t a smart political move. The ruler over those days, Herod Antipas, feared an uprising, agreed with his queen, and had John slaughtered around 36 CE. Empire doesn’t like those who don’t go with the flow. It really wasn’t uncommon for the Roman Empire to silence its critics by execution. Keeping peace flowing when you’re a global, human empire is impossible without finding ways to justify the slaying of other humans for expediency. One of the easiest ways is to label it as an act of homeland security or freedom.

John’s cousin, Jesus, spread a message that was dripping heavily with controversy. He told His followers to be “lights in the world,” something Caesar was already supposed to be. He paid His taxes, but didn’t do anything to build the kingdom of Rome. He preached that a different Kingdom was rising up, but it was a Kingdom who’s allegiance wasn’t pledged to kill by the sword, but to love. His top follower, originally called Simon, chopped off a Roman guard’s ear to the scolding of Jesus.

Empire doesn’t understand the language of love. It isn’t fluent in acts of sacrifice. Empire administers sacrifice. The Empire of God that Jesus was launching had other ways of spreading. It didn’t chase enemies into caves or spill blood into rivers. It loved the unloved. Brought good news to the poor. Elevated the underside of society.

Two empires – one within the other. Something had to give – and fast. Rome couldn’t find anything wrong with what Jesus was saying, but with what others said about Him. They arrested Him, brought Him on trial, and asked a question more important than we realize.

Pontius Pilate: Are you the Emperor of the Jewish Nation?
Jesus: What you say is true.

Pilate didn’t find fault for this, but due to some border issues, he was shipped to another ruler who asked Him questions to find a crime, to no avail. In the crowd, several politicians who also had religous licenses wanted this guy gone. Their kingdom of decrees, prosperity and power couldn’t stand up if this religious leader with politicial implications survived. They managed to have Pilate agree to let Him be executed.

God was assassinated by the religious elite.

Three days after the horrendous murder of the “Other Emperor,” Jesus rose from the dead, a spit in the face of Empire. Their ultimate tool of rule, death, couldn’t stand. His message and renown spread further and further, even after He temporarily left visibility on Earth.

All Empire needs people who believe its system is preferrable to any alternative. But what if that alternative is available?

What if we are living in the tension of two empires right now?

To be continued…

Empire (Part Two)

If I were an Egyptian growing up circa 1200 BCE, it would be difficult for me to understand the culture in which I lived. People rarely venture to other nations or read history to gain a perspective of their own, but have their ideas shaped by an ellusive term.

“They.”

We speak often about this concept when imagining new concepts, inventions, frontiers, injustices, and opportunities. “They” are people who have the ability to influence cultures, borders, arts, minds, and more. But to those who are not part of a culture, thanks to stereotypes and nationalities, everyone is a “they.”

I’ve been reading more of the “wrong books.” Enter two more suspects, and their impact.

Jesus Wants to Save Christians

In growing up in an empire called Egypt, with a very revered Pharaoh named Ramesses in whom people placed their hopes and trust, I would know little of the problems my empire was producing. Hebrew slaves being tortured in the name of yet another elaborate pyramid. Forced worship of a political deity. Firstborn children ordered to be executed upon birth. Wars fought to extend borders, with human casualties chalked up as little more than tally marks called “collateral damage.” Starvation of the poor in the midst of a lavish lifestyle for those in power. And the truth is, those at the top of the power structure had no intention to improve things, as they needed to prosper to maintain their power.

And yet, from Mount Horeb, an agricultural nobody who had survived as an infant in a basket raft emerges from obscurity to organize a revolution of slaves. These oppressed, numbers growing expoentially, had cried out to God to end the cycle of death. This empire, structured to make the greedy succeed, was strangling them of their ability to live their lives. Ramesses couldn’t afford this giant labor union to suddenly walk out on his job site. It was as if every construction worker in a region suddenly wanted to quit work and walk away.

Jesus for President

Empire thrives on cooperation. Empire demands having, under its god, just one nation, indivisible. It must have adherents who return to its throne, seeking the treasures of awe and allegiance. Empire cannot survive a people who question its lavish spending, its distrust for the leaders of the state, or taking the dominant script and feeding it into a paper shredder.

And yet, there’s this little problem. This man, who history calls “Moses,” led a slave rebellion for these Jewish families to start something new and fresh. A departure from a system of confusion. Empire hadn’t brought liberty and justice for all. What they needed was an exodus.

Moses’ people started their own nation, which a few generations later, mirrored what they left in Egypt, With the lavish temples, polytheism, and pursuit of military prowess to expand the empire through shock and awe, this small nation bit off more than it could chew. They faced judgement for not doing justice and pursuing their own grandiose vision. This nation-state called Israel was swallowed up by a bigger empire.

And another.
And another.

The Hebrew Testament and New Testament have a name for this endless system of empires, kings, caesars, rulers, presidents, and senators. Its a word that means “confusion,” and does little more than twist God’s agenda for the human race. In the guise of freedom, prosperity, and the will of God, Himself (in whom empire allegedly trusts and is blessed), its called Babylon.

Moses’ nation spent years crying out for a release from the occupation. They were forced again to work to build a kingdom that was designed to keep them building a kingdom. They cried for an end to it all. A release. Freedom.

And in the midst of a land they spent generations living, they had fashioned a cradle. Their cry gave birth to the answer to their passionate pleas for help.

In the form of a baby’s cry.

To be continued…

Empire (Part One)

I never much liked reading the book of Exodus. Can I say that? Yes – I just did. I knew it was important, what with all the miracles and leaving Pharaoh. But what does that really have to do with a modern boy in Nowheresville, USA?

In the last several years, some key Christian thinkers have been releasing books and speeches that re-position Exodus in a way that screams something else. Something fresh. Something – modern.

One of the more prominent books is Walter Brueggemann’s Prophetic Imagination, written in 2001. Walter speaking with authority and power, defines the term “empire” in ways that would make politicians cringe, history professors dance, and everyday people’s eyebrows stand at attention. It isn’t that he explicitly spells out what the empire “is,” but the applications are violently intense.

Imagine that I went to Epypt or Rome at the height of their rule as a journalist and returned home to compose an article about the things I saw. I would think it could look something like this:

I went to the empire everyone’s been talking about for a visit and saw sights of great majesty the likes of which mere mortals could not have constructed on their own. The buildings were massive, constructed by men with great wisdom, though the people I saw building them were not very wealthy. They had other nations craving to meet their political leader, who had great charisma and was revered almost like a deity, himself. At his crowning, they held a lavish festival with music, dancing, dining, and speeches that heaped praise upon him. This empire had a story of their history, where they were once an oppressed people, but fought off their enemies, gained independence, and built a better way of life. They were proud of their way of government, even willing to conquer distant countries in the name of spreading their government and renown. On their currency, images of their historic leaders, revered forever for their infinite wisdom in laying the foundation for such a great empire. Their people turned the country, itself, into what amounted to a religious system, where they believed their system was one that brought peace to the world, and from every mountside to shining sea, it let freedom ring.

But there is a darker side to this empire. People are born into poverty with little ability to climb out of it because those in power have the wealth to educate their children, while those on the underside of society have little hope to bring their kids to wealth. War is an expensive side-effect of this system where battles are fought in the name of security of empire, but are really designed to expand its borders. Immorality is rampant. Leaders are trusted with their power, but distrusted to wield it with integrity. The empire consumes resources at will, even to the detriment of other nations who have not yet joined. Children are trained to think like the empire, and scolded for questioning it. Battles are fought in public places to progress people to an ideal empire, either one with unlimited empire rule, or one that mirrors the ideals of its founders, who themselves were more godless than we thought.

This sort of article would be blasted by those in power for being incoherent and irrelevant. The results of the empire’s prosperity would be heralded, while the darker side of empire would be hidden. The writer, perhaps better labeled a prophet, would be cast into a prison for speaking out against empire, or, at the very least, lose credibility.

What if this empire isn’t just history that we can’t see and touch?

To be continued…

Sexual Screw-ups & Church Authority

I was reading a friend’s blog about a news story out of Jacksonville, Florida. A woman from a church has been living with her boyfriend in a sexually active relationship and is slated to be “outted” by the church on January 4th in front of her friends and children for refusing to repent and change.

The church has followed a process they call the “process of loving accountability,” wherein they first have someone talk to her privately, then with a group of women, all encouraging her to sever the relationship with the man whom she says she loves. With her refusal, they have given her one month to change before her dirty laundry is aired before everyone.

The story is written from her side to make her good and the church evil for this process. The truth is, the church is doing what is probably in her best interest. Human beings aren’t made to have sex without commitment. There are no worse break-ups than those that stem from a sexual relationship that lacked both sides committing to give each other everything they can, from their possessions to their dreams. Sex without commitment could be thought of as assisted masturbation – its designed to pleasure yourself rather than someone else.

That being said,  Paul wrote a letter to the church of Corinth (commonly called 1 Corinthians) to deal with a church member who was sleeping with his step-mother. The process this church is following is actually what Paul prescribed to deal with the situation right down to the letter. The person had been spoken to personally, mentored by a church member, and even outted to the entire community, but refused to change his lifestyle. Paul recommended full excommunication until the person changes his lifestyle.

The purpose of this was not to undermine the individual, but to maintain the integrity of the community, ensure that the church was different than the Vegas-like Corinthian culture, and ensure that the person isn’t in sexual sin (which makes the person’s heart a heartbeat from a heartbreak).

2 Corinthians was later written after the incident. The person who’d been sleeping with his stepmother finally repented and wanted to change his life. Paul used this book to prescribe a discipleship and grace process to restore him into the community.

This woman is going to be outted in front of Grace Community Church, but its the church’s way of trying to help her. One of the downsides of the Protestant Reformation has been the death of excommunication, the removal of a person from full participation in the community (such as activities, communion, and more). Since there are 30 churches in town, the First Baptist Church’s excommunication means nothing when a parishioner can drive down the road to First Episcopalian or Jesus Tabernacle the following week. 

Churches must find ways to re-establish the value of their authority. Churches must instill a belief that this isn’t for their benefit so much as the individual’s benefit. Telling someone not to do something just because the Bible says so won’t fly to a postmodern world. But making your truth become their truth will always fulfill a need for both parties.

As for the church in Florida, I hope to get an update on the result soon. Should be interesting.