Living Word

[I am intentionally vague in my reference to which church this is because I want to critique more the perspective than the person]

Lindsay and I attended a worship service this past Sunday morning, and I was near the verge of 1) standing up and leaving, or 2) standing up and verbally disagreeing with the pastor. It was painful, it was awkward and it was not only poor theology but also poor argumentation, which in itself is problematic in a sermon; should sermons be arguments? It felt as though I was sitting in a lecture than a worship service.

Their fall series was "Answering Your Friends (implied non-Christians) Toughest Questions." And the final question of the series was "How do we know the Bible is the Word of God?"

When I first sat in the pew and saw the sermon title, I knew I was in for it. I had stepped out of my denominational bounds to see what this other church was doing, and I was immediately aware of their different theological loci. More problematic was the question, I have never had my normal friends ask me "How do we know the Bible is the Word of God?" The more appropriate starting point is "How do we know that the Bible is authentic/reliable/true?"

But what the pastor sought to do was to preach defensively about the New Testaments historical accuracy. He totalled ignored the Old Testament, never once bringing it into the conversation. Plus he ignored interesting passages such as Paul saying, "It is not the Lord who says this but I." What do we do with that? These make the question "What is the Word of God?" much meatier, interesting and faith-forming.

I was immediately reminded me of one of my very first seminary classes in which the professor asked us burgeoning scholars "what is the Word of God?" After an hour of hands popping up and tongues wagging, we felt unsettled; as we should.

Lost in this defensive sermon was the beauty of "the Word of God," which is that the Word is more than written document, it is Jesus Christ himself. The Word is alive and the Scriptures attest to Him, he is not subject to the written word, but the written word (just as the spoken word) is subject to Him.

I left the service sadden because while the pastor was seeking to bring reverence to Scripture, I felt as though he took the beauty out of the Bible. The fact is the tension of God's Word written by human hands is beautiful. That is what makes the written word alive; it mirrors the hypostatic union of Jesus Christ.

Hidden deep in the service, which if you dozed off you would have missed, was an intriguing line about making the Bible relevant: "We don't need to breath life into the Bible, but the Bible needs to breath life into us." These are the things of beauty that make me wake up in the morning to reread the written word in order that I may discover the new way the Word of God is speaking to me.

Race Photos

Race Photos and results from Georgetown to Idaho Springs Half-Marathon
New Photo Album

worth 1000 words

"Talk about your ultimate backfires"

About three weeks ago, I was preaching a sermon with the line "The Great Commission is not only a life's calling for the Mother Theresa's of faith, but also those of us who doubt..." Well, it turns out that the cultural perspective that Mother Theresa was the zeinth of solid unshakable Christian faith has been misguided.

Personal letters, which she never intended to be read publicly, have recently been released (and if you watch the fluffy parts of the Today Show, past 7:15am, you saw the public reading of these letters). In them, she describes her own battles with emptiness and doubts, and how from 1948 until her death she struggled with the conviction of her faith.

It should not be surprising that a woman who poured her life into her missionary work would come across times of emptiness as she probably received very little support from her peers; could you imagine giving religious advice to Mother Theresa.

Hearing that she would sometimes intentionally hide behind her smile as a mask, I was, however, concerned about the plastic facade we often force the faithful to put on. We place them on a pedestal expecting them to carry the weight of certainity and "absolute truth" no matter where God's journey of life takes them. It is no wonder that she wanted these personal doubts to remain unspoken to people. But perhaps their revelation will help bolster more people's faiths (doubts and all) as we realize that even the stallwarts of the Christian faith are able to sacrifice and serve God even when they have seasons--or in her case, possibly decades--of doubt.

Sports Radio

Totally Random, but with the departure of Dan Patrick, I may be officially done listening to sports radio.
After Tony Kornhauser stepped off the air, I was waning on my constant EspnRadio vigil. But now, the only interesting personalities left are Mike & Mike.
The problem is that Jim Rome, Collin Cowherd and John Kincaid all sound like male version of ET (That's Entertainment Tonight for the single males out there). Its 55 minutes of "Coming up during the next hour..." and then 5 minutes of meaningless dribble.
I don't think I am old enough for NPR. I couldn't care less about polictics or business, so Bortz and Limbaugh are out. Which leaves me with very, very little on the radio dial, and a potential long commute time.

Rocky Mountain High

Yesterday myself, my father-in-law and cousin-in-law (is there such a thing), ran the Georgetown to Idaho Springs half-marathon. Having been dragged out of bed at 4:30am, so we could drive 2000feet up into the mountains, this southern boy was worried about the effects of altitude (not to mention the 50 degrees temps at the start of the race).

I decided only 5 weeks ago to run this half-marathon; and since the doctor had nixed all running for two months after the skin cancer removal, I had to quickly go from 0miles/week to 26miles/week.

To accomplish this often meant running at 3pm in Atlanta during late July (meaning 95+ degrees with 70-80% humidity). I figured this would prepare me for running at 8450feet. Thankfully the race dropped 1000ft over the 13miles, so each step down hill I would convince myself that I was getting a few more bits of oxygen. And as the temperatures increased I noticed the Coloradoians bobbing and weaving across the course in order to stay in the shade, which gave me clear running in a pleasently sunny day with temps around 85.

Myself and 2053 other runners had an awesome run through the rockie mountains. We passed by rugged mountains, where I kept my eye out for mountain goats or lions rather than the road in front of me. We crossed over a small river where folks where fly fishing and rafting. And ultimately ended up in a small mountain town of Idaho Springs, CO.

All in all, it was a phenominal race. Just the right number of runners, enough to keep you motivated but not too many that you felt cramped. Oh yeah, plus I ran my fastest race: 1:44.49 (8:00min miles)

DogDays of Summer

Savannah has had the most interesting time of transition. Now she has two other dogs to play with, and is learning all the great habits of being a dog (barking for dinner, jumping on furniture). In some ways she is torn between two worlds. The basement is "our domain" with the old rules she is familiar with. Upstairs is doggyhaven where Waldo, Penny and Savannah rule to roost.

I came across her this morning with her head laying at the top of stairs with this pitiful look of: "These dogs have worn me out, but it is just too much fun to retreat back to my pad."