AJ Heschl on Why Religion Declined

Here's a thought-provoking quote from Rabbi A. J. Heschel in "God in Search of Man."

“It is customary to blame secular science and anti-religious philosophy for the eclipse of religion in modern society. It would be more honest to blame religion for its own defeats. Religion declined not because it was refuted, but because it became irrelevant, dull, oppressive, insipid. When faith is completely replaced by creed, worship by discipline, love by habit; when the crisis of today is ignored because of the splendor of the past; when faith becomes an heirloom rather than a living fountain; when religion speaks only in the name of authority rather than with the voice of compassion--its message becomes meaningless.”

Following Jesus is Not Like Twitter

There is a difference between Twitter-like following and following Jesus. What follows is an edited version of Brad Powell's comments in Outreach, January/February 2014, p. 114.

FOLLOWING LIKE TWITTER

Churches can be full of people who claim to be following Christ but refuse to get involved in the mission he gave us. They love attending church and listening to sermons, the "deeper" the better, but they do nothing with them.

The problem stems from a basic misunderstanding of what it means to follow Jesus. Twitter provides a great picture of the problem.

Twitter is built on the concept of "following" people. But to follow someone doesn't involve changing your life. All you have to do is click "follow," and it's, done. Then, you wait. You wait for them to deliver some inspired or helpful golden nugget for you to ponder—or not to ponder.

Interestingly, even if you never read any of their tweets, you are still considered to be "following" them. It's a very passive relationship. There are no responsibilities. There's no accountability. There's just a one-time click on a "follow" button. It's easy.

Sadly, this has become the perfect picture of what following Jesus means to many professing believers and churches. It's a passive follow rather than an active follow. All a per son has to do is say a prayer, get baptized or join a church, and the "follow" button has been clicked. After that, they just wait for inspiring messages to be delivered. Whether they listen or not, respond or not, change or not, they are still Christ followers. It's easy.

That's not the way it's supposed to be. At least not according to what Jesus taught and the early disciples demonstrated.  Matthew 4:19-20: "Come, follow me,' Jesus said, 'and I will make you fishers of men.' At once they left their nets and followed him." Luke 14:27, 33: "And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple ... In the same way, any of you who, does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple."

If we're going to 'get our churches back on mission, we have to get them actively following Jesus. They can't just sit around and wait for the next great teaching about Jesus. They need to be actively applying Jesus' teachings. As James wrote, "Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins."

To be honest, I think we've unwittingly created this dependency. Our services are inspiring and energizing. All person has to do is be there. But this isn't what makes a true or fully devoted Christ, follower. That requires activity—receiving something, leaving something, giving up something, doing something. It demands 'responsibility and 'accountability.

We want people to know there's nothing they can do to earn a relationship with God. That requires passively receiving grace by faith. But we don't want to leave it there. God doesn't. We also want people to know that, when grace is genuinely received, it leads. to good works. This is the clear, two-sided message of Ephesians 2:8-10.

"Before I Die" walls

In November 2013 Candy Chang published a book called, Before I Die. In 2001, Ms. Chang painted the wall of an abandoned New Orleans house with blackboard paint, stenciled the words, “Before I die I want to _____” and left some chalk on the sidewalk for people to write their responses. The book is a collection of responses from around the world. More back story and some of the responses are on her website, beforeidie.cc. You may find some of them interesting and useful.

Things That Seem Weird About America

(Thanks for this one, Denes!)

16 People On Things They Couldn’t Believe About America Until They Moved Here

I can't figure out why fruits and vegetables are more expensive than meat either and being charged for incoming cell calls bugs me too. Spoiled in Vietnam, I guess.

Sunday Assembly: Trying to Replace Church for Unbelievers

In an article on Sunday Assembly, which apparently is pretty successful in London and is test marketing the USA, the Washington Post describes a meeting of about 60 people who responded to an ad to start "a godless congregation." You can read a description of the 90-minute meeting in the WP link. The writer says, the Sunday Assembly idea has attracted attention "...mostly because [the founders are] speaking to an increasingly secular society still hungry for two commodities organized religion purports to provide: wonder and community."

This is sad on a number of levels. Two that come most quickly to mind is that 1) people are trying to manufacture what the Lord has already offered and 2) the Church, in many cases, hasn't provided a connection to the wonder and community that is found through Christ (note the word, "purports," in the quote above).

November 10, 2013 update: Yahoo has a story about the founders' visit to Los Angeles here, which attracted far more people than the DC gathering.

Father Shelters Daughter

This sad story was published by AP today and featured on NBC Nightly News. A family (father, mother, 2 daughters & 2 cousins) were hiking a popular trail in Colorado when a rock slide came down on top of them. All were killed except the 13-year-old daughter. At the last second, when the boulders cascaded down, her dad shielded her with his own body. He lost his life, but saved hers.

Thai commercial on giving

Sure, it's about giving. But it covers a lot of other topics too. To say more would be a spoiler. A touching commercial (with English subtitles) from a Thai telecomm conglomerate.

Extreme Hospitality

A few weeks ago we met up with Jeff Singfiel, an international worker my wife met during her trip to Kosovo and he shared an amazing story. In Albanian culture, one of the primary values is hospitality; you take responsibility for the protection and shelter of anyone who comes under your roof.

A truck driver knew this. While driving his rig one day, he accidentally hit and killed a boy. A crowd quickly gathered and they were in no mood to wait for police to show up. When it became clear that his life was in danger, the driver fled into the closest house he could find and the woman of the house quickly closed the door to protect the driver from the mob. She turned out to be the mother of the boy the driver had hit.

We may gasp in amazement but may we also remember that God not only protects, but forgives us -- even though our sins killed His Son on a cross.

What is the Place of Belief?

T. M. Luhrmann's op-ed, Belief is the Least Part of Faith strikes me as an example of an outsider looking it. There may not be much illustration value in her short article, but it's worth the glimpse it gives of evangelical faith from a sociological worldview. I imagine her book gives an eye-opening account of church culture but I'll have to wait till it hits the public library shelf to find out.

The Life of Pi

Pi adopts a deeply syncretistic faith, merging parts of Hinduism, Islam and Christianity, but he does make an interesting comment on agnosticism:

To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation.

The Life of Pi,  p. 28

It's OK to ask in prayer.

Ever hear someone downplay making requests in prayer because communion with God in prayer is enough? (A few contemporary worship songs come to mind.) Here's an interesting perspective, seasoned with humor, from an interview with Paul Miller, author of A Praying Life (NavPress), in By Faith (Q1:13). By Faith is a periodical from the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA).

The lingering influence of pietism in the evangelical church has tended to separate [asking and abiding.] Abiding has been seen as this almost mystical state that seems to hit really spiritual people. A good example of pietism is this quote from Augustine: "Ask nothing of God, but God Himself."

What's good about this? Augustine is putting God first. God Himself -- His love, His presence -- is His best gift to us.

What's bad about this? Augustine is disconnected from how love, God, and life work. Let me explain. Imagine a marriage where the husband really loves his wife. He is his wife's best earthly gift. I'm not being cynical. I really do see that in many strong marriage. Now imagine if the husband told his wife, "Honey, I don't want you to ask me for anything, because I'm your best gift." When I say this at our seminars, everyone laughs. They laugh because it is so disconnected from life. You can't separate being (the husband is his wife's best gift) from doing (what he does for her). That is, he shows his love to his wife by the many things he does for her -- how he listens, how he follows through, how he leads her.

Augustine's Neoplatonism tends to feed that separation from reality. In the Old Testament, God is not known abstractly; He is known through His mighty deeds, what He does -- like a good husband. Part of what we are doing is helping the church shed the abstractions of the Greek mind, returning the church to its holistic, Jewish roots.

Prayer Cards

This is a suggestion for how to pray for people from an interview with Paul Miller, author of A Praying Life (NavPress), in By Faith (Q1:13). By Faith is a periodical from the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA).

Miller has a card for each member of his family (wife, children, grandchildren). He writes a Scripture on the card and prays that Scripture for each person or need. He says,

It works so much better than a list because you are able to track the stories that God weaves. It makes praying richer because you are praying for a whole life  in a thoughtful way. So you think and pray. You think about what you want God to do in another person's life.

 To me, it sounds like a list on a different type of paper, but I've yet to try it. It does sound like it would focus prayer more than a list would.

Prayer as Desperation Quote

From an interview with Paul Miller, author of A Praying Life (NavPress), in By Faith (Q1:13). By Faith is a periodical from the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA).

In the gospel, because of Jesus' death for us, we are accepted by grace. The only thing we bring to the table is our helplessness. In fact, if we try to bring our goodness, the gospel doesn't work. Prayer works the same way. Jesus tells us to come helpless, "weary and heavy laden." So prayer isn't a discipline but learned desperation. It's not so much a mountain to climb as a valley to fall into. That's something I can do.

What Blessings of Atheism?

On January 5, 2012 in the NY Times there was an opinion piece called "The Blessings of Atheism." In a nutshell, the writer explains the origin of his atheism and calls for atheists to be more active in representing themselves.

Among the problems I have with his position is the idea that, since we can't explain why God would "do that [bad thing]," there must not be a God. First, I'm not willing to blame God for polio, the Newtown shootings, or my bout with cancer. Biblical teaching gives alternate explanations that make sense to me. Second, even if I did lay the blame with God and His reasons, I don't understand why I should think that God should be fully understood and comprehended by me. God, even by the definition of most non-Christian religions, is infinite. His wisdom is as well. Why should I think that I, as a finite person, should be able to comprehend His reasons in every case?

I appreciate that the writer does not want "to deny religious believers the comfort of their faith" but wants his "fellow citizens to respect our deeply held conviction that the absence of an afterlife lends a greater, not a lesser, moral importance to our actions on earth." But without the standard of an infinitely good/moral/holy God, what is there to base moral good on? It reminds me of the old C. S. Lewis quip from Mere Christianity about the woman who doesn't care if there's a shortage of bread because she only eats toast.

While the article may not be useful as an illustration, it does reflect where many people are in their thinking when it comes to tragedy. 

Prayer & the Will to Live

A friend's daughter has been blogging about her first year of service as a nurse at a mission hospital in Africa. Her November 1 post tells the story of a patient who wanted to die after being diagnosed with HIV. Read the story of how the African nursing students at the hospital prayed for her and what happened.

Anne Mahlum & Back on My Feet

This story dates back to 2007 when Anne Mahlum founded Back on My Feet in Philadelphia, but I saw it highlighted recently on a network news program. A runner since she was 16, Anne developed a rapport with some of the people at a homeless shelter she ran past every morning. After a while, she thought,

Why am I just running past them and leaving them there? Maybe running could make these guys feel as good as it makes me feel."

She lined up some donations for running shoes and founded Philly's first homeless running club. Since then it has expanded to eight other cities and includes a Next Steps program to help those who maintain 90% attendance running receive education, job training and financial assistance to help them find jobs and permanent housing. More than 600 program participants have found jobs and more than 400 have found housing since 2008.

This is an illustration of how something you enjoy can grow into something that can change lives. In addition, this brief bio of Anne explains that her running began as a reaction to problems at home. The story can also be used to illustrate how problems can have positive outcomes.

This is a Good Thing

There are so many places where we're told that even bad things are not all bad because God is in control. Genesis 50:20, Proverbs 16:4, Isaiah 57:1, Romans 8:28 are a few examples.

I heard this story in church this morning. It sounds like one that probably has been around for a while and is more than likely apocryphal, but it makes the point.

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Quite a long time ago, a prince grew up with a servant assigned to him and the two became close friends. The servant had the unusual habit of saying, "This is a good thing" about everything that happened. The prince got used to hearing the phrase and never really thought much about it.

Eventually the prince grew older and became king. He was an avid hunter and always took his servant with him on the hunting trips. The servant's job in the field was to load the king's rifle and take care of any game the king shot. On one trip, the servant loaded the gun incorrectly and when the king fired it, the breech exploded and the king lost his thumb. His servant said, "This is a good thing." The king, as you might imagine, did not share his feeling. Angry and upset, he blamed his childhood friend and threw the servant in prison.

About a year later, the king had learned to compensate somewhat for the missing thumb and was on another hunting trip. This trip was near an area inhabited by hostile cannibals. He was captured and taken to their village. They began to make preparations to kill him until one of them noticed the missing thumb. In that culture it was considered unlucky to eat anyone who was missing a body part. They released their captive unharmed.

The king had a lot to think about on the trip home. The first thing he did on his return was to release his servant and apologize to him. "If you hadn't misloaded the gun, I would not have lost my thumb and I would be dead. You were right. It was a good thing that happened. I'm sorry I put you in prison."

His servant answered, "No, that too was a good thing. If you hadn't put me in jail, I would have been with you."

Bless Those Who Curse You

There has been much in the news about the less-than-cordial relationship between the United States and Iran. Here's a NY Times article about 13 Iranian fishermen who were held hostage by Somali pirates and freed by the US Navy.

For Iranians Waylaid by Pirates, U.S. to the Rescue

Boldly Go Where... or maybe not

[published in Readers Digest (Asia version), January 2008]

Number of long-lasting marriages in U.S. has risen, Census Bureau reports - The Washington Post

Don't have time to comment on this one today. The title pretty much sums up the encouraging news.

Number of long-lasting marriages in U.S. has risen, Census Bureau reports - The Washington Post