Submission

My brother wrote the following on his blog. (Yeah, he has a good idea every now and then.)

I read a great chapter in a 1961 book entitled, "The Theology of the Christian Mission". The chapter was written by Johannes Blauw, who I'm pretty sure was a Dutch guy. With reference to God's rejection of Saul as Israel's king, he notes,

"The declaration of Samuel (15:23) is important: 'For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.' Saul did not refuse to serve God (verse 20), but he did refuse to serve God in the way that the prophet of God had showed to him. Serving God in your own way is serving God for your own purposes, and that is the same as the original sin".

As someone who has "served God" vocationally in full-time roles for about 20 years, I was sharply rebuked by these words. It's one thing to choose to serve God, but HOW we serve God is another thing entirely. I've always had my own ideas on how I would serve God and when circumstances messed with my ideas I would and still do become angry. Why have I thought that I get to choose how I will serve God? Would any of the OT prophets have chosen to become fools for God if they had any say in the matter? (poor Ezekiel)

In one of his books Eugene Peterson talks about how God often puts us in places for what it will do to, or, for us. God often puts us in difficult circumstances to shape us into who he wants us to be. When we rebel against that we lose the opportunity to grow.

I think I just lightened the burden of Mr. Blauw's warning but I think it is true nonetheless. It is sin AND it causes us to miss out on something.

I Don't Remember Him Being So Good.

Caught the Crossroads Guitar Festival 2007 on PBS last week and the Jeff Beck set stood out.I watched more of the set, that they didn't show on tv via youtube, and I have to say it was sweet. I think he's gotten better with age. That is all.

How's Your Mandarin?

I saw on the news that Panama was going to start teaching Mandarin in their schools. Because of China's increasing economic importance they apparently felt it would give them and advantage. They are probably right.

One of the things that frustrates me in the US is the low view a lot of people have of higher education. It seems like a high percentage of people don't think it is that important or at least a waste of time. (I'll avoid my redneck rant for now.)

On the other hand, there is something about our culture that gives us the ability to use education creatively. I remember watching a television program on education around the world and they were comparing the US educational system with Japan's. They were interviewing a Japanese education expert who talked glowingly of what they had accomplished but then he added that they were still missing something they couldn't quite grasp. In spite of higher scores they still weren't winning Nobel Prizes whereas the US wins far more than their share.

I expect it to change though. I read somewhere that China will have more PhDs than the US in just a few years. They have an ambitious space program to give them focus. In short, they are laying a foundation to dominate the world in science and technology. Add to that the same going thing is going on in India and the shear numbers make it inevitable.

So how is your Mandarin? It might not be important for me but that might not be true for my kids. Their world will be very different.

Disappearing Advent

I'm not doing the Advent candles this year. I know this is a huge failure on my part. I appear to be thumbing my nose at tradition, ancient ritual, and, some would say, the Christ Child Himself. I'm supposed to like this stuff. After all, I recently abandoned our regular prayer meeting on Wednesday nights in favor of Lectio Divina and I can't get enough of it. It seems like Advent would be right up my alley.

The truth is Advent as never done much for me. Before I became a pastor I kind of thought it was a waste of time during the church service. I didn't get the warm, fuzzy feelings I was supposed to. The first few years after I became a pastor I had to rush to get it ready because it starts so soon after Thanksgiving it caught me off guard. Two years in a row we had to use candles from the previous year the first week because I forgot to pick up new ones.

I finally got on top of it and was well prepared for Advent but it still didn't move me. It just seemed to be one more thing packed in to an already busy season. It didn't seem to be doing much for anyone else either so I decided to drop it this year.

No one has asked about it yet so apparently no one else is missing it...yet. I'm sure someone will remember it or at least be reminded of it by a friend who goes to a "real" church that does things right. Then I'll get asked about it.

I may go back to it in the future. I just don't know. But for this year our Advent has disappeared. (Sorry, I can't help pointing out the irony.) At least the ritual has. I am glad He did really appear though.