Discussions

I just got done emailing my final assignments for Dallas Seminary. Assuming I passed, which I completed 95% of the reading and did the other two assignments I’LL BE DONE! I am so thrilled. It feels like a million pounds just fell off my back. This thing is done! I get to go out tonight and celebrate with two other seminary friends. I went through graduation, and I even took time off from classes but now I really know what it feels like to finish and it feels GREAT. I can’t wait for what’s next. Now it is time to job hunt and make huge life decisions about ministry, vocation, job and all the other good stuff! But seriously, I am so glad to be finished doing long laborious theological excersizes but it was well worth it. I just wanted to celebrate a little bit Great day.

Well it is time for my annual Saints draft prediction blog. This is the first annual time I am doing this. I expect great results and a long lasting tradition which I will pass down to my kids, and their kids and the other kids as well. Now, lets get to the good stuff. The Saints primary need in the draft this year is depth on the defensive side of the ball. After drafting Defensive Tackle Sedrick Ellis in the first round last year I anticipate the Saints going a different direction this year. I highly doubt that they choose another defensive tackel instead I see them trying to bulk up their secondary with someone like Malcom Jenkins. The problem though with Jenkins is that he’s the sexy pick. My prediction for the Saints draft is that they trade out of their spot and pick up an extra 2nd rounder. They will then choose Clay Matthews OLB,USC. They will then choose a running back in the second round which will be Rashard Jennings SP.

The title for this blog is a bit misleading. I do not mean to imply that there is a balance between good and evil. I’m not sure anyone could ever measure such a thing and I don’t think that is the right way to think about it. There is good and evil in this world. There is no question about that. As I sit here writing this blog I look out the window and I see beautiful people doing there daily deeds as well as the kind of weather that makes you wanna lay down in green grass. So we see beauty but we also see depravity. Outside of this same window are people who struggle with anxiety, depression, hate, malice, lust, greed, envy and while the weather may be nice today, we know there are things like Tsunami’s, hurricane’s and tornados. So how do we make sense of all this? Is the world bipolar? How do we make sense of the creator and sustainer of this world? Is he happy one minute and frustrated the next? Can we walk out of the library feeling safe in a safe world or should we fear the evil that we know is along side the good?

I have struggled with this question for quite some time. I have heard many religious leaders speak of the world in a way that encourages me to walk out in confidence. Many people have presented a view of the world which is vibrant, encouraging, and positive. And I have believed that view but have felt a bit bipolar because while some of these religious leaders have painted such a positive picture of the world they have failed to address the horror. The news highlights the horror. Every time I watch the news someone stole money, murdered, or got into a bad car accident.

Then on the other hand you have the religious leaders who are always preaching that the world is going to hell in a hand basket. This is bad and that’s bad and things are only getting worse. Kids are on drugs, nobody cares about God, soceity is becoming more perverted, ect. The negative view of the world causes one to be depressed and un-hopeful, or not be able to place hope in the world we live in.

So what we get from religious leaders are conflicting messages. Some say the world is beautiful while others say it is ugly and horrible.

Today I was reading a commentary by N.T. Wright and he said something simple but quite profound. He said “But in Judaism and Christianity at least, this much is clear: the world is God’s good and lovely world, and evil is a real, powerful and horrible intruder into it.”

This is the Christian view and I think it is a helpful “balance” in understanding the beauty and depravity around us. This view also gives us hope that one day this good God will put the world to right. That means we can believe that all the good things we see are actually good and all the bad things we see are actually bad.  It also means that the bad is only an intruder and not the way things are always going to be.  Yippeee. This view also helps one to celebrate when celebration is necesary and mourn when mourning is necesary.  Rather then just putting on a smiley face all the time or a putting on a frown all the time, one can recognize that there are times for both.  No need to sit on extreme ends of the spectrum but instead live in rhythm with what is going on. Some things are evil, some people do evil things, and some things are good, and some people do really good things. No need to bat an eye.  Hope this was helpful, I know it was to me.  I sort typed this all out because I have a tendency to believe everything is good or everything is bad and so this post will be a helpful reminder to me.

Alright for the longest time I was very critical of Reggie Bush. I felt he didn’t live up to the hype and thus far he has had an injury plagued NFL career. Sure he was great at USC but the NFL, like my friend Shane says, is a “what have you done for me lately league?” or NFL = “Not For Long”. Because he hasn’t had the kind of success he or anyone else expected I began to be a naysayer. But something clicked for me today. Reggie is going to get a lot more heat because of the hype and also because he is an uncategorizable player. The best description I’ve heard for Reggie as a player came when a Fox commentator referred to him as “the matchup nightmare.”  Reggie is shifty and doesn’t hit the hole as well as a pure running back would, he dances around rather then running right through.  He isn’t a pure running back and at the same time he isn’t a pure wide-receiver.

When players and fans vote for pro-bowl players they select players from specific categories QB, RB, TE, ect.  But if  you’re a utility player like Reggie and you play 4 different positions.  The NFL’s balloting system doesn’t account for a guy like Reggie. This is a big reason why he probably won’t make the pro-bowl as many times as other players whose position is set.

This doesn’t mean they are better ALL AROUND players then him, it simply means that they are better at there given position. Reggie has never fit the mold of ONE position. He’s diversified his portfolio. He can return punts, run, catch, block, and has even been used to throw the ball, although his first ever throw was an interception. Teams don’t know whether they should cover him with a linebacker or a cornerback? He demands that kind of attention and can take the ball to the house on any given play.

Here I am about to finish seminary. Everyone wants to categorize me, conservative, liberal, Assyrian, American, silly, strict, warm, cold, selifish, giving, self-centered, other centered, confident, insecure, rich, poor, oh the list goes on and on. I don’t fit the categories soceity has for a guy like me graduating seminary. In fact I have a hard time identifying myself sometimes. So now I feel Reggie’s pain. I’ve had some tough breaks as well but I tell you what. When Reggie is 100% healed, he will be a force to be reckoned with and when I’ve got my head on straight. I will be a force to be reckoned with! Who dat!

I am reading a fictional history book called “The Lost Letters of Pergamum.” In this book Bruce Longenecker has set about painting a portrait of a make-believe correspondence between Antipas (an elite Roman citizen) and Luke (a friend of Paul, author of the Gospel of Luke). Basically the goal of the book is to look at the message of Luke in a 1st century setting. I have been intrigued by this book and decided to jot down some observations. In particular these observations are geared toward the church in the 1st century.  Keep in mind that while the novel is fiction the setting is factual.  As factual as history says.

1. The gatherers paid no attention to social codes. In the 1st century there were social norms for meals in which certain people would get certain positions at the table. For the early Christians there seems to be no discrimination. Rich or poor, male and female, all ate together. Pg. 90

2. If someone had reservations within the church about eating certain foods then that person was given the freedom to eat what they wanted. Pg. 90

3. When learning about Jesus some churches were more interested in his ability to heal while other church were more interested in the suffering nature of his ministry which ultimatly lead to martydom. Each congregation focused on the aspects of Jesus which were relavant to their situation.

4. Once someone had become apart of the fellowship their past actions were not brought up against them. Instead the focus was on their future and on the future of those who poor positions currently. Pg. 93

5. The New Testament Church was characterized by races who were generally though to dislike one another. Greeks, Romans, Jews, and Samaritans all seemed to congregate together to worship the Lord Jesus. Pg. 95

6.  The early church gathered in people’s homes.  Pg. 108

7.  The early church regularly took up offerings for the poor and disenfranchised within their community.  This would include any walk of life, from a stranger, to an orphan or even those within the congregation.  Pg. 113

8.  The people who congregated did not refer to each other as members but as brothers or sisters.  Pg. 113

9.  Because the early church met in homes people were able to dialogue about the text being read.  Pg. 124

10.  Martydom was always looming close for the early Christians.  The Roman empire had zero tolerance for its enemies.

So I’m sitting in Ecclesiastes class today listening to Dr. Gordon Johnston lecture about the meaninglessness of life. This is my second class with Dr. Johnston, last semester I had him for Hebrew 4.  Class in and class out this man continues to amaze me. I am always in awe of his ability to illuminate the text using his Hebrew language tools and mindset. One theme I have seen over and over in his teachings is “hard work”.  Hard work pays off. Today he was specifically lecturing about how there is a balance to everything that is done under the sun and that hard work has its place, as long as the work is done out of enjoyment.

I’m in my last semester of seminary and one of the questions I have been wrestling with is vocation.  What it is that I like to do and whether or not I have what it takes to do it.  One of my goals was and still is to have a preaching ministry, an excellent preaching ministry. The reason why I came to seminary was so that I could get the skills necessary to dive into the Bible and not only understand what it communicates but also to be able to communicate what it says. As time goes by I see the multi-faceted jewel that the Bible is and have come realize that I don’t have what it takes to know EVERYTHING there is to know about the Bible. But I have learned that there are general themes which run throughout (grace, redemption, love, repentance). This has given me hope.   But I have been weary of preaching for one big reason. As I research passages I see that there are seas of commentaries and there are a number of directions one can go with a given passage. Since I am a perfectionist, I find it necessary to do every little bit of research before moving forward with a given interpretation but this perfectionism has caught up with me in the pulpit. I get overwhelmed with all the different directions, nor can I study all the different directions to see which one(s) is legit. Well this all had been weighing me down and today after class I decided to ask Dr. Johnston to get something to drink at the Cafe. He kindly agreed.

As we walked to the Cafe, I happened to pass by a bunch of people that I knew.  I quickly interacted with them in passing and then waited in line.  In line I began to unload some of my apprehensions on him. We sat in the Cafe and talked for about 30 minutes and during that time he unloaded a wealth of wisdom on me. He zeroed in on some of my talents, reassured me, and gave me some tips on how to combine my talent with his. He put words to the ideas I was wrestling with and brought resolution. These aren’t his exact words but he reminded me that at the end of the day we’re all in this together and there are times where it is okay to trust someone’s opinion on a passage. He reminded me that one of his major contributions  is content while my major contribution would be communicating and facilitating enviornments for the content. That conversation lasted about 30 minutes but it covered about three years of questions. One conversation changes everything. I had a class I was suppose to attend after Ecclesiastes but I skipped it in order to talk to Dr. Johnston. Was it worth it?  I think so.

The emotions of life can be summed up in three successions. Easy-going, nervous floundering and sudden recourse. Easy-going is when you’re comfortable. Gratitude abounds. Contentment resides. Nervous floundering happens when things don’t sync up. The world you construed is a false allusion that has left you clutching your fists. So you try to grab whatever you can on the way down. Then suddenly you are surprised by sudden recourse. Before you know it you’re back on track. A Beatles song “Watchin the skirt you start to flirt, now you’re in gear.”

All three of these emotions are found in a good football game. The game starts and the team is comfortable driving in an Easy-going position. Suddenly there is a fumble, interception or a major injury. The crowd panics, momentum shifts but what happens next? Pick six, fumble recovery the other way for a touchdown and a sudden recourse! Yeah. That’s why we love football. It is an outward expression of inward emotion we endure. We all love sudden recourse. A turnover gets our team good field position and that momentum.

Teams enjoy being in Easy-going and sudden recourse mode but absolutely despise nervous floundering. Nobody likes to experience nervous floundering. In fact our first mode of thought is to flee nervous floundering. But what if nervous floundering is something we’ve got to learn to accept. We’re not always going to be on top. Things aren’t always going to sync up or be easy-going. Without death there is no resurrection? We’ve got to figure out healthy ways of making it through nervous floundering. Step one is confession. Step two is full vent. Step three is patience. Thoughts? For more info check Walter Brueggemann’s book on praying the Psalms.

Most of us have texts which dominate our lives. Even though tv shows, movies, plays, and music aren’t communicated in a written format they still send messages.  These messages are communicated in words.  Texts.  These little texts control our view of reality.  Newspapers, tv shows, fashion, cultures, The stock market is going to crash, the government is bailing out to many people, there is nothing to do this weekend, I’m behind on stuff and I’ll never catch up.  Well I think you now get the point. All of these texts dominate our lives but are these texts real?  Are they true?  I have now come to the realization the Bible is a text that reinterprets the above texts.   The Bible is a text about reality.  Now the key to good Bible study is to be aware of all the factors by which the text erupts out of.  Context is key.  You gotta know the context of the texts.   Once you know the context of the texts then you step into the real world.  When Jesus said Herod is a “fox”, he did not mean that Herod is good looking, instead he meant Herod is sly.

Anywho, lately I have been thinking about the Bible.  I have been thinking about how most people do not see it as a real book and how preachers have misused the Bible.  I know that I have always subscribed to a “high view” of Scripture but this “high view” may actually have been a lower view.  Ouch.  Rather then letting it be a book which defines reality I have tried to defend the Bible.  The Bible exists within worlds that are characterized by economic problems, dissatisfaction, personal depression, abuse, and all the horrors we fear.  But the Bible re-envisions every horror in the grand reality that is a Good God.  This doesn’t mean that we don’t experience pain or that the reality of life is not painful but it certainly gives us a different grid of how to endure through reality.  Initial thoughts.

In a poem by Amy Carmichael, the founder of the Dohnavur Fellowship in India, reads a line asking God to keep her “from fearing when I should aspire, from faltering when I should climb higher.”  Later she says “Let me not sink to be a clod:/ Make me thy fuel, Flame of God”?

These two lines highlight the tension which exists between desire and coveting.  True desire is rooted in God’s will while desire out of control is coveting.  Over the last couple of years I have been wrestling with the concept of desire. The problem I’ve been running into is the seemingly contradictory statements in scriptures about desire. For example the last of the Ten Commandments is “Do Not Covet”. Well? How can I desire something but not covet it? At what point does something cross over from being a healthy desire into  coveting?

I’ve got a few initial thoughts and since the title of this blog is “discussions” I am not going to share all my thoughts. I am willing to engage in discussion about the various topics.

Initial thoughts: Our true and deepest desires are to love and be loved. Therefore, coveting is not connected with fullfilling these desires and that is why we are not to covet. One way we may know that we’ve crossed over from desire to coveting could be measured by the amount of intensity upon the object we desire/covet. Coveting is desire out of control. Actually lust is desire out of control.

Jesus said that we should “deny himself and follow after me.”

Paul said “I’ve learned to be content with a little or a lot.”

James tells us “the reason you do not have is because you do not ask.”

Jesus also told us to “keep on knocking and the door will be opened.”