Skin and Bones

Well...I made it back from my excursion down the rabbit hole called Foo Fighters.  Good show...great time.  We were able to get pretty close to the stage...although I'm getting old!  I didn't feel like moshing it up or taking a ride...so I managed to not hurt myself.

The former lead singer of System of a Down...(I can't remember his name) was ok...surprisingly not much of a showman.  They came out in top hats and he bugged his eyes out every once and a while...but he looked 

extremely bored.  Interesting world though...you could definitely tell who was there to see him...when he was done the crowd totally changed from Goth to suburban.  You'll have to excuse my analysis...I am fascinated by the sociological elements of concerts.

  

The Foo Fighters were great...rockin...although I think Dave had a cold.  They opened with a few of the better new ones and then some standards.  Then a whole new stage dropped out of the sky and they did their acoustic set.  All in all - a pretty sweet night.  

Heaven

Last night on Nightline there was a segment on "Heaven".  They set up the segment to make us think there was some weird, crazy, new cultish idea out there concerning the afterlife.  Then the camera zoomed in on N.T. Wright, who went on to give a delightful, Biblical, and historically Christian perspective of heaven.  Wright shot down the Left Behind, escapist perspective...and emphasized that Biblical Christianity has always been about re-creation...about God restoring his reign (kingdom) here on earth.  Amen brother Wright...

Today my wife and I wondered why 12 years of Christian schooling doesn't get this point across.  She is a pure product of Christian education...grade school, high school, and college.  Why had she never heard this before?  Why is heaven portrayed as somewhere out there...some other place?  Why, at funerals, do we say "They're in a better place..."?  Is that true?  Today she wondered if she just didn't pay attention...maybe it was presented the way Wright discussed...and she just didn't listen.  We agreed that this probably wasn't the case...

I grew up thinking this way...but I grew up listening to Jerry Falwell and Jimmy Swagart on TV...It wasn't until I started reading...exploring...C.S. Lewis, Karl Barth, N.T. Wright....that my eyes were opened to the truth.  And today my wife expressed the same feeling I once did...sweet relief.  Things are more meaningful...the work we do, the relationships we enter into, actually caring for the created world.  Everything is infused with meaning...God is not abandoning this world, he is at work restoring it...reconciling it.  Death is not a ticket to a better place...it is an intrusion, a curse, not the way it's supposed to be.  A proper view of heaven gives us a proper perspective of this life...of this world...and how much God wants us to be what we 

were created to be.  We are finally allowed to grieve the brokenness...we are allowed to embrace the sorrow...only because we have hope things are being undone..."put to rights" as Wright would say.  That in the resurrection of Jesus Christ the new creation emerged from the darkness of the tomb...and this new creation - a restored creation - is where we belong.

Ralph Nader

This morning Ralph Nader kicked off his 3rd Presidential bid on Meet the Press. Here's my confession...the last two presidential elections I voted for Nader. I can hear the eyes roll already...Why, you may ask? Those much older and wiser then me usually laugh when I tell them...they have a longer history with Nader. Some think he is "out there" on some issues...some think he is an egomaniac - self absorbed - thinking more highly of himself then any person should. Fine...that may or may not be true...I don't really know. What I do know is 8 years ago I heard him on Meet the Press and I was blown away. He talked about real issues...he talked substance...he talked about things I really care about and think every Christian should care about. He talked about a living wage, about supporting small businesses in the face of corporate power, about working to ensure that abortion is no longer necessary (not just illegal), he talked about health care. I found myself agreeing with his take on the Republican / Democrat "duopoly". Bush / Gore? Was there really a choice? Bush / Kerry? McCain / Clinton? Choice? The two parties used to represent ideological differences that represented a choice...but now you could take the soundbites from one candidate and put them in the mouths of the others, and no one would notice.

I remember when Bill Clinton was elected president. My mom was worried...told me to pray for our country. But was anything really different? Did policies drastically change? Bush was the savior...and to many he still is. But what changed? I remember driving from Des Moines to Pella recently and seeing sign that said: "Vote Life. Vote Republican." Immediately I thought of the thousands of men and women who have died in Iraq and the tens of thousand Iraqis who have died...and for a moment I wanted to commit righteous vandalism. Pro Life? War? Death Penalty? Give me a break!

What attracts me to Nader are his ideas...ideas that the main candidates refuse to discuss for fear of being labeled. It's a frantic race to the middle - especially in this election. A Nader candidacy means ideas might just have a place in the election. Look - even Nader knows he will not win...but what he talked about this morning is how most social revolutions in this country's history have been instigated by third parties who forced the two major parties to engage the

issues. This is the importance of a Nader presidential bid. As a Christian concerned with issues of justice, and as someone who believes the Christian community should be pro life from

the womb to the tomb, I welcome the news of Nader's

presidential campaign. Maybe this will mean fewer soundbites, less rhetorical gymnastics, and more discussion of real issues. But this will only happen if they let him play...

www.votenader.org

Fighters of Foo

On February 28...I will partake of a favorite guilty pleasure in life. I will drive down to Council Bluffs...meet my friend from Des Moines...and proceed to rock out to the Foo Fighters. Dave Grohl...power chords...screamed lyrics...sweet humanity.

Why this attraction to the Foo Fighters? Couldn't tell you...maybe because they have a way of addressing serious issues...but don't take themselves so seriously. Their music is tight...driving...melodic - and he likes to scream. My wife can't stand the screaming...or so she says.

I've seen them once before - in Council Bluffs - about 3 years ago. Great show...

Check it out...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZR40JbiJkEY

Losing My Religion

The other day my daughter lost a little bit more of her innocence. Gone...poof...never to be recovered. That last few weeks Naomi, who is 6, has been talking about going to Disneyland. She loves the princesses...you know, Cinderella, Snow White, and Ariel. All she has talked about is going to visit them...because, she informed us, they are real! They live at Disneyland...and she wanted to visit them in the worst way. But just the other day, a well intentioned friend (who undoubtedly received a tip from older siblings) told her they were not real. They are just people dressed up. Poof...gone. At the supper table the other night she informed us of the bad news.

Now I know some would say "good riddance"! Nothing but corporate indoctrination trying to get our kids to buy Disney crap...bad examples for young girls - teaching them to wait for some prince to come and rescue the helpless woman from her circumstances. Blah, blah, blah...I get it. I'm still sad - and I know my wife is too. For with one metaphorical wave of the magic wand, a little bit of wonder, just a little bit of her imagination was lost. And that is a sad, sad, thing. It happens too quickly they way it is. We send our kids off to school to learn...and what do we get? Drained imaginations. They learn about the "real world" - that we have everything figured out. From the color of the sky, to the make up of stars, to the fact that Snow White and Ariel aren't real. And what do we gain? A lack of wonder...a lack of awe...and a mechanically boring world. We get this in religion now too. Everything must be explainable...there can be no mystery, no unknown. The Bible must be explained. Worship must be practical and easy to follow. And we wonder 

why kids would rather read Harry Potter? We wonder why children are bored...and why they become bored adults.

This is why I love G.K. Chesterton. Yes...he is feisty. I know...he really doesn't like Calvinism. But he loves magic. He loves wonder...and believes that Christianity is the last great bastion of magic and awe. In Orthodoxy, Chesteron proudly tells us he is a product of his childhood, and the greatest teacher he every had were the fairy tales. Worlds where we didn't know what would happen next...where animals talked, and magic trees produced anything but leaves. This, argues Chesterton, is the world of the Bible. Magic trees, talking donkey's, magic clothes, and walking on water...And for Chesteron this is how we should see the world. A magical place where wonderful and mysterious things happen all the time. A world of kingdoms, and Spirits...a world of princes and princesses of a great King who has come and is coming. This is what I want for my children...and I will fight like mad to preserve it. Even if it means taking my daughter to Disneyland.

Bonhoeffer and Youth Ministry

I've been using a book by Dr. Andrew Root in the Practical Issues youth ministry course I teach on Monday nights. Revisting Relational Youth Ministry is the title...wonderful book! (At least I think so...students may have another opinion) Dr. Root casts a vision of youth ministry rooted (no pun intended) in the theology of Dietrich Bonhoeffer - youth ministry as "place sharing". I won't get into everything he says...I recommend reading the book. What struck me about Root's engagement of Bonhoeffer's theology is something so simple it's profound. Entering into relationships with young people is not a tool...it's not a technique...it is not a strategy. We do not enter into relationships with young people to "lead them to Jesus"...or get them into a "personal relationship with Jesus Christ". We enter into relationships with them...for the sake of the relationship. Period.

Once we stop seeing relationships as a tool or a means of influence...we begin to see the young person as a human. A real live human being...one who is greatly influenced by their specific cultural situation, but also one who cannot be defined solely by historical and cultural circumstances. They are not projects, they are not a product, they are not a means to gauge the success or failure of our ministry. They are human beings...flesh and blood...with hopes and fears, dreams and failures. When we begin to recognize this...and enter into relationship with them in order to share their experience of the world...the incarnate Christ is present.

This speaks to a theology of presence...rooted in the God who's very name, Yahweh, revealed His presence to an enslaved people. A name which fully manifests itself in the incarantion...the Word made flesh who dewlt among us. A theology which proclaims God is for the world, for the other, and calls his people to be for the world in the same manner. A theology which leads to ministry that embraces the absurdity of the gospel - God has entered into the misery and brokeness of his people on the cross of Jesus Christ. And He calls us to do the same...to take up our cross...and enter into the suffering and misery of the world for the sake of the world. Or as Root describes - entering into the suffering and misery of young people for their sake.

No manipulation...no quick, glib, "I"ll pray for you..." or "God loves you", which so often really means "Good luck with all that...". Instead, we take the plunge. By way of the cross we enter into suffering and sorrow - we come alongside, we advocate, we share the burden. By way of the resurrection we proclaim and partcipate in new creation - new humanity - calling those we encounter to put away the old self and become who they were created to be.

For sure this isn't easy...but Jesus never said discipleship would be. But what relief! Relief from the artificial, the surfacy, the showmanship, the "big deal". Relief from the expectation that being spiritual means transcending our humanity. Relief from simplistic moralism and rigid doctrinal boundaries. Relief from fads and gimmicks...from "stuck in adolscence" youth ministers who do incredible harm to both young people and the reputation of those called to youth ministry. Could it be that this is what Jesus meant when he said "Come to me, and I will give you rest"? Maybe so...