replies: jesus vs. the moral majority (and other sinking ships)

Alex From Montreal asked some great questions in the comments section of a recent post. I’d like to answer some of them more fully, and hopefully continue to round out the idea of Christians as a people who see Christ as Lord of everything.

Us Vs. Them
First, as I briefly mentioned in my reply in the comments, we must always remember that we are proclaiming the lordship of Christ, and not an ideological nuance, a politician, or even a certain moral agenda. Proclamation of morality says, “The world is wrong because of your [corporate greed, abortion, injustice].” Proclamation of Christ says, “The world is saved because of Christ’s [generosity, life, justice].” Proclamation of morality says “Mankind has no hope unless your [corporate greed, abortion, injustice] is stopped.” Proclamation of Christ says “Mankind has no hope unless Christ’s [generosity, life, justice] is found.” In this way, the Christian witness transcends politics and apathy.

Us Vs. Us
Second, it is my sincere belief that every Christian is called to continually proclaim of the kingship of Jesus. This constant shining of God’s glory is buried deep in the essence of what it means to be God’s people in the earth (see Matt 5:15-16 or Eph 1:23, for instance). And this calling doesn’t exist in a vacuum — biblically, men and women who truly understand God’s wonderful nature through Christ will naturally desire to see how He is the fulfillment of every desire, the answer to every problem on the earth (I look to verses like Rom 12:1-2; Psa 42:1-2; 73:24-25 for this). As G.K. Chesterton famously said, “If Christianity should happen to be true — then defending it may mean talking about everything.” So being a Christian and being a proclaimer of Christ-over-all are really one and the same thing.

I mention this not to be nit-picky, but rather because it is quite tempting in our 21st century context to talk about our spokespeople and their responsibilities. I would rather we talk about ourselves as speaking people and our responsibilities. So the real question we must ask is, “What are the everyday circumstances that God has placed me in so that I can live and speak in such a way that lifts up Christ?”

Them Vs. Us
Finally, a thought on sound bites: We will not win the sound bite war. The ship of societally normative Christianity is sinking in the west — focusing on our sound bites is bailing water with a dixie cup.

The true antidote to public slander is the humility of Christ. In 50 years Christianity will not have a new name in the world if it advances its repartee. It will have a new name if it sacrifices itself in love for the world to bring fame to Christ.

I don’t know about you, but for me that gives me tremendous hope. Because who really wants to have to babysit Mike Doria?

cancer cells & carbonite

We have now 100% confirmed type 1A lymphocyte-predominant Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. This is fantastic news: normal cancer can travel through your body through all kinds of pesky cancer transporter beams, but lymphocyte-predominant Hodgkin’s Lymphoma has to progress sequentially down the Oregon Trail of your Lymph Node system. That makes it containable and predictable. Which is good.

In addition, all tests have come back negative for any further traces of cancer. Which is also good. Very good.

The upshot of all of this is that treatment will be drastically abbreviated, localized, and will consist of radiation only. The aim of this treatment will be to nuke any stray cells that are currently at risk for going renegade. It’s hard to imagine a more favorable scenario, other than the doctors stepping out of a time machine letting us know that they’ve reviewed my medical records from 2059 and found no traces of the stuff.

We started today with a planning session. As part of this session, the radiology department makes a pillow shaped that hardens exactly to the shape of your head in under five minutes (!!!). Why are the big pharmaceuticals spending all of that money looking for cures when they could be marketing “Your Best Pillow Now”?

Then the radiologists told me that they’d need to do something to keep me absolutely still while they shot the radiation at me.

“What do you mean?” I asked, backing up unsteadily (they were inching forward with a very strange look in their eyes). All of the sudden, the floor opened beneath me, and I feel dozens of feet as a pillar of hot steam erupted out of nowhere. The last thing I remember was one of their mocking voices quietly saying “All too easy…” or something like that.

Treatment begins on 3/10 and runs daily for three weeks. It is obvious to us and everyone around us that we are wrapped up tight in the gracious providence of our loving Creator. Your prayers are and will continue to be deeply appreciated.

people and purpose: heroes trapped in apathy

As the practical implications of a worldview without purpose come to bear on everyday society, the ever-salient, holistic gospel of God’s glory that makes all things new in Christ must be proclaimed and lived in His body, the church.

places: get baptized under giant, scowling head

Crown Fountain at Millennium Park is just one of the many freaky cool places where Chicagoans can take refuge during Chicago’s hotter months. Yeah, yeah, I know standing there gawking at it probably brands me a tourist. Maybe it might seem less cool when we’ve been in Chicago for 20 years. Maybe. I doubt it.

missionaries: public or private?

The good news of the gospel has relevance for every aspect of society, but western culture would confine it to the private sphere. Arguably, Christians in America have spent too much time making political war on this aspect of western culture instead of laboring to proclaim the beauty, glory and reign of God which redeems all aspects of all cultures. Gospel missionaries must be ready to boldly proclaim the supremacy of Christ over every system of thought, even those that claim to be intrinsically objective.

people and purpose: 10 things they hate about you

Pastor Aaron shares some statistics that show what younger generations think of Christianity, and how this perception is a far cry from the historical witness of the church. Note: Many of these statistics come from this relatively new book.

radioactive man

Over the past week I have been undergoing a series of tests which will help us stage my Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. These have ranged from an extraction of bone marrow from my pelvis (”You would feel like your midsection is being crushed, but instead you’ll be asleep”), a CT scan (”This chalk is actually drinkable. And you need to drink all of it”), and a PET scan (”Your arms may fall off in this tube, but it’s better than having cancer”). Tonight I find myself in the curious position of being too radioactive to hold my 3-month-old son.

The Oncology clinic we are working with has been incredible. They are working rapidly to get the testing and treatment underway. While I was getting the bone marrow scan, the nurse learned that we were Christians. She looked both ways and leaned over conspiratorially to inform us that our doctor, a non-Christian has seen several serious cancers being inexplicably healed. “So pray for him!” she whispered fiercely.

The initial test results look favorable, but we won’t know anything conclusively until Tuesday. In the meantime, we have been stunned to see the extent to which the fame of Christ can spread through difficult circumstances such as these. I personally am continually in situations where a reason for my hope has to be explained. It is a fantastic place to be.

We know that there is an army praying for us (which most likely includes all of you reading this post) and are deeply thankful. The peace and happiness we find in Christ conquers our hearts in new ways every day. His goodness to us knows no bounds (and that’s not just the drugs talking).

keep it secret, keep it safe

We’ve been talking quite a bit about the assumed boundary between the private sphere of religion and morality, and the public sphere of consensus facts. All beliefs in the private sphere can be tolerated so long as they remain in the domain of the private sphere. This article in Newsweek illustrates this issue perfectly. The article presumably is about an agnostic/atheist type coming to the realization that her fundie sister ain’t all that bad. But pay special attention to the final paragraph, where her sister’s admirable qualities are finally outlined:

• “we don’t see eye to eye on religion, it’s nice to know that she still calls me for advice about the practical things” (private=religion vs. public=practical)
• “When it comes to faith, she’s private and doesn’t preach…for her, religion is a personal thing”
• “I greatly respect her for having such a strong faith in something” (italics hers)
• “I wish I could believe so fervently in anything so abstract” (here again, religion remains in the ether)

More video on this subject to come.

missionaries: coming or going?

Whose job is the proclamation of the good news? Who gets to tell the world about Christ’s rescue of humanity? Who is ideally suited for it? As many retreat from culture we must re-examine the Biblical answer to these questions.

people and purpose: the gospel story is my story

The people of God live, think, feel and speak the gospel. Their lives have a natural direction and purpose as they embody the good news of Christ to all creation. Here Pastor Aaron talks about our purpose as the royalty in God’s kingdom. This is the first in a series of bite-sized videos taken from a longer talk on this subject.