Tag: Free Methodist

Posted in Different Scriptures, Uncategorized

He “lives”?

Posted on by Wick

“..songs affect what we think because of repetition – singing the same songs over a period of years embeds the message; and when music is added to the text, an emotional element is introduced that causes greater attachment to the message of the song.” (Constance Cherry, The Worship Architect, 2010)helives

The above statement carries all sorts of implications for the music we listen to, the music we encourage our kids to listen to, etc.  But here we are asking about the words that shape our theology and faith over time.  Modern songs get a pretty hefty (and often deserved) criticism at times for their vague or shallow theology.  But there are plenty of songs (I’m looking at you, “I’ll Fly Away”) that we love to sing, that we should also be careful to examine/balance with Biblical teaching/awareness.

Today I’m asking us to re-examine the words of a song most of us probably sang over the weekend.  “He Lives” (#220 if you’d rather not use the screen), is a classic hymn with some great reminders in it.  “I serve a risen Savior, He’s in the world today.”  What a hope-filled offer for us to live toward!  But on further review of the entire song, there’s something significant missing from it: a resurrected Jesus.

Let’s pretend you don’t have it memorized for a moment, and examine the chorus:

He lives, He lives, Christ Jesus lives today,
He walks with me and talks with me along life’s narrow way.
He lives, He lives, salvation to impart!
You ask me how I know He lives?
He lives within my heart.

Yes! Amen.  I love it.  I sing it loudly, and I even hold out the final “LIIIIIIIIVES” until the lack of breath begins to turn my lungs inside out.  Yet the Jesus in this song is not the physically resurrected Jesus we celebrate visiting His disciples and revealing His scars.  I’m not saying Jesus couldn’t visit us physically, either recognizably or hiding his identity (both are seen in post-resurrection accounts).  But I’m saying when most of us sing this chorus (and the rest of the song), we’re probably actually referring to the SPIRIT of Jesus at best…and the idea of Jesus at worst.

Yes, I believe the “presence” of Jesus we have been given through the Holy Spirit, and a God who is omnipresent/immanuel is “God With Us”.   That means so much of the song still rings true.  But if we lift this song up as our primary “Easter Song”, we can miss something vital to our faith:

We believe Jesus was physically resurrected ahead of all things.  That all humanity who have died or will die, continue to wait for a full and coming revealing of God’s fullness at which point we will all share in the same physical and bodily resurrection.

He does not “walk with me and talk with me” the same way He walked and talked with the disciples who saw him after the resurrection. Why? Because he has physically gone to be with the Father, to a location many simply refer to as “Paradise” (using Luke 23:43).  A place where it seems both non-resurrected beings (like the thief), and resurrected beings (only Jesus, for now) can be together in God’s presence as we await the final return of Jesus.

The promise and hope of the resurrection isn’t that Jesus has returned spiritually to “be in our hearts”, and help us not feel lonely along the paths we walk.  That’s one of the blessings of the encourager He has given us (Holy Spirit).  But the promise and hope we receive as we celebrate the resurrected Jesus are found in 1 Corinthians 15 (take a moment to read it!).  In Jesus we see the “first fruits” of all New Creation, and an example of what God has in store for all of us – our loved ones, and creation itself!

This is a foundational truth, and one of the greatest things we can clarify to a world that assumes we all think Jesus is a spiritual being hiding in our hearts that helps us to be “good behaving people”.  The Holy Spirit can help transform our hearts and minds, and the grace of God is actively moving to heal/restore the image of our Loving God He intended in creation.   But we believe there is much more to celebrate in Jesus, and much more hope for the embodied lives we live today.  These physical bodies (and this physical world) are tied deeply to the New Creation we believe will exist fully someday.  So caring for others, for creation, and for ourselves happens in fully embodied ways.  There are so many things still to say here, but plenty have already said them.  I just wanted to throw out a quick reminder.

For more on this, check out: Surprised by Hope by NT Wright, Salvation Means Creation Healed by Howard Snyder, and Earthen Vessels Matthew Anderson

Posted in Different Thoughts, Uncategorized

May I have your attention, please?

Posted on by Wick

I’ve been reading The Attention Merchants for fun between classes, & as everyone is posting “New Years’ Thoughts/Resolutions”, I thought this was an important time to share the surprising insight from the author…

“If we think of attention as a resource or even a kind of currency, we must allow that it is always, necessarily, being ‘spent’. There is no saving it for later.” (pg.20)wesley.apple

“(speaking of developments in political advertising) With its combination of moral injunctions as well as daily and weekly rituals, organized religion had long taken human attention as its essential substrate.  This is especially true of monotheisms, whose demands for a strict adherence to the one true God naturally promote an ideal of undivided attention.  Among early Christians, for example, total attention to God implied ceaseless prayer.  The early Church father Clement of Alexandria wrote of the “Perfect Christian” as one who “prays throughout his entire life, endeavoring by prayer to have fellowship with God.” Likewise the desert monastics of the fourth century took as their aim “to maintain there as near as possible a ceaseless vigil of prayer, punctuated only by the minimal interruption for food and sleep.”

“Such an aspiration to monopolize the attention of believers was hardly abandoned after Christianity’s early days.  Some 1700 years later, John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, prescribed various means for keeping the mind attuned to God, such as the practice of thinking of him immediately upon waking, right before falling asleep, for at least an hour during the day, and before taking any important action.  (This discipline shares some similarity with the Jewish practice of offering brachot, or blessings, at various routine moments, such as before eating or drinking, or more exceptional ones, as when thunder is heard, among other practices codified in the Mishnah in the third century CE.)”

“To be sure, it isn’t as if before the twentieth century everyone was walking around thinking of God all the time.  Nevertheless, the Church was the one institution whose mission depended on galvanizing attention; and through its daily and weekly offices, as well as its sometimes central role in education, that is exactly what it managed to do.  At the dawn of the attention industries, then, religion was still, in a very real sense, the incumbent operation, the only large-scale human endeavor designed to capture attention and use it.  But over the twentieth century, organized religion, which had weathered the doubts raised by the Enlightenment, would prove vulnerable to other claims on and uses for attention.  Despite the promise of eternal life, faith in the West declined and has continued to do so, never faster than in the twenty-first century.  Offering new consolations and strange gods of their own, the commercial rivals for human attention must surely figure into this decline.  Attention, after all, is ultimately a zero-sum game.” (Pgs.26-27, The Attention Merchants, Tim Wu)

Translation?  The things we purchase, and technology/apps we use may be affordable or even free, but there is always a cost involved.  When that cost involves our attention during moments previously available to contemplation, quiet, prayer, & offering ourselves to discover the needs/desires/joys/pains of God & others – we may benefit from asking if we can/should really afford the price.

Question for conversation: Is it more redemptive to abstain from creating/posting content – helping spread subversive critique on consumption of social media, or to sparingly & creatively post content that points those who consume toward the Love and Truths of God?   How have you seen either – done well?

In any case – may we be people who invite our children & young people to think about these things.  May this be a year where we realize there are always prices unlisted.  May we seek redemptive ways to interact, create, and live together.  May we not be defined purely as amused consumers, or anxious responders, but discover new ways to offer Faith, Hope & Love creatively as New Creations ourselves…

 

Posted in Spoken Word, Uncategorized

FMYC 2017

Posted on by Wick

FMYC

Relentless

Improbable, unstoppable, and unable to be contained

Not looking to be explained away by simple answers, the chance for

Us to escape is not that great, because our fate has been decided no matter how hard we may fight it.

We are His, Beloved.

 

And I don’t mean to rub it in but some things are urgent to understand.

Like when a man lights a fire to a chair,

when life isn’t fair and all the things that could go wrong seem they do,

When you have spent your last dollar, last moment, last emotional drop of what you could summon,

And nothing’s coming to prove it was all worth while, so you try to smile because the world tells you

That’s what we mean by strength.

 

But the length that you’ve been stretched to, a wretch too focused on exterior to really notice.

You’re imprisoned, and the risen Savior wants to set you free.  Relentlessly.

The

Spirit of Adoption – not an option for identity crisis, so receive this in a way that forms your soul – you don’t need to have control.  Salvation comes as release and freedom, crashing through

The false boundaries of before, when we were too poor and unsure the pure grace of God we find as Jesus comes near, because fear doesn’t deserve to tell your story – the more you and I realize the glory so close at hand, set free from all demands – we’re empowered to take a stand.

In a land of those who feel unworthy, for only thirty bucks a month you change a life for generations

And nations are transformed by love of God – revealed in those who’ve made a new decision to join His mission.  One that envisions the Kingdom coming near, and not all of us getting out of here.

Because our eyes have seen a great light, reflected in smaller sources – courses not yet set in stone – still time to own as we’ve shone bright – no matter how dark the night, we know that death has no power over New Creation Life.

For this, some good advice is: to shut off our devices, as they flood us with news, refuse to get stuck buffering – too many are losing a sensitivity to the causes of suffering.  So take action, be filled with compassion, cause love is not Rationed out for grand moments of global mission – but also for those currently in your daily vision. We realize that getting “into the Kingdom” is less about Jesus as a key that unlocks a gate, and more like Jesus is a Love who has already conquered hate

And when you Love like this, you’re not holding a ticket punched for heaven, but leavening dough here and now, from the west out to the east, a bread of life for a table set to feast.  Proclaiming and partaking, by simply taking time to sit by those who are lonely, because if you only want to be close to Jesus – you draw near to those His heart breaks for – and aches for them to know they are dear.

It’s clear we’re sometimes too focused on all the ways He Frees US – but when you don’t see those who are suffering – you don’t see Jesus.

But Mercy is Multiplied as the gospel arrives and thrives in the lives of those wearing masks – not another task on a stack piled high but a child of God unable to deny He’s a good Father – He did not cause your pain, but holds you through it.  And if you want it redeemed only he can do it.

But be prepared beyond the shouts, because doubts will begin to assail, asking what about when we fail?  What about when rooster crows, and Jesus knows every time but never excuses Himself from the table.  He’s able to forgive, and give new invitation, a declaration of value, of Beloved.  And asking – Do you Love me?

Then do not abandon your calling.  Stop stalling and falling through the cracks, when temptation slaps the chord, you cannot afford to fear, but hear it clear – Will you follow me?

Not only follow but set an example – be a sample – of how it looks when Kingdom takes

over,

As YOU lead, and intercede in what it looks like to bleed for the cause of loving others.

The sisters and brothers you once overlooked, recipes of a kingdom feast now cooked and set to table.

Cause you’re able and empowered for more, the curtain tore so we could explore all the gifts of Spirit – so come near it – and while you’re at it, bring a friend, ensure His transforming Love will not just be a trend but flow without end – by prayer and the Word – no longer blurred as you serve in ways only you’ve been wired.  And rewired as Creation is made New, that means you – all the way through.

We find you’ve done more than just joined the movement as apprentice.

You’ve been transformed and called Beloved by a God who remains Relentless…