israelhogue-blog
israel hogue
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Jesus and His Enemies
The other night I watched the #CalvinismDebate in which Brian Zahnd participated. I thought all four of the speakers were eloquent and made good points and did it while honoring those with whom they disagreed. However, the point that really stuck out in my mind was when Brian said (and I paraphrase), "God looks like Jesus. And that means that God would rather die for His enemies than kill them." That's huge. Most American Christians still treat the God of the bible as a God who is, at his core, angry, wrathful, and hell-bent on bloody justice! Most of us believe God is way up there, and we are way down here, and he's really pissed at us. Brian's depiction of God is spot on! When you see how Jesus, the God of the universe, allows himself to absorb all evil and sin into himself, so that he can be one with us...now that's a pretty amazing God. This is a picture of a God who is not wrathful, vindictive, angry and mean. It is the ultimate picture of self-sacrificing love. That means the God of our world, the God who sustains all that is...is willing, not to kill us, but to be killed for us! I'm in!
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Lights, Camera, Action... Praxis
As I told you yesterday, I went to the Praxis Conference in Tulsa last weekend.
It was a soul changing moment for me.
Today I want to reflect on something that Stephen Proctor said when he was describing the state of the evangelical church in America.
He said, "We have given them 'Lights! Camera! and Action!' instead of Father, Son and Holy Spirit."
Mercy!
That hit me so hard.
I mean, thats so true! The church has traded in the actual things that Jesus himself and the early church fathers instructed us to do...things the church held as a vital part of our tradition for over a thousand years, do become more like the culture.
I heard a pastor say the other day, "In an effort to influence the world, we became like the world."
I believe that's right.
There are many reasons why this has happened, and I really do not have the time to go into all of it here.
But I will share one observation.
I sense there is a restlessness within the American church. There has been a desire among many evangelical, Protestant leaders to "recover" true Christianity (whatever that means). Many pastors are desperately trying to find the roots of the church and are trying to be more faithful to the history and to the scriptures. I think ALL of that is good! It is needed! However, for some reason, many of my evangelical friends have not gone back far enough!
Many leaders are stopping at the Reformation in the 1500's for the birthplace of the church. So, while there is a hunger to 'go back,' I would submit we need to go back further!
The Reformation was a good thing in many ways, but it also created a lot of hatred toward the ancient church. And when followers of Luther and Calvin and others, took up their mantle we divorced ourselves from our history.
Now, in the 2000's the American church is feeling just how anemic and impotent we are. And there is a "resurgence" in american churches. But our starting point is flawed. The church did not start with Luther and the reformers...it started with Christ!
There is a rich history to the church. And if we do not go back a lot further than 1500 we will never be satisfied. And our churches will always feel like they lack something, and we will settle to give the culture what it wants - "Lights! Camera! Action!" instead of what it desperately needs, "Father, Son, Holy Spirit!"
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The Praxis Conference was this past weekend in Tulsa, hosted by my mother church, sanctuary Tulsa. I'm not crazy enough to think a lot of people will read this, but I'm going to have several oats dedicated to some of the most important things that God said to me during that time. Why? Because I felt like my soul was on holy ground. Because 3 days later I can't talk to anyone about it without my eyes filling with tears. Because I know if I don't write it down now, I might forget. And I don't want to forget. In fact, that's where I want to start...forgetting. My pastor, Ed Gungor, said something this weekend that made perfect since to me. He talked about when a person loses their memory they lose their identity. He explained how we all can see this in Alzheimer's patients. We recognize the sadness of that disease because the person loses themselves once they begin to lose their memory. What makes us, uniquely us, is our history, our past, our memory. He then said this, "The church in America has chosen to be an Alzheimer's church." No one would chose Alzheimer's or dimentia! Right? But that's what the church in America has done (especially the Protestant, evangelical church). We know there's a large history out there. We know the story is much bigger. We intuitively understand that the narrative is deeper and richer that the 200-500 years we talk about (if that much). I lead a wonderful, tiny, and beautifully, messy church called sanctuary in OKC. And We DON'T want to lose our identity. I don't want to chose to be an Alzheimer's church. There are many wonderful traditions in the Church (One, holy, apostolic, Catholic, Orthodox Church) that we want to embrace- Creeds, confession, baptism, prayers, church calendar, and Eucharist- to name a few. Praxis helped my soul repair and set me on a course where I want to keep doing the ancient practices in my little congregation so, as we embrace the mystery of these practices, the life of God and the communion of the saints will form our lives. So...there you go. Don't forget!
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Christians, the Bible and Gays.
Some quick thoughts about Christians and Gays. It seems that most of the American churches and Christians have a very deep and serious theology when it comes to their stance on LGBTQ issues. They say the bible is very clear on such matters. So, I did my very own, non-scientific research and I found something quite interesting. The bible (I used the NIV, but virtually every translation will be the same) only mentions same-sex interactions 4-6 times...that includes old and new testaments. The bible always speaks of same-sex relationships referring to men, not women. Therefore the bible, LITERALLY, never speaks to or mentions lesbian relationships. For something that was barely mentioned in the bible, we sure do hear a lot of time and sermons dedicated to it. That got me thinking...what about other relational and personal issues we struggle with in our daily lives? Does the bible say anything about those? Here's my non-scientific findings... The NIV version of the bible mentions... Divorce 32 times, Divorced 9 times, Adultery 45 times, Prostitute 74 times, Greed 25 times, Pride 63 times, False witness (lying) 14 times, Anger 268 times. I'm not a mathematician, but all these are mentioned way more than 4-6. Right?
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Praxis Conference
I have the opportunity to be a part of a conference in Tulsa in June. Please read this and I hope you can be a part of it too. Many of the ancient practices that were done in church and especially in the more liturgical churches have been lost to most of the Protestant, reformed, evangelical churches. There was such a reaction to the Catholic Church abuses of the 1500's that reformed churches through out anything that looked like Catholicism. Many evangelical churches today, however, are starting to wonder if we have thrown too much out. Praxis is about exploring these ancient practices and reintroducing them into our communities. We believe things such as creeds, communal prayers, communion, foot washing, singing the doxology, and reciting the Lord's Prayer among other things are vital practices that bring healing and power into the life of the church and individual believers. My talk will be about how I was broken and messed up and how doing the liturgical practices at sanctuary every single week actually repaired and restored my soul. It was specifically during communion each week that I could feel the sprit of God forgive me and help me forgive others. It was the table of The Lord that put me back together. And that's what I'll be sharing at the conference. The website for praxis is praxisconference.com
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God-lovers & Tree-huggers
Earth Day was yesterday. I grew up in a particular stream of non-denominational evangelicalism that encouraged believers to "take dominion" over all the earth...because that is what God wants. Now, that may be true, in a sense, but how it manifested was something I am not too proud of. For too many Christians, we grow up believing that "taking dominion" and "subduing the earth" is a license to be earth rapers and not earth lovers. Many evangelicals, especially those of us in America, are narcissistic in the way we "live out" our faith. It seems we feel we have the right, maybe even the God-given mandate to use the earth any way we see fit. To use up the natural resources around us with no regard to how it effects the larger Eco-system. After all, it belongs to God, therefore it belongs to us! Therefore, if God is in us, then what we want to do with the earth is Godly. Right? Wrong! I fear, we have used the "subdue" and "dominion" ideas to a terrible and destructive end. And it's not just the earth. Many Christians are treating ALL of God's creatures with disrespect. We use others for our own, selfish ends. We use the earth, the animals, and other human beings to satisfy our wants and lusts. We rape the seas and forests, and we rape women and children. Why? Because we think we can. We feel like anything that is on this planet is here to make me feel good. And sadly, the subtle "take dominion" teaching is not helping. As God-lovers, we should be tree-huggers! I know that simplifies it, but I think it captures my thoughts here. I want to ask myself, how would God care for his creation? How would God nourish a garden? A forest? A lake? A meadow? I want to know how God would watch over the birds, the buffalo, the horses and cats and dogs? And how would God treat that woman, child, man? See, I suspect that if we asked ourselves these questions before any interaction with one of those things, we might treat those things quite differently. But I'm not stupid enough to think we will all ask ourselves those questions.
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A Prayer of Lament
Giving a voice to your pain is what lament is all about. There are two basic kinds of lament found in the psalms.the first is corporate lament, the second is personal. Corporate lament says, "God, how can you let our nation fall a part? How can you leave your people? Why are you not protecting us? Loving us? Delivering us?" Personal lament cries out, "God! Where are you? Why did my child die? Why was I fired? Why did my marriage fail? Why is my kid on drugs? And you have done nothing! Why God? Why!?" Most of us are scared of speaking this way to God. While most of us have felt this way, or quietly questioned God, we dare not say it! But I believe we need to give a voice to this anger. Once I've given it a voice, then I can start dealing with it and move on. So, here is a prayer of lament. I hope you will connect with your heart and your pain, so Jesus can bring new life, resurrection, to your life. Grace and peace to you. A Prayer of Lament: Help me God Help me O God. During my hardships and trials why have you done this to me? Why will you not help me? What have I done wrong to you? Is it what I had said? Is it what I have done? Will you not come and help me through? Answer me Lord! When I raise my head you are there. When I pray to you, there you are always. But why not now? Why not when I need you most? Where is your promise of deliverence Lord? Is it because I doubt you? Help me Lord! Make my heart trust you! Clense my soul with a deeper clean then untouched snow. Make my walk with you closer than the strongest magnets. May you guide me in a clear path and may I never stray away. Curse anyone who tries to take me off your path! Make them pay! Lord erase them from my life! Lord I know you will protect me! Help me remember to pray to you. Keep me from straying away from you. Thank you Lord, amen.
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Church as Wal-Mart
There's another story of a mega-church pastor resigning his 20,000 member church this week. Why? "Moral failings." One blog says he's had at least two affairs and is addicted to pornography. The thing is...I'm not surprised. It's not that I don't care. It not that it doesn't matter. It's that I'm not surprised. The American church culture is setting all of us up to have moral failings...especially pastors. We are being built for speed and multiplication. Churches are designed to grow and grow fast...almost at any cost. When we value growth and numbers above all else, relationships shrink and human health is set aside. It's not that pastors and large church leaders don't love God, or don't care about meaningful relationships...it's just that other things matter more. It's like Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart doesn't want to be small, and have local community relationships. They want to be big. They want to keep building more stores and bigger stores. That's fine. But you give up some things to get other things. Sadly, most American churches want to be like Wal-Mart: quick, easy and cheap. In and out and convenient. And the American church is good at it! Mega-churches- and even small churches- design their organization around the idea of "opening as many lanes as possible." Get as many through the doors as possible as quickly as possible. And they do it! But the problem, as I see it, is the church becomes just like Wal-Mart. Quick, easy, and cheap! Most people never know each other. No relationships are forged. No conversations are happening. Unlike the scripture where we are ALL encouraged to come to a gathering ready to not only receive but to GIVE...in song, word, prayer, encouragement...most church goers sit silently and watch the "professionals" do their thing. And the pastors of these Wal-Mart churches are secluded, celebrities. They are hidden away, never seen or touched or known, unless it's in a carefully, choreographed setting. The people are not in relationship, the pastors are not in relationship. But we definitely know how to make it quick, easy and cheap. That's not Church! Until we abandon this Wal-Mart, church growth strategy, in favor of true, deep, relational Church, we will have more and more moral failings that destroy peoples lives and faith.
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Grace is the Jesus-way
Humans have the ability to do something no other kind of creature can do: feel deep, emotional, and spiritual emptiness and suffering. Not one week of my life goes by where I don't speak to someone dealing with incredible hurt. She was raped. He was moletsed. They lost a child to disease. He can't stop doing drugs. He's caught in an affair. She loves him but he keeps hitting her. These stories are real, and far too frequent in our world. Sadly, being in a church or being a Christian doesn't seem to insulate us from the power of hurt. We all hurt. Deep in our hearts, we hurt. This is why I believe in grace so much. St. John writes that when Jesus showed up on the earth he came in truth...and get this...AND in grace! Grace is the Jesus-way. For thousands of years before Jesus, people had tried to deal with the hurt in many ways. Religion has always been a favorite choice of humans. Many believe if we are good enough, godly enough, then we can stop the hurt and pain. But when Jesus came he showed that all the religious actions in the universe would never stop the suffering. So he suffered for us and left grace in its place. Jesus never expected us to be perfect. He never demanded that we know how to do this on our own. He came and did it for us. Now we can enter into his rest. So, the next time you see someone in pain...remember we should not expect them to figure this out on their own. They need what we need...community, help, love, support, encouragement...in a word, they need GRACE.
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Real Christians Don't Get Depressed
"When the thirsts of our soul are neither understood nor embraced, love is violated in many ways that typically go unnoticed and therefore unresolved." Larry Crabb from Inside Out In my opinion the American Christian, and the American church has all but completely lost the ability to FEEL pain, suffering, and sadness. There is a stupid notion that if we know God, if we love God, our lives will be wonderful. We will stop feeling the hurt and pain of the world. It's a spoken (but mostly unspoken) idea that If we are hurting then we must be "out of the will of God." Real Christians don't get depressed. They don't suffer deep pain. They don't struggle with their faith. True Christians are happy, well-adjusted, never divorced, always employed, healthy, wealthy and joyful! Many of us have felt this call to perfection. We notice that our churches and Christian friends are all "doing well" so we experience double pressure to not tell anyone of our struggles. The problem with this is that it is fake, and it is not the way of Jesus. Our souls thirst. And sometimes those thirsts cannot and have not been satisfied. We must learn the art of Lament. We do not lament well in our culture. But I believe the inability to speak of our deepest disappointments, fears, losses, anger and frustrations with honesty keep us from truly experiences profound happiness and joy. So today, let's be honest. Let's commit to feeling what we feel. Let the sadness hit us. Let the lament do it's work. That's where we will lean into God, and that's where he will always meet us.
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God is Like Jesus not Zeus
I saw this picture posted on Brian Zahnd's twitter the other day.
It speaks to me in a profound way.
I believe a vast majority of humans look at the Jewish/Christian God just like Zeus (or any other mythological god).
In the gospel that John wrote he states very clearly that the purpose of his writing was so whoever read it would "believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God."
Throughout his writing he is constantly showing us how many times Jesus asked people to believe.
This is important. Why? Because what we believe matters- not what we say we believe- but what we ACTUALLY believe matters.
I would argue many of us have grown up with an image of an angry God. A God is very willing, even anticipating with excitement, the moment we turn away or mess up, so he can unleash his righteous wrath all over us!
When Jesus showed up he reveals who God is! Plain and simple. He says he and the father are ONE. He says if we have seen him we have seen the Father. When we look at Jesus we see a very different kind of God. Not an angry God who needs us to appease him with our do-gooding.
We see a God who is coming TO US!
A God who is moving towards us.
A God who is compassionate.
A God who is intimately and passionately aware of us and wants to know us.
A God who speaks to us, touches us, forgives us, and is patient.
In a Word we see a God who is Loving.
So, I encourage you to read John's gospel. I encourage you to really see the picture of what our God really looks like.
Maybe you have imagined a God who is mad at you and ready to destroy you. But I ask you to look again.
Maybe, just maybe, God doesn't look like Zeus...
Maybe he looks like Jesus!
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grace and peace
I'm divorced. Yep. And I know for many of you, that's not a big deal. I mean, half us are, or came from divorced families, or know tons of friends that are in that same boat.
But, it's a little different for me. I'm divorced, but I am also in ministry. And by ministry, I mean, I am a church planter and founder of a church in north OKC.
So, this presents a problem. I live in the "Bible Belt." I live where it is still looked down upon to be divorced...especially for Christians...especially for pastors!
But, that's where I find myself.
My divorce happened in 2010, after 4 kids and 15 years of marriage. During this time I lost, not only my marriage, but I lost my job, my friends and my reputation.
For the first year I did everything I could do to find out what was going on in me and what darkness in me created the situation in which I found myself.
I went to several conferences and retreats, and I went to many counselors (secular and spiritual). And the one thing that kept coming back was the idea of grace and peace.
I needed grace and peace. I wanted grace and peace. But, how could I get it? Where was it? Could I ever experience it again?
I can tell you, as I write this, I am not "fully" recovered or "fully" whole...if there is such a thing. But I can also tell you that I have experienced tremendous amounts of grace and peace.
It's out there. It exists. It can be felt. It can be found.
Today, I am a man who is trying to rest in the Grace and Peace that God has for me.
And I desperately want to be the kind of man who helps others discover God's grace and peace in their lives.
Come join me in this journey. Let's learn to rest in grace and peace!
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