This may seem a funny way of looking at the world, but I remember reading two author's comments in "How Soccer Explains the World" and "Soccer Against the Enemy" that argue otherwise. The argument they make, essentially, is that if more people around the world care about their soccer team more than they do the elected officials of their country...it speaks volumes. Sport has always had a huge effect on society, all the way back to the days of gladiators in Rome and Olympic champions in Greece.
In these two books and even in some History Channel documentaries on the history of sport, the argument is made the sports, especially soccer, is manipulated to manipulate the masses. There is a reason that Dyanamo Kiev wins in Ukraine a lot and CSK Moscow wins a lot in Russia...they are both owned and backed by the government. If they win, it makes the government look better. In Scotland, if Rangers win then Protestants look better, but if Celtic win, then the Catholics take the spoils. And it's true in America as well, even though we don't appreciate soccer as much as we should. Have you ever seen the hatred towards a football coach who leaves a mid-level college compared to an executive who does the same thing in the corporate world? Sport, for no apparent reason, has become the end all, be all showcase of loyalty and dedication to one's cause. Who you support says a LOT about who you are.
Being a huge soccer fan, I made sure to tune in to watch the USA play valiantly against Brazil in the final game of the 2009 Confederations Cup. It would have been HUGE if the USA won this game, but they still came out with a good image. After the game was over, I was stunned that the USA had blown a two goal lead, but from the corner of the TV my heart and attention were grabbed. Kaka, the best player on Brazil's squad (and some say in the world) had taken off his jersey to reveal a white, hand-decorated t-shirt stating clearly, "I belong to Jesus." I noticed that amidst the huge celebration other popular Brazilians players had very similar looking shirts saying the same thing or other variations of "I love Jesus." This is a bold move for macho soccer players in front of millions of people on TV. Especially when the whole of Brazil is now engorged with national pride. Wouldn't they want to celebrate the strength of their country during a time like this?
How soccer explains the world in this case takes a little background. While the USA and Europe have always been thought of as traditionally Christian, there has been very little growth and in fact decline in the number of churches and Jesus-professing Christians for a while now. We don't like to say it, but that's the case. I'm guessing most of the USA players would not have had shirts like this on, because in the USA we take it for granted. Things are not happening like they should all over the country.
Brazil, on the other hand is one of the countries in South America and Africa that has been exploding for a decade with Christianity. I mean exploding! Pentecostalism is huge in Brazil, Africans are going crazy for United Methodism, so it is no wonder that on the biggest TV stage of the year, the Brazilians are going to give credit to the biggest reason they are there to begin with.
It served to me as a reminder that I shouldn't be ashamed of my faith in Jesus. I shouldn't glorify myself or any other above the name of God, and even in the most trivial things like a soccer game, I use that platform to show people the mission and love of Christ. That is what we are called to do as Christians, from Africa to South America to right here in the USA. We are called to glorify God in all that we do, and called to spread God's love in all that we do.
I think not only our soccer, but our words, our actions and our attitudes ought to explain the heavenly realm we are a part of to the rest of the world. Thanks Brazil for reinvigorating this pastor's enthusiasm.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Does God have a Plan for the World?
This Sunday morning I invited The Bridge service at Stonebridge UMC in McKinney “Inside the Pastor’s Studio.” The experience was designed to invite all 480-500 people inside my office for some theological discussion about the most popular theological inquiries I’ve been presented with over the last 4 months.
This sounded really fun, until I really took a look and started researching the questions:
-“Does God have a plan for the world, and how does God control it?”
-“The Old Testament God seems mean, does God really get mad and smite us?”
-“Does God really care about everything?”
The first one was this past Sunday and of course there was not near enough time to go over this question in detail, even if we did run over time by 15 minutes. So here is a further attempt to dive into a question that just might be unanswerable.
As I presented in worship, there has generally been two viewpoints in theology about God’s activity in the world, and many derivatives of these two. On one side there is Predestination, brought forth by popular theologians such as Augustine and John Calvin (and others). This view originated out of the concern of God’s sovereignty, that they felt God was in control of THE ENTIRETY of creation. In other words, there is nothing that happens in this world that God doesn’t control. The concern began over salvation, as no work of human kind should dictate salvation, and the choice of following Christ was deemed a work. Augustine’s works became translated differently in Western Christianity, especially America, later on, and the modern view is that anything and everything that happens during your day is the result of God willing it to happen. Have you ever thought about spilling your drink on your lap having a purpose in your salvation?
The other viewpoint has come from many, but was popularized by Pelagius, Jacob Armenius and others. The view maintains that God gave human beings free will, and thus God cannot dictate the salvation or events of a person’s life. Otherwise, God would not be consistent, would resemble a Roman view of gods and many Christians have held God being wishy-washy to be a bad thing. So these men decided that God kick-started the world, and only intervenes to save those who have been asked to be saved. Overall, God is the big boss, but salvation comes from a human choosing to be saved. Also, all events in one’s life come from natural means, choices and random chance.
The question is…”Does God have a plan, and if so, how does God enact that plan?” This could be tricky.
When we look at scripture we see both views. We see from the beginning God saying to Adam and Eve they can eat anywhere, name the animals and make choices, as well as Jesus even asking God if he can forego the cross. However, Paul writes that all things are preordained to God’s will, and we see God intervening throughout the Bible to heal people, win wars, etc. It’s not really clear cut.
The truth is, is that this debate exists in scripture, but is not answered in scripture. The debate is really between human beings, and you know how we tend to mess things up. The issue that I have with both of them, is that they are extreme reactions to a fear. A fear of God not being in control or a fear that humans are not worth much to God.
John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, certainly had his fears, but the cool thing about his journey with Christ was that he had so many different religious group experiences that his theology that we adopt and apply is a middle of the road approach with logic and experience involved. Wesley realized that we need to rely on scripture for all answers, but the answers aren’t necessarily just in there like a science book.
So Wesley’s answer to this question is that God is absolutely in control of the world, and as we see throughout the Bible, God has a plan for things in creation, right down to the individual…all the way up to the world. However, Wesley also allows for things to simply happen, because humans make choices that impact their environments.
I think we can safely say that the plan for the world is to reconcile all of creation to God’s original intent. That the earth would be healthy, that life would exist without death, and that all humans would bow before God as their creator and savior.
The hard part comes when we start to think about the individual plans for each person. I once heard a person say that God had blessed him that day by finding a 20 dollar bill on the sidewalk. My initial thought was “God must hate the person that lost it.” Of course, I’m saying that sarcastically, and the general response would be something like, “Of course not, the man who lost the money was simply needing a lesson in patience and humility.” The problem is, is that we speculate on this, we guess who the man is. I have no problem with saying that God causes things to happen and compels people to work for God’s mission on Earth, but I do have a problem when we try and figure it out for others. When we try and assume that my friend’s passing in a car wreck was so that others would be touched and come to know Christ. Why does that make sense at all? Why would God have to kill more people if Jesus’ death was supposed to be for all people? Why can’t we believe that death happens to us, just like plants? I’m assuming here that everyone feels that plants come from God.
It’s easy for me to talk about a plan of God for me, because I believe I have felt very strongly a plan for my life to serve in ministry at a local church. There are people who feel this, and it crashes and burns. And that is where we have to reflect. God’s plan isn’t just for you, it’s for the world. When I think about people who I know that have been called to ministry, I look at the people around them…people affirm it. I look at the work they do…and it points to the desires we find from God in scripture. I look at the people whose lives are changing. My point, is that when God’s plan really does occur in someone’s life…you can tell. There is fruit for them, for their family and friends, and most importantly I believe for the universal and local Church.
This means that God could have a plan for us, but we can totally ignore it. We can live our lives, and maybe even by happy, and maybe even be brought into the glory of heaven, without ever touching on the true versions of ourselves. We have the choice, but God has the plan. It is our mission to pray and realize that plan for us and get on board. After all, God is the one at the end of the tracks.
So maybe the real question should be… “how much have we made a plan for God?”
This sounded really fun, until I really took a look and started researching the questions:
-“Does God have a plan for the world, and how does God control it?”
-“The Old Testament God seems mean, does God really get mad and smite us?”
-“Does God really care about everything?”
The first one was this past Sunday and of course there was not near enough time to go over this question in detail, even if we did run over time by 15 minutes. So here is a further attempt to dive into a question that just might be unanswerable.
As I presented in worship, there has generally been two viewpoints in theology about God’s activity in the world, and many derivatives of these two. On one side there is Predestination, brought forth by popular theologians such as Augustine and John Calvin (and others). This view originated out of the concern of God’s sovereignty, that they felt God was in control of THE ENTIRETY of creation. In other words, there is nothing that happens in this world that God doesn’t control. The concern began over salvation, as no work of human kind should dictate salvation, and the choice of following Christ was deemed a work. Augustine’s works became translated differently in Western Christianity, especially America, later on, and the modern view is that anything and everything that happens during your day is the result of God willing it to happen. Have you ever thought about spilling your drink on your lap having a purpose in your salvation?
The other viewpoint has come from many, but was popularized by Pelagius, Jacob Armenius and others. The view maintains that God gave human beings free will, and thus God cannot dictate the salvation or events of a person’s life. Otherwise, God would not be consistent, would resemble a Roman view of gods and many Christians have held God being wishy-washy to be a bad thing. So these men decided that God kick-started the world, and only intervenes to save those who have been asked to be saved. Overall, God is the big boss, but salvation comes from a human choosing to be saved. Also, all events in one’s life come from natural means, choices and random chance.
The question is…”Does God have a plan, and if so, how does God enact that plan?” This could be tricky.
When we look at scripture we see both views. We see from the beginning God saying to Adam and Eve they can eat anywhere, name the animals and make choices, as well as Jesus even asking God if he can forego the cross. However, Paul writes that all things are preordained to God’s will, and we see God intervening throughout the Bible to heal people, win wars, etc. It’s not really clear cut.
The truth is, is that this debate exists in scripture, but is not answered in scripture. The debate is really between human beings, and you know how we tend to mess things up. The issue that I have with both of them, is that they are extreme reactions to a fear. A fear of God not being in control or a fear that humans are not worth much to God.
John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, certainly had his fears, but the cool thing about his journey with Christ was that he had so many different religious group experiences that his theology that we adopt and apply is a middle of the road approach with logic and experience involved. Wesley realized that we need to rely on scripture for all answers, but the answers aren’t necessarily just in there like a science book.
So Wesley’s answer to this question is that God is absolutely in control of the world, and as we see throughout the Bible, God has a plan for things in creation, right down to the individual…all the way up to the world. However, Wesley also allows for things to simply happen, because humans make choices that impact their environments.
I think we can safely say that the plan for the world is to reconcile all of creation to God’s original intent. That the earth would be healthy, that life would exist without death, and that all humans would bow before God as their creator and savior.
The hard part comes when we start to think about the individual plans for each person. I once heard a person say that God had blessed him that day by finding a 20 dollar bill on the sidewalk. My initial thought was “God must hate the person that lost it.” Of course, I’m saying that sarcastically, and the general response would be something like, “Of course not, the man who lost the money was simply needing a lesson in patience and humility.” The problem is, is that we speculate on this, we guess who the man is. I have no problem with saying that God causes things to happen and compels people to work for God’s mission on Earth, but I do have a problem when we try and figure it out for others. When we try and assume that my friend’s passing in a car wreck was so that others would be touched and come to know Christ. Why does that make sense at all? Why would God have to kill more people if Jesus’ death was supposed to be for all people? Why can’t we believe that death happens to us, just like plants? I’m assuming here that everyone feels that plants come from God.
It’s easy for me to talk about a plan of God for me, because I believe I have felt very strongly a plan for my life to serve in ministry at a local church. There are people who feel this, and it crashes and burns. And that is where we have to reflect. God’s plan isn’t just for you, it’s for the world. When I think about people who I know that have been called to ministry, I look at the people around them…people affirm it. I look at the work they do…and it points to the desires we find from God in scripture. I look at the people whose lives are changing. My point, is that when God’s plan really does occur in someone’s life…you can tell. There is fruit for them, for their family and friends, and most importantly I believe for the universal and local Church.
This means that God could have a plan for us, but we can totally ignore it. We can live our lives, and maybe even by happy, and maybe even be brought into the glory of heaven, without ever touching on the true versions of ourselves. We have the choice, but God has the plan. It is our mission to pray and realize that plan for us and get on board. After all, God is the one at the end of the tracks.
So maybe the real question should be… “how much have we made a plan for God?”
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Have we made church too soft?
Jesus: A Real Man
I read an article today discussing the church’s impotence (not a random choice of words) when it comes to attracting men towards church membership and involvement. I remember this very discussion in seminary and doubted it, until I realized I was sitting in a room with more doilies and china cabinets then Bibles.
So I wonder, is church too girly?
Recently our church ran a dodgeball league for adults (infiltrated by some youth for fun’s sake) to help get them in shape, build relationships and create a “safe” venue for people to enter church. In fact, one of the whole goals of sports ministry is to give a place for active, competitive people to learn about and experience community and God’s grace. Overall, this whole experiment was great. We had new people coming in the doors, we had people meeting each other for the first time, everything was going well. But soon we realized how competition overwhelms people and we freaked out! We probably overreacted to some of it, but we were so nervous that new people to the church would think that Christians just yelled at each other all the time, or didn’t really practice grace towards others or in their lives.
But reflecting on this experience in light of the question above, I wonder if we are too soft?
I know a camp in Georgia that encourages the guy counselors to teach their young men how to wrestle, tackle and other “manly” things so that they will be fearless warriors for Jesus (John Eldredge, you can get excited). So by discouraging the emotion that happens during competition are we limiting the opportunities for men to enter into church?
The answer might be yes. The answer might also be no. Let me tell you why:
Yes:
-we encourage men to not have to conform to 1950’s stereotypes of toughness, they might actually get to cry once in a while. While this is helpful ultimately, it tends to make some new men into the church turned off about being without any “real men” friends.
-in our appropriate sermons on God’s love and grace, it sounds as though God is a cuddly teddy bear to take running through the fields. For some reason men like expectations and consequences, and taking those away from God makes God a sissy.
-church is traditionally a place to sit still and listen. A lot of people like to be active, men especially.
-we like everyone to get along, sometimes, for whatever reason, men like to wrestle and fight.
No:
-see reason 1 under yes. Jesus cried openly when his friend died. Are we tougher than Jesus? Today’s man needs to deconstruct stereotypes and try and be more like Jesus rather than cultural expectations.
-Jesus really was about peace, grace and forgiveness. If you need a Jesus that goes in the UFC octagon to duke out the Pharisees, you’re not going to find it. However, Jesus was aggressive, ambitious and in your face. Maybe we should stop trying to make Jesus a bunny rabbit.
-church does not have to be a place to sit still (even if you could use it every now and then), because getting involved in missions, teaching, and all sorts of other things require you to be active with your brains and muscles.
-if you are afraid of love as something too soft, you probably need to focus on more relationships than just your relationship with God. You might need to rethink that.
I will be the first one to mention that churches are too docile. We come for an hour and sit and listen to people sing and preach, then go to Sunday school or Bible study and sit and talk. Although, there are probably some people who could put a little more effort into their singing and would get a lot more energy out of it. But why can’t worship be centered around activity? Why can’t we challenge people more with tasks in the week or even to get done Sunday morning? Why don’t we take that aggression and put it to a good task?
For the men out there looking for competition and aggressive church, I’m with you. But I’m totally against you if you want to use those natural characteristics for domination or embarrassment. Even if we’re playing dodgeball, trying to win an ice cream social or playing ‘who can sing the loudest’ there is nothing about Jesus that is demeaning to another. There is also nothing about Jesus that tells us to argue for our own benefit. But if you want to use your “manly” characteristics for good, come see me. I’ll challenge you with evangelism, with teaching, with leadership, with mission and with disciplined living. If you want a challenge, Jesus will give it to you…if you’re not afraid to leave your preconditions behind you.
Jesus is no sissy.
I read an article today discussing the church’s impotence (not a random choice of words) when it comes to attracting men towards church membership and involvement. I remember this very discussion in seminary and doubted it, until I realized I was sitting in a room with more doilies and china cabinets then Bibles.
So I wonder, is church too girly?
Recently our church ran a dodgeball league for adults (infiltrated by some youth for fun’s sake) to help get them in shape, build relationships and create a “safe” venue for people to enter church. In fact, one of the whole goals of sports ministry is to give a place for active, competitive people to learn about and experience community and God’s grace. Overall, this whole experiment was great. We had new people coming in the doors, we had people meeting each other for the first time, everything was going well. But soon we realized how competition overwhelms people and we freaked out! We probably overreacted to some of it, but we were so nervous that new people to the church would think that Christians just yelled at each other all the time, or didn’t really practice grace towards others or in their lives.
But reflecting on this experience in light of the question above, I wonder if we are too soft?
I know a camp in Georgia that encourages the guy counselors to teach their young men how to wrestle, tackle and other “manly” things so that they will be fearless warriors for Jesus (John Eldredge, you can get excited). So by discouraging the emotion that happens during competition are we limiting the opportunities for men to enter into church?
The answer might be yes. The answer might also be no. Let me tell you why:
Yes:
-we encourage men to not have to conform to 1950’s stereotypes of toughness, they might actually get to cry once in a while. While this is helpful ultimately, it tends to make some new men into the church turned off about being without any “real men” friends.
-in our appropriate sermons on God’s love and grace, it sounds as though God is a cuddly teddy bear to take running through the fields. For some reason men like expectations and consequences, and taking those away from God makes God a sissy.
-church is traditionally a place to sit still and listen. A lot of people like to be active, men especially.
-we like everyone to get along, sometimes, for whatever reason, men like to wrestle and fight.
No:
-see reason 1 under yes. Jesus cried openly when his friend died. Are we tougher than Jesus? Today’s man needs to deconstruct stereotypes and try and be more like Jesus rather than cultural expectations.
-Jesus really was about peace, grace and forgiveness. If you need a Jesus that goes in the UFC octagon to duke out the Pharisees, you’re not going to find it. However, Jesus was aggressive, ambitious and in your face. Maybe we should stop trying to make Jesus a bunny rabbit.
-church does not have to be a place to sit still (even if you could use it every now and then), because getting involved in missions, teaching, and all sorts of other things require you to be active with your brains and muscles.
-if you are afraid of love as something too soft, you probably need to focus on more relationships than just your relationship with God. You might need to rethink that.
I will be the first one to mention that churches are too docile. We come for an hour and sit and listen to people sing and preach, then go to Sunday school or Bible study and sit and talk. Although, there are probably some people who could put a little more effort into their singing and would get a lot more energy out of it. But why can’t worship be centered around activity? Why can’t we challenge people more with tasks in the week or even to get done Sunday morning? Why don’t we take that aggression and put it to a good task?
For the men out there looking for competition and aggressive church, I’m with you. But I’m totally against you if you want to use those natural characteristics for domination or embarrassment. Even if we’re playing dodgeball, trying to win an ice cream social or playing ‘who can sing the loudest’ there is nothing about Jesus that is demeaning to another. There is also nothing about Jesus that tells us to argue for our own benefit. But if you want to use your “manly” characteristics for good, come see me. I’ll challenge you with evangelism, with teaching, with leadership, with mission and with disciplined living. If you want a challenge, Jesus will give it to you…if you’re not afraid to leave your preconditions behind you.
Jesus is no sissy.
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