Turning back the clock

Posted on November 12, 2013 by jwfisch

th-4Last night Marti and I watched the first of a new two-part PBS series on JFK. Most of it contains television and news footage from the time. It was eerie, like reliving part of your life. For baby boomers like us, the assassination of John F. Kennedy was the seminal event of our early life. We were seeing what we had seen for the first time, live, 50 years ago on our brand new black and white TVs.

Never has one event so affected the corporate life of a nation as did this one. One bullet; one bullseye we all wanted to take back. The Kennedys had captured the imagination of a new  generation and one split-second changed all that. I remember the huge desire I had to turn back the clock. Roll that Zapruder film one more time and hope that this time the bullet misses it’s mark, but no. Every time you roll it, you get the same result — the same spray of red and white from his forehead and the same desperate Jackie instinctively crawling out on the trunk of the limo to retrieve part of his brain as if she could put it back and make everything alright again. But we cannot turn back the clock of our experience.

We didn’t understand it then; we don’t understand it now; and when we see part two tonight there will be no new revelation that will finally make sense of it all. We will have the same unanswered questions. What we do have, however is 50 years of history to lay on top of these events.

We have the angry swirl of disillusionment that followed the corresponding assassinations of Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King and plunged a youth culture that might have rallied around any one of these into drugs and despair, and it’s doubtful, had that youth culture not gone wayward in its search for answers, that it would have turned to Christ in such great numbers as it did in the Jesus movement of the early ‘70s. You don’t need Jesus when you’re in Camelot.

We all have events in our own lives we would like to turn back, just as there are hundreds of thousands in the Philippines right now who wish they could turn back the clock on a typhoon. But we can’t. Watch the film again, it will come out the same every time.

Go way back to that moment the first man and woman disobeyed God. Change that story and you have an entirely different world, one where God’s son does not have to die, but that is fantasy, and that is surely one death you don’t want to turn back. That one death turns the clock forward on all who believe — forward to eternal life.

God’s clock marches on. It takes into account the things we wish we could change and wraps them up into part of His plan. Even the most horrific of events God can recover. We’ve seen this too many times to not believe it can happen again.

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Those who have been to the wall for us

Posted on November 11, 2013 by jwfisch

Today we remember those who have served their country and gone to the wall for the rest of us that our freedoms and our lives might be protected. In times of relative peace, we do not know that they are there, and indeed, when the battles are not on our soil, as most of our conflicts since the civil war have been, its even harder to realize and appreciate what they have gone through.

So today, we stop and realize those who have been there. We salute them, because we know that they have not gone as an ambassador for themselves but for others who may have never known that they were silent sentinels on the wall. For the dangers they endured and the years they sacrificed, and especially for those who are still suffering as a result of their service, it’s a small thing, but we thank you.
th-3

“In its most common meaning, ‘go to the wall’ refers to the close-quarters hand combat that was common before the invention of firearms. A person beset by multiple opponents would be wise to stand against a wall to prevent an attack from behind. This strategy also means no escape is possible without first defeating the attackers, a desperate situation. The image of a struggle is central to this meaning of ‘go to the wall,’ also sometimes said as ‘up against it’ or ‘back to the wall.’ During World War I, for example, British General Douglas Haig said, ‘With our backs to the wall, and believing in the justice of our cause, each one of us must fight on to the end.’” (wisegeek.com)

Thank you.
Thank you.
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Weighing in on weakness

Posted on November 8, 2013 by jwfisch

thThis is not what you hear everyday. It is so refreshing.  -Daniel

It was great to have so many of you responding to my request to weigh in on weakness, so at the conclusion of this week I’m going to let you folks write the Catch. I do have my own comments at the end including a very important insight I don’t want anyone to miss. Also, these are the comments that came to my private email address. There are also currently 19 public comments available at our website that I encourage you to visit. (Scroll down to yesterday’s Catch, “Celebration of weakness,” and find the link to “Comments” at the bottom.)

This concept is often described in the Holistic Healing literature (which embraces the spiritual dimension of healing) as surrender or vulnerability. If you are interested in reading about this “theology” from a variety of perspectives, the literature is out there.  -Christi

(Yes, it is always interesting how truth in scripture is often confirmed by other non-Christian or unbiblical sources. This should not be a threat to believers, but a confirmation. If truth is the way the universe works, then anyone should have access to it. I’m obviously referring to propositional truth, or “truths,” as opposed to the personification of all truth in Jesus.)

I preached on this two Sundays ago. “I, therefore, delight in my weaknesses … for when I am weak, then I am strong”  (2 Corinthians 12:10). -Lynn

(We will come back to that verse in a minute.)

I did not realize I was doing this – waiting for the light at the end of the tunnel, forgetting the light that is with me right now in this darkness. I am missing the now waiting for the not yet, and it hampers His work in me and through me. -Julie

This is where we acknowledge our weakness and understand that it is only in our weakness that God’s strength is perfected within us. So it isn’t that we aren’t strong. It’s that it isn’t our strength, it’s His. -Christopher

If the cloud of, “Things are going pretty well” never lifted, I might have never found this place of dependence on a fully dependable yet wildly unpredictable God. This faith is becoming the bedrock of my soul.

This Gospel is for the weak! Spoiler alert: we are all weak. -Brian

It is a celebration of weakness, and I have lived much of my life with pain from illness, yet G-d keeps getting me through my days, and even brings things I so enjoy into my life. -June

So what do you say to those who have had the easy life, seemingly were always Christian, have been blessed over and over, and who go along with the idea that blessings come to those who deserve them? -Mary

(I don’t know what we do with those folks, but be careful, I’m one of them still trying to deconstruct for myself what is wrong about this kind of thinking.)

Some days I actually realize that the only way I get through is with Christ by my side. -Nancy

I’m reminded of my own weaknesses every day. So humbling is it that it ever keeps me from looking on in judgment of others who don’t meet my own expectations/ standards. -Selwyn

One final thought. Some of you think I’m saying Let’s just stay weak so we never have to change. That is not what I am saying.

The strength is imbedded in the weakness. You don’t go from one to the other (otherwise there would be strong Christians over there and weak ones over here – just what we don’t need – a spiritual hierarchy), you experience them both at the same time. That is why Paul says he delights in his weakness, because when he is weak, then he is strong. That’s not a pathway from one to the other. That is the discovery of one IN the other.

Older Christians are not better Christians; they are just more humble Christians, because in getting to their strength, they see more of their weakness, their sin and their need for Christ.

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Celebration of Weakness

Posted on November 7, 2013 by jwfisch

th-1I had breakfast the other day with a theological academic on spiritual formation and found out they have an official theology for what he said I like to teach all the time. It’s called the Theology of Weakness. Now a quick online research showed that this was not an official theology canonized somewhere in the Book of Theologies that anyone would have to go through in any major seminary training. It’s a way a few spiritual leaders have explained how pain, struggle and suffering fits into our growth. As far as I can tell, no one’s written the book on The Theology of Weakness, but there are a few seminars on how to deal with tough times.

I’m glad it’s not official, because this is not what I’m talking about. This says that when things get tough, or for some of us who are destined to be struggling all our lives with some particular sin issue or addiction (Paul’s “thorn in the flesh”), well there is a way to fit this into one’s theological life picture. When things get really difficult we can turn to this “theology” and receive comfort until things get better again and we are good strong Christians like we’re all supposed to be.

That’s not what I’m saying. Not even close.

I’m saying that our weakness — our brokenness — is THE ONLY WAY WE WILL EVER BE USED BY GOD. It’s not a theology for the bad times; it’s a theology for all times. It’s not that there is hope when things go wrong, or when bad things happen to good people, or there is light at the end of the tunnel. This teaches that things are always going wrong, that we are bad people who have had an incredibly good thing happen to us, and that no one needs to care about the light at the end of the tunnel when there is light right here in my heart when all around me is darkness. That’s what I’m talking about. So I’m going to disagree with my academic friend. I am not a champion of the theology of weakness, I am a champion of the fact that we are all weak all the time; we are all losers, we are all broken, we are all in pain, we are all sinners, we are all inadequate, we are all vulnerable, and we are finding the power of God in our lives in the middle of all these things, and realizing that this is the only way we can find it. This is where it exists.

It’s not a theology of weakness; it’s a theology for the weak, and there is no corresponding theology for the strong. It’s the only theology there is. It’s not “Blessed are the poor because they are going to be rich some day,” it’s “Blessed are the poor because they are the only ones who get it.”

Does this sound like the same thing? It’s two entirely different things. One has an assumption of  “strength some day” driving it, the other has an embracing of “weakness every day” which makes it possible.

It’s not a theology of weakness, it’s a celebration of weakness when we discover that our weakness IS our strength. And there is no other way.

Is anyone getting this? Is this old hat to everyone? Am I the last one to find out? Why do I feel like I’m shouting at a wall. Talk to me, people! Talk to me!

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God’s new address

Posted on November 6, 2013 by jwfisch

thThe holy of holies is in us and the veil has already been torn in two signifying all have access to God. That is, unless we don’t let anyone in.

Bells should be ringing. Lights should be going on all over the world. I wrote this a couple days ago, posted it in the Catch and watched it quietly disappear into cyberspace. The ease with which this statement slipped away tells me either everyone’s already living life as an open book or no one gets it, in which case we need to go over it again.

True ministry is living life as an open book. True ministry is giving everyone access to your heart. It has nothing to do with you; it has everything to do with God. We are, at best, containers – jars of clay, Paul calls us – and like any container, it’s not about the packaging, it’s what’s in it.

You and I as Christians are all about what’s in us. It’s not about us; it’s what’s in us. How many ways can I say it? As many as it takes to get it. Well then, I will keep figuring out the ways because I don’t get it, either. Just because I can say it, doesn’t mean I get it.

It’s a new way, and because of that, it’s hard to grasp. We grow up with the old way. The old way comes naturally. Hearing about the new way doesn’t mean you live by it. It just means you heard about it. Hearing and doing are two different things and sometimes the distance between them is measured in miles. Thousands of miles.

In the old way, God was in a box, in a chamber, in a room inside another room, inside a building, surrounded by a courtyard, surrounded by walls and gates. If you could get into that inner room where the box was (you wouldn’t have been able to because only one guy could back then, and you definitely wouldn’t have been that guy) you would have found that a very thick, very ornate curtain separated you from the room with the box with God in it. As I said, only one guy could go in there, and then, only once a year.

But when God’s son was crucified for the sins of the world, there was a big earthquake, and that curtain was torn in two signifying lots of things, but mostly that God was no longer in the box, and the room inside another room, inside a building, surrounded by a courtyard, surrounded by walls and gates no longer contained His glory. God was out of the box, and according to what His son said, even before He was crucified, He now has a new place to live on earth.

Where? In the church on the corner we incorrectly refer to as the house of God? No. His new place to live – and I can hardly say it because it seems so unfathomable – is in you and in me.  Really? Are you serious? (That’s my son’s new favorite phrase and you have to say it with great inflection, raise your eyebrows and stretch it way out… “Seriously?”

Yes.

You know, it used to be that if they ever had the box out of the room (which they had to do on occasion, whenever they moved) and you touched the box, even accidentally, you were toast. D.O.A. Didn’t matter if you were just trying to keep the box steady, something you would have though God would have appreciated, you were still toast. That’s part of why it’s so preposterous that this same powerfully dangerous God is now in us. Don’t ask.

So, therefore, people have a new way of meeting God. They meet you. Yeah, I know you’re screwed up and you have all kinds of stress and afflictions, and you’re confused about lots of things, but that doesn’t matter. People get into you, they get into God simply because that’s where He lives. And it’s not because you’re so impressive (and you’re not, remember, you’re just a container), it’s because you let them in.

So open your heart, because people want to – need to – meet God.

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Second touch

Posted on November 5, 2013 by jwfisch

th-1He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man’s eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, “Do you see anything?”

He looked up and said, “I see people; they look like trees walking around.”

Once more Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. (Mark 8:23-25)

Last week we looked at this story from the perspective of creativity as I suggested seeing men as trees walking may not be such a bad idea after all. A large part of our creativity as created beings ourselves has to do with seeing things differently.

One of our Catch members gave me another interpretation of this event that bears looking at. He suggested that Jesus might have healed the man in two stages for the benefit of those of us who would hear this story 2,000 years later when we know much more about the human body, especially the brain and how it works. He suggested that the stages of healing might help us see that the healing really happened.

“People who have had their eye sight surgically restored experience a sensory overload of sorts,” he wrote. “The brain has a hard time making sense out of the new sensory it is called upon to process, much like the reply that ‘I see people walking around like trees.’”

In other words, Jesus healed the man’s sight the first time and his brain the second. He enabled him to interpret properly what he had never seen before. That makes a lot of sense to me as I am becoming more and more aware of the brain and the role it plays in our lives and especially in our healing and our sense of wholeness.

We can have our eyes opened but we need God to touch our minds and help us to think in new ways about God, ourselves and others. A good deal of our problems stem from wrong thinking and those unhealthy ruts in our brains that our thinking has a tendency to fall in just because the paths are so well-worn. Sometimes we refer to this as “old tapes,” but whatever you call it, it will take the touch of God to heal it.

Tonight on our new BlogTalkRadio show we have the unique privilege of talking with a woman who has been a victim of sex trafficking right here in America, and she is going to educate us on what is going on under our noses. In hearing just a little bit about her life, I am thinking about the touch of God that has undoubtedly been necessary to heal her thinking about herself, her past, and her sense of worth. God is so gracious to give us fresh starts, and only He knows how much we need that second touch.

I am constantly aware of holes in my head that prevent me from seeing things the way they really are. Perhaps that second touch of Jesus on the man’s eyes was even more important than the first. How we think can be as debilitating as being blind, and even harder to tell. Let’s all pray for a second touch on our minds that we might be free from the old patterns that keep us from doing His will today.

You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. (Ephesians 4:22-24)

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Letting people into your heart

Posted on November 4, 2013 by jwfisch

thThe new covenant just keeps getting newer.

It happens whenever you teach and reteach a passage of scripture: you see something new each time, regardless of how many times you’ve gone through it. This time through what we call the new covenant passage (2 Corinthians 2:12-6:13) we’re in the first few verses of chapter four and I found something new to point out to you today.

This is a difficult passage because it begins by saying that the message of the good news of Jesus Christ that lives in us is not going to be accepted by everyone because “the god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Corinthians 4:4). This would seem to hardly be fair in that it puts some people beyond hope through no fault of their own. No matter how much light there is, or how obvious it seems to us, they can’t see it because they are blind to it. Except that two verses later he writes, “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6). He’s referring to the Creation story when God said “Let there be light,” and light appeared out of nowhere. (Our oldest son, Christopher, used to always want to say when we got to this part of the Creation story, “… and God said, ‘Will someone please turn on the lights?’”)  Except that when God spoke, there was no switch; He spoke into the void. He spoke into nothing and made something exist that didn’t exist before. The lesson for us being that God did that for us — He spoke into our hearts when there was nothing there but darkness — and if He could do that for us, He can do that for someone who is currently blind to the truth. God is bigger that the god of this world. He is a God of miracles.

Now I want you to look at that verse again (4:6) and tell me exactly where this magnificent light is on display. Where are people going to be able to see the light if they could? In a great sermon by the pastor? In an effective evangelistic crusade? Through a book by your favorite Christian author? In the stimulating worship music at church? In a masterful apologetic by some great Christian intellectual that answers every question a non-Christian could ever have? I suppose there is some light showing up in all these things, but none of them are what Paul is talking about here. What he’s talking about here is what I believe is the primary source of this light in the world. It’s you. And it’s even deeper than that; it’s in your heart. “God … made this light shine in our hearts.”

You and I are God’s means of reaching the world, and we do it by letting people into our hearts. We’ve got to let people into our hearts because that is where the light is. This is much deeper than “witnessing,” than “door to door evangelism,” than sharing the “Four Spiritual Laws” with someone. This is the give and take of a relationship. This is a delicate matter. It takes time to build trust. It takes time for someone to open their heart to you, and you, to them, but that is where the light is most effective. And it is a glorious light put there by God Himself, spoken into existence in the same manner in which He brought light into the formlessness and void of the world. He brought something out of nothing, and He can do it again through you as you open your heart.

What an amazing thing to be a part of, don’t you think?

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The morning after

Posted on November 1, 2013 by jwfisch

th-1It’s the morning after. Masks are down. Costumes on the floor. Decorations will come down later today and be packed away in the “Halloween” box for another year. The only inclinations of what went on last night are the candy wrappers in the street that eluded our brooms trying to clean up in the darkness last night.

We played like we were something else for a while but in the morning we are just us. For some, that’s a relief; for others it’s a disappointment. For everyone it’s business as usual, and business as usual for most of us includes replacing the Halloween mask with something more subtle, but it’s still a mask, and it’s still hiding something.

We all have something to hide. This goes without saying. We all have things about ourselves we don’t want everyone knowing, but if God is going to show up in our lives, we have to run that risk. God will most certainly not be seen when we mask our lives in any way. When we hide ourselves, we hide Him. We are the temple in which God dwells now. The holy of holies is in us and the veil has already been torn in two signifying all have access to God. That is, unless we don’t let anyone in because of what they might see.

One of our readers who volunteers with the youth group at his church wrote the following after reading yesterday’s Catch:

Last year in the youth department in our church, we had a curriculum that had the kids in the various groups share their testimony. Out of 18 kids 2 were suffering the aftermath of their parents’ divorce, 2 had attempted suicide, 2 cut themselves, 1 had nearly lost everything because of procrastination, others loved money more than God, and so on. There were even those who had lived a rather uneventful life i.e., Christian home, Christian school, and no traumatic events to report. [That sounds like some masks didn’t come off. I would like to meet the teenagers who have “no traumatic events to report.”]

Our reader goes on to say, The unmasking of this veil of deception revealed that God was present in everyone’s life. They testified He was with them all the time. Interestingly this was only seen once they were unmasked and shared their true testimony.

Which is the point I want to make this morning. God cannot be revealed in anyone’s life who lives masked. When we hide behind a false impression, we are also hiding God and excusing ourselves from ministry.

It’s the morning after. When one mask comes off, let’s not rush to pick up another. There is a freedom to living unmasked, and there is a power that is unleashed because of Christ’s real love and acceptance of us as we are, not as we should be. This revealing of himself is unpredictable. It’s something we cannot control. We can only control living unveiled lives. We can control truth-telling. And like the kids in this youth group, we can find that God meets us in the middle of our real lives.

Halloween on Oak Street is now officially a community event in Laguna Beach. Someone came by with more candy from the city last night just when I was running out, and this morning, the street cleaner cleared our street, as did a couple city workers spearing candy wrappers on my lawn. When your street turns into a theme park once a year, it’s nice to know you have outside help.

When your life becomes an open book, it’s then that you discover you are not doing this alone. It’s not all up to us, thank goodness. Like the city showed up for me this morning, to clean up my mess, God shows up for you, today, but you won’t even know it unless you leave that mask in the jar by the door and walk out unveiled. The choice is yours.

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Unmasked

Posted on October 31, 2013 by jwfisch

th-2All Hallow’s Eve, a day originally set aside to honor the dead martyrs, is now a day when masquerading is the norm. The buzz among the kids is, “What are you going to be on Halloween” — the key element being that you get to be someone or something that you’re not and its okay. You can be anything you want.

Something about human nature loves this. Some — more theatrical people — love it more than others. Our street, barricaded off because of its popularity, will turn into a steady flow of masquerading humanity, and by no means is it just kids. The adults are into it just as much, if not more than the kids.

Maids, princesses, zombies, superheroes, astronauts, Presidents, movie stars, lions, witches, and I have seen some wardrobes, will file by, and people will be in various stages of hiding their real identity. The fun part is to not have anyone guess who you are.

On one night of the year we get to hide our real identity and it’s expected. But the rest of the year we hide our identity and even though it’s not okay, we do it anyway because its human nature. All this dress up on Halloween is not so unusual; we do it all the time to a lesser degree, but we do it anyway. We hide what we don’t want anyone to see.

What would that be? Doubts, fears, inadequacies, insecurities, sins, weaknesses, and our judgment upon others including attitudes of superiority in an attempt to level the playing field — these are just some of the things we hide … anything that might make people think lesser of us. And in Christian environments, there tends to be even more masquerading, because the expectations are so high for what we all are suppose to be.

Dressing up is fun. Wearing masks is okay as long as there is an accepting place where we can be when we take them off. Because of Christ’s forgiveness and the new arrangement for living made possible by God’s Spirit in and among us, Christian community should be the safest place in the whole world to go unmasked. If it isn’t, someone needs to start. It only takes one to start the process.

Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God. (2 Corinthians 4:1-2)

But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is present, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled faces reflecting the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another, which is from the Lord, who is the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:17-18)

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By any other name

Posted on October 30, 2013 by jwfisch

We had a great time with our first BlogTalkRadio show last night with special guest McNair Wilson. If you missed it, you really didn’t. You can hear it again right here.

thA rose, by any other name, is still a rose.

In McNair’s “Fifth Gospel,” as I mentioned in yesterday’s Catch, McNair changes the name of Jesus to Howard for the sake of getting people to think for ninety minutes outside the boxes of their preconceived ideas about Christ and Christianity. We are not advocating a name change, we are only asking people to consider, maybe for the first time, who Jesus really was.

McNair will tell you how over and over again he hears, after performing the “Fifth Gospel,” that if Howard is who Christ really was, that changes everything.

If someone encounters the story of a man who claimed to be the son of God, who performed miracles, had a miracle birth, healed people of their diseases, cast out evil spirits, touched lepers, wept at the tomb of a friend, ate with sinners and prostitutes, pushed over the tables of religious bigots making a profit off of God, loved children, laughed with his disciples, got frustrated with his disciples, forgave sinners, taught about loving your enemies, washed his followers’ feet, told us to go the second mile, died for the sins of  the world whom he forgave while he was doing it and rose again after three days — if someone encounters all that (and this isn’t even close to the half of it) and says “I want to know about that guy. If that’s who Jesus really is, then I’m interested,” then you can call him George, Dick or Harry and it won’t matter, because they are truly hearing about the real Jesus for the first time. If you can change his name for ninety minutes and get someone to lose much of the wrong thinking they had about Jesus prior to this, it would be well worth it. And if someone previously biased against Jesus, heard the story of Howard and said they were drawn to the person in that story, then I would recommend  that person start reading the gospels for themselves so they could find out who Jesus really was. All McNair did in his ninety minute play was  get someone over the hump of their preconceived notions about Christ and Christianity.

All of this points out an important element when we are taking Christ to the marketplace: It’s necessary to find out what people know (or think they know) about Jesus and Christianity in the first place. We can’t just assume that when you say “Jesus” that everybody has the same person in mind. This is, of course, the value of art, and in this case theater. McNair is able to accomplish in ninety minutes what it might take us years to straighten out if we were to just talk about it.

I find it over and over again that the barriers people have to faith are the same barriers  I would have if I didn’t know the truth. It’s imperative that we say what we mean and not just assume our Christian words and concepts will be received and understood with the same level of understanding we have. It’s not just about what we say; it’s caring about what someone heard that is also important.

It’s all about the story. If you get the story right, then Jesus, by any other name, is still Jesus.

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