Broken and wretched

Sometimes we can do a horrible job of acknowledging the serious brokenness, sin, and hurt that exists in ourselves and in those around us. For those of us in the church, we can be the worst at this. We are prone to put up facades, act like everything is okay (or if it's not okay, it will soon be okay), and tell ourselves that life isn't that bad. When we start to get a glimpse of our own brokenness and wretchedness, we start comparing ourselves to others "worse" than us to try to feel okay.

I wish there were more honesty. I wish we hung our crap out there for all to see more often.

I love this song from Jon Foreman. It's so honest. It get's to the heart of the issue. "I've become an empty shell, of a man I don't like so well.  I am a living breathing hell, come on and resurrect me."

We don't need a counselor.  We don't need a self-help strategy or book. We don't need a new diet. We need nothing less than a Savior!!

Here's the song:

It takes a long time to kill a man
Fifty-five years at least
Until he breaks down
Starts to look underground
And go off and get him some peace

I want to die a lot quicker than that
If it's my only way out
I've been counting up the cost
Getting up on that cross
Wanna know what this is all about

Father time
Steals our days
Like a thief
There's no price
That I wouldn't pay
To get some relief
I've become
The empty shell
Of a man I like so well
I am a living, breathing hell
Come on and resurrect me

I tried to drown the pain with a friend of mine
It didn't seem to help
Oh, she's got a pretty face with a wedding lace
But I'm still waking up with myself

I know what it means to choke it down
Driving 'til your legs get weak
I know what it's like on a Saturday night
To be alone in a crowded street

Father time
Steals our days
Like a thief
There's no Price
That I haven't paid
To get some relief
I've become
The shell of a man
I can't begin to even understand
Have I forgotten who I am?
Come on and resurrect me
Resurrect me

New Confession 1

As part of my worship leading duties for the past several years, I have taken up writing new confessions for the church to use in congregational worship. I grew up in a church that didn't do much congregational reading, much less confessions, but since college I have learned to greatly value proclaiming belief and confessing sin as a corporate body. Here is a confession that we are using this Sunday in our service.

Scriptural basis: Mark 10/Isaiah 55

Congregation:  “Anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”  We confess that we are often anything but childlike when we come to You.  We demand signs and wonders before we will trust in You.  We expect You to work within our plans.  We have a hard time just letting you be God.  Forgive us of our arrogance, impatience, and forgetfulness and give us a childlike faith. 

Pastor:  God said through Isaiah, “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” 

Congregation:  Recognizing our limitations and smallness, we come to you as children in need of a father and trusting that you hold all the mysteries and unknowns in your hands.

Pastor: God is a great God.  As His ways and thoughts are greater than ours, so are His mercy and forgiveness greater than we can fathom.  Because of his grace in Jesus Christ, and not because of your goodness, you are forgiven and cleansed of all your sin and unbelief.

Charismatic vs. Reformed vs. Do-gooders

I've been thinking about this recently. There seem to be three main pieces to one's relationship with God: The knowledge/intellectual piece, the desire/feeling piece, and the action/works piece.  I'm sure there are many other ways to think about these things but this makes a lot of sense to me.

Different people connect with God in different ways. While every believer ought to have some knowledge, some desire, and some action, it seems that each of us naturally lean towards one of these areas more than the others. Some of us find that we come most alive to God's presence and glory by learning about theology and the Bible. Others of us come most alive to God through engaging our desires in prayer, meditation, singing, and other devotional practices. Still others connect with God most by doing good works and serving others.

It is helpful to recognize that each of these areas are given a high value in scripture. Regarding knowledge: "And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent" (John 17:3) and, "May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord" (2 Peter 1:2). Regarding the desire/emotional piece, "O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you" (Ps. 63:1), and "Oh sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth!" (Ps. 96:1). Lastly, James shows the necessity of works by saying, "So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead" (2:17).

What I have noticed in myself and others is that the area that we naturally lean towards is probably where we are also most likely to make an idol. It's easy for me to make an idol of gaining and possessing knowledge of God. Others will be prone to idolatry by always looking for an emotional connection with God or by trusting in their good works to make them right before God.  

What is interesting is that Paul has strong words for each of these positions in his chapter on love (1 Corinthians 13). To those seeking emotional experiences, he says, "If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal." To those prone to idolize knowledge, he says, "And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing."  And to those whose religion is merely good works, he says, "If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing."

So what's the takeaway? God has made each of us unique. The way we best connect with God won't necessarily be the same way someone else best connects with God. The charismatic (often desire/feeling type) is prone to judge the reformed person (often knowledge/intellectual type) as all head and no heart. The reformed person is prone to judge the charismatic as pursuing emotional highs and forsaking wisdom and knowledge. The works/action type is prone to puff up themself as doing more practical good then both the others. And the cycle of judgment and mistrust continues, dividing Christians from one another.

We must remember Paul's warning that no matter how great our spiritual gifting is, if we are without love for God and for one another, we are nothing! Knowledge is good, desire is good, and works are good. But love is best. Pursue the former things with passion but be most concerned not to lose sight of love. 

Rejoice, Pray, Give Thanks

"Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you."

Thank you God for these commands. Thank you that they are not just recommendations but commands. How much I need to obey these three commands! How often I try to get through life on my own wisdom and strength and don't follow these commands. Thank you God for being wise and good. Thank you for directing us in wise ways and giving us the greatest good in Jesus.

Reality Television-The role of the church in our lust for authenticity

A recent article I wrote for my Re:Train class

Reality Television-The role of the church in our lust for authenticity

By Derek Fekkes

My wife and I have recently become fans of the reality shows Duck Dynasty and Gold Rush. This is reality TV at its finest. What’s not to like about watching “real” people live in worlds that are completely foreign to our own? I’m never going to go digging for gold in Alaska or be a wealthy redneck duck hunter with a beard the size of a shovelhead, but watching others live out these roles is sure entertaining.

Reality Television is dominating the networks. According to the Nielsen ratings, six of the top ten primetime shows for the week of March 25th, 2013 were reality shows. Just when you think they couldn’t possibly come up with another idea for a reality show, there’s an ad for one in which celebrities learn the art of diving (Splash on ABC). There are even (fully) scripted shows that emulate the reality concept (The Office, Reno 911!). For a while, it seemed like reality TV was going to be a fad that would fade away before too long. Now, with Survivor on its 26th season, American Idol on its 12th season, and a reality show for any taste or fancy, there is clearly something significant about reality TV that keeps us tuning in.

Are we merely looking for entertainment? Is it simply our fascination with those who have reached celebrity status? Surely these motivations play into the time we are willing to devote to watching reality TV. Yet entertainment comes in many different forms and there is no shortage of celebrity gossip from many other outlets. I submit that the reality TV craze cannot be fully explained without taking into account a human quest for authenticity.

Authenticity sells. On the front flap of their 2007 book, Authenticity, authors James Gilmore and B. Joseph Pine II say, “In our increasingly experience driven world, consumers crave what’s authentic.  Has your company figured out what to do about it?”  The book then advises companies to be genuine, or at least to appear to be genuine.    

Enter, Reality TV. Reality TV purports to show us real people in real situations, as opposed to trained actors in scripted situations. The belief is that people want to see the unscripted and raw lives of ordinary people. Reality TV shows are produced and marketed on the idea that authenticity sells.

By now, it’s widespread knowledge that reality TV is not entirely real (Are we supposed to believe that Si actually bought a groomed poodle as a duck-hunting dog?).  Scenes and lines are often scripted and the highly edited nature puts the outcome of the final product squarely in the hands of the producers and editors.  

But we still flock to these shows like Kelly Clarkson wannabes to an American Idol audition. Despite our knowledge of the contrived “authenticity”, we talk about the portrayal of these “non-stars” as if it were entirely raw and unfiltered. We laugh as if the scenes were not edited and scripted to bring a laugh. Perhaps it is simply the most authentic thing available.

Yet while reality TV reveals our desire for authenticity, surely we put too much stock in reality TV to satisfy this desire? We spend hours passively partaking in the “Real World” of reality TV at the expense of engaging the actual world that is around us every day. We are more fascinated with someone else’s reality then our own. A 2012 Nielsen report found that Americans spend an average of 34 hours a week watching TV. With six out of the current top ten primetime shows being reality shows, we can assume that the average American spends around 20 hours a week watching reality TV. For many of us, we likely spend more time studying the “real” lives of those on TV then in pursuing the friends, family, co-workers, and neighbors present in our everyday lives.

We build “privacy” fences around our houses; we buy bigger lots so we don’t have to live so close to others; we live in apartments to be nearer the action, yet make no effort to get to know our neighbors who live five feet away.  We hurry into our homes trying not to make eye contact with our neighbors so we can sit alone on our recliners and enter the reality of people we’ll never meet.

Reality TV appeals to our shared human desires to be known, to have value, and to be real. Yet when we look to it to fulfill these desires, what it offers is a weak substitute.

It is at this point that the Christian church presents something invaluable. The church has the opportunity to offer authentic community better than any other institution, gathering, or reality TV show. By God’s design, the church connects with the deep desires of the human heart for belonging, value and authenticity.

When true to its calling, the church that Jesus called into existence is a community of authentic relationships. It is not a building, a program, a service, a business, or an organization. The Bible uses the organic, connective metaphors of a body and a family to explain the church. It is a group of people bonded together by a shared identity. It is to be characterized by honesty, love, grace, forgiveness, and truth speaking.

Though Christianity has often uncritically adopted the rugged individualism of Western culture, the invitation into the life of Jesus is, among other things, an invitation into authentic community. We are called not just into eternal salvation on a personal level, but to belong to an authentic body of God-worshipers beginning here and lasting into eternity.

Authentic community is hard to find and when found, comes with many challenges. People are selfish, unreliable, and hypocritical. But authentic community is something we need. Despite the mess it often brings, it is worth it. Though the church is not immune to the challenges of community, there is no better place to pursue the authenticity we crave.

Freedom!

"For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments.  And his commandments are not burdensome." 1 John 5:3

Experience seems to contradict this last statement.  God's commandments not burdensome?  The words "commandments," "rules," and "obedience" don't sit well with us.  They seem to be the very opposite of freedom.  Isn't freedom the absence of rules and duties?  How can God's commandments not be burdensome?

Jesus says that his “yoke is easy, and (his) burden is light” (Mt. 11:30).  The purpose of God's commands is not to burden us with a load but to direct us to life, peace, and freedom.  God is good and his commands are good.  He is the author of life and as such knows what brings life and what destroys life.  

Of course, our selfish, rebellious, sinful nature inhibits us from obeying his commandments.  His commandments, which are good and life-giving, often seem just the opposite because we can’t obey them on our own.  Not only are we incapable of doing what God has said we ought to do but our desires are stained with sin such that we often want to do the very opposite of what God has said is good.  

Where's the good news in this?  God gave us good commandments that we are incapable of following.  Seems pretty depressing.  God has ordained that we must turn and trust in him to find life.  We are week and hopeless on our own.  The Bible calls us slaves to sin.  We can't do the good that we know we ought to.  

The good news is that Jesus lived the life that we should have lived.  Jesus died the death that we should have died.  The call to obey God's commandments still exists; if we love God we will seek to obey his commandments.  However, we live in an economy of grace.  We don't have to earn his love.  We can't.  Our obedience is NEVER enough.  We are motivated to obey his commandments because he has already loved us so extravagantly.  There is no need to fear or feel any condemnation.  

When we seek to obey his commandments while relying on his grace to save us we are released, little by little, from the power of sin in our lives.  This is called sanctification.  It is a process meant to free us not to burden us.  Furthermore, he has supplied us with his Holy Spirit to strengthen us and change our desires that we may obey him.  His commandments are FOR OUR GOOD! 

On Faith, pt. 4

Faith according to Christianity

We now turn to faith as it relates to Christianity in particular.  That faith is central to Christianity and the Bible is clear.  The Bible says things such as, “The righteous will live by faith” (Rom. 1:17), faith “is of greater worth than gold” (1 Pet. 1:7), and even “everything that does not come from faith is sin” (Rom. 14:23).  Jesus commands and commends faith.  “Have faith in God,” (Mark 11:22) he tells his disciples, and to the crowds, “Repent and believe” (Mark 1:15).  To some degree, faith of the Christian kind is just like the faith we find in everyday situations.  As with any faith, faith in the Christian God is faith in something we do not see and that cannot be proved.  Because of this, faith in the Christian God is risky.  A Christian can be confident in his/her beliefs and hopes but not certain.  But just like most faiths that people hold, Christian faith is not necessarily illogical but is usually accompanied by much evidence.  The nature of the evidence and the weight given to each piece of evidence varies from person to person, but no one makes a decision of this magnitude, no one chooses their worldview, without some evidence.  Finally, Christian faith shares a likeness with many other types of faith in that much of its evidence is relational.  Faith in the Christian God means trust in the goodness, faithfulness, and dependability of God Himself.  Let's work through this.

Christian faith has a relational component

Faith, as presented in Christianity, is relational.  The ideas and claims of Christianity are presented within a relational dynamic.  They pertain not just to morality or a way of life, but speak of how one can have a relationship with God.  Jesus, in addition to commanding faith, preached a message of obedience, trust, love and worship.  “Trust in God, trust also in me,” he tells his disciples in John 14:1.  And later on, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching” (John 14:23).  The claims of Christianity are inextricably linked with the ultimate source of those claims.  Biblical faith is much more than a cognitive, intellectual decision to agree with certain beliefs.  If that were all it were, the Bible’s commands for faith and belief would be empty.  Apart from a relational component, apart from the existence of a trustworthy source, a command for belief and faith is utterly ridiculous.  Unless there exists a trustworthy being or source, we arrive at faith by a weighing of the evidence and reason, not because of a command.  A command only makes sense in a relational dynamic.  

Faith in God as revealed in the Bible

Now, there may be debate about whether or not the God of the Bible exists in the first place.  If the participants in this debate do not permit the claims of the Bible to carry any weight or truthfulness-in other words-if faith in the Bible is not accepted into the debate, then the relational dynamic of Christian faith can hardly be spoken of.  In fact, I’m not sure if any significant aspect of Christian faith can be spoken of at this point.  Not because Christian faith is dependent on the Bible alone, but because Christian faith is dependent on the God who is revealed in the Bible.  Christian faith involves both believing in the Bible’s revelation of God and trusting in the God of the Bible.  Much could be said about this dual nature of Christian faith, but all I will say here is that the two work together and are less distinct then they seem.

Trust in God is the goal of the Christian faith

Once one comes to belief in the Biblical God, he is carried along not so much by his weighing of the evidence and reasoning at each and every point, but by his trust in the faithfulness of God.  Not that the weighing and reasoning don’t play a part, they’re just not the driving force.  Donald Miller, in his book Searching for God Knows What, says, “I realized the gospel of Jesus, I mean the essence of God’s message to mankind...wasn’t a series of ideas we had to agree with either; rather, it was an invitation, an invitation to know God” (14).   The journey towards Christian faith may begin by agreeing to certain beliefs about the world, its beginnings and purpose, but if it never gets beyond these cognitive assertions to a trust in God Himself, it never reaches Christian faith.  A true Christian must move past the point of agreeing to certain truths, and begin submitting to the Being behind those truths.  In conclusion, while firm belief in the validity of the objective truths of Christianity is critical, it is not the main concern or focus for the Christian.  The believer is more concerned with trust, obedience, and worship. This is the nature of Christian faith.  As the writer of Hebrews says, “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith” (12:2).

“There’s no arrival, but no denying

There’s something in you that is worth finding

There’s no completion with only reason

There’s no movement without believing

There’s more than these two eyes are seeing

By faith it’s finished, by faith we raise

By faith is every step alive…and this is how we rise

So a risk I will take and I’m letting it go

My need to be right and my fear of unknown

With a chance I’ll be wrong and a chance that I’ll fall

                          I’ll collapse in your arms, cause this is how we rise.”

On Faith, Pt. 3

Faith is based on evidence

Faith, by nature, is always without certainty, but it is hardly ever without evidence. It is a fool who chooses faith apart from any evidence. Everybody lives by faith in some aspects of their lives. In most cases where there is an opportunity for faith, it is usually a choice between faith in this thing or person or faith in that thing or person, or faith in an event happening or faith in it not happening. Rarely are we presented with faith as one option and complete certainty or fact as the other.  We all use logic to compile the evidence and choose where to place our faith. When it comes to matters of faith, people may disagree on the weight to give certain evidence, but they can rarely argue that there is no evidence whatsoever.

Much evidence for faith is relational

If faith is almost always accompanied by evidence, then a look at the characteristics of that evidence will help shed some light on our understanding of faith. It seems to me that quite often the evidence on which we base our faith is relational. What I mean is that it is affected by whether or not we deem another person, group, or entity trustworthy. We will take the risk of putting our faith in another if we trust their character. Our faith is a recognition of one’s faithfulness or goodness. When I open a history or science book to learn something about the subject, I am showing that I trust the character of its authors, or maybe the publishers of the book. When a little boy obeys his parents when they tell him not to play in the road, he is trusting in the goodness of his parents. The faithfulness of the parents is the evidence for the faith of the child. There may be other evidence that influences the child not to play in the road, but his confidence in his parents’ goodness certainly plays a major role. When faith is affected by the character of its object in this way, there exists a relationship between the possessor of the faith and its object. In such instances, faith is not simply an intellectual, cognitive belief but becomes synonymous with trust. Not trust that a certain belief is true, but trust in a person. It is a decision to trust a source. Furthermore, when faith is embedded in trust in another individual our source, when it has this relational component, it is hardly ever a one-time decision to have faith, but is usually part of an enduring confidence in the faithfulness of that particular individual or source. We see this in most cases of learning.  

A faithful source leads to confident faith

Much of what we “know” we learned from teachers or reading up on a subject.  In both cases, for any learning to happen, we must make a decision to trust in the source.  Lesslie Newbigin, in his book “The Gospel in a Pluralist Society”, has the following observation: “If we consider what is involved in learning to know anything, we will see that knowing has to begin with an act of faith.  We have to trust the evidence of our eyes and ears, or, if we are learning a language, or learning science or history or any other branch of knowledge, we have to begin by trusting those who undertake to teach us” (19).  Learning in this sense is rarely a matter of trusting individual bits of information, again and again, at each and every point, but is most often an enduring decision about the trustworthiness, or faithfulness, of the source.  In fact, Mirriam-Webster’s definition of faith also includes the words:  “steadfast in affection or allegiance.”  It is with this understanding of faith that we say things like, “I have faith in my friends,” or “I have faith in the government.”  In saying these things we profess something of an allegiance on our part.  Such statements reveal the relational aspect of faith, and how the faithfulness, trustworthiness, or goodness of an individual or source leads to confident faith.