A Break With Culture:

A friend of mine is from India. He is also a missionary to India. The subcontinent of India is a very diverse place. John & Maria came to the USA for their education and then returned to their homeland, but to a place that is completely different--new language, culture and people.

I just received an email from John that described a wedding where he was asked to share a message. He called the wedding a "Wonderful disaster."
He was given dirty water to drink. The generator that supplied electricty was unreliable, making the sound system malfunction. The temperature was over a hundred degrees. Children ran around, old people talked and cellphones interupted.
"By most standards this wedding would be considered disasterous, but these people were following Christian principles. . . . In this tribal culture the bride often goes to the groom before marriage. After a few weeks or months of living together they may or may not get married. These Christians decided to follow Biblical principles and get married before their union. That is why it was a wonderful wedding. They left their unhealthy traditions and embraced Godly principles. . . ."

I thought, as I read John's account, that this is precisely the response I long to see more of, here in my culture, that is becoming less and less effected by Christian principles. Jesus left His people in this world, but He said that we are not to take our way of life from it, John 17.

John said he received a bag of peanuts for preaching. No, John, the pay is much more than goobers.

A new blog:

For the 2 or 3 of you who like to, or are willing to, read my stuff, I just started a new blog. Hogback Ridge is where I'll be posting some stories and essays--stuff that would be called "more literary" if it were truely worthy of that description.
Some of the pieces are from Hogback Ridge. Others like the one I just posted for Father's Day have to do with raising boys.

Enjoy.

Hogback Ridge

Christ and Culture, a refresher:

It has been a while since I read Richard Niebuhr's book Christ and Culture, but to the extent my memory serves, I found this brief commentary, by Dr. Kevin Bauder, to be on target and helpful. I can't vouch for the accuracy of all of his examples, but the ones with which I am familiar seem to ring true.

The relationship of Christ, and, more particularly His Church, to the culture in which the church finds itself is a question that must constantly be answered.

• How does the church respond when it is a culture that is hostile--much of the Muslim world and some of the former communist lands for example?
• How does the church keep from becoming the civic-religion in a land that is largely friendly to it?
• How does a church that values clear doctrine behave when it is in a situation where another version of Christianity, one that doesn't share the doctrinal distinctives of the church in consideration, dominates and has a friendly relationship with the dominant culture--Protestants in predominantly Roman Catholic or Orthodox cultures, or vice-versa, and any number of other combinations?

The article, as well as the book, is worth a read. I have added the book to me "to reread" list.

Some thoughts on the death of Osama bin Laden:

I haven't had a great deal of time to reflect on the death of Osama, or is it "Usama" bin Laden. Here are a few barely more than random thoughts.

I am thankful to and proud of our armed forces and the people who serve in them. It took incredible skill, discipline, dedication, courage, cooperation, and strength of will to accomplish what was done. Romans 13 reminds us that the civil authorities do not bear the sword in vain. In this case it is a very complicated, expensive sword . . .

Our President was right in his handling of this--at least as far as I can see.
Does this action provide political fodder? No doubt.
Do I agree with all of President Obama's decisions and positions? Not at all.
This action was right. In the words of old cowboy movies, "He needed killin'." Whether we consider what bin Laden did as a crime or as an act of war, our action as a nation was justified.

I can't help but have some conflicts in my thinking.
Am I not supposed to look on sinners with compassion? Yes, I am. I do not say what I am about to say because bin Laden is different than me, but because, in this sense, he is like me. From all I know, I have to conclude that simultaneously with feeling the sting of the bullet, Osama bin Laden felt the fires of Hell. "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God." "The wages of sin is death." (Romans 3:23 & 6:23) Yet, God, Himself, says that He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. (Ezekiel 18:23, 33:11) Every sinner who dies rejecting the grace of God in Jesus Christ is a loss, a tragedy.
We desire perfect clarity, non conflicting conclusions and emotions, "this-and-not-that" kind of categories in our thinking. That isn't available here. In a sense it is part of living in two kingdoms--I am a child of God, and I am citizen of the United States--there is some conflict here. On one hand, I can say that I am pleased that justice was done (more in a moment). I'd like to shake the hand of the man who pulled the trigger, look him in the eye, and say, "Thank You." On the other hand I need to recognize that here is one who spurned God's message of mercy. I am sorry. If I let either the "either" or the "or" dominate my thinking to the exclusion of the other my thinking as a Christian citizen will be distorted.
John 17 makes plain that "This world is not my home." (I'm quoting an old song, not scripture.) But Romans 13, and 1 Peter 2:13, among other passages of scripture, make clear that I have a responsibility to my earthly home, as well as my heavenly. Under the guidance of the Bible and the Holy Spirit, and in conjunction with the body of believers with whom I worship and serve I need to maintain that dual status and the tension it sometimes brings.

I am well aware that all actions by human leaders, and agents are imperfect.

• Were there political considerations at work here? DUH!



• Were the hearts of all those who carried out this mission pure? I doubt it.



• Should greater efforts have been made to take the terrorist alive? You chew on that one.



• Were there casualties in this raid who were more accurately described as innocent victims than co-conspiritors? Perhaps, maybe even probably.

I'm quite sure that Paul had no illusions about the purity of those who bore the sword in their day. Most of them--like most of our military today--were just guys doing a job. Yet the Apostle spoke clearly of the respect that should be given to those who represent the power of the state.
In short, the imperfection of the justice, need not prevent an appropriate rejoicing in the fact that it was rendered.


Finally--for now--let's not forget what a small world we live in. A guy who doesn't deserve the title of "Pastor" in Florida burns a copy of the Qur'an and riots take place on the other side of the world. My fellow Christians in predominantly Muslim lands end up paying a high price for lack of restraint here in the USA. One of the things that impresses me about the Apostle Paul is that though he ministered in a world that was in many ways hostile to his message, he did so with respect, and even on occasion restraint. There is no way you can accuse the Apostle of compromise, but he refused to needlessly act in ways regarded as sacrilegious to others. In fact Romans 2:22 contains a slightly veiled condemnation of those who do.


I'm sure there are many good articles out there on this matter. Here is one that has some worthwhile thoughts:

A friend just posted this one;

Tsunamis, unimaginable pain, and boundaries in my mind:

I posted this on my STTA site, but since it is a longer than usual STTA & since it will stay on top longer here, I decided to post it here, as well.

The earthquake and tsunami that have devastated Japan, and beyond, are off any scale that exists in my thinking. Massive waves that move across the ocean at 500 miles per hour, and tremors that cause buildings to sway like reeds in the wind don't exist in my mind. When "experts" explain these phenomena I gain a new appreciation for their magnitude, but I understand them only in the sense that I learn to parrot back some of what these specialists say. It is not dissimilar to my "understanding" of this computer. I know that when I press the "I" key that the letter appears on the screen in front of me, and that the code that produces that "I" can be stored on a hard drive or sent by digital signals across vast distances. (I'm going to date myself here.) I remember when manual typewriters were popular. I could examine the levers, springs, and gears and understand how it worked. I am confident that if I had put forth the effort I could have explained, complete with pictures, how my old Remington worked. This computer: in broad terms I can explain it, but much of it is a mystery. That is where I am in explaining the cataclysmic events of the past few days--my knowledge base is inadequate.
I think I know enough, however, to be confident that the correct answer to why this tragedy erupted in Japan, is "I don't know." Beware of those who have neat, tidy answers. The vast debris fields that once were neighborhoods in the Island nation, are matched by the clutter in our minds. I'm not sure we can altogether understand what has happened. What we can do, however, is "contain" the disruption in our mind and heart with some reality barriers.
"I don't understand, but I do know this."
What are some of the "this"es we can know?

• Disasters like the one that struck our neighbors on the other side of the globe, are tragic, in particular, because they are an accumulation of personal, totally real disasters. This morning the estimates are that 10,000 people died in the earthquake/tsunami. Each of them is a mom, dad, brother, sister, grandparent, or friend. Every one of those buildings was someones home, their place of employment, house of worship, school, etc. One of the dangers of the worldwide communication/news environment is we tend to see the devastation as if it were the tide washing away children's sand-castles. People talk of good that can come from this tragedy. We can identify good that has come from past tragedies, and I already hear of God's people reaching out with the Love-of-Christ. That is definitely good. One of the boundaries we must respect is to call things like this bad--in this case bad beyond my scale of reckoning. In the Old-Testament the word "evil" is used not only to describe the morally corrupt, but natural disasters. This kind of evil will be eliminated in the heavenly realm, Revelation 21:4. The natural disasters that afflicted Job were seen by him and his loved ones as evil, Job 42:11. Let us never be guilty of calling bad things good. Romans 8:28 does not say, "all things are good," but, "all things work together for good." Look in the context and you'll see that a short time before the Apostle pronounced the truth of verse 28, he wrestled with the presence of bad things in the world.
  
• God is in control. Sometimes we feel like God needs our help. We think that we need to lobby on His behalf and make sure others know this isn't His fault. It is true that God is not the author of evil, but He is in control in this world. His sovereignty extends from the falling sparrow to the culmination of all things. God was not napping when the earth moved with violence. Other than what He has revealed, I don't know why, but I do know the world is in His hand.
  
• People are responsible. The choices we make have consequences. When aggregates of people make choices--national policies, the direction of cultures, etc. those decisions have far reaching consequences. Where we build cities, how we provide them power, and how the people there live can have consequences far beyond what we see. The Old-Testament is full of examples of societies that became ripe for the judgment of God. The later part of Romans 1 records a pattern that is all too common. Fatalism is never the answer. We need to make wise, right decisions, and encourage the groups we are a part of to do so as well.
  
• We are to reach out with love and compassion whenever we are able. One of the reasons Christianity came to dominate the Roman world was because Christians reached out with compassion to those afflicted by plagues and other disasters. We must avoid being opportunists. At the same time we must, with courage and hope, reach out with the love God in the face of this world's darkness.
  

There is much that I don 't know. I am able to cope because of what God has graciously made sure for me.

It's STTA.
Some further thought:
http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/probe/docs/evil.html

A cheering crowd and a bellowing friend:

A friend sent me to this video.
It is great.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52AOPQvCTv4

It reminded me of a friend that I never really met:


RUN CAREY RUN (c. 1995)


By the time the young women who run the distance events began their last minute stretches, stride-outs and psych-ups the track-meet had taken on a certain subdued character of its own. At any one time you could observe some athlete totally focused on giving his maximum exertion to his event, while nearby another participant would be taking a nap. Groups of participants, who had already competed earlier in the day, stood around and talked. Spectators were hot, hungry, and tired. Their attention to the events was sporadic.
As the parent of a distance runner I had become familiar with the pre-race ritual. The routine had an almost religious regularity. Those of us who knew the liturgy could tell that the girls 1600 Meter race would begin soon. The talk in the stands, among those of us who knew and cared, turned to: "Who was fast?" and, "Who wasn't doing well?" We wondered what kind of time the pre-race favorite, last year's state champ, would have. The parents and loyal fans were moving to places where they could see better and more effectively yell encouragement to their favorite runner. Watches were cleared. The fans have their ritual too.
Then I heard it--not the real thing, only a weak imitation--from out of a group of fans, "Run Carey, run." The three words uttered by a veteran fan brought instant chuckles and conversation from all of us who heard.
"Is he here?"
"I think he's on the bleachers on the other side of the track."
"I wonder if we'll hear him over here?"
Those of us who knew him had no doubt he would be heard--maybe in the next county. Everyone else was soon convinced.

The crack of the starter's pistol had hardly died--the girls were still accelerating; the faster contestants had not yet distinguished themselves from the starting pack--when we heard the voice, the real thing. It boomed across the infield with a power that defied one to not look for its source. The voice, sort of like an articulate chainsaw, the two end words elongated for effect, the last slightly less than the first, "RUUUUN CAREY, RUUUN!"
We were in the presence of a phenomenon, before whom lesser mortals had to shrink. I am loud, and I often yell myself hoarse at sporting events, but this man is the Babe Ruth of cheering, the Sultan of Chant.
Like a fog-horn on a stormy night the chant repeatedly fills the track, the bleachers, the surrounding countryside. The three words of encouragement so fill the air that it is difficult to find the point from which they emanate. Just the other day I found the source.
I was near enough to him that I could hear not only the famous three words, but words of endearment and quiet encouragement he shared with his daughter when she ran near his seat--or standing place--or pacing area. The famous chant came from the heart of a dad who loved his daughter so much that he was willing to make a spectacle of himself to help her run. She chose to run. He was going to do everything he could to see to it that she did it to the best of her ability.

"Run Carey, run!" was still echoing in my mind when I thought about the kid to whom I had given a thumbs up, a "Way to go!" after his event. I remembered another youngster I had congratulated about a good finish. I wondered about the disappointed kid for whom it just hadn't happened that day, or the one for whom everything had clicked; he had the performance of his life. Don't get the idea that these are generic kids, made up to flesh out a story. Each of them has a name. Each of them is real. Each participated in the same track meet as Carey, but there was no one there for any of them.
I had never seen a mom or dad there to yell for these kids. Oh, there were those of us who seek to encourage them to run, throw or jump, but it isn't the same. It can't be. Our cheers are sincere, our wishes genuine; our desire to encourage, console, and challenge is real. I'm sure they appreciate the recognition, but I'm equally sure that all of it together wouldn't measure up to one single heartfelt word of praise from someone who really cares today, cared yesterday, and will still care tomorrow.
Carey didn't win that race. She came in second, behind the state champ, but she ran a good race. I am confident she did her best. I don't know Carey or her dad, but I think she will continue to do so.

I don't know what kind of a father he is. I only know that on race days he models something that our culture, our kids, could use a lot more of: parents who are willing to give their kids the priority in their lives that they desperately need and deserve.

My bellowing friend went to the track meet to encourage his daughter to run. In the process he encouraged me to be a better dad.

Leaders?

"I'm sure that many of today's leaders find it easier to sound evangelical than to be evangelical."

Read more from Ralph White, a guy who had a great impact on my life, http://dailydoseofencouragment.blogspot.com/2011/02/leadership-qualities-part-2.html