MSNBC Video on Jesus' tomb

UPDATE 03/02/07: Here's a great article from Christianity Today which details all the inconsistencies and flaws in this controversy

Did anyone catch the Today Show this morning? Meredith Vieira, one of the hosts, interviewed movie maker James Cameron and journalist Simcha Jacobovici regarding their new documentary and book The Jesus Family Tomb.

In short, they make the claim that a tomb which was discovered in the 1980's was the tomb where Jesus and his family were buried, including Mary Magdalene, and an ossuary which contained the bones of "Judah, son of Jesus" suggesting that Jesus not only married, but had a son as a result.

Sounds eerily similar to the book The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown, another attempt to discredit the divinity of Jesus. (Including the fact that you have to buy the book or film in order to get "the full story.")

Seems to me that the focus has been so much on "proving" Jesus that we've forgotten that the central element the Bible asks of us is faith.

If you have time, watch the video, and then offer your comment. What do you think?

Amazing Grace

I was speaking at the East Ohio Immersion retreat this past weekend. After the retreat, I had the opportunity to watch an incredible movie--Amazing Grace. If you're not familiar with it, the movie is about the life of William Wilberforce, a British member of parliament and an abolitionist. Wilberforce, along with his friend and colleagues, led the charge to abolish slavery in England. This film documents his struggle to make this happen.

What struck me most about this film was how Wilberforce's drive to stop slavery was a direct result of a call he had from God. That call played itself out in so many powerful ways, but the film did an incredible job of showing that this call impacted his entire life. He physically and mentally suffered because he was not able to fulfill the call for such a long time and as a result, thousands upon thousands more slaves died. He lost friends and standing in society because of the stand he took trying to bring this call to fruition. And it took most of his life for him to fulfill the call (he invested 20 years of his life just to accomplish passing a law outlawing slavery).

As I said, I saw this film right after speaking three times to a group of senior high students, trying to help them learn to discern God's call upon their lives. After the movie, the thought came to me--what would happen if we who work with adolescents could help them grasp and live out God's call upon their lives with the same fervor and passion that Wilberforce had? What type of revolution would be launched? How would the church be forever changed? How much would we adults recognize the paucity of our own passion in following God's call upon our lives?

If you have not seen the film Amazing Grace yet, let me encourage you to go. Better yet, take a bunch of your teens with you. Maybe they will be inspired to do the great things God is calling them to do as well.

Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday marks the start of Lent.

The Christian calendar observes the forty days (excluding Sundays) before Easter as the Season of Lent. Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and ends on Holy Saturday (the day before Easter). It is a designated period of prayer and fasting. This spiritual discipline is practiced in imitation of Jesus who spent forty days in the wilderness praying and fasting in order to prepare for his ministry. (BTW, loved this contemporary painting of Jesus' temptations.)

Early members of the Catholic Church fasted from eating meat during certain days in the Lenten season. The Western Church has expanded that practice to encourage people to fast from necessities and give up various pleasures in order to focus on repentance. The fasting also provides a way for the believer to identify with Jesus in his suffering.

Our old friend Wikipedia describes the practices of Lent thusly: "The three traditional practices to be taken up with renewed vigour during Lent are prayer (justice towards God), fasting (justice towards self), and almsgiving (justice towards neighbour)".

There are three obvious questions:
How well do I do justice toward God? Do I spend the time with Him that He desires? Do I see Him as a vital part of my life, or is it easier just to call on Him when I have a need? I've long recognized my tendency toward self-sufficiency. Therefore, this Lenten season, I commit to the discipline of fasting from those things which take me away from God--excessive amounts of time on my computer or watching TV in the hope that the time saved will be spent focusing on God.

How well do I do justice toward myself? For instance, how well am I taking care of my body? As my recent weight gain will attest, not very. I've always had a problem with my weight, finally losing over 130 pounds over two years. But like with any discipline, as soon as I stopped being diligent about what I ate and exercising regularly, the weight started coming back. This Lenten season, I commit to refraining from junk food and to exercising regularly.

How well do I do justice toward my neighbor? It's so easy to get focused on the "tasks" that lay before me (the next writing project, academic research, speaking engagements, etc.) and forget about the relationships which I need to engage in. Perhaps my inability to do justice toward my neighbor has as much to do with the fact that I don't know my neighbor well enough to know his or her needs. So this Lenten season I commit to spending time in relationship, learning about others so I can respond accordingly.

Tonight I will lead our teens in a traditional Ash Wednesday service, complete with the Imposition of Ashes. As I apply the mix of oil and ashes to each person's forehead, making the sign of the cross, I will remind them that it is a symbol of penitence, a sign of our humanity and morality. For as the words of Imposition say,

Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return
Turn away from sin and be faithful to Christ.

The former Archbishop of Canterbury, Stephen Cotrell, wrote a fantastic little book titled I Thirst a few years ago on the seaon of Lent. In it, he writes,

"Lent is supposed to be a time when we review our spiritual life, think again about what it means to be a follower of Christ, reset the compass of our discipleship and prepare ourselves to celebrate the Easter festival. But often we just give up biscuits."

May all of us, this Lenten season, discover anew the wonder of being followers of Christ, those who turn away from sin, and are faithful. Like Jesus, may we accept the invitation to enter our own wilderness and to renew our dependence upon God.

Teens and Obsession

Recent article in the Lexington Herald-Leader (January 23, 2007) cites the most recent annual UCLA survey of college freshmen. In it, nearly three-quarters of those surveyed in 2006 thought it was essential or very important to be "very well-off financially." That number is a jump from 62.5 percent in 1980 and 42 percent in 1966.

This compares well with a recent poll from the Pew Research Center which found that about 80% of 18-25-year-olds see gitting rich as a top life goal for their generation.

This research simply reinforces the fact that materialism is an obsession that must be addressed by the church. I'll post some more on this in the days to come, but here are my opening questions:

1. What do you consider to be the primary causes of this obsession with materialism in our culture?

2. What is it about youth developmentally that makes them so susceptible to this?

3. How has the church contributed to this unhealthy obsession?

Let the discussion begin.

Holiness as Service

Looking at another passage last night - Isaiah 58:1-12. It can be divided into two opposing sections - verses 1-5, and 6-12.

In the first five verses, the author, speaking for God, describes the religious people of his day. Notice all of the good things they are doing:
* They seek Yahweh every day
* Eagerness characterizes their desire for God
* They seek Yahweh's will re. their decisions so they will be just
* They want God to be near

In short, these were the "holy" people of this time.

And yet...God calls them out, shouting that they are in rebellion against Him. What was the source of their rebellion? Self-interest. They were only concerned with their own world.

Remember the historical context here. Jerusalem is in shambles, most everything (including the temple) having been destroyed a few years earlier. There are some who have learned to use the situation to their advantage. These folk have managed to build nice homes, and enjoy a good life, while all around them are others who are poor, destitute, homeless.

It's not enough that they enjoy their prosperity while everyone around them is hurting. They then proceed to complain to God, because He doesn't seem to be listening to them. They talk about it in terms of fasting. One commentator helped illuminate this for me when he wrote that "in the Semitic way of speaking, 'fasting' meant more than refraining from eating. The word stood for all that was implied in a self-righteous religiosity that divorced faith from love."(1)

It's into this situation that God responds. He makes it plain that their fasting is a sham. Their religious actions have no impact on the rest of their lives. Their fasting is empty, devoid of life-changing impact. In contrast, God offers up a different view of fasting, the type of fasting that most please Him. This fasting would not only begin to redefine how people worshipped, but it would also redirect their focus from inward to outward. This would result in three things (see verses 6-12).

NOTE: The following is probaly more radical than you (or I) am comfortable with.

* "To loose the chains of injustice, and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke" (58:6). The religious folk used their position to take advantage of those around them. Yahweh reminds them that if they were to be truly holy people, it would also require that they be holy in all of their relationships: personal, work, school, church, community. Holiness can't be relegated to just the religious areas of our life--if it doesn't impact our whole life, then it's not really holiness.

* "Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter, when you see the naked, to clothe them..." (58:7a). The word "share" in this passage is powerful. It literally means "to break in two." So what Yahweh demands is this: if you have a loaf, divide it equally and give half of it to those who are hungry. If you see someone who is homeless, let her come into your home and live in half of it. Look through your closet and give away clothes to those who need them. (Not just the clothes you don't wear or like--make sure the person is dressed as nice as you are!)

* "and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?" (58:7b) Yahweh isn't talking about physical blood relatives, but rather the fact that the people were refusing to acknowledge the need of their fellow Hebrew brothers and sisters. In other words, they conveniently turned a blind eye to the needs of those around them.

In short, what Yahweh is telling the people is that part of being holy is the cultivation of a spirit of generosity where we eagerly seek to minister to others because Christ first ministered to us. The holy life, therefore, is a life of service.

I love the way Henri Nouwen describes this type of life:
"The word compassion is derived from the Latin words pati and cum, which together mean 'to suffer with.' Compassion asks us to go where it hurts, enter into places of pain, to share in brokenness, fear, confusion, and anguish. Compassion challenges us to cry out with those in misery, to mourn with those who are lonely, to weep with those in tears. Compassion requires us to be weak with the weak, vulnerable with the vulnerable, and powerless with the powerless. Compassion means full immersion in the condition of being human." (2)

Scripture emphatically links our love of God and love of neighbor: "If anyone boasts, 'I love God,' and goes right on hating his brother or sister, thinking nothing of it, he is a liar. If he won't love the person he can see, how can he love the God he can't see? The command we have from Christ is blunt: Loving God includes loving people. You've got to love both" (1 John 4:20-21, The Message).

It is not possible to fulfill the second command (our love of neighbor) in isolation from the first (love of God). We do not love best when we try to love out of our own resources or ability. Neither, however, can we fulfill the first command (loving God) if we fail to let that love overlow to our neighbor. They are inextricably linked together.

I admit it--this doesn't describe my life very well, and I am convicted by what God calls us to do. I want to learn to love others the way God loves me--a love that treats others with equity, dignity, patience, and respect. I want to learn to practice a love that exhibits generosity, magnanimity, the willingness to give others the benefit of the doubt. I eagerly desire to develop a compassion that feels the pain of those on the margins, the poor, the lost, and the hungry because I am there with them. I want to know this type of holy love which works itself out in the way we love each other.

How 'bout you?

(1) Knight, George A.F. The New Israel: Isaiah 56-66, in International Theological Commentary (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1985), p. 22.

(2) Nouwen, Henri J.M., McNeil, Donald P., and Morrison, Douglas A. Compassion: A Reflection on the Christian Life. New York: Image Books, 1982, p. 4.

Loving Our Neighbor as Ourself

I'm writing a book that attempts to tackle the subject of holiness for late adolescents. I'm currently writing a chapter on the importance of our reaching out to the world around us as a natural consequence of being holy people.

Toward that end, I was working on a passage we all know well: Luke 10:25-27 (The Parable of the Good Samaritan). This is one of those passages we've all heard and read countless times, but as I was studying it today, I had a new revelation.

When Jesus was asked by the expert in the law what the greatest commandments were, He turned the tables by asking the question of the so-called expert. The man answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'” (Luke 10:27).

When we read this, we assume we know what it means to love our neighbor. In fact, for many of us, love for our neighbor has degenerated into a therapeutic interpretation of this verse, such that the emphasis is on loving ourselves. But that is not the way Scripture is written. For their part, the Biblical writers simply tell us what the Biblical characters are doing rather than what they are thinking or feeling. That's significant, as it moves the impetus off of us and our needs, and propels us to move outward and actually do ministry for the sake of God to others.

Most of us, I would guess, don’t have the background knowledge that this expert in the law had. (At least I didn't.) For in summing up these two commandments He draws from two Old Testament passages. The first, called the Shema, is found is Deuteronomy 6 and is where the first commandment to love God is drawn from.

However, it’s the second passage, found in Leviticus 19:11-18, which I found intriguing. Here it is:
Do not steal.
Do not cheat one another.
Do not lie.
Do not use my name to swear a falsehood and so profane the name of your God. I am the Lord.
Do not cheat or rob anyone.
Always pay your hired workers promptly.
Show your fear of God by treating the deaf with respect and by not taking advantage of the blind. I am the Lord.
Always judge your neighbors fairly, neither favoring the poor nor showing deference to the rich.
Do not spread slanderous gossip among your people.
Do not try to get ahead at the cost of your neighbor's life, for I am the Lord.
Do not nurse hatred in your heart for any of your relatives.
Confront your neighbors directly so you will not be held guilty for their crimes.
Never seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord. (NLT)

Do you see it? The command of Yahweh in these verses is simple justice for the neighbor and compassion for the vulnerable.

So what does this have to do with holiness? Everything! As we learn to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, in return God’s love begins to fill us up. However, I would suggest that is does not become “perfect” love until it is brimming over the top, finding it’s way into the lives of others as we share life together.

I think Mother Teresa understood this concept when she wrote:
"I know that when I touch the limbs of a leper who stinks I am touching the body of Christ the same as when I receive the Sacrament. This conviction of touching Christ under the appearance of a leper gives me a courage which I would not have otherwise. Today once more, Jesus comes among His own, and His own do not know Him. He comes in the very hurt bodies of our poor. Jesus comes to you and me, and often, very often, we let Him pass without noticing” (A Gift for God: Prayers and Meditations).

May we all learn to let the love of God flow naturally to the world around us, as we seek to be holy people not so we will feel better about ourselves, but so that we may be a reflection of who Jesus is in us.

Those of us who follow Jesus always discover that we receive more than we give for we find our reward in the joy of the people whom we serve.

Some Random Thoughts

Just returned from the National Pastors Convention in San Diego. Besides the absolutely gorgeous weather there (highs in the mid-60's compared to the single digit temperatures I left in Lexington), I had the opportunity to engage in some stimulating conversations with both old friends and new friends.

Special props to Joe Sherman, Beth Mast, and Lindsay Hoekstra from Zondervan for not only allowing me the opportunity to come and continue my research on the senior pastor/youth pastor relationship, but for being very hospitable hosts.

As I've reflected on this past week, some thoughts are ruminating through my mind.

1. For a conference designed to "nourish your soul, engage your mind and help you connect in meaningful conversations" I was encouraged by the number of folk just willing to engage each other in fruitful conversations. Most of my meals were spent in deep and passionate conversations with others who are just as concerned about the future of the church as I (and many of you). Even as a prof. training others to lead the church in the 21st century, I have to admit at times to being discouraged by the current state of the church. Yet these conversation renewed my spirit, and gave me hope that there are still pockets of people that are living out an amazingly fresh parable of God's Reign here on earth.

2. Had a great conversation with Mike King about his new book, Presence-Centered Youth Ministry. If you haven't read it yet, you need to do so. It is a bold and declarative of not only the present status of the church, but of what we need to be doing to develop a new ecclesiology for the church in this pluralistic, postmodern world in which we live.

Got quite a bit of writing done on my book which is due SOON! It was nice to have a little space and time to work on it.