My journey as an Evangelical Christian trying to understand LGBTQ issues has been, like for so many others, long and hard. I certainly have not figured everything out yet, nor do I think I ever will. For years I lived in fear of the gay community. I remember sitting in my High School Orientation as a fairly new Christian and watching a performance of my new schools “Color Guard” (basically, dancers with flags). The leader of the group was a gay teenager. As I watched him dance on the stage, I remember a knot forming in my stomach and whispering the words “God, save that guy. And help me never to be like that.” My view was that this young boy was very lost. In fact, I might even go as far to say that I practically viewed him as less than human. He was a “that” and not a “him” in my mind. I had never had a conversation or interaction with him but I was sure he was on his way to hell because no gay person could possibly go to heaven. Over the next eight years, I would go through some major paradigm shifts in the way I think about LGBTQ issues. I have sat across the table from many of my closest Christian friends who have “come out” to me. I have been on staff at a church that is LGBTQ affirming and has gay ministers. When the issue of homosexuality was sitting before me in flesh and blood, it became incredibly hard, if not impossible to simply condemn as demonic. Mainly because I knew many of these people. I saw their fruit. I saw their lives. Most of them had a much more vibrant faith than I ever could dream of. What could this mean? I have struggled to answer that question for years.

After all of this time struggling through this issue, there are only two things that I am absolutely sure about. First, that the love of God transcends all distinctions, sexual, racial, religious etc. Jesus stands opened armed to all people, calling them to himself just as they are. No qualifications. No requirements. Just pure, radical, unconditional love. And we are called to love all people, including the LGBTQ community in just the same way.  Second, that we as the Church and I as a Christ follower have a lot to be sorry about. We all have done so much harm to the LGBTQ community. The Church of Jesus has been responsible for more suicides, more harassment, and more marginalization of the LGBTQ community than almost any other group in the world. And that is a crying shame. That is a travesty. That is truly sinful. How is it that the group of people who claim to follow the man who gave his life out of love for the most wicked and marginalized people have so much hatred, cause so much damage, and do it all in Jesus name? I don’t think that we will ever be able to answer that question. But something has to change. And it has to change today. This cannot continue to go on.

The reality of the harm that we have caused the LGBTQ community in Jesus name is not just a liberal myth. It’s not an opinion. It is an objective fact. And as a Christ follower, it shouldn’t matter what your theological or political views are on the LGBTQ issue- we must all have the humility and the open eyes to see and admit that we have caused great damage to thousands of men and women. And no matter what your theology or political perspective, that should cause your heart to break. That should strike you as sinful and wicked. And that should cause us to fall on our faces before our God in repentance. We all have played a part in this system one way or another. Whether it has been active participation or passive ignorance, we have all allowed the body of Christ to oppress and condemn a group of people who are created in the image of God and for whom Christ died. And that is the highest form of blasphemy possible. That, I believe, stirs both the wrath and the tears of God. But our repentance must not only be private and pious. We need to repent to the LGBTQ community- Each and every one of us. For we have shut the doors of the Kingdom of God in their faces. We have told them that God doesn’t love them and that they are broken mistakes. We have lied to them, devalued them, and excluded them. Every one of us needs to stand up and proclaim, “I’m Sorry.”

It’s this realization and conviction that has led me to participate in the “I’m Sorry” campaign with the Marin Foundation here in Chicago at the Gay Pride Festival next week. You may have heard of this event or seen the famous picture (above) of a group of Christians at the Chicago Pride Parade apologizing to the parade-goers for the harm that they have committed. It has been a powerful and healing experience for many. This year, for this first time, I want to step out with this group of Christians and let the LGBTQ community know just how sorry I truly am. Because I have caused and been a part of a group of people that has caused so many LGBTQ people harm. My participation isn’t a theological statement. It’s not a political statement. It’s simply a human statement. Many of us who are participating in the campaign are Evangelicals. Many are not LGBTQ affirming. But those things are irrelevant. Because this isn’t about our theology or political leanings. This is about real human beings whom we have caused great harm and who deserve our repentance, our embrace, and our love. This is about practicing what we preach. This is about following Jesus who, “though he was equal with God did not consider equality with God something to exploit, but he humbled himself, taking the form of a servant.” (Philippians 2) In the words of Michael Kimpan, “Christ aligned himself and stands in solidarity with broken humanity.” That is our example. That is our commission. We must humble ourselves, in love, and stand in solidarity with our beautiful LGBTQ brothers and sisters both as human beings and as dearly loved children of God.

But it must even go beyond the mere words, “I’m sorry”. This conviction must translate into action. No matter where we may stand theologically, we are still called to love everyone. In fact, we are told in the Bible that if we don’t love everyone then we don’t know God because God is love. (1 John 4:8) And the greatest image of love was demonstrated by Jesus Christ dying on the cross for people who despised him. He gave his life as a sacrifice out of unconditional love for humanity. And he calls each and every one of us to do the same. We must live our “I’m sorry” out tangibly to the LGBTQ community. They need to see a different side of the Church. They need to know that God loves them and that God’s people love them unconditionally. They need to know that they are welcome into the embrace of our God and into our communities. They need to see our sorrow as a reflection of God’s sorrow for the pain and evil they have endured as a community. And the reality is, many will not accept our repentance. For many, the damage has been done and it has been so severe that for now, forgiveness is not an option. But that’s okay. Those people deserve our love more than anyone else.

As Christians, we owe it to the LGBTQ community to repent in word and deed. We not only owe it to them, but it is our obligation as disciples of Jesus. Conservative or liberal, Catholic or Protestant, Democrat or Republican, the need to respond to the LGBTQ community remains the same. And it is my prayer that more and more people we be brought to a place of humility that enables them to set aside theology and ideology and see the human being standing in front of them. It will be in that moment that we will be able to love truly and freely. It will be in that moment that our repentance will flow. And it is in that divine moment that healing will begin.

Are you with me?

Grace and Peace-

Brandan

Note of Credit: Many of these thoughts and ideas were given words by a number of people who attended The Marin Foundations Living In The Tension gathering on June 17th, 2012. The amount of honesty, acceptance, and love that I experienced there was amazing and I want to thank everyone who participated for sharing the thoughts that inspired this post.

“Well”, I asked, “If you had one piece of relationship advice to offer, what it would be?” Dusty paused, pushing his hair to the side of his head, wiping off the collected water. “It starts by recognizing you’re different people, you know? She was raised one way, you were raised another. God wouldn’t make two people exactly the same.”

Not quite the kind of advice I was expecting, but I listened anyway.

“You see,” Dusty continued, “it’s really all about learning how you are different, and learning how to fight.”

That’s it? That’s your best relationship advice? I thought.

To be honest, I was a bit disappointed. But Dusty told me that this really is the key. He said that at first, in the relationship, you romanticize your commonalities. But after awhile, you see how different you are, and it amazes you how much the other person can really piss you off. “So,” he reiterated, “learn how you’re different, and learn how to fight about it in a healthy way.” As we continued to shuffle back to the car, talking about life and the future, getting soaked by the heavy raindrops, his words began to make more and more sense to me.

Since then, I’ve started wondering if that’s how we should go about our relationship with God.
I have so many friends who want to be in a relationship with God, yet feel like they have to agree with everything that the Bible and the Christians they know say. They feel that to become a follower of Jesus would require becoming republican and protesting gay rights. They see being a Christian as compromising their own social and ethical convictions.

Yet none of us would agree that a healthy relationship holds any resemblance to that at all.
If anything, that should be a red flag that we are actually not in relationship with God, but are more like robots or drones: beings incapable of relationship. As the brilliant writer, Anne Lamott, once said, “You can safely assume you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.” To be in a relationship means to be involved with someone other than yourself…which means you are not the same. Which means you will undoubtedly disagree. The key, as my friend Dusty says, is learning how you are different and how to fight about it in a healthy way. From Abraham to Moses, to Job, to the Disciples – the Bible is filled with vibrant stories of humans and The Divine disagreeing and, sometimes, even bargaining and fighting about it. Yet all of it is done in a way that breeds understanding, life, and sometimes, even submission (not just of us to God’s will, but also of God to our will).

My friend Dusty said that one of the best ways to fight is by using “I” statements: I don’t understand; I need help understanding you; how can I better understand? Recently, when I have found myself struggling with a certain doctrine or piece of my faith, I have prayed the words of the blind man in the gospel of Luke: “Lord, I want to see” (Luke 18: 41 CEB). Maybe this prayer will help you, too, as you begin to work out your differences with God.

And maybe the best thing, as Christians, that we can do when we come across someone who is interested in Jesus, yet disagrees with us or the Bible, is to prescribe to them the same advice that my friend Dusty gave me. And then, to actually encourage them as they “work out their faith”. Not to discourage them with long lists of things they need to bring into accordance with orthodoxy, but instead to (in the words of Brian McLaren) fight for a Generous Orthodoxy. One with love and grace for us all, as we each journey farther in our relationship with the God who loves us just as we are, yet way too much to let us stay that way.

Will Eastham is a contributor to The Revangelical Blog, an up-and-coming writer and blogger from Baltimore, Maryland. He is currently studying at the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, obtaining his undergraduate degree in Theology. You can check out more of Will's musings at his blog: http://thetour-out-of-the-box.tumblr.com/

Join Will, Brandan, and the team at Wild Goose 2013!

When I first saw the page on Facebook, I thought it was a joke. I clicked "Like" without reading anything. And then I visited the website...and was stunned. This is a legit movement. The Head Covering Movement was started by Jeremy Gardiner who is a member of the Gospel Coalition (neo-reformed) movement and the founder of the widely popular (among the neo-reformed folks) "Gospel E-Books" website. He was inspired to start this movement, so it seems, through the teachings of R.C. Sproul, the godfather of Reformed Christianity in the 21st Century. On the website he quotes Sproul saying:

The wearing of fabric head coverings in worship was universally the practice of Christian women until the twentieth century. What happened? Did we suddenly find some biblical truth to which the saints for thousands of years were blind? Or were our biblical views of women gradually eroded by the modern feminist movement that has infiltrated the Church...? - R.C. Sproul

Wow.

Now, I will give Jeremy credit- his site was created as a place for discussion. I appreciate that. He makes clear that he doesn't think head coverings are a dividing issue. But my fear is that if this movement takes off in reformed Christianity, the implications both theologically and socially are gargantuan. Women will be further oppressed than they already are by extreme complementarianism, other passages that have been declared cultural will be reconsidered and possibly embraced as normative for the church today. I hate to be fatalistic, but this kind of thing really does scare me. When we approach the Bible without understanding the cultural, theological, and historical contexts, and interpret every verse literally, we can and inevitably will end up in some really dangerous places.

I don't know. What are your thoughts on this?

Grace and Peace-

Brandan

True confession.

Today I saw a post on Facebook that is being passed around by some of my Evangelical friends. It's a picture that a 14 year old Evangelical student posted to Laura Ingahams twitter account of a "debate" this student had with his teacher on a history exam. There was a multiple choice question that listed multiple days to be selected as the answer. Two of the choices ended with the abbreviation "BCE" or "Before The Common Era". This is the common abbreviation that has replaced the old "BC" or "Before Christ" that was used until fairly recently to denote the change in eras. 

Apparently, someone had told this student that the change to "BCE" was an attack on our Christian faith or something, because he felt the need to blot out the "E" and write "Thank you society! -_- Christ was born in the first century on essentially 1/1/1!" To which the teacher responded: "BCE= Before Common Era. BCE Begins a year 0" Here is a picture of the exchange:

Now, I realize that this whole thing is so petty. I thought hard about whether it even deserved a post on the blog. I mean, this young kid is just zealous- in fact, I used to do the same things on my Biology exams in High School when they said things about Evolution that I didn't believe. My teacher always dealt graciously with me and my fundamentalist beliefs. (For the record, I think this teacher was incredibly gracious as well!) I think this young guy will mature over the years to come. He is not the problem.

The problem is that we as conservative evangelicals are lauding this little debacle as some kind of heroic effort to stand against our "anti-Jesus" culture who is trying to rid the world of Christ. And that's just stupid.

I am sorry for the strong language. But it's time to get over ourselves. Our country is not  hostile towards Christianity. We are not being persecuted. The change from BC to BCE is not some underhanded attempt to eliminate Jesus from the world- rather, its a change that more accurately represents the historic era shift beyond the Christian religion. That's all. Nothing more. Nothing less.

We as Evangelicals so often get caught up in senseless b/s that distracts us from the mission of spreading the Good News of the Kingdom through word and deed to everyone we meet. Instead of peacefully loving the world, we imagine ourselves at war with the world and create enemies where none exist. We are (apparently) teaching our kids to see the world as hostile and out to get us. We spend more time "defending" our "rights" than we do acting like Jesus. And none of this is what we're called to do. None of this is even rooted in reality.

And frankly, It's this kind of stuff that make me want to burry my head in the sand and hide. Because this is not only embarrassing- it's anti-Christ.

Just a thought.

Grace and Peace-

Brandan

This first became clear to me one day when I was on the phone with Brian McLaren. I was going through a difficult period and had a lot of questions I was wrestling through, and Brian as the lovely man that he is, was more than willing to help me out. One of the questions I was wrestling with was Christianities relationship to Islam. I had just asked Brian if he thought that Christians and Muslims worshipped the same God. His response shocked me. It went something like:

"Well Brandan, the better question is do me and you worship the same God?"

Brian went on to explain that each and every human being, evangelical or not, has unique image of God in their minds. When we bow our knees to pray, each of us picture a completely different (and often time contrasting) image of who we know to be God. Some people see God as a loving Father, others as an abusive Tyrant. Some think of God as Mother and others thing of God as the animating Spirit behind all life. And funny enough, all of these images can even be justified using the Bible! Brians response to me that day began me on a fascinating journey in my own relationship with God. I began to interact with other Christians (and people of faith in general) and began to realize that what Brian had said was true. The face I see when I close my eyes to pray is indeed different than the one you see. One of my friends here at college told me that when he switched from his image of God from being a Father to a Mother, he felt liberated and able to connect much more deeply with the Divine.

You see, our personalities and experiences are the keys to what shape our conception of God. In this sense, God is subjective. (or rather, our perseptives of God) It is absolutely true that we all make God in our own image, which has been typically demonized as a bad thing until one realizes that we are all created in the image of God to begin with and therefore, we are simply mirroring the Divine face. But in the midst of this realization, the question of revelation arises. Isn't there Objective things about God that God has revealed to us all? As Christians, we affirm the Bible as God's Word and the Creeds as universal standards of Christian faith- both of which give us descriptions of who God is. Is there a balance between the God that we experience and imagine ourselves and the attributes and personality of God revealed to us in Scripture?

Rob Bell has recently written a book on this very topic. But instead of searching the book for quotes, I asked Rob in an email this very question. His response was quite enlightening.

"i don’t have any problem with those two things being true (God being personally experienced and defined and God being revealed objectively in Scripture) -you are putting your finger on a tension that if you lose it, you lose something central to who God is as we understand God. if it’s all a giant hairball of nebulous divine mystery then what is there to talk about? but if things are too defined and there’s too much certainty and definition we’ve lost the plot in the other direction. the more interesting question to me is: how has this God been revealed to you? what is this God like? How have your encounters with this God shaped you? Have they made you a better person-more loving, generous, courageous and forgiving? Because that’s how Jesus talked about God. The God he comes to show us meets us where we’re at and loves us exactly as we are and yet loves us too much to let us stay that way…"

Tension. That seems to be God's favorite thing to create. The more and more I journey on in faith, the more and more tension I find. God is indeed the universal life force and the personal, unique, and subjective experience that each of us has in our Spiritual life. But God is also the objectively revealed Spirit that is incarnated in Jesus. In Christ, the invisible, immaterial,  indefinable God becomes visible, material, and definable- all while remaining immaterial, invisible, and indefinable! (headache alert!!) The reality is that whoever you talk about when you talk about God is true to your experience. That part of our relationship with God will always look different. We will all, therefore, always have differing images, names, and attributes that we imagine when we interact with God, and those attributes are true. But alongside of that, in Jesus, we do have some definable and objective things that we can say, believe, and imagine about God. That was Jesus' whole purpose- to reveal God and His Kingdom to us so that we could all become partakers and participants with and in them both.

How can this tension (including contradiction) possibly exist? I think we have to settle on two answers- faith and eternity. Faith is believing in that which cannot be seen, explained, or reasoned. God doesn't always "make sense". God isn't always (or most of the time) "reasonable". That's all part of being God. So when we have contradicting encounters with God, we cannot say that someone is wrong (unless their encounter of God fundamentally goes against the image of God in Jesus Christ- ie, God is a vengeful, hateful, monster.) Which brings me to point two, eternity. God is so big and so creative and so totally eternal that it makes sense that there is great diversity within the being of God. God is a father to the fatherless and a mother to the motherless. God is the one who rebukes and the one who gives grace. God is the one who brings clarity and the one who causes confusion. God is eternally expanding and eternally finite. God is so wholly other that any and all the boxes we try to put God in will be instantly destroyed. And yet, God has defined Gods self in the person of Jesus.

So the question stands, do we all worship the same God? No we don't. But yes, we do. It's the eternal tension that we all have to live with. Or rather, the exciting tension of an awesome creative God that we get to live with. The God who is knowable and unknowable all at the same time.

When it comes to talking about God, that which we cannot speak of is the one thing about whom we must never stop talking.- Peter Rollins

Grace and Peace-

Brandan

Have you seen the new documentary film Hellbound? by Director Kevin Miller (Expelled, SpOILed) yet? If you are a Christian who has any remote interest in theology from any perspective, Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, Liberal, Conservative, or Progressive, than you have got to see Hellbound?

I have plugged Hellbound? a lot on the blog in the past (See here and here). But now, to commemorate it's DVD and online streaming release, I really wanted to help get the word out. Kevin Miller is a friend of mine and is a great man filled with love and compassion. He truly has a desire to help the Church think about issues differently. And in this film, Miller does just that. This documentary features interviews with Christian leaders like Mark Driscoll, Kevin DeYoung, Brian McLaren, Frank Schaeffer and many others talking about the existence of hell and alternative perspectives than that of eternal conscious torment. This film will push the buttons of most people who watch it but it is so so so worth it.

I recently watched the film with two of my Evangelical Bible College friends- all of whom hold to traditional views of hell. After watching the movie together, all of us had our paradigms shifted and my friends couldn't stop speaking about the film for days. It's really that good. It's not your mama's documentary- it is captivating and exciting and will have you red with anger, weeping in sorrow, and filled with hope all at the same time. Most importantly, it will help you think in new ways and that is always essential for us as Christ followers.

You can watch Hellbound? anywhere in the world right now via Itunes or Amazon streaming. (click the method you would like to watch) You can also purchase a DVD or BlueRay copy of the film from the Hellbound? Store here.

And if you're interested, I have re-released my interview with Kevin Miller and the gang for download on Itunes here. Check it out.

If you watch the film, make sure you let me know what you think in the comments section. And spread the word! This is a film that needs to be seen by everyone.

Grace and Peace-

Brandan

"Therefore, imitate God like dearly loved children.

Ephesians 5:1-5 (Common English Bible)

In this familiar passage of Scripture, Paul the Apostle is calling the Church at Ephesus to embrace and live out their identity as Christians. He calls them to "imitate God like dearly loved children, living life with love and following Christ's example: loving and giving ourselves for others". (My paraphrase) As I was reading this passage, I began preaching this text silently in my bedroom. As I continued to "Exegete" this for my four walls, it occurred to me that Paul was calling these Christians not to Christianity but to Humanity.

What I mean is that Christianity isn't about becoming a Christian. Nor is it about becoming some intrinsically new creature. It is actually about being restored to who we were originally intended to be- Humans. That is, after all, the entire concept of redemption. To be redeemed isn't to be made new, but rather to be renewed or better yet, recycled. But by imitating God- which is following the example of Christ, who revealed God to us, and to reject lust, obscenity, greed and all other forms of idolatry and self-satisfaction, we actually slowly begin to become...human.

C.S. Lewis describes this in his book The Problem of Pain:
“To enter heaven is to become more human than you ever succeeded in being on earth; to enter hell is to be banished from humanity. What is cast (or casts itself) into hell is not a man: it is “remains.” To be a complete man means to have the passions obedient to the will and the will offered to God: to have been a man – to be an ex-man or “damned ghost” – would presumably mean to consist of a will utterly centered in its self and passions utterly uncontrolled by the will.”

Though Lewis is describing the eternal state in this quote, it still works. On earth, those who live as their own gods instead of in the divine image of God- Jesus Christ- in which we were created to be are nothing more than "Damned Ghosts", utterly centered on themselves and their passions to the detriment of themselves and the world around them. Likewise, those who live in the "Kingdom of Heaven", meaning, as those who are the children of God and siblings of Christ, following his example of love, grace, and selflessness, are actually embracing their humanity. Adam, prefall, was just as Christ was post resurrection. That is the whole of redemption theology. Christ is called the second Adam (which means human by the way), who lived as the example and the means by which all of the damned ghosts of fallen humanity can be restored to being truly human.

To be human is to incarnate Christ. To be partakers of divine nature. To be creative and not destructive. Loving and not loathing. Giving and not greedy. To be human is to be a mirror of God himself. It is to have infinite potential, infinite power, infinite life and yet to be under the subjection of the will of the God who has called himself our Parent.

Christian Author Jerry Bridges notes that "Every time a Christian sins they are experiencing an identity crisis." I often here people say when they make a mistake or sin, "Well, I'm only human." But being fallen and imperfect is not what being a human is about. Experiencing injustice and illness is not what being a human about. The Human identity is found reflected in the resurrected Christ- eternal, loving, gracious, creative, powerful, and just. Sinning or living as a sower of immorality and injustice is not what it means to be human. As Christians, we are those who have willingly subjected ourselves to the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit who is progressively restoring us to our true humanity as partakers of divine nature, Sons and Daughter, Co heirs of God. Every time we sin, we are acting contrary to who we are- we are forfeiting our identity.

So what is the practical implications of this? Well I think Paul makes it clear. We are to embrace our falleness and brokenness. Accept that we are severely damaged by sin. And in that, seek the resurrection life of Christ through faith and obedience to the Jesus way, truth, and life. By living a life that worships God, reflects Christ in what we do, and embraces true humanity, we will be "a sweet smelling savor to God". Jesus died and rose so that we may die to our fallen nature and rise to our true identity. We must submit to Jesus Lordship and seek to live lives marked by the fruits of His Spirit. When we do that, our twisted nature will be suffocated and we will be transformed into the image of Christ and partakers of His Kingdom- true humans.

Just a thought.

Grace & Peace

Brandan

I don’t think I have ever heard an Easter sermon that really asked what was going on when Jesus talked text with the boys on the road to Emmaus. What was he doing?  Some might say he was showing them certain canonical texts where prophecy was fulfilled in order to demonstrate their veracity so they could be trusted in anything they say. Some say Jesus was showing them the biblical necessity for his death, how he died, what he endured, what he accomplished. They are right, but they do not recognize that their religious logic about sacrifice, which they import into their theological understanding, is that of the ‘old age.’ So they go to the Bible and find what they expect to find: a sacrificial victim who took our sin and God’s wrath. Thus the text becomes read against itself. Is this really the way the New Testament speaks about the death of Jesus? Not at all.

One of the benefits of the gospel being expressed as Gospel (as a piece of literature), is that a multiple witness is born, when the story of Jesus is read through resurrection opened eyes. That witness is that no matter how you slice it or dice it there is a general continuity to the life, death, resurrection, ascension and coming of Jesus as the Spirit. It is the continuity at the heart of God whom we name as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, one God whose character never changes. It is the continuity of real, genuine, authentic, self-giving love. “God is love” (I John 1).

Now this is going to be very difficult for some to swallow. Those who seek intellectual certainty are certainly going to rail that I have said that they don’t preach the gospel. Certain people may perceive their position to be unassailable.  After all, they have had centuries and thousands of opponents to hone their arguments. For how can one believe that God pours out mercy, clemency and forgiveness upon me liberally, graciously, freely but upon you is poured out quite conservatively and conditionally, or not at all? Easy in the ‘old age.’ That is what one expected from a god.

Now take the Gospel of Matthew. End time judgment is the conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew Chapter 7 is warning to those who don’t take chapters 5-6 seriously as a discipleship blueprint. Everyone knows what lies at the heart of discipleship in Matthew 5-6: blessing for those not blessed in other Jewish faith expressions; peacemaking, reconciliation, truthfulness, mindfulness, trust, clemency and mercy.

How could so much of Evangelicalism miss that “With the measure you measure, you shall be measured by God”?  In other words, judgment is not about the laws we have broken or the taboos we have violated or who God has chosen or elected.  Judgment is about the type of measure we use upon others. If we judge others with thimbles of mercy, we should expect no less from God. We have become our own standard and the way in which we treat others is how we can expect to be treated by God as eschatological Judge.  That is Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount.

So why does Jesus do Bible Study with these guys on the road to Emmaus? I can just imagine it.

“Gents, mind if I tag along a bit? Super. So, why are so glum? It’s a beautiful Sunday afternoon. It’s a brand new day. Oh, yeah, heard about him. Tragic you say? What else did you expect? Isn’t it the case that from Abel to Zechariah, there have always been victims? The Psalms are full of the victim’s cry to God for help. One of Isaiah’s followers understood pretty clearly what was going to happen: someone somewhere was going to undergo an excruciating humiliation and suffering. But this would somehow save the people. There’s the suffering righteous person in Wisdom. What do you mean that you are scared? Back from the dead you say? Well, what if he comes back as you expect? Doomed?! Retribution? That’s pretty heavy. Zombie movie stuff.  Fulfillment of prophecy you say. Got to be the end? Yeah I know the book of Enoch. The end? Killer stuff, huh, really scary. That horrible day of the wrath of God stuff, right? I don’t think that’s the way it is going to happen.

Sure, I’ll explain.  But let me ask this: What did the servant of Isaiah say when he was suffering? What do you mean you don’t know?  Isaiah says the servant said nothing. Her voice was completely muted. That’s what happened to this guy Jesus right? He didn’t say anything did he?  Oh, he did say something while suffering. OK. So what did he say? Forgive them? You mean, like freely and unconditionally? Forgive them? No strings attached? Wow. He sounds like the kind of guy who gets his prayers answered, don’t you think? What if he comes back and he is not angry or wrathful? Would that, like, blow your mind or what? Peter said what? Well, there you have it. His first word is “Shalom.” No worries mates. Who do you think your Jesus is bringing peace to? The whole world?  That is big.

This peace business is not what you expected is it? But what if, what if this is the real deal? What if this is The End, capital T, capital E? Yeah, I know the Doors song. So, what if, maybe, perhaps, possibly, you might be looking at this end time thing out of kilter? It sounds to me like what you expected and what happened were two different things. Shalom, huh? Sounds like you are getting a good deal. I’d take it. Thanks, I’ll be glad to” ‘and he took the bread, blessed it, broke it and gave it to them..’

Bible study was an essential act that took place after Jesus was raised. When our eyes are opened to see the all embracing love of God expressed in Jesus, risen from the grave, we also see just how skewed our interpretation and expectation of the end could be. The Resurrection confronts our judgment as unjust. We were wrong to crucify Jesus and we wrong about his message and mission. Everything we judge or interpret is somehow skewed; we all have God-is-on-our-side theology and deny it to others. As Bernard Ramm taught us, “God forgives out theology just like he forgives our sin.” The Risen Christ confronts each of us with our own injustice and unjust theology.  Like Paul says, we are in this sin thing all together as a species. Sin is a principle or a structural reality within and among humans.  We all need our theology corrected because it too is infected by sin. Sin, for Paul is being stuck in ‘old age’ logic, theology and ethics. We are all affected by it because we all live in it and it (human culture) lives in us.  So interpreting texts, especially the Bible has also fallen under the spell of the old age.

We cannot help being unjust, it is an aspect of our socializing system which been compromised with the malware of religion. Justice has never been blind. It is broken beyond repair. It needs transformation.  Like the movie The Matrix, we are all born into one reality and are given a chance at Another Reality, Real Reality.  We are confronted with a truly Just Reality in the resurrection of Jesus for God “has placed all under sin, in order that God might have mercy on all” (Rom 11). The doctrine of original sin is the back story to the resurrection of Jesus. The resurrection is THE story, but it helps to understand the universal character of the Easter event with a universal back-story. Paul does not have a pessimistic view of humanity in his doctrine of original sin because he knows Jesus has brought salvation. He has great hope in the gospel. How does all this talk of sin relate to the Emmaus story?

Because the disciples perceived themselves as sinners, betrayers, cowards or worse, the disciples were all under the old age illusion that The Day would be a day of wrathful judgment. They thought that both God and the religious authorities were after them. Jesus’ Easter proclamation puts to rest once and for all God’s negative involvement.  God came announcing joyous shalom. On the journey to Emmaus that day, Jesus gave to those disciples a method of reading texts and he did it as One raised from the dead. It all ended as good news! Jesus changed their world when he talked Bible that day; their hearts were burning fiercely within them. Surely, one aspect of the resurrection gospel is to let Jesus show us how to read the Scriptures. Wouldn’t it be great to be able to read the Bible from Jesus’ perspective? From the perspective of resurrection you can. After all, Jesus is God’s interpreter (John 1:18) and your Lord.

When we read the story of Jesus through resurrection opened eyes, when we follow the consistent lead of his life, his teachings, his call to discipleship, and his death; when we see that Jesus brings a new and better way; when we let go of those old tired ways that never really worked or satisfied; when we began to read the Bible ‘outside the box’ of received wisdom, then we find exactly what we hoped for in the best of all possible worlds.  What’s more, it is better than anything we could have imagined or perceived!

What is it we think Jesus enacted on Easter that would have had the same logic as his sermon in Nazareth, and his rejection of violence in Gethsemane? How did he teach the disciples to hear the voice of God in their Bible? The text records he took them to stories of victimization throughout the scriptural tradition. Now they were not exactly carrying scrolls, so they cited texts and told stories. Jesus did a walk through the Bible with them, only from a perspective they had not trodden before.

Jesus is like and unlike all victims.  He is like all victims in that he is the victimized, and victimization comes in many forms. He is the first to self-identify as The Forgiving Victim. He well knows what Abel’s blood speaks. His bloody word will be a better word than that of Abel’s.  In the Jewish Bible there are three types of victims and Jesus self-selected one type which prefigured him.  Each victim has a role to play within the overall textual frame of reference. That is, the perspective of the victim will determine how you perceive God.  So when we come to the text, like Jesus, we want to know whose voice is speaking, for revelation, the resurrection gospel, only comes through the forgiving victim. I explored this more systematically in The Jesus Driven Life. There I showed that while there are two perspectives in the Bible, that of religion and that of revelation, there are three voices. Each voice has a different role to play in relation to violence.

A diagram may help.

You can see how important it is that one view the whole life of Jesus, from incarnation to Pentecost as one contiguous reality, the reality of The Forgiving Victim. Only then does reading the Bible from Jesus’ Easter perspective make sense.  Only then can one speak of revelation and stipulate the content of that revelation. The fact that we have multiple perspectives in the Bible is an asset and not a debit. We may have to rethink a lot of things if we follow the Risen Jesus.  That may not be such a bad thing however.

The Bible is not a perfect book.  It does not need to be a perfect book for there to be revelation loud and clear for those who have ears to hear. The significance of this is that the Protestant foundational article concerning the inspiration of Scripture is unnecessary. There is no need to begin one’s faith by trusting a perfect text, there has never been such a thing and there will never be such a thing. The weakness beginning with a theory of inspiration will always be that one must begin with establishing faith in the text in order to establish faith in God. Theories of inspiration, of how God must be or act and then how God relates to texts or writers are a detriment to clear gospel thinking. The starting point of the resurrection gospel is trust in Jesus’ message from the Abba, ‘Shalom.’

Genuine Christian faith is Easter faith. Faith in the Risen Jesus! Sing Hallelujah! It is not first faith in a book. It is first faith in a person, another human, one like us and let us admit thankfully, not like us. Easter faith is faith in the faithfulness of Jesus. It is faith in his shalom message. That message addresses head-on the problem of human violence and the God of Love. The resurrection gospel is where love conquers all. Love wins. This is the voice of revelation, it is the voice of Jesus, it is the voice of God. The Voice that opens our eyes and ears and sets us free.

Naming revelation, not as a concept but as a person, the Risen Forgiving Victim Jesus, renders meaningless the need to first trust in the Bible before one can trust in God. The Bible does not need to be perfect to communicate God’s Word to us.  In fact, its very imperfections can be sensed precisely because of the power of the Easter message. Without a measuring rod, a canon, we could not see where other voices had betrayed and been betrayed.  The Easter Voice, the voice of ‘Shalom’, is the Final Voice, the voice by which all other voices are measured. There is no other voice to come.  This is it.

The Bible’s ‘setting voice against voice against voice’ three-fold framework clarifies why so many revere the Bible, why some fear it and why others find the Bible repugnant. Different voices create different ways of story-telling. When the voices are mixed up together then, it became awful hard to believe in any really good news. So, many of us just switched it all off when it came to the Bible. It was all so complicated and complex and strange, and that was on a good day. Others tried to fix the problem by putting the Bible through logarithmic contortions that defied rationality using terms like inerrancy and infallibility. If everything in the Bible is about God then none of it really makes any sense.  God isn’t really different from all the other gods. It is all religious gobelty-gook.

Recognizing the three voices or trajectories of the Bible clearly shows a redemptive story from creation to new creation. There is a scarlet thread from Genesis to Revelation. It has always been about how God is patient with us humans, and keeps on trying to get through, and does get through in many and marvelous ways. With the Risen Jesus we have a way of reading texts that does not depend on a theory of inspiration.  So if you are wondering if we have a theory of inspiration, the answer is no. We do not need one. We have the Inspirer, Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ, Alpha and Omega. He is God’s First Word and God’s Last Word. Jesus is God’s only Word.

Peace be upon you always.

Michael Hardin

Who is Michael Hardin?

Michael is a grateful graduate (1988) of North Park Theological Seminary in Chicago where he studied Dietrich Bonhoeffer with F. Burton Nelson and Rene Girard with Edwin A. Hallsten. He lives in Lancaster, PA (in the heart of Amish country). Michael and his beloved Lorri have three daughters and two granddaughters, all named from characters in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings and Simarillion.

Michael is the author of The Jesus Driven Life (JDL Press, 2009) and the co-editor of Stricken by God? Nonviolent Identification and the Victory of Christ (Eerdmans, 2007), Peace Be With You (Cascadia, 2010), and Compassionate Eschatology (Wipf & Stock 2011).  He has published over a dozen articles utilizing Rene Girard’s mimetic theory and is pleased to be affiliated with the marvelous group of people who make up the Colloquium on Violence and Religion. With Lorri, Michael co-founded Preaching Peace. Together with Tom Nicol and Tony Bartlett, Michael co-founded Theology and Peace.

If you are interested in this way of thinking please feel free to visit my website www.preachingpeace.org or read my book The Jesus Driven Life.

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Disclaimer: The views in this post do not necessarily represent the views of Brandan Robertson or The Revangelical Blog.

I have spent the last week traveling across New Zealand with the Moody Bible Institute Men's Collegiate Choir, visiting churches from every denominational and theological stripe. Just a few days ago we were performing at Rangitea Church, one of the oldest churches in New Zealand. Rangitea is an Anglican Church under the Archbishop of Canterbury, but is a special breed that is completely in the Maori language and uses ancient Maori spiritual practices as part of its liturgical life. After our concert, I had the chance to sit down with the Rector of the congregation and chat with him about his life and ministry. I had mentioned that I was currently interning at an Anglican church that split from the Episcopal Church (USA) due to issues of homosexuality and women in leadership. His response was short, sweet, and to the point.

"Brandan, we just don't have time to concern ourselves with all of those issues. We have women bishops and gay priests. There is far to much to worry about, far to many issues in our community that require our churches attention than who marries who and which gender can minister in our congregations."

Now understand, this priest was a conservative Evangelical. He even personally believed that homosexuality was a sin. And yet, he wasn't spending his days protesting gay marriage or preventing gay priesthood. He wasn't starting councils and coalitions standing for or against women in ministry. There is far, far more vital things to deal with. When I first heard this response, I laughed and affirmed what he said politely. But as I later reflected on his words, I felt like I had an epiphany. This is what we are doing wrong in the US.

Later that night, I was having a theological conversation with some men in our choir and the issue of homosexuality came up. As soon as the words came out of my friends mouth, I got a knot in my stomach. I was (and am) so tired of these debates. Not because the issues at stake are not important- they are very important. Important to gay Christians who want to be treated as human beings and to conservative Christians who want to be faithful to their hermeneutic without being forced to perform ceremonies or attend churches where they are not comfortable. But these debates have been beat beyond hope in our country. It's all that we talk about. It's the only thing we care about. We pour millions of dollars and hours into defending or denying issues like women in ministry, homosexuality, evolution vs. creationism etc. We have artificially made these issues essential to Christian faith. They are our all in all. They create our boundary lines and church divisions.

And that is just sad.

The priest of the church in New Zealand got something profoundly right. Maybe it's time we all, conservative and liberal, gay and straight, just put our guns down leaving the tension that exists about these issues to remain, and start to be the Church of Jesus to our community, culture, and world. Maybe we should adapt a "live and let live" attitude towards those with whom we disagree with on these hot button issues and refuse to be sidetracked from the issues of real importance. Once again, I believe issues like Homosexuality and women in ministry are  very important issues. But they certainly aren't the most important. Let's talk about the amount of poverty and disease in our world, the failing American educational system, the severe religious persecution in the middle-east, and the wars that plague our world. Why don't we simply decide to stop bantering about issues in which we know that we are not going to change peoples minds on, and start working on that which we can agree on- real Kingdom issues. (once again, not saying that issues of homosexuality and creationism aren't important, but just not most important)

The rest of the global church (or at least a large portion of it) has seemed to have moved on to bigger and better things. The conservatives let the LGBT Christians do their thing while the LGBT Christians don't bother or try to impose rights on the conservatives. Issues of evolution and global warming are talked about but not divided over. And women in ministry is simply accepted as a necessity in the Church of this new age. This mindset has cultivated great unity amongst local Christian communiities and enabled issues of poverty, trafficking, and enviormental issues to be dealt with a real sense of urgency. If we can, as conservative and progressive Christians, simply move past these divisive issues with grace, we can begin to truly be the power of Christ to our communities, culture, and world for the glory of God and the good of all creation.

Just a thought from overseas. What do you think?

Writing from Christchurch, New Zealand-

Grace and Peace:

Brandan

Today is a big day for me. My first post went up at Red Letter Christians, a popular progressive evangelical blogging site and network founded by Tony Campolo and contributed to by some of the leading voices in Christ-centered Christianity like Brian McLaren, Shane Claiborne, Andrew Marin, Brett McCracken, Ron Sider and many, many more! I am humbled to have the opportunity to contribute to this amazing collaborate project of Christ-centered goodness.

My post is entitled Why Evangelical Is Worth Saving, which is an older post, almost a year old that appeared here on Revangelical but that outlines my vision for rethinking, reforming, and renewing the evangelical faith. If you get a chance, check it out here.

This is just the start of a wonderful collaboration between Revangelical and Red Letter Christians and I am so excited to see what is to come!

Special thanks to Jimmy Spencer, Michael Kimpan, Andrew Marin, Brian Ballard, and Oreon Trickey (all members of the RLC Board) for your support!

Grace and Peace-

Brandan