Having a closer listen to popular Christmas carols’ lyrics, you begin to understand how those outside of Christianity are left scratching their heads. Here’s two that I have heard recently that have me scratching, as well.
“…A Child, a Child, shivers in the cold, let us bring Him silver and gold…”
It is just me, or does it seem borderline cruel to give a shivering baby a nice pair of cufflinks? I think he could use a blanket. Furthermore, how cold was it in a middle eastern stable? This song is confusing.
“…The Ox and Lamb kept time, pa-rum-pum-pum pum…”
The whole concept of mini-concert in the aforementioned stable is awkward at best, but this line pushes me right over the edge. I guess the songwriter thought he could just slip in a line about the rhythmic farm animals without us noticing. We caught you, songwriter man. I’ll blindly assume it was a man who wrote such an absurd line. I’ll also stab in the dark and say the guy was a part-time songwriter, part time homebrewer, and he was experimenting with some high gravity pale ales while he whipped up this ditty.
I’ll keep my ears open for more holiday goodness, as we roll toward the 25th. Any tips on some good lines would be appreciated. Comment below.
I just got done reading The Shack by William Paul Young. As a heads up, I am probably going to spoil the plot for you in this review. But that it pretty well done by reading the back cover of the book, so I don’t feel too bad about it.
Any time a book is sweeping the nation and addresses spiritual issues, I feel compelled to read it, to stay on top of what the culture is producing. Frankly, that’s the only reason I even made it all the way through this book. It’s just not good, from a literary and artistic standpoint. It attempts to create a strange sort of new genre somewhere at the intersection of realistic fiction, fantasy, theological non-fiction, and philosophy. In so doing, it is completely confusing.
In trying to meet in-between genres, you lose believability and credibility in all of them.
As a work of realistic fiction, it’s laughable for it’s predictability, aggressive foreshadowing, and melodrama. The lines are forced and heavy early on in the book, trying to set the stage for the Missy’s murder. I felt brow-beaten by the onslaught of cliched sappy-ness juxtaposed with the impending doom.
As a work of fantasy, it’s unbearably cheesy (a guy goes for a walk with Jesus off the end of a dock and across a lake? Really? That’s not supposed to make me laugh?). Personifying God as an African-American woman is not a punishable offense, on the surface. Making her live up to multiple negative stereotypes of African American culture, from the “barefoot in the kitchen with flour on her face” to having her start every other sentence with “honey,” could very well be a crime, if you are looking to write a respectable novel.
As a work of theological non-fiction, it’s far too loose with the analogies, metaphors, and anthropomorphisms to be considered anything other than heretical by serious Christian theologians. In fact, the book even conjures the goddess Sophia, a key player in many pseudo-christian religious movements such as Gnosticism and various other forms of cultic mysticism. When “Papa” (the female “Father” figure of the book—which I am not going to comment on for the sake of brevity—and to avoid the hate-mail) declares her preferred name to be “Elousia,” and the “Holy Spirit” figure in the book goes by “Sarayu” both of those names have roots in Hindu scriptures. I could spend a long time nailing down all of the things I see theologically wrong with the book, but others have done that quite well. Click here for a thorough, fair, and sensitive approach by another blogger to the theological issues at hand. Some of the comments after the post become heated, but the blogger himself does a great job.
As a work of philosophy it comes the closest to believable, as it does a fair job through the characters of relating philosophical truths and concepts. But it gets too bogged down in plot and character development to really shine as a work of philosophy.
In short, please don’t read The Shack. It’s just not good. It sincerely frightens me when people say things like “The Shack will change the way you think about God forever,” as Kathie Lee Gifford says just inside the front cover. Paul’s letter to the Romans or possibly Desiring God by John Piper can change the way you think about God forever. The Shack should not do so. It’s bad “Christian Art” at best, and dangerous heresy at worst. And shame on Michael W. Smith for endorsing it on the back cover.
Does giving to God mean he will give back to me (monetarily)?
Is my faith (or lack thereof) tied to God’s blessings in my life?
Does not tithing mean God is unable to bless me?
These are weighty questions, and a blog is hardly the place to answer them thoroughly. Especially if I want people to actually read the post. So I’ll try to keep this brief.
I am not against wealthy people. I am not against wealthy pastors, even. The Levites (ministers in the Old Testament) were well paid, and got the finest things. They were, after all, paid with “first fruits” from everyone else.
What I am firmly against is the idea that if I give to God, he is obligated to give back to me; or the reverse of that—if I don’t give to God, He can’t or won’t give to me. I once heard a pastor say to his congregation “There is a 50% blessing window open over this church, because only 50% of the members tithe.” As though God is bound by our giving in how he blesses us. That sentiment totally and completely undermines the gospel. It could not be any more opposite to the gospel.
What the “prosperity gospel” teachers (such as Kenneth Copeland, Benny Hinn, T.D. Jakes, Joel Osteen, Joyce Meyer, Peter Popoff, Robert Tilton, Bruce Wilkinson, etc) are totally missing is that JESUS is the blessing of the gospel. Money, health, sucess, and all the other blessings of the Christian life all pale in comparison to Jesus. And I don’t get 80% of Jesus because only 80% of my church is tithing. I get all of him.
It is a thoroughly pagan idea that we need to give to God to make him give to us. It’s how all of the pagan deities were satisfied. You give them money, and they don’t punish you. It’s karma. Do good to get good. “Pay it Forward.”
Conversely, Jesus offers grace. That’s a word that has almost totally lost its meaning after years of being tossed around the sanctuary. It means unmerited, unearned blessings and gifts. Grace is the idea that you get something for nothing. In the context of God’s economy, grace means you get life when you deserve death, blessing when you deserve a curse, heaven when you deserve hell. The gospel turns karma on it’s head. You do nothing to get everything. Instead of “Pay it Forward,” Jesus Paid it All.
The gospel is not just how God operates to get you into the kingdom, though. It is his MO all the way through the Christian life. Because of Jesus, God can and does richly bless you in spite of what you do. There is nothing you can do to earn his blessing, affect his blessing, or revoke his blessing. That’s the beauty of grace. If you can’t earn it, you can’t un-earn it. Tithing doesn’t make God like you more, and not tithing doesnt make him like you (or bless you) less. To think or say that is a direct offense to God’s kindness in dying for you.
So today, on Christmas, let’s remember the ultimate gift of God. He is Jesus. He is still the highest blessing we could ever receive, and we receive Him by grace. We have more wealth in Christ than we could ever have from money.
To close, here’s my favorite song. A song that resonates so deeply in my heart. It helps me to realize that I do the exact same thing that I speak out against. Following the song is a video of Derek Webb describing the song’s meaning.
Today we got an email that indicated someone was coming off of our financial support team. They supported us at $200 per month. I am still trying to get to the bottom of this, because it appears they didn’t intend to stop giving, and it is very possibly a computer glitch in Orlando at our headquarters.
Either way… those emails are always a good idolatry indicator for me. I’ll be honest and say I even went so far as to yell at my wife as a result of that email. I trust in money way too often. More accurately, I trust in control. If I can control the situation, I am good to go. And money in a bank account is a good way to have a sense of control.
Any time I feel in control of a situation, though, it’s an illusion. All it takes is a crisis to show that. When a gunman enters a classroom, all the folks who were in control no longer are. When a hurricane hits, you realize that no matter how big you are, you’re still pretty small…
All of that to say that “control” is a fickle and shifty idol to chase after. But I do it all the time.
It got me thinking, as I confessed my sin, that I sometimes think things are biblical just because they are American. I was listening to the Dave Ramsey Show podcast in the car earlier and started to fantasize about leaving staff and getting a job where I could support my family without having to rely on others to support us. After all, it’s in the Bible that we should take care of our families, and that we should work, and that handouts are bad.
Wait, maybe not all of that is in the Bible. Support raising is all over the Bible. It’s how God has funded his work since the very beginning. It’s thoroughly biblical, and thoroughly un-American. And so while I am right in line with the word of God when I pick up the phone and call folks for support, I am paddling upstream in the culture. We are a culture that values independence (have been since the ’70s… the SEVENTEEN 70’s) and the thought that my business is my business, not yours. ESPECIALLY when it comes to my wallet.
If I were to leave staff, I’d just be feeding the idol of control. I’d work 90 hours a week and be a millionaire by the time I retire, sure. But I’d be running from where I am confident God has called me. He’s called me to reach students with the gospel. To tell them that even though they incessantly run from him and trust in things other than him, He died to set them free.
Just as surely as I am confident God has called me to breathe life into a dying college culture, I’m confident He’s called others (like you. Yeah, you…) to “hold the rope” financially and prayerfully for me. There’s not an email I could receive that would change that.
Sometimes I wish I were a feeler. I live much of my life blissfully unaware that there are things that need to be felt. Every once in a while I get a glimpse into what my life would be like if I didn’t default to cognition in place of emotion. Yesterday was one of those times.
I teach a class at church, along with 4 other people in what is called “round table” teaching. It is a great opportunity to enter into community with other teachers and really live life with them, even if only for a couple hours per week. Last night at our round table one of the teachers was expressing how she craves tangibility in her relationship with God. She deeply desires a physical connection with Him, and hasn’t been experiencing that lately. We gathered around her, put our hands on her shoulders and arms, and became the hands of Christ to her, as we prayed that God would refresh her and renew her.
As we were praying, God began to work into my heart the gospel, again. In the hustle to go about my day, and to think through all the things that needed doing, I had forgotten that Jesus paid it all. I had failed to bring before him my concerns, my problems, and my joys. I am so quick to default to performance-based churchianity, where I am only as valuable as my ability to produce results. Consequently, I am easily overwhelmed by my own inability to control my environment. It’s tough to produce results when you can’t even guarantee a paycheck for your wife and child.
That’s when it hit me, in a wave of emotion that forced a tear from my eye: I got a glimpse into the life of a feeler! But more than that, I was comforted by Jesus. As I became the hands of Christ for a sister in need, He reminded me that He hadn’t left the throne. He provides just what we need, just when we need it.
