The Wired Wanderings of a Postmodern Pilgrim
Apr 6th, 2012 by Tom Lyberg
David Lose: Is God Angry At You? A Good Friday Reflection.
On this Good Friday, here is a great reflection that as Christians, not all of us take the popular Evangelical position of Jesus as God’s whipping boy and this warped idea that God has to kill someone in order to really love and forgive human beings.
David Lose is a theologian from my Lutheran tribe and is this a very good take on how the Bible does say something different than Mark Dricoll, John Piper, and the TBN network.
Apr 4th, 2012 by Tom Lyberg
Andrew Sullivan: Christianity in Crisis – The Daily Beast.
A lengthy but excellent observation of the state of North American Christianity. Despite the reach of American culture and megachurch outreach, the growth of Protestant churches in Africa and Roman Catholicism in South American is different from here. North American Christianity is at a point of Reformation as in the 16th Century, a culmination of abuse, scandal, self indulgence, and lack of vision. Combined with the Rachael Held Evans blog this week, it points to a core in mainline Protestantism that could flourish if we ditch the baby boomer baggage and the literalist piety. We need to get back to Jesus and do it in community.
Mar 26th, 2012 by Tom Lyberg
Called to Passion: Get Rid of Your Crappy Pastor!.
In light of my podcast on the death of pastoring, here is another take on the trials and tribulations of pastors. For those of us who find ourselves in this calling, we all know that most of our time is spend walking around with targets on our backs and a label on the front that says “Complaint Department.” We all have to deal with those folks who can’t give compliments without following up with a list of the things you are still doing wrong/not as well as the old pastor/not the way I was taught. Even if you aren’t a pastor, if you have spent time in an established congregation (been around for 25+ years), you know the drill.
This post is a fun and encouraging take to put the complainers in perspective (even Moses needed help – go ahead, do a word search in the book of Exodus on the number of times “complain” appears) and might even spur some people to look at pastors differently.
Mar 26th, 2012 by Tom Lyberg
It was back in the mid-1970s and I was in a middle school gifted and talented class. Our teacher had brought an album for us to listen to called Waiting For the Electrician Or Someone Like Him. Our school’s guidance counselor, who looked like Jesus in blue jeans had also dropped by to listen. Now we didn’t get the drug humor but a lot of the historical and social references connected as well as just the silly bits (You will now learn three new words in Turkish – towel, delight, border – May I see your passport please?)
Years later I came to enjoy not only the albums but copies of their radio program floating around on the early internet. Their concept of radio, humor, and satire were also part of the seeds that influenced by exploration of podcasting as well as firing my own warped sense of humor. Peter Bergman died this month and its a loss of an era when comedians like them, Richard Pryor, George Carlin, and others could be funny, bold, and not have to sacrifice art or intellect to political correctness and sensitivities that stifle creativity today. Here’s an obit done by NPR.
And this is a great little video tribute.
And a classic sketch. Enjoy.
Mar 13th, 2012 by Tom Lyberg
Thanks to Maury for keeping me up to date since he lives near the Crystal Cathedral. I guess the end is near and its just vultures picking over the bones. Just goes to show nothing is forever. One church consultant, I think it was Tom Bandy, said today no congregation is more than a generation from being dead and gone.
I think this points to what I would say is the likelihood that Boomers (as a generation) will not only cause the next two generations to have a lower standard of living than they enjoyed. They will also be at the root for the largest closure of Christian congregations this country has ever seen for reasons seen here – generational myopia and selfishness; using money as a proxy for service; numbers and appearance over discipleship. Schuller understood it at first but by the 1990s, the vision was lost and it became servicing a gray boomer demographic. Pretty much like I said in WJP 61.
Mar 9th, 2012 by Tom Lyberg
Banks foreclosing on churches in record numbers | Reuters.
Its been interesting to hear in my tribal circles that giving to congregations and the denomination has gone down ever since we allowed the option for congregations to call gay and lesbian pastors in partnerships. Considering that only 500-600 congregations left out of 11,000, it doesn’t hold much water in my mind. What is having an effect is the economy, specifically on two groups – overextended new congregations and undersized congregations that can’t afford staffing or utilities.
If you built a new building or added on since 2008, you and your leadership have been sweating bullets and been very nice to new members. As incomes dropped and jobs were lost, church income dropped to the point where staff was/is cut to pay mortgages on buildings that aren’t filling up or paying for themselves. Likewise, rural American is a patchwork of congregations worshipping 25-100, sitting at crossroads or in cornfields, and filled with elderly members. They can’t afford pastors but at least the building was paid off. Now they can’t afford part time or the utilities/upkeep on 100+ year old buildings. So they close and try and sell the property.
Which does raise the question – who want to buy a used church? Occasionally an old brick building might become a home or restaurant but 95% of the time? They sit there and decay, a new icon for religious life in the 21st Century, and the end of the boomer dream of the megachurch.
Here’s listing for hundreds of churches that are currently for sale.
Feb 29th, 2012 by Tom Lyberg
Liturgy is the ‘what’
Be ready to adapt the ‘what’ for the ‘why’ of worship
Here is a link to my latest article for The Lutheran magazine on alternative worship. While in most Christian tribes, band led, praise and worship style services are common and not controversial, many Lutherans are still very tied to their 19th Century liturgical roots, organ hymns, and above all, a reluctance to change from the way we have always done it. Tradition has a place but often it becomes an excuse for being the type of people you want to be instead of the people God calls you to be. So I try to thread the needle between our heritage and relevance for effective mission. Enjoy.
Feb 29th, 2012 by Tom Lyberg
John 19:1-16 (NIV)
1 Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. 2 The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe 3 and went up to him again and again, saying, “Hail, king of the Jews!†And they slapped him in the face.
4 Once more Pilate came out and said to the Jews gathered there, “Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against him.†5 When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, “Here is the man!â€
6 As soon as the chief priests and their officials saw him, they shouted, “Crucify! Crucify!â€
But Pilate answered, “You take him and crucify him. As for me, I find no basis for a charge against him.â€
7 The Jewish leaders insisted, “We have a law, and according to that law he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God.â€
8 When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid, 9 and he went back inside the palace. “Where do you come from?†he asked Jesus, but Jesus gave him no answer. 10 “Do you refuse to speak to me?†Pilate said. “Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?â€
11 Jesus answered, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.â€
12 From then on, Pilate tried to set Jesus free, but the Jewish leaders kept shouting, “If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar.â€
13 When Pilate heard this, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judge’s seat at a place known as the Stone Pavement (which in Aramaic is Gabbatha). 14 It was the day of Preparation of the Passover; it was about noon.
“Here is your king,†Pilate said to the Jews.
15 But they shouted, “Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!â€
“Shall I crucify your king?†Pilate asked.
“We have no king but Caesar,†the chief priests answered.
16 Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified.
A Matter of Death and Life
Today we look in on a trial in the court of Pontius Pilate, the Roman military governor of Judea, the man who has the authority to sentence people to be crucified. Crucifixion was the ultimate form of execution, so hideous and painful it was reserved only for political rebels and terrorists.
The story is told in John’s Gospel, chapters 18 and 19. The Jewish leaders bring Jesus before Pilate and demand that he be crucified. Pilate asks for charges and they can’t offer anything of substance, so he tells them to go do it. They answer they can’t and Pilate knew that. It was his reminder to them as to who was in charge of life and death – Rome and he was Rom in Judea.
However, when they bring up that Jesus claimed to be a king, Pilate questions the prisoner, only to find out he believes he is a king and is here to testify to the truth, a truth he won’t share with Pilate. Just to irritate the Jewish leaders, Pilate tries to free Jesus, offering the gathered crowds to free a prisoner. It backfires when the crowd demands a terrorist named Barabbas be freed instead. Suddenly everything shifts and Pilate is no longer in control but the crowds crying “Crucify him.â€
Pilate is stuck. He wants to free Jesus. He’s even intrigued by Jesus. But he is Rome and Rome does not permit mercy. Rome stands for law and order, law wants peace in this region even if people must be killed to achieve it. So when the crowd demands that Pilate crucify Jesus or he is no friend of Caesar by allowing a pretender king to live, Pilate orders Jesus to be nailed to a cross until dead.
It was easier to keep the peace than to do what was just, to do what was right. It was easier to nail someone to the cross than to carry it. We find that to be true ourselves. We know what is right but we are just as apt to do what is easy. We do it at work – balancing a bottom line is easier than honoring agreements just as viewing bosses as the enemy instead of coworkers. We do it in our families – hanging out with friends is easier than spending time as a family or caring for that relative who is always getting ill or in trouble. We do it with ourselves – its easier to sleep in than to worship, to claim the need for my time than to serve in God’s time. So its just easier to nail work, family, or time to the cross rather than have to pick up the cursed thing ourselves, to bear it in following Jesus rather than leaving it behind.
So Pilate ordered Jesus to be crucified and never looked at the cross, never carried it, just nailed his problems and inconveniences to it. The thing is, Jesus took it anyway. Pilate thought the choice was his but it wasn’t. That is the power of cross that Pilate never expected and neither do we. Every selfish choice, every sinful choice made for my convenience, my entire broken nature that I deny is there but knowingly can’t fix was nailed to that cross outside Jerusalem and forgiven there. Forgiven without my asking. Forgiven without my permission. Forgiven because that is what God intended. His choice, not ours. His saving decision, not mine.
A matter of death and life. Pilate thought he was executing a problem, crucifying a man, using death as an end. Instead he was executing God and crucifying sin itself, using a cross to end death. He had no idea. Neither do we. But God does and that is the saving power of the cross, the hideous cross we hide from, the glorious cross we carry.
Feb 29th, 2012 by Tom Lyberg
A number of years ago I came across a great reader’s theater piece for Lent called CrossExaminations, a reader’s theater series that reflected on the meaning of the cross. Now out of print, I have brought it out of my library to reuse here. However, since we do a 12:10PM short service for working folks over lunch, it is too long use. So what I have been doing is writing short reflections on the theme and in looking them over, I think its a good discipline to get me back to more regular posting on Wired Jesus as well as some fodder for some short podcasts as weekly meditations. So here is last week’s and I’ll post today’s shortly. Let me know what you think as I’ll likely do the second as a podcast experiment. I’ve been mostly about being out in the wired world but maybe some reflections like this would be a good addition and a resource for many of you.
Feb 22 – The Grace of God Revealed
Throughout Lent we are going to reflect on the meaning of the cross. The cross has become the most common symbol of our Christian faith. Today we find it not only smeared on the foreheads of God’s people but also painted, carved from wood, shaped out of metal, decorated with precious stones, and with intricate patterns.
All of which seems to miss the point. After all, none of us walk around with noose around our necks or sculpt an electric chair for display in our homes. That would be gross. After all, the cross is an instrument of death created by the Romans to kill revolutionaries as a public example. To decorate the cross can cause us to forget what the cross is, a tool for a cruel death.
But we in the church have chosen to remember the cross, not simply because Jesus died, but because we know what is on the other side. The cross points us not to death but salvation, not an end but a new beginning with God for us all.
The cross is a sign of God’s love made visible, which is not a comfortable thought. The cross is stained with blood and violence, an agonizing death that makes it ugly. But the mystery is that in ultimate ugliness there is ultimate beauty. Two pieces of wood fastened together to stick a man up until he died. But the mystery is that it was also used to stick God up, so that God the Creator could explore sin, death, and being human from the inside. So as Martin Luther put it, the cross of Jesus is a kind of a mask, the mask of God.
It is hard to see God in the cross, in fact it seems to be pure foolishness to most people, both two thousand years ago and today. But through the cross we see God’s open door to life. The cross is the mask behind which God hides so that we might fully see his love.
It goes back to the is said in the Old Testament, that no one can see the face of God and live. So God hid his face so that we could see him and yet live. That is grace. So instead of coming in glory, God hid in a baby’s birth in a stable. Instead, of a king’s splendor, we saw the humility of a carpenter. And yet behind it all, we sense the face of a gracious God, and that is grace, revealed.
This mask of God still seems foolish and gets us into trouble. The apostles were killed for preaching the Gospel of God masked in Jesus. Early Christians were killed, even nailed to crosses themselves for faithfulness to Jesus. We would like to think it doesn’t happen anymore but it does. This morning the government of Iran ordered the execution of a Iranian Christian pastor because he would not convert to Islam. Its happening elsewhere, and not just the Middle East. Not crucifixion but it is the cross. But even here – people are ridiculed for faith in Jesus; excluded or shut out for faith or not the “right†kind of faith; some are ignored, counted as worthless. A physical cross is missing but the pain is real, inflicted by those inside and outside the church.
But the cross is there, the mask of God is there, hiding God’s splendor so we won’t be devastated but revealing an infinite love and compassion. It is God’s gift to us and its God’s gift we are to share with others.
In the coming weeks we are going to look hard at the cross – not its shadows, not as jewelry. Two crosses of real wood that we can see and touch. Signs of the cross we carry as those baptized into the death of Jesus. Signs of the cross that gives us life in the resurrection of Jesus. The truth of unconditional love and forgiveness, the truth of the cross, the truth of the mask of God. Amen.
Feb 6th, 2012 by Tom Lyberg
Anne Rice Talks About Her Faith, the Bible & Her New Book ‘The Wolf Gift’ | TheBlaze.com.
Interesting. This story comes off Glenn Beck’s news aggregator, The Blaze, not exactly where I would expect Anne Rice to be giving an interview. A very intelligent and thoughtful woman, this article is well worth reading.