I'm watching Noah...but you don't have to

     I honestly wasn't going to see Noah. It was Hollywood. It was going to be unbiblical...because, well I've read the Bible and there isn't a lot of dialogue in the flood story. My dad talked me into it though. He mentioned that I should take my youth group to see it. A plan was hatched right then and there. We would look at the ever popular flood narrative in our time in Sunday School and then head to the movies.
     But then, as it always does, Facebook happened. Through the magic of the share button I was bombarded with info of the atheism of the director of Noah. Protests were hatched among the social media masses. Well, not really protests...many just avowed to not give their money to the atheists. But still, there was a tone that seemed to imply that not only would many not go see the movie, but I would be kind of a bad person if I did.
     I think dialogue above all things we typically do as humans should be celebrated and also not lost. Social media allows us to preach 140 characters at a time. What is missing is the back and forth. Rather than figure out the good and the obvious bad that would be inherent to any Hollywood take on the Bible, we often just walk away from our computers (not our phones though; we never walk away from those). So, lets look at the objections...

Objection #1 The director is an atheist

This is definitely a pickle. Should we give money to atheists especially when it is for a leisure activity? Not going to a movie is a perfectly acceptable response. But it does beg one question...do you apply that same standard to the other leisure areas in your life? If you do, be prepared to abstain from the following:

*All things Microsoft or Bill Gates related
*Titanic, Avatar and all other movies directed by James Cameron
*All things Brad Pitt (guys, you might have been there already)
*Star Trek, Priceline, and all other things William Shatner
*Green Day, Rob Reiner, Johnny Depp, and the list goes on ...

There is incredible irony in not seeing a movie because it would put money in the pockets of an atheist while posting about it on Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg, of course, is an atheist.

The point here is consistency in our message. As Christians, we are ALL hypocrites. We cannot possibly life up to the standard that is Jesus Christ. That of course is why we need Jesus.  But we can choose to put our money where our mouth is and make consistent decisions. When we don't, we get laughed at by an atheist community that doesn't care about our opinion to begin with. Looming larger than that, they laugh at our Savior.

Objection #2 True, but this atheist is dealing with Biblical subject matter

1) You are correct sir! They are dealing with a Biblical narrative. Maybe its good that an atheist is at the helm because God has a long history of using atheists. Wait, what?!? Yes, it is true. Pharaoh, King Nebuchadnezzar, and Pontius Pilot to name a select few all used mightily by the Creator. They are all part of the Bible itself.  What we find is that God uses these people to show His power, His control, and His mercy.

2) I have less problem with atheists mishandling the Bible than I do when believers mishandle it. Lest we forget the epic Bible Mini-Series on the History Channel. There were radical failures to show the portions of the Bible that weren't that action driven. Of course, we did learn that Noah was a wee bit Scottish. Bottom line, when my children (at that time ages 9, 7, & 5) are pointing out where the series is going wrong then it has to be bad. And lets not forget this...

Apparently the Bible was based on the Series

3) God's Word never returns void. It would do us all well to not just randomly say this verse when it suits us but to remember God is ALWAYS in control. Maybe we should stop singing "have thine own way Lord," if we don't believe He can actually have His own way. In the words of Isaiah 55:11...

so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
    it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
    and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. 

Objection #3 This atheist has thumbed his nose at God

You have probably seen that articles citing the director's heinous claim (if not then here you go). But here is the problem...all atheists are actively thumbing their nose at God. Atheists are not silent. They speak loudly and more often than seemingly anyone else on the planet (ever heard of Ricky Gervais; by the way you also can't watch the new Muppet movie). They are all activists. Here is what I know personally. For a decade of my life, I spent my time despising God and trying to deter the faith of others. God put Christians in my life that were willing to engage in conversation with me. They cared about me. They didn't refuse services at my place of business because I was an atheist. Jesus used them to draw me closer to Him. The other alternative for Christians was to push me further away. I am a bigger fan of the former than the latter.

Objection #4 God is not mentioned in the movie

I give you the book of Esther. God isn't mentioned but God is all throughout the book. When God is at the center of something, you don't have to explicitly mention Jesus as every other word. He will be evident through the result. Noah is in the Bible. The Bible is about God. Therefore, the Noah movie contains God. It really doesn't matter what the director has to say...just consider the source.

Okay...so what...

The problem is not Hollywood. The problem is that we as Christians expect them to do the job designated for us (please read Psalm 78 if you don't agree). When they don't, we complain about it. Frankly, we are in crisis mode people. I'm not mad that an atheist doesn't know the story of Noah. I'm mad that there is a generation of kids that don't know it either. I deal with youth in a church setting all the time and here is what they don't know- the Bible! So often when they do know the story, it is a watered down version that removes the importance of the story.

The story of Noah contains the Gospel. It had never rained before, yet Noah believes in what he cannot see. We call that faith. There is one door that cannot be opened or shut by human hands. That is Jesus-the Way, the Truth, the Life. There is an ark made of gopher wood. This was the wood used to make coffins. The message is that we must die in order to live. A torrential flood in a huge coffin gives us the first recorded baptism in human history. We see a God that carries us through trials. We see a dove return with a symbol of peace that echoes the vision we see in the Holy Spirit descending at Jesus' baptism. We see the covenant relationship God has with believers in the sign of the rainbow.

See the movie or don't see the movie...but do you know that story? Do your children know that story?

Lessons from Sports Camp

             My youth group and I had an awesome opportunity to attend/work/serve/have fun/throw marshmallows/whatever at Sports Camp a few weeks ago. Sports Camp is a souped up VBS pairing the teaching of sports with the teaching of Jesus. It’s one of those great opportunities to go and serve others.

The great truth about any mission trip though is that you get so much more than you bargained for. You go to serve and teach. You leave with so much more. The Sunday after our return, we sat down and made a list. The end result is a list of things we, as a group, learned. Here it goes…

1. We saw a small picture of God’s Kingdom

                This one is mine. I always feel such a longing for God’s Kingdom after being with a group of fellow believers. So much more than a song, I see the Kingdom in fellow believers. So much more than words that often relegate God’s Kingdom to streets of gold or the size of mansions, I see a snapshot of His Kingdom when sharing in the collective lives of other believers. It’s a place where God’s presence negates the need for both sun and moon. It’s beautiful.

2. Kids look up to us

                Charles Barkley once infamously touted that he, “was not a role model.” We are role models. We are real. Many of us can’t do remarkable things with a basketball or a football, but kids watch us more intently than any sports star on television. We are real and we are tangible. Plus, we’re taller than they are; they have to look up to us.

3. A good attitude is important

                We possess something that so many others don’t…hope. I Peter 3:15 is not simply about being ready to argue. It’s a verse that tells us others will come to us because there is something so different about us. Jesus yields hope. Hope yields an attitude worthy of the one that starts the process.

4. We are the only Jesus some will see

                The student that brought this one to light prefaced his statement with, “this gets said all the time.” The phrase is overused for a reason. Broken homes, broken lives, a broken world and there is only one answer for that. Our encounter with Christ should move beyond us. Through service and genuine caring that can be accomplished.

5. There are cool Christians

                People that believe in Jesus aren’t cool. People that profess faith in Christ aren’t popular. At least that is what the movies and media tell me every day. I think we learned the opposite is true. Even without Tim Tebow, we still found people we could be proud to call friends and fellow believers. Of course “cool” is never our goal. Still, I don’t have to search the world to find people to hang with. I don’t have to compartmentalize my life with “church friends” and “popular kids.”

6. Love the unlovable

                One of the core values of our youth group is to: Love people when they lease deserve it and when they lease expect it. Like anything in life, this can become a cool phrase for a t-shirt that we never actually apply in our lives. Sports Camp challenged all of us to love those kids that didn’t act the way we wanted them to. I was screamed at, my wife was kicked in the shin and my entire youth group has decided having children is “just not for them.” That is all right. We were able to overcome THE greatest obstacle in loving others…us. We had a chance to get past ourselves and see those that just needed to know they were loved no matter what or who they are.

7. Patience

                This is pretty self explanatory, but so important to us. Someone had patience with us. A parent, a mentor, a teacher, a coach, Jesus and that made the difference for all of us. Patience is not just something we prop up on a pedestal. It is something that has to ooze from us as we deal with others.

8. Being active is important

                One of my youth leaders lost 15 lbs during his week at "boot camp." He was looking for hidden cameras shooting a new season of Biggest Loser. Teaching kids sports, playing ultimate Frisbee, lifting weights- all of those things were way more fun than sitting on the couch eating potato chips. There are so many drums that get beaten about sins we shouldn’t commit. Gluttony and slothfulness should be listed somewhere as well.

9. Love kids

                We overlook them. We believe children are the future. They are people that need love now. Enough said.

10. Be flexible

                We are so rigid in our everyday schedules. My new friend Jackie shared a story with me. It concerned being late for a meeting because the time he spent with a broken individual was more important than being on time. So many times I value time, punctuality, or production over people. Be late for a meeting. Change your plans in a minute. It can make a difference to someone that needs you and not your day planner.

11. Heaven is bigger than where we live

                It is so easy to get focused on my church, my town, my house and forget how wonderfully large and diverse God’s family is.

12. Positive relationships are important

                For as long as there have been camps there have been “camp romances.” Stealing someone’s heart for our own fulfillment does a disservice to us and others. One of my youth leaders shared something so telling: “It’s not just about being physical. Every relationship you have, you give a piece of yourself away.” We should be careful in giving our hearts away. We should be just as careful with the hearts we try to capture.

                I think the beauty of all of these lessons is that they didn’t take a sermon series or a bible study for us to figure out. All it took was taking the things we have heard over and over and actually doing them. Personally, I can’t wait to see what we learn next year.

The Golden Rule

“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” The Golden Rule

              I hear the phrase Jesus and the Golden Rule linked together more and more often as I view my facebook news feed, listen to fellow Christians and as I watch the news. To put the issue bluntly, I use the words of legendary swordsman Inigo Montoya-

"You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

As Christians, we hold a responsibility to not just quote a few verses for our own gain, but to use it as it was meant. Even further, I think that understanding said rule will take us all a lot further than where we are now.

I always have despised that term, golden rule. I remember in school being taught the rule, made to recite it from a poster above the chalk board. It was just another rule that we as human beings have felt that we need to dress up to sound better than its original source. It really became kind of like the Ten Commandments, something that many will protest for, but far fewer know or practice them. In a world of sound bites and protests, I would like to take a look back to the original source.

If you want a tag line, my BIBLE, not poster says “The Great Commandment.” Nobody walks around saying, “Commandments were made to be broken.” On the other hand, we do say that in reference to rules. Our language does make a difference. Here is the passage in question that many paraphrase but have simply not read. Further, they haven’t thought about it much either.

But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

                                                Matthew 22:34-40 (ESV)

It fascinates me how we are so often like hound dogs. We sniff around until we find the passage that proves our point. In this particular portion of scripture, society skips the beginning, reads the middle and doesn’t even bother to finish the end. If we would just read the beginning, we could identify two groups that made the same mistake in the Pharisees and the Sadducees. In case you don’t know, they weren’t Jesus’ friend. It was the reason the lawyer arrived on the scene to “test him.” The test was to see what he could get out of the conversation. This test could yield two primary results. It could result in a legal case mounted against Christ. Or it could result in an excuse for the lawyer to continue living the way he was living. What the entire group walked away with was a different result all together.

Start at the end.

“On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

Right there, I realize that everything that had been preached, everything that had been written, every message that God had sent to mankind to that point in history could be put into two concise commandments. This tells me that Jesus doesn’t require me to be a walking encyclopedia of scripture. If I can’t list off every miracle He performed, that is okay. Jesus made it easy. For some reason, we have a desire to make it much easier. So often the impulse is to lead with one, almost apologizing for the fact that Jesus said it.

I suppose we could blame the media, facebook, congress, etc. The blame rests squarely with…Me. That’s right, it starts with me, you, your neighbor and anyone else that fits the bill of being a human. Take a closer look at the portion of scripture we label as the “Golden Rule.”

“Your shall love your neighbor as yourself.”         Matthew 22:39 ESV

The Golden Rule and the original Commandment are certainly similar. The foundational problem is we look at the most important person in the equation as us (i.e. yourself or you). In a therapeutic world, we start with the premise that it all runs through us. We run yelling, “See, I have to love myself! Jesus said so!” Here is the response. Slow down, you already suffer from that issue. You already love yourself.

“As long as I’ve known myself, and that is pretty much all my life, I have done whatever was in my own best self interest.”                -Me

The second problem comes in the form of permissibility. When we "love others" by a live and let live philosophy, that still comes down to our own personal self interest. Bottom line, we want leave others alone so that we will be left alone. While much more could be said about this, it would defeat the point. Here you go...

                The words that Jesus speaks in this passage serve not just to summarize the commandments but to provide a foundation so that the second command is even possible. Try as I might, I can never truly love my neighbor or others more than myself. It is too much to ask. It is the reason Christians cite such sayings as, “God doesn’t help those who don’t help themselves.” Those lines become our mantra simply we do not have it in us to love others as much as we love ourselves (by the way, God didn’t say that, Benjamin Franklin did).

                When we use just this one line to summarize all of Christianity, we in fact DO NOT summarize Christianity. This begs the question, why give this second command at all? What a waste of space. It all sounds pretty hopeless. And I would say that it is, if we were really honest with ourselves.

                But…there is something else that provides us hope. There is a command that is so powerful that not only does it form a basis for the second command, not only does it make the second command possible, but it forms foundation for existence. It forms a foundation for joy. It lays the groundwork for ME to move beyond ME.

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.”

What should blow us away is that he is our God. He is Lord. So I start by loving MY God with every fiber of my being! In loving him with all my heart, mind and soul I am being obedient. I’m not sniffing for what I can get out of scripture, relationships or life. Those things open themselves in a meaningful way when I start by loving God.

                Pick a sin, any sin. There are plenty to choose from. My view of sin will be based upon who I love first. If it is me that I love the most, I will start there and work my way forward on any social issues, denominational issues or personal ones.

But, if I love God first, then I will align with Him. I will view sin in the way that He views sin. I will realize I am not Him. In that realization, I will realize I am sinful myself. This will guide to how I respond to sin in my life, in others lives, in our state, in our country and in our world. I will remember that God did not just say words, but lived them. In the face of those that persecuted Him he stayed silent. When they mocked Him, He invited a thief to Heaven. He loved the world to the literal point of death.

This passage is like most in the Bible. We can use it as Christ intended. It can be used as a base for our lives. Or, we can use it to further personal agendas. Where we go in life will be dictated by which Commandment we begin with.