Paul Stewart

The Church God Loves

Yesterday, Steve Beeman spoke in our morning services. He did an excellent job of describing the purpose and mission of the Church. He pointed out that Jesus ministered to Jewish people living in a very Greek culture. So Jesus used certain elements of both cultures to teach and model what would become the New Testament church to his followers.

For example, Jesus often taught in the Jewish Synagogues and over meals with his followers.

In the Greek culture meals were incredibly important events and the most important of these was known as a Symposia. During the life of Jesus, a Greek Symposia was a formal banquet that was followed by drinking and discussion. These meals were highly exclusive and only those within your own social status/network would be invited to attend.

Jesus took these meals and turned them upside down. His meals were always inclusive, socially inviting and completely without hierarchal standing. He told his followers not to invite the people who could repay them but rather to invite the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind (Luke 14:7 – 14).

This method would continue into the New Testament church. In Acts 2:46 we read that the believers gathered day-by-day “attending the temple and breaking bread in their homes.”

Later we see Paul’s missionary Journey’s also followed this pattern – when he arrived at a new city he would teach first at the synagogue and then house to house or other public venues.

As time went on, more and more Jews were kicked out of the Synagogues to worship in homes and more and more Gentiles would join them. This involved eating together which caused quite a stir (Galatians 2:11 – 14).

But this was no longer a Jewish church; it was a church for all the nations. In this church there would no longer be Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female (Galatians 3:27 – 29).

This is probably why Paul’s short letter to Philemon was included in the canon. Paul was appealing to his friend Philemon to take status away and accept his slave Onesimus as his brother-in-Christ. Tradition tells us that Philemon obeyed and Onesimus went on to become a bishop in the early church!

Steve challenged us to find someone who looks, thinks, or acts different than us. Someone in another social or economic status and simply get to know them – maybe over a meal!

Wildwood Hills Ranch

Last Thursday I finally had the chance to visit Wildwood Hills Ranch and see my friends Matt, Mark, and Emily in action. Wildwood is a beautiful 400-acre ranch, set in the scenic hills of Madison County. It is truly a remarkable place.

The ranch exists to transform lives by providing healing, hope, and God’s unconditional love to “at-risk” children around the state. They offer a free summer camp and year-round retreats with first-class facilities and activities. From the moment the kids step onto the property they are immersed in a fun, safe environment where character, leadership, and teamwork are modeled and taught.

The camp counselors teach new life skills and the kids begin to build the confidence necessary to transcend their current impoverished, abused, or neglected environments.

On Thursday night I had the opportunity to get to know some of these kids and a little of their story. We did archery, leather crafting, team-building games, and roasted s’mores by the bonfire.

That night, once the kids were in bed and the lights were turned out, I read the Easter story. I told them about Thomas and his doubts about the resurrection. I asked the kids if they had any doubts and this led into an incredible discussion about faith and God’s unconditional love, even in the midst of their pain.

I don’t know if the Easter story has ever felt so real to me as it did in that moment.

Domino Effect - Series Trailer

In April we're kicking off a brand new sermon series called the Domino Effect -- Little Changes that Make a BIG Difference. Our media director just sent me the promotional video... looks like it will be a great series!

The Heart of Black Preaching

Over the weekend the nation turned its attention to Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama's former pastor in the south side of Chicago. The cable news stations and talk radio have been playing carefully selected excerpts of the most provocative statements from Rev. Wright's fiery sermons.

Obama, while affirming the tremendous work his church has done in his city and around the nation, has condemned the most controversial remarks of his pastor. But the whole controversy points to the enormous gap in understanding between the mainstream black community in the U.S. and the experience of many white Americans.

How do two groups of Christians living in the same country, reading the same Bible, come to such radically different conclusions?

In David Kelsey’s work on biblical hermeneutics he contends that every faith community brings its own particular template or master lens to scriptural interpretation. Our decisions about how to interpret scripture are not based solely on a close study of biblical texts but on a prior decision in which we imaginatively try to grasp the essence of Christianity. The truth is that every culture throughout the history of the church has brought its own unique perspective to scripture and has attempted to contextualize that message back into the culture.

There is nothing inherently wrong with this, in fact it is very natural, but it is essential for people to first of all recognize that they are doing this. We must make ourselves as aware as possible of the cultural lenses we are looking through. While God is, by nature, objective truth, God cannot be known through rational objectivity. We all bring a great deal of our own subjectivity to the scripture. We must to go back to the text and allow it to continuously transform and enlarge our vision of God. We must also learn to read scripture from others point of view.

Justo Gonzalez points out that every cultural expression of Christianity has to be in a constant process of purification in relation to the gospel, otherwise it transforms its every expression of the gospel into idols and imposes them upon other peoples as absolutes.

I have always appreciated the power and the passion of black preaching and I had assumed it was just a cultural dynamic at work. However this past year I read a book called The Heart of Black Preaching by Cleophus J. LaRue that really changed my perspective. According to LaRue the distinctive power of black preaching lies much deeper, resting in the soul of black Christian experience. The essence of black preaching is not merely rhetorical techniques but extraordinary experiences that have given them a unique understanding of the Bible.

The African American perspective is past-oriented. Their history is what makes them who they are. Their experiences and the experiences of their ancestors are an essential part of their identity. It is through those experiences that they view their world and it is with those experiences that they approach scripture.

The black church was born in slavery. Thus black preaching originated in a context of marginalization and struggle, and it is to this context that even today it still seeks to be relevant. This is largely due to the continued marginalization and injustices that the black community experiences at the hands of the larger white society, especially on the south side of Chicago, but also because history is so important to how blacks view the world today.

Their history of slavery and injustice gives them very different perspectives on scripture often unavailable to those standing in the center of power. They view scripture through a unique lens.

Blacks tend to believe that scripture demonstrates God’s mighty actions on behalf of marginalized and powerless people. The biblical stories and scriptural passages that have historically been used the most in black sermons were those that clearly demonstrated the mighty acts of God on behalf of people who were in situations of powerlessness consistent with, though not the same as, those of the forcibly displaced Africans in America. Stories that spoke of the mighty acts of God on behalf of the marginalized were actually the stories that attracted blacks to the God of the Christian religion during the days of slavery.

The black church pulpit has historically been a place of prophetic truth-telling about the realities that black people experience in their lives. In fact, the black church has often been the only place where such truths are ever told. Black preachers have had the task of encouraging people who feel beaten down week after week. The goal of the black sermon is the creation of a meaningful connection between an all-powerful God and a marginalized and powerless people.

So while I certainly do not condone the angry and divisive rhetoric of Rev. Wright, I think it is important to try to see the world from his perspective – and being a white kid from a middle-class suburb of Des Moines, this will take a little more effort than listening to a twenty second sound bite on Fox News.

Inverted Calling

I just read an article about Gary Collins, a seventy-three year old speaker/author who stays young by working out several times a week, actively seeking opportunities to hang with young men and women and constantly asking great questions. He stays extremely well informed regarding current trends in ministry – three of his recent reads: UnChristian, Off Road Disciplines, and The New Christians.

I really appreciate guys like this. I think it displays incredible humility and a passion to keep learning.

On the other hand, as a young minister I think I have a different calling than Gary. I’ve read all three of the books he mentions, and while I learned a lot from each, they really just reinforced what I already knew. I’m not saying that I don’t have to work to stay informed but at twenty-nine I think I am just naturally more in-tune with current ministry trends.

In fact, I have begun to realize that I am an information junky. I am constantly downloading and listening to podcasts, reading blogs & magazines, or searching for the latest trends in music, culture, and religion.

I think that a younger minister’s calling is really the inverse of Gary’s. I have to discipline myself to spend more time reading the “classics” – Augustine, Luther, Calvin, Bonhoeffer, Chesterton, etc. I need to find the time to sit down with older men and see things from their perspective. I also need to make a conscious effort to limit my information consumption and focus instead on prayer, scripture reading, and meditation.

I think things like this probably come more naturally to guys like Gary – which is why he must discipline himself to stay informed on the current trends.

Divine Simplicity (4 of 4)

I have often thought that the Good Samaritan was the ultimate example of loving your neighbor, but according to Martin Luther King Jr. this kind of love is only the first step.

"We are called to play the Good Samaritan on life's roadside, but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho Road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life's highway. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.” – From The Autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr., Chapter 31: Beyond Vietnam

The road from Jerusalem to Jericho, which was notoriously dangerous. It descended nearly 3,300 feet in 17 miles, running through narrow passes at points. The terrain offered easy hiding for the bandits who terrorized travelers. The conditions allowed for robbery to take place.

Micah 6:8 says “He has told you, O Man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”

When we reach out to the poor in kindness and humility, like the Good Samaritan, we are doing good, but it's only two out of three. We are also called to do justice.

What's the difference? Imagine you saw someone drowning in a river, it would be an act of kindness to rescue that person. Now imagine if you continued standing at that same part of the river and saw multiple people drowning as they headed downstream. Eventually you need to head upstream and stop the evil person throwing these poor people into the river! That's justice.

Justice can be more difficult, because like the evil guy upstream, you don't see injustice as easily. You have to investigate. Sometimes you have to look really hard for it. And when you find it you will need courage to go after it and bring justice to the situation.

It's especially hard when you determine that the conditions that allowed for you to stand comfortably on the river's edge were the same conditions that allowed for others to be thrown in.

But God has called all of us to “do justice.”

The Bible says that God is no respecter of persons, in other words he doesn’t love someone more than another. He desires that none should perish and all should have eternal life with him.

But there is a lot of evidence in the Bible that would suggest that if God had to take sides, he would be on the side of the poor, the marginalized, the disenfranchised.

The Bible doesn’t say that God loves the poor more than the rich… but it does regularly assert that God lifts up the poor and the disadvantaged. And it frequently teaches that God casts down the wealthy and the powerful in two specific situations:

1) When the become wealthy by oppressing the poor
2) When they fail to share with the needy

Equal justice for the poor is a constant concern of Scripture. Widows, orphans, and strangers receive frequent attention and Jesus was explicit when he said what we do to the “least” we are actually doing to him.

If you want to know how to please God, don’t complicate things by trying to figure out where he exactly he wants you to go, go where he already is working and join in.

Lord, you've shown me what is good, now help my life to walk with you in humility (go where you go, see what you see), to love kindness (show compassion), and to do justice.

Divine Simplicity (3 of 4)

The Samaritans were essentially the offspring of the dispersed nation of Israel who had intermarried and assimilated into their surrounding culture. In Jesus’ time they were the outcasts of society. They worshiped in the wrong way and were a “bad influence” on the Jewish children.

If you are a Republican, the Samaritans would represent the “flaming liberals.” If you are a Democrat, they would represent the extreme fundamentalists. They were on the wrong side.

In the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus went so many steps further then what we would expect.

You would expect the story to include a Jewish Priest helping a Jewish man. If you took it a step further it would be a Jewish man helping a wounded Samaritan. But Jesus literally shocks his audience when he portrays the outcast coming to the aid of a Jewish man.

The other night ABC News conducted a modern day “Good Samaritan” test. A paid actor sat in a park and pretended to cry. Hidden cameras were rolling. Many people responded, many more did not. However, one woman’s response to the man was so gracious that even the paid actor and the journalist began to tear up.

There is something so powerful about this parable – even today it resonates within our hearts.

At the same time there is something in our culture that causes us to forget about the power of this story in our everyday lives. I call it the “Seinfeld Effect.” On the final episode of the show, Jerry, George, Elaine and Kramer all went to jail for breaking the “Good Samaritan Law.” The trial revealed how selfish they had been throughout the entire show, and we just laughed at it all along the way.

But we are called to “love kindness” (Micah 6:8)

It is interesting that the despised Samaritan is the one who had compassion. Out of the three men that passed by, only the Samaritan personally understood injustice and abuse. Only he could empathize.

God can use the pain and hurt in our lives to help us be kind to others.

Do you love kindness?

Divine Simplicity (2 of 4)

Yesterday I began a series of posts on the simplicity of Micah 6:8. The people of Micah’s time were wondering, as many of us do, how to please God. They were basically asking the same question as the “lawyer” in Luke chapter 10.

This man, known as an expert in religious law, asked Jesus what he could do to inherit eternal life. Jesus threw the question back at the lawyer and he responded correctly by saying, “Love God with all your heart, soul, and strength and love your neighbor.”

Simplicity.

But the lawyer wanted to make it more complicated. He asked Jesus to define “neighbor.” Who is my neighbor? The guy who lives right next door? My co-workers? The people at church? Can I stop there?

Jesus responds with one of his most famous and powerful parables, the parable of the Good Samaritan.

In the story the priest and the Levite were too clean, too busy, too important, too afraid, or just too unaware to stop and help the beaten man.

But we are called to walk humbly with our God (Micah 6:8).

Paul said, “Don’t be selfish, don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others too. You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had…” (Phil 2:3 - 5).

In order to walk with God, you have to see what he sees, go where he goes, know what he knows.

God is everywhere all the time. He is in India, Africa, and El Salvador. He is not just reading the headlines from the comfort of his living room. God is constantly witnessing all of the horror, the suffering and the injustice of our world, firsthand.

He sees the little Filipino girl abducted and forced into a life of prostitution. He sees the Indian girl chained to a weaving loom. He sees the Latin American widow pushed off her land. And he sees the housewife in Des Moines abused by her husband day after day.

In order to walk humbly with God, you have to know suffering. And the more you know suffering, the more compassion you will have for those who suffer.

Are you walking humbly with your God?

Divine Simplicity (1 of 4)

I’ve been reading through the prophets on my journey to read the Bible in 90 Days. I’ve always thought the prophets were pretty ambiguous but reading through at this pace the major themes really become crystal clear.

The prophets were basically concerned with the destruction of the nation of Israel. They were written both before and after the fall of Jerusalem to explain that this did not occur because God was too weak, but because the Israelites had abandoned their God (Is 59:1).

As you read it becomes clear that they had abandoned God in two major ways. First, they had abandoned God in their worship. This had occurred both in their idolatry to other gods and in their lackluster and meaningless sacrifices at the temple (Is 1:11 – 14).

Secondly, they had abandoned their God by neglecting and oppressing the less fortunate among them (Is 1:15 - 17). As God’s people they had been given a mission to be a blessing to all peoples of the earth (Gen 12:3). This especially included the “foreigner,” the “widow,” and the “orphan” (Ex 22:21 – 24).

Somehow they felt their election as the people of God and the presence of God’s temple in their midst would absolve them from any of these sins (Jer 7:1 – 11). It did not. They were overcome, taken into captivity and their city was burned to the ground.

It was during this time that the people began to wonder, “What can we possibly do to please God?” And just like many of us, they wanted to make it more complicated than it is.

In Micah chapter six we hear the people wondering…

"What can we bring to the Lord?
What kind of offerings should we give him?
Should we bow before God with offerings of yearling calves? Should we offer him thousands of rams and ten thousand rivers of olive oil? Should we sacrifice our firstborn children to pay for our sins?"

The prophet responds with a resounding “NO!!!”

“He has told you, O Man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”

Over the next few days I’d like to explore the simplicity of our calling as Christians. What does it mean to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with our God?

Six Albums I Cannot Stop Listening To

If you’re anything like me you are always looking for good, new music. It’s easy to find good music (just read through any Top 100 albums-of-all-time list) and it’s even easier to find new music (just turn on the radio), but it is increasingly hard to find both. Well, I’ve had a pretty good run recently so I thought I would share six new albums that I’ve come across that I literally cannot stop listening to.

Feist – The Reminder
Leslie Feist has an incredibly beautiful voice and this album really shows off her strong jazz roots on top of solid folk-rock rhythms. My favorites are: “I Feel It All”, “1235”, “Past in Present”, “My Moon My Man”, “The Park”, and “Brandy Alexander.”

Andrew Bird – Armchair Apocrypha
I had never heard of Andrew Bird before this album, but the moment I heard “Imitosis,” the second track on Armchair, I fell instantly in love with his music.

Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
I fell in love with this band after their previous release, Gimme Fiction. This album is even better. Spoon has a very minimalist approach to instrumentation and production and yet some really catchy hooks. This album is great from start to finish.

Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
This Ivy League-educated group has quickly become one of the most talked about new indie bands. Critics have started to label their unique, and relatively simple sound as “Afro-pop.” Each of the tunes on this album is full of energy with bouncy keyboards and sunny guitar riffs. As the weather gets warmer and the days get longer this album sounds better and better.

Jose Gonzalez – In Our Nature
It's just him and his acoustic guitar. He's Argentinian-born, but lives in Sweden, which makes for an interesting blend of textures and sounds. One reviewer put it best when he said, “quiet is the new loud.”

Cat Power – Jukebox
This is not so much a “cover album” as it is a tribute album. Jukebox does feature some fairly traditional cover songs where the lyrics, music and melodies have some similarity to the originals (Joni Mitchell’s “Blue” and Dylan’s “I Believe In You”). But the majority of tracks are very loose interpretations of the music that influenced Chan Marshall (a.k.a. Cat Power).