Wednesday, May 25, 2016

Jesus Asks: When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth? (Luke 18:8)


This is the 19th post in my series "Asking Myself," in which I weekly ponder one question posed in Teresa Blythe's rich book, 50 Ways to Pray. You can find the start of the series here and last week's post here. The first nine posts focused on theological musings, while posts 10 to the present prayerfully consider the specific questions Jesus posed in the New Testament.


Q: When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth? (Luke 18:8)

I fell of the blogging train a couple weeks ago, but I'm back :)

First, let me just think about what Jesus is asking here. Will he find faith on earth? My knee-jerk reaction, habituated from years of defining faith as holding to certain truths/doctrines, is to do a quick self-assessment: Do I believe that Jesus is the Son of God, God himself incarnated, born of a virgin, tempted in every way humanly possible yet without sin, having been put to death on a cross where he served as propitiation for the sins of humankind, having resurrected on the third day, walking out of the tomb and appearing to his disciples before ascending to the Father, now sitting at the right hand of God's throne while simultaneously moving on earth and in humans as another Comforter, the Holy Spirit, indwelling the human spirit and supernaturally empowering those who believe and receive him to walk worthily of their calling? Check. Check. Check-check-check-check-check. Check. Ok. I'm good. Am I good? 

Monday, May 16, 2016

Coming out Christian: Review of Kaltenbach's "Messy Grace"






























The subtitle of Caleb Kaltenbach's Messy Grace is what hooked me: How a Pastor with Gay Parents Learned to Love Others Without Sacrificing Conviction. I'm a sucker for interesting stories, and this promised to be a tale wound around one of today's most polarizing, nuanced issues for Christians. As I've mentioned in other posts, my own beliefs about how God views homosexuality have been evolving and are still in process. I can say I believe Jesus would be as likely to hang out with, minister to, befriend and love homosexuals as he would tax collectors, prostitutes, Pharisees and you and me. So I was eager to hear from a mature Jesus-follower, in this case a mega-church pastor, who was intimately connected with the LGBT community. However, after finishing the book, I didn't feel completely satisfied with either the depth of the narrative or the apologetic tone of some of the book's conclusions.

Kaltenbach's story is the reverse of what gay Christians who've grown up in church must experience as they try to reconcile their identities with their church doctrine.  An only child raised by three parents, whom he describes as vehemently anti-Christian, Kaltenbach sets out to infiltrate a Christian youth group, with the intention of arguing with them and showing them the error of their ways. (I know, you couldn't write a better script for the God's Not Dead movie franchise.) To his dismay, 16-year-old Kaltenbach finds that the well-versed, friendly, upbeat members of the group are actually winning him over for Christ. He's attracted by their certainty and steadiness, something he felt he never had. He's flattered by the attention, having spent much of his unusual adolescence tagging along with his two moms to gay pride events and parties.

Tuesday, May 10, 2016

Asking Myself: What is the kingdom of God like?


This is the 18th post in my series "Asking Myself," in which I weekly ponder one question posed in Teresa Blythe's rich book, 50 Ways to Pray. You can find the start of the series here and last week's post here. The first nine posts focused on theological musings, while posts 10 to the present prayerfully consider the specific questions Jesus posed in the New Testament.


Q: What is the kingdom of God like? (Luke 13:18)

Before reading this question in the context of Luke 13:18, I experienced a flash of emotions when I saw it: Confusion. Anxiety. Hopefulness?

The confusion came from trying to remember the difference between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of the heavens. The various kingdoms always confused me... despite (or perhaps because of) the fact that my church had an elaborate Venn Diagram addressing them smack in the middle of the gospel of Matthew. 
The anxiety also stemmed from the crispness, intricacy and technicality of the aforementioned Venn diagram. It's a puzzle to be figured out. It's who's in and who's out. It makes me think about overcoming and not overcoming. It makes me think about 1000 years of reward or the alternative. It brings to mind words like rule, command, authority, dominion and battle. It gives me a feeling like I'm out of my element, and out of touch with the King.