the Outrage of Grace

I'm reading this book. It's a shock to the system-- the good kind though. The first third of the book is a novel about two people having an affair. They are purposely never condemned or interrupted by the narrator with random acts that may reveal their rendevous - scandalous. The author comments intermittently and is often quite funny and sarcastic. Here's a taste:

"I said grace cannot prevail until law is dead, until moralizng is out of the game. The precise phrase should be, until our fatal love affair with the law is over- until, finally and for good, our lifelong certainty that someone is keeping score has run out of steam and collapsed. As long as we leave, in our dramatizations of grace, one single hope of a moral reckoning, one possible recourse to salvation by bookkeeping, our freedom-dreading hearts will clutch it to themselves. And even if we leave none at all, we will grub for ethics that are not there rather than face the liberty to which grace calls us. Give us those parables of the Prodigal Son, for example, and we will promptly lose its point by preaching ourselves sermons on Worthy and Unworthy Confession, or on The Sin of the Elder Brother. Give us the Workers in the Vineyard, and we will concoct spurious lessons on The Duty of Contentment or The Moral Aspects of Labor Relations.

Restore to us, Preacher, the comfort of merit and demerit. Prove for us that there is at least something we can do, that we are still, at whatever dim recess of our nature, the masters of our relationships. Tell us, Prophet, that in spite of all our nights of losing, there will yet be one redeeming card of our very own to fill the inside straight we have so long and so earnestly tried to draw to. But do not preach us grace. It will not do to split the pot evenly at four A.M. and break out the Chivas Regal. We insist on being reckoned with. Give us something, anything; but spare us the indignity of this indiscriminate acceptance.

Lord, let your servants depart in the peace of their proper responsibility. If it is not too much to ask, send us to bed with some few shreds of self-respect to congratulate ourselves upon. But if that is too hard, leave us with at least the consolation of our self-loathing. Only do not force us free. What have we ever done but try as best we could? How have we so hurt you, even by failing, that you should now turn on us and say that none of it makes any difference, not even our sacred guilt? We have played this game of yours, and it has cost us."

Christmas

Okay, I realize this is about one day too late, but get over it.

This Christmas was different. Leading up to the big day I felt differently about Christmas than ever before. I don't really know why, it's not like there have been drastic family changes, or that I have done anything intentional to celebrate Christmas differently, however like most things these days, I'm changing the way I think about this whole event.

First of all, the whole debate about xmas bla bla blah- can the church really make this argument? Like most things we debate about, the root of the matter stems from the fact that we really only care because it means we will have less of a voice in Western culture. I think that in all likelihood (and this is pure conjecture) that most families probably celebrate Christmas exactly the way most pagan families do- presents, food, family, church. The only difference is that we are free to send Christmas cards that say things about Jesus on them.

I would argue that maybe we should start saying Happy Holidays because that is all it is. My friend Andrew wrote an article about the name of the Lord, using the Hebrew words qatan (small, insignificant) and qavod (heavy). He basically says that Rabbis refused to use the name of the Lord because it was too heavy, and they didn't want to risk treating it with insignificance. I think we throw Christ onto a holiday that is essentially about ourselves, 'the haul' and the time off to relax. It has nothing to do with Christ- he is small, insignificant.

And so, maybe Happy Holidays is appropriate- at the very least its more reverent than saying Merry Christmas and then spending a billion dollars on gifts and gorging ourselves on turkey.

Oh the bitterness, where does this all come from?

It's not all bad. I did get to spend Christmas eve at the shelter and let me tell you that I loved it. Over the course of the evening, a couple people stopped by. My favorite was a family of five, with three little kids. They were handing out some gifts that they brought- nothing extravagant- but everything is significant when you have nothing. The highlight of the night had to be when the five year old boy of the family went up to a couple of scruffy homeless guys and said 'merry Christmas', and then handed them the gift. That was probably the most 'Christ-massy' this I've seen. I think if I ever ended up with a family that that is what we might do on Christmas eve...

Please don't get me wrong. I really want to say Merry Christmas, but honestly, if its just a thing to do, a tradition that we accept, then really Christ means nothing in it and I'll take happy holidays. Of course, I want it to mean something...the trick is figuring out how to do that. The first step may be to recognizes the epiphany of the Christ as a daily reality... the savior who was born- born into reality first with 10 fingers, 10 toes... smelly, pukey and adorable and then bruised, beaten and glorious.

"Suddenly, God's angel stood among them and God's glory blazed around them. They were terrified. The angel said, "Don't be afraid. I'm here to announce a great and joyful event that is meant for everybody, worldwide: A Savior has just been born in David's town, a Savior who is Messiah and Master".

The Chronic- what- cles of Narnia

For you big D.

The Chronicles of Narnia

Big Announcement

Finally it is time for the official announcement.

There is a conference in April that a couple good friends of mine and I are putting together. We think that the church has been and will continue to be changing in the next little while, for better or worse. We have all pretty much moved in our ideology from 'going to church' to 'being the church'...while still asking the age old question: what does that look like?

And so, The Evolving Church will be held at Tyndale on April 8th. Keynotes are Brian Mclaren, Donald Miller and Chris Seay, with a couple workshop leaders (keynotes will also be leading workshops) that we are very excited about, including George Sweetman, Pernell Goodyear, Brian Walsh and some others tba.

April 8th, Tyndale,..book it!

A Griswald Family Christmas?

If this is real, it's unbelievable. Christmas Lights 2

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