Top Ten Ways to Eat a Moonfruit! July 2, 2009
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# 10 – In a small town cafe, with a Washington Post, sipping a latte, watching the BBC, and acting like your important.
# 9 – While driving to work, putting on your make-up, talking on the hands-free wireless, listening to the BBC, and honking at the “idiot” in front of you! (Not highly recommended!)
# 8 – Try scarffing it while hate blogging about Rush Limbaugh! Oh so sweet!
# 7 – As a late night blues snack while watching old Michael Jackson videos.
# 6 – It’s a sinful pleasure to sneak one in during the sermon on Sunday Mornings!
# 5 – While listening to David Letterman take under-the-table jabs at Sarah Palin, all while trying not to shoot Moonfruit out your nose!
# 4 – While uploading some “hilarious” video to You Tube that you suppose the whole world desperately needs to see!
# 3 – While lecturing to a large group of well-meaning people about how Moonfruit is going to change the world!
# 2 – On the side with a great deli sandwich from The Moonfruit Deli and Winner’s Cafe!
And the # 1 way to eat and enjoy a Moonfruit is, while snuggling with your favorite new Mac Notebook!
Heaven and Earth Class: Week 3 (Hell) June 29, 2009
Posted by joejames in Uncategorized.7 comments
Steve had the idea of posting this stuff on my blog so that we could continue to think about and discuss this stuff over the course of the week. Also, I am thinking we will need to pause next week and clean up the mess I made before we move on with the series. As Steve said Sunday afternoon, “You’ve poured out more than you’ve mopped up!”
So this is a great opportunity to mop up some of what I have poured out this week.
Here are some key scriptures that we worked from.
Isaiah 66 / Matthew 10:28 / Revelation 18 / Revelation 21:1-8 / I John 4:16-19 / John 3:16 / (also we talked about the meaning of the word “Aionos” that means “eternal” or “eternity” and how doesn’t always, perhaps even rarely, refers to an endless period of time. Rather it usually refers to the “Coming Age” or the “Aeon to Come”.
I’m not going to present in detail the ideas from class yesterday, however I do want to clarify a few things. First, I do not believe that the wicked are immediately annihilated. My source from Rev. 18 says that there will be torment, suffering, disease, and famine, and THEN they will be “consumed by the fire”.
So annihilation isn’t necessarily good news for the lost as brother Larry suggested. And about that comment from brother Larry (that I believe is a good and genuine concern!), I should have said two things and lost my train of thought.
1> It’s funny to me that lost people (and sadly Christians too!) will fear death all their life, and do almost anything to avoid it, but you are telling me that they are fearless in the face of this “second death” that I speak of? A death that is guaranteed to be “terrible” and “fearful”
2> Fear can never be a motivator for coming to Christ. We do not come to or follow Christ in order to avoid hell. Speaking of the day of judgment, I John 4:18 says, “God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. 17 This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. 18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.”
So what are your thoughts, questions, concerns, angers, etc? Don’t be afraid now!
Peace -
Joe
The Kingdom, Evangelism and Easter April 8, 2009
Posted by joejames in Uncategorized.1 comment so far
Since Revolution has been getting launched, I have had little time to blog. But here are some thoughts that have been bouncing around in my brain.
1> You cannot talk about the Kingdom of God and neglect eschatology. I think it is perfectly possible to minimize apocalyptics and teach the Kingdom. But it is theologically impossible to leave out eschatology. The bible is far more concerned with what will be once the Kingdom is consummate, than it is concerned with the particulars of the consummation. What does this mean for us? It means we are living in an “in-between” time. The light is breaking into the otherwise dark world. But it has not fully broken in yet. But it will. This leaves us with only one possible ethic for how we live in this “in-between” period. We are eschatological people – that IS what makes us distinct. Literally, that IS the light. The Spirit-filled church, IS the international people of God scattered across the globe, who are FULLY committed to the Kingdom in it’s consummate form. That means that we are peaceful, because there is no violence in the consummate Kingdom. That means we are truth-tellers, because there is no deception in the consummate kingdom. etc. etc. etc. Here are some less complicated ways to say it – we are citizens of another age, resident aliens in a foreign land. We are the people of the Sermon on the Mount. We are Salt and Light. We are the Counter-Cultural Kingdom. We swear allegiance to another Kingdom – the upside-down Kingdom of God.
2> There has been a lot of talk lately about Evangelism reform in my own heritage. “We need to stop treating other believers from other denominations like evangelistic opportunities, and focus on reaching the lost.” While I agree with this statement, I need clarity. First, let me say, I completely agree with the first part. Disciples from other denominations are not opportunities for evangelism. They are fine. Leave them alone. (Unless you are so arrogant as to think you have all the answers and they have none – in which case, go ahead and do what you think you need to.) Secondly, I want to say that I need some clarity with regards to the second part. “We should focus our attention on evangelizing the lost…” I agree, if what you mean is proclaiming the good news. I disagree if what you mean is recruit the lost. An evangelist (theologically speaking) is not a recruiter, rather he/she is an announcer or a “Proclaimer.” Major difference between the two. One day I’ll have to post on why I think this is so important and why I think the word Evangelist has taken on a new meaning in the West.
3> I am sad every Easter season that this week is not a bigger deal to my heritage. We are absolutely missing the most important season of all, with the transformational liturgy, the fasting, the seders, etc. etc. etc…. and all because we value tradition over the Word of God (at least in some arenas). And I think it is sad.
The Prophet, Bob Dylan February 23, 2009
Posted by joejames in American Christianity, Bob Dylan.Tags: War
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Oh my name it is nothin’
My age it means less
The country I come from
Is called the Midwest
I’s taught and brought up there
The laws to abide
And that land that I live in
Has God on its side.
Oh the history books tell it
They tell it so well
The cavalries charged
The Indians fell
The cavalries charged
The Indians died
Oh the country was young
With God on its side.
Oh the Spanish-American
War had its day
And the Civil War too
Was soon laid away
And the names of the heroes
I’s made to memorize
With guns in their hands
And God on their side.
Oh the First World War, boys
It closed out its fate
The reason for fighting
I never got straight
But I learned to accept it
Accept it with pride
For you don’t count the dead
When God’s on your side.
When the Second World War
Came to an end
We forgave the Germans
And we were friends
Though they murdered six million
In the ovens they fried
The Germans now too
Have God on their side.
I’ve learned to hate Russians
All through my whole life
If another war starts
It’s them we must fight
To hate them and fear them
To run and to hide
And accept it all bravely
With God on my side.
But now we got weapons
Of the chemical dust
If fire them we’re forced to
Then fire them we must
One push of the button
And a shot the world wide
And you never ask questions
When God’s on your side.
In a many dark hour
I’ve been thinkin’ about this
That Jesus Christ
Was betrayed by a kiss
But I can’t think for you
You’ll have to decide
Whether Judas Iscariot
Had God on his side.
So now as I’m leavin’
I’m weary as Hell
The confusion I’m feelin’
Ain’t no tongue can tell
The words fill my head
And fall to the floor
If God’s on our side
He’ll stop the next war.
Copyright ©1963; renewed 1991 Special Rider Music
Easter & Lenten Thoughts February 20, 2009
Posted by joejames in Discipleship, Ethics, Freedom.Tags: Easter, Lent, Lived Theology, Resurrection, Theology
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Growing up in the Stone-Campbell heritage, I have missed much of what other Christ-followers have experienced during this Lenten season each year. Because of that, I am sad to confess, I haven’t reflected deeply on the meaning of Easter, until last year.
But since then, I have become convinced that this is the liturgical and sacramental season that the world cannot afford for us to miss. (In my own estimation, this is much more important than Christmas – especially since Christmas has been so effectively co-opted by the empire’s corporation).
I plan on posting several thoughts beyond what I’ll share today on the significance of this event, but these are my initial reflections.
(1) Easter is about more than death and resurrection. Easter is about slavery and freedom. Some “theologians” like to make everything in the gospels about death and resurrection. For example – some teach that the Sermon on the Mount is meant to convict one of one’s own sinfulness. Therefore, Jesus lived the Sermon faithfully for us, and died in our place for failure to live up to that high-calling, atoning for our sins.
But this is not permissible, and such theologies must be confronted. Jesus came to set free his people, the lost sheep of Israel. It is my understanding that Jesus was the highest ethicist, and an incredible social diagnostician. In other words, as Creator of humanity, world, and society, he perfectly understands what has held us (his people) captive and what has enslaved us. More than that, he understands how to be the people, polis, community, world, etc. that he has created us to be. Such understanding should inform, not just our reading of the Sermon on the Mount, but ground our theology of death, burial and resurrection.
The Passion of Jesus, is more than atonement for sin, deeper than salvation from judgment, beyond here-after hope. It’s meaning and implications extend into our own context and offer deliverance today, in time and history, in the flesh, here and now!
How? Our gentle King unmasked the empire, all empires (Luke 4:5-7), and showed them for who they are – false story tellers, anxiously searching for power, money, and control; demanding our allegiance and cleverly seeking God’s approval for their violent border expansion and defense. But Jesus showed that powerlessness, weakness, gentleness, love, and silent obedience disarms and redeems the slave and slave-owner, the captive and the captor.
And we are called to join up with this way, this peculiar community, to practice our faith in this “Way” – this journey to the cross and exercise in trust that the Father will vindicate. Atonement is important, and even central. But atonement is meaningless without the freedom from slavery it makes available.
(2) Easter is about a King and Kingdom, not about how resurrection fits into our systematic theology. Another way of saying it is, Easter is about a peculiar kind of Politics embodied and envisioned by a peculiar kind of King, rather than a system of belief about biblical and historical events.
Even more particularly, Easter is a story of the Father’s vindication of this peculiar King and his peculiar politics. And we are now (through participation in the Lenten season with it’s “acts of righteousness”, sacraments, and practices) part of that story – citizens of that peculiar society with it’s counter-cultural ethic and politics.
What does this mean to me? It means, for me, that the Father has underwritten what the Son has done. He has signed-off on the Son’s obedience to faithfulness and vindicated Him – exalting him to the right hand of God, making the kingdoms of the world his foot-stool. He has seen the kings of earth and their kingdoms – he has seen how the kings rule with an iron fist, using fear, violence, lust, anger, and greed as weapons to control their citizens. He has seen the Son rule gently and non-violently, and make himself the servant of all his own citizens, setting them free to be what God created them to be. He has seen all this, and has vindicated the Son - underwritten His Way!
And this restores our faith and trust, giving us the meta-narrative, the story of all stories, to shape our way forward. And forward we must go, being salt and light – showing the world the peculiar Way.
A system of belief, or mental ascent to historical circumstances could never be for us what this Easter season is.
(3) Easter is a journey with Christ to the cross, and then to share in his vindication. Easter is not a season of perpetual re-enactment of what once took place, rather it is a time of much needed story telling, inviting and re-inviting us to share in this story of death and resurrection.
A servant is not above his master. If I suffer, so shall you.
Take up your cross and follow me.
These are calls to join up with exactly what Jesus is doing. Calls to participation in peculiar kingdom activities.
This may seem subtle, but upon greater reflection it is of great significance. For if the disciple merely reflects upon Easter as an historical event, and views year after year the re-enactment of Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection from afar, then she has missed yet again an opportunity to be grafted into God’s story, into Israel’s story and participate in the death and vindication of the Son.
I struggle internally with who suffers the most, when we fail to join that story each Easter Season. On one hand, my journey has lacked the companionship of this Easter Story, and I know from experience the disciple suffers from failing to join up with Jesus’ journey to death and resurrection. But the watching world, I think, suffers more. The kingdoms of the world so desperately need us, the possessors of the true narrative, to show them how to be the world it was created to be. To show them how to lay down their lives. To show them that poverty is riches. To show them that love triumphs over evil. To show them that to die is gain, and to live is Christ. To show them that suffering is sharing in Christ. To show them that violence is not the way. To show them that fear of death is the empire’s only weapon. To show them the way.
——————————————————————-
I am sure I will have much more to say over the coming weeks about Easter, but I write today to encourage your own and my own participation in this Lenten season.
“Follow me.”
– Jesus
Communion Thoughts & Prayers February 17, 2009
Posted by joejames in Uncategorized.Tags: Atonement, Christian Freedom, Communion, Peculiar Community, Proclaiming Christ's Death
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The following was delivered Sunday Feb. 15, 2009 at Southwest Church of Christ as thoughts before the Lord’s Supper. Credit should be given to Scot McKnight for raising the questions about Yom Kippur and Passover – See “A Community Called Atonement”
Paul writes to the disciples at Corinth, “For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”
But what does it mean to proclaim the Lord’s death?
What is it exactly that we are proclaiming?
A better question might be, “What did Jesus think of his own death?”
While Jesus, I think, knows for at least most of his ministry that his death is imminent, it isn’t until the Passover Meal with his disciples that he really translates the meaning and purpose of his death.
For most of us, we assume Jesus thought what we think – that he has to go to the cross because we have sinned and God must punish our sin, so Jesus must die to take on the shame and punishment of our sinfulness.
First I want to affirm you if you think this, because it’s right. It’s just not the whole story.
Have you ever wondered why Jesus chose the time of Passover to interpret his death? Why not Yom Kippur?
After all, Yom Kippur is the Jewish season of atonement! And Jesus certainly interpreted his death as atoning?
But the significance of Passover is greater and deeper still. At Passover the Jews celebrated their God who made available a sacrifice. A sacrifice which not only provided relief from God’s righteous judgment, but also paved the way for deliverance from the empire.
And this is what we proclaim. When we eat this bread and drink this cup we proclaim that our humble King – the King that chose death and shame over glory and power – has delivered us, not just from judgment and death, but from empire. Because the story of Christ and his kingdom is different than the story the empire tells us. The empire tells us that only the strong survive, that only the powerful are significant and shape history, and that riches make you valuable. He has called us out of that empire and it’s false story, and into a peculiar kingdom. Where weak is strong, failure is success, poverty is riches, and our King is a slaughtered lamb. This is what we proclaim to a watching world. That our lamb has conquered – powerlessness has overcome power – and we have been set free!
This is what we proclaim – Vicit Agnus Noster – Our Lamb has conquered.
Let’s seek God’s Blessing
Loving Father,
We come to you as your people, Your called out ones, seeking your presence at your fellowship table. Father, we thank you for this bread, and seek your blessing on it. By participating in this meal, may we, as a peculiar community, be made ever more into the likeness of your Son, Jesus. Amen.
Take and eat. This is the body of Christ.
Gracious Lord,
Before we drink this cup, we consider Christ’s question to his disciples, when he asked them, “Can you drink the cup that I will drink?” And we are suddenly aware that your Son has called us to participate with him in his death, in his story. And we want to boldly proclaim in your presence, a resounding yes! We will participate in your son’s story. We will proclaim his death until he returns! And we are eternally grateful to you for calling us to this table to drink this cup. Amen.
Eshcatology and Politics February 12, 2009
Posted by joejames in Uncategorized.add a comment
Wanted you all to see this great article!!!
Please, post your comments and thoughts on it here on my blog!
http://blog.christianitytoday.com/outofur/archives/2008/09/scot_mcknight_t.html
Peace -
Joe James
Project on Lived Theology February 5, 2009
Posted by joejames in Uncategorized.1 comment so far
This post is for the Lived Theology Project team-members that have been meeting at my house on Tuesday evenings to study Resident Aliens.
Steve Ewart suggest posting on my blog some of the ideas shared this week, as several were unable to participate in the discussion.
After about 20 minutes of prayer and reflection, to prepare our minds and hearts, we discussed 3 main themes found in the chapters 3-5 of our book.
1.> The theme of story. We spent most of our time talking about story, and how life in the Christian Colony is life in the ongoing story of God. We talked about Hauerwas’ metaphor of “jumping on a moving train…” when we are baptized into this narrative. For the most part we agreed that we loved the shape and tone of thinking in these terms. For example, we love the idea that God’s story is a story of working through his people throughout history to shape society – to “tell the world how the world is suppose to be.” Another implication would be that we are a people on the move. We have a history that we’ve been “grafted” into, and we have a future that shapes how we behave, what we do, and who we are. Without this “meta narrative” not only would we be lost, but the whole world would be left to it’s own stories, that are not the “true story.”
2.> The theme of salvation. We did highlight a portion from early in chapter three where our beloved authors seemingly redefine Salvation. I you remember from chapter 1, Christianity is not a set of beliefs or doctrines that we must give mental ascent to in order to be saved from hell. Rather Christianity is an adventuresome journey with God, following His Son, being shaped and formed by His Spirit into the likeness of that Son. We wondered if there wasn’t some need at Southwest for a re-defining of “salvation.” However, Mike Leatherwood warned us that we must be careful that our definition must never stray for a Christ-centered and salvific tone and nature. We agreed that the New Testament is “rich” in shaping a full understanding of salvation. So, instead of redefining salvation, we considered, re-visiting a more holistic and biblically-rich view of our salvation. What we all seemed to agree on though, was the Southwest as a whole-entity may perhaps limit salvation to a “fire-insurance” or “saved later from God’s wrath” view, with little understanding of “here-and-now” salvation and deliverance.
3.> The theme of “The Sermon on the Mount.” Finally we visited the strong call of Matthew’s Sermon. We loved a lot of what our author’s wrote in chapter 4 about the Sermon, but especially the acknowledgment that it has little to do with private or individual ethical demands. On the contrary the Sermon makes little sense apart from a community that is committed to being a people faithful to the call of Matthew 5-7. We talked a lot about the implications of being faithful to the vision of a citizenry of the Kingdom of God seen in those chapters – and what might we be capable of were we more cognoscente of this vision and call as a body in SW Jonesboro, AR!!
Thoughts to add??? Remember your homework!!!
Viva La Vida December 3, 2008
Posted by joejames in Uncategorized.3 comments
I used to rule the world
Seas would rise when I gave the word
Now in the morning I sweep alone
Sweep the streets I used to own
I used to roll the dice
Feel the fear in my enemy’s eyes
Listen as the crowd would sing:
“Now the old king is dead! Long live the king!”
One minute I held the key
Next the walls were closed on me
And I discovered that my castles stand
Upon pillars of salt, pillars of sand
I hear Jerusalem bells are ringing
Roman Cavalry choirs are singing
Be my mirror my sword and shield
My missionaries in a foreign field
For some reason I can’t explain
Once you know there was never, never an honest word
That was when I ruled the world
It was the wicked and wild wind
Blew down the doors to let me in.
Shattered windows and the sound of drums
People couldn’t believe what I’d become
Revolutionaries Wait
For my head on a silver plate
Just a puppet on a lonely string
Oh who would ever want to be king?
I hear Jerusalem bells are ringing
Roman Cavalry choirs are singing
Be my mirror my sword and shield
My missionaries in a foreign field
For some reason I can not explain
I know Saint Peter will call my name
Never an honest word
But that was when I ruled the world
Hear Jerusalem bells are ringings
Roman Cavalry choirs are singing
Be my mirror my sword and shield
My missionaries in a foreign field
For some reason I can not explain
I know Saint Peter will call my name
Never an honest word
But that was when I ruled the world
This is a semi-recent hit by Coldplay. I love the song, but I have two questions. What does it mean? And why do people love it?
A Thoughtless Mind November 22, 2008
Posted by joejames in Uncategorized.Tags: Scripture, Women in the Church
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Tomorrow is the second of our Great Debates and is on Women’s Roles in the Church. The first debate was on “Faith and Politics” and went very well. And even after the previous debate came on the coattails of a very emotional election cycle, this debate runs a far greater risk of being the opposite of what we want it to be – divisive. In preparing to moderate this debate, I have done a lot of “Crash Studying” on the issue of women’s roles in the church. And over the last two weeks I have discovered that I am very angry at the Western Church. (Not that it was really a surprise, but still).
Don’t misunderstand me. I am not mad a Christians for gross oversimplifications of SOME of Paul’s writings on Women’s Roles. I am not even mad that this has been used to make women second class citizens in the Kingdom of God. This doesn’t anger me, because I understand the power of assumptions and the power of our upbringing. What instead angers me is our failure to ask questions about scripture. (This of course assumes that a significant number of Christians actually read scripture enough to raise critical questions of it.)
For example, it amazes me that we think Paul has written a mandate to all churches that Women cannot be up-in-front figures in the assembly. Why does that amaze me? Certainly the passage in I Corinthians seems to advocate such a stance! It amazes me because in the SAME LETTER Paul encourages Women to pray aloud in the assembly (while showing reverence) and to Prophecy to the people there. Tell me… how can they do this and remain silent?
It is quite pathetic, not that we continue to hold fast to our old patriarchal culture that is quickly passing away (if not already dead). Instead it is pathetic that we cannot ask this question with any kind of integrity, thoughtfulness, courage, or willingness to be challenged.
I have much love, patience, grace, understanding, and mercy for my brothers and sisters out there that are either patriarchalists or radical feminists (I am neither). But I have no such love, patience, grace, understanding, and mercy for a spirit of idolatry that bows at the feet of their pre-understandings of God’s word.
We worship in the temple of the Lord, in the temple of the Lord, in the temple of the Lord!
This is their mentality. This is their hope. This is their salvation. So be it.
