Little People, Big World

Over the last three days, my family and I have spent a lot of time watching television. We don’t do this very often, but it was sort of a rainy weekend and we wanted to chill out after a busy Holy Week. By far, the highlight of our television viewing extravaganza was a show called Little People, Big World. We’ve watched this several times before, but I haven’t watched it like we did this weekend. I think we saw three or four episodes.

Well, turns out I love the Roloffs. Matt & Amy Roloff, the parents, are both little people. They have three average sized kids and one who is also a little person. Matt’s dwarfism is caused by diastrophic dysplasia while Amy’s is the result of achondroplasia. They have twins, Zach (who also has achondroplasia) & Jeremy, Molly, and Jacob. This is a great family show, and we feel very comfortable letting our four year old daughter watch.  In fact, I go so far as to say it’s a great show for her to watch. She gets to see a family that seems to be fairly healthy, and she’s also exposed to people who are different than us physically.

As it turns out, the Roloffs are Christians as well. No, you don’t hear holy music as they switch to soft lighting and head off to Church, you simply get the sense that their faith is deeply important to them. For instance, in a recent show the youngest son is hit by a contraption called a trebuchet on their family farm. One of the first things the family does when they find out Jacob is going to be OK is to offer a very heartfelt prayer of thanks to Jesus!

I know there are some serious issues with reality TV in general, but we love having a nice family show that we can watch without having to worry about what they’ll see.

The Prayer of Nicodemus

….whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. Matthew 6:6

This morning, I was re-reading Brain McClaren’s The Secret Message of Jesus: Uncovering the Truth that Could Change Everything. In chapter 5, as McClaren underscores the hiddenness inherent in Jesus’ ministry, he writes about Nicodemus.

As I was reading this, another connection came to mind. The way that Nicodemus approaches Jesus is almost a picture of the kind of prayer written about in Matthew 6:6. Nicodemus approaches Jesus under the cover of darkness, a prayer in secret (John 3:2). He then praises Jesus and acknowledges his intimate connection with God, something I find highly unusual given the portrait of Pharisees in the Gospels.

Nicodemus then proceeds to wrestle with Jesus in the conversation. Acknowledgment and struggle provides a great picture of prayer. We go to Jesus because, like Peter, we have nowhere else to turn. “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God (John 6:68-69).” Yet, in spite of this realization, prayer is often a struggle. Jesus offers Nicodemus difficult images and challenges, to which Nicodemus responds with stubborn literalism.

Nicodemus provides a rich image for me. I can picture myself sitting on a rock wall having the same conversation with Jesus – awed by his presence, yet struggling to wrap myself around his words. Perhaps it should encourage us that it is only after the struggle that Jesus leads him into the deep mystery of faith.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.” John 3:16-21

Nicodemus really doesn’t do a lot of talking in this prayerful conversation. Instead he receives a strong challenge to move from seeking Jesus in the darkness to move into the light, love, and forgiveness of God given and revealed in the Son. Perhaps this is our challenge as well: to prayerfully approach the Triune God in secret and then to move out of that dark place of challenge and praise to share the light that we’ve received, namely the challenge of God’s strong Christocentric love.

The Coaching Carousel and Pastoral Itinerancy

Billy DonovanLike many folks, I love to watch the coaching carousel go ’round and ’round waiting to see who gets a dream job and who gets booted for yet another losing season. Billy Gillispie is going from Texas A&M to the University of Kentucky. Bob Huggins has fled Kansas State for his home state in West Virginia. Surprise of surprises, Billy Donovan has chosen to stay put down in Gainesville, saying that happiness is more important than money. Sports radio is consumed by all the changes taking place this time of year, and I follow right along.Will Willimon

Even though it doesn’t make ESPN, the evening news, or talk radio, similar talk happens among United Methodist clergy. We want to know who’s going where, who “took a cut,” and who has gotten their “dream church.” It’s enough to make me wonder if the same things fuel both conversations.

Presumably, we’re fascinated with coaches because we’re fascinated with success. The Billys of the world, Gillispie and Donovan, are to be rewarded for doing a great job at what they do. Both Billys won at traditional football powers and were offered jobs at one of the powerhouses of college basketball, Kentucky. We see this as an affirmation of their skills. They are getting the chance they earned, their achievements measured in the win-loss column.

Perhaps we think the same thing with pastors. Rev. Smith-Jones down the road really turned that congregation around. Isn’t it about time she get a raise and transfer? When will “First Church” come calling? Of course with pastors we talk more about gifts and graces than win-loss records, don’t we? Maybe.

I don’t really have much more to offer on this, because I want to know who’s going where too. Are these two conversations fueled by the same desires and motives? Should they be? Is it just innocent curiosity? What do you think?

My Inner Church Father

Saint Justin MartyrJust took the test at The Way of the Fathers (h/t Gavin & Andy B.), and looks like I’m St. Justin Martyr.

“You have a positive and hopeful attitude toward the world. You think that nature, history, and even the pagan philosophers were often guided by God in preparation for the Advent of the Christ. You find “seeds of the Word” in unexpected places. You’re patient and willing to explain the faith to unbelievers.”

Is it any surprise that three MethoBloggers can take the same six question quiz and get three different results? Of course not!

Easter Quote of the Day

American theologian Ron Sider was once chatting with German theologian Wolfhart Pannenberg about Jesus’ resurrection. Pannenberg repeated at least twice in the conversation, “The evidence for Jesus’ resurrection is so strong that nobody would question it except for two things: first, it is a very unusual event; and second, if you believe it happened, you have to change the way you live.” (h/t Wikiletics)

Complaint Department Closed

Complaint Free WorldI’m sure you’ve heard of the church in Kansas City that is striving for a complaint free world.  It’s been featured in People Magazine, on Oprah, and just about everywhere.  Anyway, my congregation thinks this is a great idea, so I’ve ordered a few bracelets to give out to those who’d like them.  They’re free, but they’re accepting donations to help with the costs.  I’m not really sure what I think about this theologically, but don’t we all have a few people (perhaps including ourselves) that we’d like to subtly hand these out to?

Tony Campolo Interview

I’ve never posted a youtube clip before, and frankly I think they’re a little ugly.  But, I still wanted to post this interview of Tony Campolo who’s promoting his book, Letters to a Young Evangelical.

It’s interesting to watch the way this interviewer responds when faced with Campolo’s presentation of the gospel. My read is that he hasn’t heard the gospel put this way, it’s making a claim on him unlike presentations he’s encountered before, and he seems to try to deflect that quite a bit through the interview. I’d love to know what he’s really thinking!

A Poem for Easter by Wendell Berry

Wendell Berry is one of my very favorite authors. So, as we prepare for Easter, here is one my favorite poems he has written.

Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front

Love the quick profit, the annual raise,
vacation with pay. Want more
of everything ready-made. Be afraid
to know your neighbors and to die.
And you will have a window in your head.
Not even your future will be a mystery
any more. Your mind will be punched in a card
and shut away in a little drawer.
When they want you to buy something
they will call you. When they want you
to die for profit they will let you know.

So, friends, every day do something
that won’t compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it.
Denounce the government and embrace
the flag. Hope to live in that free
republic for which it stands.
Give your approval to all you cannot
understand. Praise ignorance, for what man
has not encountered he has not destroyed.

Ask the questions that have no answers.
Invest in the millenium. Plant sequoias.
Say that your main crop is the forest
that you did not plant,
that you will not live to harvest.
Say that the leaves are harvested
when they have rotted into the mold.
Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.

Put your faith in the two inches of humus
that will build under the trees
every thousand years.
Listen to carrion – put your ear
close, and hear the faint chattering
of the songs that are to come.
Expect the end of the world. Laugh.
Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful
though you have considered all the facts.
So long as women do not go cheap
for power, please women more than men.
Ask yourself: Will this satisfy
a woman satisfied to bear a child?
Will this disturb the sleep
of a woman near to giving birth?

Go with your love to the fields.
Lie down in the shade. Rest your head
in her lap. Swear allegiance
to what is nighest your thoughts.
As soon as the generals and the politicos
can predict the motions of your mind,
lose it. Leave it as a sign
to mark the false trail, the way
you didn’t go. Be like the fox
who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.
Practice resurrection.