The Problems With the Church (an arrogant series of cynical genius)

There are churches that are doing their best to do good work, to create disciples not converts, to take part in movements of social justice, and relational integrity.  They try and promote many good things like mission, community, prayer, self discipline and morality.  But I would suggest that the very structure of the church, is a horrible handicap.  That those that succeed in small ways in these endeavors do so in spite of these horrible structures.  And in fact that these structures are not only incapable of truly doing what God calls the church to do, but they are (the structures) an act of disobedience and idolatry.

Oh no, did he really just say that?  Yes I did.  Over the next few weeks I will explain the many ways that I think the structures and very nature of the church is corrupt and explain why I believe that we cannot seek to effect change from within, but can only truly grow into our calling by coming out from her (pardon the apocalyptic smart assery)

Let me start with a little picture.  I am a black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.  I often teach others this amazingly effective martial art.  Let me explain how I do this.  I spend very much time reading books about BJJ.  I watch the Gracies in Action videos.  I study how other people have applied this teaching in their lives.  And then once a week, I gather all of the students.  Now some of my students are also musicians so we have written some songs that sing our thankfulness for such a wonderful art.  We sing about how much we love Rorion and Helio Gracie for bringing this art to America.  And we even have some songs that teach us in rhyme important truths about grappling.  I then collect the dues for the rent on the dojo, which is only used this one day, and for my salary.  Then... I stand up and I begin to talk to them about the importance of BJJ, about how we are to follow the example of Royce, who came to this country and even though he was small and skinny, he conquered all of the foes that he encountered.  I talk about times in my life that I have had to apply some of these techniques, and I encourage you to apply them as well.  And then we all bow our heads, and I ask if there is anyone who has never accepted the truth of Brazlian Jiu Jitsu, and would like to begin training. 

How many of you would go to that school?  That is not the way I learned jiu jitsu, it is not the way I learned how to wrestle, how to paint, nor how to do drywall, carpentry or roofing.  I learned how to do these things by having a small group of people, actually do these activities with me.  Oh, there were experts of course.  People that I may never measure up to, but they actually got on the mat and wrestled with me, swung a hammer with me.  Sometimes they even slowed down so I could keep up.

Well, that might just be my smart assed brain trying to make everyone do it my way.  Pastoring is different.  But... it is the way Jesus did it.  Jesus says, "come and see"  Jesus says come and follow me.  When Peter prays for a dead person, he does the exact same thing Jesus did when he was with him earlier.  Jesus shows us that we are called to live our discipleship in a community.  To learn a new way of living, believing and relating.  And those most qualified to teach us these things are truly experts, but not because they learned to read Greek, (though that is a wonderful helpful thing), but because they have been following Jesus, forgiving and loving their brothers, and practicing the kingdom for longer than we have.

As long as worship is entertainment or classroom, discipleship will not be apprenticeship. 

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The hypocritical hypocrite is hypocritical (Long Beach Grand Prix)

So... there are many reasons to point out my hypocrisy.  I am no where near where I desire to be in my discipleship.  But it was interesting my reactions to some stuff this last weekend during the Grand Prix of Long Beach:

I live in Long Beach, as many of you may know.  And I hate that damn race, for many many reasons.  Some of the less consequential ones are that it makes traffic bad, even further away where I live, as people need to come down through my neighborhood to get out of Long Beach.

The noise, all day long the screaming of engines.  I am two miles away and it was this constant droning noise, I hated it.

But the more serious issues:

The incredible waste of fuel for what really is no more than entertainment

The incredible damage to our environment for again, what is actually no more than entertainment.

The celebration of sponsors and the plastering of logos everywhere as we worship at the altar of consumerism.

But the worst part is the displacing of homeless people.  To  their credit there are many organizations that try and help these friends of mine during this weekend.  But the common practice is to give them tickets at every opportunity all year round.  Guess what, they cannot pay the tickets, and often do not have the ability to even show up at the court.  They turn into warrants.  Then during the Grand Prix, or the Marathan, or July 4th they go round them up and put them in jail for the weekend so they don't put our city in a bad light.

This race does bring business to our city, and provide at least temporary jobs, but over all I hate it.

As I was sitting in my self righteousness, smoking a cigar and reading a book in the sun I realized...

If someone asked me if I wanted to drive one of those cars...

I would be in that driver seat faster than you can say, "what a f'n hypocrite"

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My Joyous life (follow up from yesterday)

I always find it discouraging that my negative posts always seem to get the most attention.  People seem to be drawn to arguing, and critiquing and critiquing critiques.  The most read posts on my blog are both where I call out Christian leaders for their very public statements letter to pastor mark and was very angry with pastor chuck.

Yet in some of my best posts I talk about wonderful people who have inspired me, and do inspire me pastor buddy or ray barbee

I share video bible studies, talk about our house church, all kinds of things.  But the negative stuff gets heard, it gets passed around, mainly because people wish someone would say something about all the crap they see.  They are happy that it is not just them.  Others, well just enjoy stirring up some shit. 

But today, I thought I might share a little bit about ways forward.  How have we tried to live an alternative?

We work hard to define church as our community not as gatherings.

When we do gather everyone shares.  Everyone cooks for the group at one time or another.  We occasionally meet in other houses, or in a park.  Everyone takes a turn at doing communion, leading confession, or prayer, or worship (almost never singing but usually interactive in a different way).  Everyone shares during a discussion, and everyone has an opportunity to lead the discussions as well.

We pay nobody, so all the money that is given gets spent on neighborhood needs, using a relational model.  If $50 or less is needed to help someone you personally know, you need one person in the community to agree that it is a need we should meet and the money is doled out.  If it is above that amount we put it to a vote, and we use consent rather than consensus, (I will explain later)

We recognize that our calling is not to build a bigger community, but rather give birth to a network of small communities.  We support, and help new communities start.

The use of consent is slightly different from consensus.  We try to reach consensus, which we have in almost every occasion, but if we can't we ask the minority group to allow us to continue in the direction the majority has decided and we will review it in an appropriate amount of time.  If they are adamant about saying no, then we wait.  We would rather go together than divide over being right.

We put regular cycles of service to our neighbors, and the neighborhood into our calender.  We learn to be disciples, by following Jesus example of loving those society has cast aside.  In our history that has been homeless people, drug addicts, punk rockers, pregnant teens, and mentally ill people.  Doing this together is important, as our friends learn what healthy community is like as we practice it with them.

There are many other things I could write, but I will stop there. I am currently writing a book that tells stories of  our ministry over the years, with no commentary.  It will not be negative at all.  If you can't stand my critiques, maybe buy my book when it is available. Far from being the angry curmudgeon that I may appear in caricature, I love life, I have great hope for the future, and I believe the church will be reconciled and redeemed.  I just happen to also believe I need to call us on our bullshit.  Rest assured everything I say, I say to myself as well.



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The parable of the talents

When I spoke at Tribe L.A. I mentioned that I believed this parable was very misunderstood by most of modern traditional christian teaching. Ched Myers introduced me to a different way to read this passage, and I will develop the reasons why I believe it is correct as we go. It is found in the 25th chapter of Matthew, and also in Luke but we will look at the Matthew passage today.

Matthew 25

The Parable of the Talents

  
¹⁴ “For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them. ¹⁵ And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability; and immediately he went on a journey. ¹⁶ Then he who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and made another five talents. ¹⁷ And likewise he who had received two gained two more also. ¹⁸ But he who had received one went and dug in the ground, and hid his lord’s money. ¹⁹ After a long time the lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them.
²⁰ “So he who had received five talents came and brought five other talents, saying, ‘Lord, you delivered to me five talents; look, I have gained five more talents besides them.’ ²¹ His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’ ²² He also who had received two talents came and said, ‘Lord, you delivered to me two talents; look, I have gained two more talents besides them.’ ²³ His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’
²⁴ “Then he who had received the one talent came and said, ‘Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed. ²⁵ And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours.’
²⁶ “But his lord answered and said to him, ‘You wicked and lazy servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered seed. ²⁷ So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received back my own with interest. ²⁸ So take the talent from him, and give it to him who has ten talents.
²⁹ ‘For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away. ³⁰ And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

Now the standard reading of this passage goes like this:  God gives you gifts whether they be speaking, or music, or sowing, or making money.  You are to use these gifts to the best of your ability... for God, and if you don't, God will throw you out into outer darkness.  Of course these points must be nuanced, and danced around, especially the idea of you will be judged by what you do, as modern Christianity has tended to adopt an almost gnostic love of what you believe or know, rather than what you do here on earth.  In these dances we say... well what that means is each person is given a certain amount of faith, but if you don't use that faith blah blah blah.

Now, I am already getting negative. Please bear with me.  Though I agree with the idea that we should make the most of what we are given... I do not believe that is the point of the teaching.  And if it was, it would not be a parable.  You see a parable is not a children's story to teach us morals using quaint images.  A parable is a device used to violently yank us out of our cultural stupor, or powerfully confront our positions of power, by slipping through our defenses.  Like Nathan saying to David, "Thou art the man" parables are supposed to confront either power, or culture.  A traditional reading of this does neither. It reinforces the culture we live in.  In fact, it does so in a very diabolical way if we look beyond the surface.

In this parable we see that people are judged on their ability to make a profit... for an absentee landlord.  We see that those that make a profit get an ever larger share, to make a profit for the landlord but never actually share in the profit, thought they do get to "share in the joy of their master". They stay slaves, they are never freed, and are always judged by their ability to make more and more for their master.  This holds up the status quo, it continues a system and structure that is there.  How is this a parable of good news? of liberation? of the kingdom of God?

But if we look a bit further, we will see that this is indeed a parable.  Our problem is we get the roles turned around.  Specifically the role of the master.  We have been conditioned to believe that the master is always God, but there are many masters in this world, including Satan, the domination spirit that rules the entire world.  Lets look at the parable closer:

The slave who is cast out says some things that are confirmed by the master, the master is...

mean, or hard

he reaps where he does not sow (which we call theft)

he gathers where he did not sow seed (which we also call theft, or occupation)

in addition we see a couple of other things

these other slaves were praised for using money to make a hundred percent profit?  even in this day that would be considered unsavory, but how did they do it back in the day this was written?  the only way was by lending and foreclosing on properties and then selling them at profit,  A practice that basically made all of judea either abjectly poor, or extremely wealthy

the master says that the slave could have put the money in a bank for interest.  But the Jewish people were commanded not to take interest from each other.  So how does this Jewish God say to take interest?

And finally, how does this story fit the life of Jesus? 

So what does this story really say?  It says this in my opinion.  That the lords and masters of this world, the corporations, the governments, the banks ect. expect those under them to work hard, to maximize profits for them.  Though they steal, and defraud, and do whatever it takes to make themselves fat and happy, the best they can offer you is that you will be a slave that can "party with" the boss once and a while if you make some good profit for them.  But if you decide not to play that game, to take this money of empire and plant it in the ground and see what organically comes from it, if you only give back what is given to you.  You will be called wicked, and lazy, and cast out into darkness.  Which is what happens to Jesus.  He faces all of that darkness on Golgotha.  Which is what we are called to, when He says pick up your cross and follow me.  We are called to stand against fraudulent, thieving, mean masters, seeking only their own profit.  We are called to concern ourselves with a different agenda than propping up their empire, (as we read in the very next parable, we are to care for those others that are not "profitable to empire").  And we are called to stand against the fear that grips us, as we await our ostracizing.  We are called to pick up our cross, and follow Jesus

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Last night at Tribe L A

Tribe LA has me come out now and again to do a little preaching or teaching. I really do enjoy being with them. Great group of out of the box people, doing life and community among the artists, in Los Angeles. Their worship music is all written by the church with electronic tracks and participatory percussion. Everyone has a hand drum or something. They start with a meal, and communion. And the time in the bible is usually discussion oriented.

But last night I was asked to talk about the church. And I was specifically asked to just preach. Well you don't need to ask me twice, I love to preach. I feel most alive, and at peace with the world while preaching, (though I do prefer doing so line by line expositional teaching as opposed to subjects).

I felt like I really connected with most of the people there, I felt like I said what I was supposed to say, and I feel I said it well.

But afterwards, I was approached by a man with a gentle smile. He was using a cane, and his body was twisted backwards awkwardly. He moved with great difficulty and his head was tilted sharply to the left. I smiled as he said thank you. I asked how he was doing, and he said through very labored speech that he was doing good. I told him it was great to see him again, and asked if he enjoyed the message. He smiled and gave a kind of well it was okay shake of the hand. I said, "so it was just ok?"

He said, "... I... think... itsss.... aaaall... about... love... jesus... isssss... aaallll... aaaaboutttt... love... aaaaaanddddd... we.... are... suuhhh... posedddd... tooooo... loooooovvvvveeeee... everyone..."

I was humbled. I hugged this beautiful man, who's body might be broken, but who's spirit is bright and shining like the sun. Why did they have me come out and speak?

The simple beauty of Jesus.

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