At The Intersection of Life and Faith

I view my assignment to teach a theology course every spring as a gift of God’s grace. Having taught the same class (albeit under evolving titles) for a number of years, I have been blessed to see students begin to think more seriously about faith – in particular, their faith. When I first taught the class, its title was “Christian Doctrine,” and that title eventually changed to “Biblical Theology.” Currently it has what I think is just the right title: “Theological Foundations for the Christian Life.” 

Teaching theology can be challenging. A part of the challenge in an academic setting is just that – academics. Any course given college credit should be challenging and require some “reading and writing” as a part of the process of learning. But theology is so much more than academic. I’m not sure you can “learn” theology in an academic vacuum. You might become “acquainted with the facts,” but have you actually “learned” theology if it doesn’t express itself in life-changing behaviors?

If I actually understand what N.T. Wright says in After You Believe, then the answer to that question is simply “no.” In Scot McKnight’s A Community Called Atonement: Living Theology, he reminds us that “As God is a missional (missio Dei) so the work of the church and individual Christians is also missional. To be missional means to participate in the missio Dei¸ the mission of God to redeem the world.”  Can I say that I have “learned about God” if I’m not missional?

I am fairly confident that the body of Christ in our world is sometimes victimized both by those who want “to do” but know little of the theology that motivates the doing; and by those who “know” but have little interest in the doing. 

At Point University we talk a lot about “the integration of faith into every discipline.” By that we don’t means “put a Bible verse on your syllabus” and you’re done. But what is the value of being an accounting major graduate who passes the CPA exam on the first try, unless embedded in all that knowledge is this idea that the God we love and worship is missional? 

It may be that the most challenging issue here is not how to integrate faith into some traditional discipline like education, history, music, humanities, psychology, business, sociology, etc. The real challenge is how do we integrate “life into biblical and theological studies.” It sounds more than merely hollow if, in a course titled “Theological Foundations for the Christian Life,” there is not “life connection” in the course.

This spring, as I have for many years, I didn’t require a traditional paper on a theological topic that one might expect in such a course. I required a “Theology in Life” project – where students, grouped together by random selection of a computer program, had to work together, create a project idea, connect it to something we are learning in class, and actually do it. 

The past two class sessions have made me realize anew that teaching this course every spring is a gift of God’s grace. The ten groups each had about five minutes or so to tell the rest of us about their projects. It was amazing to listen to them and to realize that every team that reported actually saw a connection in what we are learning in the class with what they did as a project!

One group told about their purchasing playground equipment for an underfunded after-school program where the kids had either the wrong equipment or worn out equipment. A cookout and game time with the kids at that location allowed this group to be missional. Another group purchased and collected over 250 books for children in Chambers County, Alabama. Most of the kids who will receive those books come from families where five or fewer books are in the home, and typically none for elementary age children. Think about the potential of a child in a poverty-level family owning his or own book and perhaps learning to love to read!

Another group of four students – all typically aged college students – spent time in a senior living community where each one of them was assigned to a resident . They heard lots of stories – many of them rooted in the idea that these not-so-healthy older adults felt isolated and alienated. As one young man said, “it took a lot of faith and prayer” for him to have the courage to go and visit an old person he didn’t know.

One group went to a local high school where there are fifteen students and one teacher in a special needs class. They did all sorts of activities – including providing a pizza lunch. One student in the class loved softball, but had never played before. They took this girl to a softball field and let her pitch and hit. They bought supplies and hung out with these students. They want to go back.

Students at Point live near the Sportsplex in Valley, Alabama and we use that facility and its ball fields often. One of the Theology in Life groups took to heart our conversation about stewardship of the earth and spent quite a while picking up litter around the Sportsplex, the ball fields, and even the Point Living Community. They saw their project as a way of expressing gratitude to the community for their welcoming spirit towards Point students as well as taking care of the earth God calls good. One gentleman, at the fields with his son for ball practice, came up to one of our students and said, “You must be from Point!” I think that speaks well of what we’re trying to do at Point.

When Jesus told us to love our neighbor, there is no end to the implications of that idea. One of our groups decided to have a block party in one of the overlooked parts of this area. They collected clothes, bought prizes, and had a neighborhood cookout. They did everything – including recruiting other students to help. One of the team members told me that the most moving part of that experience was when the kid who won the big prize – a bicycle – gave it to another kid because he already had a bicycle. Interestingly, this group reported that when this kind of service/ministry is going on, “demographics didn’t matter.” Could we have learned something here about the “demographic conflicts” in our world?

Another group taught kids to “trust God” through a “one-day VBS,” complete with games, refreshments, songs, crafts, and a Bible lesson. That experience ended with “when are you coming back?” The principal of a middle school was “blown away” by the school supplies collected and given to that school. Because she had  given out her last box of tissue to a teacher earlier that day, the principal was thrilled with twelve boxes of tissue in the huge collection of supplies given to the students in another under-funded school.

“We cleaned it like it was our own” was how one student described their project – which they initially thought was to help clean the home of an elderly, disabled lady. When they got there, they realized that the home – “I didn’t know people lived like this” – needed more than cleaning. They ended up not only cleaning, but partnering with the Fuller Center to help repair the roof, replace a ceiling, and other repair projects. Some have helped already on other projects.

We all know that our culture is facing a serious challenge with unwed mothers who aren’t prepared at all to take care of the babies they will soon have. One group partnered with Sav-A-Life ministries in this area and threw a baby shower for a group of ladies this ministry is helping. They described that event as one where “God showed up.” The group met weekly to pray and fast as they sought to identify their project and actually pull it off. One young man in this group – actually the only male in the group and a football player at that – said, “That was my first baby shower!” But he, along with the three ladies who were in his group, was clearly moved by doing the project.

In the section of “Theological Foundations for the Christian Life” where I talk about the idea of the church as community, one of the things I try to make sure everyone gets is “the unity of the body seems to be most obviously indicated by our willingness to serve others – even at the expense of our own needs and our own identity.” Sitting in class and listening to these reports – made by groups of students from a widely divergent demographic reality – reminded me that I need to keep saying that. It really is true, and this class really did model that idea.

So as we come to the end of the semester and move on to whatever is next, I don’t have any term papers that someone might say, “that’s good enough for a seminary student to have written it.” But that’s fine. Theology, at its best, really isn’t about writing papers worthy of seminary student status. Theology really isn’t about going to seminary – not that to do so is a bad thing. 

But, whether in college or seminary, or in a Bible study in a local church, if studying theology separates what we believe from how we live, then we have only acquainted people with some facts, we haven’t taught them theology! There must be this intersection – an intersection where life and faith cross paths with one another. 

Thanks to THE 301, Spring 2013, I was privileged to sit at that intersection the past few days in class. And that, without question, is a gift of grace.

A Thick Book

Several years ago at a workshop on preaching led by William Willimon, I  heard a phrase that has become embedded in how I describe the Bible. The phrase he used, which I regularly use giving credit to Willimon, was “the Bible is a thick book.” His analogy had nothing to do with the actual thickness of any version of the Bible, but rather with the brutal reality that none of us ever successfully master its contents.

In The Art of Reading Scripture, edited by Ellen F. Davis and Richard B. Hays, Davis writes a chapter titled “Teaching the Bible Confessionally in the Church.” In that chapter she tells a classroom story where, at mid-term, a student told her “When we started, I thought the problem was that I read too slowly. Now I see that the problem is, I read too fast.” (page 12) Davis goes on to comment, “Slowing down, we can begin to see how the (sometimes frustratingly) complex literary artistry of the Bible conveys theological meaning.” 

In Michael Casey’s Sacred Reading, Casey suggests that one of the key requirements for “sacred reading” is “on the spirit of reverence that should pervade our reading.” (page 26) He goes on to suggest that this reverence is best understood as “the sobriety of spirit that stems from an experience of the otherness of God which makes us want to subdue self, remain silent, and to submit.”

As Casey develops this idea, he notes that reverence propels us toward silence; will cause us to surround our reading with safeguards to its seriousness; will cause us to have respect for the text as the Bible; and build into us a determination to put into practice the good news encountered in reading – not to be hearer only, but doers. (pages 27, 28)

On my smart phone, I have an app that reminds me to read the Bible. Typically when I respond to the reminder, a verse from somewhere in the Bible pops us. It is tempting, and actually easy to fall victim to the temptation, to quickly read the verse and move on. You can even click some “share link” on that verse and it will appear on your Facebook page for all the world to know you read some verse in the Bible. While it may be true that any reading of the Bible is better than no reading of the Bible, I’m not sure that’s exactly what Michael Casey has in mind in Sacred Reading!

On the other end of the spectrum, for people like me it is very easy to be tempted, and to fall victim to the temptation, to read the Bible from the vantage point of academic expert. The “mechanics of interpreting” become more our focus than what the text actually says.  While it may be true that any reading of the Bible is better than no reading of the Bible, I’m not sure that’s exactly what Michael Casey has in mind in Sacred Reading!

Davis goes on in her article to suggest that there “are good reasons for studying Hebrew and Greek. But perhaps the best reason is the most obvious: reading in the original languages slows us down, and reading the text more slowly is essential for learning to love the Bible.” (page 15)

None of this is to suggest that one has to learn Hebrew and Greek to make the Bible have meaning. But it is to suggest that perhaps we would all do well to slow down a bit in our reading of Scripture. My first preaching professor, Orval Morgan, told his students regularly “take time to soak the beans.” There is some truth that analogy for us all – Hebrew or Greek readers or not.

The writer of Psalm 119 was on to something!

How can young people keep their way pure?

By guarding it according to your word.

with my whole heart I seek you;

Do not let me stray from your commandments.

I treasure your word in my heart,

so that I may not sin against you. (9-11)

A “thick book” indeed.

God's Creatures

“And God saw that it was good.” Those words, found in Genesis 1:25, immediately follow the part of the creation narrative where God has created “living creatures,” and immediately precede “let us make man in our image.” Once humans are in place, the story of creation tells us that God “saw all that he had made and it was very good.” 

The whole biblical narrative – from creation to renewal and restoration – is deeply rooted in the idea that God declared what He made (how He made it isn’t revealed so we shouldn’t worry about that too much!) to be “very good.” For believers, God’s authority to declare right from wrong is rooted in the idea that “the earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.” (Psalm 24:1)

It is also true for people who claim to believe that Scripture is the trustworthy record of God’s self-disclosure that we are called to recognize that God called His creation “very good” and that we are His partners in renewing and restoring His good creation to its intended purposes. It is odd that Christians aren’t the leading voices in our world when it comes to caring for “the earth that is the Lord’s.”

I probably didn’t think so at the time, but I’ve come to understand that growing up a “farm boy” had a huge, positive impact on who I am and how I view God’s creation. Plants fascinate me. Who could imagine that you can take a little seed that still has little stubbles of something on it, plant it in the earth, and by the end of its growth cycle, it is covered with cotton – the most natural of fabrics? At one time, those massive oak trees, probably over a hundred years old now, that are in my yard were once tiny little acorns. The earth is a fascinating place it we “stop and smell the roses.”

Growing up, I was surrounded by “living creatures.” I’m talking about creatures like cows, horses, pigs, chickens, dogs, and cats. All the cows on my grandfather’s dairy farm had names and I knew every one of them by name. The dog that I remember best was a boxer named Johnny. Johnny thought my siblings and I needed protection from everyone – including my parents. I can remember more than one occasion where Johnny got between me and my mother, who had a switch from the peach tree that sometimes was her preferred method of getting my attention. (I’m not suggesting I didn’t deserve what my mother was planning to do, or that my mother was abusive, but just that Johnny was a protector.)

I was thrilled when my oldest daughter, Sarah, decided that she wanted her first dog to be a boxer! It brought back all sorts of wonderful memories about Johnny. So my “Dad ran into Santa Claus” gift for Sarah a while back was a boxer puppy. Sarah named her Laila and she quickly became a part of our family. Sarah lived with us a few months between the end of her apartment lease and the completion of her house – and Vicki and I got to share life with Laila while she was a puppy. If Sarah went out of town, we were trusted to “grand dog sit” and enjoy Laila’s company. Whenever Sarah came to see us, she brought Laila with her and I would often suggest that Laila wanted to spend the night. 

I’ve even been accused of giving Laila scraps from my plate – especially if the meat was pork, which seemed to be Laila’s favorite. I’m not admitting that I was guilty, just saying I was accused!

Laila lost a battle with lymphoma back in February. I really do understand that she was, in the words of some, “a dog, not a person.” But she was one of God’s “living creatures” and He called that part of creation “good.” If God made dogs to be companions, protectors, friends, and company to humans, then I have to say that Laila did a better job of achieving God’s “intended purpose at creation” than most humans I know, including myself, do. 

Caring for God’s creation – the earth itself, the living creatures, and humans – is risky business. But if I understand correctly, Jesus used “stories about creation” as the basis for much of what He taught. Just think about how many of His stories involve agriculture. Psalm 19 begins with a reminder that creation declares the glory of God, and in Romans 1, Paul declares that we can learn about God’s “eternal power and divine nature” from the world in which God has placed us.  Romans 8 anticipates a day when “creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.”

All of this to simply say to those who might read it that we ought to take good care of God’s “very good creation.” And that includes his “good living creatures.” And we ought to be thankful when our paths cross with one like Laila (or several other dogs I know!).  It certainly is okay to own up to the fact that losing a living creature like Laila breaks our hearts!

I hope decades down the road when Sarah is my age, she will remember what a protector Laila was just like I remember Johnny. I certainly don’t know how God will ultimately work out this renewing and restoring idea that permeates His self-disclosure, but I can’t imagine that it won’t include creatures like Laila, or Johnny, or Jasmine, or Bear, or Willow, or Matilda Jane – just a few of the dogs I’ve known. Shoot – I’m looking forward to seeing Themesong, the dairy cow my grandfather let me name the week of Vacation Bible School and I had learned the “theme song” for the week and thought that dairy cow needed that as her name!

God was right. Creation is “very good.”

Now What?

My family made a big deal out of my birthday last week – just like they do every year. I of course insist that I would be fine forgetting that I had a birthday, but truthfully I would be a bit sad if they ignored it. The truth of the matter is that they make a big deal out of my life every day, which gives even greater meaning to the once-a-year “Dad you’re special” event called my birthday.

That isn’t all that different from the fact that this past weekend when believers all over the world had a “Jesus you’re special” kind of celebration of His resurrection. I get it that every day, and especially our gathering on every Lord’s Day, is a celebration of the fact that He is alive. But that hardly would suggest that this once a year event we typically call Easter can’t be a kind of summary statement of why we celebrate Jesus’ life every day.

That’s the idea behind my question – Now What? What can my life look like until next spring, when once again (April 20, 2014) this special day comes and churches all over the world will make special note of the idea that is the heart of our faith – He is Risen!

We might learn something from Luke’s story of what I sometimes call “the earliest, early church.” I’m talking about the narrative in Acts 2-4 where the body of Christ on earth seems to be at its very best. Luke will speak of “no needy people” among believers because people were “selling their possessions and laying them at the apostles’ feet.” He will describe a church that is reaching out in ways that are fruitful and fulfilling. Perhaps because they couldn’t think of a better idea, the apostles seem to commit themselves to doing with these new believers what Jesus had done with them, so they lead the believers to commit themselves “to the apostles’ doctrine, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to the prayers.” (2:42)

Despite some outside interference, the earliest, early church seems unstoppable. They are transforming the microcosm of the world they live in (Jerusalem) and modeling what a response to the Christian gospel that begins with repentance and baptism should look like. 

While “numbers aren’t everything” you have to be impressed by numbers in this story. Numbers like zero – there were no needy people. Numbers like 3000 and later 2000 – describing the numbers (perhaps just counting men) who responded to the preaching of the gospel. 

And numbers like eleven. That’s the number of times some version of the phrase “in the name of Jesus” occurs in Acts 2-4. Apparently “in the name of Jesus” was a permeating, transforming, and sustaining way of life. Perhaps that is the sort of thing in the mind of Paul when he said to the believers in Colossae, “whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.” (Colossians 3:17)

Growing up in a deeply committed Christian family, I don’t have a very exciting testimony about becoming a Christian. It was the most natural thing for me to do. For that I am forever indebted to my parents, and other family members and friends in my little country church, for making that true about me.

But when it comes to “why do you remain a Christian?” there’s more to tell! Ultimately the answer has to revolve around the message of Easter – He is Risen indeed! If that is true, then despite an occasional glance at a different way of living, I ultimately know that I am called to live out life “in the name of Jesus.”  Not as some slick logo to put at the bottom of my email notes or posted on Facebook – but as a way of life. Just as was true for the earliest, early church – the fact that He is risen means I am called to live in the name of Jesus.

So it’s the week after Easter and the temptation will be to go back to normal. But honestly, the only reasonable normal if I believe what I heard and said in church on Easter Sunday is to commit myself to living life “in the name of Jesus.”

It transformed the lives of those complicit in the death of Jesus. It surely can transform my life as well.