on the walk

We began a new series today at Mountain. We are unpacking the great mystery of grace in a four week series called Grace Anatomy. This week was Dermatology, and we examined the story of the leper from Luke 5:12-16. It is in many ways an unremarkable healing story. But Luke offers a detail that reminds us of Christ’s singular compassion. Jesus heals with a touch. Ignoring the rules of his culture and the demands of good hygiene and health, Jesus touches the leprous man, and the man is made clean. Continue Reading »

My family recently visited Tennessee. Tennessee is still my home. I warned the boys that I might be grumpy for a few days after our return because leaving Tennessee always leaves me homesick. I am glad to be serving in Maryland, and have no doubts that it is the right place for this season of my ministry, but there is something easy and secure about life in Tennessee that is hard for me to quite express. Being homesick however always reminds me of my favorite experiential argument for the existence of God. Continue Reading »

Slate.com is a left of center online new-site that has some of the best essays on the web.  Check out this article on selling Easter.

on the walk

-Ethan

Mark Roberts has just begun a series of posts on the last words of Christ.  If you are looking for a guide to prayer and reflection during this week of preparation, you may want to check out today’s post or the whole series.

on the walk

-Ethan

I am on a metaphor hunt.

I posted about gun barrels a few days back. I can’t stop thinking about this issue but the metaphor doesn’t sing for me.

First a few more thoughts on the issue. I easily can get drawn into an institution growth mindset. I love the church. I love Bible studies, and pot lucks. I love softball games and theological debates. I love weddings, and choirs. I love cantatas and seminaries. But in that love there is a great danger. I might be so excited to be in the church that I lose sight of God’s purpose for me. Continue Reading »

John Stackhouse just posted a great article about sex.  In it he argues that part of our culture’s problem with sex is that we are not realistic enough about what sex is.  He argues that sex is something quite apart from whatever we may wish it to be and that even though many of us wish that sex were many different things and act as if it were many different things, it remains what it is.

I am not paraphasing him very well, but maybe I have you interested enough to go read it.  It will be worth your time.

After you you do, you can help me think about these questions. Continue Reading »

I don’t normally think in violent metaphors, and I am not a big fan of guns. (I have fond memories of a pump action BB gun, a fence and coke cans, but that is as far as my fond gun memories go.) But lately I have been thinking about gun barrels. Continue Reading »

I have a book outlined that I want to write with a friend.  It isn’t really happening.

One of the the things that I like about the book is that we start by making the point that you are loved by God.

In his wonderful little book, A Community Called Atonement, Scot McKnight writes that we need to be careful where we start telling the story because where we start the story will influence what we think the climax is and where we think the story ends.  (This isn’t a quote, the book is easily 25 feet from me and I am too tired and sick to walk over and get it.)

In the realm of how God relates to people, I think that in much of the church’s conversation, we start the story at a bad point and consequently we miss the climax.

Too often we start with the reality that we are sinners.  We are of course. Or perhaps we start with the reality that our lives are broken.  Or we start with the reality of our failed relationships, or insecurity, or lostness, or wherever.

I think this is not where the story starts.  It is certainly the current chapter for many people.  However this current chapter only makes sense in light of the first chapter.

For every person the story starts with the stark unchanging reality that God loves them.  God created you in love.  God created me in love.  God continues to love us even as fall into God’s wrath for our rebellion.  When we look at the sand on the beach, we do not see a broken vase.  However the same material in shards on the ground causes grief precisely if it once was a beautiful piece of glasswork.
It is only in the context of this beginning (Our status as the beloved of God) that anything else makes since.  The whole rest of God’s story with us (wrath, judgment, prophets, kings, the law, the temple, the incarnation, the cross, the resurrection, the Spirit, salvation by grace) only makes sense in the light of God’s love for us .

More to the point, God loves you.  (and me) My entire life rests on that reality. Apart from it, my life has no meaning, no purpose, and no future.

It is true that I am a sinner but more true is that I am loved by God.

on the walk

-Ethan

I often deride myself for having too little faith in the power of prayer.  It is hard for me to face again calling on God to act when it seems that many times God has not acted.

Yet even amidst my doubt I found new evidence that I fundamentally do believe in the power of prayer.

Here is my evidence: I don’t want to pray about my church’s capital campaign.

Just to be clear, I am on the staff of the church.  I believe in the centrality of the local church and this one that I serve is a particularly good one.

I believe in the goals of the campaign. I have been bragging to all my friends that it is so exciting to be a part of a church that has a campaign that is so outwardly focused and so ministry focused. (Very little of our funds are going toward bricks and mortar.  Most of our campaign goals are for other places and other churches.)

So I support the campaign, but I don’t want to pray about it for one very simple reason.  I know that if I pray about it, God will change my heart.  God will inspire me.  God will challenge me.  God will stretch me to sacrifice and give beyond what I want to give.

I sometimes feel like there really is only one prayer: “Not my will, but thine be done.”

I believe that God responds to prayer.  I know that I believe because I am afraid to pray.

on the walk

-Ethan