SOPA, PIPA, and the Power of Community

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If you were online at all yesterday, you know that a number of big-name websites were blacked out in order to protest proposed legislation named SOPA and PIPA.  These two Acts, if passed, could dramatically change the way the ‘Net works, to say the least, giving the government way too much power to take down whole websites without due process.  Well it’s the day after, and the effectiveness of the protest is already starting to become apparent.

According to Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, 162 million people saw the information about the two acts posted on Wikipedia.  Over 8 million of those people used Wikipedia’s zip code tool to contact their Representatives or Senators.  Millions of people signed various petitions against the proposed legislation.  And here’s the real kicker:  a number of Senators and Congresspeople have come out against these acts, a dozen of which previously supported it (the rest who came out against hadn’t publicly taken a stance).

There should be no question that the blackout was a success of massive proportions.

Here’s my question for you:  What if we got as pissed off about hunger and poverty as we do about freedom on the Internet?  What if we simply refused to sit back and take hunger as a given that has to exist?  What if we fasted a meal a day and gave that food away?  What if we sold some of what we have in order that others could have what they need (Acts 2:45)?

What if we got ticked off about the fact that 300,000 kids are sexually exploited every year in the US for money?  What if we all came together to stop that?

What if we realized that the world could be changed by seeing a community of people live Christlike lives in every-day situations?

The power of community is great.  How will we use it?

Top Ten Albums of 2011

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Soon, we will get to the albums.  But first, the rules:

1.  The albums had to be released during the calendar year of 2011.

2.  The albums had to be full-length albums of new material.

3.  The albums couldn’t be live albums that consisted primarily of live versions of previously released material from the artist.

 

#10 Michael W. Smith, Glory 

In 2000, Michael W. Smith released Freedom, his first instrumental album.  Now, over a decade later, comes Glory.  While the former record had a Celtic flavor to it, Glory is straightforward piano/orchestra music.  While Michael W. Smith wrote all the music, David Hamilton arranged it.  ”Glory Battle” is a sort of mirror image of the song “Freedom Battle” from Freedom, yet it is a new song as well.  The album is closed out with “The Tribute/Agnus Dei”.  This is perhaps the best song on the album.  It is a medley of a new song and a new arrangement of “Agnus Dei”.  The “Agnus Dei” portion of the song starts quietly on the piano and builds until it is gloriously praising God.  As the song and album are coming to a close.  Michael W. Smith calls back a theme that he originally released in 1989 on the album Christmas.  Glory ends by using a theme from that album, from a song called “Gloria”–a fitting way to end an album called Glory.

#9 Owl City, All Things Bright and Beautiful

All Things Bright and Beautiful is just that–bright and beautiful.  Adam Young is back at it with his unique approach to lyrics and identifiable electronic music.  There are some great lyrics on the album.  For example, “Reality is a lovely place, but I wouldn’t wanna live there!”  Or take this example, from “Deer in the Headlights”–”Met a girl in the parking lot and all I did was say ‘Hello’.  Her pepper spray made it rather hard for me to walk her home, but I guess that’s the way it goes.”  But Young is able to be serious as well.  The song “Galaxies” praises God for being the “saving grace of the galaxies”.  Add to these wonderful lyrics the musical talents of Matthew Theissen (of Relient K fame), Lights and Shawn Christopher, and you are sure to be in for a ride of a lifetime.

#8 Alison Krauss & Union Station, Paper Airplane

It’s been 7 years since we’ve heard from Alison Krauss and Union Station.  On Paper Airplane, they revive their trademark blend of bluegrass and folk.  Alison’s voice and violin are tender as ever, and the guys’ playing and singing combine with hers marvelously.  In fact, on a number of songs, it almost seems as if the lead singer’s voice and the harmonies blend so well, they are almost one voice.  A couple of highlights from the album are the two covers, Richard Thompson’s “Dimming of the Day” and Jackson Browne’s “My Opening Farewell”.  These covers work so well, in fact, that on first listen I repeated “My Opening Farewell” four times.  After a long 7-year wait, it’s great to have Alison Krauss & Union Station back.

#7 Brad Paisley, This is Country Music

Brad Paisley has truly put together a work of art with This is Country Music.  The title track is the first on the record, and it serves as the theme for the rest of it.  It’s almost as if Paisley is saying “This is country music…” and then goes on to show us.  In fact to further that idea, various lines that were cut from the title track are spread throughout the album to tie it all together.  The album also features performances by Alabama, Carrie Underwood, Don Henley, Clint Eastwood, Blake Shelton, Marty Stuart, Sheryl Crow, Larry the Cable Guy, Wes Hightower and Sonya Isaacs.  There are serious songs on the album to be sure, but it is not all nostalgia and tribute to the greats of Country Music.  Paisley’s humor returns on songs like “Camouflage”, where he claims that camouflage is his favorite color.  Another humorous one is “Don’t Drink the Water”, in which Blake Shelton reminds Brad Paisley to not drink the water on his trip to Mexico.  ”‘Don’t drink the water.’  I told him, ‘That’s ok–I ain’t going down to Mexico to drink the water, anyway!’”  The music is great as usual, too.  In fact, Brad paves new ground on “New Favorite Memory”, when, after singing the song in waltz timing, he slows it down for the last chorus to quarter timing, as though he wants to savor his “new favorite memory” just a little longer.  If this is country music, I’m in it for the long haul.

#6 Paul Simon, So Beautiful or So What

While Paul Simon has many talents, the first thing that hits you about So Beautiful or So What is the percussion.  It is impossible to listen to So Beautiful… without tapping your toes or slapping your leg.  In fact, Simon plays the guitar in a percussive way, on a number of songs.  On “Getting Ready For Christmas Day”, Simon samples a sermon from Reverend J. M. Gates.  Lyrically, Simon approaches spirituality with a smile and a metaphor.  Using narrative rather than simply saying, “This is how I think it is”, Simon allows the listener to use his or her imagination as they listen.  In the liner notes to the album, Elvis Costello says “I believe that this remarkable, thoughtful, often joyful record deserves to be recognized as among Paul Simon’s very finest achievements.”  I agree.

#5 Over the Rhine, The Long Surrender

Listening to The Long Surrender is like being in a bar or nightclub experiencing a little piece of Heaven.  One can almost picture the husband and wife team through the smoky haze, Linford at the piano, Karin at the mike, slowly swaying as her voice slowly builds.  Karin’s voice has an uncanny ability to make you feel something.  Some singers cause you to think and feel through their lyrics.  Karin causes you to do it because of her voice as much as her lyrics.  And boy is there something to feel when you’re listening to The Long Surrender!  ”Rave On” almost feels like you’re at a poetry reading, except the poetry is being sung instead of read.  On “All My Favorite People”, Karin acknowledges that we all are broken–and that’s alright.  All in all, this is an album for ordinary folk, expressing ordinary things through extraordinary talent.

 

#4 Ben Shive, The Cymbal Crashing Clouds

The Cymbal Crashing Clouds begins with the song “Listen!”, a sort of call to open your ears, done in an almost spoken-word style with prophetic overtones.  And indeed, if you do listen, there are layers upon layers of pleasure waiting to be revealed in this music.  For instance, the second song is called “E G B D F”, which is musical shorthand for “Every Good Boy Does Fine”, which itself is a memory device to help remember the notes on the staff.  The song tells of a teen trying to master piano and the practice needed. Once one listens even closer, though, the whole song is a metaphor for the Law and how we try (and fail) to follow it.  Another song uses the idea of “Shooting the Moon” as a metaphor for marriage.  This depth of lyric is found throughout, and I could go song by song and tell of the interesting themes, but I”ll leave that for you to discover.  Musically, the piano is at the forefront, but tight harmonies are present, at times reminding the listener of the Beach Boys, among other things.  You’ve got to hear this music.  Believe me–once you hear it, you won’t be able to stop from Listening.

 

#3 The Civil Wars, Barton Hollow

How can one describe The Civil Wars?  Perhaps a modern-day Johnny and June Carter Cash.  Except they aren’t married.  Which is a plus for Joy Williams and John Paul White, since it allows them to cover the harder aspects of relationships when they sing.  When listening to Barton Hollow, one gets the idea that it was recorded live.  After hearing them play live at their first show, Charlie Peacock starting recording them in the studio.  The idea was to keep it stripped down, with a sort of live feel, and most of all, to keep the sound real.  Barton Hollow is the epitome of authenticity–of keeping music underproduced rather than overproduced.  Perhaps the biggest surprise of the year, this debut album from the Civil Wars has garnered a lot of praise, and with good reason.  As well as getting critical praise, The Civil Wars is doing well among their peers, as well, making fans out of Adele and Taylor Swift, among others.  Barton Hollow is definitely a cd not to be missed.

 

#2 Switchfoot, Vice Verses

“And I wonder why would I wait til I die to come alive–I’m not waiting for the afterlife!”  So says Switchfoot’s opening song, “The Afterlife”.  Musically, Vice Verses is pretty straightforward rock with a more acoustic song spread throughout here and there.  ”Selling the News” would be the exception.  In this song, Jon Foreman plays with a spoken-word form, almost rapping through the verses.  Coming from Switchfoot, this makes the listener sit up and pay attention to what Foreman is saying.  Lyrically, this is the best offering from Switchfoot in their catalogue, and I was a huge fan of their previous release, Hello Hurricane.  Many topics are covered, including worship, the desire to go above and beyond rather than just settling and hope for the underdog.  The way the album begins and ends, though, is just beautiful.  As I said earlier, the album opens with a song called “The Afterlife”, which is about realizing that this life is not just about waiting for Heaven, but that we are in fact called to live in the here and now.  The album ends with “Where I Belong”, which is a song about living with God after we die.  So Vice Verses opens by affirming the value of this life, and ends by affirming that we have hope to one day live “in the world where I belong”, that is, in Heaven.  See, the Christian life is found in the tensions more than in the easy answers.  As if to drive the point home, the album ends on the same chord as it begins, so that if one listens to it on repeat, it would just continue back into the first song.  We need to be living this life now, while at the very same time holding hope for the life to come, while at the very same time living this life now, while at the very same time….  Switchfoot has done something beautiful and important here, something that deserves to be heard.

 

#1 Sara Groves, Invisible Empires

Sara Groves is perhaps the most consistent singer/songwriter in music today.  Her music is consistently thoughtful, intelligent and yet not heady or unemotional.  On Invisible Empires, Sara shows herself to be even more talented than we already knew she was.  Sara Groves consistently surrounds herself with the best instrumentalists the industry has to offer.  Besides herself playing piano, some of the players include Tyler Burkum (Audio Adrenaline), Aaron Fabbrini, Zach Miller, Steve Hindalong, Stephen Leiweke, Mark Byrd and Ben Shive, with Andy Gullahorn and Jill Phillips singing background vocals.  This is a very acoustic centered band, and that is exactly where the music goes on the album.  Lyrically, Sara Groves shines.  While most of the songs are written by Sara Groves by herself, she also co-writes with Alli Rogers, Andy Gullahorn and Jill Phillips.  A number of themes are present, including God remaking a love that has grown cold, the mysteries of love, and the importance of doing everything we do out of the motive of love.  Sara’s writing definitely grows on this album as well, though.  On “Eyes on the Prize”, Groves reworks a spiritual of the same name, which itself is adapted from a song called “Gospel Plow”.  The song that is co-written with Andy Gullahorn is called “Scientists in Japan”.  In this song, the two tackle technology and contemplate some of the ethical questions it raises.

In short, Invisible Empires shows Sara Groves at her best, while still making herself grow as a singer and songwriter.  If you only get one album from last year, this is the one to get!

Christmas

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“And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth….And the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which shall be for all the people…’”  Luke 1:14, 2:10

5 Ways to Get (Legally) Free E-Books for the Kindle

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1. The Amazon Store.The first and most obvious place to get free books for your Kindle is in the Amazon Store itself. What you need to do is go to Amazon’s page for Kindle books. Next, navigate to whichever type of book you are looking for-there is a genre list on the left side. After clicking on whatever genre interests you, in a box on the right side of the screen, sort from lowest price to highest price. What you will have is a list of all of the books in the Amazon Store from the genre you selected, starting with the free books. After you have sorted from lowest price to highest price, you can navigate from one genre to another, and the list will automatically be sorted by price.

2. Feedbooks, located at www.feedbooks.com Navigation is very simple on the Feedbooks website. On the front page, you have a number of options. You can search for an author, title or subject. On the left side, you will see options to browse by public domain books or by original books. When you have found a book you want to download, you simply click on the “Download” button. From here, you will need to select whichever format you need-Kindle, Epub, etc. From here you will be able to move the book to your Kindle Documents folder via the USB Cable.

3. Manybooks, located at www.manybooks.net Manybooks is very similar in navigation to Feedbooks. One advantage to Manybooks is that they have books available in a large number of languages. Another way Manybooks is unique is that they have a number of book collections, such as “State of the Union Addresses”, “Science Fiction After 1950″ and “How To…” EBooks. The process for downloading is the same as Feedbooks, with one advantage-Manybooks has over 20 different options available for download, including PDF, Kindle, etc.

4. Project Gutenberg, located at www.gutenberg.orgAgain, this site works similarly to Feedbooks and Manybooks. Project Gutenberg, though, has all public domain books. Because of this, they tend to be older. Project Gutenberg has a number of interesting ways to search, including “Top 100 Books” and “Top 100 Authors” downloaded.

5. The Baen Free Library, located at http://www.baen.com/library/defaultTitles.htm Baen specializes in Science Fiction. When you’ve found a book you want to download, simply click the Mobi/Palm/Kindle option and move it to your Kindle via USB Cable.

Do you know of more sites that provide free Kindle Books that I missed? Let us know in the comments!

“Give to Ceasar what is Caesar’s; Give to God What is God’s” Luke 20 Through the Eyes of the Promise

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Taxes.

Giving money to the government.  It’s not a fun subject.  Most people think we pay too much in taxes.

Imagine how it would be if the we were living in a country that wasn’t ours.  This was the situation for the Jews in the New Testament.  Though they lived in their own land, they paid taxes to Rome and to Caesar.  How frustrating that would be!

Jesus had been stirring the pot for a while and the religious leaders were starting to get fed up with him, so they sought a way to catch him in his words.  They came to Jesus and said, “Hey, we know you’re a good guy, great moral character, and that we can trust what you say.  Should we pay taxes to Caesar or not?”

Jesus says, “Whose image is on this coin?”

“Caesar’s,” they answer.

“Then give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and give to God what is God’s.”

A bit of a cryptic answer, no?  Keep in mind that Jesus is talking to religious leaders in this story.  Jesus asks them about whose image is on the coin.  Image.  What other religious stories would the religious leaders have known that include the idea of “image”?  It’s the very beginning of the Story, right?  Creation.  God creates all that is, and says that it is good.  But then God creates humans, in his own Image, and says that it is very good.  This is the link that is implicit in the text that Jesus doesn’t make explicitly clear.

“This coin has Caesar’s image on it,” Jesus says, “So give it to Caesar.  But you yourselves have God’s image on you.  Give your lives, your heart, your very selves to God.”

We are made in God’s image.  We belong to God, if only we would give ourselves to him.

C.S. Lewis, Harry Potter and the Transforming Power of Evil (Beware of Spoilers!)

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There has been a continuing theme in fiction that when we make evil choices, it changes our person, our being, who we are.

One example can be seen in C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia, specifically in Voyage of the Dawn Treader.  The story chronicles the kids’ adventures while aboard a ship, the Dawn Treader.  The ship lands on an island, and as the rest of the children are working, a character named Eustace sneaks away in order to avoid work.  He comes upon a dragon who is guarding its treasure, while in the midst of dying.  After the dragon dies, Eustace explores the dragon’s treasure, eventually stealing for himself a bracelet which he puts on. Afterwords, Eustace falls asleep.

When Eustace awakes, he is horrified to learn that he himself has turned into a dragon.  His friends don’t recognize him–in fact, at first they think he is an enemy.  After some communication, though, his friends realize that this dragon is actually Eustace.  In his dragon form, Eustace is very helpful in fixing the Dawn Treader.  In other words, in his dragon form Eustace does the work that he was trying to get out of in the first place.  Eustace also hears Aslan, the Christ figure, calling to Eustace.  Eustace decides to respond to Aslan’s calling.  Aslan changes Eustace from his dragon form.  The process is painful, but Eustace is a boy once again.

A second example can be found in Ted Dekker’s Circle Trilogy, and related writings.  In Dekker’s world, evil can be seen physically.  Evil is a disease that can be seen by flaking skin, among other symptoms.  The disease can be cleansed/avoided if one washes daily in one of the special pools.  (After the sacrifice of a specific character in the series, this washing only needs to happen once).  If someone is not washed, though, the disease takes over.  After some time, the person is fully turned into a member of the “Horde”, those who have let the disease overtake them.  The disease affects the way a person acts, thinks, the very core of who the person is.  Though the diseased person is alive, their skin flakes, and they stink of rotten flesh.  Though they are alive, they are dead.

Our third example comes from the Harry Potter series.  The ultimate evil in Harry’s world is to commit murder.  When one commits murder, one’s soul tears into pieces.  We find out that this is exactly how Voldemort, the villain, has been staying alive.  Voldemort commits a murder, purposely tearing his soul, and puts a piece of his soul in an object, using it as a sort of anchor to be bound to this world, to achieve a sort of immortality.  Of course, Voldemort looks anything but human.  He is ghost-white, with the face of a snake.  Evil has transformed Voldemort into a hideous creature.

How does all of this effect Christianity?  It makes us look at morality differently.  Morals are not just a random group of laws that we ought to obey.  Morals are important because they help us to turn ourselves into the type of people we were created to be.  C.S. Lewis even applies this idea to Heaven and Hell.  Throughout his non-fiction, and also in The Great Divorce, Lewis basically puts forward the idea that with every (moral) decision we make, we are turning ourselves into beings who are either fit for Heaven or fit for Hell.  So the final judgment isn’t so much about punishment–it’s about God giving us what we’ve asked for.  It’s about God sending us to the only place that our decisions have made us fit for, whether that be Heaven or Hell.

So, the next time you’re dealing with temptation, ask yourself–who do you want to turn into?  What kind of character do you want to be?  With every moral choice, our character changes.  Who will you be?

Bart Ehrman Is At It Again! Are There Forgeries in the New Testament?

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I recently picked up a “Collector’s Edition” of U.S. News & World Report titled “The Real Jesus”. The articles cover a number of interesting subjects, including Christmas, Jesus’ trial, archaeological discoveries, and Mary and Martha. Towards the end of the magazine is an excerpt from Bart Ehrman’s book Jesus Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (and Why We Don’t Know About Them). I haven’t read the whole book, but the excerpt is about forgeries in the New Testament world. Ehrman gives some background on forgeries and some reasons why they happened. Then on page 80 of the magazine, he makes this statement:

“From a historical perspective, there is no reason to doubt that some forgeries very well could have made it into the canon. We have numerous forgeries outside the New Testament. Why not inside? I don’t think one can argue that the church fathers, starting at the end of the second century, would have known which books really were written by apostles and which ones were not. How would they know? Or perhaps more to the point, how can we ourselves know? This might sound a little strange, but it is easier for us today to detect ancient forgeries than it was for people in the ancient world.”

Wait…what?

It’s easier for us who are farther removed in time from the writings to tell which writings are forgeries than it would have been for people who lived closest to the time they were written? Huh? The church fathers of the 2nd and 3rd centuries couldn’t have known which books were written by the apostles? Really?

Ok, the 2nd and 3rd centuries span 100-299 AD. So, let’s explore Ehrman’s statements a bit. Jesus died in the 30s. Tradition holds that Paul was beheaded in the mid-60s during Nero’s reign. Mark probably lived until a similar time. It’s likely that the Apostle John himself lived until 100-110 AD. So we have one of the Apostles himself living until the beginning of the 2nd century, which means his children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews, etc. could have lived well into the 3rd century. So, Ehrman’s claim that nobody during that time could have known which books were written by the Apostles is a bit hard to swallow simply because relatively close family members of the Apostles would still be alive at that point.

We have more evidence than this, though. Ehrman’s claims center on the church fathers not knowing which books were written by the Apostles. There’s one major problem with this. The church fathers were students of the apostles. Ignatius of Antioch who lived until 110, was a student of John. Polycarp of Smyrna, who lived until 155 AD, was also a student of John. So we have students of the apostles living until the middle of the 2nd century. Clement of Rome even mentions some of Paul’s writings in his letter to the Corinthians, which is dated around 96 AD, a mere 30 years after Paul died.

Could the church fathers have known which books were actually written by the Apostles? Yes, they could have. Relatives and students would still have been around in the time period Ehrman is speaking of. Not to mention the fact that the non-canonical forgeries Ehrman speaks of (and uses as implicit evidence that New Testament books could have been forged) were not even written until into the 2nd century.

Ehrman does get one thing right, though. “This might sound a little strange…” It does, Dr. Ehrman. A little strange, indeed.

The Lord’s Prayer Through the Eyes of the Promise (Part 2)

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Read Part 1 of our discussion of the Lord’s Prayer here.

 

Forgive Us Our Debts As We Forgive Our Debtors-What stands out about this request is the reciprocal nature of it.  “Forgive us…as we forgive others…”  It is reminiscent of scenes from the Old Testament where God gives the people a command, for instance, to be kind to strangers, because they once were strangers in Egypt.  “Have mercy on slaves, remembering that you were once slaves in Egypt”.  This happens numerous times in the Old Testament.  We ought to be kind to those in chains because we were once in chains.  We ought to be kind to strangers because we have been strangers.  And we ought to forgive others because we ourselves stand in need of forgiveness.

Lead Us Not Into Temptation, But Deliver Us From Evil-Once again, one cannot help but think of the people of Israel in the Wilderness.  “Have you led us out here to die???” the people asked Moses.  Being seemingly trapped by the Red Sea, mountains and Pharoah’s army, the people complain that God & Moses led them out in the wilderness to die.  We understand mentally that God doesn’t tempt us.  And yet, doesn’t it seem like he leads us into evil sometimes?  Of course, he never does, but it feels that way sometimes.  And so in this line of the prayer, we learn to pray our feelings.  We can be honest in prayer, and pray for God to not lead us into temptation, even if we know he never will, because sometimes it feels like he does.

For Yours is the Kingdom, the Power and the Glory Forever, Amen-We are reminded of the only way any of this prayer can come to pass.  God is the Creator.  His kingdom, power and glory are eternal.  That is the context of our prayer, and that is the force behind it.  Our only hop eis the Kingdom, Power and Glory of God reigning in our world and lives.

The Lord’s Prayer Through the Eyes of the Promise (Part 1)

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What would it look like to read the Lord’s Prayer in light of the whole Story of Scripture?  In this post and the next, we will look at the Lord’s Prayer phrase by phrase with this goal.

Our Father in Heaven–In this phrase we see that God is our Father.  God created us all.  What an amazing privilege that we can have an intimate relationship with God–that he calls himself our Father.  At the same time, though, he is “in Heaven.”  This is also emphasized in the fact that God is Creator.  God created us, so he is Father and we can have a relationship with him.  God’s being Creator also means he is over and above us, though.  Nearness and farness, immanence and transcendence, all there in the Creation story, reflected in this first phrase of the Lord’s Prayer.

Hallowed Be Your Name–What does “Hallowed” mean, anyway? It means “holy”, which itself means “to be set apart”.  In what way is God’s Name “set apart”?  When we think of God’s Name, our minds should immediately go back to the story of Moses at the burning bush.  It is in this story that God reveals his Name to be “I am that I am”.  God is the God who is. God lives and moves and exists.  We think of the story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal, where Baal never answers his prophets, and God does.  We think of course of Jesus’ resurrection.  God’s Name is hallowed because God is the only God who actually is, who actually lives and moves and acts in the world and in our lives.

Your Kingdom Come, Your Will Be Done On Earth As In Heaven–God’s Kingdom was something that Jews of the Old Testament looked forward to.  It wasn’t here yet.  Living after the Messiah, though, we are to follow his example to expect the Kingdom of God to start effecting this world.  Why?  Because Jesus is already king, and his kingdom has already been inaugurated.  If we actually live in God’s kingdom, our world cannot help but be effected by that.

Give Us Today Our Daily Bread–When we think of God giving us our daily bread, again, our minds should be reminded of Israel wandering in the desert.  God sent manna to the people, but they could only take what they needed for that day–their daily bread.  This is a prayer for God to give us what we need to sustain us each day.  Parts of the early church linked this phrase with Communion with the understanding that what we actually need every day to sustain us is Jesus himself.

We will continue our study in the next post…

Question #5: “What Is The Gospel?” (McLaren’s “A New Kind of Christianity”)

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In this series of posts we are taking the questions Brian McLaren addresses in “A New Kind of Christianity” one by one.  The method will be to ask the question, look at how McLaren believes Western Christianity answers the question, how McLaren answers the question himself and lastly how I would answer the question.  In this post, we will address the 5th question McLaren mentions in the book.

The Question:  What is the Gospel?

Western Christianity’s Answer:  Western Christianity’s answer, McLaren believes, would come mostly if not solely from the Book of Romans.  The Gospel according to Western Christianity is justification by grace through faith.  The Gospel according to Western Christianity is about how to escape earth and get to Heaven.  The Gospel is about avoiding Hell.  Ultimately, the Gospel is about me, me, me.

Brian McLaren’s Answer:  Brian McLaren wants to say that the Gospel is about the Kingdom of God coming to earth.  He emphasizes that what Jesus preached and talked about in the Gospels was the Kingdom of God being at hand.  McLaren then goes through the Book of Romans, which has so often been used to propound the “Gospel is about me” mindset, and he shows how he sees the Gospel of the Kingdom of God in it.  McLaren’s interpretation is as follows:

  1. Jews and Gentiles both have the same level of need.  (Romans 1:18-3:20) 
  2. A new way forward for everyone, Jew and Gentile alike, is available: the way of faith.  (3:21-4:25)
  3. Jews and Gentiles are united in a common story.   Paul uses 4 illustrations to show this: Adam, baptism, slavery and remarriage.  (5:1-7:6)
  4. Jews and Gentiles are united in a common struggle and a common victory, illustrated by Paul through the Story of Me and the Story of We.  (7:7-8:39)
  5. Jewish and Gentile problems are addressed, showing that God is God over everything and everyone.  (9:1-11:36)
  6. Jews and Gentiles are engaged in a common life and mission.  (12:1-13:14)
  7. Jews and Gentiles are called to unity in the Kingdom of God.  (14:1-16:27)

For McLaren, then, the Gospel goes from being about “how I get out of Hell” or even “how I get to Heaven” to about “how we can be united in the Kingdom of God”.

Chris’ Answer:  I appreciate very much that Brian McLaren’s interpretation of the Gospel does not leave us on earth, simply biding our time until the Real Thing gets here.  I think he is right to include the idea that we as Jesus-Followers need to be living as though the Kingdom of God were here, because if it was “at hand” and “near” 2000 years ago, how much closer is it now?

Having said that, I think I would want to say that the Gospel is both/and.  I would essentially combine Western Christianity’s answer with McLaren’s to arrive at what I think the Gospel is.  Yes, the Gospel is about living as Kingdom people.  No, the Gospel is not just about me getting to Heaven, or just about me getting out of Hell.  Jesus’ death and resurrection is not simply a “Get Out Of Hell Free” card.  But, unless my relationship with Jesus is restored to what it should be, I can never live as a Kingdom person.  This is, after all, what justification by grace through faith is really about. 

The Gospel doesn’t end with justification by grace through faith.  But it does begin there.  So we can’t define the Gospel solely in terms of the Kingdom of God, but we can’t define it solely in terms of justification by faith.  We need both, if the Good News is going to be as good as it should be.