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This piece was originally published at Patheos on January 10, 2013.

WARNING: Not smoking what you’re selling severely harms you and those around you.

This post is not about the legalization of marijuana or what smoking can do to one’s lungs, but about the authenticity of one’s faith. I wish we could make it illegal to smoke anything other than what we ourselves are selling.

A while back, I asked one of my seminary classes to reflect upon a movie clip from Walk The Line and to relate it to our Christian witness. The movie is about the life and music career of Johnny Cash. During the discussion, I asked my students to consider with me traits about Cash that appealed to people. One of the students remarked, “Cash smoked what he was selling.” What the student intended by his comment was that Cash was genuine. He didn’t claim to have it altogether, but he was singing from his heart. There was congruence.

The movie scene in question takes place in Sam Phillips’ recording studio. A young and not-yet discovered Cash is auditioning for the great record executive and producer. He sings a well-known gospel tune in hopes that Phillips will record him. Phillips is unimpressed. Gospel music like Cash sings doesn’t sell, Phillips remarks. Cash needs to come up with something that’s real—something that goes to the very depths of his being and expresses his heart cry to God. From all appearances, Cash had chosen to sing that gospel tune because it was safe. It was quite popular. But it wasn’t authentic. It was canned the way Cash sang it. Just as Phillips is about to bring closure to the session and say goodbye to Cash and his band and their lone audition, Cash decides to risk it and share a song that he had written, and which came from his heart. After all, he was desperate—his one chance to audition was up. Cash’s band did not know the song—he had never shared it with them, but had kept it to himself until now. Now everything was at stake, for Cash had to put not only his singing and guitar playing on the line, but also a song that he had written from the heart based on a painful past experience. The song was Folsom Prison Blues. Well, the rest is history. As you likely know, it became a big hit. But it really would have been history for Cash if he had not chosen to risk it all and sing that unknown song.

We may never make it big by being authentic and singing our own music and from the heart, as was the case with Cash. More important than making it big, though, and/or playing to opinion polls and to a fan base as many do, is speaking and singing and smoking what we’re selling. We may be selling something. But are we really smoking that brand when no one else is watching, or listening, as the case may be? Cash wasn’t smoking the gospel tune that he sang for Phillips that day. But when he sang Folsom Prison Blues, it was obvious that he was smoking its brand when no one else was around.

Do we smoke what we sell or do we smoke a different brand than the one we sell? In Christian witness to the gospel, and in various other spheres of life, do people really see us, hear us, know what we think, or are we hiding behind some generic or popular brand, playing it safe, all in the effort to protect ourselves from getting hurt? Do we say and sing we love Jesus, when deep down inside we don’t? Do we say everything’s wonderful about our lives, when we actually hate them? Do we share only our successes, and never our failures? Do we fail to share truth in love with others because we fear that they will reject us, if we do? Do we fail to share with others that we love them because we’re afraid of appearing like fools? In the end, when we play such games of incongruence, we really do hurt ourselves and those around us.

So, what brand are you smoking today? Is it the one you’re selling? If not, kick the habit and start smoking your name’s brand.

This piece was originally published at Patheos on January 9, 2013.

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How is a justice movement sustained? In my first post on this subject, I wrote that first and foremost, a justice movement is sustained by knowing that Jesus alone can and will sustain it. Apart from him, we can do nothing (John 15:5). Another key factor that we must realize is that when we serve others we are serving him. What difference might it make to you and me in caring for a sick person, an elderly widow, someone imprisoned, or an orphan in distress if we were to sense that in caring for them we are serving Jesus?

In the account of the sheep and goats in Matthew 25, Jesus is recorded as saying, “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me…Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’” (Matthew 25:34-36, 40) While it may very well be the case that the Lord is talking first and foremost about caring for his followers in need, I believe his words bear upon ministering to all people. When we serve them, we serve him.

So, how shall we serve? Will we use those we serve to benefit us or our ministries? All too often, we find our worth through serving people rather than serving them in view of the worth we have in being loved by God. By the way, it is worth noting in this regard that the sheep here in Matthew 25 don’t even realize that they are sheep. Whereas the goats seem to be surprised to find out that they haven’t been caring for Jesus, the sheep are not cognizant of having done so. I take this to mean that they are not self-conscious, but conscious of the other (See Matthew 25:37-39, 44). Jesus tells us this story because he definitely wants us to keep in mind that when we care for others in need we care for him and because of him we are to care for others in need.

The more we grow in the love of God the more we serve not so as to benefit ourselves, but to benefit the one who loves us. Our joy flows from loving the one who loves us and who loves those we serve. If I care for others because I want to assure myself that I am a sheep and not a goat, I am not really caring for them, but for myself through them. But as I know the love of God revealed in Jesus and that in serving them I am serving him who identifies himself with them I believe I will come to love them truly and freely with no strings attached.

A justice movement that uses people to build one’s ego or one’s ministry profile is no justice movement at all. Justice flows from the loving and compassionate heart of God and leads to the love of the other with whom Jesus identifies himself in prison, in hunger, in loneliness and abandonment, in sickness and in various other forms of need.

This piece was originally published at Patheos on January 8, 2013.

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Perhaps you have seen bumper stickers that read “Jesus is changing the world one individual at a time.” This statement takes into account the very personal nature of Jesus’ engagement of us. Notice how often in the Gospels Jesus engages individuals—Zacchaeus (Luke 19), Mary and Martha (Luke 10 and John 11), Nicodemus (John 3), the Samaritan woman (John 4), the rich young ruler (Luke 18), the Canaanite woman (Matthew 15), the lame man (John 5), and blind man (John 9). For all my concern for systemic issues of injustice, I must never forget that Jesus never forgets the individual and how he often transforms the person’s life such as Nicodemus or the Samaritan woman from the inside out. In fact, my wife who is a Japanese national will always remind me not to lose sight of this focus on the individual. She came to Christ in Japan. She had never heard talk of a personal God who loved the world, even her. When she heard the good news that Jesus loved her and gave his life for her (John 3:16), she responded in faith to him. To this day, it is the best news she has ever heard.

This same Jesus who changes individuals’ lives is also changing structures. He’s changing the world one relational structure at a time. Just think of the Samaritan woman. Jesus breaks through the cultural taboos by reaching out to this Samaritan woman. He talks to her. He asks her for a drink. John chapter 4 tells us that Jews would not even use the dishes that Samaritans have used (John 4:9). Jesus did not allow the cultural taboos and ideology that separated his people from the Samaritans to keep him from breaking into her life with God’s life-giving water of eternal love (John 4:10, 13-14).

Jesus even put himself in a position of need. He really was thirsty and he really did ask her for help (John 4:6-8). Here, too, he is breaking down barriers. I doubt many of his people would ever wish to ‘stoop so low’ to engage this woman and share with her God’s love. How far will we ‘stoop’? What cultural barriers will we cross and taboos will we challenge to share God’s love with others? Even Jesus’ statement that it is not a matter of worshipping on this or that mountain but in Spirit and truth that constitutes the worship that God seeks (John 4:21-24) challenges once again the structures that separated the Jews from the Samaritans. He relativizes their cultural boundaries and personalizes religion and makes it accessible to all equally, thereby making it possible for this least likely of Samaritans (having been married to five men and now living with one to whom she is not married—John 4:17-18) to succeed in receiving eternal life and be his witness to her whole community (John 4:28-30). Jesus is indeed changing the world one relational structure at a time.

This piece was originally published at Patheos on January 7, 2013.

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A dear friend and advisor of mine who is African American is battling cancer. As we spoke on the phone yesterday, she told me that “Disease neutralizes racism.” Her statement was based in the reality of her recent experience with fighting for her life, not the result of sterile, idle reflection.

While waiting for her cancer treatments over the past several weeks, she has built a bond with other cancer patients and their families in the waiting room. Cancer is no respecter of persons, including diverse ethnicities. Her new friends are from various ethnic backgrounds. While originally polite though reserved and distant, they have developed a heart connection. My friend has given them little angel figurines. Their eyes light up, whenever they receive these gifts of friendship. My friend assures them that she is thinking of them and that they are not alone.

My friend’s statement that “Disease neutralizes racism” struck me as so true. I should add that she has been engaged in the battle against racism for a long time. She is a tireless though winsome warrior whose battle against cancerous hatred and indifference no doubt influences her in the battle against cancer in her body and in the waiting room. She won’t allow the sense of hopelessness and despondence and numbness that the war with cancer brings to people’s hearts and lives keep her from reaching upward to God and outward toward those engaged in this waiting game between life and death.

I have learned a lot about life from my friend. She continues to teach and strengthen me, even when I call to encourage her. I learned from yesterday’s conversation that as a society we need to discern far better where the real battle rages. Death is a far greater foe than those ideological enemies like racism, which we create in our minds concerning those of different ethnicities.

Notice that my friend did not say that disease kills racism. Just like when troops return home from war, the racism that separated them as those of diverse ethnicities before they were guarding one another’s backs and lives in battles with much larger foes often returns to divide them after they return home. If only we could somehow keep our larger foes like death in view all the time. Then perhaps the disease of racism would never be able to return.

We need to know who our true friends and real enemies are. It shouldn’t be the case that ethnicity divides us. We are all locked in a waiting room waging a battle between life and death. The cancer of racism can steal our lives and ravage our souls. We don’t have the strength to wage racial battles against the ethnic other.

My friend who touches people’s lives with precious angel figurines has been touched by more than an angel. She draws her strength from the one who destroyed the grip of death through his resurrection from the grave (See for example 1 Corinthians 15:54-88). Death has no lasting grip on her. Jesus’ life and love do. The same powerful love that raised Jesus from the dead and that lifts my friend’s spirit and brings the glory of God into waiting rooms in cancer wards is the same powerful love that will not simply neutralize but ultimately destroy racism (See for example Galatians 3:28). Like my friend, may we live now in light of that day.

This piece was originally published at Patheos on January 5, 2013.

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Last night as I was driving home, I turned to a classic rock station that was playing AC/DC’s song, “Hell’s Bells.” The menacing tune with ‘for whom the bell tolls’ sounds might or might not be intended to send chills down the listener’s back with talk of Satan’s impending grip on you. Whatever the case might be, the song did not appear to have any grip or impact on what followed: a wide-ranging infomercial and light-hearted discussion on such topics as Lasik eye surgery.

I’ve heard talk of rock groups playing the Satan card to make more money and fill their bank vaults. I don’t know what the case was or is for AC/DC, but I do know the church of various stripes throughout its history has used Hell and Purgatory talk to load its coffers and treasuries. Perhaps the lack of impact or relevance concerning Heaven and Hell talk in many circles today results in part from people being burned out on religious establishment schemes to make money based on such verbiage. It’s almost as if the subject raises as much interest today as plugs for Lasik eye surgery and tooth extractions do for many people driving home.

For Jesus, on the other hand, the discussion of Heaven and Hell has incredible relevance for all people driving home—not simply for the future, but for how all of us live today. Jesus talked at great length about the subject and brought it to bear on such topics as caring for the poor and marginalized. Contrary to how Heaven and Hell has been portrayed in some Christian circles, where it is preached that because the Kingdom of God has been given to his followers they don’t need to care for the poor, for Jesus, because the Kingdom of God has been given to his followers, they will care for the poor.

Following on the heels of the passage in Luke’s Gospel where Jesus develops a parable of a rich man whose life is taken from him because he greedily invests in himself rather than in God (Luke 12:16-21; see also the preceding text that introduces the parable—Luke 12:13-15), Jesus says, “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Luke 12:32-34). To the rich man who stored up riches for himself and not toward God and others, Jesus declares that God says: “‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God” (Luke 12:20-21).

The rich man could have benefited from spiritual Lasik eye surgery. He may have perceived well how to make money and invest it for himself; but he was completely blind to spiritual and relational matters. In contrast, I recall with admiration a team of Christian medical doctors who had renounced lucrative careers in the West to invest in the arduous work of setting up an eye clinic in an impoverished and distant corner of the world. Among other things, they removed cataracts so that people could see clearly. They took seriously Jesus’ unending plug for spiritual Lasik eye surgery and the need to see clearly spiritually and to care for the poor. These doctors were rich toward God and not turning into modern day versions of the rich fool. AC/DC’s song about Hell may or may not be a serious reflection on what the rock group believes awaits people here and beyond, but I can assure you that to Jesus and these doctors, all his talk of Heaven and Hell and the Kingdom of God is more than a great parable or infomercial.

How well are you and I seeing spiritually today?