have we done something wrong?

we have, haven't we?

seeking...?

I've been studying the "Sermon on the Mount" and leaning heavily on John Stott's book/commentary of it this summer. Stott is possibly my favorite teacher of scripture and today I read something that flipped my old thoughts upside-down.

I was reading his treatment of Matthew 6:31-34 regarding seeking first his kingdom and his righteousness. Stott writes:

God's kingdom exists only where Jesus Christ is consciously acknowledged. To be in his kingdom is synonymous with enjoying his salvation. Only the born again have seen and entered the kingdom. And to seek it first is to spread the good news of Jesus Christ.

But God's 'righteousness' is (arguably, at least) a wider concept than God's 'kingdom'. It includes that individual and social righteousness to which reference has been made earlier in the Sermon. And God, because he is himself a righteous God, desires righteousness in every human community, not just in every Christian community.

He goes on to say that to 'seek his kingdom and his righteousness' may be said to embrace our Christian evangelistic and social responsibilities. Aside from being a great scriptural summary of those two twin values, this summary may not be earth shattering to you. But what surprised me was that I tend to think of those two terms flipped around with 'kingdom' incorporating social responsibilities and 'righteousness' coming from saving faith through evangelism. But now I am seeing it like Stott and realizing once again that I need to use and think about words more carefully.

Any thoughts?

wishing I had a camera on my phone...

recent life stuff

• Mackeil is growing (but the number of people who can pronounce his name is not)
• Andrew was admitted to the hospital with Nephrotic Syndrome (but he is fine now)

• I made the switch to a Mac
• I think it was a good decision

• I have begun to get really excited about SpendLessGiveMore
• we made our first decision at an IV staff meeting to Spend Less & Give More
  
• a group of us saved $20 by sharing a container of Breyers Ice Cream instead of going to ColdStone
• we will give the savings to Feed the Children
  

shriveled fruit

I had to learn the hard way today that blueberries that sit out too long and begin to shrivel can become quite bitter. Unfortunately, I kept trying to prove myself wrong for too long. Now I can't get the bad taste out of my mouth.

My advice is to only eat them if they are still plump with no evidence of shriveling. Have you had any bad experiences with food and tips to share recently?

the power of diverse communities of faith

Sometime ago I read a book called "Divided By Faith". It is a very good book that helped define so many things for me. The gist of the book is that though Evangelicals have really responded in the last 15 years to the racial crisis in the U.S. it has not been effective because our tendency is to see everything through the lens of "individual" and rarely "systems". So we as Evangelicals have sought to be personally reconciled across races but it has done very little to change the landscape because the systemic issues are still there undermining all of our best efforts.

Toward the end of the book the authors are making the argument that we need diverse communities of faith. One reason they give is that in a society like ours where the wealth (power) is largely controlled by one race, having separate communities of faith hinders the movement toward equality. The reason is that (generalizing here) the majority of jobs are controlled by people of one race and if two people with the same qualifications apply for the job but one applicant knows the person doing the hiring and the other doesn't, the one who knows the employer will almost always get the job. This isn't racism per se, it's just the normal way of things. Well, because communities of faith are so likely to be where many of our social relationships are, if we are in homogeneous communities of faith then the jobs we control or have access to will continue to go to the people like us. Again, this is not malicious or intentional but just because their is a connection there.

Well, tonight I got to participate in something like this, but better. I have a friend (who happens to be Black) who is looking for a job in Gainesville for a year while she takes a break from school before going to Law School at Northwestern in Chicago. She is one of the smartest people I know. But there are not many jobs in Gainesville (maybe anywhere these days) and it has been hard to find one. While talking to a different friend (who happens to be White) I asked a random question and he replied that his department was looking to hire someone for a certain job. Because I am in community with both of them I was able to bridge the gap and possibly help my other friend get a job. She does not have the job yet but now when she turns in her resume she will have an insider to put in a good word for her. I thought this was such a beautiful application of "Divided By Faith" that I wanted to share it with you all. Let's go out and develop diverse (in every way) communities of faith that will be used in big ways and small to make this a more beautiful and equitable nation then it already is.

tie them as symbols

Materialism is such a slippery thing and it's hooks in me are deep. It is so easy to read the Old Testament and condemn the people we read about for their blatant idolatry. How could those who had seen the Lord part the Red Sea bow down and worship an image forged out of the gold they donated for it? Sometimes it baffles me.

My idolatry is so much harder to spot. (For me anyway, maybe not for you) For instance, I need to replace the computer I'm typing on. Well, need is a subjective word because it technically is still working though it takes more and more to be able to see the results of its computations. Nevertheless, I feel like I need to replace it b/c the display is going out quickly and it is 3 years old, and it has begun to freeze up more often which happened with my last computer before the hard drive crashed.

Assuming I buy a computer sometime this month, what do I buy? I can not deny that my eye and my heart wander after a new Macbook. Yes, the commercials and all the other young professionals switching over have seduced me. All it takes is one friend who I respect to tell me how they would like a new Mac too and I can almost justify buying anything that I can afford. But the thing is that there are PC's that have the same specs and cost half the price.

While this battle rages (maybe not rages) within me some other things are happening too. For one, there are billions (billions) of people who are going to bed hungry tonight. I even wrote about it here. They don't have money for food and I am trying to decide whether a preference for Leopard over Vista justifies $500.

This is why we need reminders in our lives. Idolatry is so slippery. In Deuteronomy 6:1-8 the Lord basically says, "do whatever you have to do to remember the commands I am giving you today." Thankfully I read a blog post tonight that reminded me of who I am called to be and what's important to me. I wise mentor in my life has talked about the need to frequently (at least yearly for him) see real poverty in the world in order to be reminded. I need reminders too. I wonder what computer I'll end up buying?