Friday Is For Football

Usually Friday is for photos, but this being autumn and football being in the air I may or may not get to the photos but I’ll try to have some football predictions each week.

Let me get things started by mentioning two names: Sam Bradford and DeMarco Murray.  Though many of you have not heard those names yet I predict that four weeks from now you will be tired of hearing them.  Much like OU opponents will be tired of hearing "Boomer Sooner" as it is played after every score.  Much as those two little ponies "Boomer" and "Sooner" will be tired of lapping the Schooner around Owen field.

Now, on with the predictions:

OU - 63
UNT - 10

As for the Pokes fans out there…I don’t know what to say about this one.  I think Georgia will be better than many think.  They are tough at home.  They are the best SEC team over the last five years.  They don’t rebuild, they reload.  OSU is going to have to prove they have a defense.  They have the best receiver in the Big XII.  They may have the best running back.  They’ve got a really good Tight End.  It’s yet to be seen what kind of QB they have.  Sometimes he’s good.  Sometimes he’s pretty bad.  And OSU is not a good road team.  Nevertheless, they have so much potential it is hard to count them out of this game.  Plus, I’m not one of those OU fans that just hates OSU (though I do get quite a bit of pleasure from giving them a hard time).

Georgia - 28
OSU - 24

If anyone else is playing this weekend it is inconsequential.

Signs Of Empire

About a year ago Jean Kilbourn wrote a provocative article about advertising in The New Internationalist that was titled Jesus is a Brand of Jeans.  She argues that advertising both reflects, but also directs the values of a culture.  Advertising not only makes grand promises about the products and services being sold, cumulatively it tells a story about life: what life is about, what makes life important, how to have fulfillment in this life, and so forth.  She writes:

Advertising performs much the same function in industrial society as
myth did in ancient societies. It is both a creator and perpetuator of
the dominant values of the culture, the social norms by which most
people govern their behaviour. At the very least, advertising helps to
create a climate in which certain values flourish and others are not
reflected at all.

In Colossians Remixed, Brian Walsh and Sylvia Keesmaat write about the signs of Rome that permeated first century Roman culture.  The imprint of Rome, be it the image of the emperor or the eagle on the Roman standard, was on everything.  The household mirror.  The frame surrounding a painting.  The claw feet on the dining room table.  The bowls and cups from which they would eat and drink.

Tuesday I noted this presence that bombards us in our own consumeristic culture.  But do we really comprehend the spiritual effects this bombardment has on us?  More from Kilbourn:

Advertising is not only our physical environment, it is increasingly
our spiritual environment as well. By definition, however, it is only
interested in materialistic values. When spiritual values show up in
ads, it is only in order to sell us something. Eternity is a perfume by
Calvin Klein. Infiniti is an automobile, and Hydra Zen a moisturizer.
Jesus is a brand of jeans.

Sometimes the allusion is more subtle, as in the countless alcohol
ads featuring the bottle surrounded by a halo of light. Indeed products
such as jewelery shining in a store window are often displayed as if
they were sacred objects. Advertising co-opts our sacred symbols in
order to evoke an immediate emotional response. Media critic Neil
Postman referred to this as ‘cultural rape’.

It is commonplace to observe that consumerism has become the religion
of our time (with advertising its holy text), but the criticism usually
stops short of what is at the heart of the comparison. Both advertising
and religion share a belief in transformation, but most religions
believe that this requires sacrifice. In the world of advertising,
enlightenment is achieved instantly by purchasing material goods. An ad
for a watch says, ‘It’s not your handbag. It’s not your neighbourhood.
It’s not your boyfriend. It’s your watch that tells most about who you
are.’ Of course, this cheapens authentic spirituality and
transcendence. This junk food for the soul leaves us hungry, empty,
malnourished.

As in Rome in the first century, the signs of empire are all around us.  Some of them are political.  Many of them are corporate images that represent consumption.  As Kilbourn notes, advertisers are not evil people bent on the destruction of society.  They are simply doing their job, selling a product, and doing it well.  But the cumulative effect leaves us emptied by all of the false claims.

"The thief comes to steal, kill and destroy.  I’ve come that you might have life and have it to the full."  - Jesus

Read Kilbourn’s article.  Then go read David Phillips’ post on Signs and Communicating The Gospel.

The Rant Is Back

For a while I was beginning to think the good old blog rant had been placed on the endangered list.  I was wrong.  Jared Wilson gives us a gospel rant that will have you scrambling to send the kids into the other room.  [Yes, he uses a few words you probably want to teach your children to avoid, so be warned.]

Here’s a little snippet:

You will not hear about dark nights of the soul from the likes of Benny
Hinn and Joel Osteen and Paula White (who, with her husband, is
treating their divorce this week like a hiccup that doesn’t matter much
to their "ministry" aims — which means keeping the gravy train
running). You will not hear about the real world and the real gospel in
response to it from these charlatans because they are afraid you might
actually become satisfied in Christ and tire of their lies. They need
you discontent so that you will still need them to pick you up.

And
if you think this crap is limited to the name-it-claim-it crowd, you
are mistaken. It has been creeping into our evangelical churches for
years, and you see this discontentment with the Gospel every time you
hear a message that treats the Bible like an advice column or a
self-help quote book or that treats worship like a performance. Any
time the purpose of worship is YOU, you might as well be getting the
holy spirit pixie dust from Rod Parsley. It’s the same false gospel,
just packaged for a different crowd.

That’s the tame part.  To read the full, uncensored firebomb go here.

[HT: Bill Kinnon]

Spiritual Discipline Tuesday - Simplicity

"Riches and abundance come hypocritically clad in sheep’s clothing pretending to be security against anxieties and they become then the object of anxiety … they secure a man against anxieties just about as well as the wolf which is put to tending the sheep secures them … against the wolf."  Soren Kierkegaard

*******

There are some disciplines at times and in certain circumstances that are more needed than others.   Fasting, for instance, will not be an every-day practice (though I’m sure we should find a happy medium between the Pharisaical twice a week and the Baptist "duh, what is fasting?").  Fasting may be focused on a particular season or decision in life.

There are occasions when certain disciplines play an increasingly important role in our spiritual formation and that is generally when they speak to a specific area of life that is in particular need of transformation within us.  If, for instance, I am being ruled by my physical appetite and my stomach exercises a considerable amount of lordship over who I am and am becoming then fasting should probably rise to the top for me.

When it comes to the things of this world our culture, not to mention our own greedy appetites, exercises considerable influence over us, often in ways that we may not even be aware.  I’ve read from a number of sources that the average American is exposed to over 3000 advertising messages, in one form or another, in a single day.  I am typing this on my Compaq computer which has an "Intel Inside" sticker as well as one telling me this machine is "Designed for Microsoft Windows XP."  My browser is Mozilla Firefox and I have tabs currently open to Google’s Gmail and Bloglines feed reader.  I have a glowing Targus mouse sitting on a Disney mouse pad with a picture of Tigger.  Right next to my computer is my AT&T telephone and on the other side sits my Altec speaker and my Diet Dr. Pepper.  Oh, and I have a pens from the Baptist Foundation of Oklahoma (made by Paper Mate)  and Communication Federal Credit Union (made by BIC) sitting on the desk.  And I haven’t even looked away from my two foot by three foot computer desk to see any of that.  That’s fifteen messages within two feet of my face.

It is incredibly tough to live a life of simplicity in a world that has given us the iPhone.  This is not simply the plight of those who seemingly have everything that they want.  It is also the plight of those who desperately want what they do not now have.  I think we often forget that poor people can be as greedy as the rich, the only difference being that one possesses that which he wants and the other does not.  In the end they want the same things.

Dallas Willard writes, "In frugality [simplicity] we abstain from using money or goods at our disposal in ways that merely gratify our desires or our hunger for status, glamour, or luxury.  Practicing frugality means we stay within the bounds of what general good judgment would designate as necessary for the kind of life to which God has led us" (The Spirit of the Disciplines, p. 168).

While our own inclinations work against a life of simplicity, along with the cultural influences all around us, how do we learn the sort of life the apostle Paul described when he wrote, "I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.  I
know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every
circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger,
abundance and need" (Philippians 4:11-12)?  As always Jesus has given us the answer.  Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you" (Matthew 6:33).

We must realize that the true longing of our hearts will never be fulfilled outside of Christ and his kingdom.  We begin with practice.  We may need to deprive ourselves of that thing we keep telling ourselves that we "need."  Then, when the longings arise within us we begin to ask ourselves why we think we need that thing?  How might we begin to have those longings met by the presence of Christ in our lives.

Simplicity is tremendously liberating.  We are no longer enslaved to the anxieties that come with "stuff."  We are free to use all that God has given us, not to slavishly fulfill every whim, but in a thousand different ways which will often result in great blessings to others, not simply to our own selfish desires.

*******

Be sure to check out what others are saying about simplicity by checking in at Joe Kennedy’s blog.  Click on the Spiritual Disciplines banner.

How Did I Miss This From Ed Stetzer?

…and why haven’t I mentioned Ed in a while?  What’s gotten into me?

Anyway.  Ed is doing a great series of posts on the meaning of "missional."  Here’s a snippet from Part 1:

Missional. 

Depending on your perspective, it brings warmth to your soul or a
shiver down your spine. Yet, there is no question the word is gaining
traction. Is this the case with the church word of the day or is it
here to stay? And… oh yes… what does it mean anyway?

Then there’s this from Part 2:

But, I think that "missional" is like a Rorschach Test for many people.  In a Rorschach Inkblot Test,
a subject is asked to describe what he or she sees in random inkblots.
It tells much about what a person is thinking and feeling. I think the
same is true for all of us engaged in the missional conversation. To
some degree how we define "missional" is determined by our pre-existing
concerns about what is wrong, and what is right, with the church today.

So, before I reveal my own ideas (or perhaps as I do so), I think we
need to look to history for the genesis of the ideas that have shaped
"missional" today.

Don’t forget to check out the Preface and then read the full posts from Part 1 and Part 2 linked above.  I’d also encourage you to read the great comments from guys like Brother Maynard, Jamie Arpin-Ricci and Tim Keller.

Oh, and Ed, if you’re still reading my blog, sorry I haven’t given you the obligatory shout out in a while.  How I missed getting your blog on my bloglines is unforgivable.  And if you’re not still reading then I take back every nice thing I’ve ever said about you.  Both of them. :D  [And if you keep hanging out with Anglicans I’m going to tell you-know-who.]

Can You Hear Me Now?

I had a computer meltdown at the office this week.  It wasn’t a total meltdown.  I didn’t lose my data, but the fan on my processor went kerplunk and Dell, who is the only company to make a replacement, no longer makes a replacement.  I could get a used one from them for around $140 or I could get a new, faster PC with more bells and whistles for $400.  I got the new PC.

But I needed Colby to help me get all of my stuff from the old computer to the new one, get it set up so that it runs ok and is properly networked into our system.  Thanks, Colby!

As I was sitting in my office this morning reading commentaries on Hebrews Colby was sitting at my desk working on the new computer.  We started talking about matters of spiritual formation.  He has a background in the medical field and got to talking about brain mapping as it relates to our spiritual formation as well as our intellectual formation and how that relates to issues such as coping, character and values.

KABOOM!  [Yes, that sound you heard was my brain exploding.]

It is interesting to Colby how I can preach a sermon on Sunday and that many of the people will hear something different than what I intend and will even hear it differently than others present.  What was even more interesting to me is that postmodernism says much the same thing, but Colby wasn’t expressing that as a philosophical perspective.  He was expressing it as an observable reality.  It’s just what really does happen.

As one who has been preaching for 26 years I can confirm that it really does happen.  There is a lot that goes into those differences: upbringing, worldview, values, culture, education, life circumstances and much more.  In that context effective communication can be challenging.  Screaming "OBJECTIVE TRUTH" at the tops of our lungs won’t solve the problem, either.  Communication is a matter of both speaking and listening/hearing.

Christians in other parts of the world often hear the Biblical stories differently than those of us in America.  The text doesn’t change, but what gets emphasized often does.  The gospel of Creflo Dollar won’t preach in Chad.  At least not with any long-term credibility (long term, in this case, being about an hour).  Christians in Chad would hardly even think to preach such a message.  Hundreds of ministries across America would.  And for the same reason a gospel of liberation sounds Marxist and repulsive here in America, but sounds like just what the doctor ordered in repressive regimes in places of abject poverty in South America.

All of this makes me wonder what the church in America might have to learn from our brothers and sisters in Christ in other parts of the world.  Can we hear them?  Would we listen if we could?

Unrepentant Sinners Invited To Preach

I like Mark Dever (pictured), pastor at Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington DC.  You can find some good church resources at his 9Marks website.

Sam Storms has given an interesting analysis of the position Dever (along with Al Mohler) has taken on the matter of the relationship between baptism and the Lord’s Supper.  I recommend Sam’s post and then ask this question: How could Dever deny a person who was baptized as an infant a seat at the Lord’s Supper because he views that person’s failure to be baptized as a believer by immersion to be "unrepentant sin" (though unintentional), yet invite that same unrepentant sinner to preach in his church?

I’ll let you who have strong feelings about this matter decide whether or not he is right to deny them access to Communion.  I’m more interested in the inconsistency in allowing that same person a place in his pulpit.  If he really believes his infant-baptized friend is in unrepentant sin then isn’t he being derelict in his leadership as Pastor to allow that same person the opportunity to preach in his church?

Of course, at our church we would not deny that person a place at the Lord’s table largely due to the fine argument Sam makes.

Subverting The Empire

I’ve been preaching through Colossians and noticed a number of people recommending Brian Walsh and Sylvia Keesmaat’s book Colossians Remixed: Subverting the Empire.  Now, let me be the next to recommend this book if you are studying, teaching or preaching from Colossians.

Walsh and Keesmaat take a view of Colossians as a letter from Paul meant to establish the Lordship of Christ over against the claims of the Roman Empire.  There is a tendency to view all of Paul’s writings, and perhaps the New Testament as a whole, as primarily concerned with personal/private spirituality and morality in application.  Walsh and Keesmaat give a compelling argument for a larger theme that would include matters of personal morality, but emphasize the counter-claims of Christ.

In a world that declared "Caesar is Lord" and promised that through Rome came salvation, the apostle Paul declares that Jesus is Lord over all kingdoms and authority and that true salvation is in him.

One of the things I really like about this book is that the authors take the message of Colossians and seek to place its application into our own times.  Thus, they read Colossians in light of the postmodern critique and trends of the day.  Of course, this may make some of the content outdated within a couple of decades - especially at the rate trends change in our day and age.  Nevertheless, if you want a reading of Colossians that is very current and takes Paul’s critique of Rome and places that message into the context of (post)modern Western culture I believe you will find this book to be very profound.

One other thing that I find compelling about this book is how the authors take the Scriptures and create their own targums, expanding and extrapolating the passages of Colossians with the (post)modern context in mind.  Very nice.  Highly recommended.

Picture This

From our family vacation this summer.  This picture reminds me of a Seinfeld episode in which George’s father keeps repeating the phrase, "Serenity now!"

Two-a-days

Yes, it’s that time of year.  Three weeks until kickoff and to get things started in the right direction I want to completely plagiarize some information that my cousin Randall posted on his blog a little over a month ago.

In the modern era of football (post WWII), the University of Oklahoma stands at the top of the heap.  Be envious.  Slander away.  Especially those of you who wear any shade of orange.  But these are the cold, hard facts:

Victories, 1946-2006

1. Oklahoma 524

2. Nebraska 494

Penn State 494

4. Alabama 492

5. Texas 491

6. Ohio State 484

7. Michigan 481

8. Tennessee 475

9. Southern Cal 469

10. Notre Dame 467

Winning Percentage, 1946-2006

1. Oklahoma .761 (524-160-13)

2. Ohio State .743 (484-160-20)

3. Penn State .734 (494-176-9)

4. Michigan .729 (481-174-15)

5. Texas .714 (491-193-11)

6. Nebraska .710 (494-199-9)

7. Alabama .706 (492-199-20)

8. Notre Dame .704 (467-192-14)

9. Tennessee .695 (475-201-24)

10. USC .694 (469-200-23)

Weeks Ranked Top 5 in AP Poll

1. Oklahoma 342

2. Nebraska 294

3. Ohio State 288

4. Notre Dame 276

5. Michigan 271

6. USC 267

7. Texas 252

8. Alabama 243

9. Florida State 204

10. Miami (Fla.) 201

Weeks Ranked No. 1 in AP Poll

1. Oklahoma 95

  Notre Dame 95

3. Ohio State 88

4. Southern Cal 81

5. Nebraska 70

6. Miami (Fla.) 68

7. Florida State 59

8. Texas 42

9. Michigan 34

10. Alabama 31

Boomer Sooner

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