Notes from “Thoughts on the Future of Christianity”

by John Shelby Spong

The concept of “original sin” is largely regarded as nonsense today. Yet the fall from which Jesus has rescued us is the way we continue to tell the Jesus story. Our churches and clergy still parrot that incredibly negative Christian idea that we have been “saved by the blood of Christ.” Protestants still shout their guilt-producing mantra “Jesus died for my sins,” and Catholics still refer to “the sacrifice of the Mass” as reenacting the moment when salvation was procured. These concepts fill our hymns, our liturgies and our sermons despite the fact that they make no sense outside the parameters of the pre-suppositions that are culturally no longer believed. How can one be saved if one has not fallen? How can one be restored to a status that one has never possessed? How can God be worshiped if this God requires the death of the divine son in order to have our sins forgiven? If there is no payoff, no benefit to be gained from faithful worship and righteous living, then many ask today “why bother?” These are the things the Christian Church is up against today in this post-Christian age. None of them will be solved by inviting people to listen once again to the “old, old story” or by joining in the singing of “The Old Rugged Cross.”

The problems facing institutional Christianity today in the Western world cannot be addressed by tinkering around the edges of our theological formularies or structures. As important as they have been making good parish profiles will not do it nor will even making wise choices in the selection of our clergy. We are not today in a temporary status of watching the tide go out with confidence that in time the tide will come back in. We are rather living through a cataclysmic transition from the presuppositions by which we once lived and having no idea how to tell our faith story in terms of the emerging world view for which our religion of yesterday has no relevance. So churches are dying, vast anger, rising out of cultural depression at the loss of yesterday’s meaning and unstoppable changes, are now our daily bread.

The consensus of the past is breaking up. The consensus of the future has not yet been formed. We live in interesting times and dangerous times also. Political shell games and pious rhetoric will no longer suffice.

Before we can move to address these issues we must understand them. I see little present indication that either church leaders or political leaders understand the depth of the problem we face. Time alone will tell, but in the meantime doing church business as usual or practicing politics as usual is a prescription not only for disaster, but for extinction.

The Sheep and the Goats

This is a book first posted on Grace Connection, the Magazine. There is no printed edition. All 30 chapters will appear on the Wheel in the following weeks.

CHAPTER 25

Matthew 25:31-46

The parable of The Sheep and the Goats is only one of the parables included in Matthew’s Gospel that deal with judgment.1 In this parable, Jesus himself is the judge of all the nations 2. But how can this be done if other nations have not yet heard the gospel? Answer: They are judged on the basis of their treatment of those Jesus represents—the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the sick, and the prisoner.

In this parable Jesus separates people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.

Such mixed flocks were common enough, both because it was economical to work with one herd, but also, apparently, because the more restless goats tended to keep the herd on the move and so to produce more effective grazing in the sparsely vegetated areas. But at night the herdsman would divide up his herd so that the hardier sheep could be left outside and the goats be brought in overnight.

Read more at Adventist Perspective.

Geoffrey West: The surprising math of cities and corporations

Physicist Geoffrey West has found that simple, mathematical laws govern the properties of cities -- that wealth, crime rate, walking speed and many other aspects of a city can be deduced from a single number: the city's population. In this mind-bending talk from TEDGlobal he shows how it works and how similar laws hold for organisms and corporations.

Mar 11, 2011: Japanese tsunami from the point of view of a car.

http://www.wimp.com/japanesetsunami/

Baseball's Ghost Hunter

by Phil Taylor

Section 14, block B, row E, number 6. For more than 70 years, that was all that marked a patch of earth in the East Ridgelawn Cemetery in Clifton, N.J. Visitors walked over it on their way to the gravesites of loved ones, unaware that they were treading on the final resting place of Ulysses Franklin Grant, a Negro leagues star of the 1890s. Though Grant, a speedy second baseman with a .344 career batting average, would be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2006, he died in poverty in 1937, without any descendants to pay for a headstone. Like many Negro Leaguers, Grant was not only denied proper recognition in life but also suffered a final indignity in death: an unmarked grave.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1188475/index.htm

Without a Wedding Garment

This is a book first posted on Grace Connection, the Magazine. There is no printed edition. All 30 chapters will appear on the Wheel in the following weeks.

CHAPTER 24

Mathew 22:1-14

In our previous chapter we dealt with the invited guests' refusal to come to the banquet and discussed the insulting excuses they made for not attending. In Matthew's account of this parable the invitation is to a royal banquet, the kings messengers are killed, and the enraged king sends troops to kill the murderers and burn their city. After this the invitation is sent to other less privileged persons.

Matthew's parable implies that even those who choose to attend the banquet may suffer judgment.

But when the King came to in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. ‘Friend,’ he asked, ‘how did you get in here without wedding clothes?’ The man was speechless. Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are invited, but few are chosen.’

Read more at Adventist Perspective.

Parahawking adventure over the skies in Nepal.

Birds of prey fly with paragliders guiding them to thermals in exchange for food.

http://www.flixxy.com/parahawking-over-nepal.htm

Movie Review: The Tree of Life

One of the most agonizing experiences in life is crying out for meaning in the face of suffering and loss of innocence – and getting no answer from God or the universe. In the face of silence to our questions, what gives meaning to life? Terence Malik’s The Tree of Life tackles this most profound of questions.

Set in the 1950s, we follow Jack, one of three brothers, as he moves from the marvellous innocence of childhood to the loss of that innocence following his troubled relationship with his father (Brad Pitt), experience of sickness, suffering, and death, and into adulthood (Sean Penn) as he works in a competitive concrete jungle business world where the self is the only thing that matters.

The Meaning of Life is a very unusual movie. The narrative is minimal and much of the 2 hours and 19 minutes consists of impressionistic cinematography around our universe and on our earth. The experience of the story’s protagonists are almost overwhelmed by the vastness of the universe’s history from its birth to its death – once again not told in linear form but rather in frenetically wonderful glimpses that are thematically related and which build to an experience of awe-fullness in which human life is reduced to near triviality. The overall experience of the film is one of meditation and humility as Jack struggles to answer the big questions of human existence. An answer is provided at the end of the movie – there is a meaning to life – but depending on your current point of view, you may or may not agree with it. I won’t reveal it here because it will have more impact if you discover it in the ambiguity of this stunning meditation.

Many Christians provide inadequate and insipid answers to the why questions when it comes to suffering. They appeal to nonsense like ‘God has a plan for your life’; ‘This was meant to be’; or ‘We will understand the meaning of our suffering in heaven’. All of these are inadequate and, for many Christians who cry out to God in their darkest moments, become downright offensive when there is no response from God to our cries – a God that is supposed to love and care for us. It may be that this film provides the answer – whether we are Christian or atheist, religious or secular.

The Meaning of Life is definitely not a mainstream film. Don’t go to see it just because your favourite film stars are in it – you’ll be disappointed. When it was shown in an Italian cinema over one week, the first two reels of the movie were accidentally switched and no one noticed – attributing the result to the director’s editing style. In some American cinemas, signs were posted warning cinema goers ‘about the enigmatic and non-linear narrative of the movie – following some confused walkouts and refund demands in the opening weeks.’ (IMDB) That should give you an idea of the nature of this film. As one reviewer has described it, The Tree of Life is a ‘total sensory immersion’ film.

But if you are willing to immerse yourself in an almost unfathomable meditation that takes patience, courage, and perseverance to survive nearly 2 and a half hours of ambiguity and slow exploration, there is much to be pondered. The Meaning of Life reminded me of the book of Job in the Old Testament (the movie opens with a quote from the book) – except The Meaning of Life proffers a different answer and one which may be more satisfying to some. Near the beginning of the film, we are told that ‘there are two ways through life, the way of nature, and the way of grace, and we have to choose which way to follow’. If you dare to experience a completely different type of movie – go and see it and make up your mind which way you will choose.

Matt Cutts: Try something new for 30 days

Is there something you've always meant to do, wanted to do, but just ... haven't? Matt Cutts suggests: Try it for 30 days. This short, lighthearted talk offers a neat way to think about setting and achieving goals.

The Wedding Feast and the Banquet

This is a book first posted on Grace Connection, the Magazine. There is no printed edition. All 30 chapters will appear on the Wheel in the following weeks.

CHAPTER 23

Matthew 22:1-14; Luke 14:16-24

This story is told twice, and while Matthew and Luke tell it differently, there is a common theme: the important people of a community have been invited to a banquet, and when they refuse to come, others become the “invited” guests. In both cases, the original invitees are members of the privileged class. In Matthew it is a king who invites people to a wedding banquet for his son. In Luke a wealthy person sends out invitations. Excuses for not attending range from the general (Matthew) to the specific (Luke). In Matthew not only were the invitations rejected, but the messengers of the king are murdered and both “good” and “bad” citizens of the community receive invitations. In Luke the messengers invite the poor, crippled, blind, and the lame. In addition, people found traveling in the roads and lanes are compelled to attend. Luke also includes an account of a man coming to the king's banquet without a wedding garment.

The invitation to become citizens of Jesus’ kingdom is compared to inviting people to a banquet. The original invitees are the privileged elite. After they refuse the invitation, outcasts and commoners are invited. While invitations to God’s kingdom are freely given to all, the reason the rich and privileged are not better represented is because they are more likely to have rejected the invitation.

Read more at Adventist Perspective.

Meteor Wiped Out Dinosaurs, New Fossil Finding Suggests

Click here to read more.

Tim Harford: Trial, error and the God complex

Economics writer Tim Harford studies complex systems -- and finds a surprising link among the successful ones: they were built through trial and error. In this sparkling talk from TEDGlobal 2011, he asks us to embrace our randomness and start making better mistakes.

http://www.ted.com/talks/tim_harford.html

A Word of Grace for Your Monday

7/25/11

by Kent Hansen

Dear Friends:

A young woman named Yuri attended a small prayer and Bible study group that I led for many years.

Yuri is Japanese. She grew up in a Buddhist family in Japan.

Student missionaries at a language school introduced her to Christ who she eagerly accepted as her Savior. Her troubles began at that point.

Yuri's Buddhist fiance broke off their engagement with a terse "You love your God more than me." Her family turned on her for her faithfulness to Christ. She was broken-hearted and crushed in spirit, seemingly without a future or a hope.

One night, alone in her room, she stared at the wall in despair. A student missionary had given her a tape-recording of the Christian singer Sandy Patti. Yuri turned on her cassette player and she heard these words:

Because He lives, I can face tomorrow Because He lives, All fear is gone. Because I know He holds the future, And life is worth the living just because He lives. (Gloria Gaither and William J. Gaither, 1974).

Yuri believed these words. She accepted on faith that they were true. She followed her student missionary friends to the United States where she enrolled at my alma mater, La Sierra University. That's where Yuri met me and joined our small group.

Read more at Adventist Perspective.

A message of hope for LGBT Adventist youth. It really does get better.

http://www.itgetsbetterforadventists.org/

While there are no statistics specific to Adventist LGBT youth suicide, religious views about homosexuality are at the root of homophobia and intolerance.

• LGBT youth are 4 times as likely to attempt suicide than straight youth.
• LGBT youth with “highly rejecting” families are 8 times more likely to attempt suicide than those whose families accept them.

If you are an LGBT Adventist, you should know that you’re not alone, you can find an accepting and affirming spiritual home (increasingly even within Adventism), and you are a beloved child of God just as you are.

If you are considering suicide or need help, call the Trevor Project now at 866-4-U-TREVOR.

If you want to talk to an Adventist who understands being gay AND loving Sabbath afternoon potlucks, contact SDA Kinship at itgetsbetter@sdakinship.org or Carrol Grady at www.someone-to-talk-to.net.

If you are a parent, educator or pastor, please know that the teens in your life (gay and straight) are learning from your example and need your unconditional love. If you think the church needs to rethink how we treat our LGBT members, stand up and say something. “In the end we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” Martin Luther King Jr.

The Cruel Vine Dressers

This is a book first posted on Grace Connection, the Magazine. There is no printed edition. All 30 chapters will appear on the Wheel in the following weeks.

CHAPTER 22

Matthew 21:33-41 (Mark 12:1-9; Luke 20:9-16)

This parable was told after Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem, during the last week of his life on earth. He had wanted to bring the gospel of salvation to his beloved people during the years of his ministry, but they had not responded. Later the week, he lambasted the scribes and Pharisees for their hypocrisy. While they were building tombs for the prophets and decorating them, they were bent on destroying him, the Messiah, the one greater than all the prophets. Finally in exasperation and frustration he lamented the fate of his beloved people and city in words recorded in Matthew 23:37-38. "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! See, your house is left to you, desolate."

The parable of the Cruel Vinedressers is reminiscent of the parable of the vineyard in Isaiah 5:1-7. "My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it." Jesus' parable likewise emphasizes the great care shown to the vineyard. The master placed a "fence around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watchtower." The master had set aside a fertile hill for it, cleared it of stones, built a watchtower and a wine press, and planted choice vines.

Read more at Adventist Perspective.

Mechanical Singing Bird Pistols

This is a short video on a pair of 200+ year-old mechanical singing bird pistols; whether or not you are an antique gun aficionado, you'll be glad you took a moment to watch.

http://www.christies.com/features/singing-bird-pistols-en-1422-3.aspx

Modern Versus Postmodern Adventism

by Sakae Kubo

Is Modern Versus Postmodern Adventists the The Ultimate Divide?

http://sakae-panta.blogspot.com/

Faith Adventures to Russia

My uncle, Emanuel J. Sorenson, was a missionary in Ethiopia and Jamaica before and after World War II. Once a week there will be story that provides a glimpse of what missionary life was like for his family, as related by his daughter and my cousin, Jane Spear.

The red and black plaid suitcase stood majestically on the Super Shuttle. It’s bulging sides seemed ready to walk away. If only this seventy pound bag could talk, its’ story would furnish the fascinating details of the next few days. But no, it could not talk. Nor could the other thirteen suitcases say a word, even if they wanted to.

Their sides had been marked with waterproof black markers to RUSSIA, along with the names of the city and mayor. Large stickers were well secured on all sides, proclaiming this to be the property of “Sisters City International.” The many yards of wide filament tape placed each side in many vice grips. All this was to disappear in the luggage hold of an International Flight, which would leave California for Moscow. The airlines had shown consideration several times to help the Sister City share its’ wealth of food, medicines, clothing, educational materials, and surprises; such as, packs of vegetable seeds, coloring books and crayons.

Read more at Adventist Perspective.

Prison Without Punishment

In Norway’s Bastoy prison, says Nicola Abé, there are no bars, no armed guards — and no escapes.

THE BOY ISN'T crying; the tears underneath his eyes are tattoos. He is standing in the snow, tall and broad, not knowing where to go at first. The guards took him from his cell to the ferry, which brought him to this island—without handcuffs. He is now left to his own devices, surrounded by red and yellow wooden houses and a church tower poking through the treetops.

http://theweek.com/article/index/212738/prison-without-punishment

The Unproductive Fig Tree

This is a book first posted on Grace Connection, the Magazine. There is no printed edition. All 30 chapters will appear on the Wheel in the following weeks.

CHAPTER 21

Luke 13:6-9

The fig tree is a common fruit tree in Palestine. It is referred to more than sixty times in the Bible. It bore fruit ten months of the year with the early figs emerging in the spring before the leaves appeared. Fruit trees do not ordinarily produce fruit for three years after the young saplings have been put in the ground. Consequently, the three years that figs were expected in the Parable of the Unproductive Fig Tree would be the fourth, fifth, and sixth year after the tree was planted.

The fig tree in this story had produced no fruit for three years. A fig tree is planted not for shade or ornament or for any other purpose other than to bear fruit. So when the owner saw no fruit on it for three successive seasons, he said to the gardener, "See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?"

Read more at Adventist Perspective.

Made-up Minds

Since political beliefs are rooted in emotions, says Chris Mooney, the facts are often irrelevant

A MAN WITH a conviction is a hard man to change. Tell him you disagree and he turns away. Show him facts or figures and he questions your sources. Appeal to logic and he fails to see your point." So wrote the celebrated Stanford University psychologist Leon Festinger, in a passage that might have been referring to arguments over the president's birthplace or the causes of climate change and autism. But it was too early for all of that — this was the 1950s — and Festinger was actually describing what would become a famous case study in psychology: a group of Chicago UFO devotees who thought they were communicating with extraterrestrials.

http://theweek.com/article/index/215257/made-up-minds