Exodus Bible Study

Wednesday Nights at St. Matthew (starting Sept 5; 6:30 to 8:15) we'll be doing a mass Bible Study on the book of Exodus. I want as many of you to know about this as possible. Everyone is welcome to go deeper in the Bible and particularly the incredible EXODUS account.

There is a registration form with more information HERE. Feel free to hit me up with any questions by posting a comment.

Hope you can make it!

In a Hurry

I live far too much of my life hurrying, sound familiar?

About a week ago though, there was an "incident" that a friend brought to my attention that made me stop and think about it all, especially as it relates to my hurry with God.

At St. Matthew (in our sanctuary worship services) we've got this quirk where at the end of the service people start running out the doors into the lobby, right as the final note of the closing song is being played. We don't do an "amen" or even the sacred pause like some of our more traditional counterparts do. The song is over and we run on to the next thing. Last week our new awesome Minister of Worship (aka Thomas Czinder) threw a curve ball to us, he repeated the final chorus of the closing song... and the bulletin didn't even say to do it, it was one of those free-flowing, let's get crazy and break all the rules, worship moments ;) But it didn't go over too well with the congregation. As one observer put it,

"People were stuck. They were half way out of their pews, and there was a whole other chorus to go. Some were embarrassed, set their things down quickly and started singing again. Some were confused and just stood wherever they were statue-like. And some were visibly indignant."

What's our hurry? Why is a 65 minute worship service intolerably long for so many of us? Are we really that overscheduled that we've even got important appointments at 11:57am on a Sunday? Perhaps this is part of the reason that the OT hebrews were so crazy about preserving the entire sabbath, because they were hoping for ONE DAY that people would slow down enough to not rush through the most important encounter of their week. Maybe this will help us all think a little bit more about how we approach that sacred "hour on Sunday"

It got me thinking for sure, about my own hurry. After all, Sunday is a big workday for me. When I end one worship service I'm off to the next thing. In some of our services I have to leave before one service is over to go to another part of our facility to preach at another! I am the FIRST ONE out of the sanctuary each and every week. I start the exodus from the worship area during the last verse of the closing song. So as one of the leaders, I'm going to try to slow down a bit too. Maybe that means I'll actually stay up front until the service is actually OVER before I head to the back to shake hands. Maybe that means that some weeks I won't rush to the back at all but will linger for a few moments in the richness of God's presence, love, mercy, and strength.

For those of you who go to St. Matthew (and those who don't) it's time for change, an internal change that banishes hurry from our worship experience so God can actually have his way with us. Let's not just say such things, or sing such things, but let's actually pause long enough to let God DO such things. Amen? (now you're free to run off to the next thing)

The Violence of Religion?

CAUTION: This post isn't meant to be a "rah-rah" session for Christians who want to bash the rest of the world. My goal is to get us all to think a little bit more.

Over the last few years, much has been said about bloodshed in the world being the fault of "religions" of "the religious." Most recently Richard Dawkins has blamed the violence of our modern world on those who adhere to various world faiths. He seems to imply that those who are prone to religious belief are more likely to commit atrocities (Watch a Dawkins interview )

A couple of things are VERY interesting to me about Dawkins and what he says. First note how he defines faith. He is defining it in order to deliberately bias the word. His assertion that faith is always blind or is the adherence to something in the absence of any evidence is unfair. Of all the definitions of faith listed in the dictionary (which is also not exhaustive) Dawkins narrows in on the one that best suits his own agenda. We all do this, no doubt, just calling him out.

Speaking personally, my faith is NOT totally blind. In fact to disbelieve what I now hold to be true, i would have to close my eyes to many phenomena, coincidences, and open-questions that are a part of what makes me believe.

Of course I also object to the lumping of "faiths" together in one group. To take groups that make mutually exclusive claims and treat them as something of a monolith is fool hearty and not very respectful.

Next, his focus on "evidence" is interesting. While you may be able to present evidence FOR something, how do you present evidence that something does NOT exist? To do so, you'd have to methodologically exclude every possibility of God's existence, who is by nature beyond the basic "testable" senses. You may say that you can't find a lot of evidence FOR God, but you can't logically say that evidence denies God. It's illogical.

It's also interesting because I've recently heard, (sorry i couldn't find a linked reference quickly enough) that Johns Hopkins Institute on Geopolitical studies has declared the 20th century to be the bloodiest century in human history. It numbers 130 MILLION people who have died in this century from tyranny that stems from the manifestations of HUMANISM or NATURALISM, NOT RELIGION.

But here's the "thinking point" (i may have done some rah-rah, sorry!) The thing that Dawkins ignores (and maybe some Christians too) is that PEOPLE ARE BAD. The basis of Christ's teachings are built on this truth. And it appears that in the absence of a true relationship with God, there is even less restraint to human evil. A God-less ideology has not improved our world one bit, in fact it is responsible for the Holocaust (Darwinian natural selection), for the atrocities committed under Lenin and Stalin and their purges (Atheistic zeal). Under Mao and many other bona-fide 100% Godless leaders.

The longer I live, the more I believe that the only thing empirically provable is the deep corruption of humanity, some would call it the depravity of man. And in my reading, there is only one source that is willing to stare that reality in the face and bluntly acknowledge it. Call me crazy, but that makes believing that ONE source, which corresponds to reality most fully, the most logical thing a person could do.