Category: reflections

grace vs accountability

bill clinton by sskennel

Just read an interesting and good post by Mark Batterson about accountability for leaders in the church.

It comes at an interesting time after having read Chp. 9 in The Ragamuffin Gospel.

Batterson points out that II Timothy 3:2 says, “The overseer must be above reproach.”

Being above reproach means having well-defined boundaries that we are held accountable to. I never want to do anything to compromise my calling at NCC so I submit my speaking opportunities to our stewardship team. I decide what invitations to accept. But I am alloted 30 speaking days. That helps me in two ways. First of all, it helps me say no. And that is something I have a very difficult time doing! And it keeps me accountable. I’m grateful for the opportunities to influence the kingdom of God at large. And I don’t take it for granted. I want to make sure I’m a good steward of every opportunity.

Brennan Manning on the other hand talks about giving grace and love to all.

If we believe in the exciting message of Jesus, if we hope in vindication, we must love, and even more, we must run the risk of being loved… God wants us back even more that we could possibly want to be back.

Manning then talks about the woman caught in adultery and Jesus’ response.

Now get the picture. Jesus didn’t ask her if she was sorry. He didn’t demand a firm purpose of amendment. He didn’t seem too concerned that she might dash back into the arms of her lover. She just stood there and Jesus gave her absolution before she asked for it. The nature of God’s love for us is outrageous… I don’t think anyone reading this would have approved of throwing rocks at the poor woman in adultery, but we would have made darn sure she presented a detailed act of contrition and was firm in her purpose of amendment. Because if we let her off without saying she was sorry, wouldn’t she be back in adultery before sunset? No the love of our God isn’t dignified at all, and apparently that’s the way he expects our love to be… once we’ve accepted it, he expects us to behave the same way with others.

The two writers seem to be at odds with each other. Or are they? Are we to give grace and love to everyone but our leaders in the church? Seems as though they are required to live above reproach. But what about when they do fall?

Goethe said, “Men will always be making mistakes as long as they are striving for something.” Is that reason enough to let them off the hook? Or should they be held accountable for their actions while someone coming to church on Sunday without getting involved is loved and forgiven over and over again?

To put it on a broader sense, should a kid who commits murder be held to the same accountability and punishment as an adult?

These are some of the things I’m juggling through my head today. What are your thoughts?

Which of these is different?

America is the “land of freedom” a “melting pot” and as Christians we’re taught to “love one another” but how has our attitude changed since 9/11?

From This American Life:

Serry and her husband’s love story began in a place not usually associated with romance: the West Bank. That was where the couple met, fell in love and decided to get married. Then Serry, who was American, convinced her Palestinian husband to move to America. She promised him that in America their children would never encounter prejudice or strife of any kind. But things didn’t quite work out that way.

How should we as Christian Americans respond to those around us who may not see eye to eye with us?

Also I learned in this particular podcast, there’s a statue of the prophet Muhammad in a federal building in Washington D.C. Didn’t know that.

In the 1930s, the designer of the U.S. Supreme Court made a frieze to adorn the courtroom walls. It depicted eighteen great lawgivers through ages, including Moses, Solon, Confucius…and Muhammad. The only problem is that Islam forbids such portrayals of the prophet. Host Ira Glass talks to Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, about why the frieze is offensive to Muslims, and what they tried to do about it.

Interesting. Listen online.

Religious Fashion Shows/Frauds

LCRNphotography

Loving that I have the Message REMIXaudio Bible mixed in with my Zune playlist now… this really grabbed me (think I’ll listen to it again):

Religious Fashion Shows
1-3 Now Jesus turned to address his disciples, along with the crowd that had gathered with them. “The religion scholars and Pharisees are competent teachers in God’s Law. You won’t go wrong in following their teachings on Moses. But be careful about following them. They talk a good line, but they don’t live it. They don’t take it into their hearts and live it out in their behavior. It’s all spit-and-polish veneer.

4-7 “Instead of giving you God’s Law as food and drink by which you can banquet on God, they package it in bundles of rules, loading you down like pack animals. They seem to take pleasure in watching you stagger under these loads, and wouldn’t think of lifting a finger to help. Their lives are perpetual fashion shows, embroidered prayer shawls one day and flowery prayers the next. They love to sit at the head table at church dinners, basking in the most prominent positions, preening in the radiance of public flattery, receiving honorary degrees, and getting called ‘Doctor’ and ‘Reverend.’

8-10 “Don’t let people do that to you, put you on a pedestal like that. You all have a single Teacher, and you are all classmates. Don’t set people up as experts over your life, letting them tell you what to do. Save that authority for God; let him tell you what to do. No one else should carry the title of ‘Father’; you have only one Father, and he’s in heaven. And don’t let people maneuver you into taking charge of them. There is only one Life-Leader for you and them—Christ.

11-12 “Do you want to stand out? Then step down. Be a servant. If you puff yourself up, you’ll get the wind knocked out of you. But if you’re content to simply be yourself, your life will count for plenty.

Frauds!
13 “I’ve had it with you! You’re hopeless, you religion scholars, you Pharisees! Frauds! Your lives are roadblocks to God’s kingdom. You refuse to enter, and won’t let anyone else in either.

15 “You’re hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You go halfway around the world to make a convert, but once you get him you make him into a replica of yourselves, double-damned.

16-22 “You’re hopeless! What arrogant stupidity! You say, ‘If someone makes a promise with his fingers crossed, that’s nothing; but if he swears with his hand on the Bible, that’s serious.’ What ignorance! Does the leather on the Bible carry more weight than the skin on your hands? And what about this piece of trivia: ‘If you shake hands on a promise, that’s nothing; but if you raise your hand that God is your witness, that’s serious’? What ridiculous hairsplitting! What difference does it make whether you shake hands or raise hands? A promise is a promise. What difference does it make if you make your promise inside or outside a house of worship? A promise is a promise. God is present, watching and holding you to account regardless.

23-24 “You’re hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You keep meticulous account books, tithing on every nickel and dime you get, but on the meat of God’s Law, things like fairness and compassion and commitment—the absolute basics!—you carelessly take it or leave it. Careful bookkeeping is commendable, but the basics are required. Do you have any idea how silly you look, writing a life story that’s wrong from start to finish, nitpicking over commas and semicolons?

25-26 “You’re hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You burnish the surface of your cups and bowls so they sparkle in the sun, while the insides are maggoty with your greed and gluttony. Stupid Pharisee! Scour the insides, and then the gleaming surface will mean something.

27-28 “You’re hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You’re like manicured grave plots, grass clipped and the flowers bright, but six feet down it’s all rotting bones and worm-eaten flesh. People look at you and think you’re saints, but beneath the skin you’re total frauds.

29-32 “You’re hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You build granite tombs for your prophets and marble monuments for your saints. And you say that if you had lived in the days of your ancestors, no blood would have been on your hands. You protest too much! You’re cut from the same cloth as those murderers, and daily add to the death count.

33-34 “Snakes! Reptilian sneaks! Do you think you can worm your way out of this? Never have to pay the piper? It’s on account of people like you that I send prophets and wise guides and scholars generation after generation—and generation after generation you treat them like dirt, greeting them with lynch mobs, hounding them with abuse.

35-36 “You can’t squirm out of this: Every drop of righteous blood ever spilled on this earth, beginning with the blood of that good man Abel right down to the blood of Zechariah, Barachiah’s son, whom you murdered at his prayers, is on your head. All this, I’m telling you, is coming down on you, on your generation.

37-39 “Jerusalem! Jerusalem! Murderer of prophets! Killer of the ones who brought you God’s news! How often I’ve ached to embrace your children, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you wouldn’t let me. And now you’re so desolate, nothing but a ghost town. What is there left to say? Only this: I’m out of here soon. The next time you see me you’ll say, ‘Oh, God has blessed him! He’s come, bringing God’s rule!'”

Matthew 23

resources for growth

Friday night, as part of the encounter 9, Brian talked about the importance of nourishing our soul with Scripture and growing in our Spiritual walk. We had a good discussion on (without being cliche’) about the importance of keeping Scripture in our diet to continue growing from an infant > to a child > to a teen > to a man > to a leader in our spiritual growth.

Of course, to be honest, sometimes just sitting down and reading a passage of Scripture can wear on you like a ham sandwich everyday. But luckily there are lots of resources out there that can help keep our appetite growing for more and more of God’s word.

I’ve seen some great devotionals out there for every make and model but even after a while the “read-scripture-read-a-thought-for-the-day” formula can get old as well. One of the things I’ve loved in the past and that works great for those who have trouble staying focused while reading, are the collection of great audio Bibles out there that can be played on your CD player or even your iPod.

I personally enjoy the Message REMIX on Mp3. It’s actually been sitting in a box or drawer until recently but I just pulled it out again to dump on my Mp3 player for the ride to work. I have the NT version but the entire Bible is available as well.

My buddy Matt just got a copy of The Bible Experience and can’t say enough about it. it’s a dramatic reading of Scripture by a number of hollywood actors including Denzel Washington and others. I’ve blogged on that in the past and would love to have a copy of it myself.

Any other resources you’ve found that keep your appetite growing?

‘I’ve been to the Mountaintop’

Delivered by Martin Luther King Jr. April 3, 1968, Mason Temple (Church of God in Christ Headquarters), Memphis, Tennessee – the night before he was gunned down by an assassin:

listen online

Thank you very kindly, my friends. As I listened to Ralph Abernathy and his eloquent and generous introduction and then thought about myself, I wondered who he was talking about. It’s always good to have your closest friend and associate to say something good about you. And Ralph Abernathy is the best friend that I have in the world. I’m delighted to see each of you here tonight in spite of a storm warning. You reveal that you are determined to go on anyhow.

Something is happening in Memphis; something is happening in our world. And you know, if I were standing at the beginning of time, with the possibility of taking a kind of general and panoramic view of the whole of human history up to now, and the Almighty said to me, “Martin Luther King, which age would you like to live in?” I would take my mental flight by Egypt and I would watch God’s children in their magnificent trek from the dark dungeons of Egypt through, or rather across the Red Sea, through the wilderness on toward the promised land. And in spite of its magnificence, I wouldn’t stop there.
Continue reading ‘I’ve been to the Mountaintop’