Noah's Ark and Mass Exctintion

It was recently just announced that the Javan Rhino has officially become an extinct species.
Add it up to another tragedy that we will glance at as we scroll down our newsfeed this week.

I saw a bumper sticker this morning that said something like, "Climate change, a serious endangerment to unicorns." It was supposed to be funny... making climate change sound like a mythical thing such as unicorns...
Yet the irony is... we can now substitute Unicorn for Javan Rhino.

Future generations will likely know little about them, they will become mythical legend. Along with thousands of other species.

We hear abut these animals going extinct and sure it makes us sad, but for the most part we feel disconnected from that information. As if we have nothing to do with it.


But if the Lion King has taught us anything, its that We are all connected in the great circle of Life.

Recently I found myself spending Black Friday not at the mall but touring the Ark Encounter in northern Kentucky with my family. If you haven't heard of it its a life-size replica of Noah's Ark... in the hills of Kentucky. Pretty impressive stuff actually.
Over the past several days I've been wrestling with it all. What is it that drives us to replicate this monstrosity of a project?

There is a group of people who's faith is very much like a large boat. Their belief is a structure to be built. Church is a place that you go. For this person, everything in the Bible adds up together to make a packaged "case for God." (Although if you actually just read the Bible it tends to not fit into any of these categories it is placed in.) For this group their faith is identical to a giant Ark that must be carefully constructed in just the right way so that every piece fits and it can carry them all to the other side.

The way in which this group tends to understand apocalypse is by seeing the end of the world or last days or better, the eschaton as something we are totally unconnected to... Its the belief that the end is coming and we have nothing to do with it... It happens to us and its out of our control.
And so the goal: To Escape It.


This sort of theology is very dangerous...
This sort of theology harms that which we've been given to take care of...
This sort of theology kills Rhinos.

I find it compelling and in beautiful cohesion with Scripture and particularly Genesis that the story of Noah's Ark is about our God once again partnering with faithful humanity in serving creation. God speaks, Noah responds in incredible faith, and namely all sorts of species are rescued from a flood.

Isn't it interesting then, that we can take a story like this and not focus on the relationship with God and humanity or creation... but use it as an instrument to prove something. We can take a narrative that seems to speak directly to God's desire to save every "kind" on the earth, and praise it, and build a shrine to it. Then in the next moment we can roll our eyes at the thought of Climate Change and be apathetic that another "kind" has now gone extinct.

It's amazing that we have difficulty seeing that we are unfaithful Noahs.

What does it mean that the story of humanity and God's people has always be a participatory story?
That from God's initial call in Genesis for humanity to take care of creation to Jesus' call to His disciples to announce the coming kingdom of heaven by healing the sick and raising the dead... that the end of all things has always been linked to the beginning of all things.

Like all those parables Jesus' gives us to be found faithful with what we have.... isn't because God is going to be angry when He shows back up and you haven't cleaned your room!
It's because we are all connected to everything and there is a reason we are here. There has always been a Missio Dei we are invited into.

So we can make a mess of the earth by our consumerism, our fossil fuels, our carbon footprints, our nuclear bombs, our plastic and chemicals, and leveling of rainforests...
We can continue to choose Hell and while singing I'll Fly Away...

Or we can receive the call that our loving Creator continues to draw us into... Loving God and so Loving Creation.

So may we participate in the coming Kingdom, the making of all things new, and may we sing Come Lord Jesus, Come.

Post-Truth

One of the biggest struggles with leadership has to be how to handle disappointment. Every leader has to deal with disappointment.
The moment that you realize that people aren't doing the things that you hoped they would do... disappointment.

We experience this in our friendships, in our parenting, in our marriages, in our work places, in the church. Everywhere.
You, like all people, at some point have experienced someone not responding to something the way you hoped they would respond.


Have you ever been in a conversation and were attempting to explain something, trying to convince someone of a point of view or a product... and you, in a rare moment, became Matlock and explained this thing SO well! You hit every right bullet point and breath, extracted every important feature with word precision and accuracy... that by the end of your "presentation" you were giving self high-fives!?
You thought, "I smashed it!" "Nailed it!" "They would have to be DEVOID of all logic not to be on the same page now!"


Then you wait.


And to your astonishment, they still don't get it.
They still aren't following.
They're still not convinced.


Meanwhile you literally, short of breathe, are flabbergasted at what has just occurred.




I've had many conversations like that over the years. But it wasn't until the election last year and all the chaos and fact checking surrounding it that I heard what had been deemed as the "word of the year" for 2016.


"Post-Truth"


Post-Truth... what a word.


Here's a definition -  Post-truth: "Relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief."


Essentially its saying that you can throw information and facts out there all day long... but what really gets things done is appealing to emotion and belief... not necessarily being logical.


If you are a certain personality type, this may drive you insane. :)


Its the reason that everyone loves people like Joel Osteen... if there is one thing that guy seems to have is a positive attitude!
Its why you'll always lose the argument when the other person starts crying.
It's why we end up with guys like Donald Trump as president.


Post-truth.


But here's what's really going on. Its called your Limbic brain.


Science and biology tell us that the way decisions get made is through this part of our brain (the part that doesn't use words) that is concerned with the "Why." This is our limbic brain. It is the part of the brain that is responsible for our feelings. Yet the limbic brain is responsible for all behavior and decision making.


Interestingly enough, its actually not the neocortex part of our brain that makes decisions... even so this part of the brain deals with the "what." This is the explaining, analytical and linguistic part of our brain, even so it doesn't make the decisions.


Thus, I'm not surprised that you can talk until you're blue in the face about how something makes sense, how this product works, how someone should live a certain way... and people still aren't following... people still aren't getting it!
Because that's not how we are wired. (See Simon Sinek's Talk on Inspiring Action)
You can' t start with the "What" and expect anyone to be with you...


You must start with the "Why"


This goes for anything in life. All behavior.
Its why when Jesus is calling His disciples and they ask Him where He lives, Jesus responds "Come and See."


"We do not think ourselves into new ways of living, but we live ourselves into new ways of thinking."
- Richard Rohr


We're always trying to do things backwards.
Its through experience, taste, action, Presence that we are changed and transformed, and so are able to call others to taste the bread and wine themselves.




Choose anything you do in life.... now ask yourself why you do it.


Sometimes we are so unclear even in our own purpose and "why" ... its no wonder our lives don't seem compelling.


Religion has historically done this wrong. Even today I hear and see many pastors scratch their heads at the ever emptying congregations wondering what happened. "The message hasn't changed" they think to themselves "but where did everyone go?"


If the why is no longer clearly visible in what it is you are doing, if what you are about isn't something that sounds a little like "I have a dream", something that is compelling, something tasty...
then again I'm not that surprised they're not buying it.


Social Justice is always more compelling than "Getting Saved."


Don't get too disappointed your "what" didn't change the world... Transformation has always been about the Why

Why Christians should celebrate Halloween

The other day was Halloween. Halloween has always been an especially fun holiday for me growing up. We always went trick or treating... which for us living out in the boonies meant driving 25 minutes to the good neighborhoods. Back in my day you just grabbed your pillowcase and went for it! This was back when you might get candy apples or giant popcorn balls thus needing something larger than a puny basket. (to be read in Arnold Schwarzenegger voice)

Coupled with the sights and smells of the Fall, Halloween was simply a lot of good innocent fun growing up. Yet I realize that for many Christian families this is not the case at all... (thus the birth of Trunk or Treat etc. which seems to take the fun out of it in my opinion! Plus could the church find a more sketchy way to give kids candy!?)



Yesterday as I was going about my work I mentioned to someone in passing "and Happy Halloween!" ... as I said it it was supposed to be funny more than anything. I realize people don't typically say "Happy Halloween" like Merry Christmas or something! But all the same it seemed fine.
Yet, this particular person, of whom I don't know super well but what I do know is that she is a devout Christian, paused and said to me..."How about... Happy Fall Fest..."
**insert a little awkward silence***
and then we went our separate ways.


Happy Fall Fest...? Really?  ummm... No.


The whole thing reminded me of when we boycotted Disney films growing up (for another blog!) because of certain (fundamentalist) Christian values... until my mom came home with Pocahontas one day on VHS... because really, how long was that going to last!?




Halloween, or better stated, All Hallows Eve... isn't the day we celebrate the devil and his minions...


It is in fact that day that reminds us of the pattern of the universe.


All Hallows Eve... (the eve of All Saints Day, a beautiful Christian holiday) is a necessary moment when we say: to get to the Light we must always go through the Darkness.


Before there is new life there will always be death.
Before there is resurrection there is a burial.
Before there is a new day there is an old one that is passing away.




Our issue isn't goblins... its that we've forgotten the pattern of suffering and death to life that we were brought into even as we live. Its the very pattern Jesus came to teach us... (The sign of Jonah...)


But what we've been taught by the church is to "avoid the dark, dismiss the ugly, don't look that which is difficult in the eye and it may just go away... if you suffer then you must be outside of the Lord's plan for you."


Which coincidentally is the EXACT opposite of what Jesus and the entire thrust of Scripture teaches us. Suffering, the Cross, Death is always the way forward. Blessed are the poor, Blessed are the Hungry.
But we so eloquently have become masters at spiritualizing these revolutionary teachings... until now many are simply left with escapist theology.


Escapist theology will never let you trick or treat.

Because "that which is Dark, that which is Struggle... That which is full of shadows and despair... must be avoided... all we have to do is raise our hands higher in worship, squint our eyes more tightly, and have more faith..."


This sort of theology is BUST. It will never heal. It will never grow.


Because the only way forward is through confrontation, conflict, struggle.
"The first will be last and the last will be first." Isn't a futuristic proverb, or a bookmark. It is knife through the curtain that blinds us. A glimpse into reality.


Thus... naturally...


Christians ought to be the best darn Trick-or-Treaters...


Because we know... what's after the Eve, is the Hallows.