Penn Jillette gets given a Bible, and likes it.

This is extraordinary.

Penn Jillette, the vocal half of magic duo Penn and Teller, is a known atheist. One night after a show he gets given a Gideon New Testament and Psalms by a member of the audience. This little clip says a lot

1. Penn understands the gospel (although he has chosen to reject it). He understands that if it is true, it is the most important thing in the world.
2. This is key – “How much do you have to hate somebody to not proselytize?”. Not telling someone that, say, a truck is bearing down on them – news that can save them, is downright evil. Surely withholding Jesus’ message of hope and grace and hope is the same, even if it is cultural convention to do so.
3. He respects a man who, in the nicest way, shares the gospel with grace and love. I’m sure the manner in which the man spoke to Penn had a lot do with it – he has left a lasting impression

God, That’s Not Fair

Dick Dowsett’s book, God, That’s Not Fair, had been sitting on my shelf, unread, for a number of years and in the wake of the storm in the Christian blogosphere over what Rob Bell wrote in his new book, Love Wins, it seemed like a good point to start reading it. Originally published in 1982, the copy I have is a new edition from 2006 with a new preface by Dowsett. The book makes a case for the necessity of hell argued from scripture and from what we know about the character of God. He also deals with mission, other faiths, suffering etc – anything that we might be tempted to say “God, that’s not fair”. It is a pretty good and accessible read about why the gospel is as it is, and why it is good news.

Regarding hell,  he makes the point that although it may not seem nice to us, it is fair by God’s true and just standards. God is sovereign, sin is worse than we think, but Jesus is better that we think. He frames the book as an imaginary correspondence, question and answer style, between a young Christian away at university, and his home pastor. Dowsett doesn’t attempt to discuss the nature of hell, but makes the point that although we may not like the idea of it, hell is real and Biblical and is consistent with God’s character. What it is like for those there, he doesn’t attempt to discuss. In fact his new preface leaves open the possibility of annihilationism:

When I wrote the first edition, I read passages about lostness, perishing, and the destruction of the ungodly through a grid which assumed all people were immortal. I have had to think again. Is the punishment of Hell unending torment? Or is the punishment relative in length and intensity to the wickedness of the sinner? For the moment I would say that neither position fits comfortably with every scripture.

But that isn’t his point. Dowsett comes from the biblical conviction and that those who do not respond to Jesus in this life are lost and separate from God and which leads, for him, to a missionary zeal for those lost. There is no post-death second chance that we’re told about in scripture. Talking of the parable of the rich man and Lazarus in which Jesus mentions the great chasm between them:

Such a comment from Jesus would be pointless unless he had wanted his listeners quite clearly to understand that there was no second chance after death. There is no concept of serving time in Hell before going to Heaven… Those who die in their sins are terribly, irreversibly, lost.

But God is a merciful and compassionate God as well as being a just God. He gives many opportunities to those who are lost to turn to him. In fact “God wants people to be saved”. He passionately wants people to come to him.

So far there have been over 20 centuries in which the Lord has patiently waited in order to give folk the opportunities to become Christians.

Now, we have all heard preachers try to scare the living daylights out of their hearers by giving in-depth descriptions of the terrible tortures that await those who will get there. Time magazine have recently published a photo essay of pictorial depictions of hell throughout history. None of them are nice. To those who object with the doctrine because of the type of evangelism it might promote, he says:

You may object to the very idea of frightening people into the Kingdom the Kingdom, and it is true that fear may not be the best of motives for coming to Christ. But then, whoever has come to Christ with anything but sinful and mixed up motives? Fear is a perfectly valid incentive to respond to Christ. People are in danger. People are lost. They are Hell-bound.

So his response is although it is not ideal to use fear (certainly not the way I want to preach), his response is: if it works, use it. This is not too far away from what Paul was saying about motives for preaching Christ:

Phil 1:18 The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice.

Dowsett’s emphasis is not how the gospel is preached, it is that the gospel is preached. Dowsett comes at the topic making clear the Sovereignty, love and Justice of God and the seriousness of sin. Our reaction to this, Dowsett argues, is to pray and to share the gospel. Since hell is a very real separation from God as a result of sin, there should be an urgency amongst all Christians to help others respond to God’s love and mercy through Jesus. Have we missed opportunities to pray for and chat (naturally) about Jesus to our friends? Then we should repent of the missed chances and pray to be more open to God leading us into those conversations.

Dowsett’s theology is a traditional, reformed and, I would argue, correct interpretation of God’s character and work through Jesus. There is one earthly life for each of us on this broken world which has been damaged and corrupted by the ravages of sin and which often results in injustice pain and suffering for many. However, there is also one enormously loving God who wants us to understand the extent of Christ’s love for us and realise the extent of who he has made us to be. He invites Christians into sharing this urgent message good news with those around us, before it is too late. Love does indeed win. And everyone has the opportunity to accept or reject it.

I would recommend this book for new (or old) Christians who are struggling with the whole concept of how a just and loving God might not save everybody.

Spiritual Aspirin

Dick Dowsett in his book about hell - God, That’s Not Fair:

Too often in our evangelism today the message seems to be that Jesus is the spiritual aspirin for any type of spiritual or emotional headache you may happen to feel. It is hardly surprising that this effeminate Gospel has failed to build a manly church.

Discuss.

Lucio and Kaka show their faith

Article for the church magazine:

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The final whistle blew in the 2002 World Cup Final declaring Brazil to be the winners. Rivaldo, Ronaldo, Ronaldinho and colleagues had easily outclassed the German team which, it was widely agreed, was lucky to be in the final.

This moment is the pinnacle of any footballers career – the moment they all aspire to reach. At that moment, what would you do? Brazilian defender and captain Lucio gathered his colleagues around him where they knelt in a circle on the pitch and prayed. Before going to their fans, before lifting the trophy, before celebrating, Lucio and his team mates prayed. He then took off his yellow strip to reveal a T-shirt bearing a home-made slogan on the front scrawled in marker pen which read “I love Jesus”.

In an interview, Lucio said:

“Believing in Jesus has brought a total change to my life. Before I knew Jesus I did not have a disciplined life. I had low self-esteem. I did not have confidence in the things that I did day by day. Today I want to walk with the Lord and have a purpose for my life.”

Fast forward five years, to the 2007 Champions League final between AC Milan and Liverpool – whilst those on Merseyside were hanging their heads in despair, Brazilian midfielder Kaka celebrated his team’s 2-1 win by removing the red and black stripes of Milan, sinking to his knees, raising his hands to heaven. The world could see the slogan on his T-shirt too, which read “I belong to Jesus”.

These acts of witness are excellent examples of Christians using their God-given talents for His glory. They had been given the gift of being able to do extraordinary things with a football. In a culture of celebrity and money where they could have quite easily regarded themselves as gods, they choose to worship the one true God through his son, Jesus, and to stand up for him publicly.

Recently, FIFA has told the Brazilian football team that they are not allowed to make statements of faith, or T-shirts or otherwise, during the 2010 World Cup. FIFA’s implication is that faith should be a private thing. As Christians, we know that our faith impacts every aspect of who we are so that it can never be private. I hope the Brazilian players ignore this ruling.

In many ways, the public witness of Lucio and Kaka is not that far removed from the experience of many others. The Old Testament character Daniel was living in an alien culture and was doing very well in Babylon. He could have kept his faith private but he chose to acknowledge the Lord. At the time in that culture, worshipping God wasn’t allowed. Daniel was caught praying and thrown into a den of lions to be killed, but God was faithful and he rescued him.  Our culture can often seem opposed to God too. We hear of nurses being suspended for offering to pray and teachers being warned not to talk about their faith. The temptation can be to keep our faith private. By doing so, however, we are only denying our identity ‘in Christ’. We may not have at worldwide TV audience of about billion watching us work, as Lucio did, but everyday we do have opportunities to share our faith by what we do, how we act, and what we say to friends, family and colleagues. Let’s pray for the courage of Daniel, Lucio, Kaka, the nurse and the teacher to live our lives wholeheartedly for Jesus and to stand up for Him when the opportunities arise.

Bletchley Park and evangelism

I’ve been reminded of a time when I went to visit Bletchley Park,a country house which became the home of the British intelligence service during the second world war. For the entire duration of the war, Britain has hundreds of mathematicians, cryptographers, linguists and a whole lot more working round the clock to intercept and decipher German communications. At the park, the team managed developed a machine called the Enigma machine which was able to decipher encrypted messages. They also build one of the first computers called Colossus (right), which was dismantled once the war ended. The work on Bletchley Park remained a secret not just during the war, but for about 30 years afterwards too.

Anyway, I’m reminded of my visit because Bletchley Park today is a visitor attraction, but the tours and exhibits are run almost entirely by volunteers, many of whom worked on the park during the war. This means that each tour is personal and every volunteer is passionate about what they were telling you. They weren’t just employees, paid to do the work of escorting visitors around and explaining things. There was a passion and enthusiasm in what they were saying because this experience had marked and changed their lives. It really came across so much better than many guided tours at other attractions that I have been on.

It strikes me that there are a couple of ways to do evangelism. There is the passionate and personal way, which shares our life and experiences, because our faith is impacting and changing our lives. Then there is the other which is about sharing information because we feel we have to. I know which one is more attractive and more genuine.

Breakout, a book on church growth and leadership.

Breakout, by Mark Stibbe and Andrew Williams is the account of how a large charismatic evangelical church turned from being inward looking to outward looking. St. Andrew’s, Chorleywood (not a church I’ve ever visited) was by most accounts, successful, but they had reached saturation point with the ‘come to us’ method of evangelism. It was a consumer church. Congregants would come and enjoy the great worship and teaching, but, in general, were not plugged in to using their own gifts and creating their own ministries.

When a new vicar, Mark Stibbe, arrived and was closely followed by a new Associate Minister, Andrew Williams, the whole outlook of the church changed. Instead of meeting around one centralised worship event with anything up to 1000 people attending, they created Mid-Sized Communities (MSCs – later renamed Mission-Shaped Communities). These were groups of up to 50 people who met in a particular area or around a particular interest  which could more easily serve the wider communities in which they were based. To quote an analogy which Stibbe and Williams use in the book, the church went from being an ocean liner, to being a group of smaller lifeboats, more easily able to change course and react to what is around.

There are better books to read which outline the theology and practicalities of smaller church groups which aim to reach the community. The fresh expressions literature has a lot of information and examples of new churches springing up in new contexts, and Total Church by Steve Timmis and Tim Chester (which I have talked about in depth before) covers all the necessary ingredients of reaching society with the gospel in contextually-appropriate ways without losing the clarity of the gospel message. There is also a book called Clusters, by Bob Hopkins and Mike Breen (which I haven’t read yet) which covers the same ground)

Breakout is still an interesting read as it tells the story of what can happen when one person with a clear vision communicates that vision clearly, gets people behind him, creates a clear strategy, listens to the prompting of the Holy Spirit and allows the spiritual gifts of the congregation to grow and be used. Although this example is in a charismatic church, there is no reason why churches of other persuasions cannot act on the call to spread the gospel in similar ways. The book does begin to meander and lose it’s way a little in the second half as the authors try to insert some theology into what is essentially a narrative, but it is still worth a read. You have to admire Mark Stibbe for his leadership and praise God for what he has done.

Lost in Translation

In our household there are two languages regularly spoken. The first is called English. It’s what we speak round here, what I grew up speaking and what I am most comfortable with. For me, it is normality.

However, there is another language spoken which sounds similar but is different. It is called American English, it is not what we generally speak round here but for others it gives a sense of normalcy.

Nowadays my wife and I generally understand each other. On occasion however, she needs to translate for me when we have an American guest, or I need to translate for her if a local phrase is being used. The difference can be a pronunciation (‘nitch’ or ‘niche’, ‘tortilla’ or ‘torti-ya’) to the odd phrase (‘shall we get some chips?’) Herein lies the problem. The languages are similar but not quite the same. We may think we understand each other but we don’t quite.

This neatly illustrates the barrier that many people find in church – the subtle but important differences between church culture and the culture of the cities we live in. We may think we are explaining things clearly but sometimes there are translation difficulties. For example, what does ‘redemption’ or ‘salvation’ mean to those who have had no church influence? This needs to be exaplaned in practical down-to-earth ways. What exactly is the ‘one holy catholic and apostolic church’ that we affirm in our creeds? Again, it needs a conversation. Even in the way we do things – the style of our church building, the music we use and the methods we use to worship – these concepts and many others are being lost in translation. As Christians we need to ask if what we are doing and saying is being properly received. Are our services accessible to outsiders – can they understand what we are doing and why? If not, perhaps they need to be updated. Perhaps we need to worship in ways that the outside culture is more used to at times which are convenient to them.

For example, last night I was at the cathedral and heard a very good talk about how images are used in the world and in the media, and consequently how they could be used in the church to help engage people with the gospel. All very well. But the setting in which these words came was a traditional service of compline – beautifully sung, but very difficult to engage with (even for a long time church-goer like me!)

The church needs to be where the people are. And the good news is that most of us, as individuals, are already there. We all have social networks, groups that we are involved in, be they sporting, artistic, a few mates playing cards together, or a group which discusses the latest books. This is where Christians should be – engaging with the spiritual questions that people ask and identifying God-given themes in culture.

Thought Police strike again

Today there have been two interesting stories about people expressing their opinions being reprimanded for doing so.

The first is the example of Dutch politician Geert Wilders who has been stopped at Heathrow and refused entry to the UK. He holds inflammatory opinions and has often made remarks claiming Islam is purely a religion of violence. Whether you agree or disagree with his opinions is not the issue, the question is whether the UK should attempt to police his opinions and refuse him entry simply for holding them.

The second is this example of a 5 year old girl who has been told not to speak about God to others in her class.

Mrs Cain, a part-time receptionist at Landscore Primary School in Crediton, claimed that her daughter was upset after being reprimanded by her teacher for talking about “God and heaven” and had been warned not to talk about “Jesus” again…

[The Headteacher of the school,] Mr Read said: “This is not an issue about Christianity, it is about religious intolerance.

“Jasmine told another pupil ‘if you don’t believe in God you’re going to go to hell’.

“The girl was upset and her teacher asked me for advice about what to do.

“Jasmine was told it is not OK to say that, but it is OK to discuss what you believe with others.”

via BBC NEWS | England | Devon | School row over pupil’s God talk.

So lets get this straight: A 5-year old says “If you don’t believe in God you are going to hell” – and that is not OK. The 5 year olds opinion is ‘censored’

But discussing her beliefs is ok – “I believe that if you don’t believe in God you are going to hell” – presumably that would be ok?

Of course the 5 year old has something to learn about tact, but is censoring her the right way to go about it? What is people’s problem with other people telling them things that they don’t beleive in anyway? Surely people need to be less touchy.

Christians respond in the bus campaign

Following on from adverts being placed by atheists on buses in London and Washington, in DC some Christians have decided to launch a pro-God campaign of their own.

from AdFreak:

“My name is JoEllen. After a friend forwarded me an article about the AHA ad campaign, I thought, ‘Enough!’ I am so tired of God and religion being attacked that I decided to start a counter ad campaign.”

If it gets people to think, I guess it’s a good thing. The original atheist adverts on London buses were responding to advertisements for the alpha course, which gives a short introduction to the claims of the Christian faith. Alpha adverts pointed the reader to a website which lists the churches which are running the course. This advert does not direct you anywhere.

Interesting, but maybe money could have been used better. God doesn’t really need advertising. He’s managed without it for ages. There is really no substitute for the witness that comes out of a genuine Christian friendship – this is how people have become Christians for centuries – one friend telling another, telling another etc.

Evangelistic talk on hope

The following is a sermon I’m going to preach tomorrow at a small service where I know there will be a group of non-Christians there. I have about 10 minutes. I decided to base the talk on some thoughts I was having about the sense of hopefulness that has followed Obama’s election victory last week. I’d appreciate any thoughts.

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“Tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity and unyielding hope.”

Quotes from Barack Obama’s victory speech in Chicago a few days ago. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one to be inspired by the vision that he cast. He talked about people coming together, to right the wrongs of society, to bring nations together in peace, to provide opportunities for those usually at the bottom of the pile. He talked about old divides being overcome, and looked to a new a bright future. Through determination, humility, service and Self-sacrifice.

In his victory, past battles have come to fruition. The spectre of racism is put behind them. The struggles of previous generations have paved the way for a moment like this, and now it is the turn of a new generation. There is hope!

I don’t know if you watched any of it, or saw the news coverage, but there seemed to be a new era of hope, not just in America, but throughout the world. He was the candidate the world had wanted to win.

Hope is a funny thing. Only one night has passed, but suddenly for many, the world seems a lot brighter, the future a bit more bearable, people are walking taller. There is a spring in the step. But what is hope? Simply an attitude change as we work together to achieve our common goals? I am hopeful for this president, that he pursues peace over war, and values listening and understanding.  But in four years time a lot might have happened, and then we will do election night all over again.

Human Desire

Why is the world so excited? Well, it seems that the vision that Obama is casting taps into a fundamental desire within us.

We want a world that is peaceful, where nations don’t need to fight each other.

We want to see justice – we love watching films where evil is defeated and good wins out. We want to see those on the margins of society have a opportunity to be better.

We want a relationships that a real, deep and long lasting. It is an innate, built in human desire.

That’s future that I yearn for, peace, security, justice, love and close-knit relationship. We hope for it, we long for it. These hopes seem to be a fundamental part of being human.

But why, in the 21st century is it still eluding us.

You’d have thought that with all the progress in technology, the medical advances made throughout the last century, that we’d be approaching this vision of love, peace and security that we long for. But we seem to  be further away from it than ever. Why is this hope so difficult to achieve?

Deeper Problem

This problem is summed up in this verse from the Bible that we heard earlier:

Rom 8:22 “We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time”

Creation is groaning – the world doesn’t work as it should. We have glimpses of what it could be like – we can look around us at the beauty – but then creation seems to work against us in the form of hurricanes, earthquakes tsunamis, floods. It’s groaning, it’s broken.

And we, as humans are groaning. We experience the wonder of human relationships, of being with other people in close community. And there’s nothing better than being in love. But then with so many people we fall out, have arguments, say things we don’t mean… We’re generally selfish – and our relationships fail.

We experience the joy, and sense of achievement of doing something well, whether it’s writing, building or sport – but then in so many other things we fail. We’re groaning, we’re broken.

All of this groaning I’m going to call “Sin”. Sin isn’t just the fact that we do some things wrong, it’s our inability to become who we want to be.

We’re made for so much better than we’re capable of.

That’s why we have grand dreams – these hopes of a better world, better communities, and better selves, because we are made to be better.

But sin stops us from doing it. How can this be fixed?

The Solution

The only way that this can be fixed, is not from inside, but from outside.

Computers are useful objects but when our computers break, very rarely can they fix themselves. We have to get a man in toe re-programme certain things, or to taken the whole thing apart and replace a bit of hardware. They cannot fix themselves.

Similarly, the solution for a broken humanity has to come form outside of ourselves.

We’ve tried so many times through technology, politics, medical advances to fix ourselves, but ultimately we don’t get very far. The help needs to come from outside of ourselves.

And this is what God did. He entered into our humanity to fix it.

We hear the Christmas story of Jesus being born, and one of the names Jesus is given is Emmanuel – which means God with us. In Jesus, God entered into the human condition to fix us, because the only way for humanity to be fixed was for God to become human.

So what did Jesus do? He showed us that a life lived with God results in a life with joy, purpose and hope. He lives the perfect life and brought God to humanity. He helps us become the people we want to be

As we read the accounts of Jesus life, we see him, fixing – improving people’s situations – helping them to live, to love, to forgive, and in some cases, healing them from their diseases – showing that a better life was possible with God’s help. He gave people who had no hope, hope.

And fundamentally, he tackled this problem of sin.

We all know that Jesus was put to death on the cross, and that he was an innocent man. But the point is that he didn’t have to be put to death. He had plenty of opportunities to get out of it. But he chose not to. He chose to go through with it for the benefit of all humans. Why? Because by going through death he took all the failures and wrongs and the inadequacy of humanity upon himself. And God showed that all of those things were capable of being beaten by raising Jesus to life again on Easter Day.

Sin and death overcome. The longings we have for ourselves and the world can be met, with God.

So, where is hope, long lasting real hope? When we listen to inspirational visions of hope, like that we heard from Barack Obama on election night 10 days ago, we recognise the longing that God has put inside us that the world needs to be, can be better.

But we also recognise that these hopes are unfounded if we try to do it ourselves.

The longing that we have for a better world and a better life – those longings are all fulfilled in the person of Jesus, and what he has done for us on the cross.

Where is hope?  Hope comes from Jesus, Emmanuel – God with Us.