Showing posts with label #culture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label #culture. Show all posts

Friday, December 09, 2016

Need a suggestion for a Christmas Gift? Pick up the Bad Habits of Jesus by Leonard Sweet



The first time I heard the phrase, “Don’t judge a book by it’s cover” I was around 10 years old. I was in my local library looking for adventure books; the librarian wanted me to read a certain novel and I didn’t like how the front cover looked. She gave me a stern lecture on how book covers are chosen and why it is unhelpful to evaluate a book solely on how it looks. I’ve tried to follow her advice ever since.

Judging by the image above, I can imagine some people seeing the cover of “the Bad Habits of Jesus” by Leonard Sweet and refusing to read it either because of the title or the “biker” image on the front. However in the words of my childhood librarian, save the judgement until after reading.

The Bad Habits of Jesus starts with a premise that is sure to raise a question or two. Bad habits? How could Jesus have any bad habits? He’s Jesus after all. Son of God, sinless, perfect, healed people, great teacher; the thought that he did anything untoward goes against all that is taught in Sunday school. And yet, when Sweet put out a request on his Facebook page as a way of crowdsourcing his followers to list any bad habits they thought Jesus had, the page was flooded with comments. Apparently, when people think about it, there are a number of things that Jesus said or did that were outside the cultural norm of 1st Century Judaism, or ‘bad habits’. Among the many who had something to say were Sweet’s current Tabor College Ministry Entrepreneurship and Innovation students. A few of their “bad habit” observations made it into the book.

In the 2000+ years since Jesus left this earth, many ideas have sprung up about who he was and what he did. Over the centuries the Church has often removed the radical, scandalous nature of Jesus of Nazareth, especially as the institution became more and more connected with the powerful and elite in society. Christian faith was reduced to a ticket to heaven, and the life and teachings of Jesus relegated to a backstory for what was ‘really’ important: Jesus’ death and resurrection. What I love about Leonard Sweet, and this book specifically, is that the author reminds his readers that who Jesus was and what he did matters, and for those who claim to carry his name, ‘Christian’, there is an expectation that his life be taken seriously.

In the Apostles Creed there is a significant comma. In the second stanza the creed states,

I believe in Jesus Christ, God's only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
he descended to the dead.
On the third day he rose again;
he ascended into heaven,
he is seated at the right hand of the Father,
and he will come to judge the living and the dead.

Did you see it?

The comma after ‘born of the Virgin Mary’ and before ‘suffered under Pontius Pilate.’ What goes in this space? The entire life and teachings of Jesus; unfortunately, this comma removes the entire life of Jesus and renders it irrelevant.

Throughout history, Christians have been so caught up in proving the significance of the death of Jesus, or his Divinity, that His humanity has been removed. What Sweet’s book attempts is to remind readers that Jesus was human as well as divine and that his life and teachings matter a great deal to his followers today. In this way, as Sweet points out on page 191, this is a book about the Incarnation. While Jesus walked this earth, what were some of these bad habits? Here’s a list of some of the chapters: Jesus Spit, Jesus Appeared Wasteful, Jesus was Constantly Disappearing, Jesus Hung out with Bad People, and others.

My favorite was Chapter 10: Jesus Spent Too Much Time with Children. As someone who has worked with children and youth for 30+ years, I found much in this chapter to rejoice over. This quote stood out particularly, “Jesus treated children as if their relationship with God was an important as any adult relationships. Jesus constantly sacrificed his rabbinic dignity to reduce the distance between himself and a child. Jesus preached to the children, hoping the adults would get it. That’s one reason he told stories.” (pg. 116-117) As I get older and more “dignified”, I need to continually remind myself that Jesus sacrificed his rabbinic dignity to bless children.

My devotional reading this week has focused on Luke 6:46-49. In verse 46 Jesus states, “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I say?” Notice the focus is on doing, not believing, trusting, or holding onto a golden ticket, but doing what Jesus says. What I loved about The Bad Habits of Jesus was the reintroduction of how truly radical and life changing putting Jesus words into practice really is as a follower.

I read this book and highly recommend it. If you’re still thinking of a gift for someone on your Christmas list, this would be an excellent choice.



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Saturday, February 06, 2016

Cultural Hooks

The Acura NSX ad hit my Twitter feed this week. In the commercial a car is crafted to the soundtrack of David Lee Roth shouting and screaming, music building with percussion, and finally Eddie Van Halen’s signature guitar. It’s the intro to Running with the Devil, a big hit from the late 70’s.



The curious twist is when the song is really kicking off, the words “What he said” appear on the screen. No lyrics are every sung. The message is clear (at least for me), if you buy this car you’re running with the devil too. It’s a brilliant piece of marketing. At least for a child of the 80’s who grew up on Van Halen and what is now called, “Classic Rock.” And with a price tag of $150,000, people my age are probably exactly the kind of people Acura is targeting.

Or are they? I watched the commercial with my 18 year old daughter who loves cars. I’m not sure where in our family this comes from, but she could be classified as a motorhead. She loved the ad, the way it played up the car, the streamlined body, the powerful engine, but when I asked her after we watched it, “What do you think ‘what he said’ meant?” She thought it had to do with the screaming; the fact this car is so awesome you too will want to scream (and maybe that’s correct). But she missed the cultural hook.

This commercial got me thinking about the Bible. Not in the, “how can I stop running with the devil” way, but rather the many times the characters or writers of the New Testament quote the Hebrew scriptures with one tiny fragment when they might have intended it to be a cultural hook.

One needs to understand that people in Jesus’ day had basically memorized the entire Old Testament. Since there were very few copies of the texts, students (which was pretty much all of Jewish society), would spend time memorizing the entire set of 39 books. When a religious leader wanted to make a point, he would quote one part of the passage and expect his listeners to fill in the rest.

For example, when Jesus was hanging on the cross, he quoted Psalm 22, verse 1, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46) And a reader can easily stop there. However, if a person reads on (or has memorized) the entire Psalm, some very rich insights emerge. I encourage the reader to do this.
In addition, the writer of the book of Hebrews does something similar in numerous places in the book. For example, in Hebrews 2:12 the author also quotes Psalm 22:22 which again points to the entire Psalm and the work of Jesus.

There is more to be written on this topic, but I’ll stop for now. My commitment this week is to be more mindful of how I use cultural hooks as well as to identify where cultural hooks are being used all around me. I also want to check more closely when I find these hooks in literature, poetry, or my reading of the Bible. And I’ll especially be on the lookout for them when I watch the advertisements during Super Bowl 50 tomorrow.
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Sunday, August 10, 2014

How do you smell?

At the same seminar where we discussed not weighing a chicken (see last week’s blog post), we also talked about how we “smell” to others.

During the seminar one of the participants, a North American, shared about a time when he was in Africa as part of an international group, on a 3 hour drive, sharing a small, packed, windows that didn’t open, non air-conditioned minivan. For this person, the strong smell of body odor in the van was almost unbearable.  However later, when the storyteller was talking with a fellow passenger, the fellow passenger stated, “It was so difficult for me to sit next to you on that trip, the smell of the cologne you had on was unbearable.”

For those of us from North America, we work hard each day to make sure we smell good when we leave the house for work. I have a 15 year old son who thinks it’s appropriate to use a half a can of body spray every time he passes his bathroom (ok, maybe not half a can, but you get the picture). We can smell him coming before we see him most times.

Thinking of how we “smell” reminded me of the Apostle Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 2:14b-16a.

Now he uses us to spread the knowledge of Christ everywhere, like a sweet perfume. 15 Our lives are a Christ-like fragrance rising up to God. But this fragrance is perceived differently by those who are being saved and by those who are perishing. 16 To those who are perishing, we are a dreadful smell of death and doom. But to those who are being saved, we are a life-giving perfume.

I really like this text even though it troubles me too. I like the idea that believers in Jesus bring not only words and deeds but also a “smell” when interacting with others. I hope and pray that the smell I bring will be one that is easily recognized as a sweet, life-giving perfume.

At the same time the passage troubles me because I know from college biology classes that sometimes a flower or substance needs to be broken and crushed in order to release a smell. I don’t know about you but I don’t like that possibility; like most of us, I want an easy life. But if we were to read further in the book of 2 Corinthians one would see that for Paul, suffering, beatings, and persecution was not the exception, but the norm. Could this be why he “smelled” so good?

The text is also clear that we can’t control how people respond to our smell. For some, it’s life-giving and sweet. For others, it’s the smell of death and doom. I was thinking about Paul’s historical context a bit this week. Imagine the scene with Caesar conquering a country. A victory parade is given using flowers, incense, etc. For those who welcomed the conqueror, the parade would be a joyful time, but for those enemies who had fought against him, the parade coming down the street may smell completely different, instead it is the smell of an upcoming execution.

We can’t control how people respond, but we can control how the “smell” reaches them. We can treat each person as unique, loved, and special. A number of years ago, Tony Campolo wrote a book titled, Following Jesus without Embarrassing God. Campolo’s basic premise is: if we’re honest, we Christians sometimes behave in ways which must make God look ridiculous to those outside the faith. If the book were being re-written today it might be re-titled: “How do you smell?”

May we be people who bring the perfume of life into every situation we encounter.  
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Monday, May 05, 2014

Reflections on Tabor e-Lab



“How was the e-Lab event last week?” The questioner looked at me intently, wondering how I would respond. I think I confused him with my reply, because at that moment “I heard it was good,” was about all I could say.


Why would I, the facilitator and planner of this event give an answer like this? Because, as I've learned by planning and running numerous big events over the years, when I’m in charge I’m unable to fully participate in the spirit and flow of the event. Maybe I'm unique and other event planners/organizers can be more present in the sessions, but I’ve found that my mind is too focused on what’s coming next to really engage as I would if I was just attending.


Since the event happened just over a week ago, I now have a different answer to the question. I'm very pleased with the day and I know it was a valuable contribution to the Wichita community. I’ve read over the evaluations, I’ve spoken to participants, and I participated in a panel discussion in the Tabor College chapel where I heard from students the impact of the event. The overall message I’m hearing is very positive, often capped with, “When are you doing it again?”
What was e-Lab? The quick answer is a day-long event with a wonderful mix of speakers, music, drama, and art. The event was filmed for later playback and was live tweeted throughout the day. However, for a complete picture, more info is needed.


When I was hired at Tabor College, I was tasked with creating an online MA degree in Entrepreneurial Ministry Leadership. I worked for a year writing the proposal, courses, outcomes and program and I’m excited to say the program will start with it’s first cohort in the fall (there is still room to apply if interested). As part of the course creation I was also asked to “make it free” a clear nod to the book by Chris Anderson - Free- The Future of a Radical Price.

I racked my brain through a year of MA program preparation trying to think of how a college could give away free courses when they don’t have the resources to offer MOOC’s. (I did find a way to give courses away, more on that coming in future blogs). However, one idea that lept to the front was to offer a TED-style event in the city of Wichita. I’m sure most readers of this blog have heard of TED and have watched at least one of the talks online. I looked into sponsoring a TEDX-event in Wichita, but in my research I discovered TED leadership have decided not to allow any religious-themed events and that is what I wanted to do. So the decision was made by Tabor College to sponsor our own event.


e-Lab emerged as an event focused around this central theme: “Conversations from the Intersection of Faith and Human Need.” Speakers came from a variety of expertise: church leadership, author, CEO, and mission director. They all had a common thread, they saw a need and filled a need within their sphere of influence.


As someone who has organized and run numerous camps and events over the years, the timing of e-Lab provides one unique benefit for helping me feel more connected to what happened on the day. Because we're in 2014 this event happened within the hyper-connected world of social media like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Through the technology of hashtags (#TaborELab) I am now able to reenter the event through reading the tweets of those who were able to engage fully in the content. For me, it’s the next best thing to participating as a guest.

Here are some of the tweets that jumped out at me.














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