I’m excited to announce that I just booked my next interview with writer Jeff Goins.
In 2012 Jeff released his book Wrecked: When a Broken World Slams into your Comfortable Life
Since the book has been out for several months, I suspect that there are some SD listeners buyambienmed.com who’ve read it and might have questions for Jeff. Whether you’ve read it or not, if you have questions for Jeff, leave them in the comments section and I’ll do my best to ask him in the interview.
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It’s a special bonus episode of Seminary Dropout.
This is my sermon from Mosaic Austin last night. Enjoy.
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Singer/Song writer Derek Webb stops by the show to talk about his art, touring, and the Gospel.
I’ve always wanted to say this– This episode contains language that may not be suitable for some listeners.
Enjoy!
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With all of the frenzy surrounding the Supreme Court’s deliberating over The Defense of Marriage Act in what I’m calling “Unsolicited Opinion about Gay Marriage Week,” I went back and forth about whether or not to write a comprehensive post, or series of posts, on the subject. At this point I’m deciding to hold off on that.
I do want to offer one thought.
I can’t help but think that the anger, fear and contempt coming from many Christians this week, stems from finding our identity in the state rather than Christ.
Hear me out, it’s really not a stretch at all.
Homosexual couples already exist and the government can’t and shouldn’t have any say in that. They want the right to marry. The arguments against gay marriage are adorned with references to the Bible, but really the Bible only addresses the act. In no way does it address the state recognizing the union of same-sex couples. When you get right down to it, the basic argument of those who oppose gay marriage is: They shouldn’t be able to have what I have -an official recognition from the state.
This leads me to believe that many Christians are basing the legitimacy of their marriage on the fact that they received a certificate from the government.
The truth of Christian doctrine is that God ordains marriage, not the state.
Once, when talking to a friend who had recently gotten married, he told me that he and his wife went to a Justice of the Peace to get married before the state, and then, a few days later, on a cruise with their friends and family, they were married before God. I thought that was beautiful, they recognized that for practical purposes it would be beneficial to receive a certificate from the government, but only God could truly ordain their marriage -which leads me to my point. Whatever you believe God thinks about homosexuality, the government issuing a piece of paper doesn’t change that.
Is your marriage legitimate because the government says so, or because God says so?
Like I said, I truly think that all of this anger, fear, and contempt is rooted in the fact that we find more identity in the government than Jesus.
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As most of you know I recently interviewed Richard Foster (my friends are wondering when I’m going to shut up about it). Besides his teachings meaning so much to me, one reason I admire him so much is because of ability to not only reach across denominations but also across the conservative/liberal spectrum. I still believe this to be true in general, but you can imagine my surprise when I was preparing for my interview with Foster and came across a few Youtube videos dedicated to “exposing” Foster for his mysticism.
I don’t know why I was surprised by ultra-fundamentalists having a problem with Foster, because of course they do. In a world where Westboro Baptist ‘church’ and other ridiculous groups exist, why wouldn’t there be a group of people who dedicate their time to ridiculing a man who is all about… communicating with God.
Then, that group (or a member of it) took a field trip to my blog.
In the post where I announced that I would be interviewing Foster and would be taking listener questions, a comment appeared…
“What does foster have to say about his quaker roots in mysticism? Clearly foster is not preaching the Jesus of the bible but another Jesus and another Gospel.
Can you have him comment on this?”
I chose not to include the link to the commenters blog post in which he outlines his indictment of Richard Foster the heretic.
Nevermind that this comment was posted more than a week after I had published the interview with Foster, leading me to believe that this individual is regularly searching the internet for mentions of Richard Foster so that he can inflict some cowboy justice on Foster and save all of us who are being led astray. Obviously this person made no effort to check and see if there was a completed interview, listen to said interview, and hear out what Foster has to say.
This all leads me to believe someone who has issue with Foster’s overall message either needs to…
A.) read Foster’s writings more closely. I tend to wonder if most people who dismiss Foster as a heretic have read his works at all. Anti-intellectualism tends to run ramped in these circles, and I would not be surprised if they believe they should not even read Foster lest they fall under his mystic spell.
or
B.) read scripture more closely.
I want to focus on the latter.
According to dictionary.com (hope there are no dictionary snobs out there)…
The definition of Mysticism is : a doctrine of an immediate spiritual intuition of truths believed to transcend ordinary understanding,or of a direct,
intimate union of the soul with God through contemplation or ecstasy.
How about we use Peter as a case study?
The books of Acts describes this curious happening:
” 9 About noon the next day, as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray. 10 He became hungry and wanted something to eat; and while it was being prepared, he fell into a trance. 11 He saw the heaven opened and something like a large sheet coming down, being lowered to the ground by its four corners. 12 In it were all kinds of four-footed creatures and reptiles and birds of the air. 13 Then he heard a voice saying, “Get up, Peter; kill and eat.” 14 But Peter said, “By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is profane or unclean.” 15 The voice said to him again, a second time, “What God has made clean, you must not call profane.”16 This happened three times, and the thing was suddenly taken up to heaven.”
Let’s see, “…immediate spiritual intuition of truths believed to transcend ordinary understanding,” yes, I do believe this qualifies.
“…a direct, intimate union of the soul with God through contemplation or ecstasy” we have a winner!
You see, the proper argument to make, is not that Foster and his teachings are not of the Christian-mystic variety, but that Christianity as it is presented in the Bible is a mystic belief.
Meditation? Mentioned 19 times in the Bible (NRSV), 14 if you stick with the translation Paul and Jesus read, the King James Version, (sometimes I worry my sarcasm doesn’t convey well enough in the written word).
Fasting? Mentioned 26 times.
Solitude? How much time did Jesus spend alone in the desert?
Confession? “…confess your sins to one another…” James 5:16
Dreams, visions, virgin birth, God baby, water to wine, multiplying of bread & fish, healing by touch, RESURRECTION, ascension, sudden blindness on the road to Damascus, eschatological prophecy… This all sounds very mystic to me.
So before we go deciding who’s in and who’s out maybe we should at least make sure our facts are straight and understand that perhaps God is not nearly as narrow as we are.
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Richard Foster joined me on the podcast to talk about being a Quaker, spiritual disciplines, and social media.
Richard’s writings have had a HUGE impact on my spiritual life and countless others. I have to say this was a bucket list interview.
Here’s my signed copy of his most notable work The Celebration of Discipline. If you haven’t read this then run to your local bookstore and buy it today!
Here’s Richard & Me, we’re pretty much best friends now (He may not remember my name).
There are so many quotable moments from this interview. Which ones stood out to you?
Enjoy the interview, then enjoy some silence with God.
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It’s short notice I know, but I’m interviewing the one and only Derek Webb on Monday. I usually book guests farther out, but this opportunity to came up and Derek was available on Monday. If you have any questions for Derek, leave them in the comment section.
Jonathan Martin will be my next interviewee for Seminary Dropout!
Jonathan Martin leads the liars, dreamers, and misfits of Renovatus: A Church for People Under Renovation, in Charlotte, NC, where he lives with his wife Amanda. He is the author of the forthcoming Prototype.
From the publisher:
“Jesus is God and we are not. Most of us get that. But what we don’t always understand is that God loves us just as much as He does His son. Many times in the Old Testament, God refers to human beings as His “beloved.” But when God called Jesus His beloved, Jesus did something truly remarkable: He believed Him. He lived every moment of his life fully convinced of His identity. And unlike every other person in history . . . He never forgot.
In Prototype, Jonathan Martin creates a vivid understanding of what it means to be beloved by God. To completely trust, as Jesus did, that God loves you. To live life without fear, confident in your identity and purpose. To handle life’s wounds as Jesus did, and to wake every day with a deep awareness of God’s presence.
Martin reveals a startling truth at the heart of the gospel: Jesus is our prototype. And as we discover how the knowledge of being God’s beloved changed everything for Jesus—how it set Him free to live out his purpose and love God, others, and the world—it will begin to do the same for us.”
For anyone interested, you can hear Jonathan’s sermons at the Renovatus website, and catch him on twitter. Both are worth your time!
Ever since the Pew Research Center released their study, “Nones” on the Rise, blogs, TV, & radio (especially of the religious variety), have been in a sort of panic about this phenomenon of rising non-affiliation with a religious group.
Just hearing this fact would lead most to believe that Nones = atheism, and therefore atheism is on the rise. Atheism is on the rise. But not all Nones are atheists, in fact most aren’t.
A few weeks ago on Morning Addition, NPR did a series on the Nones. In typical NPR fashion they found individuals who fit the None profile and questioned them. One particular moment that caught my attention was when the Nones were asked if they prayed. You would think that the obvious answer would be -no. But not one of them said no. To be fair, no one said yes either, but when asked, they would describe some practice they had, in which they felt didn’t fit their exact definition of traditional prayer, but it was some sort of attempt at communing with their creator, which I would call -prayer.
Throughout the interviews it seemed clear that for these people the label of “Nones” had very little to do with their cancer belief in God and had more to do with their identifying with a man made institution, and truthfully, I get that. I myself find that more often that not I’m embarrassed by the actions of the religious institution in which I grew up. So I understand the desire to disassociate with an institution.
Shifting gears for a second, it’s interesting to note that among those still associating with Christianity, there is a sea of hurt and wounds that have been inflicted by church culture. For many the damage was inflicted during childhood and adolescence, some by the well meaning but mislead, some by the malicious and sick. Even as adults people are wounded in the church. Someone dares to have a minority political opinion and becomes ostracized. A hurtful rumor spreads. A divorce causes us to be an outcast.
Per usual theologian, preacher, teacher, and author Greg Boyd has left me with some wonderful insights to chew on. This week it’s his sermon entitled: The Twist.
I won’t give you all the details because you should really listen to the sermon yourself, but what has stuck with me is the idea that people “jump over Jesus” to get to Old Testament precepts to justify actions that Jesus clearly spoke against.
If I’m allowed to insert my own metaphor into this conversation; It’s as if we have several different colors of paint, pour them all into one bucket, look into that bucket and say -It’s really a mixed bag in there, I guess we can just choose whichever color we like best. But in this world Jesus is the final color, he’s the color preeminent over all colors of the past. He has the final say.
