Picture from flickr

I was talking to Sarah recently about how to teach ownership to students and children.  I have no children of my own, but I do (eventually) want to teach in some capacity.  I have my history credential, but there are no jobs this year.  The question remains how teach Christ’s message to children and in the same breath teach them about ownership?

The Christmas photo reminds me of many Christmases where my brothers and I would fight over who gets to light the candles at Advent.  It also brings back many memories of fights over shared toys and anger when my brothers would destroy “my” legos or when games on the super nintendo would get erased and we would have to start over.  Needless to say, I was taught from a very young age the idea of ownership and sharing.  But how would Jesus have us live and think of ownership?

It is here that I turn to the book of Luke (9:3-6):

He said to them, ‘Take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money—not even an extra tunic. Whatever house you enter, stay there, and leave from there. Wherever they do not welcome you, as you are leaving that town shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.’ They departed and went through the villages, bringing the good news and curing diseases everywhere.

Jesus sends the disciples out with nothing and they are required to depend on others.  It is quite a thing to lose your independence in America.  I have only seen a few people really lose it in my lifetime and it would seem now they have no choice but to obey him.  I don’t think this passage is talking to everyone for all times, but I do think there is a kind of message in the text that reminds us that the “independence” we often talk about in America is not what Jesus had for the apostles.  He taught them utter dependence on the communities they were to live in.  Perhaps we would be wise to follow in those footsteps.

Perhaps we would be wise to depend and trust one another in a Christ filled community.

Perhaps we would be wise to play together in a way that ownership becomes secondary to friendship.

Perhaps we would be wise to begin the project of really getting to know each other.

Barth begins by saying about the man who said to Jesus he would follow him wherever he went (Luke 9:57-58).  Barth says:

He is obviously one who has presumed to do this on his own initiative.  And his [Jesus'] answer is the terrible saying about the foxes that have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, ‘but the son of man–whom he is going to follow–hath not where to lay his head.’  He does not realize that it is that he thinks he can choose.  He does not know how terrible is the venture in which he commits himself in the execution of this choice.

No one of themselves can or will imagine that this is their way, or take this way.  What Jesus wills with his ‘Follow me” can be chosen only in obedience to his call: ‘Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water’ (Matt 14:28).  Without being bidden by Christ, he could not do this.  It has also been noted that there can be no conditions.  The man mentioned [above]… lacked true discipleship, not merely because he offered it to Jesus as a matter of his own choice, but because he also made a condition: “Let me first say farewall to those at my home.”

I have never been a fan of Calvinism (and that is not necessarily what Barth is arguing for here), but I think that the idea of choice goes to show how well off we are.  A famous phrase in America is that we want to change the world.  As with almost all phrases which have been repeated over and over again in an American mantra, they mean almost nothing.  How do these people want to change the world?  Perhaps some would say they want to change the world ‘for the better,” but to what better end do they wish to change the world and why do they think they have the answer as to why their world is best?  Choice and change are all a result of comsumeristic tendencies that have killed many disciples in America.  At this time of Christmas, we need to consider how we might obey without putting conditions on our obedience.

2. One person writes on why Obama should include McCain in his cabinet. I think this is the BEST idea I have head in a while and hope that others will encourage Obama to do the same.

3. Will females be represented on Obama’s Cabinet?  This is question we all should be watching closely for in the announcements next week.

4. With the holidays coming up, Jonathon brings up the catch-22 involved with retailers this Christmas.  On the one hand, we don’t want to be consumed by consumeristic tendencies, but on the other hand not buying will hurt our economy overall.  See the New York Time Article on the economy for more.

5. Over at FP Passport, I am happy that Obama is considering a regional approach to Afghanistan, but am still angry that he is considering a bailout for automakers (Jordon Cooper seems to share my anger…while you’re there also look at what Starbucks would look like if it were a church).  I would encourage everyone again to read about the famine in Afghanistan and get president-elect Obama to help fix the conditions which lead people towads terrorism in Afghanistan.

6. Lord, we pray for Wilmington and the 7,000 who have lost their jobs in this unfortunate layoffs at DHL.  Please help Clinton County recover this and get them back on their feet.

7. The New York Time also deals with the catch-22 of foreign policy having to do with Pakistan and the Taliban.  Now that Pakistan is actually taking action, the times reports that it is much more difficult for Pakistan than they originally thought it would be.  They have to destroy elaborate tunnel system to get to the Taliban.  This would not be so difficult if they could resort to what the times calls “the scorched early policy,” but this type of fighting alienates the neutral Pakistanis and throws them further into the hands of the Taliban.  If we support Pakistan by giving them more resources, they will use it for more money in a war that, even with full sustained military action as in the region they are in now, is much more difficult to “win” because of the elusive nature of the enemy.  The soluation?  Humanitarian aid and decisions made by non-western leaders from Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the Taliban.  This is the only way to get the aid in to the people who need it most.

8.  The extreme home make over Haifa Street Edition.  At least there seems to be some good news in the world. =)  Read the essay on it here.

9. The president of Iran sent a letter to congratulate Mr. Obama upsetting conservatives and receiving praise from moderate politicians.  It will be interesting to see how things turn out for Ahmahenjad in the upcoming election in Iran.  Lord, we ask for your divine presence to be in Iran.  We ask for your spirit to speak to these people.  We ask for your power to present in all of these situations.

10. Father Stephen quotes Kallistos Ware’s Cosmic Christ and it is worth reading to get an Eastern Orthodox perspective on creation.

11.  More talk about Shane Claiborne at Evangelical Political Analysis.

12. Alan Creech gives a timely post on St. Martin in the midst of veterans day.

“Oh! Rosie O’Donnell,” Mom says.

Another point for Tommy and Mom on catch-phrase.  These are moments of family–sacred and divine–which we hold dear in our hearts.

Before leaving school, my roommates and I discussed what we would doing when we graduate.

“You should come a live in Ramona,” Wes says.

You only have to learn Wes’ name once; no one ever forgets him.  His humor is as large as his body, and he has been a close friend since Freshman year.

“Yeah! We should all live together,” Ryan suggests.  “I don’t want you guys to leave me, yet.”

Ryan is not easy to forget either.  As Vice President of ASB, he has many important responsibilities and you can often see him walking around in his suit and tie.

“Yeah, that would be awesome,” I say.

But in the back of my mind are the children of Camden, NJ.  I spent the summer, and I am sure God has put a calling on my life to get back there.

But I also am student of history.  Recently I have begun studying The Wise Men (not the magi, but the six men who single-handedly created American foreign policy directions that would hold for most of the cold war).  I don’t want all my friends to leave me, but I am comforted by the words of Walter Issacson and Evan Thomas:

“[The wise men] were six friends.  Their lives had intertwined from childhood and schooldays, from their early careers on Wall Street and in government.  Now they were destined to be at the forefront of a remarkable transformation of American policy.  As World War II drew to a close, most of their fellow citizens wanted nothing more than to turn inward and, in Harriman’s words, “go to the movies and drink coke.” But by breeding and training, this handful of men and a few of their colleagues knew that America would have to assume the burden of a global role.  Out of duty and desire, they heeded the call to public service.”

Our lives, whether we like it or not, are incredibly intertwined.

“What would you do,” Wes said laughingly about a month ago, “If we ended up being professors or pastors together someday.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised,” I say.  “I wouldn’t be surprised at all.”

In the present moment, my family sits outside in the living room playing catch-phrase.

“It is a thing that swims in the ocean,” Tommy says.

“A fish,” Brian says.

“Yes, and he was the prophet that got swallowed by it,” Tommy says.

Yes.  A prophet indeed.

The Christmas Eve service tonight was interesting.  The music was beautiful (for a Baptist church) and I think even my Pentecostal girlfriend would have appreciated it.  Pastor Glenn spoke on the four R’s of “Oh Come all Ye Hopeful.”  He basically gave a gospel message amid a flurry of reflections on Christmas and creation.  He recommended a book called “Case for Creator” for those who doubted the idea of creator (and managed to integrate a comment about the court ruling not too long ago about creationism in the classroom).  I’m sorry but I’m sick of Lee Strobel books as the “final word” on creationism and evolution, the case for faith and the case for Christ.

I have a feeling the book is more apologetics than actual facts.  If someone really wants to understand evolution they should read books that have already been written by the experts themselves, on both sides of the fence.  What people would be reading is written through the eyes of a committed evangelical and, whether he wants to or not, he is tainting the evidence to tip his sides of the scales (i.e. the problem of bias).  I just think that if Pastor Glenn was committed to the cause of “truth” he would allow both sides to be explored in the church. 

This may sound funny or misguided, but perhaps the church should be funding someone of academic integrity and who is known scholar to write “Case against a Creator.”  Perhaps we should let people read both of these “cases” and decide for themselves which is better.  Or is this just the idealistic college student within me talking?  I just think the academic world should be given a chance within the walls of the church and that truth should not be limited to what was truth 50 years ago.  We need to constantly be one the edge of culture and other such things in order to penetrate that culture. 

I just feel lately as though the church dismisses much of academia as unnecessary or “of this world.”  In reality, I think that Christians should be the ones supporting the schools more than others.  Christians should be helping their children get the most out of their education.