Does Jesus Really Get Me?

A long time ago, a group of Christians wrestled with what it means that Jesus was man and God at the same time. They made a statement, saying that it is important to say that Jesus is both man and God, without letting one overshadow the other.

The idea that Jesus was really a person, and didn’t just seem to be, is really important. One of the reasons it is important is that it shows us that even God sympathizes with our weaknesses, as this ancient, Scriptural letter recognizes.

I’m left with a tension, though, because in the ancient statement, Christians said that Jesus had everything that you or I have makes people human, sin only excepted.

Sin only excepted. These three words make it difficult for me to see Jesus as one that sympathizes in my weakness. How can I affirm that I serve a high priest who sympathizes in my weaknesses, while still agreeing with the early church that Jesus was just like me, sin only excepted.

What sin only excepted means is this:

Jesus was just like me, except he didn’t have the intrinsic problem that I have that leads me to rebel against God and his leadership, seeking to implement my own Lordship over myself and the world.

Jesus was just like me, except he didn’t have the intrinsic problem that I have that leads me to seek my own interests over all others, leading me to a state of complete isolation and despair.

Jesus was just like me, except he didn’t have the intrinsic problem that I have that leads me to be hateful to my wife, mock the people I disagree with, serve myself, rebel against God, and continually try to oppress and dominate others.

Jesus was just like me, except he has no idea what it feels like to be lured away and enticed by his own desire. He doesn’t have this rebellious nature within him, continually desiring what is bad for him.

This leads me to struggle with Jesus as my sympathetic high priest. Make no mistake. What Jesus did was an incredible sacrifice. He sympathized with many of my weaknesses. He sympathized with being hungry, tired, grumpy, angry, annoyed, horny, discouraged, and unable to accomplish things he wanted to do. Jesus dealt with genuine temptation from outside influences, and dealt with the absolute worst that life within a fallen world had to offer. What makes this more incredible is that Jesus is God. For God to go through this is an astounding sacrifice. I have no desire to minimize it.

However, I do struggle. Jesus sympathized with many of my weaknesses, even most of my weaknesses, but not my main weakness. This leads me to wonder how we can really affirm that he knows what I am going through by experience.

Sin only excepted: These three words ring in my head and cause me to have a significant struggle with my sympathetic high priest. Jesus may be sympathetic to a pre-fallen humanity, knowing many of the weaknesses that come with being human. But does he really understand me? Does he know my struggle?

Christians: How can we say Christ was without sin and also say Christ was a sympathetic high priest?

James and I have been very busy this Semester! I'm a Nanny and I work for two families. It has kept me really busy but, i love the families. James is going to school Full time and working as a tutor. Were involved with Merge which is a College ministry that has turned into a Sunday night service. We lead a 242 group which is a home group that we live life with.

In October we went to Fall Retreat at Pine Cove. We worshiped together, had some time with God, played ultimate frizbee, and did the zip line. The main thing that we took from that weekend was that usually when you go to retreats it's about being refreshed and it's all about your time with God. This time we were told that it's good to be refreshed but when you go back to your daily schedules pour into the people that you see daily or people that you radomly meet. Build community and live life with them.

This weekend 7 of us went to Houston to watch a movie called "Call and Response"callandresponse.com It's about Human Trafficking and slave Labor. Our 242 group is working towards serving in different ways to stop Human Trafficing. We learned about Fair Trade and that we are benefiting from others by buying products such as coffee, chocolate, cotton, ect.. that is not fair trade products.This will not stop untill consumers like me start buying fair Trade products chainstorereaction.com.

James will be done with Seminary in about 6 months and time is flying by for us. We'll move back to Cali and i'll go back to school for Interior Design. We'll get involved somewhere with an anti trafficking organization. Were not sure where James will work right away but we know that it will all work out. It's weird to know that one chapter of your life is closing and your about to start a new one. I'm so excited and nervous at the same time. Life is Good!

Many Blessings to you all and much love love,

Ileana D. Linton

The First Black President

The first black president got elected last night. This is a special day. Three hundred years ago, we called black people property. We went to Africa, put them in chains, and drug them to America to sell them as property. Two hundred forty years ago, we finally passed an amendment to the constitution that called them people. We set them free, but they were about two hundred years behind in a free market system.

Less than fifty years ago, black people weren’t allowed to sit at the same lunch counter with me. ‘Science’ called them dumber, less evolved, and underdeveloped.

We called them property, we called them second-class citizens, we called them less evolved. Tonight, we call one of them president-elect and, in January, we will call him Mr. President.

There were good reasons to vote either way in this election. I really think both Obama and McCain are Spirit-filled, intelligent men with the best interests of America at heart. No matter how we voted, we must save the rhetoric about how this is a sign of the degeneration of morals in America. Three hundred years ago, black people were property for sale. Today, one will be president. At least in one area, we have made progress.

Why I support Proposition 4 (Abortion Waiting Period and Child Notification Act)

I took quite a bit of heat last week from fellow members of Christ’s church for my opposition to proposition 8. I appreciated the discussion, and it helped me to refine my view. My initial response to the anger the discussion evoked was to think we, especially as Christian leaders, should refrain from talking about politics publicly. However, I think that is the wrong decision. I believe Christians need to continue having a discussion about how faith informs their politics. The questions that came out in response to my post were good ones. Although I am leery of making strong declarations from the pulpit endorsing political candidates, I am a fan of public discussion about how becoming a citizen of the kingdom of Jesus informs how I interact with earthly governments.

With this post, I will align myself firmly with the people that disagreed with me about proposition eight. I am a supporter of proposition 4. I used to lump gay marriage and abortion together in my thinking. I did this because I felt they were the two issues the Republican party, which has no interest in the kingdom of Christ, has used to hijack the Christian vote. However, I was wrong to link these ideas too closely. This post will show why I think proposition 4 is the right move for California:

1) The church has always been against abortion: As early as 50 AD, the early church had statements against abortion (Didache). Although these statements may have something to do with idolatry and the weird ways that the Romans sometimes worshipped their gods (infant sacrifice), they are the only statements from the church I have. No church fathers supported the practice. The Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Protestant branches of Christianity are in agreement on the issue. This is why I believe all Christians should oppose abortion. However, this is not the fundamental reason I support the legislation. If it were, I would also support proposition eight.

2) Abortion is a human rights issue: As a Christian, I believe life begins at conception. This makes abortion a human rights issue. If unborn children are living humans, abortion is murder. There is no other way to define it. The only way to say that abortion is not murder is to make an unborn child less than human. I think this is difficult to do as a Christian.

This is where abortion differs from the gay marriage issue. If my last post was all you had read from me, you might want to lump me in with the people who say, “You can’t legislate morality” as if it is some sort of axiom. Every law is a legislation of morality. If, as a society, we make stealing illegal, it is because we believe it is immoral to steal. Every law is moral.

When human rights are involved, the church must be involved. If people are being killed, the church must stand against it.

3) The arguments against proposition 4 are somewhat silly. In this case, the people opposing the conservative Christians are the ones guilty of fear mongering. They are coming up with some hypothetical situation where a girl will get beaten or killed for telling her parents she’s pregnant. Although this very well may happen, we cannot make law based on strange exceptions. This would certainly not be the norm. It would be an exception to the norm. If a girl is beaten when telling her parents she is pregnant, we need to deal with that issue separately.

What possible benefit could there be of preserving a young girl’s right to terminate her pregnancy? As a nation, we have attempted to distinguish between an adult and a child. We have good reasons for doing this. We believe that children are born without the knowledge necessary to make decisions. Because of this, we limit the decisions they can make and we hold their parents responsible for their decisions. Admittedly, the line of 18 is somewhat arbitrary. I remember buying cigars and a lottery scratcher on the way home from my girlfriend’s house on midnight the night of May 4 (the guy didn’t ID me… how anti-climactic). Nothing felt fundamentally different than the day before. Any line will be arbitrary, but that doesn’t mean we don’t draw the line.

I am not for protecting the right of a young girl (whose biggest concern should be who she is going to prom with) to terminate her pregnancy without the consent of her parents. I think it is ludicrous that this discussion is even being had, and it is proof that the issue isn’t being thought through any more. It is a political football game, where both sides are afraid to give the other side an inch.

4) Arnold Schwarzenegger supports it. Enough said.

My post is too long, so stop reading if you want. I have an exhortation for conservative Christians:

Be consistently pro-life. I agree that unborn life is worth protecting. What saddens me is that we are often not consistently pro-life. Being pro-life means we care about the 10,000 people that die of starvation every day. Being pro-life means we care about the millions (don’t miss that… millions) of people that are currently in slavery. Being pro-life means we are worried about the poor and we are doing something for them. Being pro-life means more than a stand on abortion; it means a desire and a passion to fight for all human life. We must fight for those who cannot fight for themselves.

Gospel is a verb

‘Gospel’ is not only a noun. When we think of ‘gospel’ most people think of a message. The message is clear. Get out of hell and get into heaven. The ‘gospel’ is a list of truths to assent to. It is that you believe you are a sinner that deserves hell, that the Son of God, Jesus, died for you, and that, if you believe in him, you can go to heaven instead of hell after you die.

This is true. Gospel is sometimes a noun. When I read Luke, however, there is a problem: for Luke, gospel is never a noun. It is a verb. That may seem a little language-nerdy to you, but it means something very profound. Gospel is an action.

People ‘gospel’ other people in various ways. A gospeller can gospel the poor by making sure they are fed and warm. A gospeller can preach. A gospeller can make a good joke and brighten someone’s day.

This is largely important: The gospel isn’t only something we believe, it is something we are and something we do. We gospel people. We gospel people when we are good news to them. We gospel people when a person is better off for having known us. We gospel a party by making it more fun. We gospel a neighborhood by making it a better place to live. We gospel a person by making their life better in any small way. Jesus proclaimed the gospel, but he was also a master gospeller.

I want to be a gospeller. I want to make people’s lives better. I want to be good news to the people that meet me. Be a gospeller. Be good news to everyone you meet.

Why I Oppose California's Marriage Amendment (Prop 8)

Before starting, I want to say a few words. First off, I am a conservative, evangelical Christian. When I say, ‘conservative,’ I don’t necessarily mean politically conservative. Many within the group I am a part of would label me liberal. When I say conservative, I mean that I believe that Jesus was fully God and fully man, that he walked out of the grave three days after being crucified, and that the Bible is the word of God, and therefore without error.

Because I believe the bible is without error, I believe that Christian marriage is defined as a union between a man and a woman. I believe the bible teaches this (Romans 1) and that early church history (Polycarp) agrees with this teaching. I believe that Christian tradition has been united on the issue, and I have no desire to go against the traditional understanding of Christian marriage.

That being said, I also believe that, sometimes, well-meaning evangelicals rally around causes that aren’t helpful. In my opinion, proposition eight represents one of those efforts. Before you role your eyes and dismiss me as a liberal, read the first two paragraphs of my post again. Read those paragraphs at least ten times. Then go on.

Even as a believer in a traditional view of marriage, I oppose this initiative for the following reasons:

1) I uphold the separation of church and state: I will almost always come out emphatically on the side of a separation of church and state. The founders advocated it to protect the state. I advocate it to protect the church. I think the bride of Christ is polluted when it is too closely united with the state.

This amendment is asking the state to do something that is not its job. The state is not called on to define marriage in a Christian way. The problem has arisen when we have Christian ministers saying things like, “By the power invested in me by the state of California…” at the end of wedding ceremonies. When I work as a Christian leader and minister, I am not a government employee. I am not working as a state worker. My obligation has nothing to do with California. This has been an unhelpful marriage of church and state. This marriage destabilizes the state and perverts and corrupts the Church.

Therefore, I believe the state should only be concerned with affording the constitutional rights to homosexual and heterosexual couples (which prop 8 allows). The state should not be concerned with defining marriage. Couples that desire to unite should unite. It should be up to religious denominations to define that union.

2) I think the initiative is being cast by fear-mongering:

The proponents of the initiative argue that if we do not pass an amendment like this, ministers may be forced to perform gay marriages to keep tax-exempt status. This seems to me to be completely absurd. I have never heard of anything like this. I, as a minister, have no obligation to perform any wedding. There are ministers today who still refuse to perform weddings for divorced people. No one is forcing them to do so. The fact that a definition of marriage allows divorced people to get remarried does not force the minister to perform it.

Secondly, proponents seem to argue that teachers are going to be forced to teach homosexuality as an alternative lifestyle in public schools. The evidence for this claim is some Massachusetts teacher who chose to do so. The fact that some teacher in Massachusetts chose to read a story about a homosexual couple is far from evidence that all teachers are going to be forced to.

To my knowledge, there are not gay people running around trying to force ministers to perform weddings for them against the ministers’ will. If this is happening, and the state is supporting it, I will be the first to sign an initiative against it. I, however, will not sign an initiative that is fighting against a non-existent reality. The truth of the matter is that we, not the gays, are the ones who are trying to define marriage for everyone with initiatives like this.

3) I think the initiative misunderstands the relationship between the church and the world:

There are two, important misunderstandings the church displays with this initiative:

First, the church is not the moral police officer for the world. We often cast ourselves this way. We are wrong to do so. Paul seems to agree with me when he tells the Corinthians: “What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside. "Expel the wicked man from among you." (1 Cor 5.12-13) Christians are called to hold each other to incredible moral standards, but not the world. This is always how the church has related to the world.

Second, the initiative seems to create an us and them mentality. The problem isn’t the homosexuals. The problem isn’t the gay agenda infiltrating the schools and corrupting our otherwise innocent children. The problem is us. We are the problem in the world. A healthy doctrine of original sin would really help evangelicals to refrain from believing that they can protect themselves from perversion.

That is all. I welcome discussion. I know that this issue is not simple. I know that many Christians are supporting this amendment in California. I wanted to register my dissent, both to communicate to the world that there is a difference of opinion within the Church, and also to help my brothers and sisters to wrestle freshly with what it means to be a Christian in the world.

Love Wins

I was preparing to perform a wedding. I love the wedding day. I love watching the bride and the groom look into each other’s eyes. I love how there is a sense of romance in the air. I love watching people get together, have a few drinks, and celebrate love.

I think people love weddings for the same reason that we love romantic movies. For at least one day, everyone in the room seems to believe that marriage is good, life is good, and love conquers all and lasts forever.

Weddings, then, are a place to hope against hope. They are a place where the world seems to be right, at least for a few hours. Love is celebrated, and it conquers all. We like to hope. That is why we love weddings.

There is a lot of reason to stop hoping, though. As I was preparing, I heard Jewel’s song You Were Meant for Me. In the song, she is discussing her heartbreak. In reflecting on her experience, she sings, “hearts are broken every day.”

This reality is every bit as true as the wedding experience. Hearts are broken. Love conquers all, except when it doesn’t. Sometimes, as anyone who has truly loved and has been heartbroken knows, love is not enough. And every heartbreak, break up, divorce, stupid fight, and tear that comes with these experiences is a testimony that things are not how they are supposed to be yet.

But, better times are coming. We hope against hope for a day when human relationships are restored. The prophets of old chose imagery of swords being turned to plowshares. Weapons of war will be turned to productive tools. Now, human ingenuity is devoted to finding more effective ways to kill, oppress, and dominate one another. One day, love wins.

However, not only are better days coming, better days are here. The wedding I was at last night reminded me of that. A new day has dawned. Love has already won but it hasn’t won yet.

We are forced to live in the tension. As we do, we should celebrate the times when it seems that love conquers all. We should also mourn when it doesn’t. We should look forward to the day when it always will.