Sugar, annotated

War between Pakistan and India.  Trump.  Winter.  Life is not as it ought to be.

But let's forget about this for 5:02.  I bring you, Sugar, from Maroon 5.  Let's go.

0:11:  According to The Week, this isn't one of the ten important things to happen on December 6, 2014. I beg to differ. 
0:13:  When all this came out I was fasincated by the premise of the video...did they really crash at least 7 weddings?  Yes and no...maybe not 7, and maybe it wasn't always a surprise, and maybe they did this over three days, not one.  But who cares...it's still a fun video. 
0:23:  WOOOO! 
0:35:  First 'older guy worried about these young'uns' moment of the night.  Not the last, either. 
0:47:  If you're gonna do this all day Saturday, fine...but are you starting this at a 9am wedding?  'Cuz that's what what it looks like.  Never done a 9am wedding personally, but hey it's L.A.  Maybe this is the wedding where the bride was 3 months pregnant and a 9am slot at the country club was all they could get? 
1:08:  Did they do a sound check before they started playing?  That would have been annoying for the wedding party at 9:15am. 
1:17:  "HEY!  Nickelback!"
1:47:  Still late morning.  Weddings are an all-day thing in L.A. I guess...
2:00:  Is Maroon 5 big in the Asian world?  Were the people at this wedding sad that it wasn't some K-Pop group?  Asking for a friend.
2:12:  And did this chef really know Maroon 5?  Is this his favorite group?  Would he have been more sad if this had been Snoop?
2:21:  "HEY!  Red Hot Chili Peppers!" 
2:50:  And now, the shots at the infamous 'Black Wedding', where everybody is a hologram beamed in from the other side of the planet. 
3:00:  Hotties always be driving on the streets of L.A., rolling up on bands.  L.A., man. 
3:11:  "Geez.  Couldn't we have had the roadies carry the guitars?" 
3:15:  Jessica Pare?
3:43:  Now the drinking starts.  I'm guessing that this is why weddings 3-7 were so condensed, as the band was a wee bit wasted by this point? 
3:56:  "Really, who came up with the idea for this shoot?  I am SO hungry now, and we got 3 more weddings to hit in the next two hours?  Get me Steve on the phone, RIGHT NOW." 
4:05:  Break dancing?  Not what you associate with Maroon 5, but OK, whatever.
4:10:  "Dave.  DAVE!  Sit down, you'll fall and hurt yourself.  DAVE!!!"
4:41:  Was the coolest thing ever the wedding, or the band saying this about themselves? 
4:54:  "I LOVE WEEZER SO MUCH!"

The End of the UMC

I have a number of friends who are either in ministry with the United Methodist Church or teach at one of their affiliated universities.  Over the past few weeks almost each of them have been following closely with the recent conference in St. Louis concerning what it was going to do about the issue of the moment, homosexuality.  Was it going to allow their own churches and clergy to do what they want (and so have differing standards on sexuality across different parts of the UMC)?  Or were they going to proclaim the traditional denominational teachings against homosexuality were still valid (and so alienate many who were hopeful that the final break between sexuality and morality was going to be broken)? 

I have friends on both sides of the issue, those who are strongly against opening marriage and ministry to the LGBTQ community, and those who believe that to do so is the only possible route for being relevant in the future.  For both sides this has been an excruciating fight about the future of their denomination.  Most likely whatever happened division was still going to come, because both sides had dug in. 

Surprisingly, the UMC decided to toughen their prohibitions against LGBTQ ordination and marriage.  I'm surprised because it runs against the trends both in the culture at large and within mainline denominationalism, in which homosexuality is now considered a perfectly valid option for people about their lifestyles.

My heart aches for my friends in the UMC who have struggled for this, but I do celebrate because, while the UMC may be wrong on many things, on this it seems that they at least tried to stay within the bounds of Scriptural teaching, even if not for all the right reasons.  Like much of conservatism today they may have gotten here not because it was right but because they were afraid of the future, which are two very different things.  Scripture, in my interpretation of it, at least 5 times speaks to this as something that is abhorrent to God (twice in Leviticus and three times in Paul's letters).  But nothing I have read about this says that they were fully prepared to make this their rationale. 

We live in a strange time in which those who would disregard what seems to be the clear teachings of Scripture and those who are trying to do the right thing but for the wrong reasons will choose to continue this fight.  More shame will continue to be cast upon the body of Christ in this fight...but to glorify God by doing his will, even against our fears and against our culture, must still be our singular purpose, no matter what others may do. 

At least...

Today is another cold, grey day.  I'm exhausted by how long this winter has seemed to be, though likely it's not really much different than any other.  As I get older I am becoming far more intolerant of winter.  I turn 50 in a few years, and I look at RVs and think about becoming one of those people who parks amongst other RVs in south Texas for three months a year. 

But in the last few days baseball spring training games have begun in Arizona and Florida.  Somewhere there are people sitting out on a bright sunny 70 degree afternoon watching millionaires get into shape and hopeful rookies desperately trying to make their mark.  It's a glorious ritual of the American spring.  Though I can't be there for it, I can imagine it.  And so at least there's that. 

Self-Imposed Isolation

I occasionally recuse myself from the socialness of Facebook, sometimes for months at a time.  Part of it's that I just get tired of the same three posts (be outraged by this!  look at how cute this is!  ME ME ME!), but part of it is that I just don't feel all that connected anymore to some people with whom I am supposed to be 'friends'.  Not actually seeing some of these people in the flesh for over thirty years will do this to you, I guess.

So this weekend not far from where my parents live there is a big Church of Christ event (actually on their website everything is church of Christ, and if you are part of this fellowship you know why, but that's for another post).  We are going to be at my parents' house this weekend because they are getting ready to move and we want to say our goodbyes to the house I grew up in, check out the new house, and basically try to be helpful however we can.  We have legitimate reasons for me to say that I'm too busy to attend the church event this weekend, but the reality is that I'm just not that interested.  It's not that I think the speakers are bad, or the topics are bad (though there does seem to be a bit of the 'the one true church is us' within it), but I just feel numb to much of it these days.  I've never been one to go just for the networking angle of it, and considering how far out of the normal circle I am now, I can count on one hand the number of people I would probably actually know.

And it's not just this.  When I read the Christian Chronicle (our 'Church of Christ newspaper'), I don't feel the connection with other churches like I used to.  I don't really have a desire to go back to some of our college lectureships, and many of the books written by our people or the issues I have thought long and hard about just don't appeal to me anymore.  Now, the local church here?  Absolutely...I am passionate about our little group here.  The Word of God in Scripture?  Daily I want to know more, and Scripture is never-ending in what it does to me.  The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit?  I want to know Christ, be filled with the Spirit, and be in covenant fellowship with the Father.  And the church universal, with its variety and even sometimes its mistakes?  More and more I feel drawn to it.  I love its history and its traditions and for all its faults I know that God's kingdom is doing great things both here and around the world.

But there is a part of me that feels like I am going the way of some of my dear friends who grew up in Churches of Christ.  They left for non-denominational churches, Christian churches, and other similarly Bible-centered churches.  They didn't leave Christ, but somewhere along the way they decided that the foolishness and the same three issues were no longer palatable to them anymore.  I don't think I could ever leave at this point...for all our problems, this is my home and my heritage, and I love this little local church and all of God's people here.  But the periphery?  Not so much.

Adulthood and maturity is in part about expanding options and also narrowing down options.  Years ago I gave up college football because I developed an interest in soccer.  I rarely watch pro sports on TV these days, as I'm more interested in what my kids are doing.  Maybe it's the same thing with the church universe around me...I just don't have time for some of these things anymore.  Those things are not bad things, but life changes.  Shouldn't I be more excited about what the future holds than what the past binds me to?  I'm not casting aside everything...but I am being more selective about what I hold onto.  And I think this is a good thing.

Walls

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. [Ephesians 2:13-17 ESV]

I know some good, Godly people who believe in Donald Trump's wall.  They believe it will save us from drugs, from bad people, from evil pouring over the southern border.  I disagree.  While I believe that border security is important, it's interesting that most of the criminals that come through and the contraband that slips over comes through ports of entry, not the wide-open desert.  Surely we can take those billions that would be spent on a pointless wall (have they not heard of ladders and tunnels and airplanes?) and figure out ways to stop the problems where they really exist? 

But more than anything, I believe that Christians need to be thinking about this question (and every question) theologically...what does the gospel say about this?  Some point to the walls being built up in the new Jerusalem (cf. Rev. 21:9-27) and say that, see, even heaven has walls.  Yet a. I'm not so sure that this is heaven...I have come to believe that this is more likely a description of the kingdom of God within the church and b. The gates of that city are never shut, but the nations will continually enter and bring glory and honor (21:25-26). 

We would do so much better to think about this question from the perspective of seeing the nations come as an opportunity to give glory to God.  Somebody who comes to America illegally will likely not stay forever...are we looking at them as potentially great evangelists for Jesus Christ?  How will they know unless they have heard?  It is great to think we can go there and teach, but if they come here, should we not look at this as an opportunity to teach as well? 

The gospel is about tearing down walls that Satan has built up.  We do ourselves no good when we think that building walls on earth is a good idea.