Brett Tilford

I wish I was better at thinking about “us” and not just myself. The phrase “common good” conjures up so many negative thoughts and emotions for me. Most of them having to do with communism and socialism. I instantly begin thinking about the book Animal Farm and how that phrase was twisted and used for the exact opposite of what it was intended to mean.

The challenge of course is that it’s a biblical concept. Paul speaks about it as does St. Augustine and of course the early church lived this way.  Maybe my repulsion to the phrase is more a product of my middle class American culture than Jesus’ actual opinion of the subject or church history.

One of the principles I learned from a professor was, “Be wary of an ‘interpretation’ of Jesus words that ends up completely ignoring them.” Yet, I find myself doing this all the time.

For example Luke 6:30 says, “…If anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back.” If I were preaching on this verse I would be super tempted to say, “Now don’t worry. Jesus isn’t saying that if someone steals something from you, you shouldn’t demand it back. What he’s saying is that we need to live generously.”

Really? Is that what he’s saying Tilford, because it sounded an awful lot to me like your trying to explain away a very straight forward interpretation of that verse with the assumption, “Well, dear Lord he can’t possibly mean that!”

The genius thing I do (among others) is withdraw a principle from the verse that ends up removing the prickly parts. Like the phrase I said above, “…what he’s saying is that we need to live generously.” Brilliant! This is especially helpful if I’m reading, preaching, or discipling someone through difficult verses of the Bible. All I have to do is read the verse aloud and then distill it into an easy to swallow principle that goes down like butter! Not only do I feel better about my faith but the folks I’m talking to are put at ease. Don’t worry friends. Following Jesus is easy!

I’m an idiot alot of the time.

Of course I’m not saying that all these “challenging” verses have straightforward interpretations that we’re blatanly ignoring. I think we need serious conversation and prayer about the difficult sayings of Jesus. However, I despise when we avoid those difficult conversations by quickly muzzling Jesus with a slick interpretation that assumes the easy route.

I think the world is waiting for a church that is better at being obedient than slick.

I’ve been wrestling for sometime with the question of whether or not Christians should have excess money.  Of course we give our 10% to “God” (church or charity) but the beauty is that’s a sliding scale.  It hurts you alot when your poor but the wealthier you get the easier it is to stomach.  If you making 10 million/yr. then you still get to keep 9 million!  What I’m wrestling with is whether it’s morally defensible to keep 9 million or 9 thousand for yourself.  How do we justify having thousands in the bank while others go without?

Let’s say you have a friend across the street who’s starving to death.  If you had an extra dollar wouldn’t you give it to him?  This is basic kindergarten stuff right?  Now let’s say that person is a homeless aids orphan in South Africa.  Would you still give the money?

To live happily I need less than I think. A small home for my wife and family. Heat in the winter. A few hundred dollars worth of groceries each month. Gas for my car. Clothes, coffee, books, running shoes, and the occasional meal at Cafe Brazil! Let’s say that comes out to $30,000/year in expenses. Should I give the rest away? What about retirement, kids college funds, braces, vacations, and icecream?  The items that aren’t essential but sort of feel that way.  Are those things wrong of me to indulge in? Can I justify socking away $500,000 over my life time for when I get old, while others go without?  What does God require of me?

A few years ago I realized that I grew up in one of the most prosperous towns in the world. I was rich. Of course, now days I bring in a salary that most people would consider modest.  However, compared to most of the world I’m rolling in money.  At what point do I say, “Okay, my family and I have enough. Everything else is given away.” Something in my conscious is screaming that I have to make that decision but I keep holding off because I don’t want to sacrifice too much. I’m afraid that I’ll look back and regret not giving more to my kid’s college funds, retirement, etc. That I’ll regret not being “wise” with my money. Doesn’t proverbs say something about an ant storing up for winter being a good thing? Where is the line between being a wise ant and being the fool that Jesus chastises in the story of the man who built bigger and bigger barns instead of giving away what he didn’t need.

To sum it up I guess I’m wondering how much money a Christian keep for himself and his family.  God help me.

Last weekend I was in the Christmas production for Gateway Church in Southlake, Texas singing a portion of the song Inescapable Day. The musical was an adaptation of Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol with a more overt evangelical Christian slant worked in. The quality of the production was top notch and I thoroughly enjoyed working with the team there. It was clear that they truly loved God and people.  Another thing that struck me was that the team was absolutely committed to making this more than just a good show.  They wanted the power and love of Jesus to shine through and really weren’t interested in getting glory for themselves.  That’s unusual among people who stand on stages alot.  If you’re in that area and need a good Church I would highly recommend Gateway.

You may have noticed that I lost about 2 years of blog posts in a server transfer disaster.  Instead of bemoaning my loss I’ve decided to move forward and do my best to keep putting good content out there.  Here is something that I posted awhile ago but was sitting in my “drafts” folder because that’s where it was in the file backups.  Thanks for your patience.

I wanted to post another excerpt from Peter Rollins book How Not To Speak of God to continue developing the idea of Orthodoxy as believing in the right way as opposed to right belief.  Enjoy.

“There is an old anecdotein which a mystic, an evangelical pastor and a fundamentalist preacher die on the same day and awake to find themselves at the pearly gates.  Upon reaching the gates they are promptly greeted by Peter, who informs them that before entering heaven they must be interviewed by Jesus concerning the state of their doctrine.  The first to be called forward is the mystic, who is quietly ushered into the room.  Five hours later the ystic reappears with a smile, saying, ‘I thought I had got it all wrong.’  Then Peter signals to the evangelical pastor, who stands up and enters the room.  After a full day has passed the pastor reappears with a frown and says to himself, ‘How could I have been so foolish!’  Finally Peter asks the fundamentalist to follow him.  The fundamentalist picks up his well-worn Bible and walks into the room.  A few days pass with no sign of the preacher, then finally the door swings open and Jesus himself appears, exclaiming, “How could I have got it all so wrong!’

This video really got me to thinking about beauty in the modern era. What a strange world we live in when people’s imperfections can disappear with the click of a mouse. Unbelievable.

I remember seeing a news piece a few years ago about a makeup artist who was so concerned with what was being communicated to young girls via the magazines they were reading, that she started going around the country raising awareness, her message was something to the effect of “These people are works of art, they aren’t real. No matter how much you diet or apply makeup you’ll never look like them. When they wake up in the morning they look just like you!”

I really do think that the whole “Barbie or bust” (no pun intended) idea of beauty is extremely destructive. What are we communicating to our children when every person’s skin they see, on T.V. or the drive by billboards, looks like a freakin mannequin. I can’t imagine the types of conversations I’ll have to have with my kids in a few years. My little girl will say, “Daddy, look at that lady on t.v.! She is so beautiful!” I’ll reply, “Well honey, she isn’t actually real. See there is this thing called photoshop that allows you to make people look perfect. It’s weird I know, but it helps people sell things.” God help me.

I think all this hits a little to close to home because I’m in the design business. Just a few months ago myself and Charles (the lead designer in our business) were working on a project together. The client had requested that we touch up a picture of one of his family members. It wasn’t anything big. However, once we got started it was so hard to stop! After fixing the teeth, we noticed that the eyebrows were a little bushy, and the eyes could probably be a little bigger. Also, that chin could afford to be a little smaller.  If we raised those cheekbones she looks older.  All of the sudden one of us (I honestly don’t remember who- I think it was Charles) yelled out, “Stop! We have to stop this!” He was right.But there was such power in that mouse. Razorburn? No problem, “click”-it’s gone. Dirty fingernails? Click-gone. Bags under the eyes? Click. Hair out of place? Click. Nose to big? Click. Eyes too small? Click. Cheek bones too low? Click. Skin to blotchy? Click. My God this is out of control. Now some nerd sitting in his apartment loft is deciding what beauty is? Scary.

When I think of Jesus I think of someone who seemed to be saying “God believes you are beautiful.  Hey you leper! God loves you and thinks you are beautiful.  Hey you drunk, God thinks you are beautiful.  All you outcasts and beggars, God thinks you are beautiful. It would be easy to pin all the blame on the advertising agencies of the world.  But you know what this comes back to all of us, because who is buying the way they are selling? Me and you. So maybe the point of the video isn’t to think, “How could those people?!”  But instead to turn that pointing finger back at myself and think, “Why don’t I live more like Jesus lived?”  Believing that everyone is beautiful.

Postmodernism. I approach this subject with much fear and trembling for two reasons. First, because it is such a broad movement spanning 500+ years and effecting every level of society. Second, because people are all over the map on their opinion of it, with views ranging from “I have no clue what you are talking about” to “postmodernism doesn’t actually exist” to “postmodernism = relativism.” Having said that, I think it’s worth trying to explain and wrestle with because if it is true, I think it has profound implications for the world and our lives. So here goes my feeble attempt.

In the modern era logic, science, and the idea of “pure reason” were in. Philosophers spent most of their time reasoning and deducting. Scientists were objectively experimenting. Newton was forming his solid and unchanging “laws” of the universe and the gospel was boiled down into “four spiritual laws” as well. Religion was on trial for claiming “super” natural phenomena. Theologians were systematizing their theology. The arts were struggling to be taken seriously. People like Spoch were highly respected: rational and unemotional. “Don’t give me any experiential mumbo jumbo” was a phrase you might hear some wise person utter. We loved shows like Dragnet, with agent Joe Friday saying “just the fact’s ma’m, just the facts.” The great thinkers and writers of the day were confident that we were creating a better world. At the turn of the 20th century a popular saying was “every day, in every way we are getting better and better.” Science, technology, and reason would lead us there.

However, two world wars and a great depression were enough to begin the eroding of peoples faith in the modern experiment. Was the world really getting better and better? Was there even such a thing as “pure reason” or being truly “objective”: the way the scientist claimed to approach his experiment or the philosopher claimed to arrive at his deductions. Some people began to think these premises might be questionable, and it followed that the idea of something “after” or “post” modern was birthed. These were people who lived through the modern era, and experienced it so deeply that they were changed by it, and became something else entirely: postmodern. On this basis postmodernity isn’t necessarily “antimodern” or “better than modern” just “emerging from modern.”

In a postmodern world it’s not that logic and reason are out, but are rather taken off their pedestal, and placed alongside story, imagination, and experience in the search for truth. It’s not that science is out, but instead is humbly placed in the context of a very mysterious universe with a very “other” God that we have trouble wrapping our tiny brains around.

The implications for this new way of thinking are far reaching. The arts are being revitalized as a legitimate voice in the search for truth. Mystery is not sneered at, but celebrated. The arrogant humanism and individualism (think of our hero’s spock or the lone ranger) that modernity birthed are being replaced by a profound sense of “we” and a desire for relationship and community. Science is one of the voices, as opposed to the only voice. Supernatural things aren’t disregarded on the spot. The bible isn’t approached the way a skeptical detective approaches a crime scene, but is instead approached in a more relational and humble manner.

In many ways the Wizard of Oz serves as an appropriate metaphor for the rise of the postmodern world. In the story our friend Dorothy becomes the unlikely hero, journeying through an unknown world with imperfect friends. While the almighty Oz (confident, know it all, and loud) is revealed as a fraud. He is, and has been all along, only a humble seeker like them.

I hope this at least gives you a taste of what postmodernism may be. Hopefully it launches you into your own study of where our world has been and where it may be headed.

This is a rather lengthy quote taken from C.S. Lewis’ book The Last Battle, part of the wildly popular children’s series, The Chronicles of Narnia. The first time I read it as an adult it brought a tear to my eye, and profoundly challenged some of my dearly held theology.

“So I went over much grass and many flowers and among all kinds of wholesome and delectable trees till lo! in a narrow place between two rocks there came to meet me a great Lion. The speed of him was like the ostrich, and his size as an elephant’s; his hair was like pure gold and the brightness of his eyes like gold that is liquid in the furnace. He was more terrible than the Flaming Mountain of Lagour, and in beauty he surpassed all that is in the world even as the rose in bloom surpasses the dust of the desert.Then I fell at his feet and thought, Surely this is the hour of death, for the Lion (who is worthy of all honour) will know that I have served Tash all my days and not him. Nevertheless, it is better to see the Lion and die than to be Tisroc of the world and live and not to have seen him. But the Glorious One bent down his golden head and touched my forehead with his tongue and said, Son, thou art welcome. But I said, Alas Lord, I am no son of thine but the servant of Tash. He answered, Child, all the service thou hast done to Tash, I account as service done to me. Then by reasons of my great desire for wisdom and understanding, I overcame my fear and questioned the Glorious One and said, Lord, is it then true, as the Ape said, that thou and Tash are one? The Lion growled so that the earth shook (but his wrath was not against me) and said, It is false. Not because he and I are one, but because we are opposites, I take to me the services which thou hast done to him. For I and he are of such different kinds that no service which is vile can be done to me, and none which is not vile can be done to him. Therefore if any man swear by Tash and keep his oath for the oath’s sake, it is by me that he has truly sworn, though he know it not, and it is I who reward him. And if any man do a cruelty in my name, then, though he says the name Aslan, it is Tash whom he serves and by Tash his deed is accepted. Dost thou understand, Child? I said, Lord, though knowest how much I understand. But I said also (for the truth constrained me), Yet I have been seeking Tash all my days. Beloved, said the Glorious One, unless they desire had been for me thou wouldst not have sought so long and so truly. For all find what they truly seek.”

The “gospel” of Jesus. What is it?

Most of the time when we think of the gospel we think of something to this effect: Jesus died on the cross for your sins so that you can go to heaven after you die. This is pretty standard fare. Of course their are variations that include statements about the resurrection, the bridge to God, etc. But they all basically come down to “Jesus died so that you can live in heaven.”

I think that’s a pretty lame gospel.

There are a few reasons I feel this way. First, it’s selfish. It becomes this weird appeal of “Hey, so do you want to go to heaven? Great, I thought so. All you have to do is believe in Jesus!” What? Since when did this become the gospel? Second, Jesus didn’t seem to preach it. You just don’t see him going around to people saying, “Hey everyone, hope on the J train! We’re heaven bound!” Third, it doesn’t have much to do with the here and now. In fact it tends to lend itself to a sort escapism, where the thinking goes something like this. Well the world is headed to Hell in a handbasket, there’s really not much we can do except spread the word that Jesus is the way out.

As I read the gospels I just don’t see this being the good news Jesus preached.

Instead I see him talking about this mysterious thing that he called “the gospel of the Kingdom of God.” This kingdom was like the reality of God coming down and touching earth. He said this kingdom isn’t “of this world”, meaning it doesn’t come from the systems and ways of men (which tend to get twisted and evil) but instead comes from God. Maybe like the dream of God for this world: what he meant this world to be, full of love. So Jesus heals sick people, opens blind eyes, fills the hungry, and respects women.   He tells us to love God, love each other, and even love our enemies. He says that we should pray to God and give to the poor. And all the while he is telling stories and dropping hints that he is modeling the kingdom of God for us. Then one day he prays the most beautiful prayer, and this is one of the things he says, “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

I believe that is the gospel. Heaven is coming to earth.

Now that is freakin good news.

If you want more info on the kingdom of God check out this video.