Jim and Casper Go To Church

I bought this little book the other day, and I'm really excited about reading it. It's called (as the title above suggests) "Jim and Casper Go To Church". It's about a believer and an atheist who decide to visit churches around North America and write about their experiences and perspectives on what they witnessed. I've read the first three chapters, and it's been very intriguing reading, especially considering that two of the three are really big names in churches these days: Saddleback Church and Mosaic.

I would like to talk about a certain aspect of each chapter, but before I start down that road, let me give you a few excerpts from the introduction that I thought were interesting:

- "In spite of my desire for people to encounter Jesus, I spent most of my time functioning as a moral policeman."

- "I was so busy chasing the elusive Three B's of pastoral success (buildings, budgets, and butts in the seats) that I hardly had time to focus on anything else. In fact, I outright ignored the people that Jesus himself primarily came to connect with - the people Jesus misses the most."

- "Too often, conversations we have about our beliefs are too much like debates, and we spend our time looking for chinks in the conversational armor, spaces where we can insert an argument or launch a rejoinder."

- "Generally speaking, ordinary Christians don't like arguing their friends into becoming Christians. It just doesn't feel right. To be sure, we buy the books and really do want someone doing this kind of work. But the idea that we should demand a verdict from non-Christians seems like an approach a lawyer would take - and you know how people feel like lawyers. Ordinary Christians like me know that when you start defending the faith, you also start losing your friends."

Why Oh Why?

If you have never heard of Fred Phelps and his hate-mongering, be very very happy. For the rest of us who cringe every time there is a major tragedy in this country, knowing that Phelps and his band of idiots will be picketing funerals and spreading their unholy view of a God who hates anyone who does not agree with them, it's a sad day indeed.

If you want a visual example of the hate that Phelps spreads, watch the video off of Zach's blog. It will make you appreciate the original song so much more.

I have never listened...

to a Drew Marshall radio show, but after he appeared on some religious T.V. show and kind of ripped them and then talked about how he didn't really like "churchianity" and religious t.v. shows, I might start listening to his show.

Saying #7: Everything

Saying Seven: Everything

After Jesus drank the wine, he said, "Everything is done!" He bowed his head and died.
John 19:30

That's all folks! Show's over! Let's clear the area, please, nothing left to see. Jesus has left the building.

(Who'd have thought it would come to this? History colliding with mystery.)

In the beginning was the Word and the Word is now sentenced. Full stop. Close quotes. New paragraph.

Whatever "everything" is, "everything" is now complete. Things seen, things unseen. Everything that was started has finished. Every beginning has found its loose end, all thoughts have been taken to their logical conclusion. And any others.

At this moment, on this day, we have seen it all.

God bows his head respectfully and dies.

Everything dies.

Life dies.

Death dies.

Everything is done...

... except love.

Only love is not done.

Only love will not die.


To see the flash animation, go here.

Saying #6: Anger

Saying Six: Anger

Jesus shouted, "Father, I put myself in your hands!" Then he died.
Luke 23:46

He's not beaten, even when he's defeated.

Abandoned, desperate, parched, dying... but still, with his final breath, angry at the gulf between the way things are and the way things might be. Shouting at the invisible.

Forget gentle Jesus, if you ever remembered him. What can you do but shout when you see the distance between the way things are and the way things might be - and find yourself being strung from one side to the other?

Howling your prayers. Yelling your psalms. Life screaming at death, hope screaming at cynicism. If you can't shout at God, who can you shout at?

And if you think that your decibels can climb across the unknown, can be heard by Love and that Love will answer, then you jump. And fall into darkness. Trusting only the hands of the unseen, the hands of mercy, the hands that always made everything from nothing. Always do, always will.

What other hands dare you fall into?

Perhaps we are not abandoned. Perhaps we are not beaten, even when we are defeated.

Go here to see the flash animation.

Saying #5: Thirst

Saying Five: Thirst

Jesus knew that he had now finished his work. And in order to make the Scriptures come true, he said, "I am thirsty!"
John 19:28

Everybody is dying for a drink. None of us can survive without it.

We live on a blue planet holding 326 million cubic miles of water, each of those a gigantic overflowing cup holding more than a trillion gallons.

Our bodies are mainly made of water and without it we shrivel up and cease to be. Our life runs dry.

But water is not the only thing that brings us life. Each of us is thirsty for something more, something else, refreshment to transcend our physical needs, to sustain us way down deep inside..

Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, he had said. But now even this spring of life is drying up.

Sweating, struggling to breathe, bent over and bleeding.

Thirstier than he has ever been.

Because we are all dying of thirst.


To see the flash animation of this saying, go here.

Saying #4: Godforsaken

Saying Four: Godforsaken

Then about that time Jesus shouted, "Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?" which means, "My God, my God, why have you deserted me?"
Mark 15:34

Not a word we use very often: Godforsaken. Is there a time and place when even God has had enough of us, when even the immortal invisible needs to take some personal time.

Was God now hiding from Jesus... or was it just that Jesus lost sight of God? When it feels like that, what’s the difference?

And if you believe that Jesus, somehow, was also God, this is a kind of self-abandonment - God taking leave of himself, forgetting himself. A kind of madness.

As darkness falls, confusion rises. Voices nearby drop away, disappear. Spectators lose interest. Now just the silent sound of hearts breaking, hope evaporating.

"Hello?" No reply.

"Anyone there?" Nothing answers.

Just you and nothing. Forsaken.

Jesus Christ abandoned to his fate in the middle of history. Foolishness. The mad epicentre of all things. Losing it. Always losing it. You have to lose your life in order to find it. He had said.


Go here to see the flash animation.