“Thus there is such a thing as human absorption. It appears in all the forms of conversion wherever the superior power of one person is consciously or unconsciously misused to influence profoundly and draw into his spell an individual or a whole community. Here one soul operates directly upon another soul. The weak have been overcome by the strong, the resistance of the weak has been broken down under the influence of another person. He has been overpowered, but not won over by the thing itself. This becomes evident as soon as the demand is made that he throw himself into the cause itself, independently of the person to whom he is bound, or possibly in opposition to this person. Here is where the humanly converted person breaks down and thus makes it evident that his conversion was effected, not by the Holy Spirit, but by a man, and therefore has no stability.”

[Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together, pp. 32-33]

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

(John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’”) And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.

-John 1:1-18, ESV

Okay, so Mark Harmon didn’t make a cameo in my English class at Auburn in January 2000, but you can imagine my surprise when his lookalike did. He was laid back; he was cool. He wasn’t our professor- that would feed a power structure created by The Man. No, this guy was a part of the counterculture. He was our guide.

Twice at Auburn I had professors who thought they were my spiritual guide: both English and Literature professors. Another, an economics professor, was our political conscience. He taught us what it meant to be a libertarian, then he ran for governor of Alabama. I digress…

Mr. Shoop, as I shall call my hippie English teacher (I’ve long forgotten his actual name), stood before our class and professed that all literature was open to interpretation. Everything. If it has been written, it is open for interpretation. I challenged his assertion, “So if I write something about a tree and you interpret it as being about the mechanical workings of a modern factory, then that’s okay?” He said yes. “What if I tell you that it’s about a tree? That it’s not about a factory, but simply a tree?” Mr. Shoop explained that it didn’t matter. Everything was open for interpretation.

That’s an interesting take on truth. The good news is I got an A. I guess he could have interpreted my work as an F, but I would have challenged his interpretation. I always think my work deserves an A, even if it doesn’t.

Some years ago Voddie Baucham joked that if someone approached him with the premise that “there is no truth,” he would take the liberty to punch that person in the nose. I can think of more creative methods of making the same point, all of which would be endlessly entertaining. It comes down to this: there will always be one correct interpretation, one absolute truth. If I write a poem about a tree, and I tell you that it’s about a tree and nothing less, then my poem is not open to interpretation. You may wish that I had a secondary meaning. You may even project that wish upon my poem, proclaiming that I am actually writing about factories. But the truth remains the same regardless of your interpretation. My poem is about a tree.

Here’s the point, which I’m positive any thinking individual realizes. To say that no truth exists is to make a truth statement. It contradicts itself. Even anthropologists accept that truth does exist, regardless of cultural differences. It’s not always clear what that truth is, but it exists. The goal is to find it, no matter hard it is to find. And that’s okay.

Anyway, we all know this whole post is really about those fascist fluffy bunnies.

Most of my seminary-educated friends would mock this attempt, since they read close to a book a week. My friend Adam Feldman is the inspiration for this little project. A while back he attempted to read 50 books in 52 weeks. You can read his final review here. For me, this is a stretch. I’m easily distracted. I live in the Internet age. If I want to know something, I look it up on Wikipedia, I Google it, or if my books aren’t packed in boxes and stuck in a storage room (and most are right now), I might open one of my books to look it up. I learn in ADHD. I learn in article format, not book format. And so far that learning method has worked for me. But I need to be more disciplined in reading.

Now, I know what you’re thinking. You see the list of books above and realize I’ve got a 20-something page children’s book filled with pictures up there. True. But sometimes less is more, and I think there’s a lot to be learned from Shel Silverstein. Also, I think The Giving Tree offsets NT Wright’s Justification, which I anticipate will be a pretty difficult book to sort through. It turns out The Word Became Flesh is written in a one year devotion style, so I’ll be reading it every day.

I’ve got a few alternates (that’s why you see 27 books listed above), just in case some turn out to be duds. And who knows- maybe I’ll beat my 2 books a month pace and read more. If you’re interested in any of these books listed above, click here and you can visit my Amazon.com aStore, where you’ll find the entire list with book descriptions. You can buy each book there, too (and I get a little cut from Amazon for each book you buy).

So this is actually a challenge. Twenty-five books in fifty-two weeks. Wish me luck. I’ll need it.

Oh, this “noble” culture of ours! It speaks so piously of human dignity and human rights and then disregards this dignity and these rights of countless millions and treads them underfoot, only because they live overseas or because their skins are of different color or because they cannot help themselves. This culture does not know how hollow and miserable and full of glib talk it is, how common it looks to those who follow it across the seas and see what it has done there, and this culture has no right to speak of personal dignity and human rights…

I will not enumerate all the crimes that have been committed under the pretext of justice. People robbed native inhabitants of their land, made slaves of them, let loose the scum of mankind upon them. Think of the atrocities that were perpetrated upon people made subservient to us, how systematically we have ruined them with our alcoholic “gifts”, and everything else we have done…We decimate them, and then, by the stroke of a pen, we take their land so they have nothing left at all…

If all this oppression and all this sin and shame are perpetrated under the eye of the German God, or the American God, or the British God, and if our states do not feel obliged first to lay aside their claim to be “Christian” — then the name of Jesus is blasphemed and made a mockery. And the Christianity of our states is blasphemed and made a mockery before those poor people. The name of Jesus has become a curse, and our Christianity — yours and mine — has become a falsehood and a disgrace, if the crimes are not atoned for in the very place where they were instigated. For every person who committed an atrocity in Jesus’ name, someone must step in to help in Jesus’ name; for every person who robbed, someone must bring a replacement; for everyone who cursed, someone must bless.

And now, when you speak about missions, let this be your message: We must make atonement for all the terrible crimes we read of in the newspapers. We must make atonement for the still worse ones, which we do not read about in the papers, crimes that are shrouded in the silence of the jungle night… [Albert Schweitzer, January 6, 1905]

“I used love like money, but love doesn’t work like money. It is not a commodity. When we barter with it, we all lose. When the church does not love its enemies, it fuels their rage. It makes them hate us more.” [Don Miller, Blue Like Jazz]

When we are passive-aggressive, we tend to make snide, underhanded, and indirect comments toward those whom we harbor ill-feelings. We are not direct with them. We do not approach them, as Jesus mandated in Matthew 18. It is only through direct confrontation with God or people that reconciliation is possible. We use our love a a commodity, withholding it from those with whom we’re angry. Nothing is resolved through passive-aggression, nor is its primary goal to resolve conflict. The priority of passive-aggression is to release anger and frustration while maintaining the façade of spiritual maturity. Passive-aggression could not be further from spiritual maturity; it is the foundation for vanity.

If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. [Matthew, 18:15-16, ESV] 

I know we all have moments of passive-aggressive behavior, and there are plenty of times when it is better to bite our tongue than to act out in aggressive confrontation. No question, it is imperative that we use wisdom when picking our fights. Still, we cannot hide behind the ruse of false humility and conflict avoidance by protesting, “but it’s for the greater good to avoid division!” More than likely, it is not. By avoiding the conflict, we are merely festering division within the ranks. We are suppressing division and conflict, and like a volcano erupts under great pressure, so will that division and conflict erupt at the least opportune moment. This is why entire church staffs turnover in less than a year. It’s how churches split. It’s of Satan, and passive-aggressiveness must be rebuked.

Do not read this as an invitation to stir up trouble or speak out for no reason. The Scriptures are very clear about how we are to approach others with whom we are in conflict. Five years ago I was introduced to the Heart Attitudes by my church planting professor Jack Allen. Having seen the wisdom they speak into my life, I’ve spent much of those five years trying to integrate them into my life. It’s a daily task. The following are two of the Heart Attitudes that speak directly to the issue of passive-aggressiveness and conflict resolution.

Live an Honest, Open Lifestyle
What this adds up to, then, is this: no more lies, no more pretense. Tell your neighbor the truth. In Christ’s body we’re all connected to each other, after all. When you lie to others, you end up lying to yourself. [Ephesians 4:25]

Humbly Give and Receive Correction
Warn each other every day, as long as it is called “today,” so that none of you will be deceived by sin and hardened against God. [Hebrews 3:13]

Listen to constructive criticism, you will be at home among the wise. If you ignore criticism, you will end in poverty and disgrace. [Proverbs 15:31, 13:18]

Keep Relationships Straight
If you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.
[Matthew 5:23-24]

Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: “ye were bought for a price,” and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God.

Costly grace is the sanctuary of God; it has to be protected from the world, and not thrown to the dogs. It is therefore the living word, the Word of God, which he speaks as it pleases him. Costly grace confronts us as a gracious call to follow Jesus, it comes as a word of forgiveness to the broken spirit, and the contrite heart. Grace is costly because it compels a man to submit to the yoke of Christ and follow him; it is grace because Jesus says, “My yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

[Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship, p. 45]

24-7 Prayer International | Boiler Rooms | Northumbria Community

At the center and circumference of every significant Jesus movement there exists a very simple confession. Simple, but one that fully vibrates with the primal energies of the scriptural faith, namely, that of the claim of the One God over every aspect of life, and the response of his people to that claim (Deut. 6:4-6ff.) The way that this was expressed in the New Testament and later movements was simply “Jesus Is Lord!” With this simple confession they changed the world. [Alan Hirsch, The Forgotten Ways, 24]

The thing about all-inclusiveness is that it’s demanding. If you leave one aspect of your life out- politics, money, sex- then you are compartmentalizing that aspect into an idol. Jesus merges the “Shema” (Deuteronomy 6:4-6ff) with the latter half of Leviticus 19:18 (“…but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.”) in what Scot McKnight calls the Jesus Creed.

Paul argues that to love your neighbor as yourself, from Leviticus 19:18, is (1) our only debt to one another and (2) is the fulfillment of the law because it sums up the whole law.

It was this text in Romans 13 that convinced me that not only did Jesus teach the Jesus Creed as an adaptation of the Shema (Mark 12:28-32), amending it by adding Leviticus 19:18 to the standard Shema, but expected his followers to repeat it daily — as they had repeated Shema at least twice a day since the days of Deuteronomy 6:4-5.

What are you holding back from God?

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. [Deuteronomy 6:4-9, ESV]

And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” [Mark 12:28-31, ESV]

What are you going to do about it?

[HT: Alan Hirsch. I wouldn't have even thought about it if he hadn't been in town teaching a bunch of Methodists (and a few Baptists) this weekend. Thanks to the Don Woolley, Missional 3.0, the Alabama-West Florida Conference, Alan Hirsch (blog), Todd McGehee, the Grove UMC, and Baker High School for making this happen.]