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Popcorn and Parables (Disney Villain edition)-Week 2

The Lion King — Am I My Brother’s Keeper?

Week 2 Popcorn and Parables Blog

Genesis 4:1-23

It’s extremely difficult to find people these days that haven’t heard of the story of Cain and Abel.  The first murder recorded in Biblical history.  Considering the story’s fame I don’t think there’s a need to go deep into an exegesis of Genesis 4:1-23, but I wanted to share something that has always bothered me about the story.  To sum it up, it’s hard for me to understand how a man could kill his little brother over a rejected offering.  How could a moment of rage overrule a lifetime of relationship with your own blood? How can a temporary desire cause you to murder someone you grew up with?  The little information we have in the story leads me to conclude that Cain wasn’t really a nice guy to begin with, highlighted poignantly by his response to God when asked where his brother Abel was after killing him in the field. 

Genesis 4:9 (ESV) 

9Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, “I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?” 

There’s a sense of annoyance in Cain’s response to God’s question, and it’s clear Cain felt no sense of responsibility towards Abel at all, not as a brother, and not as a fellow human being.  

Who Are My Brothers and Sisters?

After I was born, my older brother John would crawl into my crib with me to hold me, protect me, and when I got old enough to respond, play with me.  When I was 6 years old and I tattled on my brother and his friends for stealing candy at the local Pay N’ Pak at Thrasher’s Corner my brother is the one who protected me from his friends who all rightly wanted to beat me to death.  When I was 8 and confessed to helping vandalize a local elementary school along with my brother and his friends, once again my brother stepped in to defend me against them. Oddly, they stopped involving me in their shenanigans after that.  When I was 21 and my brother went with me to celebrate, and some idiot in the club started harassing me, it was my big brother who took me aside out of earshot and said “I know this type. If he pushes any more, whatever you decide to do I’ll have your back.”  When my wife had a miscarriage and we lost our baby, it was my big brother who said “We’ve been through this. I’m here if you want to talk.” My brother has always been my keeper, even on the days we drew each other’s blood quarrelling. The bond that siblings have from growing up together reminds me of a verse from the 21 Pilots song Stressed Out:

Sometimes a certain smell will take me back to when I was young
How come I'm never able to identify where it's coming from
I'd make a candle out of it if I ever found it
Try to sell it, never sell out of it, I'd probably only sell one

It'd be to my brother, 'cause we have the same nose
Same clothes homegrown a stone's throw from a creek we used to roam
But it would remind us of when nothing really mattered
Out of student loans and tree-house homes we all would take the latter

Your brothers and sisters are the ones you grow up with, go through trials with, survive tragedy with.  I would also suggest that If this kind of bond can be built between complete strangers experiencing trial and tribulation together, how much more should people who grew up together have the same sense of responsibility towards one another?  So yes, Cain. The message from God here is that you are your brother’s keeper, and His message to us now is that we are also.  You are your brother’s keeper, and you are your sister’s keeper. The bond that exists between siblings extends also into God’s kingdom, and our conduct regarding our spiritual responsibility for each other has impact on everyone around us.  We’re all in the same boat when it comes to being in the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12), and we will sit together, alive in heavenly places with Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2). It should be no surprise that when we ignore our personal and private obligation to our brothers and sisters, everyone around us suffers.

In Disney’s The Lion King, driven by a desire to have a kingdom that was not his, Scar plots against and kills his brother.  The result is broken relationships within the family, lack of food supply leading to starvation, and the land laid to waste.  The story of Jacob and his brother Esau comes to mind (Genesis 25:29-34) , where Jacob in his desire to have his older brother’s birthright managed to get it, but had to flee for his life (Genesis 27:41-44) afterwards.  Broken relationship and a whole lot of work to reconcile and repair the damage. The story of Ammon, Tamar, and Absalom from 2 Samuel 13:1-22 resulted in rape and murder, and a kingdom in shambles. God expects us to be keepers of one another.  There is no room in the New Testament for a Heaven populated by individuals that aren’t connected.  

O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Now that the larger point has been made, let me bring this back to siblings for a second before I wrap this up.  A very good friend of mine grew up in a wonderful household, the youngest of two children. He and his older brother had a good relationship with each other and with their parents all the way into their young adult life.  Tragedy struck one day when their parents were out on a drive and were struck and killed by a drunk driver. Each of them dealt with the tragedy in different ways that weren’t always conducive to healthy sibling relationships.  Angry, bitter, and devastated, they lost touch and parted ways. 10 years later, my friend gave his life to Jesus and the two of us were in a men’s Bible study, and when Genesis 4:9 was read aloud and Cain rhetorically asked God “Am I my brother’s keeper?”, my friend though he was the youngest of the two brothers decided then and there to re-connect and reconcile with his brother based on the conviction the Spirit placed on him.  For years he thought “I’m the youngest, so I’ll just wait until my older brother reaches out to me”, but God reminded him of his own responsibility; that it doesn’t matter who is older, what matters is the relationship. Thanks to Jesus, the two have reconciled and are leaning on each other once again as they deal with the untimely passing of their parents.  

Here’s the closing question then:  do you have a broken relationship that you need Christ’s help to fix?  Isn’t it about time for you to make the first move and seek out your brother (or sister) and be reconciled?  Are you thinking maybe that it’s just not possible? There’s too much bad blood, too much history, too much hurt.  Well, you’re not alone if you’re thinking along those lines but let me provide you some encouragement once again from Jacob and Esau’s story.  After living abroad for a few years, Jacob eventually returned home and knew that he was going to have to face an older brother that previously had wanted to kill him.  On the way home, Jacob arranged to send gifts in advance to his brother to sort of soften him up a little bit, maybe hoping that by the time Jacob got home his brother would just give him a beating instead of killing him.  Instead, this happened:

Genesis 33:8–11 (ESV) 

8Esau said, “What do you mean by all this company that I met?” Jacob answered, “To find favor in the sight of my lord.” 

9But Esau said, “I have enough, my brother; keep what you have for yourself.” 

10Jacob said, “No, please, if I have found favor in your sight, then accept my present from my hand. For I have seen your face, which is like seeing the face of God, and you have accepted me. 

God is so good, friends.  If by His power, grace, and mercy he can fix Jacob and Esau then He is more than worthy of helping you restore your own broken relationships whether they be flesh and blood brothers and sisters, or the ones you’ve developed along the way.  You are your brother’s keeper.

Brother, let me be your shelter

Never leave you all alone

I can be the one you call when you’re feeling low

Brother, let me be your fortress

When the night winds are driving on

Be the one to light the way

Bring you home

-NeedtoBreathe

-Written by James Boerner

AC3 VB209 10 Questions

Popcorn and Parables (Disney Villain edition) - Week 1

Frozen: A Bad Parenting Story

So often I have heard myself say, “that will leave a mark” or, “they will be in therapy for that someday”.  To all my fellow parents out there we have to face it, we are not perfect, far from it at times. None of us set out to mess up or be “bad parents”.  On the contrary, we are trying hard to be great parents, sadly so much so that sometimes we get it all wrong.  

As we look at our first week in the new series “Popcorn and Parables” we take a look at villains and compare them to biblical failures.  Week one is Hans from Disney's “Frozen”, he is compared to Adonijah (1 Kings 1), both of whom try to usurp thrones from the rightful heirs.  The primary cause is the bad parenting of the villains which results in the actions they take. The blame falls largely on the parents for not speaking into the lives of their children and leaving them to sink or swim.  Yes, this is a bad parenting technique.

Before I delve further into Hans and Adonijah, I want to get back to my original statement.  None of us set out to be bad parents. Nonetheless, we, like Anna and Elsa’s parents, act in a way we think is helping, but in the end can be just as damaging as ignoring our children completely.  Anna’s parents thought the trolls advice to take away her memories was good, they agreed it was best for Elsa to hide the gift she had been given rather than embrace it, and they even felt leaving their children to live isolated lives from the world and one another was good for them.  King David, was also an absent parent for his children, he seldom gave them time, avoided conflicts among them, and even sent them away from his presence (2 Samuel). Both the Disney Parents and King David made poor parenting choices, but they were not evil or villainous.  

It is easy to sit back in a chair and judge the bad choices of others, but not so easy to look at our own failures.  How many of us get sucked into a TV program or our phones and ignore the child climbing the walls? How many times have we said “no” 10 times only to cave in on the 11th request?  How many of us still run lunches or homework to the school to save our child from the pain of failure?  The very person who claims to have coined the phrase “Helicopter Parent” (John Rosemond) now cringes because our society has made it out to not necessarily be a bad thing.  He goes on to now call parents “Blender or Cuisinart Parents” whose lives are so enmeshed in their children’s lives you cannot tell where one begins and the other ends (Rosemond “Parenting by the Book”).  Prior to looking at others, we must first acknowledge the query: “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brothers’ eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? (Matthew 7:3).

Now, back to Hans and Adonijah.  Both were lost in the shuffle of where they fit in amongst their siblings.  Both seem to have had absentee parents. And both seem to have developed a ‘make my own way’ philosophy.  Hans was the 13th son of a Lord of a distant land who comes to find his purpose in marrying and then attempts to usurp the throne from Queen Elsa.  Adonijah doesn’t wait for his father, King David, to be dead before claiming the throne from David’s declared heir Solomon (1 Kings 1).  Hans and Adonijah likely had never heard their father say they “matter” let alone show them they were loved. They may have had some relationship with their mothers, but the fact is neither mother nor father had instilled in them a sense there was a right and wrong path. 

No matter if you are the good parent just making mistakes like so many of us, or if you are the parent who have lost your way and need to make things right; none of us are alone.  The Lord can show you the way to be an attentive parent and guide your parenting choices if you read His Word and listen with a soft heart.  There are resources, friends, mentors, small groups, and classes all of which are available to get better on this whole parenting thing.  We are not perfect, nor will our children be, but we are all forgiven and made righteous by His blood. Let us all do our best to leave our children a little better than ourselves and the world a better place than we have now. 

“May the Lord cause you to flourish, both you and your children.  May you be blessed by the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth” (Psalms 115: 14 – 15).

Written by Christian Love

Orange Tour Take Aways - Make It Personal

I attended Orange tour this year with several others from the AC3 youth leader team, the Kreek Kids team, and Hillside Church leader team.

Orange believes that two combined influences make a greater impact than just two individual influences.

The Church + Home = greater impact 
Light (yellow) represents the Church + Love (red)represents the Home 
And the two of them together = Orange

Each year we go to Orange we get resourced and empowered to connect the church with the family to bring Jesus into the hearts of each kid that comes through our doors. I am so grateful our team has able to go the last couple years. 

This year's theme was "It's Personal" 

The speakers and teachers called for all of us to connect more deeply and individually with the kids and teens in our lives—to really get personal. 


How? 
Reggie Joiner and his team presented 5 Questions that you should answer to give every kid HOPE. 








Here they are (from the perspective of the child you lead):

1.) Do you know my name?
Such a small, simple piece of knowledge yet it speaks wonders to a child when you know it. Their name. When we can look a kid in the eye that came to your class for the first time last week and say "Hey Brian how are you doing this week?" Their eyes light up, just because we took the time to notice them, and remember who they are. 

2.) Do you know what matters to me?
We need to see each kid as an individual, and as an individual they have different likes, dislikes, interests, hobbies etc. "When you know what matters to kids, kids feel like they matter." 
3 tips for how to do this one:

• See kids as individuals. This is particularly applicable for those of us that work in ministry and education. We often see the group of kids but sometimes forget to see each kid individually. 
• Ask clarifying questions. Simple questions like "What do you mean by that?" or "Tell me more about that." or "Oh?" can help a kid feel like what they are saying matters and therefore they matter.
• Do things that interest them. When you know a kids interests you know what matters to them.

3.) Do you know where I live? (Understanding their story and context)
"Nobody needs to be seen by everybody. But everybody needs somebody who sees them." If you know a kid's circumstance, where they come from, what their family is like, then they will feel like someone actually sees them. This can help make a child feel loved, accepted and safe.

4.) Do you know what I've done?
So many kids can be consumed by shame over what they've done. Shame is associated with depression, grief, anxiety, eating disorders, addiction and violence. According to Brene Brown–“Shame is the intensely painful feeling or experience of believing we are flawed and therefore unworthy of acceptance and belonging." 
When we begin to know kids personally, we can break down the lie that what you do defines who you are. 

More from Bréne Brown on shame here:  Bréne Brown Ted Talk 

5.) Do you know what I can do?
This one speaks to a kids potential. God has created each child with amazing gifts, talents, and their own personality. He has breathed creativity and passion into each one of them. "We often speak to what we think students need instead of what they actually need." Perhaps if we take the time to make it personal, to get to know what they can do, we can help them grow into their fullest potential, embracing the person God has created them to be. 

That's it! Simple huh? It may be simple but its not always easy. 

However if we can begin to answer these 5 questions we can begin to make it personal. 
Do you know....

And when we Make It Personal with the kids in our lives, we are really loving them the way Jesus does. 

Open Prayer Nights at AC3

Praying out loud in a group can be daunting, but like most things, with a little practice you can overcome your fear. Let me begin with a funny story about my first experience praying in a group, I think it’s humorously called “baptism by fire.”

Several years ago, when I stepped into the lead role at Seeds of Grace, I was asked to attend the weekly staff meetings. Upon attending my first meeting I discovered staff has what is referred to as the “prayer pot.” Inside the prayer pot are little pieces of paper with names of people, groups, events, etc. Each person draws a piece of paper from the pot and that is what or who you are to pray for…..at the meeting……OUTLOUD! I had very limited experience praying out loud and here I sit with what I considered the “elite” prayer people at AC3. Sweat was starting to form on my forehead.  When the pot finally makes its way to me, I draw none other than Rick Thiessen. 

I was terrified. What on earth was I going to say about the Senior Pastor, out loud, in front of him without sounding like a fool?  I sat there in fear listening to each staff member pray their beautiful, articulate words for who/what they had drawn and then…. its my turn. To be honest, I really have no idea what I said but I think it was along the lines of “Lord, thank you for Rick.” And that was it. I was sure at that point everyone knew what a failure I was at prayer, at least that is what Satan was telling me in my thoughts. 

As the weeks passed praying in a group setting became easier. I always had to keep in mind that I was talking to God, not the other people around the table so it didn’t matter if my words were beautiful and articulate to their ears, it just matters that God knows what is in my heart. 

Don’t let the fear of what you think you sound like keep you from praying with others. Satan knows that prayer (especially in groups) are a Christians strongest weapon so of course he wants us to fear it. Focus instead on the fact that you are just having a conversation with God, not the other people in the room. That said, did you know there is an Open Prayer night twice a month (1st and 3rd Thursdays) at AC3 in the wedge from 6:30-8pm. Come join myself and few others – I promise, it won’t be that scary. We don’t have a prayer pot but if you want to pray for Rick, I am sure he won’t mind 😊

~Written by Michelle Daniels

More details may be found HERE

Knock it Off--Week 4

When you hear these 2 words "attractive people" what comes to mind? If you're like me right away their beautiful physical looks comes to mind. When I was asked to write a blog about attractive people I thought what!? But then I read a little more into the concept of what they were talking about. The word attractive means to
(of a thing) pleasing or appealing to the senses.

"an attractive home"

(of a person) appealing to look at; sexually alluring.
"an attractive, charismatic man"

Similar:, good-looking, nice-looking, beautiful, pretty, as pretty as a picture, handsome, lovely, gorgeous, captivating, irresistible, sexy, sexually attractive, alluring, desirable, sensual.

My avenue of thought is geared towards being attractive for Jesus' sake. People whose efforts present Jesus to the world through their lives.


Attract to make others want to be near you or around you because of your life. God designed in the animal Kingdom pheromones that attract the opposite sex. We mimic those with perfumes and body washes and fragrance and things that attract by smell. Hollywood attracts its audience with movie trailers and advertisements for what they created, teasers to make us want to see the movie. In health, does the person that is physically fit, seemingly happy, and tan, attract you to the gym or the diet table to become fit? Or is it the one who holds up the pants that used to be 10 sizes bigger than they are now, and they stand victorious over what once held them captive?

Which makes them more attractive? 

So let's turn this thought process towards christians. What do christians do to make themselves attractive to draw people to what they believe? It's odd that this subject came up for me at the time that it did, my friend and I were talking about who the most attractive people were in our lives and the lives of our friends when we were not Christ followers by action. We believed but were not living the life. I was really surprised to hear both of us answer the same thing. Ready, drumroll... 

It was the mormon church and its members who seemingly came to the rescue and were there to be the shoulder to cry on. It was them that paid the bills and put our friends up in a house, and then came to check on us or our friends. Or came to visit and nurture a battered wife whom they didn't know. It was them that offered to go buy my groceries when my back was out or when I was down. The Mormon visitors offered to do my laundry or mow the grass, and they were complete strangers off the street-very beautiful, very attractive I must say. They were amazing until it turned to conversations about faith and our differing views of who Jesus is. I must say though they changed my view of how to treat Mankind.


Clearly now in my life, the Christians I know do these things for people, they just never did them for me when I was unsettled about my faith. I've known a lot of people who went the opposite direction when I was in need, they didn't want to get involved in the things that were messy or painful, or unpleasant, or that would cost them something and that sent me a terrible message. I learned through applying the directions in the Word of God to my life that I loved mankind better and better. And it gained me an audience with them because of it.

Lets look at what Jesus did when he saw the unpleasant messy painful circumstances of peoples lives. Well He fed them, He presented to them hope, He told them the truth, he comforted them with words and with touch, He didn't turn the children away even when the disciples said to send them away. He didn't turn away the people that were crying out even when the disciple said tell them to be quiet.

He spent time with them like the woman at the well, you know the one that was there at noon so she didn't have to see the other women who were there early in the morning?He stayed three days in her city with her and her family as a guest. What do you suppose he did and said for those three days? We're not told. He took his entourage of men some 30 miles away from home, further than most of them had ever been, to visit a woman who was not a Jew (the dog) and listened to her cries and then healed her daughter from the demon that possessed her. What he also did  was acknowledge and upheld her faith by his listening to her outcry.

He called out to Zacheus an undesirable Jewish man who was a tax collector and was disliked by the populous, that he wanted to come spend time in his house with him despite the popular vote. And when he could not do it himself, he sent others in his name to accomplish the tasks and support the people.

Jesus was devoted to the temple. He went there to worship God and to teach and when he went to other cities he visited their synagogues while he was there. He devoted 3 years to 12 men and he was noted for having the practice of getting away to be with God and spend time alone with him. He gave instruction how to live life and not sin, how to please God and rely on him. He would tell them things like:

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.
Matthew 7:7‭-‬12 NIV

So what do you consider to be attractive beautiful people? 

Are you yourself part of that group?

Or are you left wanting to be the receiver of beautiful attractive people who will come love on you?

So many questions, right? 

I guess the bottom line is ...If we live by example as we are called to do, then I must say who we are using as our example matters greatly. We don't want to be fake but authentic in our outward appearance because of the work done on the inward parts of our lives.

The Saints of the Bible and those who used them as examples to test and approve their lives is a great place to start looking on how to become more attractive people for Jesus.

-Written by Wayne Clinton 

AC3 VB208 What's Coming Up?

Knock It Off--Week 3

The following post to the social media platform "Next Door" is largely self explanatory. I have felt apprehensive about my participation from the beginning, but a series of recent posts surrounding alleged crimes in my neighborhood pushed me past apprehension and into action.

Having the principles of AC3's current series in my mind made my decision almost...inevitable. It was just so clearly the right thing for me to do.

(I deactivated the account after this post so I cannot report on what, if any, responses it generated)

Topic: "Goodbye, Nextdoor"

I have avoided social media from it's beginning. Mostly because I know my own negative proclivities, and I suspected social media would enflame them. But also because enduring the selfish, ignorant and shallow behaviors of others is heart-breaking and tends to push me toward those same behaviors.  Watching from the outside over the years, my suspicions have been proven out.

But because of the way it was presented to me and its hyper-local nature, I swallowed hard and took a risk with NextDoor a couple of months ago, thinking, "This will be my first "experiment" with it. Maybe the "worst" of social media will be limited!" Perhaps it had been...but it is not limited enough for me.

A simple cost/benefit analysis reveals that my exposure to the interchanges on Nextdoor are resulting in the longterm reduction in my connection to and caring for my neighbors.

I find myself heartsick at the willingness of people to talk past one another, to display bigotry, "reverse" bigotry, knee-jerk regurgitation of un-truth, gossip and childish name-calling.

Some really good stuff came out of my experiment too. I have met face to face with two neighbors because of this platform, and that has inspired me to redouble my efforts to be a good neighbor IRL. Some important, useful information was exchanged as well.But sadly, the chaff far outweighs the seed.

This experience has, in balance, pushed me toward anger, judgement, and isolation, and I do not believe those qualities enhance community, draw me closer to God or make me a better man, so I'm out. I admire people who have the internal resources to navigate this kind of environment. Maybe I'm weak...so be it...I'm weak then. But I choose to unplug.

Please, carefully consider what your interactions on this and other platforms are revealing. Yes, you read correctly: REVEALING. Social media is not bad. It doesn't create judgement, ignorance and fear. It doesn't create love, connection or hope either. It only uncovers what's already there.

What is being revealed in you?

I choose to withdraw after having some dark things exposed in myself. I need work. I need real connection with people, I need to slow down and commit to living the questions St. Francis of Assissi was famous for asking: "God, who are you? And who am I?"

I don't like what I've seen of myself since being here. The truth is, I don't like what I've seen from many of my neighbors either, but I choose to look at the plank in my own eye.

So I guess, I have to say "thank you" for helping to reveal those things in me that need to change. I'm going to go focus on that work now...

Good bye, Nextdoor.

-Written by Dan Hazen 

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Knock it Off -- Week 2

Knock It Off! —Tolerance for the Intolerant

Week 2 Series Blog

Enduring with Forbearance, without Interference

When I was a kid in the 80s, I used to hear this phrase a lot.  “While I don’t agree with what you say, I’ll defend to the death your right to say it.”   I laughed when it resurfaced in an episode of Family Guy in season 3’s Fish Out of Water episode.  For many men and women in my generation this is how we view tolerance (except with our siblings), and there are a few things embedded in the phrase that should be highlighted.  

1. Freedom of expression is good.

2. Disagreement is expected, and dialogue about those disagreements is healthy.

3. If we can’t agree, we don’t have to be enemies.

According to the Concise Oxford English Dictionary: 
tolerate
■ verb

1    allow the existence or occurrence of (something that one dislikes or disagrees with) without interference.

2    endure (someone or something unpleasant) with forbearance.

Let’s face it, dealing with people that disagree with our world views is often very difficult.  Sometimes it’s downright grating. However, it’s well within our capabilities as rational human beings to accept that while we may not agree with everybody we can at least acknowledge and accept that other views do exist, and that their mere existence isn’t necessarily harmful.

At some point in the last couple of decades, the cultural definition of tolerance has had a major shift and is now in direct conflict with the first definition of what it means to tolerate, such that interference (even to the point of violence) is encouraged.    

Simply stated, it goes something like this: If you don’t agree and accept my view as true, you’re intolerant.  

Or the even more extreme version: If you don’t agree and accept my view as true, you’re a bigot and I have the right to harm you in order to change your mind or remove your harmful presence from my space.

We’re facing two distinct views of what tolerance is, then.  The first that acknowledges the existence of other views and encourages a spirit of dialogue and truth seeking to resolve differences.  The second which says disagreements shouldn’t exist at all and we must accept all views as true, lest we be labeled as intolerant!  Yikes!  

What Does the Bible Teach?

How are Christians supposed to navigate this mess?  It’s impossible for all things to be true at the same time.  Based on the second definition of tolerance we’re all intolerant bigots!  How as a Christian can I tolerate Islam if that means I must now accept Islam as truth to avoid being labeled Islamophobic in the process?  Should I tell people they’re intolerant bigots for not accepting my Christian worldview? Somehow I think spreading the Gospel would be less effective if after sharing the message I add “and by the way, if you don’t believe Jesus was the Son of God, you’re an intolerant bigot” at the end.  

Navigating the balance of holding to objective Christian truths in a world that’s increasingly hostile to Christian faith is tough.  Let’s be honest, much of the intolerance floating around is directed at Christians, because from the outside looking in, we’re the very definition of intolerant bigotry.  Why? It’s because we pin what we hold as true, good, and right onto God, and not man.

Here’s the TL;DR answer:  Holding to the first view of tolerance will more and more bring with it a high cost, from those who think you hate them or even want to harm them if you disagree.   That said, the Bible has some things to say about all this and what to expect.

1. Persecution should be expected (John 15:18-25)  

It’s harder to get upset by something you were told in advance would happen.  I don’t mean you have to be happy about it. I’m just saying that if we remember this fact, it can take some of the personal edge off accusation of intolerance (and every colorful metaphor that goes with it) when they come.

2. The Bible’s high view on peace (Romans 12:8, Jeremiah 29:7)

We’re not doing the Gospel any favors if we’re fighting all the time.  Pick your battles. Let compassion and the Holy Spirit be at the center of all disagreement.  Some questions to ask yourself that might help with this one:

• If I don’t speak up, (in a compassionate way) is someone’s salvation at stake?
• Am I being pressured into accepting a view or action that would cause me to violate God’s Word?
•   Is my acceptance of a view or action impeding my willingness to carry out The Great Commission to spread the Gospel?

3. Be prepared to defend yourself (1 Peter 3:15)

If the answer is “yes” to any of those things, then by all means engage in winsome apologetics to draw someone into the beauty of the kingdom, remembering that Peter put a condition on this imperative.  

but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,

Have you ever walked away from a discussion or debate knowing that you spoke Truth and yet known at the same time that not one word of it pierced the heart and mind of the listener for the Kingdom?  Yea, I’m guilty as charged on that one. It’s because my delivery of that truth was completely devoid of compassion, gentleness, and respect. These things must be part of our toolkit as we engage with a post-truth culture that’s desperate for truth but is deaf to it when presented harshly.  Makes sense, right? If people view the church as full of hate because we don’t affirm and agree with every whim and desire of humanity, then a harsh delivery of truth pretty much confirms that view to the person we’re sharing with.  

Conclusion

I’m fond of saying this: “The further this country gets away from God, the worse things are going to get.”  Things are going to get worse, and the worse it gets, the more the culture around us will need what we have to offer them.  The Gospel.  

As Christians we can be model citizens of the first brand of social tolerance (endurance without interference) without sacrificing the truth of the Gospel in the process.  Like anything else in the Bible that Christ followers are asked to do, it’s just not easy. Expect conflict as our placement of objective truth and morale values upon God flies in the face of the ongoing culture war that says such things don’t exist.  Be effective peacemakers within our neighborhoods and workplaces by choosing our battles wisely. Finally, when those battles do come, defend the faith winsomely, respectfully, and gently to the glory of the One who is eager to welcome all who will come to Him.   Given the stakes, I think that’s something we can all tolerate.

-Written by James Boerner

Sermon notes from 9/8/19

As promised, here are Rick's sermon notes from 9/8/19. Thank you for your patience with our audio difficulties with the livestream!

KNOCK IT OFF

SE090819

1. THE TANGLED WEB

INTRO:

(Vital Church Survey Coming)

In 2004 the INTERNET was used by over a quarter of a billion people around the world, that’s 250 million people – the majority from the United States.  But that was just the tip of the iceberg in terms of how the Web would change our lives.

Some people saw it coming.  I found this quote from 2004:

• (SLIDE) “This technology, for better or for worse, is going to define us.  Even if we can manage to avoid it, what’s certain is that our children’s lives will be marked by it.  For them, the Internet is going to be as much a part of their world as the air they breathe. [The internet] is revolutionizing our lives and this is just the start of it.”
• That quote comes from this guy:
• (SLIDE) Rick Thiessen (Wise Pastor)

Well, it didn’t take a genius to make that prediction.  Fast forward to today: 

• 7.7 billion people on the planet, 
• 4.39 BILLION of them are internet users.  
• 5 Billion of them have mobile phones.  
• 3.5 billion use some form of social media, 
• 95% of those are mobile social media users
• meaning they can and do access their online community groups whenever and wherever they go.

Which means we are all now citizen of a new order, a digital order.  And this month, we’re going to talk about GOOD, digital citizenship for Christ followers in the new digital age.  We’ll ask this question, in regards to our contribution to the current temperature online:

• Are you Peace or are you Polarization?

Now before we get into that specifically, we should just acknowledge the positive things that Internet and Social Media have played in changing our lives:

1. INFORMATION:  When I was growing up, my parents spent years paying off this big old set of World Book Encyclopedia.  I still remember them… published in 1974. I was still using them for research papers in high school in the mid 80’s, going,
1. “Where’s the article on Ronald Regan and Cyndi Lauper?”
2. Now, the internet is more than an encyclopedia, it’s the entire repository of all human knowledge available to anyone on earth!  That’s mind blowing!

2. SOCIALLY: Think about the internet socially.  My parents live 1200 miles away, my brother 3000 in Atlanta.  20 years ago, I could only stay in touch with these people by a very expensive, very rare phone call.  Now, for free, I get to send snarky texts to my brother, the very second the Falcons lose the Superbowl!  It’s delightful! I get to keep in touch with and be enriched by friends past generations would simply forget, or lose track of, old high school friends, old college friends, extended family members.

3. ECONOMY: The Net is revolutionizing a global economy. Farmers in Papua, New Guinea, used to be at the mercy of whatever trader or merchant came along to take their crops for whatever price he would give them.  Now they have instant access to the world market for their crops.

4. EDUCATION: The Internet is revolutionizing education. Distance learning is making serious education a reality for millions of people who couldn’t afford it before.  

5. MINISTRY: Countries formerly closed to Christian material aren’t closed anymore.  Our church wants to present historic, life-changing truths about Jesus Christ to outsiders, scared of church, what could be more helpful for that purpose than giving people a virtual sample of us, ONLINE?

So the good news is the Internet can make us all 

• smarter, 
• richer, 
• better connected,
• with fresher breath,

But there are some things that the internet brought that exposed some dark tendencies in us.  For example. The internet means:

1. ANONYMITY IS UP

I can stalk your Facebook page without you knowing.  I can search for really dumb things like (and these are reach Google searches BTW):

• is it normal to be attracted to numbers?
• Do you ever look at yourself in the mirror and think what wattage is my microwave? 
• Are babies dishwasher safe?
• What do I do if a ginger kid bites me?

So three cheers for being able to anonymously search about that strange rash you’ve been showing!  But what’s the upshot of all that anonymity SOCIALLY? The upshot is this ANONYMITY UP, HONESTY DOWN.  One woman wrote a letter to a therapist. This is a real letter. She said, 

• "I’ve been talking to a man I met online for months now. He lives in Arizona.  He loves me. I know I love him. I know I want to be with him. But I didn’t tell him I’m married or that I have two children, and I said I was ten years younger than I am.  How can I tell him the truth and not lose him?"

Hello! Clue phone, it’s for you!  When the anonymity factor in relationships goes way up, safeguards against deception go down.  And that’s going to create problems. The second dynamic…

2. ACCOUNTABILITY DOWN

In regular 3-D life, my identity is known in the context of a network of relationships;

• where I work, 
• my neighborhood, 
• my extended family.  

What that means is if I mistreat you, our broader circle of acquaintances is going to know about that, and they’re going to call me to account.  There is a very positive social pressure in physical human community that is missing from virtual human community. 

ILLUS: I grew up in a small town and people used to complain, “I can’t pick my nose without someone hearing about it.”  You go into a restaurant in my hometown with my parents and you can point at anybody and they know personal information.

-    Who’s that?  Tony Goertzen, dad has cancer

-    Who’s that?  Abe Bergman, went bankrupt.

-    Who’s that?  Tina Friesen, divorced last year.

-    Well, who’s that?  Your auntie, she had a face lift, eh.

Like or not, human community for 100’s of years entailed people knowing you well, and that helped moderate bad behavior.  Because you would be held to account. When accountability goes down, I’m in trouble. And on the Net there’s almost no accountability.

Online Community promises, “there’s no eyes watching you, no one will know, there will be no repercussions.”

So this progresses, anonymity up, accountability down, which leads to a 3rd dynamic of the tangled web:

3. ACRIMONY UP

Acrimony is fancy word that means, bitterness, hostility.  If online it feels like I’m more anonymous, and if it feels like there’s less accountability, I’m going to do and say things that maybe are meaner than I normally would.

There’s a word for this effect of the internet on acrimonious interaction: 

• DISINHIBITION

What is that?  Well, “inhibition” is what I feel, when I feel eyes are on me, evaluating me.  

• Inhibition is why you don’t dance on the subway.  
• It’s why you don’t talk loudly in a waiting room.  
• It’s why you don’t drop your drawers in public.

(Some of you are thinking, but Rick I do all those things – we have counselors standing by!  Some things you’re supposed be reserved about!)

You are naturally inhibited by normal social pressure to NOT do stuff you know is bad.  So, what do you call it when such inhibition goes away? You call it dis-inhibition.  Surveys of thousands of Internet users found that a majority of them experience disinhibition regularly.

When this happens, 

• people engage in incredibly risky behavior
• people say deeply personal, secret things to virtual strangers
• people start using language they would never normally use in regular conversation.
• in short, they bump up ACRIMONY.  Harshness. Rancor. 
• Compared with face-to-face interactions, online we feel freer to do and say what we want and, as a result, often do and say things we shouldn't.

So, ANONIMYTY up, ACCOUNTABILITY down, leads to ACRIMONY up and there you have it:  what you and I live in for hours every day:

• THE NEW WILD WEST 
• the divided, divisive, harsh, often angry, polarized, mean WORLD of the WORLD WIDE WEB.

Now, let me be clear, the internet is not CREATING a condition, it is REVEALING a condition.  

ILLUS: Think of it this way: For over 75 years, the Slavs, the Croatians, Muslims, Christians, Bosnians, Russians, Georgians and a dozen other groups lived in peace and harmony under the control of the Soviet Union.  But in 1989, when the USSR collapsed, it was only a matter of months, in some cases weeks, before ethnic bitterness and vile racisms came flooding out between these groups.

Did freedom create this problem?  No, when the heavy handed control of the USSR went away – it simply revealed centuries old acrimony that had been living in people’s hearts the whole time.  

I want to speak to those of you here who might be investigating faith today.  Someone invited you, maybe you’re in talks about whether Christianity is at all reasonable or not.  Let me guess that one of the things that you struggle with about Jesus is that Jesus believed quite strongly in something called the “SIN NATURE”.

That is, Jesus believed something almost completely opposite of what people believe today.  We believe that people are basically good on the inside. Inside they are full of goodness and kindness and joy and good will and light.  Outwardly they may exhibit something different, but, we assure ourselves, “he has a good heart.”

Compare that to Jesus who said:

• Matt 15:18-20: What comes out of the mouth comes from the heart, and this defiles a man. For from the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual immoralities, thefts, false testimonies, blasphemies.

So we have two views of human nature here. On the secular side it’s this:

• Man’s nature is built on animal nature.  We are simply advanced monkeys. And yet, man’s nature is good and pure and only corrupted by his environment, external shame or guilt.

On the Christian side it’s this:

• Man’s nature is built on God’s nature.  We are or infinite worth, and made to be like God, but we are broken inside.  We’re glorious ruins. And now, inside us, our compass leans toward self profoundly and away from God and goodness.

You might not like the second view of human nature, but I want you to see two things:

• The first view is tortured logically.  Somehow we are advanced collections of atoms, which can have inherent worth or moral value, and yet we make a sheer leap to say our nature is good?  What is good, without God?  It’s a meaningless term that doesn’t fit the secular narrative at all, but we smuggle it in FROM CHRISTIANITY.  But look at the second view:
• It’s not hearts and flowers, OK, but it’s only one of the two views backed up by, you know… data.  Mountains of data. By millennia of human history. By personal experience. By holocausts and genocides and purges and feuds and divorce and abuse and neglect and greed.  
• AND by the way people act online when the veil of civility is lifted, when anonymity rules and the “true self” is allowed to come out.  
• It’s not pretty!!

There’s a clash of worldviews here friends, and you can’t land in the middle.  It’s Jesus view of human nature, we are glorious ruins that only Jesus can REMAKE, OR we are the smartest monkeys with a long history of fighting, killing, hating and selfishness, who are nevertheless somehow, good and unfallen.

• You pick.

Turn to the Apostle Paul who had the same view as his Master, Jesus:

He calls Christians in Col 3:5-6 to:

• Put to death the sinful, earthly things lurking within you. Have nothing to do with sexual immorality, impurity, lust, and evil desires. Don't be greedy, for a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world. 6 Because of these sins, the anger of God is coming

When Christians turn to Christ, it is because they realize that they need saving.  From what you might ask? Not first from a lousy economy, or a bad presidency, or oncoming environmental apocalypse, or cultural shame.  Nope, the first thing you need to be saved from, is sinful, earthly things. Where do we find them?   

• “lurking within you.”

They don’t live OUT THERE, such things live IN HERE.  Doesn’t this explain the dichotomy of our online world?  We have the riches of all human information, communication, collaboration, out there for the taking, and what do we use it for?

• Flaming out our neighbor for their hypocrisy, cruelty and intolerance. – EVIL DESIRES
• Surfing for images of naked people engaged in sexually explicit activity – SEXUAL IMMORALITY
• Shopping constantly to instantly gratify cravings for things we can’t afford to satisfy empty hearts. – GREED WHICH IS IDOLATRY.

Did the internet CREATE THIS in us?  No it did not. It revealed what was always, already there.  This hasn’t changed since Paul’s time.

So how do we get on the solution side of the problem that the TANGLED WEB reveals?  Let’s keep reading Paul:

Col 3:7-15

You used to do these things when your life was still part of this world.  But now is the time to get rid of anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, and dirty language.

1. GET GENTLE

One of the things that has been lost online, because of the anonymity, accountability, acrimony spiral is trust.  We don’t trust each other. And when you don’t trust, there’s a powerful feeling of justification that comes over you in how you handle an untrustworthy person.  In short, you can afford to be rough with an untrustworthy person.

• IN fact, it is RIGHT to be ROUGH.
• They lie, I can lie back.
• They are fascists, I can hate them.
• They are neo-nazies, I can slander them.
• They are heretics I can rage against them.
• They are legalists, I can use filthy language in front of them.

I don’t doubt that courageous truth telling may often require that some pleasantries be suspended, and certainly Paul was very direct at times.  But the rule of interaction for Jesus people is you never have a right to be rough.  

Think about all your online interactions this past year.  Could any of them be described by Paul’s words:

• anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, and dirty language.

Soak in that one for a second.  Your online interactions versus the call of God’s Word.  Do you feel this?  The disconnect? I do!  Oh, the rage, the anger that rises in me with some Social Media commentary!  The malice in my heart, when I just want to return a nasty comment to make a person feel hurt the way I hurt – that’s malice friend!  The lack of concern for how my comments might slander. 

• Slander: false statements that damage a person’s reputation.

I ask again, how have you handled yourself online?  With…

• Your liberal auntie in LA who won’t listen to reason.
• Your conservative high school friend who believes in dumb conspiracy theories.
• The argument about the president, 
• The one about the economy, 
• The one about vaccinations!

Friend, God says, you never have a right to be rough.  This kind of Wild West, I kick butt and take names, I don’t care what you think of me, I’m going to speak my mind – this is the old nature.  The sin nature lurking within.  It’s that thing that Jesus died to save us from.  It’s evil and it has no place in your life. Get rid of it, Paul says.

2. GET REAL

But Paul will keep going.  

• Col 3:9-10: Don't lie to each other, for you have stripped off your old sinful nature and all its wicked deeds.  Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him.

The temptation to deceive is there in all of us, and it’s gets magnified in VIRTUALAND.  The anonymity, accountability, acrimony spiral calls to us to lie, all the time.  To put on masks to hide behind. When you strip off the old Nature, Christian, you ask God to take off your masks.

ILLUS: There’s a story about that.  A guy is unemployed. He’s quite desperate for work, and he reads of an opening at the zoo. He goes to apply for the job, and the zookeeper says, 

• "Well, it’s a little embarrassing actually. We don’t have any regular jobs. What happened was our gorilla died recently, and we don’t have enough money to replace him.  So we’re looking for somebody to put on a gorilla suit and pretend to be a gorilla in the cage for a while. Whadaya say?"

The guy was a bit put off by this but he can’t find anything else, so he comes back later and takes the job. He puts on the gorilla suit, goes into the cage, and he actually starts getting into it. He starts thumping his chest and pounding down bananas. And there’s a vine, so he starts swinging on the vine like he’s seen in Tarzan movies.

Problem is, he gets a little carried away, and ends up swinging so aggressively, he swings over the wall and lands into the next cage, which is the lion’s cage. So he’s lying on the floor of this cage, and all of a sudden, the lion is on top of him. He feels the hot breath of the lion on his face, and he just loses it.

He starts screaming, 

• "Get me out of here!" forgetting, you know, what he’s supposed to be doing.  So there’s this gorilla on the floor screaming, "Get me out of here!" in the lion’s cage.  

And then he hears the lion hiss at him:

• “Shut up, you idiot, or we’ll both lose our jobs!”

There’s not one authentic creature in the whole zoo!  And maybe in the online zoo we visit every day, we could say that too.  Not one authentic, non-mask wearing person.  

How do you fight this?  Get real.

But I hesitate to tell you to get more real on your Facebook feed, because we’ve all seen very, very vulnerable posts that we all cringed at, because they were too intimate, too public.  And that’s another example, BTW, of disinhibition. Intimate stuff you wouldn’t normally share about yourself where 30 million people could see, you lay out there for the world to see.

Bottom line, AC3, Involve yourself in some 3-D, real-life, intimacy-producing relationships because the temptation to hide the truth about myself is a powerful pull.  That’s why we have to train ourselves to GROUP. (APPLICATIONS)

It’s a discipline, and all the more important in our Virtual World.  We have to strategically meet with other Christians, set aside that time.  Maybe forgo online time for real-time relationships. Then 

• intentionally take off our masks, 
• intentionally let somebody else see me the way that I really am.  
• And in getting real, I will get healed.

I’m getting to the point now that if an online relationship doesn’t lead naturally and inexorably to eye to eye, mouth to ear relating, I don’t see the value.  Without that, it’s in some way false, and Paul said, “Stop lying to each other.”

CONCLUSION:

Friend, the veil of a computer screen has hidden my brother’s face from me, and this has had a devastating effect on the virtue of gentleness.  But if you and I are to be instruments of peace in a world of polarization, we have to recover it. 

Simply put it on, Paul says, like new clothes…:

Col 3:10-11

Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him… 12 Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tender-hearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. 13 Make allowance for each other's faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. 14 Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony.