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Been studying the sibling relationships in Genesis lately–Cain & Abel, Issac & Ishmael, Jacob & Esau, Jospeph & his brothers, all of ‘em wracked with rivalry.  And the women in Genesis are no better, like Sarah & Hagar, Rachel & Leah.  In fact, the twelve tribes were born in a riot of jealousy among and between Jacobs wives. The Bible is trying to tell us something here.  Envy, rivalry between brothers-sisters-peers is running riot in the human condition.  And God seems to inflame it with his willingness to prefer, to favor, to choose.
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Climate change is testing us–the global human family, that is.  That’s what I think. Obviously, you don’t have to agree with me.  But climate change is also testing the American church, in particular.  Tests on a global scale are promised in Scripture.  ” I will keep you safe in the time of trial coming on the whole world, to put the people of the world to the test.”  (Rev. 3:10)
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Some in my faith community can get a little testy when Charles Darwin’s name comes up.  So when Carl Safina, my friend the atheist and ocean conservationist, told me that Jesus and Darwin were his two heroes, I decided it was time to read Darwin’s Origin of Species for myself. After all, I’ve often challenged those who have any prickly opinions about Christianity to temper said opinions by reading the gospels.  Much can be learned by going to the source documents.
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When Jesus appears vividly and visually in your prayers–not like he stood before Saul of Tarsus, perhaps, but like he can surprise us when we slip into a silence that comes alive visually–well, you take notice.  I’ve been praying for over thirty years as a Jesus follower and I can only think of three times that this happened.  Each one feels as real or more real than ordinary reality and each one is seared into my memory. Each has taken me years to digest. Thank God he doesn’t show up this way more often.  I’d be on overload.
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Doesn’t work the righteousness of God.  Said James, the brother of Jesus.  The brother of Jesus: a man who grew up with Jesus as his brother.  Imagine growing up with Jesus as your brother.   Would it be easy?  Your mother hid secrets in her heart about her firstborn son, your elder brother. He stays behind in the temple because he believes it to be his father’s house and sends the family into a worried frenzy.  In Mark’s gospel the brothers of Jesus seek to do an intervention, thinking he’d gone mad.  In John’s gospel one of the brothers of Jesus sarcastically urges him to go to Jerusalem where all the would-be prophets make a name for themselves.   So perhaps by personal experience James understood that the anger of man doesn’t work the righteousness of God.   Do we?
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Emotional intelligence matters when it comes to spreading the gospel.  Jesus had it.  When he saw the crowds he felt compassion for them because they were harassed and downtrodden, like sheep without a shepherd.  He had the emotional intelligence to look past all the things that might have annoyed or angered him about the crowds, and saw them instead in a sympathetic, yes, empathetic, light. The culture war approach to Christianity, so prevalent in the church today, ruins our emotional intelligence and understandably makes the crowds fearful of the church–no wonder they are staying away in droves.  No wonder the growingest sector of religious affiliation is “nones” and I don’t mean “nuns.”
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Thanks I needed that break.  Vacation did me a world of good as well as a mission trip to Costa Rica with our youth group.  Costa Rica, where the average income is $250 per month.  A week there convinced me of something: I’m greedy.

The greedy are nailed throughout the Bible as sinners of a serious variety.  The prophets denounce the greedy.   Paul has more than a warning or two.  The greedy are among those who shouldn’t presume on entrance to the kingdom. Jesus didn’t make it easy for the greedy to follow without leaving much of their stuff behind.
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This is a guest post from Steve Hamilton, a young Vineyard pastor in Maryland who is  active in mobilizing the church to help the victims of human trafficking.  Steve hosts his own blog, verse by verse.

The pathos [sorrow, suffering, pity are synonyms] of God is on the prophet. It moves him. It breaks out in him like a storm in the soul, overwhelming his inner life, his thoughts, feelings, wishes and hopes. It takes possession of his heart, giving him courage to act.”

- Abraham Joshua Heschel

You know how when you are in a conversation with someone and stumble upon some topic that they are really into, and they start getting all passionate and animated, and it makes you take a step back and say “Okay…tell me how you really feel about that…”; well, I believe for God, that issue is justice or what we might more precisely call biblical justice.  Biblical justice is the more precise term that I prefer, mostly because it reflects the range of justice issues that I see God clearly and deeply cares about, as witnessed in scripture and in my own experience.  The issues of biblical justice are social, economic and environmental.  They are also intertwined and interconnected.
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How did we, the friends of the friend of sinners get to this place?  Jesus was known as the friend of sinners.  He took a lot of guff for being the friend of sinners.  These “sinners” were a social class, not simply a theological category.  They were people on the outside of Israel’s accepted circle for a host of reasons. They were not mobsters or murderers or notorious offenders.  (You notice that “tax collectors” and “prostitutes” were often given a distinct designation alongside “sinners” in the gospels.)   Jesus so identified with “sinners” as to bring upon himself the judgment of the religiously self-righteous.  He expects us to be the friend of sinners, which means our righteousness has to exceed that of the Pharisees; it has to be a righteousness of pure sermon-on-the-mount love, not a righteousness that depends on harsh condemnations and judgment of others–the “business as usual” approach to sinners.  We need to get our gentle back.
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Every systematic theology, every air-tight system, every completely consistent view of the bible, every logically constructed and perfectly put together faith, crashes like waves on the shoreline of  God.  Because the Bible is not the system in written form and the system, once “discovered” (read: invented)  is not the solution. The Bible is a living, breathing, personal witness to a living, breathing, personal God, with whom we have to do.  This is what drives us crazy about the God revealed in the Bible–a God of mystery, paradox, plain speech, simple commands, subtly, a.k.a. a personal God: a someone with whom we have to do.  Directly.  Last night I went to sleep dreaming-praying…
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