Larry Norman's "I Wish We'd All Been Ready" & Unbiblical Christian Culture - Jacob Wright

Whole swaths of western Christian world passionately believe and espouse a strange doctrine that can be found nowhere in scripture and was completely foreign to church theology until the 1800's.

Remember the song "I Wish We'd All Been Ready" written by Larry Norman in the 60's and covered by DC Talk in the 90's? It's about Christians worldwide suddenly disappearing in The Rapture.

I remember sleepless, anxious nights as a child sitting alone on the staircase of the house where I grew up.  I wondered if I should go wake my parents to comfort me, terrified that Jesus would return and take my family away leaving me behind because I was not right with him due to some unconfessed sin or something.

I still can't believe that whole swaths of western Christian world passionately believe and espouse a strange doctrine that can be found nowhere in scripture and was completely foreign to church theology until the 1800's.

Thankfully, I think due to the availability of information on the Internet, good Bible exegetes like NT Wright, and a thousand failed false prophecies of when the rapture would happen, and maybe some really bad rapture movies, the rapture is being left behind by a lot of the western church.

But this is also a lesson concerning popular theology. Look how The Rapture became a self-evident "Biblical truth" within a century.

What else might we have wrong?

What else are we projecting onto scripture because of how we have been told to read scripture?

Justice For And Solidarity With The Poor - Shane Claiborne

Frederick Buechner - Jesus Says Turn Toward Compassion

Tim Keller - Christians Need To Condemn White Nationalism

Christianity's Revolutionary Protest - Dietrich Bonhoffer

Responsive Call To Worship: Love God and Love People (based on Mark 12:30-31)

Reader: As followers of Christ, we are called to bring
a hopeful understanding of our world ...

ALL: ... declaring that God called the created universe "good."

Reader: We are called to bring this hope in God
with us wherever we go...

ALL: ... declaring that God makes all things new again.

Reader: Jesus taught that we should love God and love one another.

ALL: So let's join together in our love of God to worship and give thanks.

Call To Worship: We Have Come, Seeking (based on Proverbs 2:1-5)

We have come, seeking, so may God once again speak with wisdom that guides us. We have come to hear God's voice, so may we open our ears and our hearts. May God once again respond with love deepens our compassion. For this boundless love, we have come to give thanks together.

Call To Worship: God Speaking To Our Souls (based on Psalm 119)

God, you continually move within and around us. In one way or another, you are always speaking to our souls. May we tend to these seeds that you plant so that they can grow. We need your grace to water our often dry, dehydrated souls. May we hear your voice in everything within and around us. Make our souls open to your grace and love in every part of the universe.

God, you move us like a gentle breeze on the water. May our minds be open in expectation. May our hearts be stirred by your spirit as we pray, sing, and listen together.

We’ve Watered Down Jesus’ Message For Our Own Comfort - Rev Joe Kay

Many Christians are tempted to confine Jesus’ message to such a small part of our lives that it’s effectively neutered. They then live by opposite values — self-importance, money, power, privilege.

A recent story called “U.S. Christians are more than twice as likely to blame a person’s poverty on lack of effort” caught my eye.

Sadly, I wasn’t surprised.

Many Christians are tempted to confine Jesus’ message to such a small part of our lives that it’s effectively neutered. They then live by opposite values — self-importance, money, power, privilege — in most areas of life and call it "Christian."

In our market-driven, individualistic society, we all like to believe that we “deserve” what we have, and those who are struggling simply are unworthy. We comfort ourselves by thinking that we are better and more deserving. This gives us the permission to be concerned entirely about ourselves.

Jesus challenges that attitude directly and unreservedly.

The full article is available here

Desmond Tutu - "God's Dream"

Call To Worship: Come, All Who Are Weary (based on Matthew 11:28-30)

Come, all that are weary; all that are carrying heavy burdens. In God, there is rest. Come, take what God has to offer: love, forgiveness, and grace. In God, we can find peace.

Come, let us give thanks to the God of all good things. Let us praise God, who is our source of hope

Evolving Mental Models of Spirituality - Progressive Christianity

If we are on a spiritual journey, we should be constantly evolving our “mental models” about how the world works, how we fit into it, who or what God is (or isn’t) and how God works in the world.

Scientists use mental models all the time. They imagine a structure that explains the known data, whether of a gene or a galaxy, and then proceed to ask questions and collect more data to refine that model.  When too many results don’t fit the current model, they will conclude that the model must be wrong and they will find a new one that does explain the data.

It can seem challenging for many folks to do this when it comes to their spiritual models, but it’s really just the same process. We look for a new model that better explains God based on what we have observed and experienced, when the old ones don’t seem to fit any more.

This has been done through out history. For example, when humans discovered the causes of natural disasters through increased/new scientific understanding, they were no longer described as being "acts of God." Plate tectonics, atmospheric pressure, and the like were correctly identifying as being the causal agents.

The full article is available here