That if they really wanted to get ahead in this free country where “all your dreams can come true,” then they could.

These types of arguments are largely presumptive.  It presupposes knowledge of individuals that we don’t have.

And it vastly underestimates the chronic ferocity of poverty. Once it has you in its clutches it does not let go easily. Those of us who do make more the federal poverty level have experienced our own financial setbacks.

Those setbacks can be devastating.  Try it when you have no safety net and it can be cataclysmic.

And 6-7 bucks an hour for any entry level job will not provide any source of long-term security.

About 5 years ago Barbara Ehrenreich wrote the classic Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America.  As research for the book she held several entry level jobs to see how unskilled laborers lived their lives.  It is a highly informative and eye-opening read.  I highly encourage it.

In her most recent blog entry Ms. Ehrenreich asks the question “Can you afford to be poor?” She writes:

…(I)t’s expensive to be poor. In fact, you, the reader of middling income, could probably not afford it.

A new study from the Brookings Institute documents the “ghetto tax,” or higher cost of living in low-income urban neighborhoods. It comes at you from every direction, from food prices to auto insurance. A few examples from this study, by Matt Fellowes, that covered 12 American cities:

• Poor people are less likely to have bank accounts, which can be expensive for those with low balances, and so they tend to cash their pay checks at check-cashing businesses, which in the cities surveyed, charged $5 to $50 for a $500 check.
• Nationwide, low-income car buyers, defined as people earning less than $30,000 a year, pay two percentage points more for a car loan than more affluent buyers.
• Low-income drivers pay more for car insurance. In New York, Baltimore and Hartford, they pay an average $400 more a year to insure the exact same car and driver risk than wealthier drivers.
• Poorer people pay an average of one percentage point more in mortgage interest.
• They are more likely to buy their furniture and appliances through pricey rent-to-own businesses. In Wisconsin, the study reports, a $200 rent-to-own TV set can cost $700 with the interest included.
• They are less likely to have access to large supermarkets and hence to rely on the far more expensive, and lower quality offerings, of small grocery and convenience stores.

So let’s have a little less talk about how the poor should learn to manage their money, and a little more attention to all the ways that money is being systematically siphoned off. Yes, certain kinds of advice would be helpful: skip the pay-day loans and rent-to-pay furniture, for example. But we need laws in more states to stop predatory practices like $50 charges for check-cashing. Also, think what some micro-credit could do to move families from motels and shelters to apartments. And did I mention a living wage?

If you’re rich, you might want to stay that way. It’s a whole lot cheaper than being poor.

Jesus said that we would always have the poor with us.  He said that because that is where the disciple of Christ is called to go and minister.  He did not say that so we could throw up our hands and say our work is done.

May we develop a greater heart for the poor and the forgotten.

(HT: Aaron Monts)

Therefore, I will not blog today.

I was going to blog about the anger I feel about the injustice, hatred and mean-spiritedness I witness all too often in the world today.

But, I removed it, because it seemed too angry and mean-spirited on my part.

So, I’ll just keep quiet and lay low. I’ll remain quiet out of the fear of offending. I’ll still my voice in order to avoid stirring the waters of public debate and frustration.

Nope, no blogging today.

I’m probably wrong anyway.

• I’m probably wrong to care less about the USA than I do the Kingdom of God.
• I’m probably wrong to believe that war is wrong and violence is never the answer.
• I’m probably wrong to view children of Iraqi’s to be as precious as my own.
• I’m probably wrong to want my children to go to public school (even though I support Private education and have benefited from it) so they can learn at an early age to be salt and light.
• I’m probably wrong to believe that laws are often misguided and the health of a nation depends upon dissent against civil rights abuses. Maybe Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr shouldn’t be heroes of mine.
• I’m probably wrong to believe that it means something that the one time Jesus talked about judgment He did so in regards to how we treat the poor and the forgotten.
• I’m probably wrong to interpret grace into Old Testament laws of dealing with sojourners and aliens.
• I’m probably wrong to worry about genocide and AIDS in other lands when there is so much here to be concerned about like Brangelina’s baby.
• I’m probably wrong to want to love more than I judge.
• I’m probably wrong to believe that hatred runs deep into the fabric of American society–against gays, illegal immigrants, the French, Democrats, Republicans, minorities, or whatever group catches our ire at this particular point in time.
• I’m probably wrong about worrying about having too much “stuff.” I should just suck it up and buy a new car since the one I’m driving doesn’t have air conditioning in this Texas heat.
• I’m probably wrong to believe that the words of Jesus should propel us to make peace, love enemies, and deny self.
• I’m probably wrong to believe that political parties cannot be champions of the Kingdom due to differing agendas.
• I’m probably wrong to feel so discontent with the state of the church’s compassion, love and humanity for the lost, disaffected, poor and foreigner.
• I’m probably wrong to feel so much regret for all the times I’ve harbored hatred, hurled ethnic slurs, branded sinful people with vitriolic names, and supported agendas that suited me at the expense of others.
• I’m probably wrong to believe that being stewards of God’s creation means care for the creation and not just domination of it.
• I’m probably wrong to believe the greatest terrorist threat is not one of flesh and blood.
• I’m probably wrong to believe that it is a travesty that so many cannot afford insurance.
• I’m probably wrong to believe that liberals can be Christians despite what some might say.

So, instead of blogging today, I’ll just keep my mouth shut.  I’ll not unburden my heart.

Cause, I’m probably wrong.

Although I sure don’t feel like I am.

In fact, I feel like I’m getting closer to the heart of Jesus.

And I really pray I’m not wrong about that.

I remember having a “congregational meeting” to interview one of the finalists.  One of our members made the statement that “we don’t want a preacher that will make us feel bad.  His job is to make us feel good.”  The candidate handled the statement well.

But I remember thinking at the time how poorly conceived that thought was.

When I transitioned to full-time preaching I wrestled with what my role would be.  The need to be liked and well-received was overwhelming.  I wanted people to love every one of my sermons.  I wanted them to be impressed with my preaching ability.

Working too hard to be a good preacher is a sure-fire way to become a very bad one.  Ineffective at best, relying on emotional ploys to garner response.  Dangerous at worst, forcing others to rely on the messenger for insight rather than the message.

I needed to relearn a lesson that I had been taught back in 1991.  I had been interning as a youth minister for about a year at my congregation.  It was time to take our kids to the annual Uplift camp at Harding University.

As I walked through Benson Auditorium that first day, I was grabbed by the director of the camp and told that I was needed to teach a class that week.  I was simultaneously thrilled and terrified.

I had never taught at a youth rally before.  I was not a Harding student.  I was a philosophy major at a state school.

I spent all that night preparing to the best of my ability.  My first class? 6 kids showed up.

I was discouraged.

But, apparently, they liked it and told other kids about it.  Through the week my class grew.  I was elated.  Maybe I had a future in this Youth Ministry thing after all.

At one point in the week one of my mentors, Mike Harris, pulled me aside and asked me how it was going.  In my excitement I began to tell him how great the class was.

He then gave me a bit of wisdom that I have never forgotten.  He said, “Right now, you are doing this for yourself.  Keep at it and you will eventually start doing it for the kids, and that’s good.  But if you commit to this in prayer you will eventually start doing this for God, and that is when your ministry will really mean something.”

I was angry at the time.  Over the years, however, I have learned how right Mike was.  I was doing it for myself.

15 years later, I still battle that.  Am I preaching for myself? To make people like me? So they can say how great a preacher I am? To become known in the “brotherhood?”
Or am I preaching for the people?  That their ears will be tickled?  That they will feel fulfilled with another decent Sunday service?

Or am I preaching for God?  If so, I must preach truth. No matter how difficult it might be.

No matter how hard it is to understand, I must be faithful to where God is leading me.

I have had some suggest that maybe I say too much.  That there is risk in saying all that I do.  Yet if I follow the leading of God, don’t I preach my (imperfect) understanding of Scripture?

Is my job just to make people feel better?  Is it to be safe?  I can preach (and blog) competely innocuous sermons (and posts).  But is it truly to the glory of God?

The gospel is not safe.  It is not always an easy message.  To be the inbreaking of the Kingdom we must live sacrificial lives.  We must seek to embody the message of Jesus in our daily affairs.

My job is to proclaim Jesus and His Kingdom come.  To be honest, it does make me nervous.  It is unsettling at times to encourage people to delve deeper into their understanding of the Christ.  Every week, I tremble with the full import and impact of the message.

This calling is both a burden and a blessing.

It’s scary to teach a message that got the original messenger killed.

But if I am preaching for God, don’t I preach the totality of the Word, no matter how uncomfortable it might make us?

Picking up our crosses, dying to ourselves is not a message that you can preach if you are preaching merely for yourself or your audience.  You must be preaching for the glory of God to reach that level.

I’m not there yet, but I am striving for it.

Health insurance had never been a problem for me personally.  I had been covered throughout my adult life either through self-employment or by the church I worked for.

Now, granted, I did not have any grandiose notions about the benevolence or the ethics of health insurance companies.  For three years BCBS tried to stick us with the bill for Chloe’s birth, despite the fact that Tracy had been covered throughout her pregnancy and delivery. It took years of attorneys, threats of litigation, and stress to get them to pay what they rightfully owed.
When I moved to Michigan and began pastoring a congregation of less than 100 people, the luxury of provided insurance was no longer viable.  I now had to secure coverage for me and my family.

Tracy and Chloe were no problem.  I got them insured soon after we arrived in Port Huron, although at astronomical rates.

Yet, no one would cover me.  I was 34 years old and without insurance. With one child and another one soon to be on the way there was no safety net if something happened to me. I was deemed too much of a medical uncertainty for ANY insurance company to take a risk on me.

Sure, I was overweight with elevated cholesterol.  I was on synthroid for hypothyroidism.  During the final days of my disastrous youth ministry in Texas, I had taken some anti-depressants.  But come on, Zoloft is like candy in our prescription happy society.

But, I was healthy.  I had no serious problems.  I had never been sick a day in my life.  There was no alarming family history of medical problems.

Yet, no one would cover me. 

And in the state of Michigan, no one had to.  That’s capitalism, friends.  Competition is good, right?

3 miles away, across Lake Huron, however, my Canadian neighbors had insurance. They had quality coverage, cheap prescription benefits and access to expert care.  Everyone was covered.
Yet, on the streets of America, I was one of 44 million uninsured people.  The richest, most powerful country in the world offered little to no protection to its citizens in the event of a medical catastrophe.

The game was driven by HMOs caring more for profit and competition than for patients and care. These organizations proscribe choice and hamstring doctors from providing complete and total treatment.

Fortunately, I found one doctor who made it easier for me to navigate this period.  She continually waived large portions of the office visit fee and kept me stocked with samples so that I did not have prescription costs, which would have been sizeable without coverage.  To me, she was the epitome of what American health care should be.

Eventually the prospect of what could happen forced my wife to return to work.  She works, to this day, for the sole purpose of providing health insurance.  Her paycheck usually amounts to less than we pay for child-care.  (But that’s another issue, entirely.)
My experience was a wake-up call to see the health care crisis that we face in this country. My first-hand encounter with the heartless pursuit of capitalistic competition was enough to give me pause.

We can spend billions of dollars a minute on a war, we can send rebates and “economic stimulus” checks but we can’t provide better coverage for hard-working Americans?

I became a proponent of health-care reform.

Next-OIL and Lee Camp

For further reading, I suggest Critical Condition : How Health Care in America Became Big Business–and Bad Medicine.

When Johns got up to speak, nerves were already heightened.  Preachers of both races had never met together before.  And now, they were meeting to talk about unity.  Dismissing the opportunity to be a uniter, Johns upbraided his white brethren for caring only about Jesus after his death:

“The thing that disappoints me about the Southern white church is that it spends all of its time dealing with Jesus after the cross, instead of dealing with Jesus before the cross. The church has not formally denounced the Sermon on the Mount. It has merely let it slide. I want to deal with Jesus before the cross.”

That hits close to home.  For, I feel that is exactly what I have done. I have misunderstood Paul when he said “I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified (1 Corinthians 2:2).”  That “and” is important.  What Jesus said should hold for us added weight.

But often in our preaching to lead others to accept Christ we have encouraged others to except Christ.  “Believe in His death, burial and resurrection, but feel free to qualify His harder sayings.”

Instead of timeless truths, we produce a watered down version of the gospel.  We have Jesus excepted rather than Jesus accepted:

• Blessed are the meek, except for those of us in need of a healthy dose of pride and self-esteem.
• Blessed are the merciful, except for those who don’t deserve mercy.
• Blessed are the peacemakers, except for when we need to protect our own, defend our borders, or make the world safer.
• Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, unless their view of righteousness disagrees with our political position.
• Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also, except for your enemies and terrorists.
• Love your enemies except for your enemies.
• Give to the needy except those who don’t need it or take advantage of it.
• Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, except a big house, huge car and all the accoutrements your heart desires.
• Do not be anxious about your life, except for when you are really worried about something.
• Judge not, except for those whose sins we especially despise.
• Do unto others as you would have them do unto you, except for when pre-emptive measures call for violence.

This is harsh, I know.  But how often have we done just that?  How often have we qualified the words of Jesus applying our conditions to what He said?  How often have we thought we had a better handle on it than Jesus Himself did?
“Yes, Jesus said that, but…”  If Jesus said it, there should be no buts.

And if we applied what He said to our lives.  If we truly lived His teachings, what would happen?  What would the world look like?  If only we knew whether or not that would work.

Wait, we do:   Jesus said, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:35

I am commiting to live my life more in acceptance of Jesus and what He said rather than excepting what He said.

I think I will be better off.  And more will see Him in me.

Prophets make us uncomfortable.
But Jonah is a cute story.
We all know the story of Jonah. Jonah is tapped by God to go to the great city of Nineveh. He is to preach to them, yet he refuses by running the other way.
Instead of going where God sent Him we see in 1:3 Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went on board, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord.
A great storm comes up, and determining the source of the storm being none other than Jonah, they captain and crew throw him overboard.

Of course, by heading the opposite way he is swallowed up by a great fish.

1:17 And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

The story of Jonah is more than just a cute kid’s story, however. It is a damning indictment on those of us who fail to minister as God has called us to minister.In Matthew 12 the Pharisees are swirling around Jesus. His insistence of plucking grain and healing on the Sabbath and driving out the demon-possessed man has them apoplectic.
Because of his audacity and his teaching they demand to see further signs.

Matthew 12:38
Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” 39 But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. 41 The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.
Jesus makes the connection between himself and Jonah in this passage, the only time Jesus compares Himself to another prophet.
He says that He is greater than Jonah. But how? By following a different path. Jonah’s path led him away from God. Jesus’ path led Him to the lost.

Jesus makes the connection between himself and Jonah in this passage, the only time Jesus compares Himself to another prophet.He says that He is greater than Jonah. But how? By following a different path. Jonah’s path led him away from God. Jesus’ path led Him to the lost.There is no more polarizing issue in America today than that of homosexuality.
It is one of the major issues that will face the church in the coming years.
The issue is not whether or not the homosexual lifestyle is permissible or not but how we treat those who struggle with this behavior.

Often times in our debates and our passions over this issue we forget the precious souls caught in the crossfire between our religious convictions and our call to minister to the unlovable and the outcast.
For, understand this, despite our convictions on homosexuality we are called to love homosexuals.
I want to tell you a story about this struggle:
Now traveling throughout the country, the Soulforce Equality Ride is taking 33 young adults on a seven-week bus tour to confront colleges that ban the enrollment of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students.
They have modeled themselves after the civil rights freedom rides of the early 1960’s. They have schooled themselves in non-violent resistance.

They began in Lynchburg Virginia on March 10th and will finish on April 26th at the U.S. Military Academy.
To date here is what has happened:

Liberty University—Arrested amid jeers and slurs.
Regent University—Arrested
Lee University—Their bus defaced with slurs
Union University—Barred from campus by police tape threatening arrest if they trespassed the lines.
Oral Roberts—Arrested
Abilene Christian University—Placed in hotels, given the opportunity to talk to students

—Arrested amid jeers and slurs.—Arrested—Their bus defaced with slurs—Barred from campus by police tape threatening arrest if they trespassed the lines.—Arrested—Placed in hotels, given the opportunity to talk to students“After careful consideration and discussions about who we are as a university, we decided the best way to affirm our core Christian values would be to treat Soulforce as Christ would – to have peaceful, patient dialogue about these issues while respectfully and clearly articulating why we believe as we do,” said Dr. Royce Money, ACU president.

said Dr. Royce Money, ACU president.“During the visit, the Equality Riders and ACU students and employees discussed topics related to discrimination and violence toward GLBT individuals, as well as theological implications of homosexual behavior. In each session, ACU faculty and administrators helped facilitate the dialogue and guide the discussion.
ACU planners of the event said they were proud of the university’s students.”

From a Soulforce Rider:
“This is the first school to offer us an official welcome and provide us with forums and the space to give presentations and attend classes and have structured dialogues with students, faculty, and staff. It struck me when we first arrived in the room to eat dinner that the smallest of courtesies — providing us with nametags — indicated that they cared about who we were and wanted to get to know us as individuals.
“No other school has given us such a welcome, and for this we applaud the administration of ACU.”

Question for us: which college represented the spirit of Jesus rather than the spirit of Jonah?
Never once condoning sin but always loving people.

Never once condoning sin but always loving people.Jesus compared himself to Jonah. And there are important parallels:
1. Both were swallowed up—Jonah by the whale, Jesus by a tomb.
2. Both were spit out—Jonah onto dry land, Jesus back among the living.
3. Both had 40 days—Jonah to warn of Nineveh’s destruction, Jesus to walk the earth before ascension.

But there is an important contrast:

· Jonah was swallowed up because he refused to love. Jonah was not swallowed by a big fish because He ran from God but because He failed to realize where God was. See, we think that God appears to Jonah in Israel and Jonah turns around and runs the opposite direction. But, God was already in Nineveh. By running from the presence of God there is acknowledgment that God was among the people that Jonah hated most.
And, understand this, Jonah hated the Ninevites. He did not want to tell them the good news of God’s salvation. They were a threat to the chosen people of God. They represented everything they were supposed to stand against. Everything that was wrong with society. They were evil idolaters. Detestable and low. And he was going to get as far from those scum as he could—a trip to Tarshish would be about 3 years round trip.
The message of God’s covenant relationship, to Jonah, was available only to the Jews, to the righteous.

· Jesus was swallowed up because he loved. Jesus went precisely where God called Him to go:

o Not to the religious but to the lost—Pharisees did not care to know Jesus. They wanted a sign but what good would it have done. They didn’t recognize the Savior, they weren’t going to recognize a sign. But the lost recognized the Savior.
o Not to the righteous but to the sinners
o Not to the elite but to the common—Where did Jesus eat His meals, find His friends?
o Not to the important but to the forgotten
o Not to the whole but to the broken

The criticism against Jonah was that he did not go to the people that God called him to go to.
The criticism against Jesus is that He did go to those people.
In the life of Jesus, He turned the understanding of social interaction on its head.
Decorum suggested that you don’t lessen yourself.
That you hang out with people in your stratum. But Jesus didn’t do that—He befriended sinners, harlots, tax collectors, lepers.

Jonah didn’t want to do that. He was angry when God forgave the people of Nineveh. Legalism hates mercy.
He never repents—of running, of hating the Ninevites, of valuing legalism over grace.

But Jesus rejoices when anyone comes to Him.

Are we like the modern-day Pharisees (of who Jonah would have been a good candidate) talking a good game about going into the world yet pulling up short against walking into the fray and (shudder) engaging sinners?

Do we want to place police tape around our lives and run from the presence of God—who makes it abundantly clear in Scripture that He is where the people are?

Do we want to threaten arrest or marginalization for those who struggle with their very identity—when it was to those people that Jesus gravitated?

Can we sleep while the world around us swirls in turmoil, content with our decision to reject God’s call to love the least of these while Jesus takes up the basin and towel and ministers to the downtrodden?

Are we that peaceful with disobeying God? He slept. He was at peace with his decision to run from those God wanted to touch. Too often we do the same.

Who are we? Are we as Christ or are we Jonah?
Where are we going? To where the people are no matter how unseemly it may seem to us? Or are we running from those we don’t like and in essence running from God?

What can we do to honor the scarlet thread in Jonah?

1. Pray that you will love people more—(Tell about my prayer)

2. Confront your prejudices—(Dish Network Tech Support)

3. Seek to minister to those you wouldn’t ordinarily—(My story of people coming to me; Rebecca Younger)

4. Understand you will pay—Unfortunately, some of us don’t want to see others go into the world. For fear of who or what we might bring back. For fear of communicating the wrong message. For hatred of those who struggle with sin.

I love what Donald Miller says in his book Searching for God Knows What:

“It must have been unnerving when, to an elitist audience, Jesus later would tell a parable about a man who had been robbed and beaten and then ignored by all but a “good Samaritan”. Jesus was not afraid of controversy, of revealing the worth of those considered worthless. The modern-day equivalent might be to tell a story to a group of conservative Evangelicals about a pluralist, liberal homosexual who heroically stops to help a stranded traveler after a preacher, a Republican, and a Christian writer have passed him by.”

The story of Jonah should unnerve us. It should shake us to our core. It should cause us to reevaluate our prejudices and our refusals to be salt and light. It should propel us from our pews and into the alleys. It should turn us back toward the people—for that is where God is.

Jesus was something greater than Jonah. Both were swallowed up—one by love, the other by hate.
What will swallow you?