Open Mike

Entropic Drift of the Soul

Entropic drift of the soul - a phrase describing why we sometimes find ourselves far from the LORD, or aware of a 'stuckness' about our spiritual life. 

Sometimes, we are aware that the Spirit of God has spoken clearly to us about an area of our life that needs to be brought into obedient submission to God's will for us (morally, relationally).  We've all experienced that happening, and know its the fullfilment of Jesus' promise to us about the Spirit bearning witness in our hearts.  When we know that we've said a flat, 'No' to that divine communication, that's the first place to look (and start over) when we become aware of being relationally, emotionally distant from our loving heavenly Father.  Praying Psalm 51 for ourself is just what the soul doctor would order in such a circumstance.

Then again, sometimes we are aware of such a spiritual stuckness, drift, or lethargy, and can find no outright relational rebellion against God that needs making right, through simple confession and forgiveness.  That's often when we have simply allowed for the entropic drift of our own soul, through lack of tending our own garden.

Entropy is the tendency of the physical universe to decay or fall into disorder (micro and macro) over time. The biblical theology question of whether entropy is an original good implantation in the cosmos by God for his own purposes, or a macro consequence and curse from The Fall, is not a question I care to try and answer at the moment.  I do know that humans were given the ability by God to 'rule over' the physical creation on this planet, so that when we provide healthy leadership to nature, we participate in taking created things to ever more ordered, beautiful, and pleasing states (like lumps of ore dug from the ground, ordered by humans, under the governance and mandate of God, into a shiny skyscraper, elegant engagement ring, or just-right chrome bumper on a classic car).  We also have been given the terrifying ability to dis-order nature on this planet in ways faster and more twisted than natural entropic processes would produce.  But I was talking about our spiritual life...

In a fallen world, entropy well describes what happens to the garden of our spirit, our spiritual life, when left untended.  When I expect God to magically order/tend/beautify the fields of my life with him, once I've trusted Jesus with my life and existence, I have abdicated what is my responsibility.  At salvation, the Lord gives us a new birth.  II Corinthians 5:17 assures us "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!"

Like on the first day Adam and Eve were given the planet, the garden to rule over, tend, bring order to, beautify, take somewhere good; so are we given a newly-created heart at the moment of salvation, with the raw materials of the risen Jesus himself! 

Tending the garden of our new spirit, in the face of entropy, is spoken to us by Paul in these words to the Phillippians 2:12,13 ^"Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose." 

God has worked in you, if you are a Christian, to make you a new creation in Christ.  He also continues to work in you through the Holy Spirit.  Our responsibility is to bring increasing order, beauty, creativity, focus to this creative work of God by our own cooperative and creative actions, so that we 'work out' what God has 'worked in' us, that the result is the fruit of the Spirit - love, joy, peace, gentleness, courage, self-control, among others (Galatians 5).

So, if you are aware of the current entropic drift of your soul, please read my posting just before this one and join me in this manner of tending your garden as your part of your relationship with our good, loving God through Jesus Christ. God's son, our Lord.

If you garden at all, you know that 'letting it go' for even a day or two leads to weeds.  How much more so our soul.

I Don't Believe God Speaks

A scientist who joined our church not long ago told me 'my doubts about the fact that God performed the miracles of incarnating in the person of Jesus, dying and rising from the dead - those doubts have been satisfied in my search for faith at Lake Forest.  But I don't believe God speaks or interacts with us today.'

That same man pulled me aside after church yesterday and basically said this:

'Wow - you know the sermon today on how to hear the voice of God?  And remember that I don't believe God still speaks?  Welllll....back in the summer we parked across the street one Sunday morning and walked over Gilead Rd.  As we began to climb the stairs there, I noticed an older woman ahead of us.  First i thought 'cool, she's a servant and at her age is willing to walk to church.'  Second I realized the steps have been broken a while from a car hitting them, and she was in danger of tottering over.

I thought 'why doesn't someone fix these stairs? they lead to God's house, for crying out loud, and its dangerous for this woman!'  The next instant I heard a voice behind me say, 'Why don't YOU fix them?'  I turned and no one was there.  I continued to climb the stairs and heard once again, 'Hey - you - fix the stairs - today - in order to serve others.'  Something like that.  I knew that God was actually, somehow speaking to me in a way I cannot explain.  It wasn't simply my conscience, it was Other.

So after church I went to Lowe's, bought lumber and other materials, and spent the whole day fixing the stairs.  I've never told anyone until now.  I'm still not sure I believe that God speaks today. Except that God did - to me.'

Mike here again - that explains two things - who fixed the stairs (I asked arouond and no one could tell me - thanks my friend!), and it verifies what we learned from Samuel's life yesterday - when you think God has spoken to you through a nudge, silence, other people, or the Bible - the surest way to find out if it was God or not is to act on it.   May you act on the Holy Spirit nudges you receive in our Love 10 focus if you belong to the tribe of Lake Forest Church.

The Big Bang and Fireflies

"I read science for the same reason I read theology: because I am a seeker after truth."  Me too.  So writes Barbara Brown Taylor, the great contemporary preacher, in her essays on science and religion titled 'The Luminous Web." 

Taylor continues: "Meanwhile, both science and religion remind me that there are limits to my knowledge.  No one knows what caused the big bang.  No one knows the mind of God.  When I encounter these limits--when the measly lasso of my reason falls a couple of million miles short of the living truth--then you would think I would be disappointed, but I am not.  Instead, I am exhilarated.  I experience a recovery of awe, which may be something (the physical universe and religion) has to do with Jesus of Nazareth."

This is my exhilaration as well - observing the cosmos at night in the mountains last weekend, discussing Genesis, relativity, the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, Jesus, dark matter--all the while surrounded by fireflies in the thousands.  "Amazing grace," indeed.

Tonite's Evolution Discussion

I'm looking forward to tonite's 7pm 'evolution and faith' discussion, led by a pastor/author of the book 'how evolution inspires faith.'  Not only because of the content - a strand of faithful interpretation of Scripture that deserves to be heard and received as 'Christian,' both in academic world of science and in the larger Church (both of which have failed to ackowledge this possible view for a long time, because it muddies atheistic scientists clean view that 'evolution disproves the Bible,' and because it muddies the discourse for Christians who enjoy fighting culture wars and tagging all science and particularly evolutionary discourse as stemming from secular humanism).

I'm also looking forward to it as another venue to experiment with civil discourse, as fits followers of Jesus, regarding a controversial subject.

I'll see you if I see you there.

Evolution Inspires Faith

"Evolution Inspires Faith" - that is the message of a new, controversial book that I read in preparation for our series on 'Faith & Science.'  This was the first book I have read that argues biblically and scientifically for the postion of 'theistic evolution.'  It was so striking to me that I emailed the author, thanking him for this fresh point of view (that I was still trying to decide what I thought about).  He emailed me back, said he would be in the area in June.  So I invited him to Lake Forest.  Not to advocate that this should be the 'Lake Forest position' on the interpretation of Genesis 1 and creation.  But to give interested people an opportunity to explore these questions more deeply with a thought leader in the wider Church today.

So, on Wednesday June 3 we will have a spicy lecture and discussion.  Invite some friends.  I can't wait.  The entire church (and your unchurched friends) has reacted to my 'science and faith' sermons like hungry wolves breaking into a banquet 'you mean we can talk about this? discuss these previously taboo subjects?'  (okay, not the best analogy, but I need to get to bed to be ready for church tommorrow dude).

When I say we are an 'emerging' or 'experimental' church, this is part of it.  God's self-revelation through the Bible is constant.  But our understanding of that revelation, through our progressing lenses of learning and discovery, is not constant.  It is always emerging.  And it is helpful to experiment by applying fresh lenses of human discovery, life experience and thought to our interpretation of the Bible in every human life and every human generation.  

So...check out the announcement, below, I sent this week about Daniel Harrel's visit to LFC:

Faith & Science Followup: “How Evolution Can Inspire Faith: Talk and Discussion with Daniel Harrell, author” June 3, 7-8:30 pm

            Many of you asked for ‘more more more’ after our Faith & Science message series in April.  Here is more:  Mike Moses has invited the author of “Nature’s Witness: How Evolution Can Inspire Faith” to give a talk and lead discussion from the content of his writing.  Daniel is a pastor at

Park

Street

Church

in

Boston

and holds a Ph.D. in developmental psychology from

Boston

College

.  While a pastor for 23 years at Park Street, a church internationally recognized for its commitment to international missions, Daniel has also been on the ethics review board for

Harvard

Medical

Center

.  One book jacket quote states “Some Christians are fighting the wrong battle.  Evolution is not the enemy, as Daniel Harrell argues persuasively.  With wry, self-deprecating humor, he introduces the basics of evolution and asks big questions…He has written an honest, thoughtful, doubt-filled, faith-filled, searching exploration of foundational reality.  This is an important book.”  Mike Moses will be present to moderate our discussion. To read more, go to http://parkstreetchurch.blogspot.com/2008/10/hot-off-press.html .