1.  I do not have a ton of new ideas.

2.  I do not like criticizing or being negative.

3.  Therefore, I am not sure what is worthy of blogging about anymore.

If you know me, this might surprise you (I often some off as quite cynical, negative, etc.).  Suffice to say: I am growing in this desire.

I couldn’t find the movie clip that portrays this well, but I found something better.  Spoiler Alert: This will in no way Spoil the Social Network for you.  Secondary Alert: if you loved the scene in SN with Larry Summers you will enjoy this clip.

In 1996 I had a bag phone.

My email address was either blzrscool@aol.com or c691666@showme.missouri.edu

I lived with 3 guys in a 4 man room at 405 Kentucky, Columbia Missouri, 65201.

I think, on my birthday, I was working at a camp and was able to keep my birthday a secret.  Is it possible to hide your birthday on Facebook?  I wonder how many people do so.

Today I am 34.  My sister, dad, and grandma have all sung to me.  My girls all told me happy birthday and we are going to the pool today, and I have received a number of facebook HBDTY’s.  The best part, for me, is that they alternate between kids who have heard me speak, friends from high school, a teacher from junior high, and fraternity brothers.  Hilarious.

Just got a note that said “If you were Jesus, today would be Christmas.”  That’s funny.

Tomorrow morning I am preaching about Peace.

This is what my outline (currently) says,

I. Intro, “What is your default” (Mine is often Karmic)
-Thrust of the Passage is “How can we stand” (Eph. 6:10-20)
-What is the Good News? For a 1st Century listener?
-Contrast: Our Good News: Groupon and Old Navy
-How do we Stand in light of the Good NEws?
-READ Eph. 6:10-20 (Maybe just through 15)
-Default to fix, control, irreligious, religious, check out, fight, flight, strive, hide? Mine to Karma.
-Illustration of lunch with Julia
-When the Gospel of Peace is not our Default we are missing out on Joy. We are unable to “stand”.

II. WE always need shoes (Text is 6:15)
-I was wishing for cool boots, steel-toed or something…
-Those funky shoes that look like black feet for runners…
-We cannot stand w/o the Living Argument/Power that changes everything forever.
-Jesus and Paul had diff. ways of getting at this.
-What is this peace? Ephesians 2:12-22
-If you are in Christ, you are not far from God. This is great news; unbelievably great (if you have any sense of the holiness of God or your own bentness especially). Why there are different letters, different Gospels, why churches do things. Because it feels like we are far off, but we are not.
-What God says about you is more true than what you think about yourself.
-Paul is saying you need it all the time and you already have it. Pray, “Lord, help me believe this is in a way that removes doubt and anxiety. Confess to others. Tell others. Not in a manipulative way, but because of your deep affection for the Gospel. Your heart is not wicked anymore…
-Potential Illustration of Hank at On Tap

III. We Already Have the Shoes
-What does it look like to have them on? What does it not look like?
-Paul’s Answer is in Ephesians 4:1-3 (or 6).
-READ Eph. 4:1-3
-We Respond, but God is the pursuer. That is why Riverside’s order is Grace, Solitude, Hospitality, and Wisdom.
-Walk, Live, in regards to what you believe.
-Jeremy’s Story as an application to this text.
-Tangent on gentleness. Tough Love can still be gentle.
-READ Ephesians 4:17-24. Isn’t this great news? We can change? WE can grow? We don’t have to be like we were?!?
-Potentially re-read 4:17-24.

IV. Peace from our own sin and others’ sin, Peace Into a great story of joy and real life, Peace for the sake of the world and the ransoming of hearts back to the King. From, Into, For.
-Where is the power? The Magic? IN the Words.
-Upside Down Religion.
-Where is the Power? The Magic? In the Words.

V. Movement is implied by this entire passage.
-True Evangelism
-Limits
-Francis of Assisi’s Quote (helpful, then not helpful).
-Mom’s Group
-Joplin
-Telling My Family about Jesus
-Praying with a man at Siteman Cancer Center.
-Yesterday I was afraid to talk with my sister. Too risky…

And the dramatic conclusion is????

I typed this because 1.  I wanted to keep thinking about my sermon and 2.  My friend Dave Schroeder told me to blog about whatever.

I rarely put long quotes on my blog. But, I really liked this.

When asked recently about the reality of hell, N.T. Wright responded:

My usual counter question is: “Why are Americans so fixated on hell?” Far more Americans ask me about hell than ever happens in my own country. And I really want to know, why is it that the most prosperous affluent nation on earth is really determined to be sure that they know precisely who is going to be frying in hell and what the temperature will be and so on. There’s something quite disturbing about that, especially when your nation and mine has done quite a lot in the last decade or two to drop bombs on people elsewhere and to make a lot of other people’s lives hell. So, I think there are some quite serious issues about why people want to ask that question.

Having said that, I am not a universalist. I’ve never been universalist. Someone quoted a theologian saying, “I’m not a universalist, but maybe God is.” That’s kind of a neat way of saying, “OK, there’s stuff in Scripture which is a little puzzling about this, and we can’t be absolutely sure all down the line.” But it seems to me that the New Testament is very clear that there are people who do reject God and reject what would have been His best will for them, and God honors that decision. How that works and how you then deal with the questions which result I have written about at some length.

I don’t think myself that Rob Bell has quite taken the same line that I did in Surprised by Hope. I haven’t actually had the conversation with Rob since his book was published. So, one of these days, we will and we’ll have that one out. I do think it’s good to stir things up because so many people, as I say, particularly in American culture, really want to know the last fine-tuned details of hell. And it seems to be part of their faith, often a central part of their faith that a certain number of people are simply going to go to hell and we know who these people are. I think Rob is saying, “Hey wait a minute! Start reading the Bible differently. God is not a horrible ogre who is just determined to fry as many people as He can forever. God is actually incredibly generous and gracious and wonderful and loving and caring. And if you paint a picture of God which is other than that, then you’re producing a monster and that has long-lasting effects in Christian lives and in the church.”

Sometimes I get a moment of clarity. They seem strange in coming, so I’m trying to get better at writing them down.

My five year old is very excited about Pajama Day at her school. It’s Wednesday. She asks about it every day. Today she asked me about tomorrow (Sunday). “Daddy, what do we do tomorrow?” “We will see Mommy at church” (Mommy has been gone). But, then she had a bright notion, “Daddy, is it Pajama Day tomorrow at church?” I thought this was a spectacular thought, so much fun, I’m glad she isn’t given to the logical fallacy of either/or when it is unnecessary. Then I thought that this is a good example of why churches cannot celebrate many things.

1. To Celebrate often excludes. Take Pajama Day as a brilliant, but doomed-to-exclusivity-failure as an idea. We do Pajama Day, we figure out the right breakdown of when it would be awesome (for Caroline and other 5 year old), when it would not be fun (for say 9 year olds). We determine a date (have you ever tried to do this with an organization of several hundred people, most of them invested, few of them paid?). We Advertise on Sundays, we send emails, maybe a snail mail post card, we put it on Twitter (yes, we Twitter), We put it on Facebook (Still Relevant?), we make phone calls. Then, someone forgets. And they feel left out. Fail.

2. To Celebrate often reminds us of ghosts. Someone has probably been hurt by their pajamas. What a great illustration Pajama Day is (thanks Caroline)! Most of the time when you celebrate something you will bring up negative events, old stories, and people now have a row of other people ‘sitting with them’ in church. People they are probably not really sitting with for a host of reasons. All because we wanted our 5 year olds to get to wear their pajamas to church. Then they email people. Or leave.

3. We probably won’t celebrate Pajama Day well. Caroline is disappointed. We aren’t a school. We aren’t a day Care. We do those things because it is a joy to partner with parents in raising their kids, but when we reach out towards amazing events like Pajama Day we aren’t as good at it as those with more Night-Time-Apparel-Experience. We try, but we are mostly a volunteer organization and our volunteers are already stretched.

4. Someone else is already doing Pajama Day. This is often a bad reason. But, why do we need to replicate every brilliant idea? Not only will someone else do it better, but someone else is already doing it. Should we just advertise for them? This may not seem to fit because ‘shouldn’t we celebrate good things like Pajamas?’ I think it fits. I’m not sure it is the role of the church to celebrate all things.

5. We have a short amount of time to try to make much of Jesus. The 10 Commandments say Love God (1-4) and love People (5-10); Jesus, when asked to summarize the Great Story, ‘Love God love people’ (Matt. 22:37-40 amongst other places). Everybody worships – with their minds, hearts, voices, checkbooks, time, talents, sweat – and church exists to encourage/remind where that worship is best centered. Pajama Day is such a cool idea. But, I’m not sure we should do it as a church.

This goes for Sombrero Day too… We found these at the teacher’s Recycling Center and it is getting too late to find a better picture.

I’m going to let you tell my 5 year old though!

I’m supposed to like Conservative Theologians because they believe the Bible, etc. etc. etc.  And some of them I like very much.  I’m not supposed to like “Liberal” ones because they don’t believe the text has any historical authenticity or authority.  I like if the writing has to do with the text, believes in actual good news (that has power to change), and has something to say.

Next Thursday I will again begin (yeah, I said that) the Riverside Men’s Bible Study and we will go through the book of Psalms.  I have always loved this book because of is authenticity as the writer’s struggle through the With-God life seasonally, with or without good rulers, and in the midst of things like an exile I will never be able to relate to.  In 1999 a professor required The Message of the Psalms by Walter Brueggemann as a reference.  I am in ministry partly because of his explanation of Psalm 137.  

Here is Psalm 97 for your reading pleasure (the Psalms are both more eloquent and wise than I am, so I will just post one here 🙂  )

The LORD reigns, let the earth rejoice; let the many coastlands be glad! Clouds and thick darkness are all around him; righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne. Fire goes before him and burns up his adversaries all around. His lightnings light up the world; the earth sees and trembles. The mountains melt like wax before the LORD, before the Lord of all the earth. The heavens proclaim his righteousness, and all the peoples see his glory. All worshipers of images are put to shame, who make their boast in worthless idols; worship him, all you gods! Zion hears and is glad, and the daughters of Judah rejoice, because of your judgments, O LORD. For you, O LORD, are most high over all the earth; you are exalted far above all gods. O you who love the LORD, hate evil! He preserves the lives of his saints; he delivers them from the hand of the wicked. Light is sown for the righteous, and joy for the upright in heart. Rejoice in the LORD, O you righteous, and give thanks to his holy name.

Brueggemann says this (2 pages on Psalm 97).

“The power of the new king is not noteworthy unless social transformation is the purpose of the power. That kingship serves earth is a seed of incarnational faith.”

And this, “It is bad news for all those who organize life around idols – exploitative symbols – which can reduce people to things (commodities), even as the true God is traded off for a controllable object. wow… (“wow” mine).

“The trade-off of gods is matched by the reduction of people.” wow (“wow” mine).

“As the true God is diminished, so the value of human persons is diminished in commensurate fashion. The smashing of idols is not a narrow religious agenda, but has to do with creating free space for the practice of humanness.”

“New orientation is a life of disciplined response to God’s will for justice.”

“In the normal course of public life, the unresponsive wicked control things. But the kingship of Yahweh causes an inversion. The wicked are exposed for what they are. They are denied their preeminence. Conversely, the righteous, the ones who keep covenant and do Yahweh’s will, are given life and power.”

Good Stuff.  I am excited for next Thursday.

I often don’t blog because I don’t know what to write about.  I sometimes take a shot at a short story/essay – would that be fun for the blog?  Then, I decide a structure would free me: Monday – what I am reading, Wednesdays – the last movie I saw, Fridays – Family Sabbath keeping.

Then I don’t blog.

One of the most helpful differences this year has been a preaching team – a group of friends and relatives who read my partial manuscripts and tell me where I am brilliant (many places) and where I could potentially be slightly, just a bit more clear (few places).  I am exaggerating some, but they have been amazing.  Thanks if you are reading this and read those emails!

So, tonight I have been asked to speak at a college ministry and I thought I would include my notes in this blog.  If I sound crazy please comment quick so I get it before I preach systemic error or heresy to these unsuspecting students.

How the Resurrection of Jesus Mentors us

I.  Intro: The Resurrection as the most important event in human history, leading to the best evidential and existential explanation of life, life before, life after death, and life after life after death.

-Mentor as a noun

-Mentor as a verb

-We desperately need Jesus – not just for eternity, but now, today, to re-mentor us in the With-God life.

II.  Your Story

-The Four emotions and where we learned them; mad/sad/glad/scared.  Family, Friends, lovers, greater culture.  (Point: how we have been mentored)

-Ways we try to be God: Be everywhere, Know Everything, Know Everyone, Fix Everything.

-Idols – stuff we treat like God and it doesn’t deliver.

-As Christians we can go to the Psalms and find brutal honesty in the with-God life.  This encourages us that we are not crazy as we seek to be mentored by Jesus.

III.  Jesus enters our story

-Enters our good mentoring to label it as good, a blessing.  Enters our sinful mentoring to heal, judge, and offer wisdom for the future and right context for good things that were handled poorly, engaged in in the wrong ways or wrong times.

-Then we need this kind of mentoring again.  And again.  And again.

-The Gospel of Jesus has been called a Living Argument; the power is in the words.  How do we know that we know?  The Gospel gives us life and humbles it.  Or it humbles us and gives us life.

-When we approach the Psalms we see a lot of historical-personal discussion.  My life before, my life now, what I hope/expect in the future as a follower of Jesus.

IV.  Will we embrace the joy offered to us?  Eternally and daily?  Will we trust Jesus to write the rest of the story?

-Example: the Great Divorce links our CHOICE to trust Jesus with our choices.  Things, people, words, decisions, our eternal salvation – all involve God pursuing us, offering actual substantive joy.  Choosing Joy moving forward for them – prayer, a decision to trust Christ, corporate worship, private worship, accountability, community, evangelism, discipleship.

-Now, we return to family, friends, money, parents, kids, relationships and we ask Jesus to re-mentor us in the joyful life he offered.  Seeking regular healing from what we have known in the past and cannot shake.  With thanks for what He has shaken from us.  And, we preach this very whole Gospel to ourselves regularly (back to examples of engaging: community, etc.).

-The Psalms are so hopeful and expectant – never letting God off the hook for the promises of new life.  The picture is Jesus, but the language of the Psalms frees us to know we are not crazy as we attempt to be re-mentored, parented, loved by God in Christ.

V.  This is going to take awhile.

-Contrast fruits of the flesh (decisions) with fruit of the Spirit.  All at the same time, they grow over a long period of time – by God’s grace, through his grace, in his grace…

-Seasons of life and when it does not feel like we are choosing Joy.  Embracing this, and praying like a Psalmist.

-If the resurrection happened everything is different.  It re-mentors us in a stronger manner than anything we do or don’t do, know or don’t yet know.  That is the promise of the New Covenant – a new Heart.  A New life.  Newness, even when it does not feel new.  This is where the words have power.

When I preach my outlines look different, but this is what the majority of my outlines have looked like over the years when I speak to youth and at the couple of conferences I have been invited to.  I assume the difference is that in church the call is to preach a text carefully and faithfully, and when invited to a separate event they kind of want to know the Gospel in my words.  Seems like it shouldn’t be as different as it is…

Thoughts?  Discuss…

If you like Maundy Thursday and are looking for a great service one of my great friends Lowell Robert Griggs will be leading worship at Central Presbyterian Church tonight.  He has been THE Maundy Thursday guy up there for a long time now, so he has it down.  Whatever it is.

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 86 (I would go 91).

I like movies less than I used to, but I still enjoy one on my day off around once/month.  Curiously, this corresponds well to our budget 🙂 Rabbit Hole is incredibly tense, well-acted, well-written, and just hopeful enough to not annoy.  A good friend’s son played the role of the teenage boy in a local theater adaptation, but it had a racial element.  Leave it to the local theater to ramp up the intensity of a screen-play!

I like Aaron Eckhart.   Nicole Kidman was amazing.  Sandra Oh I have trouble with because she is either all-Grey’s Anatomy or hitting that dude with her motorcycle helmet in “Sideways”.

Rabbi Hole is about parents who have lost their 4 year old boy (why do I do this to myself?).  It takes place 8 months after his death.  Nicole Kidman responds religiously – with a tight grip on emotions, her understanding of the story, what she does and does not need to do with family in light of the tragedy, and so forth.  The unraveling of her character is amazing.  Eckhart responds irreligiously – acting out on purpose, owning his pain very directly, only to find that he knows it will not help him.

I could write more about the movie, but I doubt you read my blog for movie reviews.  I found myself comfortable with the high-emotion, the relational tension of the family, laughing very hard at the poor realtor Eckhart drags through his house, and somewhat happy in my edgey state as I left the theater.

Conclusion about Self: I am more used to crisis than non-crisis.  I need a crisis every six months to feel normal.  I should nuance that last sentence, but I don’t want to because it reflects my feelings and sense of myself.  I think I impose this on my wife to a large degree – creating drama, searching for joy when it is actually in front of me masquerading as mere pleasure and peace.  I am okay wanting more joy, but I do not like the part of me that is more comfortable with pain, tragedy and general disorientation.

What about you?  What movies do you like?  Would you like them if you had a different story?  I think I would still like High Fidelity a lot.  Office Space.  But, I don’t know if Patch Adams and Life as a House would be cornerstones.

Thoughts?  Discuss…

I just read two very long articles criticizing two of my favorites pieces of media: Mad Men and Freedom. The mad men critic came around to a point that wasn’t just a negative critique. The Freedom critic did not. I checked, the Freedom critic (Huffington Post) has a book out, but it is a book of criticism.

Negative criticism is getting harder and harder for me. There is a lot of pride in the very style of it. The more successful some things are the more critics seem to appear.

Rachel and I watched the Social Network last week and my favorite scene is in the office of the president of Harvard. His response to the Dinkelvi twins is to create something better if they have such a big problem with facebook. The ways that they are incapable of this are left in the dead air around which they state their other cases against Mark Zuckerberg.

I also liked Freedom, and it is annoying when I read that it was actually bad and Time Magazine, me, and Oprah are all crazy for enjoying it and thinking it spoke well as a piece of literature. I like Mad Men. When i hear the writing is bad, and this criticism is in print i have to kind of take a breath and remember i am entitled to my opinion. I am neither crazy nor stupid for thinking that the dialogue between John Hamm and John Slattery is incisive, funny, intergenerational business talk, and passive aggressive misogynist humor at its best. I am of course not advocating for misogyny of any kind. But, if that is the world of the 60s they depict it well.

Critics have an important place culturally. But, I prefer the creators. Thanks Jonathan Franzen and Matt Weiner.

Do you like reading criticism? When does it annoy you the most? When is it the most helpful?

That title Helps me to think that I blog often.

In the 4th grade i decided, about a week too late, that I wanted to play basketball. My dad, in typical Jom Blazer style somehow got me onto a team at a different public school than the one I attended. His Alma mater, Lee. We practiced in the local Synagogue, with carpeted floors and I did not score that entire year. Even though that is the only year I played basketball with both pf my thumbs 🙂

The night after the first game the coach called me and said i had led the team in rebounds. To this day i take a lot of pride in my rebounds. A friend and I played together after a long time of not seeing one another and I told him, Nathan, its good to see that your 15 foot baseline jumper is as reliable as always. “Blazer, its nice to know you still get rebounds you have no business getting”. In 2001 I was called Ben Wllace in a pick up game. Granted, it must have been a low level of jumping ability-pick up game. Point: i am a pretty good rebounder.

A bunch of men, mostly from our church, are studying the book Fathered by God together and that is when this story came back to me. I think i am a pretty good rebounder because a long time ago an older man took the time to call me (probably on a rotary phone) and tell me that I led the team that night.

As i look back on my story I am thankful to the Lord for fathering me. Many of the men I have written about hurt me or were poor mentors in some way. But, they were also good and they were used to shape who I am. My language sounds cheesy to me, but isn’t this owning the theological term of God’s Sovereignty? That is another post. I am thankful to the Lord and to these men.