Thought Mashup 1/4: The theology of a pouty lightening bolt in the wake of a crucified candidate with a sprained ankle.

I realized that I needed an outlet…

I love talking about pop-culture and theology and ideas. So I started posting ideas about all of these things up on my instagram … I would then do what any person cultured by social media does, check comments every 15 mins and then spend way to much time responding to comments. It wasn’t doing what I hoped for. 

For the record, Instagram and Facebook are an awful place to work out theology. 

So, I decided to give this a go again… I am going to try to be regular about it (like 1-2 times a week). 

I am going to post things that I think are interesting in the books I am reading. Thoughts about Theology, pop-culture, the Denver Broncos, Chelsea, current events and church. Basically all the things I like to think about. Most of them won’t be all that well thought out. They are mainly thoughts just tossed out there for the internet to comment on or say it is stupid or just let wash into the general white noise of the internet. Or maybe generate some dialog. 

so here we go... 

Theological musing of the day. 

The navigation of politics and Jesus has often times been messy (which may be the largest understatement I have ever written). One observation I have made thus far in my 2.5 years pastoring in Whatcom County is that in our neck of the woods, the conversation about how Jesus followers engage in cultural or political discourse is mainly concerned about existing dominant narratives (i.e. Conservative or Progressive). This is just another way to say that Jesus followers in our county are continually divided among to distinct cultures. There is something to be said that Jesus called people from distantly different cultures (while allowing them to maintain their particularity) to follow him under the banner of the coming rule, reign or Kingdom of God. as we approach this already exhausting national political conversation, I thought it would be an interesting to try to embody this notion of followers of Christ being gathering under the banner of the kingdom. This a specific way we can act... when we hear topics being debated we can ask ourselves a simple questions to help direct our dialog: If we were to see the debated issue in our local community… how would I organize a thoroughly Christian response to be embodied in my culturally diverse faith community to address that issue. Now this may be able to worked out on a national policy level but I have a hunch that most of the time it won’t. And most of the time national voices, on either side of the polemic, would have no use for how Jesus would address issues like refugees, or race or acts of terror. For it was when Jesus was hoisted up as the great political messiah that instead of getting him enthroned to the office King of Israel, the crowd turned on him and his ideas and crucified him. And last time I checked being publicly executed isn’t exactly the best way to get elected.  

Song of the day.

I can’t stop listening to this album. 

Picture of the day.

I just can't get over the fact that this is the face that Phillip Rivers made when Peyton came back in... I love it so much.